Looking Ahead 50 Years 10 years Ago…
Ten years ago this week, the first enrollment period for ACA health insurance on the federal exchange closed. Over seven-million people signed up for 2014 coverage. This year's figure topped out at 21.3 million. It works! People like it! Hooray!
I was one of the brave American patriots who signed up for Obamacare as soon as it was offered, having gone without health insurance for half a dozen years. (Being a self-employed non-millionaire, the private market premiums in Maine were insane.) As a thought experiment for Cheers and Jeers, ten years ago I pictured myself being interviewed on Meet the Press in 2064 about what it was like to be among the Class of history-making 2014 signer-uppers. Ten years later, I think it still holds up. Here it is…
Host: Here we are, fifty years later. It's 2064 and, Bill, you're 99 now. What was it like back then, being part of that first tumultuous year of the full implementation of Obamacare?
Bill in Portland Maine: Oh, it was a time. That was before we had implanted iBrains and had to type things out on a keypad, you know. But, uh……I remember the Republicans hated it. Called it "socialism" back then, you see. Socialism, Marxism…said the president was gonna throw Grandma off the cliff. The old tea party even said they wanted to bury the whole program with one of the Kennedy boys who'd just passed on. We thought it was terrible what they were saying back then. The House was repealing it two, three times a week. Oh, they hated it. They said it was gonna be Obama's Waterloo. Said it would break him.
And then the web site broke down and they had to fix that, which they did. And we all signed up and got our insurance cards. I remember I got mine in the mail on March 31 and that happened to be the last day folks could sign up for the first year. I suppose I got a little emotional over that. It was a big deal—a big effin' deal the vice president called it—and we all knew it.
So it went into effect—Obamacare, which no one could decide if it was a good name or a bad name to call it, some folks insisted we call it the Affordable Care Act, but I called it Obamacare and still do—and it just became part of life. People started using it, and they liked it well enough. They certainly brought the price down from what the vultures used to charge.
It needed some fixing here and there, but you'd have to be a fool to try and take it away today. I don’t think the American people would stand for that. It works and it works good, especially since we moved up to single-payer. I think Obama and the Democrats were gutsy to take that on. By the way, are you people still bookin' McCain every week on this damn show?
Host: And we're out of time so we'll have to leave it there. Coming up: um...Senator John McCain's head speaks from his biomedical preservation jar on the need to fire missiles into Iran. Back in a minute.
Next: we’ll revisit it in a decade and see how it fares in 2034. And now, our feature presentation...
Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, April 4, 2024
Note: If Cheers and Jeers doesn’t appear here this morning, it means we lost power due to the giant nor’easter now chewing up the coast of Maine and spitting it out like a baby rejecting creamed corn, and who can blame him or her because, gack, it’s creamed corn. If Cheers and Jeers does appear here this morning, please disregard this note. And finish your creamed corn or no dessert. —Mgt.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til Earth Day: 18
Days 'til the San Joaquin Asparagus Festival in California: 9
Factor by which the number of U.S. workers in the labor market over the age of 75 is expected to increase over the next decade: 2x
Percent of private industry workers who have access to a 401(k) plan: 68%
Percent of those people who contribute to it: 50%
Percent increase in U.S. electric vehicle sales last year, topping 1 million for the first time: 40%
Length of days and nights, respectively, on the moon: 13 days, 13.5 days
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Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:
How nice to hear from that sweet Trent Lott and Tom DeLay again, who suggested Tom Daschle was unpatriotic when he said it was OK to ask questions (gasp!) about the direction of the war.
"Disgusting," said DeLay in a one-word press release about Daschle's comments. Lott said, "How dare Senator Daschle criticize President Bush while we are fighting our war on terrorism, especially when we have troops in the field?" Gosh, who was that masked man from Mississippi who used to criticize President Clinton in the most vile language while we had troops on the ground in Bosnia and Kosovo? Anyone remember his name?
You may recall that Clinton dispatched a missile to take out a terrorist training camp in August of 1998—missed bin Laden by a couple of hours. Several Republicans then loyally suggested that the attack, retaliation for the bombing of American embassies in Africa, was nothing more than a ploy to take people's minds off Monica Lewinsky. Now that's supporting your President.
—April 2002
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Puppy Pic of the Day: "Hello, I must be going…"
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CHEERS to order in the courts. Special Counsel Jack Smith, spearheading the prosecution in the Trump classified documents case, has had enough of the presiding judge's political activism on behalf of the main defendant, Donald J. Trump. And although he still has many f*cks to give, he's done giving one about Judge Aileen Cannon's latest order that opens the door to the possibility that those classified documents may, in her tumbleweed-bestrewn head at least, have been Trump's to steal in the first place:
In the opening paragraphs of Smith’s response, he torpedoes the judge’s order and threatens “appellate action” if she follows this path. [...]
Smith concludes with a parting shot threatening appeal, writing “For the reasons set forth above and in the Government’s opposition to Trump’s motion to dismiss based upon the PRA, the Court should reject the legal premise that the PRA’s distinction between personal and presidential records has any bearing on the element of unauthorized possession under Section 793(e). As such, it should deny Trump’s pending motion to dismiss and adopt preliminary jury instructions as proposed by the Government above. If, however, the Court does not reject that erroneous legal premise, it should make that decision clear now, long before jeopardy attaches, to allow the Government the opportunity to seek appellate review.”
Basically Smith is saying to the judge: quit making shit up that simply delays the trial, or I'll move to have you removed from the case and we'll get a judge who doesn't wear a MAGA t-shirt under the robe. And you know he's serious because he ended with a scathing P.S.: "Bless your heart."
P.S. In other legal news, John Eastman, one of Trump’s lawyers who participated in the attempted coup against the government in January 2021, just got his law license yanked. Bless his heart, too.
JEERS to poor prognosticators prognosticating poorly. We take you now to Enid, Oklahoma, where a closeted neo-Nazi city council member who was revealed to have carried a tiki torch through the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia shouting "Jews will not replace us!" in 2017 faced a recall vote. In March he proudly proclaimed, “I firmly believe on April 2, voters are going to reaffirm that I am the best to represent them." Let's see how that played out on Tuesday:
Judson Blevins, a City Council member in Enid, Oklahoma, who was the subject of a HuffPost report about his ties to white supremacist groups, lost a recall election on Tuesday. Blevins earned 561 votes, but his opponent, Cheryl Patterson, won 829 votes.
Conclusion: Uberfuhrer Blevins needs a new crystal ball. He did Nazi that coming.
JEERS to the good dying young. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee 56 years ago today at the age of 39, less than a day after delivering his famous "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech at the Mason Temple in which he made it clear he knew he was in the cross-hairs:
“I got into Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?
Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop.
And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!
And so I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man.”
Our favorite King juniorism resonates louder with every passing year, given the ongoing radicalization of the Republican party: "Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." His lips to their ears.
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BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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END BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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JEERS to the long and short of it. After he was sworn in, 68 year-old William Henry Harrison gave the longest inaugural speech of any president: 105 minutes. Here are some of the highlights:
9 minute mark "Okay, let’s break the ice with a little game of ‘Duck Duck Goose.’ Vice President Tyler, why don’t you go first..."
30 minute mark ”So the guy looks at him and says: ‘The Aristocrats!’ Ha ha ha, great joke! But seriously...”
36 minute mark "I was thinkin’ the other day: I wonder if we’ll ever have a president who’s a total douchebag cuz he’s filthy rich but also really stupid and wrecks everything cuz he thinks he’s such a ‘bigly’ dictator. Naaaaaah!!! So, anyway, back to my story about the frog with the loaded musket crossing the river...”
42 minute mark "Hey, can somebody give me a signal at the 104-minute mark so I’ll know to wrap it up? Thanks."
62 minute mark "Aaaaaahhhh-CHOO!!!! I know, I know, say it don't spray it, ha ha ha…but anyway—[sniffle]—now there are 44 bottles of beer on the wall. Yes, 44 bottles of beer. Then you take one down and pass it around, and guess how many bottles you now have on the wall. Go ahead...take a wild guess..."
93 minute mark: "[Sigh] Can we just all stand really still for a few minutes and just, like, be? Let’s combine our auras and just feel the moment..."
The day was unusually cold and windy—like Maine is this morning—and he delivered his address in nothing more than a pair of boxers and a swath of leopard skin draped over his shoulder. Bad move. 31 days later, on April 4, 1841, Harrison became the first president to die in office of either pneumonia or his doctors' treatment of his pneumonia. Pay your respects here. Please keep it brief.
CHEERS to Java Jim. During this week in 1829, James Carrington of Connecticut created the first coffee mill, a towering structure where an army of starving orphans was forced to grind the beans by beating them with rocks 16 hours a day while chained to chairs in hot, cramped, windowless rooms. No, wait, sorry, that was Newt Gingrich's original idea. Carrington patented a wooden box with a crank on top and a little drawer at the bottom. Or, as Gingrich still calls it: "No fun at all."
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Ten years ago in C&J: April 4, 2014
JEERS to divine digs. The Catholic Archbishop of Atlanta dreamt up, planned, approved, and oversaw the construction of, and move into, an opulent $2.2 million mansion. It was the life, I tell ya. The life! And then Pope Francis went all humility on the world's ass, so now Wilton Gregory is facing the wrath of his flock. And he's all like, "It was an accident! Honest! The devil made me do it!" Archbishop Gregory now says he’s real sorry about acting more like a Roman emperor than a humble caregiver to the poor and downtrodden. He plans to take immediate action to make all this disappear. Starting with a $2.2 million 30-foot-high wall.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to Kodak moments. If Donald Trump’s presidential photographer—who he of course stiffed because that’s his prime directive on Planet Earth—had ever gotten a shot like this, it would be framed and hanging on every Republican's living room wall as a totally-real example of his divine awesomeness. Instead, a different president's photographer (the great Pete Souza) snapped it seven years ago this month, and Republicans lost their collective shit. In the hopes that it might make them chew through a few more inches of sheet metal in their survival bunkers, here’s a replay for nostalgia’s sake:
By contrast, here’s Obama’s one-term, twice-impeached, 88-times-indicted successor:
Mother Nature. Definitely a Democrat.
Have a nice Thursday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial
“When he steps across that gag order line, there should be only one response: bring your toothbrush, Donald Trump, because you’re going to sit in the Cheers and Jeers kiddie pool for a while."
—Judge LaDoris Hazzard Cordell
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