As Obesity Rises, Remote Pacific Islands Plan to Abandon Junk Food NYT (Furzy Mouse).
How will President Trump reshape the Fed? Gavyn Davies, FT
Austerity was a bigger disaster than we thought WaPo
Washington prepares to bring North Koreans to U.S. for talks: report Reuters
Trends in International Arms Transfers, 2016 (PDF) Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
Belarus tax protests spread beyond capital Reuters
French weekly magazines review 19 February 2017 RFI. Election wrap-up from the French press.
French Election Wide Open After Weekend Everyone Stumbled Bloomberg
Ecuador vote down to the wire, leftist a whisker from first round win Reuters
Long-distance Uber, Lyft drivers’ crazy commutes, marathon days, big paychecks SF Chronicle
Reflecting On One Very, Very Strange Year At Uber Susan J. Fowler
Syraqistan
Iran’s foreign minister mocks Donald Trump ‘putting him on notice’ Independent
Ex-officials: Israeli Leader Spurned Secret Peace Offer Bloomberg
Why Do So Many Americans Fear Muslims? Decades of Denial About America’s Role in the World The Intercept (Furzy Mouse).
China?
Chinese Banks’ Off-Book Wealth Products Exceed $3.8 Trillion Bloomberg
Panic Over China Is So Last Year, With Market Swings Subsiding Bloomberg
Food label sell-by dates get simplified, here’s what to know Treehugger (J-LS).
Health Care
Kasich: Repealing Medicaid expansion is ‘a very, very bad idea’ CNN
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Market Stabilization (PDF) DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (71 pp). On a quick reading of the executive summary of these proposed rules, they look to me like an attempt to move toward continuous coverage by tightening the eligibility period. And then there’s this:
Third, we propose revising our interpretation of the guaranteed availability requirement to allow issuers to apply a premium payment to an individual’s past debt owed for coverage from the same issuer enrolled in within the prior 12 months. We believe this proposal would have a positive impact on the risk pool by removing economic incentives individuals may have had to pay premiums only when they were in need of health care services. We also believe this proposal is important as a means of encouraging individuals to maintain continuous coverage throughout the year and prevent gaming.
“[O]nly when they were in need of health care services.” In other words, those pesky consumers are treating the ACA is if it were about the delivery of health care, instead of being a vehicle for collecting insurance payments. Can’t have that.
2016 Post Mortem
Democrats Are Eager to See the End of the Race for DNC Chair CNN
Onetime Rival Endorses Ellison for DNC Chair Common Dreams (MR).
Samuel Ronan: Democrats ignored working class for years Al Jazeera. Oddly, Ronan didn’t make the cut for CNN’s DNC chair debate.
Bernie Sanders in Los Angeles: ‘We are looking at a totally new political world’ LA Times. Theoretically a book tour stop.
Trump Transition
The White House Needs an Injection of Calm Peggy Noonan, Patriot Post. Don’t much like the site, but I wanted the complete piece. Nooners: “But it may mean something that the other night in a speech in Trump-loving Oklahoma, I said of the president’s colorful aides, ‘They should get off TV,’ and the room burst into applause. They should go and sit in their offices and plan something. White Houses, which are always dramatic places that deal with daily crises, don’t need more drama. They need systems, order, process, calm. They need clear lines of authority and responsibility.”
Trump transition moves from detente to trench war FT
Republican leaders tire of Trump drama, but GOP activists close ranks McClatchy
Donald Trump’s Revised Travel Ban Would Cover Seven Countries From Prior Order WSJ
Russia, US should start with minor steps to restore ties — US expert TASS. Normally, I wouldn’t quote TASS, but this seems an obvious signal, along the lines of China stopping coal shipments to North Korea.
Amid Russia scrutiny, Trump associates received informal Ukraine policy proposal WaPo
More About Russia and Less About Flynn? Philip Giraldi, The American Conservative
President Trump’s motorcade hit by wood; 5 students face charges CBS. (A wood block, the “2×4” reports exaggerate.)
Protests are ‘a cry from America’s moral center’ Raleigh News and Observer
Stephen Miller’s and Trump’s Gross Re-Politicization of DOJ emptywheel
Treason! It’s a provocative charge being leveled against Trump, and one that rarely amounts to much LA Times
A Brief History of America’s ‘Love-Hate Relationship’ With Immigration The Atlantic
How The WWII Internment Camps Actually Happened Buzzfeed
SF reaches $400K settlement proposal in Nevada patient-dumping case San Francisco Examiner
Class Warfare
More families are struggling with poverty in Boston’s affluent suburbs Boston Globe
What happened when factory jobs moved from Warren, Ohio, to Juarez, Mexico LA Times
Viewpoint: The Boeing Vote Was Not a Referendum on Organizing the South Labor Notes
Is Finland’s basic universal income a solution to automation, fewer jobs and lower wages? Guardian (Re Silc).
Inequality in the Robotic Age The Wire (MR).
Meritocratic Myths Jacobin
Who Rules the United States? National Review
Our Miserable 21st Century Commentary
Politics Stressing You Out? You Aren’t Alone NBC
To take care of your heart, even little changes can help WaPo
Antidote du jour:
If only I could forget!
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
139 comments
Comments are closed.
John McCain Becomes Critic in Chief of the Trump Administration [NYT]
Michael Gordon and the editors of the Times send a belated Valentine to The Maverick™.
Strangely, or not, there is no mention of McCain having voted for all of the procedural motions
which cleared Trump’s cabinet nominees for final votes, and having voted `no’ on only one.
My liberal friends have been flooding my Faceborg feed with glowing praise for McCain’s “principled” stand. I have asked them whether a president Pence, SoS “Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran” McCain, and UN ambassador Lindsey Graham is a good idea. Crickets in response. Liberals forgot too soon their “principled” opposition to the “warmonger” McCain in 2008. Just like to they forgot how much they “loathed” the CIA for doctoring the Iraq WMD intel to enable Dubya’s landing on an aircraft carrier campaign commercial. Frankly I am conflicted about who is more despicable – liberals, the IC, or McCain and his ilk…
Let’s be clear on something: both contemporary and historical liberalism is completely compatible with imperialism and nationalism. And when you consider their worship of capitalism, those things are in fact necessary. There’s a reason why Western colonialism spiked massively during the age of Enlightenment. Liberal opposition to imperialism should never be seen as anything other than rank opportunism.
At least conservatives and other reactionaries are honest about their fetish for putting the boot to brown people.
I didn’t say it wasn’t, I merely pointed the hypocrisy of liberals.
Hijacking top comment so people see this.
DNC outreach director asking what Berniecrats want to see as far as changes… I’ve put about a dozen so far and I got blowback on one that I shot down. Thought some of you might have some input.
https://twitter.com/SallyAlbright/status/832748951094730754
Here’s some additional ammo if you want: http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/20/the-horrors-of-john-mccain-war-hero-or-war-criminal/
Big deal being made of this this morning on msnbs. Plenty of praise for mccain’s “principles,” and plenty of vitriol for Trump’s dastardly suggestion that “we should have taken the oil.”
No mention of the fact that when “we” invaded, to save Iraqi society, we stood by and watched Iraq’s priceless antiquities being looted while the only ministry we thought to defend and protect was the Oil Ministry.
Because shit “happens.”
Yeah, nobody is going to jump on his remark by saying Trump apparently didn’t realize the government was only there to make sure that private globalized entities got to ‘market’ the oil. Forget any value for the American public even in lessening the threat of terrorism. Much like decades of what our government has done in South America…
I’m so tired. McCain is a disgusting piece of garbage and has been one for decades. So are most of the politicians behind #resistance. Trump just rips most of the mask off. I admit I have Trump Outrage Fatigue. I’m over the outrage, faux protests for nothing and the stupid delusion that not bothering to put a pretty face on things that you never noticed but are not outside the norm at all is so much worse than before.
But . . . but . . . Pretty Pink Kitty Caps!
What about the Pretty Pink Kitty Caps?
LA Times summary of Bernie Rally buries the overwhelming tone of the speech. It was a huge repudiation and criticism of the Democratic party position. It was a complete de-construction of the DNC strategy of applying marginalisation and shame on Trump voters. A huge component of the speech is an empathic entreaty to the left to empathise with the concerns of Trumps base.
As much of an anti-DNC rally as anti-Trump. To ignore this aspect is almost dishonest reporting.
it looks like the video on the linked page has the entire talk.
A33
The video contained the entire speech. I appreciate NC posting the link. What struct me most was Senator Sanders’ strong criticism of Donald Trump’s policies and so called administration. This is something that I have not heard from the Democratic leadership. All together it was an inspiring talk and I am glad to have experienced it. He is the only politician speaking about the conditions in this country of ordinary Americans and how to solve some of them.
Seems to be a lot of that going around, eh?
Work together where there is common ground…remember that?
Trump has reached out to him.
He has not…much (that I can recall).
Where was he when Trump tweeted ‘the media is the enemy of the American people?’
I was hoping for a ‘yeah, they have continued to undermine me, even today.’
Dare one say that the LA Times’s strategic ignoring of this aspect of the Sanders speech is almost . . . fake news?
There’s a reason for that slant. The Democratic establishment is trying to divide Bernie from those who supported him by making him seem more and more like a sellout. Given there are far too many who already hold that position, and who have short attention spans so aren’t given to tracking down facts, it’s dangerous to the progressive grassroots movement.
Less than a month ago, they were trying to undermine him by whining he was being nasty by not sharing his mailing list. Someone must have convinced them how lousy an idea that was because the true Sandernistas were quite vocal about not wanting the creeps at the DNC to have it. So, then he went on his book tour, which was in fact another campaign tour in which he repeated the facts and re-inspired the base, mentioning the book (which does the same thing) in passing. That story you cited is an example of what happened. When the stops were covered at all, the message was diluted to focus on anything he accidentally said that fits the establishment narrative.
Re. the antidote:
First elephant to the other two; “Churchill said it best, ‘Back to the Wilderness for another forty years.'”
Second elephant; “But I don’t feel like a Child of the Book.”
Third elephant; “Shut up and keep fund raising.”
First elephant; “Where is Annenberg when we need him?”
Second elephant; “He’s dead.”
Third elephant; “That’s no excuse!”
Politics Stressing You Out? You Aren’t Alone
Funny haha how the article and the polls relied upon for data focus on Dems and Republicans with a slight nod to Independents. Yet the overwhelming, as in beyond super majority – did not vote – (hat tip to readeroftealeaves for this fantastic map) are the elephant in the room.
That is a good map, and this exchange in the comments section made me chuckle:
I would have preferred to vote for NOTA, but what happens when NOTA wins? Which I think he would have done in this case. Are the parties required to re-run with new candidates? Does the old President continue in office until the new campaign is over? Has this proposal been fleshed out anywhere?
Too bad all those massed millions of people did not come out and cast blank ballots. Or come out and vote on agenda items, referendal items, and microlocal office seekers.
Reflecting On One Very, Very Strange Year At Uber
This might has well be Part 9
Not surprising. If a company is as sleazy as Uber is at the frontlines of the business, it shouldn’t come as a shock that things just get worse the closer to the high command you get.
On “Russia, US should start with minor steps to restore ties — US expert TASS. Normally, I wouldn’t quote TASS, but this seems an obvious signal, along the lines of China stopping coal shipments to North Korea.”
I find this to be a troubling comment – and particularly, at NC. Why not quote TASS when the agency publishes worthwhile news items (which, btw, happens regularly). NYT, Wapo, and other US outlets that often relate (or parrot, depending on one’s viewpoint) US official views get linked to all the time. Chinese official sites also get linked to. So why not Russian? I think there are plenty of websites steeped in destructive and irrational Russo-phobia – there’s no need for yet another one.
As Japan’s Prussian advisor Major Klemens Meckel, per Wikipedia, put it to the Japanese, Korea was “a dagger pointed at the heart of Japan”.
The First Sino-Japanese War was precipitated by events in Korea.
Then, at the time, Qing China had suzerainty over Korea, Annam (Vietnam, including South China Sea), Okinawa, and Taiwan was a province.
Today, these same areas are all potential flash points.
If I recall, it did not end too well for the Koreans (they still deeply despise the Japanese, particularly since that was not the first incursion) – and eventually, not so great for the Japanese…
The South Koreans don’t like the Chinese much either.
The personage on the Japanese 1000 yen note is Japan’s first prime minister Ito Hirobumi. If you go to Korea today, you can find a plaque commemorating his assassin, the Korean nationalist An Jung-geun, reading something along the lines of “Here lies An Jung-geun, who shot Ito Hirobumi, the atrocious Japanese.”
Where were you when we got called a Russian propaganda site? Does it not occur to you that we are at risk of being blacklisted? Have you so little concern about our survival? If Google were to de-index us, and they have done that to some sites, it would be as if we didn’t exist. We would not come up in a Google search even if you put in our name.
We’re already being pretty un-cautious in continuing to quote sites like Moon of Alabama regularly. Don’t tell us to press our luck. This is our call, not yours, to make.
And the comparison isn’t apt. Western sources regularly quote Xinhua. They didn’t regularly quote TASS even before the escalation of hostilities.
That reply actually took me by surprise, and I’ll guess Olga had no idea either. But on further reflection I do see the validity of your concern. So many from all sides of the political spectrum seem to have forgotten our core principles, including the importance of free speech.
Pretty grim.
link to the National Review article is truncated. Should be
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/445042/donald-trump-washington-how-bureaucrats-are-undermining-voters
Fixed, thanks.
i just posted:
New Record Highs for US Oil Exports, for Gasoline Inventories, and for Oil Inventories at The Economic Populist
for anyone who’s into litanies of large numbers of barrels. 3 graphs for those who aren’t.
The link for ‘Who Rules the US’ is not working. Here is the correct link:
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/445042/donald-trump-washington-how-bureaucrats-are-undermining-voters
IIRC, H1N5 from a few years back had an even higher mortality rate. It seems over the last 10-15 years, we are seeing a lot of bugs with high mortality rates which fortunately haven’t broken into mass epidemics. I wonder if these numbers of highly lethal outbreaks fit with the historical norm or are an unusual spike.
WaPo austerity article:
Strangely, I’m picturing Jon Lovitz saying “Interest rates, yeah, yeah, interest rates, That’s the ticket.”
Totally. Here is the relevant quote:
Right, if ZIRP/NIRP stimulated any economy it was certainly not one in this solar system. Perhaps they saw 5% growth in Alpha Centauri?
But at the Daily Bezos, solutions must be monetary, never fiscal. So essentially O’Brien does an effective job preaching against the evils of austerity but then rejects the most effective policy tool to counteract it, because religion.
#GoldStar
Excellent observation.
Antidote: They look like rescued elephants. no tusks.
Asian elephants, unlike their African relatives, are often tuskless.
An elephant never forgets.
But then an elephant doesn’t have all that much to remember.
I have read that elephants have a great deal to remember. Where are the waterholes? The best food plant zones? The safest footpaths from here to there? Which waterholes have water even after 2 years of drought? 3 years? 4 years?
I have read that for African elephants, the Herd Matriarch is the Keeper of the Memory and leader of the herd. Her younger female relatives learn the ropes over several decades and one of them ( chosen how?) eventually becomes Herd Matriach, carrying forward the knowledge and adding to it.
Is it different for Indian Elephants?
“A cry from America’s moral center”
1. Lambert, the link is to the Raleigh News and Observer, not Charlotte, which would be the Charlotte Observer.
2. “Democrats lack the political power to stem the tide of extremism.” Could that be from the moral decay of it’s Neolib leadership?
RE: Protests are ‘a cry from America’s moral center’ Charlotte News Observer
I guess you’ve got to be a man of “faith” to suggest that america has a “moral center.”
“Faith” being defined as strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof and all.
Although in the event that 17 intelligence agencies expressed with high confidence that america has a “moral center,” I’d have to eat my cynical words.
The Uber sexual harassment issue is getting a lot of coverage. Good.
Also of note is that I’ve seen the NC series on their financials mentioned in the discussions around this story.
And my new favorite paraphrased quote:
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his [exit strategy] depends upon his not understanding it!” — Upton Sinclair
from
https://medium.com/@dhh/deleting-uber-is-the-least-you-can-do-30c0601103ea
Article with the Kalanick memo to staff in response:
https://www.cnet.com/news/uber-former-ag-attorney-general-eric-holder-to-lead-sexism-probe-sexual-harassment/
Says it’s been a rough 24 hours and “the company is hurting.” Announces that Eric Holder will be leading the probe due to his
demonstrated ability to help powerful businesses avoid consequences for criminal behaviourimpeccable credentials. Wants to “heal the wounds of the past” and support those who experience injustice. It’s ambiguous throughout whether he is talking about the women who suffer from this kind of behaviour or the men who are accused of it, but given the “24 hours” comment I suspect it’s the latter.I expect a highly elaborate and public episode of contrition theater and little or no real change. Maybe I will be proven wrong, but it’s pretty clear from this memo and numerous other past reports that the problems with Uber begin at the top.
Ian Welsh makes a lot of sense when he tells us:
Way too much energy is wasted in following the ebb and flow of factional wrangling between rival kleptocrats. We need to focus more on developing robust networks of mutual support, where citizens help each other to solve real problems in the real world. Occasionally this will require consciously choosing not to collaborate with established power structures. Yet, very often, we can accomplish good things without drawing any attention, positive or negative, from the corporate state.
I think Henry Giroux summarizes our current situation very well here:
http://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/henry-giroux-on-militant-hope-in-the-age-of-trump
“The world has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests.”
Perhaps a savior can be a permanent friend.
Or one positions to appear like a savior.
The fractional wrangling between rival kleptocrats is very educational, about how power works in our government etc.. Of course it is not a power we have any access to. The strings we have access to are definitely not attached to that. So all we can be is spectators of that.
Who wants to vomit?
http://nypost.com/2017/02/19/these-millennials-cant-wait-to-run-for-nyc-mayor/
I hereby call for a 30 year moratorium on MBAs in government.
I’m in if you add lawyers from harvard and yale.
I’m in if you add lawyers.
I do love to see these people fall flat on their faces. The old guard types won’t tolerate this, and the only other way is to be a perceived man of the people. It’s largely why there are very few if any successful Obamalings running for office.
An Obamaling and Kainiac ran for the Lt. Gov nomination in Virginia a few years back with this same line.
Retrain the old workers, but not hire them? Does he also specialize in retraining and releasing zoo animals on the side?
Speaking of robots, in principle, I believe we have to looking into taxing robots.
Should we tax computers as well?
Is the loophole to avoid robot taxes by disguising them as computers or self-driving cars?
Is a computer a robot? Is a self-driving car a robot? Is the answering machine a robot (from the perspective of a human receptionist)?
What about a pneumatic nail gun? a post-hole digger?
Good thinking. Once the robots try to fill out a US tax return, they won’t want our jobs any more! (Unless it triggers the Great Robotic Uprising and the extermination of the human race, which I would rate a better than even chance).
re: Sanders’ ostensible book tour
I would also note that several others involved in the Sanders campaign have been on “book tours” of their own, but when you actually watch the meetings on C-SPAN, it’s pretty clear that what they’re actually doing is political organizing. This is flying completely under the radar, and may be one possible source of so many people calling their Congresscritters to task. That and Trump being a bigot…
Just one of the many things that a citizen can do is to insist that one’s Congressional Representative actively support H.R.790 – the Return to Prudent Banking Act of 2017. Here’s a list of the co-sponsors:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/790/cosponsors
If your Representative isn’t on the list, ask him or her why not? It’s time to restore the Glass Steagall separation of responsible banking from risky speculation. You won’t be able to call their offices today, since it’s Presidents’ Day, but starting Tuesday, February 21, we’ll be able to call them. The Representatives are supposed to be working for all of us, not just the giant banks and the ultra-rich campaign donors.
Apropos of the discussion awhile back regarding how many in Congress really do deserve support, I though the list of co-sponsors here might be revealing. Pocan is my rep and he seems to have his heart in the right place even though I’m not convinced he will lead the resistance (not that Resistance!). There are 30-ish on the list, including most every rep I have ever heard a good thing about. I would be curious if others think this is a good kernel to build from. Or if some are imposters. Interesting that none of the leadership is on board.
Note: there is one R on the list, Walter Jones from NC (not this NC!).
Sponsor: Rep. Kaptur, Marcy [D-OH-9] |
Cosponsor
Rep. Lynch, Stephen F. [D-MA-8]*
Rep. Ryan, Tim [D-OH-13]*
Rep. Pocan, Mark [D-WI-2]*
Rep. DeLauro, Rosa L. [D-CT-3]*
Rep. Norton, Eleanor Holmes [D-DC-At Large]*
Rep. Schakowsky, Janice D. [D-IL-9]*
Rep. Doyle, Michael F. [D-PA-14]*
Rep. Slaughter, Louise McIntosh [D-NY-25]*
Rep. Jones, Walter B., Jr. [R-NC-3]*
Rep. Welch, Peter [D-VT-At Large]*
Rep. Watson Coleman, Bonnie [D-NJ-12]*
Rep. Serrano, Jose E. [D-NY-15]*
Rep. Lipinski, Daniel [D-IL-3]*
Rep. Garamendi, John [D-CA-3]*
Rep. Speier, Jackie [D-CA-14]*
Rep. Ellison, Keith [D-MN-5]*
Rep. Conyers, John, Jr. [D-MI-13]*
Rep. Gabbard, Tulsi [D-HI-2]*
Rep. Grijalva, Raul M. [D-AZ-3]*
Rep. Tonko, Paul [D-NY-20]*
Rep. McGovern, James P. [D-MA-2]*
Rep. DeFazio, Peter A. [D-OR-4]*
Rep. Lee, Barbara [D-CA-13]*
Rep. Capuano, Michael E. [D-MA-7]*
Rep. Pingree, Chellie [D-ME-1]*
Rep. Fudge, Marcia L. [D-OH-11]*
Rep. Cohen, Steve [D-TN-9]
Rep. Lowenthal, Alan S. [D-CA-47]
Rep. Davis, Danny K. [D-IL-7]
Rep. Khanna, Ro [D-CA-17]
Rep. Yarmuth, John A. [D-KY-3]
I’d be wary of Welch. He’s something of a neo-gressive or maybe just a neoliberal who votes progressive every once in a while. To put things in perspective: he was atop both the D and R ticket this past fall – generally not a progressive marker.
Emanuel Cleaver’s not on there. Disappointing. Unfortunately, typical.
He has a good League of Conservation Voters rating. Perhaps he just needs to be nudged by his constituents to support good banking legislation. Here’s his contact information for several locations:
2335 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
phone: (202) 225-4535
fax: (202) 225-4403
hours: M-F 9-6:00pm
1923 Main St.
Higginsville, MO 64037
phone: (660) 584-7373
fax: (660) 584-7227
hours: M-F 8-5:00pm
211 West Maple Avenue
Independence, MO 64050
phone: (816) 833-4545
fax: (816) 833-2991
hours: M-F 9-6:00pm
101 W. 31 Street
Kansas City, MO 64108
phone: (816) 842-4545
fax: (816) 471-5215
hours: M-F 9-6:00pm
Thanks for the link. I just checked to see if my Rep. (Tsongas) was on the list. She was not. 3 other MA Rep’s. (Capuano, Lynch, McGovern) were Co-sponser’s. I just sent Tsongas a request for her position on the bill. I’ll see what kind of response I get. She was a big supporter of HRC and a superdelegate, so I’m not overly optimistic she is for it.
I write Loebsack all the time, but his seat covering Iowa City means it’s generally pretty safe. This then translates into him being [family blog] when push comes to shove.
Grassley and Ernst might as well be brick walls…
Yup, I’m pretty sure that I’ll get some canned response back that doesn’t really say much. A phone call to an aide, assuming I get past the voice mail box, may at least let them know we are watching her. I’m hoping that she will have someone oppose her next primary. Perhaps someone like State Senator Jamie Eldrige who was an active Berne supporter.
I always get a canned response. But if they’re competent, despite the annoying generic responses, they’re keeping track of what their constituents are telling them.
Publisher’s Weekly reports Obama’s lawyer Bob Barnett has almost finished negotiating the deals for Obama and Michelle’s new books probably running in the millions for (yet!) another biographical work. Like a cat Obama probably is good for seven biographies…so expect an Obama and Michelle tours on all the TV shows all the time before long (Summer maybe) so Sanders will have some competition soon.
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/72819-obama-book-deals-getting-close.html
“Third, we propose revising our interpretation of the guaranteed availability requirement to allow issuers to apply a premium payment to an individual’s past debt owed for coverage from the same issuer enrolled in within the prior 12 months. ” . . . . So if I don’t pay my Nov or Dec premium unless it’s beneficial, and the insurer eventually cancels me retroactive to 10/31, then I enroll with same insurer eff Jan 1, they can bill me for Nov and Dec (and presumably change the cancel date to Dec 31)? This will maka ACA even more hated by healthy people and will penalize people who only have one insurer to select from.
The money quote from the CNN article on how the dems are eager to get the DNC chair election over:
You’d think the other lesson they’d be learning is that in the democratic capitalism that is American politics, these Americans are voting with their dollars. And those votes are going to an organization they believe can accomplish its goals.
“You’d think …”
They’re stuck on the “3rd Way” … quietly hopeful the next four years will relegate them to irrelevance.
Thing’s may be worse than that. Information I am getting from TYT Politics is revealing that the Democratic Party is in a state of finachal meltdown. Therea lot of contracts to rent extractors that need to be satified. And because the Dems suddenly lost influence, corpreate donations are down. So money is starting to disapear from accounts where they shouldn’t. Attempts to even crack open the books has so far failed. A task made harder becaudes the Democratic Party exists outside the law regarding finachal regulations, as far as the courts are concearned.
” … the Democratic Party is in a state of financial meltdown”
You say that like it’s a bad thing … ;-)
I’d have to look for the comment now, but on a discussion yesterday (?), someone was saying that the heir apparent to this fallen Dem edifice is non other than #BHO. I’d give that some credence. I suspect that once vacation time is over, you will begin to see #44 actively helping to rebuild the #Neolib mansion from the ruins. In that regard, one litmus test for whether establishment Dems can regain the reins will be whether #BHO can ride in and rescue the corporate wing from the end it truly deserves. All those erstwhile anxious rent extractors might do better if they can have #BHO for the ride along, right?
Hav no doubt, the fight within the Dem party is going to be immense. My money’s still on Democratic Socialism eating all in its wake – one way or another (inside or outside DNC).
But we shall see …
But what’s in it for him (BHO)? I don’t see what he has to gain by participating in Dem activities. Does he need support for his foundation or library (slush) funds? I figured he’d go on the speaking circuit, cash in and retire.
You have to remember that to much of the outside (liberal) world, everything was fine UNTIL TRUMP. To use Lambert’s turn of phrase, there is a lot of Obama hagiography that ultimately signals a desire to have him be involved somehow. Also, #BHO will not necessarily be immune to the call to have him rescue the Dems from the depths (plays into aforementioned hagiography). At the very least, he will want to exert influence on the future direction of the party – as he has already done w.r.t. the DNC Chair. He’ll get his library and foundation etc. … but is he going to get the Dems to win elections? Is he going to be able to help architect a winning Dem vision for 2020 by reaching back into a neolib bag of tricks? I say no. So yeah, maybe he should take the money and run. All I see following establishment Dems is #EightYearsOfTrump
Obama expected to get a lot of money based on getting Obamacare, making the Bush Tax Cuts permanent, getting some Free Trade Agreements, etc.
It looks like Trump might reverse some of these achievements. Perhaps Obama’s owners and sponsors have quietly told him that he won’t get any Obamacare reward money if Obamacare gets repealed. Perhaps Obama is still working for his money.
Its a bad thing because the national dems are bascly steeling money from state level operations, and there seems to be no accountability at all.
The rep are basicly just short of three state houses away from the 2/3rds majority needed to edit the consttution. Not only is this fact off the table for the DNC chair debate, but the money issue is also not being discused eather.
Yes I call that a bad thing. I do not care one wit about the dem party itself. But the consequences are still very concerning.
I also care in that watching these events gives us the ability to gain insight into the inner workings of the dem party.
Its a bad thing because the national dems are bascly steeling money from state level operations, and there seems to be no accountability at all.
The rep are basicly just short of three state houses away from the 2/3rds majority needed to edit the consttution. Not only is this fact off the table for the DNC chair debate, but the money issue is also not being discused eather.
Yes I call that a bad thing. I do not care one wit about the dem party itself. But the consequences are still very concerning.
I also care in that watching these events gives us the ability to gain insight into the inner workings of the dem party.
Why on earth would a progressive give money to the dems?
This is a lot like wanting more water to fill your sieve. We’ll get it this time!
Thanks for The American Conservative and the Ian Welch links.
Good reads.
Here’s Robert Parry on more of what Phillip wrote.
https://consortiumnews.com/2017/02/18/the-did-you-talk-to-russians-witch-hunt/
“By 2013, according to a 2015 report by the Drug Enforcement Administration, more Americans died from drug overdoses (largely but not wholly opioid abuse) than from either traffic fatalities or guns.” And, let us note, not a single one of those drug overdoses resulted from use of a cannabis product. But somehow, in a the long and tedious Commentary natterings the words “cannabis” and “marijuana” are never mentioned. Even though cannabis is a safe and effective pain reliever in the vast majority of instances where opiates are now used for that purpose.
If it’s not safe to drink alcohol or smoke marijuana, and drive, it needs to be regulated and controlled.
And if smoking is bad for one’s health, there needs to be warning about smoking and it should be banned in public places, and (as some progressive cities have shown the way) in apartments (with shared air ducts).
My back-of-the-envelope calculation indicates that this 5 day excursion (including the 1 day of travel to and fro) yielding the gross of $1,700 less GAAP expenses of $0.50/mile for 1400 miles (400 mile commute and 200 miles per day) of $700, nets her about $1,000 or $14.00/hour, (72 hours of driving time, including the commute), less of course, personal expenses like food.
An extremely demanding, stressful and soul-eating way to make a mediocre buck.
throw in that driver’s gross revenue is cited as **up to** $1,700/week. I’d like to see average/median.
And throw in paying both sides of FICA as a 1099-er.
And throw in no workers’ comp/disability insurance, and likely no commercial liability insurance.
Innovation at its finest.
I don’t see any exaggeration in the reports of the wood thrown. A 2″ x 4″ is a 2″ x 4″ whether it’s 10′ or 10 cm long. It might have been better to say it was a short piece, but surely no one would imagine it was a full commercial length: the idea of kids attempting a sort of amateur caber toss without being immediately noticed and stopped would be ludicrous.
Yes, but let us not forget how minor threats to Official Persons are not tolerated.
The woman who threw a shoe at Hillary at a speech was escorted out and charged.
Because she missed?
One can only hope, but it’s probably more accurate to say that Hillary ducked:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16T6UJW5oWY
Re: WW II Japanese-American internment
The irony behind the racism of the Japanese-American internment was the US had actual experience in WW I with German spies and saboteurs, especially on the East Coast. http://www.npr.org/2014/02/25/282439233/during-world-war-i-germany-unleashed-terrorist-cell-in-America
Several German immigrants were also spies during WW II: http://listverse.com/2013/06/12/10-nazi-spies-and-their-espionage-plots-in-america/
Despite the known past espionage and sabotage by Germans in WW I, the US didn’t do anything to inter German-Americans in WW II.
The feds just busted a white, non-Muslim sex offender who plotted to put bombs in ten Target stores up and down the East Coast. We are more under siege from angry white guys than radical Islamic terrorists. http://www.syracuse.com/crime/index.ssf/2017/02/records_how_feds_foiled_sex_offenders_plot_to_bomb_targets_from_syracuse_to_flor.html
You do realize that German-Americans are the largest ancestry group in the United States? If you interned them all who would have been left to fight the war?
Not Carl Spaatz, or Chester Nimitz, or Dwight Eisenhower…
Linda Gordon offers Dorothea Lange’s record of this crime:
“The photographs were impounded because they were unmistakably critical. They unequivocally denounced, visually, an unjustified, unnecessary, and racist policy. ”
et
“The manipulation of news and the distortion of reality are the most powerful weapons in the hands of power. They can make a whole reality disappear. ”
https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/dorothea-langes-censored-photographs-of-the-japanese-american-internment/
Who do you fear more:
1) The scary Muslim plotting your demise in a cave
2) The scary Angry White Male plotting his revenge fantasy
3) The All-Surveilling Big Brother apparatus with unlimited resources that can kill anyone legally — including American citizens — for any reason it sees fit or can declare you an enemy combatant and put you in “indefinite detention”.
Think long and hard, even though you shouldn’t have to.
P.S. When you post stories about the heroic Feds smashing another terrorist cell or picking up a hopeless white guy who we will know by his full 3 names, you’re doing their freedom-crushing consent-manufacturing for them.
THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS OR ALLIES.
Well what statistically is more likely to lead to death? I think #2 and #3 are probably high on the list if #3 includes killer cops.
Need a do-over?
“A total of 11,507 people of German ancestry were interned during the war. They comprised 36.1% of the total internments under the US Justice Department’s Enemy Alien Control Program.”
People of Italian ancestry were also interned.
Dropped my reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_German_Americans
11,507 is not 36.1% of the 110,000 to 120,000 Japanese Americans interned by a different USDOD program. Just two paragraphs below the number cited in your very misleading post:
Two paragraphs lower. I hate it when people pull this cr@p.
You may want to zoom out some more. There were other detainment programs going on at the same time. The number that you don’t like is from one program but works well for IdPol purposes.
No comparison of japanese and german ww2 internments…only 11 thousand of the 35-100 thousand dues paying members of the A-O nazi party usa were interned…
Dues Paying members…
These were not common german americans who were caught up on a dragnet and hysteria…
But as I burped out yesterday, the act was really a land grab against japanese living in and on valuable land in california…the japanese in hawaii for the most part had no issues come up at all…there was no questioning their loyalties despite their being a much larger percentage of the strategically important Hawaiian islands…didn’t realize it myself until I did some research on mark david chapmans japanese-Hawaiian wife and seeing what, if any conections she might have had to yoko’s connections to japanese elite and royal family…one of my rabbit holes on a rainy day things
The consistent focus on the internment of Japanese Americans during WW2 smacks a bit of identity politics. German and some Italian Americans were also interned, but that fact shifts the narrative. Canada also interned the same groups during that time. I don’t want to be misunderstood here, the internments were wrong. But interesting to see which facts are included and which left out.
http://www.businessinsider.com/5-surprises-about-american-internment-during-world-war-ii-2015-1
the UK also sent interred, sending many Germans/German-descent and Italians to the Isle of Man.
We interred a small number of Japanese in Cowra, NSW. The ruins of the camp and the graves are still there.
I seem to recall there was a famous breakout too – although just where they were going to go…
Um… Germans were also interred. As were Italians.
For decades there was a man from Hillsboro, IL who kept wanting to get paid for being sent back to Germany during World War II.
His story was
“I wasn’t German, I couldn’t speak German, and when I arrived in Germany, we bombed the city I was at that same day”
Can’t find anything on the actual guy, but he’s been bitching about it since Ive been alive
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/world-war-ii/resources/immigration-policy-world-war-ii
That is not true. Germans were interned, but no where near proportional to the population.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_German_Americans
And you seem unaware of this:
The title of the Bloomberg article is fair enough, but the analysis is as superficial as you would expect. Macron’s mention of colonialism was deliberate, as a signal to the (very powerful) anti-racist lobby in the Socialist Party that they should get their supporters to vote for him in the second round, when he expects to be facing Le Pen. It’s not aimed at the immigrant vote as such, much of which wants desperately to live in France and doesn’t give a monkey’s about colonialism now. Macron is trying to establish himself as the natural consensus opponent of Le Pen and the only barrier to her winning.
He may well be right. The Hamon/Mélenchon split shows no signs of healing, so there’s a good chance the Left will be knocked out in the first round. Fillon, incidentally, continues to plumb depths of unpopularity: 65% of those questioned recently said they though he should withdraw. Although about two thirds of his party (the Republicans) thought he should run, but it’s hard to see how that would translate into enough first-round votes to get him into the last two; he might be in a police cell by then anyway. So if an election were fought today, it would probably be Macron vs Le Pen, but since this is French politics, virtually anything can happen.
Yes, I was thinking that – Macron seems to be running a very controlled campaign, I suspect he did lots of research on Obama’s campaign. He’ll do just enough dog whistling to the left as needed while maintaining a broadly centrist campaign (If HRC had been smart enough to do that, she’d be POTUS now). He knows the eventually winner will be the one who gathers up the most ‘stop Le Pen’ votes, not the candidate with the biggest initial base.
Its infuriating to see Hamon/Melenchon hack away at each other. Its idiotic to split the lefts vote when there is a realistic chance of one candidate getting to the second round, and from there anything could happen.
Hamon was in Lisbon, Portugal, yesterday in talks with socialist Prime Minister Antonio Costa to try to figure out how the Portuguese socialist party managed to put together a successful left coalition in only 54 days that has been able to roll back in its first year in power austerity policies and increase growth without busting the budget to the great distress of the austerian right parties. It is clear they are looking for a similar mechanism to unite the left.
http://www.lemonde.fr/election-presidentielle-2017/article/2017/02/17/benoit-hamon-en-deplacement-a-lisbonne-veut-s-inspirer-de-la-gauche-plurielle-portugaise_5081584_4854003.html
>> infuriating to see Hamon/Melenchon hack away at each other.
evil will always triumph because good is dumb.
Spaceballs, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7XVcqZodAM
Of course the Betsy DeVos appointment was horrible, but as Glen Ford points out, she will merely continue and perhaps accelerate the policies of Obama and Booker;
DeVos, Obama, Booker, Trump – All Enemies of Public Education
I suspect Duncan will remain a more effective evil. Devos has the potential to create kinetic blowback. Mayor Marty Walsh of Boston created a mass student walkout with his naked cuts to school funding and donations to GE. The coward couldn’t even talk to the kids and ran away from them. Most people are products of public schools. There will be backlash, not a Saturday feel good walk.
Shrub understood you had to at least buy people in the short term much like how NCLB did at first seemingly providing new funding. I don’t think the current GOP grasps this or at least in sufficient numbers to govern.
Then there are the teacher unions. They are too aligned with Team Blue to be a force when the President is a Democrat, but they’ll react now. After all, the leadership has to act like it has a reason for being paid.
My report from the front-line (I teach in a public school, in a city that has a high concentration of charter schools that is mentioned in Ford’s article):
Recently, I have have a number of new students enter my class, all from charter schools.Why the sudden uptick?
Well, high-stakes testing season is right around the corner, and I surmise that these students have been “counseled” to leave their charter schools, so as not to have their low scores reflect badly on the charter.
Data-driven instruction and all that jazz…
From John Mauldin’s Thoughts from the Frontline, which is distributed by email (thus no link):
While Mauldin tilts Republican, he thinks their proposed border adjustment tax (which he characterizes as a “half-assed VAT”) would cause an ugly economic shock:
http://www.mauldineconomics.com/frontlinethoughts/archive
You can always link to an individual “Thoughts From the Frontline” essay here.
I believe that the specific essay you are referring to is the most recent:
http://www.mauldineconomics.com/frontlinethoughts/tax-reform-the-good-the-bad-and-the-really-ugly-part-three
Thanks; didn’t know he had it posted.
Comment From Ian Welsh Article
“For folks who think things would be better had Bernie won, this Russia phobic hysteria would still be occurring. It seems no mistake that just as a socialist is ascendant, the well to do start seeing spies everywhere. Please keep that in mind when the bastards are trying to press your fear buttons.”
I dunno … I have a hard time agreeing with this. I’d like to think that if Bernie had won the Dem Primary, the red-baiting would have been largely from the GOP side, and that the Deep State would not have felt the need to intervene on their behalf. But even if it did, what would they have? Trump being an amoral opportunist* (with global reach) has no doubt provided plenty fodder for those with prying eyes (and ears) to exploit. The primaries didn’t provide much fodder for #HRC. What would a full election cycle have revealed? Another way to look at it is: what if it were not Trump, but Pence or Cruz? Would we find ourselves and this warped junction?
Ik denk zo niet.
*Disclaimer for Trumpies: Plenty of amoral opportunism to go around on both sides of the aisle.
You didn’t notice Msm was in the tank for the anti Russia warmonger? They did and still do hate Bernie and all he stands for. Remember Bernie rails against billionaires as a class, who own Msm. They would pick trump over Bernie in a heartbeat.
Woulda been just like Fdr.. Dem and rep elites would join with Msm in opposition, though his big win over trump, and pop policies, woulda been enough, again like Fdr.
This was discussed the other day, i believe, but I think a Sanders presidency would be easier to neuter than a Trump one.
All they would have to do is to manufacture a Trump for him to respond in a lesser of two evil fashion by endorsing a Hillary-esque position to counter that Trumped threat. The formula worked and will work again.
“You didn’t notice Msm was in the tank for the anti Russia warmonger?”
Well ;-) … my comment assumes Bernie having won the Dem Primary. In such a case, the subsequent assumption is that any warmongering tropes would have duly fell victim to the real issues of economic belligerence towards the American worker. And remember – to be fair to voters on the right – the same tropes that found favor on the left fell on deaf ears on the right. Again, my point is: if #DemCoronation2.0 fails, that sets the stage for an alternate set of acts/players to evolve. Further, I don’t think those events would have followed the same narratives, because there wouldn’t be much in the offing from any #DeepState rabbit hole on Sanders. MSM calling Bernie a ‘socialist’ is not the same as them asserting that ‘Trump in a Putin puppet’. IMO, there wouldn’t be much to build on if MSM tried to build a ‘red scare’ around Sanders.
Well, just to play devil’s advocate here, I assume if Bernie had won the Dem Primary the Clinton camp and msm would have immediately declared that Putin hacked the primary. heh.
The #Maddow segment would be weak, though … Hahaha!
#NoPeePeeTape
#NoRealEstateDeals
#NoSurrogateInfluence
But it may very well have come to pass, so … I’ll Allow It … ;-)
America’s Love-Hate Relationship…Immigrants.
Love-Hate implies variability.
Variability as in sometimes greatly needed, sometimes not.
I suggest immigration be connected to labor participation rate (it’s true that we can have many loca people not working because they don’t possess the skills necessary, and some immigrants do – that’s 1) rare and 2) should come out the total immigrant quota).
Politics stressing you out?
As if the expectation is politics should be different from many things you do in life. If different, perhaps it’s optional then.
“Get out if it’s too stressful.”
Air France Pilots Vote to Accept Principle of Low-Cost Unit [NYT/Reuters]
Course vers le bas.
Treason! A charge being leveled against Trump.
How far is that from the other charge that some websites are Russian propaganda sites?
From the FT article Trump Transition Team:
The author John Dizard inserts this item without explanation. Insiders to whom Mr. Dizard is writing to may know specifically to what he refers. I do not. Therefore, I will speculate freely and suggest that the cost of capital, the collateral, is eating into profits and the systemic risk for the “asset management industry” is not to the financial system generally, but only to the risk that profitability of the “asset managers” is at stake.
One might think that the run up is bank shares since the election would obviate the need for more capital. Unfortunately for the banks, unless there is a large amount of the bank stock in their own treasury, the higher price will force even more profits to be paid out in dividends. Thus the need to loosen the regulatory collar on the asset managers to expand their liabilities by seeking dodgier loans to sell to an unwitting public.
Kasich comments seem important to me if they gain traction with other moderate republicans
This one is sad – Democrats would rather lose with an Establishment hack than win with a progressive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usnxoskl3us
More on the War on Cash:
https://scroll.in/article/827887/understanding-demonetisation-why-theres-a-war-on-cash-and-you-are-in-the-middle-of-it
More class warfare:
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/02/20/morbid-inequality-now-just-six-men-have-much-wealth-half-worlds-population
I thought this was quite funny. You could almost mistake it for The Onion.
Reuters
Trump Team Fosters Fears He’ll Adopt Alternative Economic Facts
President Donald Trump complains regularly about what he calls “fake news.” What’s got some statisticians worried, though, is the risk of doctored economic data coming from the administration itself.
While there are government directives in place to prevent that from happening, the number crunchers worry that the president’s occasionally cavalier comments on the economy and economic statistics, and his apparent disdain for economists in general, could mean trouble ahead.
One month into his presidency, Trump has yet to nominate anyone to the Council of Economic Advisers, established in 1946 to provide presidents with objective economic analysis and advice. Indeed, staffers at the council complain that the White House seems to be giving short shrift to the regular reports they produce on the economy, a person familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity…
Which Country Is The Greatest Threat to World Peace?
View map.
Re the link on “repoliticization of DoJ:” Jeebus, has anyone been paying attention? When I dealt with DoJ as an EPA enforcement attorney particularly after the Reaganauts took over, the politicization went from more of a silk glove to a pretty clear iron fist. And in the intervening decades, John Yoo? Airport ramp meetings? Firings of US Attorneys and replacement with corporate shills? US Attorneys squelching allkinds of enforcement and investigation activities that are in the public interest? C’mon, people, catch up with what is in the regular news, at least.
All that might accurately be said, I would say, is “ramping up of the patent, blatant politicization.”
No more faking, just taking…
No more faking, just taking was intended to be a +++ to JT mcP the sage…my not so smartphone has not been playing nice with nc today…
A ground’s-eye view of the “Resistance” at work in Chicago:
The local alderman, a democratic party twit, had the state director of ACLU come to speak to a full house on civil liberty issues.
As the ACLU does, she listed the usual, and deserving, subjects: immigration, reproductive rights, voting rights, etc.
However, she opened-and closed-the talk with her opinion that it was the low-information voters who were “fooled” by Trump and needed more education that brought us to the dilemma we face today. Nothing about the failures of the democratic party and their wars, service to banks and abandonment of working people. Then they passed around the basket.
The dispiriting event had an overflow crowd of maybe 500, average age about 60, 98 percent white, largely affluent if disheveled looking. I counted no more than a dozen African-american, Hispanic and likely middle eastern faces.
Apparently the were planning to protect the rights of immigrants without their participation.
I’ve thrown rhetorical monkey wrenches at Obama victory rallies, campaign meetings, etc., but couldn’t bring myself to say what amounted to “are you fucking crazy?” this evening. Maybe I should just look around the neighborhood to see where berniecrats are drinking their sorrows away. Or the socialist workers party.
Some resistance.
A report back:
I was at a town hall by Sen. Ron Wyden this morning. (Note: Wyden is not, IMHO, trustworthy.) Very blue town in a very blue state. The turnout was huge – the biggest I’ve seen. And the tone of the “questions” was disgustingly adulatory. Lots of desperate Democrats in that hall. At least one question both my wife and I thought was a setup.
The alarming bit: Wyden, who is the ranking member of the “Intelligence” Committee, was asked about Russia, and played it up vigorously. Some of it made sense: witnesses should be under oath, and the investigation, if there is one, taken seriously. But he was blowing up the Russia issue alarmingly, and the crowd ate it up. Got the loudest applause of the morning.
That’s bad news; this is a local, sophisticated audience baying like wolves for Russian blood (so to speak). It was full- blown McCarthyism, from people who should but didn’t seem to grasp the dangers, or the thinness of the evidence. I think we’re in worse trouble than I thought before. And the Democrats are even more desperate for reassurance than I realized.
At the same time, the pot has been very thoroughly stirred. People are paying far more attention than usual to politics, and they will continue. Despite what I heard in that town hall, it is only one of the directions they’re going in. As in the old Chinese vocabulary, crisis is opportunity. But I’m afraid we’ll be challenged to fend off a war, at least a cold one.
Re: increasing poverty in Boston suburbs
This definitely synchs with what I’ve observed locally. I’d say the trend has intensified over the last 5 or so years. Tony suburbs, commuter towns/bedroom communities, tourist towns/Vacationland (you posted a story back in September about poverty in Wareham, MA, down the street from my old house here in cranberry and clams country) — all are suffering from opium and gentrification. Urban gentrification is well known, but rural gentrification is also a thing, like when the grove of pine trees with cranberry pickers’ cabins gets turned into McMansion tract housing. People also forget post-industrial “rust belt” (hate that term) conditions prevail in a place like Brockton, MA or North Plymouth, MA, where most of the rope in the world was manufactured through the mid 20th century, employing a third of Plymouth’s workforce or more.
All gone now.
A situation much like old Europe or pre-1850 America; urban core owned by elite, same elite enclosing countryside, many people driven from both directions — urban and rural — into the suburbs (banlieues?) as servants of the “Service Economy” (they put it pretty openly, don’t they — servitude is the goal, not a side affect!)