Eschaton After Dark

Think Of The Guilty

Not said enough in discussions of the deliberate incarceration of innocent people is the fact that when you put an innocent person behind bars, it means you've let the guilty party go free. One would think "law and order" types would care about that, but oddly they often don't seem to.

Afternoon Thread

I'm in a coffee shop and people are debating the 2000 Florida recount. Make it stop.

Big Hospital

Some chance that there will be industry pressure to get the money, but...

Now, in a perverse twist, many of the poor people who rely on safety-net hospitals like Memorial will be doubly unlucky. A government subsidy, little known outside health policy circles but critical to the hospitals’ survival, is being sharply reduced under the new health law.

The subsidy, which for years has helped defray the cost of uncompensated and undercompensated care, was cut substantially on the assumption that the hospitals would replace much of the lost income with payments for patients newly covered by Medicaid or private insurance. But now the hospitals in states like Georgia will get neither the new Medicaid patients nor most of the old subsidies, which many say are crucial to the mission of care for the poor.

Morning Thread

Time for some coffee.

Friday night

Busy with stuff.

Afternoon Thread

Progress

I do wonder how many corrupt cops are actually ever busted.

BENGHAZI

Usually when the right decides to champion a "story" it enters a fact-free and consequence-free zone. You can say anything because it's out there. A rare walkback.

Jobs

+204K, unemployment at 7.3%.

Reforming "Obamacare"

Here's Stuart Zechman outlining the problems with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) (text) and what we need to do to fix them, and here's Stuart expanding on the issues, with Jay Ackroyd on Virtually Speaking.

For two decades we've been hearing all sorts of "wonkery" from people who, when you get right down to it, make no sense, and then some guitar-player comes along and actually looks at the documents and figures out what's really going on. Everyone should read and listen to this if they actually give a damn.

Overnight

Rock on.

Thread

Hum

Change I Can Believe In

huzzah

Happy Hour Thread

A bit early, but why not.

Assholes

I've never been much of a dude's dude, but I did spend 4 years in a college fraternity so dude culture is not alien to me. Even leaving aside the specific issue of formal or semi-formal hazing practices between old-timers and newbies, dudes can be fucking cruel to each other. While it might not make all that much sense, the flip side is that dude culture includes loyalty and support. You can be cruel to each other because the loyalty is understood. It's like family. You might harass the crap out of someone, but you come to his defense when he needs it. There are boundaries which shouldn't be crossed. There's a difference between messing with someone and bullying them.

Concussion Game

I've never been a big football fan, but my earliest memory of it was watching the Cowboys-Broncos Superbowl game in 1978. Tony Dorsett was my favorite player, probably because I thought he had a cool sounding name. It's sad what the game is doing to players. At least the pros get decent compensation. The NCAA needs to be destroyed.

And In The Rob Ford Of Toronto Story

I thought they'd already aired the season finale, but apparently not.

Grifters Gonna Grift

Hey a proposal for a company built high speed train line. Exciting!!

Spearheaded by The Northeast Maglev, the project has backing so far from U.S. and Japanese investors and boasts a high-powered advisory board that is headed by former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and includes former Transportation Department secretaries from Republican and Democratic administrations — Mary Peters and Rodney Slater — as well as former Govs. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania and Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey.

Oh, wait...

Wayne Rogers, TNEM’s chairman and former head of Maryland’s Democratic Party, said the line will be as expensive as it is transformative and acknowledged that it will need a lot of federal support.

As long as there's profit for the grifters, federal money is justified.

Margarine - The Healthy Alternative

Things change.

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday proposed measures that would all but eliminate artificial trans fats, the artery clogging substance that is a major contributor to heart disease in the United States, from the food supply.

Wednesday Night

Rock on.

Area Columnist Watches Movie, Discovers Slavery Wasn't Nice

It's the kind of thing you read and then your brain releases some amnesia drugs so you can unlearn it, just like Richard Cohen unlearned that slavery wasn't really all that bad.

You'll need to unlearn this, too.

Litigation Reserves

I like that it's just understood that they're going to need to hoard some cash to pay out for inevitable legal judgments.

Happy Hour Thread

enjoy

It's A Holly Jolly Eschaton Christmas

Thanks to all who actually click the amazon links. All new advertising companies are into the annoying intrusive popover and hover and auto-audio on ads and I just can't stomach putting them on the site. If you click amazon links and buy stuff you where going to buy anyway it just takes money from Jeff Bezos and gives it to me, which seems like a pretty good deal. Best way to fund my little endeavor here.

The Great Fail

Policymakers are more to blame than academic economists, but not enough academic economists stepped up to make the case for what really needed to be done to fix the economy. And, of course, plenty stepped up to tell us about inflation fears and confidence fairies and to punch the dirty hippies.

The impact on the economy, and human welfare, will be long lasting.

heckuva job.

Wednesday Crass Commercialism

Because everybody needs an extra hard drive.

PAYGO

Put Democrats in power, and they rush to prove to teacher (Fred Hiatt) that they're the very bestest and most behaved students in the class.

Sure, some are just bad, but some really believe in the Washington talk about Serious Responsible Centrism.

Urban Dystopia

There was a time when the future of New York City was seen as the ultimate urban dystopia, but that future is unlikely to materialize, even if there's a reduction in the degree to which that city's police force treats young black men as presumptive criminals.

Without Video Stores

I doubt too many of us are crying over their loss, but I do wonder what the final model will be. Will just about everything be available for reasonably priced streaming or purchase, or will everything be in fractured subscription services, such that one company has one set of titles and another company has a different set.

The Ten Point Rule

I don't think the Virginia election means much of anything other than voters thought Cuccinelli was sufficiently creepy, but of course in the Village, Democrats only win if they win by a lot. Otherwise it's a loss, see?

...oops. reader R reminds me that's a parody account. I got taken.

Really, That Guy?

I understand that for right wing media figures it's all tribal, and whoever pisses of liberals the most sends thrills up their legs, but Cuccinelli's obsession with sexytime made him, you know, really creepy.

Didn't It Occur To Anybody To Just Say No?

Well it did to one doctor, apparently. I've been mulling this situation over since yesterday and am just flabbergasted by all of the people who had to be involved and who just went along with it.

I'm wondering if asset forfeiture was the ultimate motive here. It isn't something I know enough about, but if police forces are essentially paying their salaries by taking stuff from drug dealers then they obviously have huge incentives to make busts. Aside from other problems with asset forfeiture, there really shouldn't be such incentives for cops.

Affordable

I've taken a look at the Bronze plans in New York State. This one has a premium for an individual of $348 per month.

What you get for your $4,176 per year is the requirement that you pay $3000 out of pocket before qualifying for a 50% copay on most services.  The well care visits, checkups and so forth, have no copays, but you're still out of pocket for the first $3,000.  

Of course there are subsidies for the bottom quintile. But who will buy this without those subsidies? Participating DOES get you in network pricing (h/t Richard Mayhew for the reminder) which is a big deal as a practical matter.  Sorta like Mafia shakedowns.  $4200 for the right to pay $3000 out of pocket in network is a little steep.  

RAWWRRRRR

I started composing a more complicated thing but, you know, fuck that. Most of my friends are queer. So that's where we are.

Morning Thread

There was an election last night. Sex will remain legal in Virginia. That is a good thing.

For All You Minchin Haters

Rock on.

De Blasio's New York

Tuesday Night

Any exciting ballot measure results? Often they're more interesting.

Extra Thread

On elections, say.

Rerun

This isn't the most important thing in the piece about Terry Mac, but it is perhaps an incredibly important thing about the behavior of journalists at the Washington Post.

And when the Washington Post hired me to continue working on McAuliffe stories, he continued to threaten my editors with veiled libel threats. He even came in for a meeting with Len Downie, then the paper’s executive editor. It was eerie how much he knew about what I was doing at the paper. It turned out that McAuliffe was a good source for some of my colleagues, and they were feeding him information that he was using to try to kill the investigation.

Perhaps it's even deserving of a blogger ethics panel.

Election Season

A bit early, perhaps, but dday just tweeted this.

David Dayen @ddayen
Every Dem candidate for federal office next year should be asked: How much should we expand Social Security?

This should be the goal. This should be the 2014 Dem litmus test, not just because it's what crazy hippies want but because it's smart politics.

"Serious People"

Except for Friedman Unit I don't think I ever take credit for coining a term because I can never remember what I've borrowed/stolen/copied from elsewhere. But it's nice to see a Very Serious Senator use the term.

(obviously not the term itself, but its use and meaning)

Journamalism

Quite the accusation to level against your colleagues in the noble 4th estate.

And when the Washington Post hired me to continue working on McAuliffe stories, he continued to threaten my editors with veiled libel threats. He even came in for a meeting with Len Downie, then the paper’s executive editor. It was eerie how much he knew about what I was doing at the paper. It turned out that McAuliffe was a good source for some of my colleagues, and they were feeding him information that he was using to try to kill the investigation.

MOOOOARRRRRRRRRRRRRR SOCIAL SECURITY

Obviously I support it both on the merits and as a strategy for making sure people don't support making things worse.

Get enough politicians on the record for supporting increases, and at the very least it'll be much harder for them to support cuts.

But benefits really need to be expanded. The 401K experiment has been a disaster.

It's A Start

The benefit increases need to be larger, but a real CPI-E is a good addition.

The Culture War Is For Little People

The reason pundits ignore Christie's social conservatism is that they believe he doesn't actually give a shit. This might be true. It might not be true. But they always think this "culture war" stuff is a sideshow for the little people which messes up the purity of their politics which is about very important issues such as cutting taxes and gutting Social Security. Obvious true believers bother them, mere perceived pretenders don't as much. That Christie would support horrible policies doesn't bother them because it won't affect them.

Governor Macker

I met Terry McAuliffe once. I was having lunch with James Carville and Paul Begala at the Palm in DC and he wandered in.

True story.

Late Morning

It's Election Day. Everyone is in a bad mood.

Have at it.

Overnight

Rock on.

You Talk Too Much

Have a video.

Monday Night

Enjoy.

I Believe That Childen Are Our Future

Regarding this unpleasantness, I don't know how as a culture we go from WeLoveOurChildrenYesWeDoSoMuchTheyAreSoPrecious to get off my lawn, 20somethings. I mean, the former eventually turn into the latter.

Cars Or People

Many car drivers become frustrated by buses. They're big, they stop a lot, seemingly slowing down traffic. Many drivers think the road is theirs. But the question is whether roads are for transporting cars or transporting people. If it's the latter, then it's the cars that are the problem, not the buses.

Afternoon Thread

Kids Today Are Horrible

Because they're younger and probably having more sex.

More seriously, which part of "entering the workforce during an incredibly extended recession because the olds fucked up the world" do the olds not understand?

It's a mystery why the youngs don't read newspapers

Grifters Gonna Grfit

Pierce:

Let us be plain. Ralph Reed is a con-man who would sell his gray-haired granny to the Somali pirates for fifty cents worth of consulting fees. He has nothing worth contributing to the national dialogue. This should be plain by now to all but the deliberately dim. The people who put this mess together every morning are not as embarrassing as the allegedly important people who appear on it, and nowhere near as embarrassing as the people who take it seriously, some of whom rule us.

Are there liberal/Dem equivalents to all of the Ralph Reeds on the Right? I don't mean just grifters - I'm sure we have those - I mean grifters who have been enabled by the media for so long. Grifters treated as people with sage wisdom to deliver to the masses.

Incorporate

Well at least we have the rare criminal complaint against a corporation, but individuals aren't being charged. There's no immunity in the agreement, but I won't hold my breath.

Nonexistent Problems

When people die, a message is not actually automatically transmitted to every entity and agency in the world. It takes time to deal with estate issues, and plenty of people aren't exactly in a position to do so in a timely manner. Of course Social Security pays out some very tiny bit of money to dead people.

Morning Thread

R.I.P. Arthur.

Sad day.

Late Night

Was out all day.

Rock on.

Evening Thread, Sunday

More Thread

With cat

Animal Style

I imagine some stupid things were said by horrible people on the Sunday shows again.

Fear Them

Too often we see reporting about how administration decisions are driven by fear of Republicans saying mean things about them.