It sounds like Atlanta also has longer wait times and fewer health care professionals than where I grew up in Boston. But that's not too surprising with the number of universities and the focus on health care companies in the Boston area, so I know I should be careful projecting that experience towards other parts of the country.

Down here in Charlotte it's still got a decent amount of hospitals etc compared to the rest of the state, but there's also been huge class action lawsuits for monopolization etc, so I'm guessing wait times aren't too bad but costs are higher than they should/could be.

I guess some shit went down in West Virginia that would normally be good for a few days of news cycles, but instead it's a blip and nothing more. That's crazy.

You all should read An American Sickness: How Health Care Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back by Elisabeth Rosenthal.

I never actually got to the "take it back" part. I got too pissed off at how we're all getting fucked by Big Pharma, Health Insurance, Hospitals, the big banks that support them and the politicians being bribed/lobbied to look the other way or keep the system in place.

House Judiciary sends over 80 people associated with Trump/Trump Org document requests for their investigation into corruption and obstruction of justice. Just about everybody who's been named in connection to Mueller/Russia/ethical violations are on the list including Donald Trump Jr, Kushner, Trump campaign. I think one of the few missing is Ivanka

At least he's consistent, but no government shutdown this time.

The NDSU Bison football team went to the White House today and trump brought out the fast food buffet again. Why? Why even have any food at all?

The Libertarian in me asks why spend any money on food at all or invite a football team for that matter?

Traditionally the President pays for the food for these events with private money. My guess is Trump desperately wants to fit in with what he thinks college students are like while also spending as little money as possible.

Well don't worry cause there will never be a Libertarian in the white house.

I think it's somebody in the administration's attempt to make Trump look more folksy. Somebody else might have gotten away with it. Who cares what the athletes eat? I don't think I ever expected they had some luxury spread. A regular box lunch kind of thing would probably cost less than fast food at those volumes.

Former white house lawyer Ty Cobb says Mueller is an "american hero"


Former White House lawyer Ty Cobb calls Mueller 'an American hero' - POLITICO

With the wealth of idiocy this President and administration engages in, this seems like way too small a thing to be concerned about.

Fast food for thought.

*drops mic*

Paul Manafort's sentencing today around 3:30 (the first one)

Another item for the things that should be scandals but won't be:

The President's son-in-law, who was denied a security clearance until his father-in-law overruled those responsible for the clearances, met with Saudi officials without including anyone from the State Department and so far has refused to release any details of the meetings.

Judge denies Manafort's lawyers asking for leniency on foreign banking and tax offenses. Now moving on to discussing the severity of his mortgage fraud.

Brown out, won't run for Pres. Maybe we should start counting the Dems who aren't running, it feels like a shorter list.

Judge rules Mana does not get credit today for accepting responsibility for his crimes. Basically because he hasn't. But judge noted Manafort spent over 50 hours talking to Mueller.

47 months. America is awful.

I've known people sentenced for longer for selling ecstasy

You see, she hasn't "lived an otherwise blameless life.”

Wow, its like the judge completely ignored Manafort's history-a blameless life? I'm sure his daughter would not agree. And he even gave a lesser sentence than the defense asked for. Disgusting.

Weird. The North Carolina judges were much more understanding. Korean green card holder avoid prison time for illegal voting in NC | Raleigh News & Observer

Somehow the Miami Herald found out the owner of the spas busted in Miami was at Mar-a-Lago for the Super Bowl party.

And there's a selfie with her and Trump.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/pol...227186429.html

Krugman finds the nail I have been fondling here on and off, and just hammers it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/07/o...p-deficit.html

Money quote:

It sometimes feels like we are beta-testing a political sim. And the feedback is going to be like "First, this is a really fun idea, and I'm excited for when this gets released! I do think, though, that there are some issues with the 'stickiness' of the parties' bases. Last night, I ran a scenario where I made a candidate who had very low intelligence and temperament and wisdom and ethics. I gave him high charisma and gave his opponent maximum unlikability so he could just barely get elected. I then wanted to see how badly he could lose re-election. So I pretty much set major scandals and crimes to be revealed every week (I'm talking like collusion with enemy countries and stuff and pictures of him with human traffickers). And I also just had him do nothing (I know that the the developer said that he was going to come up with effects for the 'executive time' setting, but I'm just using it in beta to fill out the schedule with no actual work (In my head, I'm pretending that the President is just sitting in bed watching TV for 8 hours a day, lol)). And every time he meets with a foreign leader in a summit, I have nothing happen from it.

"It would seem that this should tank his approval, right? But it is just sitting at 45%, and nothing is changing it. I understand that each party has a 'base' and the engine won't have a guy get, like, zero votes. But I am wondering how much our actions will matter if someone trying to lose cannot get below 45% approval. What do y'all think about that?"

This is gold. Thank you. I so badly want to steal it.

This is beautiful. And immensely depressing. So, just about right for the current times, well done!

+++so good

House passes along party lines a bill that requires presidents to release their tax returns.


House passes bill to require presidents to disclose their tax returns | TheHill

Trump surveys tornado damage in Alabama, then signs Bibles for survivors.

He wrote that, right?

I'm sure his followers think so

Interesting. I do believe in the first bolded for the most part when talking about China and not sure I really understand the second bolded (and don't have anymore free nytimes read).

Trade deficits are when imports exceeds exports so not sure what that has to do with domestic investment spending. Appreciate anyone able to shed some light here.

Go shale oil ... but only for enough time where Tesla or like can become the norm. Hate being under the yoke of ME oil.

But from what I understand, there's a difference between oil quality and we will still need some oil from ME and Venezuela.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/08/busin...bia/index.html

Some pictures of unauthorized immigration. Puts some humanity into the discussion and from both sides.

Migrants surrender to US Border Patrol agents | 1 | New York Post

Mistakes have obviously been made (most egregious is how we screwed up separating kids from parents) but would like to think 98% of Border Patrol etc. are enforcing laws compassionately.

Now this goes from embarrassing to a real scandal. MotherJones is reporting that the owner of the spas has been advertising her ability to connect Chinese business people with the President and Minister of Commerce and even arrange White house and Capitol Hill dinners.

If she was so open about her activities just imagine what's going on at Mar-a-Lago with people who don't want their activities to be known.

I prefer the Fake Melania storyline for entertainment :popcorn:

Certainly better than the real ones :)

I don't know the details of her proposal (I'm sure its not all baked out) however I'm not against the concept.

I do remember bits and pieces about the AT&T breakup and I think its been shown that it was a net positive.

Break up monopolistic (however that's defined) companies. I think Amazon and Google fits. Don't think FB is one. But not sure I want to do this if it puts us at a disadvantage with China.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics...ialism-at-sxsw

TBH, don't think this is worthy of "scandal" yet (or at least not for Trump).

The key insight into the Trump years, the more bad shit you do, the less any of it matters.

dola

I don’t know enough about Russian oligarchs to judge details of RU-scandal stories.

I know enough about China (as does Gady E) to recognize that Yang story is actually bad. Massage parlors + CN execs at Mar-a-Lago + CN gov ties + direct Trump contact. This is new terrain. https://t.co/gIcgHTmpDk

— James Fallows (@JamesFallows) March 10, 2019

Just another day in Trumps America.

The thing is, what you say you want and what you're quoting are diametrically opposed.

You're touting America's emergence as a leading exporter of oil products. That isn't the same thing as energy independence. We import like 8 million barrels a day of crude, and export like 1.2 million barrels per day of the same.

Anti-corruption.

Yes.

As stated above, Anti-Corruption and Voting rights are the top agenda items right now.

Net Neutrality and Legalization are backburner topics.

Last week, President Trump introduced Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, as "Tim Apple."

That was an easy slip of the tongue to make. Some people jumped on it and made fun of him on Twitter for it. But, whatever. Famous people who speak a lot in public sometimes mis-speak. And people make fun of them for it. And then we all go on.

Much more telling has been Trump's reaction. First, he started telling people that he said "Tim Cook, Apple," but that the microphone did not pick up the Cook. Then, when even a casual review of the tape showed that was a lie, he changed the story to this

At a recent round table meeting of business executives, & long after formally introducing Tim Cook of Apple, I quickly referred to Tim + Apple as Tim/Apple as an easy way to save time & words. The Fake News was disparagingly all over this, & it became yet another bad Trump story!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 11, 2019

A President who flubs a name: fine. A President who is so pathologically thin-skinned that he cannot handle the idea of people making fun of him for flubbing that name: scary.

Fake flub news!