Since our last blog, the Supreme Court ruled that we keep our affordable healthcare. The deciding vote in favor of Obamacare was Chief Justice John Roberts. That’s worrisome—if John Roberts does something good, it’s only because he’s saving himself to do something really bad later. The message from the Supreme Court was that you can keep your healthcare... for now. But with Citizens United, moneyed interests can elect leadership that will kill affordable healthcare. So with this ruling, the Supreme Court didn’t demonstrate that they have moral scruples. They merely demonstrated that they have patience. For Roberts to shoot down healthcare at this point would be like a sniper who is under cover firing a shot—he would have got the shot off, but it would have exposed his position.

Where does Mitt Romney stand on the question of whether the Obamacare mandate is a penalty or a tax? Mitt’s problem was that if he said Obama’s mandate was a tax, then he would have to say that his own mandate in Massachusetts would be a tax. But then in Mitt’s world, he never has to say anything. Sure enough, now Mitt says a mandate is a tax when Obama does it, but not a tax when Mitt does it. I can’t believe that people thought that was something too ridiculous even for Mitt to say—there is nothing too ridiculous for Mitt to say. He claimed it is “very clear that at the state level, states have the power to put in place mandates. And as a result, Massachusetts’s mandate was a mandate, was a penalty.” OK, that crosses the line from “nuance” to “nonsense.” Forget having your dressage horse at the Olympics, Mitt. The way you contort yourself, you should be on the Olympic gymnastics team.  

I hope you had a good Fourth of July. It was convenient. It was hot enough that you could cook your burgers on any exposed surface, and set off your fireworks just by laying them in the sun. Is this heat the result of global warming? NBC’s Washington Chief Meteorologist said “If we did not have global warming, we wouldn’t see this.” I guess that’s why conservatives claim they don’t see it. The only good part about the incredible heat is that Republicans not only have to sit in it, they have to deny that it’s happening.

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For the first time in US history "Do you have an offshore bank account?" is a pertinent question in a presidential campaign...