Linkee-poo is a fan and lives for our music

"Heath Gmucs has worked as a press operator at Cleveland’s Gotta Groove Records for about nine years. Now, he's turning the mostly automated process of making vinyl into customized, hand-crafted works of art." Wow.

"The plan that Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren just released is another enormous win for us. It will help persuade our friends and families and neighbors to support Medicare for All, and in the not-too-distant future, to convince Congress too. Here’s why." Just a reminder, overhead costs for most health insurance plans run between 12-20% (most around 15%). Medicare overhead costs are 2%. (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)

"A new bill in the Ohio Legislature would cap the out-of-pocket amount diabetics pay for their insulin. Legislators heard from a woman who lost a child because she couldn't afford the drug." Yeah, I want to see the actual text of the bill first.

Why? Because… "Several Ohio House Republicans are backing a bill that they say provides options to avoid 'surprise billing', when patients get unexpected big invoices from out of network providers after visiting an in-network hospital or health care facility." This bill does exactly squat. "(Sponsor, Rep. Holmes) said creates options for out-of-network providers such as anesthesiologists or ER doctors. They can choose to be paid the in-network rate, to negotiate a different rate, or go to a third party for 'baseball style' arbitration with the insurer." All this does is eliminate the option for the consumer to sue and is expecting the insurance company to go to bat for the patient against a provider who has no business contact with the insurer. Tell me the last time you saw that. This is just so they can shrug and say, "We tried."

Meanwhile, along the Trump Wall on the souther border (mostly replacing outdated shorter border fences)… "Smuggling gangs in Mexico are reportedly using power tools to cut large holes in walls at the southern US-Mexico border, according to a new report from The Washington Post." And they're using ladders to climb over other sections. Like nobody could have foreseen this (actually it was a popular joke). Of course they say when they add the sensors to the wall they'll be able to (checks notes) know where it needs repaired. Not only is it costly to build, it's the gift that keeps on sucking our budget dry. (Grokked in a roundabout way from Jim Wright)

"'He sniffed that weakness, that they were not going to really, you know, enforce anything,' fellow Trump biographer Gwenda Blair said. 'They were not going to take away his license. They couldn’t. It sounds awfully simple-minded, but that’s it. He figures it out so that for people to go against him it’s going to make them look bad: It’s going to make them look bad that they ever approved his casinos, it’s going to make the bankers look bad that they ever gave him his loans, it’s going to make the Republican Party look bad that it ever got behind him.'" How do you not make money running a casino? Well, if you're over leveraged and willing to pay yourself before anyone else it's pretty easy.

"This isn’t a 'court of law,' but there is a method and a procedure to follow. Furthermore, the Democrats have not blocked due process. They have been following rules that a Republican majority codified in 2015. Even when the Democrats provide what the Republicans say they want—a resolution to authorize formal impeachment proceedings—they change their minds. The Republicans, moreover, sit on all the committees investigating the president for impeachable offenses. They could do their own leaking if that helped Donald Trump." And now, according to the writer, House Republicans are afraid that Sen. Majority Leader McConnell might decide that the GOP is better off without Trump, will turn on them and leave them and their unwavering support of the president in the lurch. I don't think that'll happen. At best, McConnell will publicly state he won't hold any Senator to the party line (allowing them to vote without fear of party reprisal). If that happens we go from "removal won't happen" to "a non-zero chance it might." (Grokked from Jim Wright)

"Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) on Thursday head-butted a camera after people with the progressive group MoveOn trailed him down a congressional hallway to an elevator, persistently asking whether it was acceptable for a foreign government to interfere in a U.S. election." Frustration levels are approaching a breaking point. (Grokked from Jim Wright)

"BuzzFeed News sued the US government to see all the work that Mueller’s team kept secret. We have published the first installment, with revelations about the Ukraine conspiracy theory, Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, and more." (Grokked from Laura J Mixon)

Cnn also has some. "President Donald Trump and other top 2016 Trump campaign officials repeatedly privately discussed how the campaign could get access to stolen Democratic emails WikiLeaks had in 2016, according to newly released interview notes from Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation." (Grokked from Kathryn Cramer)