Continue jamming with Mariah Carey.
Artistry
Musical style
Love is the subject of the majority of Carey’s lyrics, although she has written about themes such as racism, social alienation, death, world hunger, and spirituality. She has said that much of her work is partly autobiographical, but Time magazine wrote: “If only Mariah Carey’s music had the drama of her life. Her songs are often sugary and artificial—NutraSweet soul. But her life has passion and conflict,” applying it to the first stages of her career. He commented that as her albums progressed, so too her songwriting and music blossomed into more mature and meaningful material.[257] Jim Faber of the New York Daily News, made similar comments, “For Carey, vocalizing is all about the performance, not the emotions that inspired it. Singing, to her, represents a physical challenge, not an emotional unburdening.”[258] While reviewing Music Box, Stephen Holden from Rolling Stone commented that Carey sang with “sustained passion”, while Arion Berger of Entertainment Weekly wrote that during some vocal moments, Carey becomes “too overwhelmed to put her passion into words.”[259] In 2001, The Village Voice wrote in regards to what they considered Carey’s “centerless ballads”, writing, “Carey’s Strawberry Shortcake soul still provides the template with which teen-pop cuties draw curlicues around those centerless [Diane] Warren ballads […..] it’s largely because of [Blige] that the new R&B demands a greater range of emotional expression, smarter poetry, more from-the-gut testifying, and less [sic] unnecessary notes than the squeaky-clean and just plain squeaky Mariah era. Nowadays it’s the Christina Aguileras and Jessica Simpsons who awkwardly oversing, while the women with roof-raising lung power keep it in check when tune or lyric demands.”[260]
Carey’s output makes use of electronic instruments such as drum machines,[140] keyboards and synthesizers.[261] Many of her songs contain piano-driven melodies,[262] as she was given piano lessons when she was six years old.[9] Carey said that she cannot read sheet music and prefers to collaborate with a pianist when composing her material, but feels that it is easier to experiment with faster and less conventional melodies and chord progressions using this technique.[9] While Carey learned to play the piano at a young age, and incorporates several ranges of production and instrumentation into her music, she has maintained that her voice has always been her most important asset: “My voice is my instrument; it always has been.”[91] Carey began commissioning remixes of her material early in her career and helped to spearhead the practice of recording entirely new vocals for remixes.[263] Disc jockey David Morales has collaborated with Carey on several occasions, starting with “Dreamlover” (1993), which popularized the tradition of remixing R&B songs into house records, and which Slant magazine named one of the greatest dance songs of all time.[264] From “Fantasy” (1995) onward, Carey enlisted both hip-hop and house producers to re-structure her album compositions.[80] Entertainment Weekly included two remixes of “Fantasy” on a list of Carey’s greatest recordings compiled in 2005: a National Dance Music Award-winning remix produced by Morales, and a Sean Combs production featuring rapper Ol’ Dirty Bastard.[265] The latter has been credited with popularizing the R&B/hip-hop collaboration trend that has continued into the 2000s, through artists such as Ashanti and Beyoncé.[263] Combs said that Carey “knows the importance of mixes, so you feel like you’re with an artist who appreciates your work—an artist who wants to come up with something with you”.[266]
Voice and timbre
“I have nodules on my vocal cords. My mother says I’ve had them since I was a kid. That’s why I have the high register and the belting register and I can still be husky. A lot of people couldn’t sing through the nodules the way I do; I’ve learned to sing through my vocal cords. The only thing that really affects my voice is sleep. Sometimes if I’m exhausted, I can’t hit the really high notes. My doctors showed me my vocal cords and why I can hit those high notes. It’s a certain part of the cord that not many people use—the very top. My natural voice is low. I have a raspy voice. I’m really more of an alto. But my airy voice can be high if I’m rested. […] When I was little, I’d talk in this really high whisper, and my mom would be like, ‘You’re being ridiculous’. I thought if I can talk like that I can sing like that. So I started just messing around with it. I’d practice and practice, and she’d be like, ‘You’re gonna hurt yourself’. I’d tell her, it doesn’t hurt. If I were to try and belt two octaves lower than that, that would be a strain.”
—Carey on her usage of the whistle register[99][267]
Carey possesses a five-octave vocal range,[268][269][270] and has the ability to reach notes beyond the 7th octave.[271][272] Referred to as the “songbird supreme” by the Guinness World Records,[273] she was ranked first in a 2003 MTV and Blender magazine countdown of the 22 Greatest Voices in Music, as voted by fans and readers in an online poll. Carey said of the poll, “What it really means is voice of the MTV generation. Of course, it’s an enormous compliment, but I don’t feel that way about myself.”[274] She also placed second in Cove magazine’s list of “The 100 Outstanding Pop Vocalists”.[275]
Regarding her voice type, Carey said that she is an alto, though several critics have described her as a soprano.[276][277][278] However, within contemporary forms of music, singers are classified by the style of music they sing. There is currently no authoritative voice classification system within non-classical music.[279] Attempts have been made to adopt classical voice type terms to other forms of singing, but they are controversial,[279] because the development of classical voice categorizations were made with the understanding that the singer would amplify his or her voice with their natural resonators, without a microphone.[280]
Jon Pareles of The New York Times described Carey’s lower register as a “rich, husky alto” that extends to “dog-whistle high notes”.[281] Additionally, towards the late 1990s, Carey began incorporating breathy vocals into her material.[282] Tim Levell from the BBC News described her vocals as “sultry close-to-the-mic breathiness”,[282] while USA Today ’s Elysa Gardner wrote “it’s impossible to deny the impact her vocal style, a florid blend of breathy riffing and resonant belting, has had on today’s young pop and R&B stars.”[283]
Sasha Frere-Jones of The New Yorker adds her timbre possesses various colors, saying, “Carey’s sound changes with nearly every line, mutating from a steely tone to a vibrating growl and then to a humid, breathy coo. Her wide vocal range allows Carey to take melodies from alto bottom notes to coloratura soprano upper register.”[62] Carey also possesses a “whisper register”. In an interview with the singer, Ron Givens of Entertainment Weekly described it this way, “first, a rippling, soulful ooh comes rolling effortlessly from her throat: alto. Then, after a quick breath, she goes for the stratosphere, with a sound that nearly changes the barometric pressure in the room. In one brief swoop, she seems to squeal and roar at the same time.”[284]
Her sense of pitch is admired[281] and Jon Pareles adds “she can linger over sensual turns, growl with playful confidence, syncopate like a scat singer… with startlingly exact pitch.”[281]
Influences
Carey has said that from childhood she has been influenced by Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, and R&B and soul musicians such as Gladys Knight and Aretha Franklin.[285] Her music contains strong influences of gospel music, and she credits The Clark Sisters, Shirley Caesar and Edwin Hawkins as the most influential in her early years.[285] When Carey incorporated hip-hop into her sound, speculation arose that she was making an attempt to take advantage of the genre’s popularity, but she told Newsweek, “People just don’t understand. I grew up with this music”.[286] She has expressed appreciation for rappers such as The Sugarhill Gang, Eric B. & Rakim, the Wu-Tang Clan, The Notorious B.I.G. and Mobb Deep, with whom she collaborated on the single “The Roof (Back in Time)” (1998).[99] Carey was heavily influenced by Minnie Riperton, and began experimenting with the whistle register due to her original practice of the range.[99]
During Carey’s career, her vocal and musical style, along with her level of success, has been compared to Whitney Houston, who she has also cited as an influence,[287] and Celine Dion. Carey and her peers, according to Garry Mulholland, are “the princesses of wails […] virtuoso vocalists who blend chart-oriented pop with mature MOR torch song”.[288] Author and writer Lucy O’Brien attributed the comeback of Barbra Streisand’s “old-fashioned showgirl” to Carey and Dion, and described them and Houston as “groomed, airbrushed and overblown to perfection”.[288] Carey’s musical transition and use of more revealing clothing during the late 1990s were, in part, initiated to distance herself from this image, and she subsequently said that most of her early work was “schmaltzy MOR”.[288] Some have noted that unlike Houston and Dion, Carey co-writes and produces her own songs.[273]
https://twitter.com/PrestonMitchum/status/573688794928578560/photo/1
https://twitter.com/DaRiverZkind/status/573634165515517952/photo/1
https://twitter.com/Shugnice/status/573505218920472577/photo/1
Imani ABL @AngryBlackLady
Is anyone going to run against Hillary in the primary? Or are Dems just going to crown her queen and hope black ppl don’t remember 2008?
Imani ABL @AngryBlackLady
Follow
Because Dems need to figure out that a lot of black folks blame her for 7 years of birther bullshit. Good luck with that.
9:08 AM – 5 Mar 2015
Ted Cruz’s Obamacare Backup Plan: Destroy Everything
If the Supreme Court does the unthinkable and guts Obamacare subsidies, will Congress respond?
Judging by comments made by a range of congressional Republicans, it seems unlikely that the Republican-controlled Congress would be willing to pass an easy fix to the law. But that is not to say that they aren’t in favor of amending the law in other ways, such as gutting the entire thing.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) has unveiled his “alternative” plan which isn’t so much an alternative as it is a plan to destroy everything.
Cruz’s bill, called the Health Care Choices Act, would allow people to buy health insurance across state lines, long a Republican health policy goal. It would also repeal Title I of ObamaCare, which would undo much of the law, including the mandate to buy insurance, the insurance marketplaces and subsidies to help people afford coverage.
If the Supreme Court eliminates subsides in states that did not establish their own exchange, Ted Cruz wants to respond by eliminating subsides in every state and all exchanges.
Burn it all down.
http://www.bobcesca.com/blog-archives/2015/03/ted-cruzs-obamacare-backup-plan-destroy-everything.html
March 05, 2015
Jeb Bush’s mounting cash
On the one hand, a new Gravis Marketing poll “finds that Jeb Bush barely edges Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in an open GOP primary race” — in Florida. On the other hand,
Who could possibly be busier than Bush? His opposition-research team, which has likely already amassed a mountain of dirt on Walker, all of which merely needs an aggressive media consultant to spread it around. And he’ll have plenty of money to do it with.
In the unlikely event that Bush’s assassins produce only a molehill, not a problem. They’ll then do what political operations have been doing for centuries: They’ll just make stuff up.
The only indispensability here is the money.
http://pmcarpenter.blogs.com/p_m_carpenters_commentary/2015/03/jeb-bushs-mounting-cash.html#sthash.fEYMDvey.dpuf
Electrical engineer tased at his housewarming party sues Madison County deputies
March 02, 2015 at 10:58 PM
Dominique Kenebrew says he was celebrating the purchase of a new home just outside Huntsville when sheriff’s deputies knocked on the door, refused to say why they were there, tried to enter the home and tased Kenebrew in the back when he refused to let them in.
Kenebrew, an electrical engineer, today sued two Madison County deputies and Sheriff Blake Dorning in federal court for illegal search, illegal seizure and excessive force.
The complaint filed today states Deputy Daniel Dejong “shot Kenebrew in the back with his taser, delivering a five-second electrical shock… pulled the taser trigger two more times, delivering two more five-second electrical shocks.”
Kenebrew was arrested, taken to jail and charged with obstructing government operations. He was later acquitted.
http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/03/electrical_engineer_tased_at_h.html#incart_2box
Netanyahu warns Iranians of ‘very bad’ nuclear deal
Israel’s prime minister has warned the people of Iran that the nuclear deal being negotiated by their country and world powers is “very bad” for them.
In an interview with BBC Persian, Benjamin Netanyahu said it
would create a “nuclear tinderbox in the heart of the Middle East that could go off”.
Nothing should be done to give the government in Tehran “a clear path to the bomb”, Mr Netanyahu stressed.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-31749088
Kansas Secretary Of State Says Blacks Might Not Be Prosecuted For Crimes Because Of Obama
By: Keith Brekhusmore from Keith Brekhus
Thursday, March, 5th, 2015, 2:26 pm
During his weekly radio program, controversial Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach agreed with a caller, who theorized, that during the remainder of Obama’s presidency, “any black person accused of a crime, charged with a crime, is not going to be prosecuted, regardless of the crime.” Rather than dismissing the caller’s absurd claim, Kobach validated the conspiracy theory, arguing that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder:
basically made it clear….that the civil rights laws were only to protect minority races, and he was not going to be enforcing them to the benefit of white people who were discriminated against on the basis of their race. So, that’s basically what you’ve described.
The caller, who went by the name Stu, then repeated his theory, by claiming:
So the word is going to come down that there just won’t be any prosecutions of black criminals. And I can see it happening. I don’t think I’m nuts for envisioning it.
Kobach again entertained the caller’s ridiculous notion, though he did throw in a feeble disclaimer, responding:
Well, it’s already happened more or less in the case of civil rights laws. So I guess it’s not a huge jump, I think it’s unlikely, but you know I’ve learned to say with this president, never say never.
http://www.politicususa.com/2015/03/05/kansas-secretary-state-blacks-prosecuted-crimes-obama.html
This is just evil. How do these people sleep at night with all this hate and evil in their hearts?
PragmaticObotsUnite @PragObots
Ratings: ‘Empire’ Scores Highest Regular Broadcast Drama Rating in More Than 5 Years http://shar.es/1WL40c #EmpireFOX #BlackTwitter
https://twitter.com/GRYKING/status/573637070478012417/photo/1
https://twitter.com/PragObots/status/573634106702999552/photo/1
Well, there you have it. For 7 years, it’s not only been crickets from Clintonistas, but in fact, they’ve been behind, manufactured, actively participated in, driven and perpetuated some of the most underhanded, most vile, slanderous and dehumanizing attacks upon not only our twice elected first black President, but also in many instances even more viciously against our first black First Lady.
Forgive me for being so bitter and unwilling to ever forgive or forget. No can do. Not even if like Ann Marie Cox, they all swear they’ve become born-again Christians.
nothing but truth
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B_WkYqfVEAAQT_u.jpg
Isn’t that the truth.
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAH A
Is Scott Walker the GOP’s Barack Obama?
NATIONAL POLITICS|By Amy Walter, March 4, 2015
Scott Walker in 2015 is a lot like Barack Obama circa 2007; he’s relatively unknown and yet well-known at the same time. Obama’s speech at the DNC in 2004 propelled him to rock-star status among the Democratic faithful, while Walker’s victory over the public sector labor unions in 2011 made him a legend among conservatives. The Wisconsin Governor begins this campaign as a vessel into which voters can pour their hopes and aspirations. The question now is whether the idea of Walker can match up with the reality of Walker.
http://cookpolitical.com/story/8262
This has got to be joke, right?
Boggles the mind too that the GOP and their media flunkies would use the President they’ve maligned forever, as a positive metaphor and standard as they wobble through their crass, unintelligent and painfully mediocre pool of wannabe presidents in search of the white savior.
Wisconsin to Skip Debt Payments to Make Up for Walker’s Tax Cuts
(Bloomberg) — Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, facing a $283 million deficit that needs to be closed by the end of June, will skip more than $100 million in debt payments to balance the books thrown into disarray by his tax cuts.
The move comes as Walker, 47, mounts a 2016 bid for the Republican presidential nomination, and while his state is under stress from a projected shortfall that could exceed $2 billion in the two-year budget beginning in July.
Delaying the $108 million principal payment due in May on short-term debt would free funds. The move doesn’t require legislative approval, the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau said in a Feb. 13 memorandum. The terms of the debt sale allow Wisconsin to defer the payment in any given year, a procedure known as a restructuring, without defaulting.
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-02-18/wisconsin-to-skip-debt-payments-to-make-up-for-walker-s-tax-cuts
https://twitter.com/deeepthot/status/573302097854275585/photo/1
Chris Matthews’ Wife Is Running For Rep. Van Hollen’s House Seat
ByDaniel Strauss
PublishedMarch 5, 2015, 9:49 AM EST
Less than 24 hours after Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) announced his candidacy for outgoing Sen. Barbara Mikulski’s (D-MD) Senate seat, there’s already a Democrat running to take Van Hollen’s House seat: Marriott International executive vice president Kathleen Matthews.
The news that Matthews—who is married to MSNBC’s “Hardball” host Chris Matthews—is running was first announced in Politico’s Playbook on Thursday. Before joining Marriott, Matthews was an anchor for local television station WJLA ABC7.
She’s been hinting at plans to run for office for a while now and has been outspoken on gay rights and sustainability, according to Playbook.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/kathleen-matthews-run-chris-van-hollen-seat?utm_content=buffere55d3&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Robert Feder @RobertFeder
Breaking news: @WLSAM890 ready to drop @RushLimbaugh: http://bit.ly/1EiwGuD
Good Morning 3Chics,
I’m loving Mariah Week! It’s 10 O’Clock. Past time to do some work. Have a good day all.
I’m loving these Hillary posts at BJ. They are cracking me up
…………………..
The Neverending Psychodrama That Will Be the Next Ten Years (Should
She Win)
Posted by
John
Cole +0 at 11:21 pm
Mar 042015
Since these threads are so much fun, just how long do you
think it is appropriate for HRC to not address the email issue?
Is she waiting to let the Republicans go all in before responding? That is
doubtful, since
she already has her lawyers on the job:
Is she just letting this soak up all the oxygen so the foreign donors/Clinton foundation brouhaha dies down?
………..
Does she just not have an answer that she deems acceptable at the moment, or are they trying to figure out how to prove they did nothing nefarious?
Or are they already in bunker mentality, having gone through this for 30 years? One thing is for sure, they’ve reached into the asshole factory where they breed the Hillary diehards, and they are coming out swinging:
\
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2015/03/04/the-neverending-psychodrama-that-will-be-the-next-ten-years-should-she-win/
She’ll get back to you once the results from the polls and various focus groups are in and her advisers have sifted, distilled them into manageable, clever bites – and she’s had enough time to memorize and rehearse and to try to recite the answers as naturally as possible.
ok, this is gonna be crazy
………………..
Samuel L. Jackson is a Betrayed President Out for Revenge in New Trailer for ‘Big Game’
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
March 4, 2015 at 1:26PM
Here’s a new trailer for Finnish director Jalmari Helander’s English-language debut – a thriller titled “Big Game,” which stars Samuel L. Jackson as President of the USA, and Onni Tommila.
The film follows a shy, nervous 13-year-old boy named Oskari (played by Tommila), who must prove his manhood by spending a night alone in the forest, when Air Force One is shot down by terrorists and Oskari discovers the President (Samuel L. Jackson) in an escape pod. With the terrorists closing in, Oskari and the President team up to survive the night.
I’m actually looking forward to checking this out because director Helander’s last feature, the X-mas horror story, “Rare Exports,” which I saw and loved, is a well-made, imaginative, entertaining twist on the traditional Christmas tale, and I’d recommend it if you haven’t seen it (last I checked it was streaming on Netflix). So Samuel L. Jackson should be in good hands here
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/samuel-l-jackson-is-a-betrayed-president-out-for-revenge-in-new-trailer-for-big-game-20150304
Kino Lorber Announces “Stretch Goal” to Expand Pioneers of African-American Cinema Set w/ Additional Films & Bonus Content
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
March 3, 2015 at 2:42PM
Good news, thanks to those of you who contributed to the campaign – one that still has 17 days to go until it ends, and has blown past its goal of $35,000, raising over $40,000, with just over 2 weeks left. In part due to your enthusiasm for the project, via the current overage, the team behind the project has opted to stretch the campaign goal to $60,000, and will add to what the final package will contain, raising the number of films that will be included in the set, from the previous 8, to 12, including titles you’d be familiar with, like “The Blood of Jesus” (Spencer Williams’ 1941 directorial debut), Oscar Micheaux’s 1932 crime/romance musical “The Girl from Chicago,” and, from 1929, “The Scar of Shame” by the Colored Players Film Corporation.
Details on this expansion follow via press release below; and, of course, with 17 days still to go in the campaign, to contribute, do so here (they just might raise the number of films to 16 if the $60,000 is surpassed):
Inspired by the overwhelming response to its current Kickstarter campaign, Kino Lorber will expand its landmark restoration for theatrical and Blu-ray/DVD release, PIONEERS OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN CINEMA. Originally announced as being comprised of eight feature films (plus shorts, fragments, and new interviews) in a four-disc set, PIONEERS will be expanded to include twelve features, and will be released on video as five discs with even more bonus content.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/kino-lorber-announces-stretch-goal-to-expand-pioneers-of-african-american-cinema-set-w-additional-films-bonus-content-20150303
Erykah Badu Joins Andre Royo & Emayatzy Corinealdi in Amazon Original Series ‘Hand of God’
By Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act
March 4, 2015 at 9:14AM
Amazon today announced Erykah Badu, Lance Bass, Hunter Parrish, Jon Tenney and Jacob Vargas will guest star in the highly-anticipated dramatic series “Hand of God.” The series is currently shooting in the Los Angeles area and will premiere exclusively on Prime Instant Video this fall.
Created by Ben Watkins, and marking the television debut of filmmaker Marc Forster, “Hand of God” stars Ron Perlman as the honorable justice Pernell Harris. The show centers on Judge Harris, a hard-living, law-bending married man with a high-end call girl on the side, who suffers a mental breakdown and goes on a vigilante quest to find the rapist who tore his family apart. With no real evidence to go on, Pernell begins to rely on “visions” and “messages” he believes are being sent by God through Pernell’s ventilator-bound son.
“Hand of God” also stars Dana Delany as the Judge’s protective wife Crystal Harris, Garret Dillahunt as KD, the born-again sociopath whose violent tendencies are exploited by Pernell, Andre Royo as the slick, smart, gregarious, and greedy mayor Robert ‘Bobo’Boston, Alona Tal as Pernell’s grieving daughter-in-law Jocelyn Harris, Julian Morris as the questionable preacher Paul Curtis, Elizabeth McLaughlin as the preacher’s sultry girlfriend Alicia, and Emayatzy Corinealdi as Pernell’s call girl and confidante Tessie
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/erykah-badu-joins-andre-royo-emayatzy-corinealdi-in-amazon-original-series-hand-of-god-20150304
Ben Carson trips over ‘gay issues’
03/05/15 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
Ordinarily, when a political figure makes the transition from credible, mainstream voice to cover-your-eyes crank, the shift is gradual and takes years (cough, Rudy Giuliani, cough). But in the case of right-wing neurosurgeon Ben Carson, the shift was much quicker.
In fact, it happened quite suddenly two years ago, when Carson compared gay people to “NAMBLA [and] people who believe in bestiality.” After initially flubbing an apology and blaming critics for quoting him accurately, the Republican personality eventually walked back his comments. Carson’s reputation hasn’t been the same since.
Two years later, his anti-gay attitudes are still tripping him up. CNN aired an interview with Carson yesterday in which he said homosexuality is “absolutely” a choice. As proof, the likely Republican presidential candidate added, “A lot of people who go into prison go into prison straight – and when they come out, they’re gay. So, did something happen while they were in there? Ask yourself that question.”
After initially telling Sean Hannity that his comments were CNN’s fault, Carson eventually apologized via Facebook.
“In a recent interview on CNN, I realized that my choice of language does not reflect fully my heart on gay issues,” the statement begins, continuing, “I do not pretend to know how every individual came to their sexual orientation. I regret that my words to express that concept were hurtful and divisive. For that I apologize unreservedly to all that were offended.” […]
“No excuses. I deeply regret my statement and I promise you, on this journey, I may err again, but unlike politicians when I make an error I will take full responsibility and never hide or parse words.”
This attempt at taking responsibility would have been more compelling if (a) Carson didn’t have an ugly track record on LGBT issues; and (b) hadn’t tried to blame CNN a few hours earlier.
But taking one step further, I’m curious about a related angle: how does Carson decide which of his outrageous comments warrant an apology?
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/ben-carson-trips-over-gay-issues
Coercion and Kennedy’s concerns
Posted by Richard Mayhew at 7:15 am
Mar 052015
Justice Kennedy’s questions yesterday about coercion were favorable to a government win for the following scenario:
Both sides agree that the feds really wanted states to establish exchanges. The feds were dangling lots of HHS money and significant regulatory autonomy to states that said yes. The question is how the law deals with states that say no.
The government’s position is that there is a fully functional backup federal exchange. The state loses some regulatory flexibility that it can regain by establishing a state exchange at some future date. The state insurance market is functional as the three legged stool of community rating, mandate and as subsidies works. No harm, no foul.
The asshat and sadist argument by the plaintiffs is that the subsidies can not flow to residents of the refusal state. However other federal regulations such as community rating still applies. Therefore a refusal to establish a state exchange destroys the state insurance market for individuals.
The blowing up the state insurance market is the coercion that Kennedy was questioning as that is an absurd result of anuncommunicated threat.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2015/03/05/coercion-kennedy/
Antonin Scalia’s unintentional humor
03/04/15 02:46 PM—UPDATED 03/04/15 02:55 PM
By Steve Benen
During oral arguments this morning in the King v. Burwell case, Justice Antonin Scalia heard Solicitor General Don Verrilli warn of dire consequences if the Supreme Court strips millions of families of their health care insurance subsides. The Republican jurist just didn’t believe the consequences would be ignored by the people’s representatives.
It led to an unintentionally amusing exchange:
SCALIA: What about Congress? You really think Congress is just going to sit there while all of these disastrous consequences ensue? I mean, how often have we come out with a decision such as the you know, the bankruptcy court decision? Congress adjusts, enacts a statute that takes care of the problem. It happens all the time. Why is that not going to happen here?
VERRILLI: Well, this Congress?
The room, not surprisingly, erupted in laughter. Congratulations, Congress, you’ve literally sunk to the level of a punch line.
But more to the point, Scalia wasn’t kidding. “I don’t care what Congress you’re talking about,” he added. “If the consequences are as disastrous as you say, so many million people without insurance and whatnot – yes, I think this Congress would act.”
On a purely theoretical level, this is not ridiculous. Major new laws have routinely needed minor technical fixes for generations, and many of these corrections are intended to bring clarity to ambiguous phrases. Under normal circumstances, the King v. Burwell case wouldn’t even exist because Congress would have clarified the ACA structure years ago.
And, again in theory, if the Supreme Court were to decide in this case that the statute needs clarification, a sane, mature, responsible legislative branch would simply add a few words to the ACA law and ensure that consumers receive the same insurance subsidies they’re receiving now.
But that’s all the more reason to understand exactly why Scalia is wrong.
Obviously, this Congress is many things, but no one can characterize the institution as sane, mature, and responsible with a straight face. Lawmakers can just barely keep the government’s lights on, and a year and a half ago, they failed to even do that.
But even putting this aside, Scalia isn’t paying close enough attention to current events. Congress’ Republican majority has said in no uncertain terms that it will, to use Scalia’s phrase, “sit there while all of these disastrous consequences ensue” and ignore Democratic pleas for a simple fix. Leading GOP lawmakers have committed to this course over and over and over again.
Not to put too fine a point on this, but Scalia believes House Republicans would “act” to rescue the Affordable Care Act despite the fact that GOP lawmakers have voted at least 56 times to repeal all or part of the reform law. To ignore these details is to stick one’s head in the sand.
The problem isn’t just that Congress is a dysfunctional mess on a historic scale, though it is; the problem is that Congress’ majority wants to watch the American health care system burn. They’re just waiting for the Supreme Court to light the match.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/antonin-scalias-unintentional-humor
Blocking the EPA’s science board from considering science
By Steve Benen
In the last Congress, the House Republican majority made no secret of its hostility towards the Environmental Protection Agency, pushing measures like the absurd, “Secret Science Reform Act.” As the new Congress stumbles out of the gate, the same measures have been deemed a priority in the lower chamber once again.
But of particular interest this week is the Republican effort to “improve” the EPA’s Science Advisory Board. Pending legislation would, among other things, prevent EPA experts in a given field from participating in “advisory activities.” It’s a bizarre approach – if a state was doing an investigation into smog, for example, EPA experts who’ve conducted research on smog would be legally barred from offering guidance.
This bill, by the way, passed the House in 2014, before getting ignored by the Senate, which was led by Democrats at the time.
This year, the bill’s back, with an additional provision: members of the EPA’s Science Advisory Board would now be prohibited, by law, from even considering research on climate science from a variety of sources, including the U.S. Global Change Research Program’s National Climate Assessment. Dave Roberts’ responded:
So. When considering what to do about carbon pollution, EPA may not consider what America’s best scientists have concluded about it, what an international panel of scientists has concluded about it, how the federal government has officially recommended calculating its value, or the most comprehensive solutions for it. […]
As I’ve said many, many times, most Americans have no idea how bats**t crazy the House GOP has gone…. It’s amusing in its own dark way, but it’s not a sitcom or a satire. It’s real life.
Wait, it gets a little worse.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/blocking-the-epas-science-board-considering-science
Christie challenged on ExxonMobil pollution settlement
New Jersey State Senator Raymond Lesniak talks with Rachel Maddow about the legal effort underway to determine who engineered what appears to be a remarkably low settlement between the State of New Jersey and Exxon Mobil in a pollution lawsuit
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/christie-challenged-on-pollution-settlement-408503363950
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good Morning Everyone :-)))
Go Mariah!