Hammer Mill Days

What the hell is that? Sounds like the howl of the wind in a box canyon. No, wait ... I know that sound. I think it's a distant didgeridoo. That's it, fellows - we have dug ourselves a tunnel to Australia. Well, barely a day goes by here in the abandoned Cheney Hammer Mill without some kind of discovery. Last week it was a new source of precious reverb - a commodity rare as hen's teeth up here in central New York. Now we're looking at (or staring down into, I should say) a superhighway to down under. And when I say "down under", I don't mean merely down underground. Nay, sir ... I mean the actual land "Down Under", meaning the continent of Australia. What luck, eh? Here I thought this elevator shaft to the center of the Earth would yield only another string of unsuccessful and unsatisfying performances in front of restive gaggles of Morlocks or some other troglodytic denizens of the dark. But now it seems the tunnel is a bit deeper than we t...

As I write this, the Senate Republicans have pulled their version of the ACA "repeal and replace" legislation - a bill that's really more a massive tax cut funded by massive cuts in Medicaid. This temporary hiatus is mostly down to the many thousands of people across the country who made their voices heard in various ways, and so to all of you I say job well done. That said, this job is not, in fact, done. The Republicans will be back very soon with a slightly amended version of the bill that can garner 50 votes, after having bought off key senators with part of that $300 billion-plus deficit reduction bundle built into this piece of legislative ordure. Just watch. This entire situation - I won't say "debate" because there hasn't been any - is ridiculous largely because no one in Washington will admit to what the ACA's core problems are. The Republicans, and to a certain extent many Democrats, continue to insist that competition and a freer market ...