I’Ve Been Trying To Get My Free Credit Report Online. It’S Basically Hell.

While Kevin’s on vacation, we’ve invited other Mother Jones writers to contribute posts. Some of you probably saw my post about the frustrations I encountered trying to freeze my credit with the Big Three. From the feedback, it sounds like some of you aren’t experiencing problems but others haven’t been so lucky. In any case, I’ve […]

Friday Cat Blogging – 22 September 2017

I have been gravely disappointed by the Irish cat situation. I figured cats would be roaming all over the place, and I’d be able to easily take enough photos to keep catblogging going for the entire vacation. But it’s been tough sledding. I saw a cat in Waterville, but it ran away. Our house is […]

The Republican Plan On Taxes Is To Declare That The Deficit Is Whatever They Say It Is

Republicans are getting ready to pass a humongous $1.5 trillion tax cut. But Senate rules require tax bills to either pass with 60 votes or else be deficit neutral. Obviously Republicans aren’t going to get any Democratic votes for cutting taxes on the rich, so that means they need to avoid increasing the deficit. But […]

A Few Red States Lose Under Graham-Cassidy, But Not Many

Axios reports on winners and losers under the Graham-Cassidy health care bill: A new estimate obtained by Axios from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) projects that Alaska, home to key swing vote Sen. Lisa Murkowski, would lose 38% of federal funding for premium subsidies and Medicaid by 2026 under the Graham-Cassidy proposal. […]

Tom Price Missed A Meeting Because Of A Flight Delay Once

Why does HHS Secretary Tom Price charter private flights for his official travel? The Washington Post has the story: After Tom Price was sworn in as health and human services secretary, the Georgia Republican faced an inconvenience known to millions of Americans: His flight was delayed, an aide said, and he was forced to spend […]

New Report: Fraternities Help Mediocrities Succeed

Dan Wang points to a recent paper which suggests that joining a fraternity in college reduces your GPA by 0.25 points but increases your future income by 36 percent. For various reasons, this is a weak result and I wouldn’t take it very seriously except as a possible spur to further research. However, suppose it’s […]

Did Lead Poisoning In Flint Cause An Epidemic Of Stillbirths And Miscarriages?

Several people have pointed me to a recent paper that investigates the effect of Flint’s lead-poisoned water on fertility rates. Here’s what it looks like: This is stunning: the gross fertility rate plummets from 67 to 54 when Flint switches to water from the Flint River. That’s a 20 percent decrease in less than two […]

Lunchtime Photo

This is a lovely little gem of a waterfall on a creek a few miles north of Caherdaniel. I’m almost reluctant to post this picture because the colors are so vivid it looks like it’s a Disney cartoon or something. But it’s not a Photoshop hack job. As you all know, this is not because […]

Wisconsin Is Going To Lose A Bundle On The Foxconn Deal

It’s official: Wisconsin has approved a deal to bring a huge Foxconn facility to its state. The way this deal works is that Foxconn pays taxes to Wisconsin and Wisconsin provides Foxconn with refundable tax credits—that is, money that’s paid regardless of whether Foxconn has any tax liability. What this means is that it’s possible […]

The Cynicism Behind Graham-Cassidy Is Breathtaking

It’s hard to know how to react to the cynicism of the Graham-Cassidy health care bill. For starters, of course, it’s as bad as all the other Republican repeal bills. Tens of millions of the working poor will lose insurance. Pre-existing conditions aren’t protected. Medicaid funding is slashed. Subsidies are slashed. But apparently that’s not […]

The Big Fed Selloff Is About To Begin

The Fed announced today that the economy was in such whopping good shape that they plan to start selling off all the assets they accumulated as a result of three rounds of quantitative easing during the Great Recession. Is this a good idea? Is the economy really doing that great? That’s above my pay grade. […]

Lunchtime Photo

We spent Wednesday in the town of Kenmare. Marian made a beeline for the Kenmare Lace and Design Center, which turned out to be about the size of a large living room. It’s dedicated mostly to the lace design of the Poor Clare nuns, who founded a convent in Kenmare in the 19th century and […]

Is There Anyone In The Trump Administration Who Isn’T Corrupt?

I’m on vacation and in a different time zone, so it’s hard to stay caught up with everything. Let me see if I have this straight: EPA chief Scott Pruitt is sucking up ennvironmental investigation resources by demanding a 24/7 security detail This requires 18 agents instead of the usual six. HHS Secretary Tom Price […]

The Trump Administration Didn’T Like A Report That Says Refugees Have A Net Positive Impact. You’Ll Totally Believe What They Did Next.

As part of his executive order banning refugees, Donald Trump ordered HHS to produce a report about the economic impact of refugees. The answer, according to HHS, is that refugees contributed $269 billion in tax revenue and used $206 billion in services, for a net positive impact of $63 billion over the past decade. However, […]

Did Donald Trump Really Apologize To The President Of Turkey?

Last May, a loud but peaceful group of Kurdish demonstrators gathered outside the home of the Turkish ambassador to protest the visit of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan’s bodyguards, apparently at the direction of Erdogan himself, waded into the crowd and started beating people bloody. Nearly everyone in America was appalled, from Congress to […]

Americans Want To Believe We’Ve Made A Lot More Progress On Race Than We Actually Have

While Kevin’s on vacation, we’ve invited other Mother Jones writers to contribute posts. Turns out Americans have too rosy a view of racial equality in the country. In a new paper published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a group of Yale psychologists has found that people in the US vastly overestimate the progress made in closing the […]

Republican Texas House Leader Wants State To Admit Civil War Was About Slavery

Today, Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, joined the continuing push to take down Confederate monuments by calling for the removal of a plaque at the statehouse entitled the “Children of the Confederacy Creed” that asserts the Civil War “was not a rebellion, nor was its underlying cause to sustain slavery.” House Speaker Joe Straus is calling […]

The Left Seems Pretty United In Opposition To Antifa

Here’s an article that was posted prominently online today in the Wall Street Journal: How Antifa Violence Has Split the Left Broadly labeled antifa, for “antifascist,” such protesters are part of a loose affiliation of far-left groups and individuals who unite around a willingness to confront, sometimes violently, anyone they perceive to be an agent […]

Lunchtime Photo

The Skellig Islands are famous for several reasons: They are beautiful, pristine, world treasures, etc. There’s a 6th century monastery at the top of Skellig Michael. Little Skellig hosts gazillions of gannets. Also puffins, but only through August 7, when they depart for Iceland (boo!). The final scene of Star Wars VII was filmed there. […]

Trumpcare 3.0 Will Eliminate Health Insurance For 25 Million People

I suppose you have to give Republicans credit for persistence: they’re now trying yet again to repeal Obamacare. The first attempt ended when Paul Ryan couldn’t round up the votes in the House. The second attempt ended when Mitch McConnell couldn’t round up the votes in the Senate. Now we have Graham-Cassidy, which is considerably […]