BUCKNACKT'S SORDID TAWDRY BLOG We should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive & well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate, bier or wein in hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WHOO-HOO, WHAT A RIDE!!!!!!"
27 September 2017
25 September 2017
3 GOP Senators Oppose Graham-Cassidy, Effectively Blocking Health Care Bill 25SEP17
THANK YOU Sen Susan Collins R ME for deciding to vote against the graham-cassidy (NO) health care bill. This should end the chances of this bill being passed by the US Senate, but we will still welcome Sen Lisa Murkowski R AK and any other Republican senator to join the opposition! From NPR.....
3 GOP Senators Oppose Graham-Cassidy, Effectively Blocking Health Care Bill
The latest Republican push to repeal key parts of the Affordable Care Act appears to have met the fate of all previous Senate repeal efforts this year – it doesn't have the votes needed to pass the chamber.
Maine Sen. Susan Collins announced Monday that she'll oppose the bill, authored by South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy. Collins' decision means three Republicans have now publicly said they are against the bill – and that's one more than the GOP could afford to lose.
In a statement, Collins said, "Sweeping reforms to our health care system and to Medicaid can't be done well in a compressed time frame, especially when the actual bill is a moving target."
Senator Collins opposes Graham-Cassidy health care bills bit.ly/2wPKVKP
Cassidy was asked earlier Monday on CNN whether Collins's opposition would mean it's over for the bill and said, "Yes, it is." It's not clear yet whether Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would still bring the bill to the floor for a vote now that it's fate is clear.
Collins has been a steady skeptic of the Republican repeal push all year, regularly raising concerns about how the various repeal incarnations would affect the millions of people who rely on Medicaid, especially in states that chose to expand their Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act. She had previously indicated she'd likely vote no, but said she'd withhold a final judgement until after the Congressional Budget Office released its analysis.
That analysis came out Monday evening, and found the bill would reduce the federal deficit by $133 billion by 2026, but was only a partial analysis due to the limited time CBO has had to examine it. The analysis does not have specific projections on how the bill would affect coverage, but says "millions" fewer people would be covered as funding decreases for Medicaid, subsidies for exchanges and the elimination of the individual mandate to have coverage.
The Graham-Cassidy bill would transform Medicaid, giving states, not the federal government, control over how the bulk of billions of dollars in funding is spent. It would also allow states to waive key Obamacare regulations and protections, including the bill's trademark ban on insurance companies charging higher rates to people with preexisting conditions.
Collins joins Arizona Sen. John McCain and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul as firm "no" votes on Graham-Cassidy. While Republicans have until Saturday to pass the bill with a simple majority, and Cassidy has already announced changes to the measure's text, it's hard to see how any of the three lawmakers change their mind.
President Trump called into the Rick & Bubba Show, a talk radio program in Alabama, to discuss the GOP senate primary happening there on Tuesday and took the opportunity to criticize Republicans as the bill looked imperiled.
"What McCain has done is a tremendous slap in the face of the Republican Party," Trump said after again criticizing the GOP for campaigning on a promise to repeal Obamacare for seven years. The president also seemed resigned to the bill's defeat on Monday morning when he said, "So we're gonna lose two or three votes and that's the end of that."
Collins, McCain, and Paul have each voiced separate, fundamental problems with either the bill's content, or the repeal process as a whole. None of their concerns could be easily fixed by changing funding formulas. What's more – a move to assuage Paul's concerns would likely make Collins more opposed, since Paul's chief complaint is the measure keeps too much of Obamacare in place, and Collins is worried it would erode key protections promised by the law.
Indeed, Paul's office has already said that, having seen the new amendments, Paul remains opposed to the bill. "My main concern is that the main thing this bill does is reshuffle the money from Democrat states to Republican states but doesn't fix the problem," Paul told reporters, calling for more "freedom in the marketplace," including the ability to buy insurance over state lines and allow people to buy cheaper plans that provide less coverage for care.
Other Republicans are wavering, too. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said over the weekend that he's not yet ready to publicly support the bill. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski – who along with Collins has been a prominent skeptic of the entire repeal process – hasn't announced where she stands, either.
Still, given the immense pressure Republicans are facing from their base constituents and conservative donors to repeal Obamacare – not to mention constant criticism from President Trump – the Senate could still proceed to a vote later this week.
Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley summed up the GOP political calculation in a call with reporters last week. "I could have – maybe give you 10 reasons why this bill shouldn't be considered," Grassley said. "But Republicans campaigned on this so often that we have –you have a responsibility to carry out what you said in a campaign."
Graham-Cassidy Health Care Hearing Starts With Eruption Of Protests 25SEP17
Activists opposed to the GOP's Graham-Cassidy health care repeal bill, many with disabilities, are removed after disrupting a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Monday. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
ONCE again those who depend on Medicaid for their health care are forced to protest and disrupt the US Senate hearings on the latest republican attempt to repeal Obamacare with a plan that will result in 32 million Americans uninsured by 2027 and the 1% much richer as soon as the legislation is activated. This is class warfare, the least among us, those with pre-existing conditions and the sickest who need health care insurance the most will suffer and die sooner than they should all because of the greed of the 1% and corporate America and the lack of morality of the Christian politicians they bought in congress. Sen lindsey graham r SC and Sen bill cassidy r LA should be ashamed for this bill and the propaganda campaign of lies, deception and manipulation the republican party has unleashed on the American people to sell this travesty. While I seldom agree with the politics and opinions of the Republicans who have declared their opposition to graham-cassidy (NO) health care, I am thankful to Sen John McCain R AZ, Sen Rand Paul R KY for their pledge to vote no. I hope and pray Sen Lisa Murkowski R AK and Sen Susan Collins R ME will be guided by their responsibility to the people of their states and also vote no. AND THANK YOU U.S. SENATE DEMOCRATS FOR YOUR UNITED OPPOSITION TO graham-cassidy. From NPR.....
Graham-Cassidy Health Care Hearing Starts With Eruption Of Protests
Updated at 3:30 p.m. ET
Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana are defending their namesake health care bill Monday afternoon during an emotional hearing before the Senate Finance Committee.
The hearing was immediately interrupted by protesters chanting, "No cuts to Medicaid. Save our liberty."
Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, suspended the hearing for about 15 minutes while the demonstrators — some in wheelchairs — were dragged from the room.
"If the hearing is going to devolve into a sideshow or a forum for simply putting partisan points on the board, there's absolutely no reason for us to be here," Hatch said.
The bill's authors have made changes to the legislation in hopes of winning over holdouts. But it appears they may still fall short of the 50 votes needed — along with the vice president as tiebreaker — to pass the bill. And Senate Republicans are facing a Saturday deadline to act on the legislation under special rules designed to foil a Democratic filibuster.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., confirmed Monday morning that despite the last-minute changes, he's still a "no" vote. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is also on record in opposition, so Republicans can't afford to lose anyone else. Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz have also expressed reservations. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is undecided but voted against other repeal measures earlier this summer. Some of the last-minute changes to the bill include extra money for Alaska, Maine, Kentucky, Arizona and Texas.
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the ranking Democrat on the committee, complained that Republicans are trying to push through an inadequate bill to beat the Saturday deadline.
"Nobody has got to buy a lemon just because it's the last car on the lot," Wyden said.
Forecasters from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office are expected to release their analysis of the bill's budget impacts Monday afternoon. But the CBO did not have time to predict how the measure would affect the level of insurance coverage. CBO forecasts of a spike in the number of uninsured people were a factor in the defeat of earlier Obamacare repeal efforts. Researchers at the Brookings Institution predict the Graham-Cassidy bill would leave 32 million more Americans without health insurance by 2027.
The bill would eliminate federally financed subsidies for people buying insurance on the individual market as well as the Medicaid expansion. Some of that federal money would be repackaged as "block grants" for the states.
"My goal is to get the money and power out of Washington, closer to where people live, so they'll have a voice about the most important thing in their life." Graham said.
The bill would also make major changes to traditional Medicaid, capping the federal government's contribution. Over time, federal expenditures on Medicaid could grow more slowly than health care costs, shifting responsibility for those bills to state governments or patients themselves.
Graham argued that unless Congress is able to put the brakes on health care spending, it will consume an ever-growing portion of the federal budget.
The acting secretary of Pennsylvania's Department of Human Services said she welcomes flexibility, but not if it comes with a smaller budget.
"Cutting billions of dollars from Medicaid and giving states reduced funding in the form of block grants — funding that goes away after seven years — is not the kind of flexibility that we're looking for," said Teresa Miller.
She added such cuts would force governors to make agonizing choices.
"Who should receive health care?" Miller asked. "A child born with a disability? A young adult struggling with an opioid addiction? A mom fighting breast cancer? A senior who's worked hard all his life and needs access to quality health care to age with dignity?"
The bill would eliminate the requirement that most Americans obtain health insurance or pay a penalty. It would also allow states to ease restrictions on the insurance market, which critics say would lead to higher prices for people with pre-existing medical conditions.
"This bill is an all-out assault on vital consumer protections," Wyden said. "It's going to make the health care that many people need unaffordable."
More than 200 protesters had lined up outside the hearing room hours before it started — many arrived as early as 6 a.m.
"If Medicaid is cut so dramatically, it will force people into institutions," said Bruce Darling, an organizer from New York with the disability rights group ADAPT, ahead of the hearing. "For people with disabilities, Medicaid is our life and our liberty," he added.
NPR producer Barbara Sprunt contributed to this report.
Katharine Hepburn's Brownies: A Recipe For Home-Wrecking? 24SEP17
BROWNIES.....I've added different kinds of nuts, hemp seeds, chocolate chips and chunks and even some medicinal marijuana in a batch for my mom. Since I have always loved Katharine Hepburn I gotta give these a go, but not till later this week when things cool down, it got to 90F again today, where are you Fall??? From NPR.......
When it comes to brownie recipes, one would usually expect to hear ingredients such as flour, sugar, eggs and chocolate. But one woman dished out a most unusual addition – a heavy serving of infidelity. It all started when The New York Times published Katharine Hepburn's Brownies Recipe two years ago.
As usual, the comments section filled up with complaints, recipe tweaks, flops and personal success stories. But then came the bombshell — a comment spiced with all the delectable elements of storytelling: drama, humor, love, heartbreak and most of all, suspense.
The commenter described sharing the brownies with an acquaintance in Germany back in the '80s, "who considered herself a great cook, asked for the recipe but was never able to get it to work. She kept asking me what she was doing wrong and I was never able to solve her problem. Eventually, she moved to the US and stole my husband!"
That comment went viral and was deemed then by one Twitter user as "written by the greatest living short story writer." This summer, The Times published an article noting that of the more than 16 million comments ever reviewed by its moderators, the brownie infidelity comment is considered their all-time favorite.
Since then, the comment once again has been making the rounds on the Internet. And this past week, an online publication, The Cut, tracked down the woman behind it to confirm its veracity and find out the backstory to the "husband thief." The commenter's name is Sydne Newberry.
As The Cut put it:
Newberry added that three years later, the woman came to visit from Germany and a couple of weeks into her stay, she was fooling around with Newberry's husband.
NPR spoke with Newberry for further details on the bittersweet saga and of course, to get her recipe for these talk-of-the-town brownies.
She said she doesn't remember the details of The Times' article but thought, "I'm going to post a comment about Katharine Hepburn's brownies because I've been making them for so long.' I mean, it's like the only brownie recipe I ever use. And I started to type my comment about the recipe, and it popped into my head that I had brought these brownies to Germany and that this woman had tried to make the recipe and then ended up coming in the United States and marrying my ex, or stealing him and then marrying him. So I'll just throw that in. Maybe it'll put this recipe in perspective."
Newberry said she appreciates humor and irony and figured these elements complemented her true story. But she never expected any response. "I've never seen any of them because I never went back to look," she said. "When I post comments, I hardly ever read subsequent comments."
She doesn't usually check Twitter either, so when a friend told her back then that her comment had gone viral, she replied, "Oh my God, this is insane. Somebody is tweeting about my comment about the brownie!"
So on a hot July afternoon this past summer, when Newberry got a text while running errands in her Los Angeles neighborhood, the furthest thing from her mind was that brownie comment from two years ago.
"Hi, Sydne! Do you know you're mentioned in today's NYT? It's on page 2 in a small article called The Approval Matrix. I have a hard copy clipping of it which I'll bring to work on Wednesday if you'd like it," the text said.
Newberry, a nutritionist and writer, says her first thoughts were, "I really haven't done any research that's that newsworthy in a few years. I figured maybe they dredged up something about probiotics or omega-3 fatty acids. I'm working on a really controversial report right now, so I was a little afraid something got leaked but didn't think that was very likely."
Needless to say, Newberry's curiosity got the better of her, so she raced home to get a look at her own copy of The New York Times.
The Times moderators had declared:
"I was pretty shocked," Newberry says. "I thought, 'What? It was just an offhand comment I made.' "
Newberry says she still regularly makes Katharine Hepburn's Brownies, although she has tweaked the recipe a tad since sharing it with the woman she said stole her ex-husband — and is still currently married to him. But Newberry insists that the original recipe worked, so her alterations to it don't account for why that woman never got it right.
"I have a degree in baking," she says, adding, "I've actually thought about what could have gone wrong. ... Maybe it had something to do with some difference between ingredients in Germany and ingredients here. It could have been the size of the egg. It could have been something about the grain of the fineness of the sugar. I don't know."
What Newberry does know is that her current husband of 21 years absolutely loves her brownies. Still, she says she can't help but see the irony of a brownie recipe by Katharine Hepburn being connected to marital infidelity. Hepburn famously carried on a 25-year love affair with actor Spencer Tracy — who was married to someone else throughout the relationship — until his death in 1967.
"If you want to steal somebody's husband," Newberry muses, "you should screw up a brownie recipe."
Sydne Newberry's Spin On Katharine Hepburn's Brownies
* This recipe is based on Katharine Hepburn's original, with modifications made by Newberry.
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
- 1 stick butter
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup broken up walnut or pecan pieces (for better flavor, toast the nuts at 350 F for about 5 minutes)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch salt
Preparation
- Preheat oven to 325F.
- Grease an 8-inch-square pan. (Line it with aluminum foil, overhanging on all sides.)
- Melt butter in a saucepan with cocoa and stir until smooth.
- Remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes.
- Whisk in eggs, one at a time.
- Stir in vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, combine sugar, flour, nuts and salt.
- Add to the cocoa-butter mixture. Stir until just combined.
- Pour into prepared pan and bake 30-40 minutes. (Do not overbake: Center should still be a little gooey.)
- Let cool completely before cutting into squares. If foil lining is used, lift from pan and cut into 16 squares on a cutting board.
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