President Joe Biden on Friday announced a final rule that will open up Obamacare plans to tens of thousands of immigrants who came to the United States as children but do not qualify for government health insurance because they lack legal status. Federal health officials estimate that roughly 100,000 people enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program will sign up for subsidized plans through the health insurance marketplace over the next year under the rule, which the Biden administration proposed last year. The announcement comes as Biden continues to make health care and his defense of the Affordable Care Act a centerpiece of his reelection campaign.
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Baby tiger time: Sandstone, Minnesota – The Wildcat Sanctuary was called upon in late November 2020 to help two adult tigers and two elderly lions in Indiana after one of their caretakers passed away. Staff and volunteers made the 14-hour journey from Minnesota with vehicles, trailers and transport crates to rehome the cats and bring them back to the sanctuary. As they were loading the big cats from the hillside private breeding facility in a rugged, remote area of rural Indiana, they were stunned to find that tigress Winona, approximately 3-5 years old and missing her tail, had given birth to a cub just hours earlier. Sanctuary staff named the 4-pound male newborn Dash. The Wildcat Sanctuary’s Founder Tammy Thies explained, “The facility had bred tiger cubs for years to be sold on the Internet or used for cub petting profit. We had been told tiger Winona had given birth only 5 months ago, so we were shocked to find a cub born just four hours earlier lying next to Winona, the umbilical cord still attached. Marcus, the male tiger housed with Winona and father of the cub, noticed the cub at the same time our staff did.
Hope Hicks testifies It seems the news has already moved on from Hope Hicks, judging by the headlines. But there were gasps in the overflow room when she enterered the Manhattan courtoom Friday to testify under subpoena in Donald Trump’s criminal trial. When she briefly broke down on the stand and the judge called a pause, newsies scrambled to report the drama. But ahead of that, Olivia Nuzzi of New York Magazine posted a thread with observations on Hicks worth noting: Some things to know about the prosecution’s next witness, Hope Hicks: her relationship with the Trump family began in 2012 when she began doing PR for Ivanka from an outside firm. She joined the Trump Org. By the winter of 2014, when Donald Trump was preparing to run for the GOP nom, she was part of a tiny circle of his trusted advisers. For most of the 2016 campaign, the staff was the Island of Misfit Toys. Hardly anyone had traditional political experience. At least half the staffers were possibly literally, clinically insane. Her general competence and normal-ness and likability made her an outlier. She was good at managing the principal. She was good under pressure.
Play it safe or go for broke? Both Donald Trump and Joe Biden are in pursuit of “double hater” voters who dislike them, Axios reports. Whether this bloc stays home or turns out to vote this fall is a serious wildcard. Double haters “represent an extraordinarily broad range of views,” including Old-guard Republicans, Pro-Palestinians, and Techno-optimists (Elon Mush and fellow travelers). Plus, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “independent campaign has collected enough signatures to appear on at least three swing-state ballots, could win as much as 38% of the double hater vote, according to a Monmouth poll out this week.” Axios: Axios fails to mention independent voters (unaffiliateds, no party preference, etc.). My estimates here show a sizable group from hundreds of precincts where indys lean heavily blue but turn out far less than their country cousins out in red counties. Those are votes Democrats leave on the table. Many of them, too, are “a plague on both your houses” voters Democratic campaigns ignore at their peril.
I think this is yet another piece of evidence that people are just not paying attention —- to anything, apparently. I’m fairly shocked at the age breakdowns but the rest seems predictable under the circumstances. This is such an ugly situation. Pray for a ceasefire and the toppling of Netanyahu. Nothing good can happen until that does.
Dan Pfeiffer’s newsletter today answers one big question: The biggest divide in politics is not between Left and Right; it’s between political junkies and everyone else. There is a massive chasm between those who actively seek out political news and the vast majority of the country. The gap has been exacerbated by tectonic shifts in the media environment. I summarized the changes that led to this “News Gap” in a recent post: Readers (and the writer) of this newsletter have barely noticed the changesy. We watch cable news, we download podcasts, subscribe to newsletters, and (some of us) still use Twitter to track current events. We are junkies. We seek out political news at every opportunity. But for the vast majority of Americans, who do not actively engage with politics and the news, these changes significantly altered their media diets and what they know about politics and politicians. Pfeiffer says that 3 polls this week address that phenomenon and somewhat answer the question about why this race is so close.
Everything is rigged — unless he wins. Donald Trump claimed the 2016 election was rigged and refused to accept the popular vote total.He established a commission to investigate it and claimed for years that illegal immigrants had tipped the popular vote to Hillary Clinton. (The commission was disbanded because they found no proof of it and they “turned the investigation over” to the DHS, which never found anything either.) We all know what he did in 2020. He set up the whining excuse for his loss months in advance by claiming that mail in voting was fraudulent and the vote had been rigged in the swing states. So what’s he saying today about the 2024 election? Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday didn’t commit to accepting the results of Wisconsin’s presidential election in November if he does not win and again promoted the falsehood that he won the Badger State in 2020.
Ron DeSanctimonious is back! This is completely ridiculous. The same people who are freaking out about the government pushing non-gas stoves is telling people they are not allowed to be vegetarians who like to eat impossible burgers at Burger King. FREEDOM!!!! Today, Governor Ron DeSantis signed SB 1084 to prohibit the sale of lab-grown meat in the state of Florida. Florida is taking action to stop the World Economic Forum’s goal of forcing the world to eat lab-grown meat and insects, “an overlooked source of protein.” While the World Economic Forum is telling the world to forgo meat consumption, Florida is increasing meat production, and encouraging residents to continue to consume and enjoy 100% real Florida beef.
Not that there was any question He still has a constitutional right to testify in his own defense. Obviously. I have no idea why his lawyer is bobbing his head up and down in agreement.
“Monarchy shit” A Jon Stewart clip from March resurfaced that echoes what I’ve been arguing for years. The underlying ethos of conservatism in this country is not patriotism but “monarchy shit.” Neofeudalism, to use a pointy-headed term. It’s not freedom or liberty, but a desire to bow and scrape before people believed to be your superiors by birth. Among people who fancy themselves superior by birth and their willingly willing supplicants. Ask Donald Trump about his genes and step back. Quickly. And don’t scratch a MAGA Supreme Court justice too deeply either. Or one of the Masters of the Universe on Wall Street. They aspire to being “a nation unto themselves” under a system of government by hereditary royalty and landed gentry where the hired help doesn’t get uppity. (I’m “reading” Ari Berman’s “Minority Rule,” what can I say?) Stewart’s monologue was a response to Sen.