Bruce Bawer, The Victims' Revolution

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Bruce Bawer, The Victims' Revolution: The Rise of Identity Studies and the Closing of the Liberal Mind.

Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism

Robert Stacy McCain regularly cites this book.

At Amazon, Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations.

Public Support for Single-Payer Healthcare

At Pew Research, "Public support for ‘single payer’ health coverage grows, driven by Democrats":

Public support for ‘single payer’ health coverage grows, driven by Democrats https://t.co/RwfANnwRv1 pic.twitter.com/0I1Un1kT1L

— PewResearch FactTank (@FactTank) June 23, 2017

A majority of Americans say it is the federal government’s responsibility to make sure all Americans have health care coverage. And a growing share now supports a “single payer” approach to health insurance, according to a new national survey by Pew Research Center.

Currently, 60% say the federal government is responsible for ensuring health care coverage for all Americans, while 39% say this is not the government’s responsibility. These views are unchanged from January, but the share saying health coverage is a government responsibility remains at its highest level in nearly a decade.

Among those who see a government responsibility to provide health coverage for all, more now say it should be provided through a single health insurance system run by the government, rather than through a mix of private companies and government programs. Overall, 33% of the public now favors such a “single payer” approach to health insurance, up 5 percentage points since January and 12 points since 2014. Democrats – especially liberal Democrats – are much more supportive of this approach than they were even at the start of this year.

Even among those who say the federal government is not responsible for ensuring Americans have health care coverage, there is little public appetite for government withdrawing entirely from involvement in health care coverage. Among the public, 33% say that health care coverage is not the government’s responsibility, but that programs like Medicare and Medicaid should be continued; just 5% of Americans say the government should not be involved at all in providing health insurance.

The issue of the government’s responsibility in ensuring health coverage remains deeply divisive politically, according to the new survey, conducted June 8-18 among 2,504 adults. More than eight-in-ten Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (85%) say that this responsibility falls to the federal government, while about two-thirds of Republicans and Republican leaners (68%) say it does not.

Still, most Republicans (57%) say the government “should continue programs like Medicare and Medicaid for seniors and the very poor.” Just 9% of Republicans say the government should not be involved in providing health insurance at all...

Democrats are socialists, if we didn't know that by now --- and if they had their way, we'd have much worse healthcare outcomes than we already do. Much more healthcare inequality, especially, with the well-off able to afford private medical care, and those less well-off stuck in substandard government-run Cuba-style "healthcare" hellholes.

And don't forget, Venezuala should be a cautionary tale for leftists, but it's not.

Via Memeorandum.

Nina Skye, 21-Year-Old Preschool Teacher in Los Angeles, Fired After Appearing in Pornography Videos

I don't know?

Maybe she can make more money doing porn. She clearly enjoys it. At London's Daily Mail and Heat Street:

'I love teaching, I love sex': Christian kindergarten teacher, 21, who starred in $2,500-a-time PORN films is fired https://t.co/gR6kZIyJ0D pic.twitter.com/RSHodpwA6e

— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) June 23, 2017

TFW society won't let you do porn and teach kids how to read. https://t.co/nCjfgZmYqp

— Heat Street (@heatstreet) June 23, 2017

GOP #ObamaCare Repeal Will Transform American Health Care

From Avik Roy, at Forbes, via Memeorandum, "The New Senate Republican Bill Will Transform American Health Care":

Finished reading the Senate HC bill. Put simply: If it passes, it’ll be the greatest policy achievement by a GOP Congress in my lifetime.

— Avik Roy (@Avik) June 22, 2017

I’m very open to thoughtful critiques of the Senate bill from the left. “MILLIONS WILL DIE” is not it.

— Avik Roy (@Avik) June 23, 2017

The hotly-anticipated Senate Republican health care bill came out on Thursday morning. The airwaves quickly filled up with predictable talking points from both sides. But once the dust settles, it will emerge that the Senate bill will have far-reaching effects on American health care: for the better.

Substantial improvements to the House bill

In March, when House Republicans published their bill to replace Obamacare—the American Health Care Act—I described it in Forbes this way: “GOP’s Obamacare Replacement Will Make Coverage Unaffordable For Millions—Otherwise, It’s Great.” I meant it. There were great things about the House bill, in particular its far-reaching reforms of the Medicaid program.

But Paul Ryan’s bill contained a fatal flaw. Its flat tax credits, which provided identical assistance to the poor and the wealthy, would price millions of near-elderly low-income workers out of the insurance market and trap millions more in poverty.

Fortunately, buried in the House bill was a way out of the morass. Section 202 of the bill contains a transitional schedule of tax credits that was meant to serve as a bridge between the old Obamacare system, ending in 2017, and the new Paul Ryan system, beginning in 2020.

It turns out that if you simply kept that bridge in force, and tossed overboard the Paul Ryan flat tax credit, you’d solve all of these problems with the House bill. By making that change, the near-elderly working poor would be able to afford coverage, and the poverty trap would be eliminated.

And that’s precisely what the Senate bill did! Section 102 of the Senate bill—the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017—closely mirrors Section 202 of the House bill, with age- and means-tested tax credits up to 350 percent of the Federal Poverty Level.

Making this change not only solves the problems I described above. It also makes it easier to reform the Medicaid program.

Real Medicaid reforms

The Senate bill includes and refines the best part of the House bill: its reforms of Medicaid, the dysfunctional government-run health care program for the poor whose enrollees have no better health outcomes than the uninsured.

Because the Senate bill’s tax credits are robustly means-tested and available to those below the poverty line, the bill is able to repeal Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion while offering higher-quality coverage to individuals who signed up for Medicaid under the expansion.

The reason that Medicaid’s health outcomes are so poor is because the outdated 1965 Medicaid law places a laundry list of constraints on states’ ability to manage their Medicaid programs. As a result, the main tool states have to keep Medicaid costs under control is to pay doctors and hospitals less and less each year for the same care. Hence, many doctors don’t take Medicaid, and Medicaid enrollees struggle to gain access to care.

The Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 addresses these problems in several ways.

First, the bill repeals Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, and replaces it with tax credits so that low-income Americans can buy the coverage of their choice at an affordable price.

Second, the bill gives states a new set of tools to make their Medicaid programs. For example, under Obamacare, states are only allowed to check if someone is eligible for Medicaid once a year, even if that enrollee has moved to a different state, or becomes no longer eligible, or is no longer alive. Jonathan Ingram of the Foundation for Government Accountability, in a recent report, recommended allowing states to redetermine eligibility more frequently and thereby culling their rolls of ineligible individuals.

Third, the bill puts the legacy Medicaid program on a long-term per-capita cap tied to medical inflation through 2025, and conventional inflation (CPI-U) thereafter. This change is important, because Medicaid per-enrollee spending is growing at a slightly slower rate than Medical inflation; hence, making the program sustainable requires the use of CPI-U. The fiscal sustainability of Medicaid is essential to making sure that those who depend on the program can know it will be there for them in the future...

Keep reading.

Trevor Noah on the Philando Castile Shooting Video

Leftists think they're on some high horse here?

The cops gunned down this dude. The cops murdered him. It's plain as day. It's not, however, a case for the "Black Lives Matter" movement. That's about cop-killing. We're supposed to be a nation of laws. There was no justice in the Philando Castile case, and that's really sad.

Watch, "Trevor Noah on the Philando Castile Shooting: 'Forget race. Are we all watching the same video?'"



PREVIOUSLY: "Minnesota Officer Acquitted in Killing of Philando Castile."

Democrat Party of Hate and Destruction (VIDEO)

Watch, from this morning's Fox & Friends, at Fox News, "Judge Jeanine: Democrats a party of hate and destruction."

April Playmate Nina Daniele (VIDEO)

Here, "Nina Daniele Sexy Pics (10 Pics)."

'Rainbow Armpit Hair for Pride'

Seen on Twitter:

Rainbow Armpit Hair For Pride Is the Most Amazing Thing You'll See Today https://t.co/VBZuvaHxf9 pic.twitter.com/IF9uADBvJv

— Cosmopolitan (@Cosmopolitan) June 21, 2017

NO IT ISNT https://t.co/4EV7IjoCyh

— Jenna Jameson (@jennajameson) June 23, 2017

Shop Best Sellers in Grocery and Gourmet Food

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Grocery & Gourmet Food.

And, Shop Gourmet Coffee.

BONUS: Cynthia Enloe, Bananas, Bananas, Beaches, and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics.

Total Insanity at Evergreen State College (VIDEO)

There's still a couple of things reassuring about the whole mess at Evergreen: One, the leftist totalitarians are still outnumbered by people who oppose them (and who have powerful ways to get the opposition message out); and two, at some point, the Evergreen students will have to go out and make it in the real world. Most of these students will seek jobs at leftist non-profits and radical progressive interest groups and think tanks (if they indeed seek work at all). But if some of them want employment in regular corporate America, they'll find there's a limit at even the most tolerant and progressive firms to the obscenities of social justice extremism.

In any case, watch the video below, and read the commentary and analysis at the Other McCain, "The Catastrophe at Evergreen State":

As has been pointed out, Professor Weinstein “supported Bernie Sanders, admiringly retweets Glenn Greenwald and was an outspoken supporter of the Occupy Wall Street movement” and calls himself “deeply progressive,” but that’s not enough for the thugs at Evergreen.

Out in Paper: Clinton Romesha, Red Platoon

Now available in paperback, at Amazon, Clinton Romesha, Red Platoon: A True Story of American Valor.

Getting an Edge in the Long Afghan Struggle

From David Petraeus and Michael O'Hanlon, at WSJ, "Trump’s early approach holds promise if backed with a sustained, and sustainable, commitment":

Trump's strategy should seek long-term sustainability in Afghanistan, write David Patraeus & Michael O’Hanlon https://t.co/hWUJMhT9NA

— WSJ Editorial Page (@WSJopinion) June 23, 2017

Can the U.S. succeed in Afghanistan? Not without a sustained, and sustainable, commitment. President Trump’s decision to give Defense Secretary Jim Mattis the authority to add several thousand more U.S. troops to the 8,400 currently deployed is encouraging—but only if it is a first step in a comprehensive approach.

Army Gen. John Nicholson, commander of U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan, should also receive greater leeway in the use of U.S. and NATO air power. And officials should remain open to the possibility of reconciliation with some insurgents, probably just those that break off from the central Taliban.

An intensified military effort could arrest the gradual loss of territory held by the government in recent years—now estimated by U.S. Central Command at only 60% of the country—and to regain battlefield momentum. Congress should enable all this by appropriating the $5 billion or so a year above current levels that such a strategy will require.

America’s leaders should not lose sight of why the U.S. went to, and has stayed in, Afghanistan: It is in our national interest to ensure that country is not once again a sanctuary for transnational extremists, as it was when the 9/11 attacks were planned there. We have been accomplishing that mission since the intervention began in October 2001. Although al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan is diminished, it could rebound if given the opportunity. Islamic State could expand its newfound Afghan foothold as well.

The augmented troop levels Mr. Trump has authorized would be only 12% to 15% of the peak U.S. force levels, in 2010-11. The country can sustain that level of commitment. While all casualties are tragic, our losses in Afghanistan would likely remain far fewer than the losses from another major terrorist attack in the U.S.

Today the U.S. and its coalition partners lack the capacity to train and assist Afghan forces adequately in the field. As recently as 2015, the allied forces did not even have a full-time advisory presence for the main Afghan army corps in Helmand province. Largely as a result, the Taliban gained control of much of the province. Nor did the coalition have adequate advisers to help the smaller Afghan formations near Kunduz before that city fell to the Taliban in 2015. It was later liberated only at high cost, especially to Afghan forces and civilians. Restrictions on coalition air power reduced America’s ability to help Afghan partners.

Adding some 3,000 to 5,000 U.S. and allied troops could provide the capacity for several dozen deployable mentoring teams. That is far from enough to assist each Afghan brigade or battalion. But it could support the units that are engaged in the toughest fights and are most intensively involved in rebuilding their capabilities. Supporting those teams logistically and with air power, and providing quick-reaction forces in several parts of the country to help them if they get in trouble, would drive additional requirements for coalition troops into the low thousands.

On the civilian side, President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah need to continue their efforts against corruption, which have shown gradual, modest results to date. With U.S. help, they need to reform the electoral commissions that will oversee parliamentary and presidential elections over the next two years.

Then there is Pakistan, where the U.S. needs a tougher approach...

More.

PHOTO: Above, "Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in a helicopter over Kabul, April 24."

Caroline Wozniacki for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit (VIDEO)

Well, she was defeated in the French Open quarterfinals, although it looks like she's not taking it too hard, lol.

People Are Dying of AIDS in Venezuela

As bad as it is, AIDS/HIV isn't generally fatal, given access to decent medical care and medications.

I guess just even decent care's no longer the case in Venezuela.

Will this make progressives rethink their utopian schemes? Undoubtedly no.

At Toronto's Globe and Mail, "In Venezuela, a once-leading AIDS program lies in ruins":

People are dying of #AIDS in #Venezuela today in a way and in numbers they die nowhere else in the world https://t.co/HEw10hE5W7

— Stephanie Nolen (@snolen) June 22, 2017

More than a decade ago, the country was lauded for its treatment program. Now, Venezuela is years into a political and economic crisis.

Juan Coronel was so thin that his kneecaps jutted out like tent poles in his sweatpants. He was 39 when I met him a few weeks ago, with reddish-brown hair that clung to his scalp like a baby’s and deep hollows below his cheekbones. His voice was soft and raspy, and he seemed dazed at his own fragility. “I need to go and look for medicine,” he said, “but I’m having trouble getting around.”

I had not seen a person who looked like Mr. Coronel – a person dying of untreated AIDS – since I covered the pandemic in Africa at its height more than a decade ago. In fact, there is nowhere in the world today where people are dying of AIDS at the pace and in the sheer numbers that they are in Venezuela: Even the poorest African countries today have HIV treatment programs. They still don’t reach everyone, and people are still dying, or getting treatment only after they become very ill – they may come to look as Mr. Coronel did when I met him. But in other countries, they are the exception. Today, in Venezuela, his case is the rule...

Keep reading.

Left-Wing Politics Will Be the Demise of Democrats

This is good, from Shermichael Singleton, at the Hill:

You don’t have to be a seasoned political operative to question the logic behind Democrats investing so much money into a congressional district that has gone Republican for nearly 40 years, yet that is exactly what the Democratic Party did.

They believed they could switch moderate Republican voters to vote for a Democratic candidate and mobilize Independents by spouting a progressive message, which is philosophically antithetical to the values held by most voters — such as limited government due to a fear of government encroachment and excessive regulation — as well as utopian ideas about society, which many frankly believe are unrealistic.

Grand visions about the future are typically distrusted by most people regardless of their ideological leanings because people live in reality, and nothing in reality happens overnight. Most Americans want pragmatism that builds toward a better tomorrow, rather than grandiose promises built on unproven ideas.

Maybe the intent of progressive Democrats is good. Maybe it isn’t. However, what is most concerning about progressive ideology is that it maintains the belief that ultimate good comes from a centrally planned state or in essence the government. Similar to socialism, progressivism advocates for a government built on compulsory force.

The government cannot possibly know the needs of every single person today, so that the needs of the individual are met for tomorrow. Any more than a socialist system knows how much of a product to produce. The two are arguably one in the same.

One of the biggest problems with progressivism is that they advocate the importance of a centralized nurturing state with a moral goal, but that has never been the role of government. Government, as advocated by progressives, is impossible because it is impossible for a government to know exactly what each individual need or how much of it that they need.

Democrats foolishly believed that college-educated Republicans would vote for a progressive Democrat over a Republican because of their disdain for President Trump and his many mishaps. The unknown Jon Ossoff ran against the known Karen Handel, who once chaired Fulton County Board of Commissioners from 2003 to 2006. She was then elected and served as Georgia’s secretary of state from 2007 to 2010.

And she even threw her hat in the ring for the highly contested U.S. Senate race in 2014 to replace former Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.). In essence, she isn’t a political newcomer and the fact that Democrats actually believed they could flip a district that has gone Republican for nearly four decades purely because of Trump’s actions shows how out of touch their strategy is.

Handel made the election about issues, pointing out that a vote for Ossoff would be a vote for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who is far more unpopular with Republican voters, including those with a disdain for Trump...

More.

Lily Collins, Phil Collins' Daughter, Opens Up About Eating Disorder

I didn't know she was Phil Collins' daughter.

I like Phil Collins. I saw him with Genesis, at the Long Beach Arena, back in the day.

At London's Daily Mail, "'My body's the shape it is because it holds my heart!' Lily Collins is candid about eating disorder battle as she reveals her fab form in swimsuit shoot."

And at Shape, "Lily Collins Shares How Suffering from an Eating Disorder Changed Her Definition of 'Healthy'."

Lily Collins Shares How Suffering from an Eating Disorder Changed Her Definition of 'Healthy' https://t.co/LpOp0k540e pic.twitter.com/PidOaQUjU8

— Shape Magazine (@Shape_Magazine) June 22, 2017

Out in Paper: Nicholas Stargardt, The German War

I zipped through this book when I read it last year.

Now available in paperback, at Amazon, Nicholas Stargardt, The German War: A Nation Under Arms, 1939–1945.

Today's Deals

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Gold Box Deals.

Also, Handcrafted Indian Wooden Barrel Money Bank for Kids - Brass Accents and Coin Slot - Measures 5.5 Inches.

And, Swiss+Tech ST35060 Polished SS 20-in-1 Bicycle Multitool Kit for Bike Repair, Sports, Camping, Outdoors.

Plus, Mountain House Just In Case...Classic Assortment Bucket.

Here, Cafe Britt Tarrazu Montecielo Ground Coffee, 12-Ounce Bags (Pack of 2).

Still more, Flatware Set - Sterling Quality - Royal Cutlery - Multipurpose Use for Home, Kitchen or Restaurant (20 Pc Flatware Set) - by Utopia Kitchen.

And, Camp Kitchen Utensil Organizer Travel Set - Portable 8 Piece BBQ Camping Cookware Utensils Travel Kit with Water Resistant Case, Cutting Board, Rice Paddle, Tongs, Scissors, Knife and Bottle Opener.

BONUS: Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined.

Rep. Kathleen Rice Calls for Leadership Change in the Democratic Party (VIDEO)

Following-up, "Time for Nancy Pelosi to Step Down?"

Pelosi's going to hang to power as if she were Joseph Stalin.

At Morning Joe, this morning: