UP-FRONT SERVICE WORK NUGGET!!
McDonald's Can't Figure Out How Its Workers Survive on Minimum Wage from the Atlantic
"In a financial planning guide for its workers, the company accidentally illustrates precisely how impossible it is to scrape by on a fast food paycheck."
UP-FRONT HEALTH CARE NUGGET!!
Health Plan Cost for New Yorkers Set to Fall 50% from the New York Times
"Individuals buying health insurance on their own will see their premiums tumble next year in New York State as changes under the federal health care law take effect, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced on Wednesday."
Putin Says U.S. Ties More Important Than Snowden from Reuters
"President Vladimir Putin signalled clearly on Wednesday that he did not want a dispute over the fate of former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden to derail Russia's relations with the United States."
IRS Interviews Show No Political Bias Against Tea Party Groups from Reuters
"A top Democrat investigating U.S. Internal Revenue Service scrutiny of conservative groups on Tuesday said interviews with 15 agency employees had found no hint of White House involvement, challenging Republicans on a lingering controversy."
The Nature of the Beast: The Breathless Press and the Phony IRS ‘Scandal’ (Michael Tomasky) from the Daily Beast
"While you were watching the Zimmerman trial, the narrative about the IRS targeting Obama’s enemies has been thoroughly debunked, writes Michael Tomasky."
How The Senate Filibuster Reform Fight Saved Elizabeth Warren's Consumer Board from the Huffington Post
"On Tuesday morning, 71 senators voted to move forward on Cordray's confirmation, including 17 Republicans. Later in the day, Cordray was confirmed by a vote of 66-34. None of the GOP demands had been met. So what changed? The politics around the filibuster."
After Bush, the Blues (Peter Beinart) from Newsweek
"The party Bush once commanded is repudiating much of his legacy. And it’s doing so because it no longer shares his temperament. Bush was, at his core, an optimist."
Delusions of Populism (Paul Krugman) from the New York Times
"Have you heard about “libertarian populism” yet? If not, you will. It will surely be touted all over the airwaves and the opinion pages by the same kind of people who assured you, a few years ago, that Representative Paul Ryan was the very model of a Serious, Honest Conservative. So let me make a helpful public service announcement: It’s bunk."
The Real Reason Why Republicans Folded on the Filibuster from the New Republic
"The Republican threat of what the party would do if the filibuster were to crumble is a list of things that a veteran Republican senator himself frames as being way-out-there and part of a “dangerous trend.” ... Implicit in his argument is that this agenda would not be a very popular one."
Senate Democrats Threaten Nuclear Option and Win (Jonathan Chait) from New York Magazine
"Once again the majority party forced the minority into a total capitulation. There is a lesson here, and it’s not that the Senate is a wonderfully congenial place whose rules must not be touched."
The Filibuster was Reformed Today. Really. (Markos Moulitsas) from Daily Kos
"Democrats established that they could bust through any filibuster with a simple majority anytime they wanted. Sure, it's still a process to do so, full of blustery threats and hyperbolic doomsaying, but it's a process. And best of all, it won't be limited to just administration appointments."
Average Ideology of the House and Senate, 1947 - 2012 from the Brookings Institution
"The following graphics show the average ideology of the Republican and Democratic parties in Congress since World War II. In recent years, the Republican party has become far more conservative than the Democratic party has become liberal. The average ideology of the House has likewise become more conservative; this shift began during the 104th Congress."
The Speaker Is Mute But Not Unintelligible: What John Boehner is thinking (Jennifer Senior) from New York Magazine
"Most Democrats discern in him a rational streak, though they pity him for it. (“John Boehner is a reasonable man,” Steny Hoyer, the House Democratic whip, told me this spring, “and that probably damns him.”)"
Double Down On Whites? Good Luck with That (Josh Marshall) from Talking Points Memo
"...a new look at the numbers, by Ruy Teixeira and Alan Abramowitz, shows that this strategy is almost certainly destined to fail. One point they note is that a lot of the ‘double down on the white vote’ talk has been based on an analysis of the 2012 election that is quite misleading - the supposed fact that a lot of white voters simply sat out the 2012 election..."
House GOP’s Endgame on Immigration: Do Nothing? (Greg Sargent) from the Washington Post
"... so the end game of necessity would be that House Republicans would never hold any vote on comprehensive immigration reform. And this would be the better outcome. The worse one — which Strong suggests as a real possibility — is that House Republicans pass nothing whatsoever."
2016-PRES: Hillary Clinton and the Quiet Gender Revolution (E.J. Dionne Jr.) from the Washington Post
"What's obvious to everyone is that Hillary Clinton is the overwhelming Democratic favorite, if she decides to get in... The last time, she had to persuade the party. This time, the party wants to persuade her. ... But support for Clinton has at least as much to do with hard-core calculations that she could win because of her wide experience, her likely strength among working-class voters and her sheer endurance in the face of tests that few other politicians have had to confront."
2016-PRES: Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas heading to New Hampshire from the Associated Press
"Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas is heading to New Hampshire as part of a summer swing through early voting states on the presidential calendar."
SEN-WY: Liz Cheney Wyoming Senate Run Echoes GOP Divisions from the Huffington Post
"Liz Cheney says her GOP primary challenge to Wyoming's senior U.S. senator is about sending a "new generation" to Washington. But it has all the hallmarks of the same divisions that have roiled the Republican Party nationally for years."
GEYSER NUGGET!!
There She Blows: The Incredible Pictures of a Man-made Geyser in the Middle of the Nevada Desert from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"They could be pictures of another planet or the set of a science fiction movie. But it is in fact an amazing phenomenon created by accident in the middle of the Nevada Desert. The otherworldly images show Fly Geyser, a little-known attraction described as one of the most beautiful sights in the state."
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