Tierney Sneed: The 7 Biggest Cons In The GOP's Obamacare Repeal Pitch (TPM)
In the face of bad reviews from health care policy experts, the insurance industry and providers, and a revolt from some members of their own caucus, Republican leaders are scrambling to sell their Obamacare replacement bill by employing a boat loads of half-truths, inaccuracies, contradictions and metaphors.
Margot Sanger-Katz: Fewer Americans Would Be Insured With G.O.P. Plan Than With Simple Repeal (NY Times)
The Republican bill would actually result in more people being uninsured than if Obamacare were simply repealed. Getting rid of the major coverage provisions and regulations of Obamacare would cost 23 million Americans their health insurance, according to another recent C.B.O. report. In other words, 1 million more Americans would have health insurance with a clean repeal than with the Republican replacement plan, according to C.B.O. estimates.
Tom McCarthy: Will Trump be impeached - or is it just a liberal fantasy? (The Guardian)
Republicans suffered for eight years from what some of their critics called Obama derangement syndrome, becoming so wrapped up in their opposition to the president that any sense of greater purpose seemed sometimes to be lost. Are progressives and conservative purists suffering from Trump derangement syndrome? It's possible. We'll find out.
Linda Yablonsky: "Multiple Maniacs: Genuine Trash" (Criterion) Multiple Maniacs is a monster movie for people who would rather watch a comedy. It's gross. It has sensational sex. And in a bravura performance as the story's maniac in chief, the drag actor known as Divine becomes the most unusual leading lady in cinema right before our eyes.
Maverick is a term, usually referring to cattle, for an animal that does not carry a brand. In the period of the United States open range, such animals were relatively common. Many cows would give birth in wild or semi-wild conditions, not be located in an annual round up, and their ensuing calf could thus grow to maturity without having been captured and branded for ownership. The term derived from Samuel Maverick, who, among his other claims to fame, was notorious for not branding his cattle.
Source
Randall was first and correct with:
a BRAND
Having been raised in Montana and living now in South Dakota, I know that a young beef without a BRAND is a maverick
Alan J wrote:
A Brand.
mj said:
I think it started in Texas
Cows are wont to wander off from the herd to give birth, returning a few
days later. In the spring, the ranches would hold round ups to get the
young calves branded to indicate ownership. One enterprising fellow
refused to brand his cattle at all. He then claimed that any unbranded
calf/cow/steer he came across was his. Such unbranded live stock units
were named Mavericks after this guy.
Gene replied:
It is an animal which has not been branded.
Jim from CA, retired to ID, responded:
an unbranded range animal but especially a motherless calf
Deborah wrote:
A maverick cow is one that lacks a brand. This came into use thanks to Maury Maverick, a former mayor of San Antonio. The Ford Motor Company had to get his permission to use his name for one of their vehicles. I worked with one of his grandsons, Sam Houston Clinton, when I lived in San Antonio.
Michelle replied:
a brand
Dale of Precipitous Diamond Springs, Norcali answered:
That little doggie ain't been branded and must be on the loose…up to no good…lacking…It appears that Russia through surrogates in Albania, Moldova and Rumpites..It's getting interesting and botiful.
Kevin K. in Washington, DC responded:
Maverick cattle don't have a brand on them.
Billy in Cypress said:
A maverick is an unbranded calf or yearling, i.e. a maverick is lacking an owner's brand. It was used in the "old west" of America (when it was great with its open ranges) to steal/rustle young cattle from someone else's herd simply by putting your brand on an unbranded animal. It is like colonialism but with cattle rather than land and people, i.e. rules/laws that rich/white Europeans made up to allow them to steal whatever resources and territory they wanted. I think CpPDJT-ID would have really loved rustling cattle if he had lived in America in the last half of the nineteenth century.
"Gary Finn, the author of "Remembering Flint, Michigan: Stories from the Vehicle City," credits an early success of Barris to Flint radio station WTAC, which inadvertently launched a hit record written by Barris and performed by Freddy Cannon in 1962.
Barris wrote songs, including "Palisades Park," the B-side of a single Cannon recorded and that was accidentally played by a WTAC deejay, Finn's book says.
"Listeners wanted to hear the song again" and other stations followed, the book says. "The song became a huge hit, reaching number three on the charts. It became an international hit as well."
All because WTAC (the Big 600) made a mistake. That station was the one I listened to on my little 6 transistor radio as a kid and later on my car radio in high school. It was legendary to our generation in Mid-Michigan... As was CKLW across the Detroit River in Windsor, Ontario...
Oh, there's these tidbits, too...
During the "Gong Show," a pennant from Flint's one-time minor league hockey team, the Flint Generals, was displayed over the giant gong judges would use to eliminate performers competing on the talent show spoof.
"The Newlywed Game," a show Barris created, was hosted by former Flint native -- Bob Eubanks.
One episode of another short-lived game show parody introduced by Barris, "The $1.98 Beauty Show," featured contestant Sandra Bernhard, also a Flint native. Bernhard went on to star in stand-up comedy, movies and television.
Patriot Act NSA Spying Unconstitutional Section 215 National Security Letters Must End
My name is Marc Perkel and I have decided to announce that I will not comply with the so called "Patriot Act" laws requiring me to disclose information about my customers. If I receive a national security letter I will immediately photograph it, post it online everywhere I can, and then make a video of me burning it. I will then await my arrest. If you want to put me in jail then come get me mother fucker.
CBS fills the night with more LIVE'2017 NCAA Basketball', then pads the left coast with local crap.
On a RERUNStephen Colbert (from 2/27/17) are Jon Stewart, Connie Britton, Zoey Deutch, and Alison Krauss.
Scheduled on a FRESHJames Corden, OBE, are Terrence Howard, Jenna Elfman, and Nicole Scherzinger.
NBC begins the night with a FRESH'Superstore', followed by a FRESH'Powerless', then a RERUN'Chicago Med', followed by a FRESH'The Blacklist: Redemption'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Fallon are Anthony Anderson, Rhett & Link, and Migos.
Scheduled on a FRESHSeth Meyers are Jake Gyllenhaal, Whitney Cummings, Post Malone featuring Quavo of Migos & Metro Boomin and Charlie Benante.
Scheduled on a FRESHCarson 'The Scab' Daly are R.J. Cyler, Deap Vally, and Trevor Jackson.
ABC starts the night with a FRESH'Grey's Anatomy', followed by a FRESH'Scandal', then a FRESH'The Catch'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Kimmel are Shaquille O'Neal, Noah Hawley, and Mondo Cozmo.
The CW offers a RERUN'Supernatural', followed by another RERUN'Supernatural'.
Faux has a FRESH'MasterChef Junior', followed by a FRESH'Kicking & Screaming'.
MY recycles an old 'Bones', followed by another old 'Bones'.
A&E has 'The First 48', another 'The First 48', followed by a FRESH'The First 48', then a FRESH'60 Days In', followed by a FRESH'Nightwatch'.
AMC offers the movie 'Forrest Gump', followed by the movie 'The Departed'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 3 - EPISODE 8-Human Nature-Part 1.
[7:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 3 - EPISODE 9-The Family Of Blood-Part 2.
[8:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 3 - EPISODE 10-Blink
[9:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 3 - EPISODE 11-Utopia
[10:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 3 - EPISODE 12-The Sound Of Drums-Part 1.
[11:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 3 - EPISODE 13-Last of the Time Lords-Part 2.
[12:00PM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 1-The Blue Planet
[1:00PM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 2-The Deep
[2:00PM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 3-Open Ocean
[3:00PM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 4-Frozen Seas
[4:00PM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 5-Seasonal Seas
[5:00PM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 6-Coral Seas
[6:00PM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 7-Tidal Seas
[7:00PM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 8-Coasts
[8:00PM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 1-The Blue Planet
[9:00PM] PLANET EARTH II - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 5-Grasslands
[10:00PM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 2-The Deep
[11:00PM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 3-Open Ocean
[12:00AM] PLANET EARTH II -SEASON 2 - EPISODE 5-Grasslands
[1:00AM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 4-Frozen Seas
[2:00AM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 5-Seasonal Seas
[3:00AM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 6-Coral Seas
[4:00AM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 7-Tidal Seas
[5:00AM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 8-Coasts (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has 'Vanderpump Rules', 'Real Housewives Of BH', another 'Real Housewives Of BH', still another 'Real Housewives Of BH', followed by a FRESH'Watch What Happens Live'.
Comedy Central has 2 hours of old 'South Park', 'Tosh.0', another 'Tosh.0', followed by a FRESH'Review', and 'Tosh.0'.
Scheduled on a FRESHThe Daily Show is Zara Larsson.
Scheduled on a FRESH@Midnight are Stephanie Beatriz, Sasheer Zamata, and Brian Redban.
FX has the movie 'Transformers: Age Of Extinction', followed by the movie 'The Maze Runner', then a FRESH'Baskets', and another 'Baskets'.
History has 'Swamp People', followed by a FRESH'Swamp People: Blood & Guts', then a FRESH'Swamp People', followed by a FRESH'Gangland Undercover'.
IFC -
[6:00AM] ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13
[8:30AM] THE GREY
[11:00AM] MARKED FOR DEATH
[1:00PM] DRAGON: THE BRUCE LEE STORY
[3:45PM] POLICE STORY 3: SUPERCOP
[5:45PM] MORTAL KOMBAT
[8:00PM] MORTAL KOMBAT: ANNIHILATION
[10:00PM] THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS
[12:00AM] MORTAL KOMBAT
[2:15AM] MORTAL KOMBAT: ANNIHILATION
[4:15AM] SUPER (ALL TIMES EDT)
Sundance -
[6:25AM] The Andy Griffith Show-Opie the Birdman
[7:00AM] The Andy Griffith Show-The Haunted House
[7:35AM] The Andy Griffith Show-Ernest T. Bass Joins the Army
[8:10AM] The Andy Griffith Show-The Sermon for Today
[8:45AM] The Andy Griffith Show-Briscoe Declares for Aunt Bee
[9:20AM] The Andy Griffith Show-Gomer the House Guest
[9:55AM] The Andy Griffith Show-A Black Day for Mayberry
[10:30AM] Crocodile Dundee
[12:30PM] Ocean's Eleven
[3:00PM] Law & Order-Severance
[4:00PM] Law & Order-Blood Is Thicker ...
[5:00PM] Law & Order-Trust
[6:00PM] Law & Order-Sisters of Mercy
[7:00PM] Law & Order-Cradle to Grave
[8:00PM] Law & Order-Bitter Fruit
[9:00PM] Law & Order-Rebels
[10:00PM] Law & Order-Savages
[11:00PM] Law & Order-Jeopardy
[12:00AM] Law & Order-Hot Pursuit
[1:00AM] Law & Order-Paranoia
[2:00AM] Hap and Leonard: Mucho Mojo-Episode 2
[3:00AM] The Break-Up
[5:23AM] The Bob Newhart Show-P-I-L-O-T
[5:58AM] The Bob Newhart Show-Anything Happen While I Was Gone? (ALL TIMES EDT)
SyFy has the movie 'The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian', followed by the movie 'The Da Vinci Code'.
TBS:
On a RERUNConan (from 11/15/16) are Matt LeBlanc, Anthony Bourdain, and Dana Gould.
People walk past a caricature picture of U.S. President Donald Trump on sale in a shopping mall in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, March 22, 2017. President Donald Trump's (R-Grifter) former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, secretly worked for a Russian billionaire to advance the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin a decade ago and proposed an ambitious political strategy to undermine anti-Russian opposition across former Soviet republics, The Associated Press has learned.
Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko
Entertainment mogul Haim Saban, creator of the "Power Rangers" empire, was honored Wednesday for services to television -- and used the occasion to berate Donald Trump (R-Fabulist) for his immigration policies.
The 62-year-old Israeli-American billionaire, who turned the teen superhero franchise into one of the longest-running children's shows of all time, was receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame when his thoughts turned to Trump.
"I'm heartbroken (at) the breaking up of families, the way it's happening right now," he told AFP of the president's crackdown on undocumented migrants and court-challenged 90-day ban on entry to the United States by people from six Muslim-majority countries.
"It's a very saddening thing, it's not who we are as Americans. We are not that."
Producer and Power Rangers creator Haim Saban touches his Hollywood Walk of Fame Star at a ceremony on March 22, 2017 in Hollywood, California, where he received the 2,605th Star in the category of Television
Photo by Frederic J. Brown
The frigid top of the Earth just set yet another record for low levels of sea ice in what scientists say is a signal of an overheating world.
The extent of floating ice in the Arctic hit a new low for winter: 5.57 million square miles (14.42 million square kilometers). That's about 35,000 square miles (97,000 square kilometers) - an area about the size of Maine - below 2015's record. Last year had a shade more than 2015, but nearly a tied record.
This puts the Arctic in a "deep hole" as the crucial spring and summer melt season starts and more regions will likely be ice-free, said Mark Serreze , director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado, which released the findings Wednesday.
"It's a key part of the Earth's climate system and we're losing it," he said. "We're losing the ice in all seasons now."
At the other end of the world, Antarctica, where sea ice reaches its lowest point of the year in March, also hit a record low mark. Antarctic sea ice varies widely unlike Arctic sea ice, which has steadily decreased.
The rusty patched bumblebee was officially listed as an endangered species, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service announced on Tuesday. The listing marks the first bee species to receive the protection in the continental U.S.
The bee finally received its scheduled protection after a month-long delay in the listing caused by an executive order from Donald Trump (R-Crooked).
The rusty patched bumblebee was originally set to be designated as endangered on Feb. 10, following an announcement of the planned listing made by the Fish and Wildlife Service in January.
However, when Trump took office, he signed an executive order that placed a freeze on all pending regulations not put into effect. Designed to give the new administration time to review the planned rules, the order effectively kept the rusty patched bumblebee off the endangered species list for an extra month.
Jockeys, most of whom are children, compete on their mounts during the opening of the International Camel Racing festival at the Sarabium desert in Ismailia, Egypt, March 21, 2017.
Photo by Amr Abdallah Dalsh/
The global box office for films took in a record $38.6 billion last year, industry figures showed Wednesday, although receipts outside North America declined for the first time in 12 years as the Chinese market slowed.
The worldwide figure, bolstered by globe-striding behemoths like "Captain America: Civil War" and "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," marked a one percent rise on 2015, according to the Motion Picture Association of America.
"The continued strength of the box office demonstrates that cinema remains the premier way to experience great storytelling for audiences around the world," said Chris Dodd, head of the MPAA, a lobby group representing the six biggest studios.
The MPAA's annual Theatrical Market Statistics Report put the North American box office at $11.4 billion, a two percent improvement over 2015, with 246 million people seeing at least one movie in theaters.
But foreign box offices totaled $27.2 billion, down slightly from $27.3 billion the prior year, thanks to a dramatic halt in box office growth in China, the association said in the report.
The German government Wednesday approved plans to quash the convictions of 50,000 men sentenced for homosexuality under a Nazi-era law which remained in force after the war, and offer compensation.
The measure marks a triumph for activists after a decades-long struggle to clear the names of gay men who lived with a criminal record under Article 175 of the penal code.
The legislation was passed by Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet and will soon head to parliament, where her ruling right-left coalition enjoys a large majority.
"Article 175 destroyed careers and ruined lives," Justice Minister Heiko Maas said in a statement. "The few victims who are still alive today deserve to finally have justice."
The measure follows Britain's so-called "Turing Law" approved in October, which offered pardons to thousands of men convicted of homosexuality before its decriminalisation in 1967.
Iraqi civilians walk in a neighborhood recently liberated by Iraqi security forces on the western side of Mosul, Iraq, Wednesday, March 22, 2017.
Photo by Felipe Dana
Texas lawmakers this week have again been pressing their crusade against abortion access. The state Senate has passed two bills, one of which would allow doctors to withhold information about fetal abnormalities if they believed disclosing it might make women seek termination.
Texas already has among the most stringent abortion restrictions in the country, which has led many women to travel long distances to seek care in other states. Senate Bill 25 would take it further, preventing a doctor from being sued by a patient whose child was born with an abnormality the parents were not adequately informed about
The text of the bill refers to a doctor committing "an act of omission" in such a case, saying: "A cause of action may not arise, and damages may not be awarded, on behalf of any person, based on the claim that but for the act or omission of another, a person would not have been permitted to have been born alive but would have been aborted."
However, Blake Rocap, policy adviser for the abortion-rights group NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, said during testimony against the bill at the State Capitol in Austin last month: "It shouldn't be the policy for the state of Texas to excuse doctors from lying to their patients."
Senate Bill 25's author, Senator Brandon Creighton, says the bill would shield doctors from malpractice suits. Creighton has also said he introduced the bill because he believes it is "unacceptable that doctors can be penalized for embracing the sanctity of life" in Texas. The bill, passed by the Senate on Monday, is expected to be up for a final vote in the Texas House in the coming days.
If Steve Curtis, the former chairman of Colorado's Republican Party, is still looking for an example of suspected voter fraud - all he has to do now is look into a mirror.
Curtis, who just last year suggested on his "Wake Up!" talk radio show that Democrats were largely to blame for ballot box shenanigans, has been charged with voter fraud and forgery, according to the Weld County District Attorney's office.
The 57-year-old radio jock allegedly filled out ex-wife Kelly Curtis' mail-in ballot for the 2016 presidential election, forged her signature - and then stuck it in the mail, the criminal complaint states.
Now Curtis, who was his state's GOP chairman from 1997 to 1999 before turning into a Tea Party activist, faces up to three years in prison and a stiff $5,000 fine when he returns to court on May 19.
But last year, as then-candidate Donald Trump was fanning unfounded fears about voter fraud (which he continued doing after he won the election in November), Curtis made this the topic of a radio show entitled "Voter Fraud & Other Democratic Misbehaviors."
A protein in the venom of potentially deadly funnel web spiders could minimise the effects of brain damage after a stroke, researchers in Australia said on Tuesday.
Strokes claim six million lives worldwide each year, and five million survivors are left with a permanent disability.
Scientists from the University of Queensland and Monash University said spider venom was always a good place to look for proteins to help in medical treatments as they have evolved to target the nervous systems of insects.
Lead researcher Glenn King told AFP this led them to see what they could find in funnel webs, which carry one of the world's most dangerous toxins.
The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, with King saying the small protein showed great promise as a future treatment.
A 17-year-old is the target of legal attention by President Donald Trump's (R-Thin-skinned) general coun
sel over a site where kitten paws bat around images of President Trump's face, according to a report from the New York Observer.
As the Observer reports, the site's creator, named only as Lucy, initially made the site as a way to practice her coding skills. But after a few weeks, the site received a cease and desist letter from Trump's general counsel in New York. The cease and desist letter, which the Observer confirmed, mentions that "as I'm sure you're aware, the Trump name is internationally known and famous."
Lucy changed the site from TrumpScratch.com to KittenFeed.com , but said the Trump team contacted them again. According to a Whois lookup, KittenFeed.com was created on March 2 this year. Lucy told the Observer she was dumbfounded by the attention fromTrump's legal team.
"I was going to just let this go, but I think it's, pardon my French, [f------] outrageous that the president of the United States has his team scouring the internet for sites like mine to send out cease and desists and legal action claims if we don't shut down," Lucy told the Observer in an email. "Meanwhile, he tweets about The Apprentice ratings and sends out power-drunk tweets about phone tapping. HOW ABOUT BEING THE PRESIDENT?"
Barris made game show history right off the bat, in 1966, with "The Dating Game," hosted by Jim Lange. The gimmick: a young female questions three males, hidden from her view, to determine which would be the best date. Sometimes the process was switched, with a male questioning three females. But in all cases, the questions were designed by the show's writers to elicit sexy answers.
Celebrities and future celebrities who appeared as contestants included Michael Jackson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Steve Martin and a pre-"Charlie's Angels" Farrah Fawcett, introduced as "an accomplished artist and sculptress" with a dream to open her own gallery.
At one point Barris was supplying the television networks with 27 hours of entertainment a week, mostly in five-days-a-week daytime game shows.
The grinning, curly-haired Barris became a familiar face as creator and host of "The Gong Show," which aired from 1976 to 1980.
Patterned after the Major Bowes Amateur Hour show that was a radio hit in the 1930s, the program featured performers who had peculiar talents and, often, no talent at all. When the latter appeared on the show, Barris would strike an oversize gong, the show's equivalent of vaudeville's hook. The victims would then be mercilessly berated by the manic Barris, with a hat often yanked down over his eyes and ears, and a crew of second-tier celebrities.
Afterward, a distraught Barris checked into a New York hotel and wrote his autobiography, "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," in two months. In it, he claimed to have been a CIA assassin.
The book (and the 2002 film based on it, directed by George Clooney) were widely dismissed by disbelievers who said the creator of some of television's most lowbrow game shows had allowed his imagination to run wild when he claimed to have spent his spare time traveling the world, quietly rubbing out enemies of the United States.
Born in Philadelphia in 1929, Charles Barris was left destitute, along with his sister and their mother, when his dentist father died of a stroke.
After graduating from the Drexel Institute of Technology in 1953, he took a series of jobs, including book salesman and fight promoter.
After being dropped from a low-level job at NBC, he found work at ABC, where he persuaded his bosses to let him open a Hollywood office, from which he launched his game-show empire. He also had success in the music world. He wrote the 1962 hit record "Palisades Park," which was recorded by Freddy Cannon.
Cows frolick around as they enter a meadow of a farm in Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, The Netherlands, 20 March 2017. The cows were released back to the open range after spending the winter indoors.
Photo by Olaf Kraak
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