Ever since the Affordable Care Act became law, Republicans have sought to repeal it. In the most recent failed attempt, I've seen numerous references to the difficulty of repealing an "entitlement" once people have grown used to having it and the use of that word mostly reminds me of just what a paltry entitlement the ACA is for most people.

Josh Marshall remarks that the Trumps are not really "political," by which he means that they are not actually interested in policy as an end to itself:

No commentary from me here, just a signal boost for a caring public official.

**

Michael,

As New York's Medicaid Director, I couldn’t be more appalled by House Speaker Paul Ryan’s health care plan.

Today, David Brooks made the absurd claim that the construction industry is experiencing a labor shortage because Americans won't take construction jobs:

"Construction is hard, many families demean physical labor and construction is highly cyclical. Hundreds of thousands of people lost construction jobs during the financial crisis and don’t want to come back. They want steadier work even at a lower salary."

Since the election numerous critics of the left, some from the left and some not, have identified "identity politics" as a culprit in Democratic political failure and the election of Donald Trump.  Identity politics is a great term for this because it, ironically, covers up more than it reveals.

Best I can tell, identity politics just means that religious, ethnic and sexual minorities, largely through the Democratic party or left of center political movements, make the case for equal and dignified treatment in society.  This should not be controversial, but it apparently is.

I guess I missed it, somehow... the ruination of America, the collapse of society, the onset of post-history.  I thought Donald Trump didn't read much and was not a reflective man, but he does seem have to a taste for Cormac McCarthy:

Today, David Brooks asks whether or not markets function well in the American health care system and he seems to think that, when it doesn't, it's largely because health care providers know so much more about health and wellbeing than health care consumers:

Hello, friends.  I've written a piece for McSweeney's that I hope brightens your days. Share and enjoy!

The Daily Beast asked me to write about the relationship between Carl Icahn and Donald Trump.  I responded with a piece about how Icahn's decades of shareholder activism are the foundation for Trump's corporation-focused Twitter rants.

Barack Obama will hold a press conference tomorrow at 2:30 pm EST, before his family heads on their annual (well-earned) vacation to Hawaii.  We can hope for something important tomorrow as the White House has now made the following statements about Russia's election hacks:

It's already become a transition cliche that Donald Trump is turning the US into a banana republic.  We've got the situational diplomacy, the crony appointments and the massive conflicts of interest as the president-elect clings to his global real estate and branding business even as he is about to take power.

I got the scoop for you.

In case you were wondering.

I'm reading today that people are shocked, just shocked, that Donald Trump would seemingly allow Paul Ryan to privatize Medicare when Trump explicitly promised his supporters that he would protect their entitlements during the campaign.  Surely, say the shocked, people will now see through the man's lies.

As far as "you said one thing and did another," this is a pretty open and shut case, right?

I don't watch a lot of cable news anymore but I obviously did last night and tonight I tuned into Anderson Cooper 360 and whatever Don Lemon's show is called, for coverage of the protests that have sprung up in New York, Chicago, Seattle, Austin, and other major cities.  The message of tonight's coverage echoes the message of Hillary Clinton's concession speech.  All they are saying is give Trump a chance.

No way to be nice about this.  If you voted for Trump, I don't want to hear it.  You're a moron.  I retain a smidge fo sympathy for third party voters but if you voted Trump, you're dumb and will reap the results.

But I am also mad at some other stupid idiots out there.

We have to start with the Clinton campaign, which begged me for a dollar, every day since the start of the primaries, and then blew an easy lay-up.

Then we have the national media, especially NBC, which created and nurtured Donald Trump and turned him into an uncontrollable force.

This is a dumb election.  It's not because the opponents are the same and it's definitely not Hillary Clinton's fault. It's a dumb election because Donald Trump suffers from the insane delusion that years of high ratings playing a celebrity billionaire villain on reality TV shows means that people like and respect him and so he tried to turn the election into one about the likability of his persona versus the likability of his opponent.