News Nuggets 1300

DAYLEE PICTURE:  A baby Palm Squirrel in Sri Lanka.  From the Daily Mail of the UK.

For Millions, Health Insurance Will Cost Less than $100/month from USA Today
"About 6.4 million Americans eligible to buy insurance through the new health exchanges will pay $100 or less a month in premiums because of tax subsidies, according to a Department of Health and Human Services report to be released Tuesday and obtained by USA TODAY."

Ted Cruz’s Nightmare: Obamacare Helps People! (Joan Walsh) from Salon 
"So despite Republican claims of soaring insurance costs and “sticker shock” once Americans see their bills under Obamacare, the truth is most of the uninsured will get affordable plans. Oh, and as to fear-mongering about people who already have insurance seeing their rates rise? The Rand Corp. studied that question and found premiums at small companies  – the most likely to be affected by Obamacare regulations – are coming down."

Obamacare, the Debt Ceiling and GOP Insanity (Jonathan Capehart) from the Washington Post
"That the electorate doesn’t understand the complexities of the debt ceiling isn’t surprising. What’s scary is that some members of Congress don’t either. ... Cantor and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) know full well they are playing a dangerous game. That they continue to play it is further proof they live in fear of those who neither understand nor care that they don’t understand the implications of what they are doing."

Diane Ravitch: School Privatization is a Hoax, “Reformers” Aim to Destroy Public Schools (Diane Ravitch) from Salon
"Our public schools aren't in decline. And "reformers" with wild promises don't care about education — just profits."

House GOP Could Splinter Again On Food Stamp Cuts from Talking Points Memo 
"Made to appease the right wing of the GOP conference, the proposal could lose the support of some moderate Republicans, maybe enough to kill the bill. That’d be a major embarrassment for GOP leadership, after they were forced to pull a version of the farm bill in June that included $20 billion in food stamp cuts because they couldn’t garner enough support from conservatives, who wanted deeper reductions."

Let’s Not Wait to Talk About Gun Control (David Frum) from the Daily Beast 
Good to see this sane conservative pundit back in the saddle after some time away.
"Gun enthusiasts say it is inappropriate to talk about gun violence at the time it occurs. Better to wait … and wait … and wait … until time has passed, and the weeping next of kin have vanished from TV, and it’s safe to return to business as usual. The idea of the gun enthusiasts is that the way to show respect for the victims of gun violence is to do everything possible to multiply their number."

Mapping the Republican Brain from Democracy Corps
"...you will understand the current war in the Republican Party better if you are able to see the the six underlying attitudinal dimensions that run through the consciousness of today's Republican Party supporters. It is these dimensions that create the passionate factions at war against 'Obamacare," gay marriage, and immigration."

Obama, Republicans, and the Crisis of Legitimacy (Jonathan Chait) from New York Magazine
"“Who has the stronger claim to speak on behalf of the people: the president or the legislative majority that opposes his policies?” No automatic mechanism exists within the system to resolve this, and so each side has an incentive to escalate its claim and attempt to seize more power. The incipient showdown in Washington is a form of this underlying tension — not a Latin American–style coup, but very much a crisis of legitimacy. "

The New Politics of Evasion (Galston & Kamarck) from Democracy Journal
"New thinking and favorable demography have largely addressed the Democrats’ old problems. Now it’s the Republicans who can’t face reality."

The Big Story this Fall will be the Divisions Within the GOP (Greg Sargent) from the Washington Post
"GOP obstructionism of Obama’s agenda has in many ways been unprecedented, and the party’s conservative wing is both asymmetrically radical while wielding outsized control over the party, thanks in part to GOP lawmakers’ fear of primary challenges and other structural factors. The main
storyline this fall will turn on whether GOP leaders can figure out a way to overcome this, now that it has veered out of their control. Not much else matters."

The Power of 218: If House Republicans Can't Hold Together, They Have No Leverage at All from the Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal
Indeed not -- as I'm certain Obama knows.  As I have noted here many times, I believe it has been Obama's central political strategy this year to marginalize the radical wing of the GOP.  We are now entering a critical month or two where we will see if this strategy is succeeding or not.
"Republicans are fracturing over tactics, and even over the nature of political reality, which may let Mr. Obama outwit them like a domestic Vladimir Putin. In our view the GOP would be less confused if more House Members appreciated the power of 218. That's the number of votes that makes a majority and it is the only true "leverage" Republicans have while Democrats hold the Senate and a Presidential veto."

The Movement Strikes Back (Robert Costa) from the National Review
Conservative activists won’t back down on defunding Obamacare. ... Both camps fear that a shutdown is increasingly likely — and they blame the conservative movement’s cottage industry of pressure groups. But these organizations, ensconced in Northern Virginia office parks and elsewhere, aren’t worried about the establishment’s ire. In fact, they welcome it."

House Republicans Divided on When to Battle ObamaCare (Russell Berman, Molly K. Hooper and Elise Viebeck) from The Hill
"Some House conservatives believe they would have a better shot at targeting President Obama’s healthcare law in fiscal fights after a crucial Oct. 1 deadline when, they argue, new insurance rates will reignite public opposition to the law. The argument highlights a deep strategic split within the House GOP about how best to extract concessions from Democrats on healthcare."

Powerful Senate Conservatives Fund Expands To Focus On House Races from Talking Points Memo
"The Senate Conservatives Fund, an organization that has emerged as a powerful challenger to incumbent Republicans who wade too far to the middle, is expanding its focus to the House of Representatives, creating a new force with deep coffers likely to divide an already ideologically split caucus of Republican lawmakers."
More evidence of unprecedented discord deep within the GOP power structure -- when you have major donors and fundraisers gearing up to spend millions -- to defeat fellow Republicans.

Need more evidence?  Check this:
David Brooks Warns About "The Rise Of Ted Cruz-ism" from the PBS News Hour 
"Ted Cruz, the senator from Canada through Texas, is basically not a legislator in the normal sense, doesn't have an idea that he's going to Congress to create coalitions, make alliances, and he is going to pass a lot of legislation. He's going in more as a media protest person. And a lot of the House Republicans are in the same mode.  They're not normal members of Congress. They're not legislators. They want to stop things. And so they're just being -- they just want to obstruct. And the second thing they're doing, which is alarming a lot of Republicans, is they're running against their own party."

Ted Cruz Is Making Life Miserable For House Republicans (Josh Barro) from the Business Insider
"The only way he can exercise power is as an interloper in House Republican business — and his presence there is not wholeheartedly welcomed."

MURDER MYSTERY NUGGET!!
Mystery of Foss Lake: Two Submerged Cars Containing Five Bodies are Found by Chance After FIFTY YEARS. But How Did They Die? from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
Freaky!!  Indeed what happened to these poor people?
"They had lain undiscovered under an Oklahoma lake for fifty years. And now the discovery of two rusting vintage cars containing five bodies has reignited the mystery of how three teenagers and one couple vanished more than five decades ago.  Highway patrol officers  testing their sonar equipment Foss Lake near Elk City, Oklahoma on Friday stumbled upon the rusting 1969 Camaro and a Chevrolet dating from the 1950s."

TORNADO NUGGET!!
The Moment a 'Horizontal Tornado' Rolled in Over the Skies of Virginia from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"A cloud shaped like a giant rolling pin or sideways tornado had people craning their necks for a better look in Washington DC yesterday. The unusual weather phenomenon, known as a roll cloud, stretched in a long line low in the sky at about 7.30am."

GHOST TOWN NUGGET!!
The 'Oligarch's Ghost Town' from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"Vozdvyzhenka was conceived of as a desirable luxury community for Kiev's high society.  But the 2008 financial crisis choked demand for upmarket housing in the Ukrainian capital"