DL Open Thread: Sunday, October 13, 2024
Yep, JD Vance’s Mom Owes Her Health Insurance To–Obamacare:
In Vance’s telling, his family members’ experience reflects Trump’s stewardship of the nation’s health-care markets — a perspective shared by some conservatives, who say that Trump took steps to stabilize the Affordable Care Act after Republican repeal efforts collapsed in 2017. Even as the president publicly demeaned the law — “Obamacare is a joke!” Trump wrote on social media in 2020 — his administration continued to administer most of its initiatives, and some consumers saw the cost of their insurance premiums decline.
But to many health policy experts, Vance’s story reveals something else: the benefits of “Obamacare,” even to its critics, and the audacity of Trump’s attempts to take credit for the work of President Barack Obama and Democrats, who crafted and defended the Affordable Care Act at great political cost. After Democrats enacted the law in 2010, Republicans spent the next seven years vowing to overturn it, culminating in a Trump-led repeal effort that fell one vote short.
John Roberts Can’t Grasp Reality:
…as the analysis itself makes clear, it’s not the former president who is confounding the chief. It’s the general public. Roberts, according to observers, “was shaken by the adverse public reaction to his decision affording Trump substantial immunity from criminal prosecution. His protestations that the case concerned the presidency, not Trump, held little currency.” As a consequence, reports Biskupic, “Unlike most of the justices, he made no public speeches over the summer. Colleagues and friends who saw him said he looked especially weary, as if carrying greater weight on his shoulders.” (Poor baby.)
This echoes precisely the blockbuster New York Times reporting from last month from Jodi Kantor and Adam Liptak, who also pointed out that Roberts had convinced himself last term that he would be able to razzle-dazzle the nation with soaring constitutional rhetoric in his immunity opinion, in ways that would lower the temperature in the public fury at the high court post-Dobbs.
Donald Trump And The Fake Scranton Firefighters:
“Local 60 would like to address the rally held earlier today in Scranton for former President Trump and the Office of President of the United States. This is not a political post, rather a clarification post for anyone who sees or may see the event. Multiple CITIZENS were seen with “Scranton Firefighters for Trump” signs at today’s rally. It is noted that no member of Local 60 were carrying those signs as the IAFF has chosen not to endorse a candidate this election. We honor and respect each and every person’s political opinions as well as our members own opinions on what they believe is the right choice for them. We just want to clarify that Local 60 has not endorsed a candidate for the Office of President following the path of the IAFF. The signs seen were not a representation of SFD Local 60 nor an endorsement of any candidate.”
In a phone interview Thursday, Local 60 President Allen Lucas said he had no idea where the signs came from, and none of the people holding the signs in photos that he saw were Scranton firefighters, active or retired.
There’s No Such Thing As A ‘Climate Haven’:
Some in the media later reported accurately that climate havens don’t actually exist. But that still raises the question: Where did this climate haven concept even come from?
Well before humans began putting billions of tons of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, entire populations would migrate toward better conditions in search of a place with milder weather or more fertile soil or the absence of drought. Because of its speed and scale, however, human-caused climate change is especially extreme, and everywhere will be impacted by some degree of risk. There is no completely safe haven.
Which is part of how we ended up talking about the idea of climate havens. It’s wishful thinking. At least that’s what several experts told me after Helene laid a path of destruction across the Southeast and as Hurricane Milton barreled toward Florida. As the impacts of climate change became more real and apparent, the media, as well as local leaders, started looking for a better story to tell.
What do you want to talk about?
If the election gets sent to Roberts, evidence indicates that we are fucked.
Yeah, but at least he’ll pretend to feel bad about it.