Meanwhile In Syria...

A gentle reminder: we have special operations forces on the ground in Syria and have for some time.  This week saw one of the larger and more successful raids on ISIS leaders including the death of a major player.

U.S. Special Operations forces staged an overnight ground raid in Syria early Saturday, killing what the Obama administration said was a senior Islamic State official and capturing his wife.

Delta Force troops, flying from Iraq aboard Black Hawk helicopters and V-22 Ospreys, encountered almost immediate fire from militant forces when they touched down in al-Amr, near eastern Syrian oil fields that the Islamic State has tapped to generate income with black-market fuel sales.

In what a U.S. Defense official described as “close-quarters combat” against militants using women and children as human shields, about a dozen militants were killed. They included the target of what was originally designed as a capture operation, identified by the White House and the Pentagon as Abu Sayyaf, a Tunisian.

His wife, identified only as Umm Sayyaf, was said to have been captured and brought back to Iraq in one of the bullet-riddled U.S. aircraft that landed at dawn back in Iraq. Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said that no U.S. forces were killed or injured during the operation. No civilians were reported injured.

U.S. forces recovered laptops, cellphones, files and a number of archaeological artifacts and historic items, including an Assyrian Bible and antique coins, the Defense official said.

The soldiers also rescued a young woman, an Iraqi from the minority Yazidi sect, who was being held by the couple as a slave, according to statements issued by the White House and the Defense Department. Countless Yazidis have been executed or enslaved by the Islamic State as it has moved through their homeland in northern Iraq. Officials said they hoped to reunite her with her family.

The raid was only the second time U.S. Special Operations forces are known to have operated on the ground in Syria, and the first “direct action” mission by American forces there. Special operators conducted an unsuccessful mission last summer to rescue American hostages being held by the militants, who later executed them.

In and out, no civilian casualties, captured intel and freed a hostage.  Seems like some days our military really does bat 1.000.  But as far as our policies, go...well...that's been a mess for over a decade, now, hasn't it?

Supreme Overestimation

Looks like the GOP plan to take Obamacare hostage in case the Supreme Court sides with them on federal exchange subsidies has run into at least one Republican willing to shoot the hostage outright.

House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-Ga.) said Thursday that he does not support an idea backed by Senate Republican leadership to temporarily extend ObamaCare subsidies if the Supreme Court cripples the law.

“I don’t think that I would be able to be supportive of continuing the subsidies beyond what the court would allow,” Price told The Hill.

A plan from Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) to continue the subsidies until 2017 has been co-sponsored by Senate Republican leaders; Price becomes one of the most prominent Republicans to come out against the idea.

The idea behind the temporary continuation is that if the Supreme Court invalidates subsidies for around 7.5 million people in the case of King v. Burwell, the party does not want people to immediately lose their insurance. The extension is intended to give time for a Republican alternative to be put in place.

But Price wants to move sooner to a full Republican alternative instead of going to a temporary bridge option first.

On Wednesday, he reintroduced his Empowering Patients First Act, a plan he has also put forward in previous sessions of Congress. The bill would repeal ObamaCare and replace it with refundable, age-adjusted tax credits for buying insurance. It would give grants for high-risk pools as an insurance option for people with pre-existing conditions.

Price's plan would be a disaster, of course, and there's no way it would even pass.  But he finally has a plan, and that may be enough to convince the Supreme Court to stop any hand-wringing over people losing insurance.  Part of me wants to say this is just a negotiating tactic, but part of me says Price is definitely a Tea Party type who will be happy to destroy Obamacare and then believes that President Obama will be blamed when millions lose insurance, and that people will line up to thank the GOP for doing so.

Among Tea Party types, that's most certainly going to be the case.

Last Call For Fugly Fruits

You know what, this California startup that plans to bring "ugly" fruits and vegetables to America's doorsteps for half the price of grocery store produce is actually a really, really good idea.

Remember the ugly fruit and vegetables that were all the rage in France last summer? We’ll, they’re coming to America. 

More to the point: They’ve actually been here this whole time — just not on most people’s plates, nor in supermarket aisles. A new Oakland-based startup calledImperfect is out to change that. Its founders, three veteran food-waste entrepreneurs, are on a mission to bring ugly produce (they prefer the term “cosmetically challenged”) to, quite literally, your doorstep. 

“Our bold vision is for consumers across America to have the option of having a box of Imperfect produce delivered to them weekly, for 30 to 50 percent cheaper than [what they’ll find in] grocery stores,” said Ben Simon, Imperfect’s cofounder. Before they go national, however, the team will roll out a trial in Oakland and Berkeley in the summer of 2015, with the goal of reaching 1,000 customer households in the first six months.

Imperfect plans to bring this produce to grocery stores as well, where otherwise it would go to waste. Considering California's drought and multiple urban food deserts, this is a fantastic idea (some of this produce already goes to California food banks, too.)

The reason Imperfect can get ugly produce at such a steep discount from farmers is that otherwise those fruits and vegetables would almost certainly go to waste. As Grist has previously reported, most large supermarket chains simply won’t buy products that don’t meet certain size, diameter, consistency, and color requirements. If a field turns up “substandard” produce (which sometimes just means slightly crooked cucumbers or carrots half an inch too small), it may cost the farmer more to harvest it than he or she would make by selling the crop. As a result, roughly 7 percent of the produce that’s grown in the U.S. each year is left to rot in the fields. 

“Believe me, farmers hate to see a field of perfectly good, nutritional produce go to waste,” said Ron Clark, another Imperfect cofounder and the company’s director or sourcing. Clark helped to launch California’s Farm to Family program, which buys more than 125 million pounds of “ugly” produce per year from statewide farms and distributes it to food banks. He’s behind Imperfect’s drive to partner with major supermarket chains. 

“I see retail as the real game changer,” said Clark, explaining that while the CSA-style model will appeal to a “sophisticated, educated urban market of millennials,” supermarkets reach a much broader audience.

Yeah I know, it's Uber But For Fugly Produce, but this actually looks like a worthy thing to try.  For things like potatoes, tomatoes, onions, and carrots (things I'd mash, chop, or dice anyway) I'd try this service, especially if it was significantly cheaper than the grocery store.

Good luck to these guys.  I hope the service reaches Cincinnati sometime soon.

The Kroog Versus Jebya

Paul Krugman lowers the boom on Jeb Bush, who turns out is much more like his hated brother Dubya than anyone knew.

Jeb Bush wants to stop talking about past controversies. And you can see why. He has a lot to stop talking about. But let’s not honor his wish. You can learn a lot by studying recent history, and you can learn even more by watching how politicians respond to that history. 

The big “Let’s move on” story of the past few days involved Mr. Bush’s response when asked in an interview whether, knowing what he knows now, he would have supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He answered that yes, he would. No W.M.D.? No stability after all the lives and money expended? No problem. 

Then he tried to walk it back. He “interpreted the question wrong,” and isn’t interested in engaging “hypotheticals.” Anyway, “going back in time”is a “disservice” to those who served in the war. 

Take a moment to savor the cowardice and vileness of that last remark. And, no, that’s not hyperbole. Mr. Bush is trying to hide behind the troops, pretending that any criticism of political leaders — especially, of course, his brother, the commander in chief — is an attack on the courage and patriotism of those who paid the price for their superiors’ mistakes. That’s sinking very low, and it tells us a lot more about the candidate’s character than any number of up-close-and-personal interviews. 

For the most part, I consider Jeb Bush to be an incompetent, less effective version of his older brother, but after this week I'm willing to add "and as viciously self-serving".

Wait, there’s more: Incredibly, Mr. Bush resorted to the old passive-voice dodge, admitting only that “mistakes were made.” Indeed. By whom? Well, earlier this year Mr. Bush released a list of his chief advisers on foreign policy, and it was a who’s-who of mistake-makers, people who played essential roles in the Iraq disaster and other debacles. 

Seriously, consider that list, which includes such luminaries as Paul Wolfowitz, who insisted that we would be welcomed as liberators and that the war would cost almost nothing, and Michael Chertoff, who as director of the Department of Homeland Security during Hurricane Katrina was unaware of the thousands of people stranded at the New Orleans convention center without food and water. 

In Bushworld, in other words, playing a central role in catastrophic policy failure doesn’t disqualify you from future influence. If anything, a record of being disastrously wrong on national security issues seems to be a required credential.

And we had eight years of that, and the great opportunity to have at least four more under another Bush, right?

No thanks.

A Round Of Texas Hold-'Em (Back)

We're roughly six weeks or so away from a Supreme Court decision that could allow same-sex marriage in all 50 states, and the bigots are getting extraordinarily nervous, none more so than in Texas. where the state's Republican AG is all but vowing to simply ignore any such ruling.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton suggested on Wednesday that a bill that would prevent county clerks from issuing or recognizing same-sex marriage licenses was reaffirming the will of the voters of the state. 

“We passed a constitutional amendment [banning same-sex marriage] in 2005, it was overwhelmingly approved by the voters,” Paxton told CNN host Alisyn Camerota. “That’s our background here.” 

Camerota noted that as recently as two years ago, polls showed that support for marriage equality in Texas was evenly split. 

“If Texas follows national trend lines, we’ve seen support tick up for same-sex marriage,” she pointed out. “So, why pass a law that would apply to everyone?” 

Paxton, however, argued that the “real poll” happened on election day.
“My job as attorney general and the job of the Legislature is to really follow the will of the people and enforce the laws that we have,” he remarked. “This is both in statute and in our constitution. So, that’s my job, and that’s the job of the Legislature.”

But the attorney general was not willing to say that the state would follow the Supreme Court if it decided to rule in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage later this year.
“Aren’t you saying that the gays and lesbians in your state are not as valued at heterosexuals because they can’t form into a union?” Camerota asked. 

“All the Legislature has done in the past is try to reflect the values that have been in this state and this country for over two centuries,” Paxton insisted.

It's going to be really interesting to see what happens should SCOTUS chuck state bans on same-sex marriage into the dustbin of history.  The reaction of deep red states will not be that of joy, and I suspect we may see years of legal wrangling before all is said and done.  Some Alabama judges kept enforcing anti-miscegenation laws for three years after Loving v Virginia supposedly eliminated those laws in 1967, and Nixon had to step in with a district court order to specifically put a stop to the practice. I foresee a number of country clerks and judges refusing to marry same-sex couples for quite some time, and for things to be pretty ugly afterward (remember in several states, it's still quite legal to fire someone for being LGBTQ.)

We'll see how it all shakes out, but if history is any guide, people like Ken Paxton aren't going to just shrug and give up.

StupidiNews!

• Legendary Blues guitarist and singer B.B. King has passed at the age of 89 in Las Vegas, some two weeks after entering hospice care for dehydration.
• Missouri's Republican state House Speaker has resigned after admitting to sexting with an intern, calling the action a "serious error in judgment."
• President Obama vowed again to stand by Gulf allies as he worked to reassure them at a Camp David summit over efforts to contain Iran's nuclear threat.
• Puerto Rico's governor and legislature have reached agreement on a revenue proposal that aims to help the island fix a massive debt problem and cash crunch.
• Actor Harry Shearer, the voice behind Mr. Burns and Ned Flanders, is leaving The Simpsons after 26 years as the show rolls on for at least another two more seasons.

Last Call For Fast Track Back, Jack

Oh look, the Senate passed fast track authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement anyhow.

The U.S. Senate advanced a measure allowing President Barack Obama to expedite approval of trade agreements, a bill with bipartisan support in that chamber that may run into strong opposition from House Democrats. 

The 65-33 vote Thursday followed separate votes sought by Democrats to pass proposals curbing currency manipulation and boosting imports from sub-Saharan Africa. The Senate plans to consider amendments to the fast-track trade proposal next week. 

A rebellion Tuesday among Senate Democrats seeking the currency provision previews what may be fiercer battle ahead between Democrats and House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican. 

“There’s a broad feeling we have to do something against China” on currency manipulation, New York Senator Charles Schumer, the chamber’s third-ranking Democrat, told reporters before the vote on advancing the trade bill. He called the currency measure “a shot across China’s bow that we’re not going to just sit there and do nothing.” 

The fast-track bill would allow Obama to submit trade agreements to Congress for an up-or-down vote without amendments. He hopes to complete a 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership and send it for fast-track approval.

So after all the "name calling" and the fighting and the "Democrats in disarray" and the "Obama suffers stinging rebuke" fast track authority passed.  There will be amendments, and sure, the deal could still die in the House or in negotiations, especially with the currency manipulation provision, should it pass.

But 48 hours ago, it was "Senator Warren stops Obama's bad trade deal!"

No, she didn't.

President Obama wins, and nobody cares.

Funny how this works, huh?

Voice Of Iron, Feet Of Clay

Never forget that your heroes will always have very mortal flaws.

U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, the outspoken, populist Democrat who thunders against Wall Street fat cats,and used to to joke about Mitt Romney's low tax bill, incorporated a couple hedge funds in the Cayman Islands so investors could avoid taxes. 

Grayson Fund Ltd. and Grayson Master Fund were incorporated in 2011 in the Cayman Islands, a well known tax Haven that Romney used as well, records show.. That was the same year he wrote in the Huffington Post that the IRS should audit every Fortune 500 company because so many appear to be "evading taxes through transfer pricing and offshore tax havens." 

In a phone interview Wednesday, Grayson said the funds were incorporated in Grand Cayman at the advice of an attorney he declined to name. It was a vehicle for foreign investors to invest in his funds while limiting their tax liabilities, he said, but no money had been invested in them yet. 

"There are no investors in those funds or that fund as the case may be," said Grayson, who said he thought only one fund was incorporated in the Caymans. 

"When I set up my investment funds I set it up like everyone else," Grayson said, complaining about the Tampa Bay Times looking for "some stupid, bull---- story. ... You want to write sh-- about it, and you can't because not a single dollar of taxes has been avoided," he snapped. 

Grayson's financial disclosure statements indicate he has between $5-million and $25-million invested in the Grayson fund, and he lists no income from it.

Sure Alan.  Not a single dollar.

Problem Child

Jeb Bush will never be able to escape the sins of his older brother, as a college student in Nevada displayed for all the world to see.

She added: “Your brother created ISIS.” 

Mr. Bush interjected. “All right. Is that a question?” 

Ms. Ziedrich was not finished. “You don’t need to be pedantic to me, sir.” 

“Pedantic? Wow,” Mr. Bush replied. 

Then Ms. Ziedrich asked: “Why are you saying that ISIS was created by us not having a presence in the Middle East when it’s pointless wars where we send young American men to die for the idea of American exceptionalism? Why are you spouting nationalist rhetoric to get us involved in more wars?” 

Mr. Bush replied: “We respectfully disagree. We have a disagreement. When we left Iraq, security had been arranged, Al Qaeda had been taken out. There was a fragile system that could have been brought up to eliminate the sectarian violence.” 

He added: “And we had an agreement that the president could have signed that would have kept 10,000 troops, less than we have in Korea, could have created the stability that would have allowed for Iraq to progress. The result was the opposite occurred. Immediately, that void was filled.” 

He concluded: “Look, you can rewrite history all you want. But the simple fact is that we are in a much more unstable place because American pulled back.” 

Mr. Bush turned away. The conversation was over.

And so, I might add, are his prospects of winning in November 2016.

Then again, at least 60 million American voters will buy that fantasy and vote for whomever the GOP candidate is...

StupidiNews!

• A fire that engulfed a shoe factory in the Philippines has killed at least 72 people, most of the victims were found trapped on the second floor of the building.
• North Korea has fired dozens of artillery shells into the Yellow Sea near its maritime border with South Korea as the two countries continue to dispute naval boundaries.
• The NTSB says Tuesday's deadly train derailment was caused by the train going more than 100 mph into a 50 mph curve, and that lack of installed track safety measures contributed.
• House Republicans have passed a controversial measure that would ban nearly all abortions nationwide after 20 weeks, but the measure is not expected to pass the Senate.
• On the other hand, the House also voted overwhelmingly to end bulk metadata collection of phone calls. and that bill faces a far more uncertain Senate fate.

Last Call For A Higher State

I still have an enormous number of serious disagreements with the Catholic Church I was raised in, but the Pope is doing the right thing here when it comes to Palestinian recognition.

The Vatican has officially recognized the state of Palestine in a new treaty. 

The treaty, which was finalized Wednesday but still has to be signed, makes clear that the Holy See has switched its diplomatic relations from the Palestinian Liberation Organization to the state of Palestine. 

The Vatican had welcomed the decision by the U.N. General Assembly in 2012 to recognize a Palestinian state. But the treaty is the first legal document negotiated between the Holy See and the Palestinian state and constitutes an official recognition. 

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is due to see Pope Francis on Saturday before the canonization of two new saints from the Holy Land a day later.

Recall that Pope Francis played a major role in helping to normalize the US/Cuba relationship, so he may know a thing or two about diplomacy.  But this is pretty huge, to have the Vatican recognize a full Palestinian state.  That will put a lot of pressure internationally on Israel, and Bibi's already reeling from his recent re-election close call with a less than fully stable coalition government.

The timing couldn't be better if you're Abbas, and I'm pretty sure President Obama isn't exactly upset over this either.

We'll see where this leads.

The Big Trade Off

Fast track authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal was never, ever, ever in real trouble, but Senate Democrats got their win.

Senate Democrats handed President Obama a stinging rebuke on Tuesday, blocking consideration of legislation granting their own president accelerated power to complete a major trade accord with Asia. 

The Senate voted 52-45 on a procedural motion to begin debating the bill to give the president “trade promotion authority,” eight votes short of the 60 needed to proceed. Republicans and pro-trade Democrats said they would try to negotiate a trade package that could clear that threshold. 

But the vote Tuesday presented Mr. Obama what might be a no-win situation. He may have to accept trade enforcement provisions he does not want in order to propel the trade legislation through the Senate, but those same provisions might doom the Pacific trade negotiations that legislation is supposed to lift.

So now Senate Democrats can step in and force changes to the negotiations, and that was exactly the plan.

According to several Senate sources — whose accounts match up with what some reporters are spilling forth on the twitters — the deal between Senate Dems and Republicans looks something like this: 

1) The Senate would vote first on a package that includes a measure stiffening enforcement on foreign companies evading import duties and a measure that would force the administration to take action against countries manipulating currency to juice exports. Those were chiefly sought by Senators Ron Wyden and Chuck Schumer. There might also be a vote on a measure that would favor U.S. imports of some products from certain African countries. 

2) Then the Senate would proceed to a vote on whether to move forward with Fast Track, which would mandate that a final Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal is subject only to an up-or-down Congressional vote, with no amendments or filibusters. The vote on Fast Track would also include Trade Adjustment Assistance, which helps workers hurt by trade policies. Presumably, if the first two above items sought by Dems pass, a group of around a dozen pro-trade Democrats — who helped block Fast Track yesterday — would then vote to move it forward. 

Previously, that group of pro-trade Democrats had joined the filibuster of the Fast Track vote because it only included assistance for workers displaced by trade, and not the currency manipulation or enforcement provisions.

And in the end, there may be no deal at all...or the rest of the world will simply make a deal and we will have no seat at the table for US workers at all.

It's funny.  This is basically the exact situation the Senate placed the President in when it came to the Iran negotiations: the insertion of a poison pill that would scrap the entire deal.  Senate Dems sure were pissed off when Republicans tried it, and the fate of an Iran nuclear deal remains up in the air as a result.

But putting in a poison pill measure doesn't seem to be a problem for Dems anymore.  That currency manipulation provision may be the straw that breaks the entire TPP.

Amazing how that works.

Losing Our Religion

The latest Pew Research poll on Americans and religion finds that those of us who are unaffiliated with a particular religion are now the second largest religious category, surpassing Catholics Mainline Protestants since 2007 and are now second only to Evangelical Christians.

The Christian share of the U.S. population is declining, while the number of U.S. adults who do not identify with any organized religion is growing, according to an extensive new survey by the Pew Research Center. Moreover, these changes are taking place across the religious landscape, affecting all regions of the country and many demographic groups. While the drop in Christian affiliation is particularly pronounced among young adults, it is occurring among Americans of all ages. The same trends are seen among whites, blacks and Latinos; among both college graduates and adults with only a high school education; and among women as well as men.

To be sure, the United States remains home to more Christians than any other country in the world, and a large majority of Americans – roughly seven-in-ten – continue to identify with some branch of the Christian faith.1 But the major new survey of more than 35,000 Americans by the Pew Research Center finds that the percentage of adults (ages 18 and older) who describe themselves as Christians has dropped by nearly eight percentage points in just seven years, from 78.4% in an equally massive Pew Research survey in 2007 to 70.6% in 2014. Over the same period, the percentage of Americans who are religiously unaffiliated – describing themselves as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” – has jumped more than six points, from 16.1% to 22.8%. And the share of Americans who identify with non-Christian faiths also has inched up, rising 1.2 percentage points, from 4.7% in 2007 to 5.9% in 2014. Growth has been especially great among Muslims and Hindus, albeit from a very low base.

The drop in the Christian share of the population has been driven mainly by declines among mainline Protestants and Catholics. Each of those large religious traditions has shrunk by approximately three percentage points since 2007. The evangelical Protestant share of the U.S. population also has dipped, but at a slower rate, falling by about one percentage point since 2007.2 

Even as their numbers decline, American Christians – like the U.S. population as a whole – are becoming more racially and ethnically diverse. Non-Hispanic whites now account for smaller shares of evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants and Catholics than they did seven years earlier, while Hispanics have grown as a share of all three religious groups. Racial and ethnic minorities now make up 41% of Catholics (up from 35% in 2007), 24% of evangelical Protestants (up from 19%) and 14% of mainline Protestants (up from 9%).

The big drop in religious Americans is most notable among Millennials.

More than a third of Millennials are unaffiliated with a religion, and barely more than half are Christian.  That's going to have a huge effect on America's social fabric going forward.  I'm betting the numbers for post-Millennials (those born after 2000) will be even more in the religiously unaffiliated given another ten years or so.  They may not even be majority Christian anymore. Among younger Millennials, the percentage of unaffiliated ties that of Protestants (36%). 

No wonder Evangelicals are freaking out on the whole WE'RE TAKING OUR COUNTRY BACK and AMERICA IS A CHRISTIAN COUNTRY crap.  Religion is definitely declining in the US, and very rapidly.

We won't be a "Christian country" much longer.  Give it another generation at this rate and we'll be unaffiliated as a plurality.

StupidiNews!

• At least five are dead and more than 130 injured in an Amtrak train derailment outside Philadelphia on the route to New York City, the route is closed for at least the rest of the week.
• Senate Democrats have successfully blocked fast track trade authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, leaving the deal's fate unknown going forward.
• A Milwaukee police officer who shot and killed a unarmed black teenager in March will face no charges as the DA viewed the case as one of self-defense by the officer.
• The biggest bond market slump in more than two years shaved nearly half a trillion off bond positions worldwide yesterday as investors analyze the damage today.
• Wireless carriers Verizon and Sprint will pay a combined $158 million in fines for billing customers millions in third party text message charges, a practice known as "cramming".

Last Call For Seeing Red

Meet South Carolina's Luis Lang, the latest victim of Obama Derangement Syndrome endemic to red states.

Lang is a self-employed handyman who works with banks and the federal government on maintaining foreclosed properties. He has done well enough that his wife, Mary, hasn’t had to work. They live in a 3,300-square-foot home in the Legacy Park subdivision valued at more than $300,000. 

But he has never bought insurance. Instead, he says, he prided himself on paying his own medical bills. 

That worked while he and his wife were relatively healthy. But after 10 days of an unrelenting headache, Lang went to the emergency room on Feb. 25. He says he was told he’d suffered several mini-strokes. He ran up $9,000 in bills and exhausted his savings. Meanwhile, his vision worsened and he can’t work, he says. 

That’s when he turned to the Affordable Care Act exchange. Lang learned two things: First, 2015 enrollment had closed earlier that month. And second, because his income has dried up, he earns too little to get a federal subsidy to buy a private policy. 

Lang, a Republican, says he knew the act required him to get coverage but he chose not to do so. But he thought help would be available in an emergency. He and his wife blame President Obama and Congressional Democrats for passing a complex and flawed bill. 

“(My husband) should be at the front of the line because he doesn’t work and because he has medical issues,” Mary Lang said last week. “We call it the Not Fair Health Care Act.”

So to recap, Lang refused to buy insurance because OBAMA TYRANNY, and when he needed to buy it, he couldn't because of the enrollment period issues, and when he then needed the safety net of Medicaid expansion, he lives in a red state where that OBAMA TYRANNY too is prohibited, so of course it's 100% Obama's fault he's about to lose his eyesight.

I do actually empathize with the man, but the fact of the matter is when you make the choice to do everything in your power to make sure the Affordable Care Act doesn't work, vote for people who will make sure the law doesn't work, and support other people making the choice to cripple the law so that it doesn't work, and then are furious when you discover that the law doesn't work, whose fault is that in the end?

There are a lot of people that Luis Lang could blame, but considering under the pre-Obamacare system that Lang never would have been able to get coverage for his eye surgery because every insurance company would have turned him down for diabetes as a pre-existing condition, maybe President Obama isn't the person he should be mad at.