I suppose I should apologize, as you probably were expecting the Greek Statue guy. I can’t speak to what happened, but I promise I will address this Krugman column is a fair, accurate, reasonable, and most importantly unemotional.
You cucks love that.
Yeah …fuck that and fuck you too.
Today’s article comes paid for by Bill Gates, because why pay for lousy journimos yourself?
In 2010, at the signing of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, Joe Biden, the vice president at the time, was caught on a hot mic telling President Barack Obama that the bill was a “big deal.” OK, there was actually another word in the middle. Anyway, Biden was right.
And in one of his major unsung accomplishments — it’s amazing how many Americans believe that an unusually productive president hasn’t done much — Biden has made Obamacare an even bigger deal, in a way that is improving life for millions of Americans.
Productive? Jesus Christ if you open a column saying something this retarded its only going to swirl into a constant death spiral of other retarded, things…or something. Fucking retard.
As you may have noticed — as many Americans finally seem to be noticing — Biden has been racking up some pretty good numbers lately. Economic growth is still chugging along, defying widespread predictions of a recession, while unemployment remains near a 50-year low. Inflation, especially using the measure preferred by the Federal Reserve, has fallen close to the Fed’s target. The stock market keeps hitting new highs.
Oh, and murders have plummeted, with overall violent crime possibly hitting another 50-year low.
That follows a trend from the 70’s that normalized in the 90’s. Congratulations, President Nixon!
Biden deserves some political reward for this good news, given that Donald Trump and many in his party predicted economic and social disaster if he were elected, and that Republicans, in general, are still talking as if America were suffering from high inflation and runaway crime. (Trump, of course, has been dismissing the good jobs numbers as fake. Wait until he hears about falling crime.)
They are fake.
It’s less clear how much of the good news on these fronts can be attributed to Biden’s policies. Presidents definitely don’t control the stock market. They have less influence in general on the economy than many believe; I would give Biden some credit for the economy’s strength, which was in part driven by his spending policies, but the rapid disinflation of 2023 mainly reflects a nation working its way out of lingering disruptions from the COVID pandemic. The same is probably true for the plunge in violent crime.
The stock market is probably too difficult a concept for a deep thinker like Krugman to understand. For the past year the S&P 500 growth (up 19% over last year) ca;be attributed to exactly 7 companies (referred affectionately as the Seven Samurai). These 7 grew on average 71% while the other 493 only grew for %6. Congratulations you are failing at basic statisticL analysis by assuming the outliers are the norm.
Furthermore, the stock market is experiencing what some analysts call a “melt up” which is a phenomenon where revenue growth are driven primarily from inflationary pressures. Produce a necessary product like I dunno, food? Are costs to produce food rising? Yeah. Pass the costs on to the customer as always—instant revenue growth. Same profit margins with more revenue looks great on a balance sheet so defensive investors buy in. Stock goes up. Just ask the conservative publication, Vice to explain how this worked in Venezuela.
One area where presidents do make a big difference, however, is health care. Obamacare — which arguably should really be called Pelosicare, since Nancy Pelosi (who is not, whatever Trump may think, the same person as Nikki Haley) played a key role in getting it through Congress — led to big gains in health insurance coverage when it went into full effect in 2014.
Trump tried but failed to repeal Obamacare in 2017, and the backlash to that effort helped Democrats win control of the House the next year.
No I’m pretty sure that was the average shitlib like you going through more Maxi pads than I do.
Trump was nonetheless able to create some erosion in the program, for example by cutting off funds for “navigators” that help people enroll.
That erosion has now been decisively reversed. The Biden administration just announced that 21 million people have enrolled for coverage through the ACA’s health insurance marketplaces, up from around 12 million on the eve of the pandemic. America still doesn’t have the universal coverage that is standard in other wealthy nations, but some states, including Massachusetts and New York, have gotten close.
And this gain, unlike some of the other good things happening, is all on Biden, who both restored aid to people seeking health coverage and enhanced a key aspect of the system.
Obamacare isn’t simple. Many of the health care economists I know would have preferred something like Medicare for All, if that had been politically feasible. But it wasn’t and isn’t, so what we have instead is a sort of Rube Goldberg device, a mix of gadgets designed to expand access to health care with minimal disruption of existing arrangements. Those marketplaces, in which insurers are forbidden to discriminate against people with preexisting conditions and buyers receive subsidies to help them pay premiums, are a key part of the system.
It’s not an ideal mechanism, but it’s vastly better than nothing. Originally, however, the marketplaces were underfunded: The subsidies were too low, so many people still had trouble paying insurance premiums, and there was also a cutoff, with subsidies available only to individuals up to 400% of the poverty line.
Thats interesting. 400% of the poverty line? The income group these whiny communist admit have the least trouble affording healthcare?
Gee, how are over half the people on Obamacare exchanges having diffuculty paying their medical bills, maybe because healthcare isn’t affordable shithead.
Lets just keep doing the same shit that made things unaffordable eventually it will work like we say they do. Your not fucking Plato. You can’t make reality fit to your fuckign crackpot theory.
There. I Stoiced.
Biden, as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, largely resolved these problems, reducing maximum premium payments (net of subsidies) and eliminating the cliff at 400%. The result is to make health insurance coverage substantially more affordable, especially for middle-income Americans who previously earned too much to be eligible for subsidies. Hence the surge in marketplace enrollments.
I don’t know whether health care will be a big issue in the 2024 election. But it should be.
Biden has made health insurance coverage more accessible and more affordable for millions of Americans.
If Trump wins, however, he will try again to do away with Obamacare; he has said as much, and this time he could very well succeed. He promises to replace it with something “MUCH BETTER.” I guess this depends on your definition of better: In 2017, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that Trump’s health plan would raise the number of uninsured by 32 million within a decade; that number would probably be larger today.
So, one more reminder of how much is at stake this year.
Screw this. I’m going back to work. BTW Drake pay your goddamn tab, your six month in arrears.
Pun intended, asshole.
My Stoic post seems to have disappeared.
Stolen, by Gypsies.
Oh there you are. I was going to make fun of you. I’m glad I didn’t.
Like that would hurt my feelings.
On a serious note, did I accidentally delete the article?
If that is the case, can it be recovered?
I usually don’t save them until after they post.
I don’t know, those TPTB clowns don’t tell me anything.
Nothing in Pending or Drafts, ron.
Not in trash either.
I found it, it was listed as published:
Published
0001/02/11 at 10:00 pm
I guess I don’t have to write one for next week.
People, people, people.
Do not draft in WordPress. Draft on whatever word processing program you have on your computer. Copy and paste into WordPress. I have never not once had any problems at all with this (I draft in Word, BTW).
I draft in LibreOffice and edit in WordPress to make sure the article looks right.
Very sensible. I tinker with it after I put it in WordPress, but I’d say my saved draft at home is 98% the same as what gets posted here. Links and images go in at WordPress, but there’s usually very little change to the text. And there is no risk of a WordPress hiccup putting me back to square zero.
I draft almost exclusively in WordPress. Sometimes from my phone. My one issues is tons of extra spaces at the end of my posts which I have to remember to remove. I think that’s a Brave thing, though.
I’ve done them all in WP and this is the first time I’ve had an issue.
No idea how it got published in year 0001.
You should be more stoic about its disappearance. :-p
Could you have made that graph any smaller?
There you go, smart ass.
Well now it’s too big.
Is your post still in pending?
You can recover it there.
I found it, it was listed as published:
Published
0001/02/11 at 10:00 pm
I guess I don’t have to write one for next week.
Year 1?
I don’t know what happened.
Clearly you use a time machine to compose these by talking to the original authors.
The revolution has begun.
So we have to go back to 2011 to read it?
No, all the way to the Year 1.
Must have caught the attention of actual Romans.
Or Jacobin has infected our site with the revolutionary calendar.
🧐
Speaking of blowhards with too much cash: “The economy is stronger than ever. Under Trump, it was a disaster.” — Author Stephen King
I can’t even with this retard.
GRRM had a similar nonsense rant.
It’s almost like people who make up stories for a living may not have the firmest grasp on reality.
it’s amazing how many Americans believe that an unusually productive president hasn’t done much
What did Drucker say?
‘There is nothing quite so useless, as doing with great efficiency, something that should not be done at all.’.
Go ahead, Krugabe, tell us about the Great Things Biden has accomplished.
I remember a website that HRC supporters were touting in 2016. Among her accomplishments were a number of bills that had been introduced and never passed and – my personal favorite – that she had flown more miles than any Secretary of State in history.
Did she go to Epstein’s island too?
Apparently several times, what with all the miles.
Miles on her or on a plane?
Imagine being one of the richest people in the world. Literally enough money to solve some of the world’s problems and make it a better place.
Instead you are obsessed with reducing the world population, buying up farmland not to be farmed, and sticking everyone with weird shots.
https://www.emerald.tv/p/bill-gates-launches-global-tracking
GODDAMNIT PAY YOUR TAB
Oh, that Drake.
Here you go.
Hard E Har Har
You come back without paying, I’m going to put your own dick in your ass, and staple gun it shut.
Okay – I have no idea what you are talking about.
Well, that escalated quickly.
For a second I thought that was a Bro quote. He should steal that one for later.
That’s what he gets if he doesn’t pay?
I thought she had a strict policy of cash before services rendered?
You were the reason for the policy update.
If that was the case, you wouldn’t owe her anything, would you?
Um, so Drake? Based on this very specific threat, I have questions…
I’m guessing Drake has gone too easy on Winston.
Remember, Steve Jobs was supposed to be the evil one of those two.
Speaking of… “Adult Swim” was doing one of their hipster interstitials the other day and the message was literally “8 billion people is too many – half of you need to die”. That was it. I debated with myself for a minute or two whether they were trying to be “ironic”, but no… I believe that really is the message all the cool kids agree with now & they’re not even hiding it.
Jesus H Tiddy Fucking Christ.
We all know Krugman is a dishonest POS, but touting lower inflation numbers is particularly bad. He knows full well that prices aren’t falling, and wages aren’t even close to keeping up.
in which insurers are forbidden to discriminate against people with preexisting conditions
That’s not how insurance works.
Welfare by deception.
My house burned down. I’d like to buy coverage for the damage.
I was going to make fun of you.
Don’t you charge extra for that?
No, I charge YOU extra for that.
The white patriarchy continues to abuse the poor, colored folks.
Fani Willis, the DA who charged Trump in Georgia, subpoenaed by House GOP
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan has subpoenaed District Attorney Fani Willis of Fulton County, Georgia, demanding documents from her office following allegations that Willis fired a whistleblower who tried to stop a top campaign aide from misusing federal funds.
The subpoena, obtained by NBC News, is part of a broader probe by Jordan, R-Ohio, and House Republicans into whether Willis used federal funds in conducting her more-than-two-year investigation into former President Donald Trump, who was indicted in Fulton County last year on charges that he attempted to overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results. Trump has pleaded not guilty.
In a letter Friday, Jordan says Willis has failed to comply with two earlier requests for documents related to her office’s use of federal grant money. The subpoena calls on the district attorney’s office to provide documents and communications “referring or relating to the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office’s receipt and use of federal funds” and “referring or relating to any allegations of the misuse of federal funds.”
She’s a Democrat attacking OMB, she’s protected.
I would not be surprised if she tried to expense hookers and blow.
For some reason Im picturing the paper-shredding scene from The FIrm.
Wait, what?
A Tuesday news release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the US layoffs and discharges rate was 1.0% in December and has hovered near that rate throughout 2023.
Still, the news from companies in tech can be important to note.
“What happens in tech may have an outsized salience to everybody, because it’s sort of the pinnacle of the US economy,” Julia Pollak, ZipRecruiter’s chief economist, told Business Insider in early 2023.
The pinnacle of the economy? Seriously?
In regards to self-regard, absolutely.
I could write that article:
Everything is way more expensive and interest rates are up so business have to make cuts somewhere. The end.
Well, the pinnacle would be the very tippy-top of the superstructure, upon which nothing else relies, kind of the opposite of the foundation, so . . . .
Obama/Biden/Whoever care is such a success that I’ll be paying $3K a month out of pocket for health care in a few months. And I don’t even use it. Keep telling me how great things are economically. It’ll sink in eventually.
That’s just rain hitting your leg.
Sean, this MAGA rube doesn’t know how good he’s got it.
The checks in the mail ?
When you hire a Bohemian Knight, the Czech’s in the Maille.
No kidding. For Mrs. Dean and I to have craptacular coverage, with high deductibles, copays, etc. is over $1,000/month. More affordable and accessible by left testicle. Healthcare inflation has never, not once, dropped below the general rate of inflation. I think its upward trend only flattened some for a few years, and then resumed its previous rate.
One of the reasons that I am still working is that Mega Corp provides pretty decent insurance at a semi-rational price.
This applies to Krugman, Stephen King, and many others that love to opine on what a great job Biden is doing:
I keep thinking that he can’t be that stupid, he has to know he is full of shit.
But the way he just keep going makes me think that maybe he is stupid.
As I wrote earlier, he knows damn well that “falling inflation” does not mean falling prices. He’s lying.
He probably doesn’t know anyone who voted for Nixon, either.
Pretty sure they stole the whole idea from the Tom Selleck movie “An Innocent Man”
2 Ohio officers arrested, federally charged for allegedly stealing, selling cocaine
Training issue.
It’s the lure of easy money, it’s got a very strong appeal.
You ask any DEA man he’ll say there’s nothing we can do.
See these guys had it figured out – stay away from smuggling, that’s a dangerous business.
Those marketplaces, in which insurers are forbidden to discriminate against people with preexisting conditions and buyers receive subsidies to help them pay premiums, are a key part of the system.
Big insurance loves big government.
Boy, I really enjoyed Obamacare. Didn’t just raise my premium, it tore the roof off. And I get less effective coverage every year while other people get subsidized at my expense. Good job, fuckwit.
I also really enjoyed being on the insurance side of things and being told no raises/probably no bonuses because we missed our Medical Loss Ratio by a fair margin. People are hitting their insurance harder than ever. Wonder why.
Fuck Krugman, that SOB. I hope he gets his nuts tangled in a bicycle wheel.
Health care is a human right duh.
Fani Willis’ court filing confirms romantic relationship with lawyer on Trump case but denies any conflict
Lawyers for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis are preparing to formally acknowledge in a court filing that she had a romantic relationship with lawyer Nathan Wade, whom she appointed to lead the Georgia prosecution of Donald Trump, but they will vigorously push back against allegations of financial conflicts and the contention she should be disqualified from the case.
In an affidavit by Wade that is expected to be submitted Friday with Willis’ court filing — both obtained by CBS News — Wade states, “In 2022, District Attorney Willis and I developed a personal relationship in addition to our professional association and friendship. I have no financial interest in the outcome of the 2020 election interference case or in the conviction of any defendant. No funds paid to me in compensation for my role as Special Prosecutor have been shared with or provided to District Attorney Willis.“
Start the jiffy pop.
Dumbass. A conflict of interest doesn’t require a kickback. It requires a relationship (financial or personal) with someone who is in a position to give you something.
Like, say, a contract to prosecute a massive felony RICO case.
He admits to the conflict when he says “ In 2022, District Attorney Willis and I developed a personal relationship”. Discussion over. Willis had a conflict of interest, period. She violated her duties by giving him a contract. Period. The fact that he is quite unqualified merely shows why we have conflicts of interest rules in the first place. But even if he was qualified, she still violated her duties. You can have sex with somebody, or hire them, but not both.
I read that and thought “game over”. It’s just a matter of time now.
Actual kickbacks would be icing on the cake.
That was what I thought, thanks for the clarification. The MSM is pushing the idea that there was no illegal money exchanges. But that’s just a distraction from the completely undisputed conflict of interest.
You can have sex with somebody, or hire them, but not both.
Technically, you can do both with Winston’s Mom.
Money is fungible. If he bought her an ice cream or a condom it came from his pile of money.
Your not fucking Plato.
Yeah, actually Kruggie is about as useful and right as that old shitbird.
https://www.boston.com/culture/movie-reviews/2024/02/01/argylle-movie-review/
“Argylle” is one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen, full stop. It is not “so bad it’s good,” like “Cats” or “The Room.” It is a $200 million abomination whose contempt for its audience is likely only eclipsed by the fury Sam Rockwell, Bryce Dallas Howard, Henry Cavill, Bryan Cranston, John Cena, Dua Lipa, Catherine O’Hara, Samuel L. Jackson, and every other actor involved in this ill-fated atrocity has for their agents right about now.
Lots of big names involved in this bomb.
Scathing review.
I saw more than 100 new movies in 2023. Not one of them was as ill-conceived or as stunningly awful as “Argylle.” If it were legal, I would camp outside of AMC this weekend and beg people to see any other movie instead of this affront to cinema.
A cinematic re-enactment of The Producers?
It’s springtime for Hitler and Germany.
Does it equal, or exceed Ishtar?
It looked dumb, but the Ungentlemanly Warfare one looks like a hoot.
I just showed the girlfriend the trailer for that yesterday. She’s onboard with seeing it.
I will watch anything Guy Ritchie puts out.
I’m hit or miss on some of his movies. I didn’t really care for RocknRolla or the Man from UNCLE, and have no interest in Swept Away or Aladdin. The Gentlemen was the most recent one of his that I’ve seen.
Apparently, I don’t watch everything he puts out. I have not seen any of those.
That just means I am totally disconnected from modern media.
I guess I did see the Man from UNCLE
looks like I’ve seen 7 or 11
Huh, I had no idea he directed Aladdin.
The live action remake. He did the Gentlemen in his downtime making it IIRC.
https://www.thewrap.com/guy-ritchie-films-ranked-worst-best-lock-stock-sherlock-aladdin-photos/
For whatever reason, Ritchie pulled his signature style almost entirely back for his remake of Disney’s “Aladdin,” to the point that it’s hard to imagine why he even made it. If his name wasn’t on the credits, you’d probably never know.
Snatch is great fun.
Curious to see what the audience score will be on Rotten Tomatoes. From the early reviews it seems to be a “love it or hate it” type of movie.
I have not seen a positive review yet
I mean audience reviews.
I haven’t checked any of those.
My misunderstanding.
The girlfriend made it through Echo (and didn’t compel me to watch it with her, for which I am very grateful). Her synopsis was: “That ending was so fucking stupid.”
She didn’t have many kind words for the rest of the series either.
There is always Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead.
Her tolerance for schlocky horror is well below mine. Benny Loves You and Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil are about her limit. Zombeavers, Teeth, Stage Fright, Santa Jaws and the like get me in trouble.
they will vigorously push back against allegations of financial conflicts and the contention she should be disqualified from the case.
“We both hate Donald Trump. What’s the conflict?”
See my mini-rant above. They are trying to steal a base with “financial conflicts”. The conflict is the sexy-times relationship, which should have precluded her from paying him for anything. There’s no need for a kickback (although it certainly appears that he spent some of his bloated fees for her benefit as well, so . . . ).
That’s your white supremacy talkin’ there.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/02/us/fani-willis-trump-georgia-nathan-wade.html
Prosecutor in Trump Georgia Case Admits Relationship With Colleague
But the prosecutor, Fani T. Willis, said there wasn’t a relationship with Nathan Wade before she hired him and argued that it should not disqualify her.
Fucking your employees is still a problem and still a conflict of interest.
“I paid the airlines for our tickets and I paid the hotel for our room, and I paid the restaurants for our meals, but I never gave any of the money to her.”
One report says they will claim they alternated paying for vacation expenses. The modern dating scene.
Don’t matter. In some ways, it’s worse. He paid for her out of the money she paid him, AND she was paying personal expenses of one of her contractors.
Speaking of contemporary video entertainment…
I have probably waited long enough to offer up a thought regarding the final episode of Reacher. What the fuck was that? Why didn’t they just have Baby Jesus fly down from Heaven on a fire breathing dragon with Gatling guns strapped to its wings to blast them out of the corner they were written into?
Good grief. There’s a reason 90% of the movies I watch were made prior to 1978. Like last night: Earth vs the Flying Saucers, which was much more believable and made more sense.
You didn’t like the way he just became the Hulk?
Season 2 was much weaker than season 1, but it’s still better than most of the crap out there.
The Drinker says.
Yeah, there were several instances where he and his team were being dumb in S2 and I don’t remember thinking that for S1.
From what I’ve read, the third season is going back to lone wolf Reacher again, which I think will help take care of some of the issues with the team of old friends (but new to us characters).
Same here.
Mrs. Dean also pointed out that her suspension of disbelief was challenged by the trail of bodies they left behind, with absolutely no consequences at all. Not even, as far as I could tell, an investigation.
Still, like kinnath pointed out, one of the better shows on offer.
Well, it’s no A-Team. But it will do.
The trail of bodies and a getaway via Greyhound or hitchhiking is a feature in all the Reacher books.
On the subject of healthcare, a few months ago, I bought a minimal insurance policy. It provides good coverage for major injury/illness at a cost of about $100/year. There was never a health insurance crisis, just people too irresponsible to take basic precautions. I have VA coverage too, but I like having a back-up.
Saw this on MSN earlier:
***
They may be proud Cubans, but few are Marxists. Many have children and grandchildren in the United States who migrated to America for a better life. The situation has seldom been so bad. Five percent of the country has fled over the past year, often flying visa-free to Nicaragua to join the migrant caravans through Mexico to the southern border of the U.S. They leave, and those who remain have no faith in the troika of nonagenarians who run Cuba behind the scenes.
***
Another victory for socialism…
I omit links sometimes because my comment with the link doesn’t go through.
“I bought a minimal insurance policy. It provides good coverage for major injury/illness at a cost of about $100/year.”
I haven’t seen anything that wasn’t two literal orders of magnitude more expensive than that (granted, for a two-person plan).
Well, I’m still under 40 and don’t need any medicine yet, so that’s probably the biggest factor. When I was in my 20s, I had similar so-called “junk” policy that cost $20 per month. Obamacare killed off that.
By gawd you still must pay for ob/gyn and pediatric coverage!
Nobody gets that price except for the indigent. And the lower cost plans are subsidized by us chumps working jobs.
Ah, that must be it – the Derpster is getting a subsidized rate.* Because I can’t believe there are any policies available for a less than $9/month unsubsidized.
*NTTAWWT. You can hate the game, but that doesn’t mean you can’t play it. I’ll be cashing SocSec checks before too much longer with a clear conscience.
You didn’t like the way he just became the Hulk?
What about the girl? She apparently gnawed through the straps on the gurney, turned around and climbed hand over hand up his arm with a deep knife wound in her shoulder, while being buffeted by prop wash and the gale force wind generated by flying along at who knows what speed.
Totally legit.
The show totally jumped the shark, and that was very disappointing.
You know what else jumped the shark? True Detective. I just finished the third episode of the new season. Each new episode brings more snore inducing boredom and eye-rolling supernatural elements. This crap does not deserve to connect itself to the amazing first season. If you haven’t started it yet, do yourself a favor and don’t bother.
Woke up this morning Friday morning . ‘Cept I was sure it was Tuesday . Hospitals and pancreatitis will do that to you. Seems I’ve been living on a diet of apple juice, veggie broth and fentanyl. Gotta tell ya that fentanyl stuff really works. Not for long but when it works you can tell
Horrible. Any ETA on you getting out of bed?
Yikes!!! 😳
Carl Weathers. RIP.
Larry David Attacked Elmo on Live TV Because He ‘Was Going on About Mental Health’ and ‘I Couldn’t Take It’: ‘I Throttled Him … I Would Do It Again!’
“The clip is going around online, Larry. You can’t hide from this,” Meyers told David. “Elmo, some might say, is loved by all.”
“Yeah, yeah. I did it,” David said when asked for an explanation. He then impersonated Elmo’s high-pitched voice and continued: “Elmo was talking. I was waiting to be interviewed, and Elmo was going on about mental health and I had to listen to every word. And I was going, ‘Oh my God, oh my God, I don’t think I can take another second of this!’ And so I got off my chair and I approached him and I throttled him! I couldn’t take it!”
So not a stunt? But a grown man attacking a puppet on camera. Totally sane.
Never cared for Larry David.
Me neither. Couldn’t stand his HBO show.
Same here.