It’s the Individual Mandate All Over Again

I would laugh so hard if this decision had the unintended consequence of forcing the gubbiment to make a public option.

@ManchuCandidate: The public option was also a mandate, but with better terms.

The real unintended consequence? Medicare for All.

Two other judges said it’s constitutional … gee, wonder where this is headed?

Fucking conservatives will literally be the death of us.

@ManchuCandidate:

A more likely outcome I think would be a Medicare expansion to cover all Americans. Let’s face it: if the GOP, contrary to their own interests, manage to declare unconstitutional a law that relies on private insurance companies delivering coverage, they will have colsed one avenue to expanded coverage whiile ding nothing to fix the underlying problem of vast and increasing numbers of uninsured people. And the uninsured are not going away. Yes, we’ll probably have to wait a decade or so before the issue gets so bad that a new Democratic flood sweeps both houses of congress and the presidency on a mission to fix health care in this country. But when that day comes, and since the GOP will have sealed off the private insurance option, there will be no choice but to turn to a government entitlement to solve the problem.

Really, Conservatives are being idiots here: after all, the current Health Care reform act was all but written by the American Enterprise Intitute.

TJ/ Ha! Melted the part of my MacBook that connects to the power adapter! Yay! The ground female receptor thing is bent and the plastic around it melted. Unplugged, battery out. Awaiting expert Apple advice to the tune of “you’re fucked.” Will be MIA for awhile. Consider it my Festivus present to you all.

PS Don’t buy 3rd party bullshit even though 1st party bullshit was a major fail.

PPS Those static electrify shocks might be something a little more dangerous. And that overheating might be something more than a lazy fan.

A friend pointed out this article at TPM on the missing severability clause in the health care act. Hellooo bigtime mistake!

@IanJ: That’s like Conan’s lawyers neglecting to lock in 11:30.

This Gawker hacking thing is confusing me. According to Slate’s gadget, my old commenting account is compromised. (I think. I’m pretty sure the new one doesn’t have an email attached to it.) But I don’t know if that affects the accounts I have on Consumerist and/or Wonkette because I can’t remember when either of those was created or changed. And I can’t remember my password on the new Gawkaccount so I can’t change it. On the bright side, at least I don’t have to worry about access to other accounts since the email address that was linked to these accounts is a junk address. So I should probably just say fuck it, huh?

@JNOV:

Was it like this one? I’ve read scattered reports that you can sometimes get Apple to sort this out for free, so an appointment at the local store may be in order.

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: Pardon my geek, but here goes…

Wonkette no longer uses Gawker logins — and I’m guessing the same applies to Consumerist, after it left the Mothership.

The main danger with a Compromised Gawker Account is if you use the same username/password combo elsewhere, especially if your Gawker email address is the username. (Apparently a lot of folks chose “password” for their password…) If your Gawker info can be applied to other sites, you may want to change the password on those other sites.

Me, I’ve got dozens of passwords. But me, I’m a Geek.

@nojo: Aahh, this explains my hacked Facebook account this morning. Serves me right for leaving the Gawker door open simply so I would have the option of going and getting dsmvwlld at Jzbl at some point if I wanted.

@nojo: I figured out that my new Wonkette login is different than old Gawk, but new Gawk was connected to old Consumerist because that one went active post-Wonk, pre-Sumerist move. I think that my new Gawk account is safe because I tried several passwords I’ve used on other sites I care about. Whatever that password is, it’s so obscure I’ve never used it anywhere else.

@al2ocr: No, my first cord never burned through the casing. I figured it died because I had it at weird angles or something, and stressed it right at that junction seen in the picture. I never checked to see if my computer itself looked weird. I bought a 3rd party cord (not the part that goes in the surge suppressor, just the part that connects to the computer, and it started acting up last night. This morning I checked out the computer, and that’s when I saw the melted stuff. Don’t know if Apple will make it right because I bought that second cord. I saved 60 bucks, but I won’t know if it was worth it until I get the bill from Apple. I was in the process of taking off the cover when I ran into a screw I couldn’t loosen. If the plug jack isn’t soldered in, I should be able to replace it myself. That was the idea. I’ll see what Apple proposes first.

@Al2o3cr: Imma pay. :’-(

@JNOV:

The plug is replaceable (it’s a separate board) with a part like this. That site is also highly recommended for directions; their guides made it pretty straightforward when I was installing my Optibay.

Although I seem to recall that getting at the DC-in board on the white MacBooks was a fairly arduous process involving taking 90% of the machine to bits, so paying Apple may be a lot less stress.

@rubie: Three fucking cheers for you and for iFixit! And for online coupon codes sites! Got the part, the spudger(?) and the screwdriver (the glasses one I was using is crap) for under 40 bucks including shipping! Happy dance! Once I get in there, I’ll see if anything else melted. Yay! I love you, Ruuuubaay! Thanks for researching for me. <3 <3 forever <3

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: Oddly enough, an email address of mine that has never been associated with my Gawker account was compromised and got a message from Gawker telling me that. I KNOW I never gave that address to them. Weird.

@Serolf Divad: Their goal is to reverse the Commerce Clause interpretations from the middle of the 20th century which vastly extended federal government power, which provide the constitutional authority for things as disparate as Social Security, labor law, and the federal criminal laws, mail, wire fraud, environmental laws, and much more.

Of course, they will do so selectively, and decide that the federal government lacks the authority to do anything good for people, like provide for retirement, disability, health, and welfare benefits, but they will uphold every federal criminal law, they love the power that the unfettered, quite excessive power of the US Attorneys, who are creatures of the executive branch, and can be used so effectively for political purposes by a president so inclined.

The sad thing is, in the end, the ultimate reality is that the US Constitution means whatever the majority of the Supreme Court says it means, and they have the majority.

I still blame Nader.

@Serolf Divad: They are gunning for every aspect of the New Deal and the Great Society, and they have it in their sights, and I don’t see how they don’t succeed in killing it, because their “starve the beast” tax cut obsession, has succeeded in portraying the dismantling of the social safety net as a fiscal necessity, rather then the corporate-oligarchy-wealthy class sell-out that it is.

@SanFranLefty: They sent one to me at nojo@stinque. My eyebrows hit the ceiling. I had two ancient Gawker accounts I burned off during the panty raid, and that’s it.

ADD: Now that I think about it, it’s possible that I changed my old Defamer login to n@s. I was still reading Defamer a few months after the site launched, until Seth left.