The Obamacare love grows. And I’m absolutely positive that a lot of Republicans are covered and enjoying their Obamacare!
Nearly 2 million people have signed up for health insurance for the first time through HealthCare.gov and close to 6.4 million people were enrolled in the federal marketplace one month into the 2015 enrollment season, HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said Tuesday.
“People are shopping for coverage and people are signing up,” Burwell said in a rare press conference, adding that she was encouraged by strong start.
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The pace means HHS is well on its way to having more than 9 million people covered in state and federal exchanges in 2015. The sign-up season ends Feb. 15.
The enrollment update included both new customers as well as people who got covered for 2014 and are renewing. About 1.8 million people actively renewed their health coverage as of Dec. 15, the cut-off for Jan. 1. coverage. Others who were covered in the first year were automatically re-enrolled for a second year.
So a Fox station edited a video of a protest in Washington, claiming the protesters in the video were calling for the death of police officers. Of course, the protesters were saying no such thing, but we are talking about a Fox station here where deceptive practices are customary.
After it was pointed out by Gawker that Fox was once again lying to their audience, the station went on their Facebook page and offered an apology.
“Although last night’s report reflected an honest misunderstanding of what the protesters were saying, we apologize for the error,” the post read.
“We have deleted the story on our webpage and we offered to have Ms. Jones on Fox45 News at 5:00 tonight for a live interview,” it continued.
In that interview, Jones called out the station several times for misrepresenting her words.
“The interesting part that really gets to me is, where you guys edited it and stopped — like, how could that be a mistake?” she said.
“Once you play that whole thing, you would know that’s not something that’s being said,” she added.
The interviewer apologized several times, and though Jones told the station she was grateful to come on, she also said she now fears for her reputation and her safety. Near the end of the interview she began to cry.
“At the end of the day, people’s lives are on the line,” she said. “Now, even though we’re doing this, I still don’t feel safe because I still feel like the message is out there.”
“What if a crazed-out cop or a crazed-out supporter thinks I’m trying to get cops killed?” she later said, wiping tears from her face.
The U.S. economy posted its strongest growth in more than a decade during the third quarter, supported by robust consumer spending and business investment, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services produced across the economy, grew at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.0% in the third quarter, theCommerce Department said Tuesday. That was up from the second quarter’s growth rate of 4.6% and the strongest pace since the third quarter of 2003.
The agency last month had estimated third-quarter GDP growth at 3.9%. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected a smaller upward revision, to 4.3% growth.
Tuesday’s report upgraded estimates for fixed nonresidential investment, a proxy for business spending, and personal spending, especially on services like health care.
How predictable that right wingers would use the tragedy of the assassination of two police officers to go after police brutality protesters and those who use their First Amendment rights to free speech. This is not a surprise ladies and gentlemen because right wingers hate the First Amendment, hate freedom of the press, always have, always will. So they use any opportunity to attack those rights. The worst of the offenders so far are Rudy (Nosferatu) Giuliani and Pat (slicked back goombah hair) Lynch, the President of the PBA. Giuliani blames Obama (and those who spoke out about the murders committed by police in Missouri and New York) and Lynch blames NYC mayor Bill de Blasio. There are other right wingers who throw in Al Sharpton as well.
History has taught us that fascists will always blame the populace and those that speak out against atrocities. This happened during the Vietnam War when the relatives of Giuliani and Lynch blamed the war protesters for helping the enemy when we know that in fact they forced the government to pull out faster. The same relatives blamed the civil rights movement and people like MLK for the violence during the 50’s and 60’s and yet we know without those people blacks would still be drinking out of separate fountains and getting killed by police (oh wait, that hasn’t changed much.)
These folks were on the wrong side of history then and they will be on the wrong side of it now. It’s that simple. They are losers, period. Yet there they are spewing hatred and inciting more violence while blaming others for doing that exact thing. There is one person to blame for the death of the two NYC officers…the shooter. That is it. Now justice was immediately served when the gunman killed himself, something neither killer did after Michael Brown and Eric Garner were murdered. If the crazed gunman who killed the two cops had not killed himself another officer would have or he would have been arrested and would be in jail.
So, when these morons ask why people aren’t “up in arms” about the killings of these two officers, they are full of shit. Except for the constant violence we are all subject to in this country, including little children thanks to the right wingers best friend, the second amendment, there is nothing to be “up in arms” about. Justice was served, and quickly.
What is truly dumb and disgusting is the fact that people like Giuliani and Lynch can’t seem to get it through their white ethnic heads that you can be against both police brutality AND the killing of police. Imagine that! I know there will always be a pro police bias because most of us have more relatives/friends who are cops rather than criminals, but how about just shutting the fuck up and thinking for a minute instead of reacting with misguided rage and making even more people angry.
What happened in Ferguson was a tragedy, what happened on Staten Island was a tragedy and what happened in Manhattan was a tragedy. I’m very afraid that this cycle will only get worse and I have proof. Pat Lynch, a man beyond contempt, who looks like he belongs in an HBO series rather than as the head of a police union, just said that cops are now to act as though they are a “wartime” police department. For this he should be arrested for inciting violence. First of all who the fuck does he think he is? The bosses of that police department are the mayor, the police commissioner, and the citizens of New York City. The same citizens he has now declared “war” on. I have been saying all along that certain people in law enforcement want a war. Here is the direct call for that.
But I care about the families of these officers and I care about the officers. So I hope the people who actually put their lives on the line everyday ignore shithead Lynch. As having his kind of mentality is very dangerous in this day and age when thanks to the NRA so many nut jobs have guns. A “war” isn’t very smart, and Lynch has just put the lives of the very officers he is supposed to protect in jeopardy. The union should at least vote to fire him.
Those officers that turned their backs on Mayor de Blasio are no better than Lynch. They should have turned their backs on the officers that killed innocent people in Missouri and Staten Island. Instead they backed them up and even incited people by wearing “WE CAN BREATHE” T-Shirts. Do they think that maybe this kind of bullshit helped to fan the flames? Any cop that was seen wearing those shirts should have been fired. Also any cop that turned their backs on their BOSS should be fired. You and I would have been canned immediately if we did that at work.
They just don’t get it. The double standards are mind blowing. From the justice system to the way cops are allowed to act on a daily basis. From the small offenses like parking at a bus stop to get lunch, or turning on their sirens to head to the donut shop to the bigger ones such as inciting violence or committing crimes. Justice in these situations is rarely served.
Two cops were killed. Two people who were just out serving and protecting. Heck they may have even hated Darren Wilson and thought that Eric Garner was brutally murdered. All these right wing slimeballs can do is spew bile about the very people who are against any kind of violence.
They were just waiting for their opening, you could sense it. The fact they have used this tragedy for those purposes makes me wish for the worst for the lot of them.
Of course this is the natural progression to how a civilized people solve their differences – call each other names and of course, threaten to kill each other.
In the wake of the shooting of two police officers on Saturday by a man who previously shot his girlfriend, Rev. Al Sharpton somehow became responsible, along with Mayor Bill De Blasio and yes, Barack Obama.
After the shooting, Sharpton, appearing alongside the wife and mother of Eric Garner, played a voicemail for reporters purportedly of a racist threat made against him.
“Hey n—-r, stop killing innocent people, I’m going to get you!” according to the barely audible recording.
The voice mail also included three f-bombs that went over live television in New York.
Sharpton also took umbrage with police union leaders who have blamed Mayor de Blasio for allegedly inciting violence against cops.
NYPD Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were gunned down in cold blood as they sat in their patrol car on Saturday in Brooklyn.
“To blame the mayor and others is not what we need,” Sharpton said. “The blame game will only lead to further kinds of venom and further division.”
Sharpton urged protesters and police critics to remain peaceful.
“If we go into an area where it’s eye for an eye, then it is only a matter of who can out pluck eyes rather than who can make the system fair for everybody,” he said.
Earlier this year, her father was killed when a police officer applied an illegal chokehold, causing the suffocating man to say, “I can’t breathe” eleven times before he died. A grand jury later ruled that the officer did nothing wrong, sparking outrage and protests nationwide.
But today, Emerald Garner came and spoke out in support of the families of two police officers who were executed by a crazed gunman on Saturday.
“I just had to come out and let their family know that we stand with them, and I’m going to send my prayers and condolences to all the families who are suffering through this tragedy,” she told ABC News. “I was never anti-police. Like I said before, I have family that’s in the NYPD that I’ve grown up around, family reunions and everything so my family you know, we’re not anti-police.”
And although the gunman implied that his execution – style murder of the officers was in retaliation to Eric Garner’s deatg, Emerald showed nothing but class as I’m sure she is still grieving her father’s death.
The New York police union and other leaders like Rudy Giuliani with their over-the-top foolish statements should take note on how decent human beings should behave.
Luckily, Gawker looked into this and found that the actual video of the protest is available from C-SPAN. But the first video below is from FOX45 in Baltimore. Watch and listen, as the Fox station prematurely ends the video and the reporter falsely claims that the protesters are saying, “kill a cop!”
Fox’s Video
Now below is the actual entire video from C-SPAN. See if you can tell the difference because there is a difference.
C-SPAN Video
Got it? They’re actually saying, ‘We can’t stop, we won’t stop, till killer cops are in cell blocks!”
Something is happening with the North Korean internet system. Right now, there is no way to say what that something is, but whatever it is, North Korea’s internet service is suffering one of its worst outages in recent memory. And even more stranger is the fact that this massive outage comes just days after President Obama promised a “proportional response” to the North’s confirmed attack on Sony Entertainment.
“I haven’t seen such a steady beat of routing instability and outages in KP before,” said Doug Madory, director of Internet analysis at the cybsecurity firm Dyn Research, according to Martyn Williams of the excellent blog North Korea Tech. Madory explained, “Usually there are isolated blips, not continuous connectivity problems. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are absorbing some sort of attack presently.”
While it’s entirely possible that this is due to run-of-the-mill maintenance or technical issues, it’s hard to miss that the outage comes just days after President Obama condemned North Korea as responsible for the massive cyberattack against Sony and pledged a “proportional” US response. Two other cybersecurity firms confirmed to the New York Times that North Korea’s is collapsing amid an apparent cyber attack.
Rudy Giuliani is a ham. He is a political bad actor who uses unfortunate situations to further his own political ambitions. The man went on television all weekend criticizing the present mayor for allowing the protesters to “take over” the city and “blocking the Brooklyn bridge” during recent protests. But as it turns out, Giuliani is known for doing just that – taking over the city through protests even blocking the Brooklyn Bridge… and in Giuliani’s case, he literally took it over!
The protest in question happened during the Dinkins administration and it featured Rudy Giuliani who used the protest as an opportunity to launch a successful campaign for New York City against Dave Dinkins.
Below is an excerpt from an article written by The New York Times, as it detailed the events that unfolds in 1990’s. Balloon Juice dug this up.
Thousands of off-duty police officers thronged around City Hall yesterday, swarming through police barricades to rally on the steps of the hall and blocking traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge for nearly an hour in the most unruly and angry police demonstration in recent memory.
The 300 uniformed officers who were supposed to control the crowd did little or nothing to stop the protesters from jumping barricades, tramping on automobiles, mobbing the steps of City Hall or taking over the bridge. In some cases, the on-duty officers encouraged the protesters.
While the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association had called the rally to protest Mayor David N. Dinkins’s proposal to create an independent civilian agency that would look into police misconduct, the huge turnout — estimated by the Police Department at 10,000 protesters — and the harsh emotional pitch reflected widespread anger among rank-and-file officers toward the Mayor for his handling of riots against the police in Washington Heights last July, his refusal to give them semiautomatic weapons and his appointment of an outside panel to investigate corruption.
“He never supports us on anything,” said Officer Tara Fanning of the Midtown South Precinct, echoing the view of many in the crowd. “A cop shoots someone with a gun who’s a drug dealer, and he goes and visits the family.”
Mayor Dinkins, who was not at City Hall during the demonstration, denounced the protest as “bordering on hooliganism” and said he held the P.B.A. president, Phil Caruso, responsible for what happened. He accused Mr. Caruso of inciting his members’ passions and suggested the union leader was motivated in part by contract negotiations.
The Mayor also assailed Rudolph W. Giuliani, the probable Republican mayoral candidate, who spoke out against the Mayor at the union rally. Mr. Dinkins said Mr. Giuliani had egged on the protest irresponsibly for political reasons. “He’s clearly, clearly an opportunist,” Mr. Dinkins said. “He’s seizing upon a fragile circumstance in our city for his own political gain.”
North Korea was able to bully Sony Entertainment and the movie theaters into censoring one of their comedy movies, The Interview. What got North Korea upset was the fact that this movie – a comedy mind you – is about the assassination of their “dear leader,” Kim Jong Um.
Over the last few days a lot of people have voiced their opinion on Sony and the steps they took, but one voice in particular stands out from all the rest. That of Dr. Evil.
As I said before, it really doesn’t feel like the holidays, and with the events of the past week I would guess that others are wondering where the spirit went. Or when it’s really going to arrive.
The Sony hacking is certainly a wake-up call for anyone who doubts the severity of our online, privacy-free, abc123 password-protected culture. That a foreign government, and one that we consider to be a running joke, could inflict such pain on us and our free time is disturbing and frightening. Sony employees are rightfully feeling exposed, not to mention that, evidently, Hollywood backstabbing culture is still alive and well as evidenced by the hacked e-mails from company executives.
Honestly, though; did the creators of The Interview really have to use actual names? One of the first rules of comedy, or at least the ones I learned, was that funny comes from imagination and suggestion, rather than always bashing someone on the head with facts. I’m not in favor of naming any world leader and then killing them on film unless that’s what actually happened to them. It would have been more funny if the film’s creators had made up a country and a leader, given him the same hairdo, so that, yes, even American audiences would have recognized who the character was supposed to be, and done the film that way. Killing a real name? Bad form, no matter who it is.
President Obama has promised a proportional response, but I’m not sure what that means in this context. A proportional cultural action is not really possible given North Korea’s film industry, which seems to consist of one person with a camera following Kim Jong-un around all day. We could also hack into their e-mail and read more messages that promise a fiery death to America. That’s comedy.
And while we’re speaking of hermit countries who whine over Olympic sanctions, President Obama’s Cuba gambit is everything that absolutely drives the Republicans nuts about the man. Just when they think they have him humbled by the terrible results of last month’s congressional elections, the president comes out and reminds everyone that the executive is an equal branch to the others and has certain powers at its disposal. And make no mistake about his announcement; this is a big deal that will reshape the hemisphere in the short term and the world in the long term.
Raul Castro can say all he wants about how Cuba is going to stay a Communist country. In 10 years he might be gone and Cuba will have a capitalist economy and, I’m thinking, democratic reform. Yes, I know that many pundits are saying that Cuba will be like China or Vietnam — one party states that allow their people to get wealthy while repressing them politically.
I’m, guessing otherwise. My sense is that proximity to the United States will work in freedom’s favor by blunting foreign adventurers who want to gain some favor on the island. Vladimir Putin might want to play the history card, but we will never stand for that. And it’s likely that we will do all we can to blunt China’s influence too. In fact, our main competitors in Cuba will be other Latin American countries who already see a compatriot waking up and wanting to join the region’s economic system. No, Cuba will be different. There will be growing pains, but it will be different.
Back in Congress, Obama had masterfully put the Republicans back in their Cold War box. By opposing his opening to Cuba, he’s reinforced the idea that the right has no new ideas on what to do about the island and would continue the embargo for another 50 years if they could find a way to win a presidential election during that time. Senator Marco Rubio’s fiery response is exactly the wrong message at a time when economic and cultural engagement are what’s needed.
Besides, it wasn’t that long ago when the right wing was lauding Vladimir Putin and his shirtless foreign policy that seemed to compare favorably with Obama’s more composed, measured approach. That’s what always backing the hare in a marathon will get you. Putin is lording over an economy that is tanking, while the United States has seen steady growth for the past six years, and now with an added bonus of rising wages. Gas prices are sharply down. The XL pipeline might become superfluous if they go any lower. The US is a major contributor to a landmark climate agreement. Things can turn around quickly in this world.
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