Tag Archives: press

This Might Be the Most Jaw-Dropping Tale of Fraud You Read This Year

by Lila3153jc Posted on December 17, 2013

Mother Jones

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Yesterday, a friend emailed to complain about this headline at NBC News:

Climate change expert’s fraud was ‘crime of massive proportion,’ say feds

Technically, this headline is correct. It’s about a guy who’s a climate change expert. And he did perpetrate a fraud. The thing is, his fraud had nothing to do with the fact that he’s a climate change expert. So why make it sound that way in the headline? Is it just clickbait for the fever swamp denier crowd?

And yet! You really, really ought to click the link and read the story anyway. Just ignore the ridiculous headline and dig in. This really is one of the more remarkable fraud stories of the year. I guarantee your mouth will be hanging open by the time you finish it.

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This Might Be the Most Jaw-Dropping Tale of Fraud You Read This Year

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Quote of the Day: Free Health Care Kills…. Um…. Republicans?

by Joan Rivera Posted on December 17, 2013

Mother Jones

From Rick Santorum, explaining the dangers of relying on the government for health care:

Free health care is just that, free health care, until you get sick. Then, if you get sick and you don’t get health care, you die and you don’t vote. It’s actually a pretty clever system. Take care of the people who can vote and people who can’t vote, get rid of them as quickly as possible by not giving them care so they can’t vote against you. That’s how it works.

WTF? I recognize that sometimes extemporaneous witticisms go astray, and God knows that Santorum is probably more vulnerable to that than most. But even for him this is inscrutable. I wonder if he knows that every American over the age of 65 has been receiving government health care for the past half century?

Anyway, there’s video at the link if you think that Santorum’s body language and tone of voice might help you decipher what was going through his eccentric little mind when he said this.

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Quote of the Day: Free Health Care Kills…. Um…. Republicans?

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Soon, Obamacare Will Get the Blame For Your Kid’s Acne

by jjhhhjz Posted on December 15, 2013

Mother Jones

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From the Associated Press:

Americans who already have health insurance are blaming President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul for their rising premiums….In the survey, nearly half of those with job-based or other private coverage say their policies will be changing next year — mostly for the worse. Nearly 4 in 5 (77 percent) blame the changes on the Affordable Care Act, even though the trend toward leaner coverage predates the law’s passage.

….Employers trying to control their health insurance bills have been shifting costs to workers for years, but now those changes are blamed increasingly on “Obamacare” instead of the economy or insurance companies.

Obamacare has been a boon for employers and insurers who want to cut back their health benefits but don’t want to take the blame for it. They just blame Obamacare instead. This will only work for a year or two, but for now it’s a godsend. Better to have your employees pissed off at the guy in the White House than pissed off at the guy in the corner office.

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Soon, Obamacare Will Get the Blame For Your Kid’s Acne

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After the Sequester, the Pentagon Gets a Reprieve

by HiramDerry Posted on December 13, 2013

Mother Jones

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Yesterday’s budget deal doesn’t spare the Pentagon from the full impact of the sequester cuts, but it sure eases the impact considerably. As things stand now, the inflation-adjusted defense budget is still bigger than it was in 2001, before the 9/11 buildup, and shows no signs of ever coming back down to that level. The chart below tells the story:

This is part of “Can’t Touch This,” a detailed look at the Pentagon budget from our upcoming print edition. The story it tells is pretty simple: the defense budget skyrocketed after 9/11 and never fully returned to its pre-war level. The base budget (which doesn’t count the cost of Iraq and Afghanistan) ran to about $1,400 per person in 2001, and by the end of this decade, nearly 20 years after 9/11, it will still be over $1,600 per person.

In past wars, we usually got a peace dividend afterward as spending returned to its old level. It happened after Vietnam and it happened after the Cold War. But this time it’s stalled. Spending is down a bit from its Bush-era peak, but only a bit. The war on terror, apparently, really is a forever war.

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After the Sequester, the Pentagon Gets a Reprieve

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Being Smart Isn’t Always Enough to Make it in America

by c7u433n Posted on December 12, 2013

Mother Jones

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Via James Pethokoukis, here’s an interesting tidbit of income mobility data from a new Brookings report. The chart below is a little tricky to read, but basically it shows how likely you are to make more money than your parents. You’d naturally expect smart kids to do better than dimmer kids, so it tracks that too.

Take a look at the green column on the far left. It’s for kids who grow up in the very poorest families. If you have high cognitive ability, you have a 24 percent chance of becoming a high earner as an adult. That’s not too bad.

But if you come from a high-income family, you have a 45 percent chance of becoming a high earner as an adult. Same smarts, different outcome.

No society will ever get this perfect. Still, there’s a huge difference between 24 percent and 45 percent. Better schools, more extracurricular opportunities, different skin color, bigger networks of connected friends, higher odds of going to college, and the simple ability to get in the door all give richer kids a huge leg up that poor kids don’t have. We obviously have a ways to go before everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed in America.

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Being Smart Isn’t Always Enough to Make it in America

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These Are the 194 Children Killed by Guns Since Newtown

by JeannetteHuddle Posted on December 10, 2013

Mother Jones

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A year after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Mother Jones has analyzed the subsequent deaths of 194 children ages 12 and under who were reported in news accounts to have died in gun accidents, homicides, and suicides. They are spread across 43 states, from inner cities to tiny rural towns.

Roll over the images to see details of each case. Read the story here and see our full special report here.

Produced by Mark Follman, Tasneem Raja, Ben Breedlove, and AJ Vicens.

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These Are the 194 Children Killed by Guns Since Newtown

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Friday Cat Blogging – 6 December 2013

by juan59nylon Posted on December 6, 2013

Mother Jones

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Today we have a statesmanlike pose of Domino on the stairs. Why? Because that’s where she was when I hauled out my camera, and that’s where she stayed when I started clicking away. This dynamic explains about 90 percent of catblogging. Actually, it might explain about 90 percent of life.

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Friday Cat Blogging – 6 December 2013

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Wooden Shjips’ "Ghouls" Takes You on a Psychadelic Journey

by TrinidadOctoman Posted on December 4, 2013

Mother Jones

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Track 3
“Ghouls,” from Wooden Shjips’ Back to Land
Thrill Jockey

Liner notes: Are you experienced? This echo-laden psychedelic rave-up simulates a thrilling journey into the great unknown.

Behind the music: Ripley Johnson launched this Bay Area band a decade ago, recruiting nonmusicians in an attempt to create new sounds. Featuring a more seasoned lineup, the band’s last album, West, pondered American mythology.

Check out if you like: Space travelers new (Melody’s Echo Chamber) and old (Syd Barrett).

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Wooden Shjips’ "Ghouls" Takes You on a Psychadelic Journey

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VIDEO: David Corn on Why Obamacare Is Still in Demand

by MichelineConte Posted on December 3, 2013

Mother Jones

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Mother Jones DC bureau chief David Corn spoke with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews and Daily Beast columnist Michael Tomasky this week about public opinion of Obamacare following last month’s setbacks. Watch here:

Continued here – 

VIDEO: David Corn on Why Obamacare Is Still in Demand

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We’re Still at War: Photo of the Day for December 3, 2013

by Shannon Walters Posted on December 3, 2013

Mother Jones

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1st Sgt. William Huston and Staff Sgt. Ronald Barker, paratroopers with Troop C, 2nd Squadron, 38th Calvary Regiment’s Long Range Surveillance, wait to reach altitude so they can jump static line with the new RA-1 parachute system at Fort Hood’s Rapido Drop Zone, Nov. 19. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Cody Barber, 11th Public Affairs Detachment.

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We’re Still at War: Photo of the Day for December 3, 2013

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