#i am like 60% certain that the reality of the situation is gonna hit me when we move furniture in

[cacklefrendly]

so, it hasn't, like. mentally sunk in yet, but. i just co-signed a lease for an apartment today. we're moving in early January.

there's still a lot of stuff that needs to be done beforehand, like telling certain people, packing stuff, ect — but it's happening. it's locked in.

idk maybe I'll talk about it more after we've all lived there a while, maybe not. more pressing is that it's entirely possible that I'm without consistent internet throughout January (or maybe longer). it hopefully won't end up being too big of a deal, but we're 1000% gonna need to sit down and figure it out together, i think.

we'll figure it out :þ

[dropintomanga]

The Evergreen Shonen Story

A short while ago, there were some online conversations about the popularity of shonen stories. Almost all of them are based around the experiences of youth and some adult fans wanted action-oriented stories based around their life experiences as adults. Reading stories centered on teens and kids as the main characters isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, I’ll admit that. But sometimes, I think shonen stories are somewhat of a reflection on what adults have been telling kids for years and how some/most of their advice has failed youth.

Life begins in the womb. We come out to a world of many possibilities. As children, we’re immune to bias until adults decide to tell us about the many differences of various people out there. Some adults may not care and have trouble dealing with their own pain, They may resort to substances like drugs and alcohol to cope. Under the influence of drugs or alcohol, these adults may start to abuse children and/or neglect them entirely.

There’s a term that relates to the overwhelming negative experiences of children growing up. It’s called ACE - “adverse childhood experiences.” Examples of such experiences include physical/sexual abuse, parent separation, physical/emotional neglect, and living with an adult with substance addiction. I look at a bunch of shonen flashback stories and many of the traumatic ones revolve around physical and emotional neglect.

Why is this important to acknowledge? Because some adults do a bad job in raising their children or guiding kids to become responsible individuals. We’ve seen examples of bad parenting in anime and manga. There’s also the fact that adults have been full of dreams themselves when they were kids, but have been fed advice on how the “real world” works. They’ve been told that they can’t make their dreams come true and/or they need to behave a certain way to get by. It’s a vicious cycle. A colleague of mine told me that when she sees young people with vision and a desire to smash the status quo end up being a part of the status quo themselves, she wondered if that’s due to those individuals seeing how hard it is and how long it takes to generate the change they want to see.

One of my favorite shonen characters in recent memory is Satoro Gojo of Jujutsu Kaisen. He was a student of Jujutsu High and ends up becoming a teacher there. Gojo is considered to be a prodigy, but he remains humble. He’s also willing to speak up to authority as he has gotten into disputes with upper school management over the fates of cursed students (particularly Yuji Itadori and Yuta Okkutsu) whose potential have yet to be realized. Gojo has once said that he needs to remind himself not to be a bitter old adult as he ages.

A good number of shonen stories drive the point that adults shouldn’t be bitter old ones. Or maybe more importantly, don’t be dismissive about teen experiences. I listened to a podcast a while back about loneliness and how much it affects mental health. There was a discussion point about adults ignoring teens that feel lonely with regards to dating. Here’s a quote from that discussion.

“The number one way that we do this (being dismissive of loneliness) in America is every single 30-year-old up completely dismisses the loneliness that a teenager feels about not having a significant other. Because once we hit 30, we realize that your 16 year old significant other is nonsense. It’s just nonsense. You’re gonna be in love so much in your life. You’re gonna love everybody. You’re going to date a million people. It’s gonna be fine. You’re going to realize how insignificant this relationship is. 

The key word there is you’re gonna realize it. It’s a future thing for them. So when every 30, 40, 50, 60 year old looks at the 16, 17, 18 year old and says, oh, you just broke up with your boyfriend? Yeah, who cares? That’s a meaningless relationship. I don’t care. That exacerbates the loneliness. It exacerbates the disconnected feeling because it really, really, really, really matters to them.”

I honestly think adults being dismissive towards teens’ current experiences is one reason why shonen stories still resonate with many. We’ve all been through those times where adults just shut us down because ultimately, it doesn’t matter. Yes, there comes a point where we have to move forward. But a good amount of emotional pain stems from adolescence and it lingers. Most mental disorders begin to happen around those years. Unfortunately, most of us don’t know how to give back in ways that stop the cycle. I do think mangaka are trying their best to give back the way they know how. 

Yet I think the biggest reason for the enduring popularity of shonen stories is friendship. We all know the Shonen Jump tropes - friendship, hard work and victory. All three are important, but friends are what really keeps us alive. The harsh truths are that hard work doesn’t always get you where you want to go and victories do come at the cost of important relationships. Over the years, I noticed that in my neck of the woods, friendship is frowned upon. When you’re ranking important relationships in life, first is your mother, then maybe your father, then your romantic partner, followed by your children. Friends are last. There was a nice read I found that listed a good amount of studies on the importance of friends (especially for those who are LGBTQ+ and faced stigma from immediate family). 

We don’t live on an island, contrary to what neoliberalism says. Families aren’t enough. Friends are what keeps us alive and helps build our sense of identity. 

Maybe the fans who want more mature/adult-centered stories with shonen action just want to see more nuanced stories about friendships in adult settings. Friendships are so hard to make and maintain as adults. There’s some glimmers of hope for those kinds of stories - in video games. Yakuza: Like a Dragon is a great example of an adult hero in a genre dominated by young protagonists, the Japanese RPG. The story is about a 42-year old ex-yakuza who gets exiled into a unfamiliar city and manages to make something of himself with the help of new friends he made there. It was refreshing because the whole cast were adults who were unemployed and/or stigmatized due to underworld ties. They managed to save Japan from a vicious political alliance with action elements that felt shonen at heart.

I’m all for more adult-centered mainstream shonen stories because seinen material can be a bit too blunt for some tastes, but there’s a lot of focus on the mindset of youth lately than in decades past since there’s concern on how they will manage in a world that continues to disappoint them.

I love shonen because I honestly don’t feel like I’m an adult due to my depression. My development felt stunted. I feel that I have more in common with 20+-year olds than people my age. I want to be around people who are youthful at heart. I wonder about those who still enjoy shonen past the target demographic - what still draws them to it? Is it due to them embracing their inner child more likely than most people? Or do they just like to follow simple action stories that have a lot of heart (something that some people don’t have)?

Looking at shonen’s enduring mainstream status does make me think about the the feedback loops between adults and teenagers. I’ll end this by talking about an incident that happened a couple years ago where a somewhat prominent Anitwitter figure (I am NOT going to mention their name here, but you may know who I’m referring to), who made a lot of friends with people in the anime/manga industry, was outed be a sexual predator who went after young naive anime fans at fan conventions. One of the reactions from someone that was once close with them was how can older anime fans better connect with younger anime fans when needed. I know from personal experience, I sigh on seeing the behavior of teens at conventions at times. But I learned that by saying things like “Kids are so dramatic,” “Boys will be boys,” “She’s being emotional.” gets harmful in a hurry where proper context is warranted. Maybe they are being so-and-so, but it doesn’t hurt to ask and give validation to their concerns. Teens are the lifeblood of anime conventions right now.

Shonen is a gateway introduction for youth on how to process pain in a way that helps themselves and other people with the help of said people. It’s an escape from the distress and trauma of reality. That reality, which has situations like the incident I mentioned, is controlled by adults who don’t always have it together, can’t admit their flaws, and sadly take it out on the world. That’s why shonen is still so powerful today despite all the criticism the genre gets. And that’s the evergreen truth.

[iphoenixrising]

For 600 Followers: The Surgeon, The Captain, and the Soldier

From the Dr!Tim Universe: civilian!Tony, Captain America!Steve, and Winter!Bucky Barnes. Mr_Flamingo said he would read the shit out of this. Welp, there you go.

Dr. Stark is a busy, busy man. Even without the weight of Stark Industries on his back (thank-you Miss Potts), he still runs from one emergency to the next.

This one just happens to be to The Captain America.

Which is so Classified even the top level brass don’t know the guy’s real name. Probably because his files have been sealed longer than most of them have been alive, which is just grand. If there’s anything Dr. Stark likes, it’s a challenge.

When Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D came to him because honestly, he the best surgeon they’re going to get in this half of the hemisphere anyway, Tony tried to throw him out for approximately twelve seconds–

Until the file was tossed over his desk and a picture flops out pretty much in his lap.

And that picture is of a beautiful man.

With a star on his chest.

“I don’t put Cosplayers over people with real problems, Nick.”

“Stark, when I say he’s the real deal, that’s what I motherfucking mean.”

Mmhm. And he graduated from Med School yesterday. “Captain America has been dead for only seventy years, give or take. Looks spry for his age, good for him. I bet he’s Osteo’s wet dream, right?” Because he really does enjoy having witty banter with his rejections.

That’s when Nick Fury leaned over his desk, “you’re the only civilian the Black Widow has ever let work on her, and you think I’m bringing you someone in a costume?”

Some of the incredulous is creeping out of this exchange with the way Fury’s remaining eye is focused. “Seventy years? Nick, that’s–” but when Nick hasn’t moved a muscle, hasn’t blinked, probably hasn’t so much as inhaled.

That’s when the possibility becomes reality.

“Holy shit.” Tony’s eyes blow wide and the run-of-the-mill play date in the lab to make something to help with those pesky arteriovenous malformations is right on the backburner. “You’re kidding me.”

“Would I be here if I was kidding, Stark? He is the real World War II veteran. You save his life and I will give you what we have on a certain reason he survived.”

Dr. Stark stares for approximately thirty seconds, judging. The next instant he’s in his sharp coat and red shades, riding to DC in an Apache helicopter.

(Once upon a time, he would have told the engineers how he could make it better, but since his Dad died, he didn’t have to build for SI anymore. He could build for his passion and not feel one fucking bit bad about it.)

Forty-five minutes and he’s scrubbing in, the situation crucial. Agent gave him the run-down without giving him any real information on how this happened. He got a glance at scans of the cranial fracture and hemorrhaging. Shards of skull had been embedded in the grey matter (which makes no sense how he survived this long except as another shred of proof he’s the real deal. Captain Fucking America… his inner fanboy is screaming behind his calm, cool, surgeon demeanor.)

The team S.H.I.E.L.D gave him for the procedure are obviously all military, and in such need of a good laugh. Dr. Stark is sure they’re under order to watch every twitch of his fingers just in case he’s going to try making Captain America a drooling moron or something while poking around in his brain. So, he has to pull out the old SI CEO song and dance, being an unrepentant witty smart ass and talk fast before any of the sternly gowned agents can threaten him with horrible dismemberment if anything should happen to their delicate snowflake.

He gets the one called Barton to crack a smile while they’re scrubbing up, and it’s all going to be fine.

All is right with the world, except when he comes into the nice, sterile OR–

Where he finds the patient awake.

“Hey there, big guy,” he pats the shoulder of the utterly stunning blonde (who is apparently as old as his great-grandpa and has abs for miles), “we probably shouldn’t be meeting this way, considering you’re apparently the biggest secret in the Modern World, next to Big Foot sightings and the what is that gross ring around the tub really made of debate, but still, it’s nice to make your acquaintance. I’m Dr. Stark, and I’ll be your surgeon for the evening. Let me guess, gurney for one?”

He’s talking but checking machines, supplies, and sliding the special eyewear, taking the opportunity to review the site opened at the scalp to show the skull fracture at the side of Captain America’s head. While he watches, the skin is trying to heal around the clamps and a nurse apparently familiar with the Captain’s rate of healing is constantly re-adjusted to keep the wound open enough for surgery.

(The impact should have killed him. How did it not kill him? “Time is of the essence, Dr. Stark. You need to pull the bone fragments while he can keep his skull from healing over it.” Christ, Agent Tight-Ass, full work-up next time for Project Super Soldier Sandwich.)

“Hm…” slurred from behind the oxygen mask, and if Dr. Stark wasn’t one hundred percent invested on making sure he had everything he would need to fix the oddly not healing bleeder in the Captain’s temporal lobe (with things like Wernicke's aphasia hovering in the background), he would have shuddered. “Got that reference, Doc. S’funny.”

Watching the electroencephalography to monitor the Captain’s brain activity, Tony glances over as S.H.I.E.L.D’s people start filtering in around him and the ones with guns watch him closely through the observation windows.

“Never doubted you for a second, Captain. Guy that punched Hitler should be right above a Yeti in my opinion. Anyhoo,” and Tony, gowned, gloved, and masked, comes around to look at the very, very blue eyes and hold a hand close to the Captain’s blonde eyebrows to check the dilation. “The nice esthetician over there is going to hit you up with something to make you very, very sleepy so I can fix that terrible headache you’re probably having right now.”

And Captain America looks up at him from under those lashes, quirks a small shit-eating grin, “ssorry, Doc Stark. Knockouts...won’t work on me. S’ ‘causea the Serum. Gonna be awake no matter how much they gimmie.”

Blinking with his heart in his throat because he can’t imagine the pain the Captain must be in right about now, Tony gets himself back with, “oh? Then I have your witty repartee to look forward to while I work, don’t I Captain?”

“SSteve, Doc. I’m SSteve.”

“Nice to meet you, Steve. I’m Tony, and I’m going to save your life.”

“Soundss like ya gotta plan, Tony.”

And when the slightly familiar red-headed nurse gives him the thumbs up and it’s time to start, he has to step back around to the site being kept open for him.

“I always have a plan, Steve. Fortunately for you, part of my plan involves great music and nice conversations while we discuss your vitals.”

AC/DC starts in with a little Back in Black. And since he is who he is, him mouth moves on autopilot while he works with a delicate touch, fast and efficient, getting side-tracked from his running monologue with Captain Awake and Alert and Answering to accept vitals and updates from the other staff.

It’s been hours, and he’s on up-to-date knock-knock jokes.

They’ve run the gambit of must-see movies (and no he doesn’t see Agent Tight-Ass writing down the ones Steve asks about in detail because yes, he should see Firefly. Alien cowboys, Captain. Alien cowboys), and spent so much time on just the 60’s.

He’s gotten some stories that are absolutely hilarious (because Steve was so curious about the most oddball shit, ATMs, Fitbits, Twitter…) and is closing the wound in Steve’s scalp before he realizes he’s...done.

“Feels so much better, Tony, thank-you.”

“Hey, glad I was in the neighborhood. You��re quite the conversationalist when I’m poking around in your brain.”

“Could say the same. Thought ya might re-wire me to do something silly. Bark like a dog when someone says bell or something.”

And the staff is cleaning up around them, giving Tony the space to ease down just a notch, and wink, “sorry Captain, something I save for the bedroom, not the operating room.”

The sparkle that lights in Steve’s eyes–

–is really his undoing.

**

Riding the high of saving Captain America’s life got him all the way home and to his bed, still churning over the events of the surgery. Butterfinger and U were happy Daddy made it home in one piece (he’d kept the failed surgical bots, unable to decommission his first attempts at independent AI just because they’d rather play fetch than learn procedures...besides, they’re his creations and with their capacity to learn, they’re still evolving), and absolutely pampered him with coffee while he told them about why he was so late.

Butterfingers booped and patted his knee lightly while U rolled back and forth in excitement. Their favorite part was about the Apache, of course. His children were Philistines (but what would he do without them?).

Waking up at one am to Agent Tight-Ass leaning against the bureau in his bedroom was probably the fright of his life.

(Probably not, but no one needs to know that. Few people knew about his kidnapping in Afghanistan from a Medical Conference five years ago.)

“The Captain won’t let another doctor examine him.” Agent Tight-Ass said without even a hello or the decor is nice. “He’s asking for you.”

Tony completely blames it on sleep deprivation when he almost says my Captain? but shakes himself out of it at the last second.

The implications of Agent being here strikes him in the very next second and he’s throwing the covers off and climbing out of bed fast. A clean pair of purple scrubs and Agent knows he goes commando under his expensive and stylish pj pants. “Post-Op complications?” The litany of problems Steve could be experiencing after such a difficult and delicate surgery flash through Tony’s frontal lobe, a slideshow of problems he should have been able to catch before anyone else.

(They shouldn’t have made me leave him. He needs to be under close observation.)

“No. But, S.H.I.E.L.D needs to verify the Captain is physically fit for duty. He won’t let another physician check him out. We’d like you to come back to DC just to make sure.”

And, well, he’s Tony Stark, so he tries to play it off in front of Agent just to be a pain in the ass to deal with, but even before he’s had a single cup of coffee, Tony is riding in another Apache with his leg bouncing in anticipation.

He’s thrown a Henley on under his scrub top, cuffs up to his elbows and probably looking like a derelict resident, but dammit, at least he has good hair.

The damn corridors are long and Agent Tight-Ass is silently striding beside him while Tony desperately holds a cup of coffee in one hand and the Captain’s chart in the other, taking in every detail and plotting out all the worst case scenarios.  What he absolutely doesn’t expect is to see the gorgeous man in dark jeans, red t-shirt, terrible trucker hat, and a single black-gloved hand standing against the wall like he’s the only thing holding the building up. Tony manages to keep his tongue in his mouth when Agent Tight-Ass stops to introduce them.

“Sergeant Barnes, this is Dr. Stark, the Captain’s neurosurgeon.”

And those eyes are like winter, grey and cool, taking him in from dirty sneakers to the half-curl just above his temple. It’s terribly frightening and arousing at the same moment and Tony is absolutely, completely out of his depth in hot men.

(And in-between relationships, isn’t he? Why are the Gods so damn cruel?)

“Very nice to meet you, Sergeant. I understand you’re an unapologetic smart-ass that can kill pretty much anything a mile away and make the worst borscht known to man. Pleasure is all mine, really. Borscht is already terrible, but making is worse? That has to take substantial talent.”

What he doesn’t expect is the tall, intimidating brunette with the sexiest stubbled jaw to blink down at him, head cocking sideways like an inquisitive cat, “s’at so?  I think the pleasure is all mine, Doll. After all, Stevie ain’t quit talkin’ ya up all night. ‘Preciate ya taking good care a’ him fer me.”

Ah. Barnes. James Buchanan Barnes. Always thought those stories were exaggerated.

Tony absolutely does not, does not (think about them together), lick his bottom lip while staring up into those eyes. “Anything I can do for the red, white, and blue, Sergeant Barnes. Just showing my...patriotism.”

Tony grins wide when he gets the Sergeant to laugh out loud, ruining his intense I will murder you vibe.

“Speaking of the Captain,” Agent Tight-Ass interrupts smoothly.

Both of them give the agent waiting with a patient, pleasantly neutral expression, and when Tony looks back, he can see the tension in James Barnes, and lets himself be his usual kind of confident.

“Honestly, I’m going to take good care of him. If the slightest thing deviates from absolutely normal, you will be the first person to know.”

“Thanks, Doll. Good t’ know he’s in the best hands,” and the gloved one squeezes his bicep, right above his elbow (and he is completely imagining that hand has absolutely no give whatsoever) before he turns to where Agent is holding the door open.

The Captain is awake at this ungodly hour and apparently more chipper when he wasn’t in horrible distress from bleeding all up in his grey matter. It was really nice to see this side and observe his handiwork, amazed the staples had already worked themselves out and there wasn’t even a scar to show surgery had ever taken place.

(Steve’s hair is soft and unfairly naturally fluffy. Tony’s bare fingers are threaded in it while his thumbs press lightly over the surgical site to test the healing and be fucking amazed.)

Sergeant Barnes is there for the examination, back in a corner, with that sensual bad boy thing going on, arms crossed over his chest, eyes sweeping the room every few minutes (like he wouldn’t notice?).

And once he checks the normal vitals and signs, looks for all abnormalities, any hint of a complication, Tony Stark–

–lies through his teeth.

“You need at least a week of rest. No strenuous activity at all. No punching Nazis, jumping out of planes, or potentially dangerous anything. Watch terrible daytime TV, eat your weight in bad food, and take it easy. The possibility for complications, or of re-opening the bleed site is high, even for a Super Soldier. Normal downtime would be months, I’m giving you a week. No arguments Captain.”

He turns to look at the Sergeant over his shoulder and they exchange a nod, but he sees James Barnes rolling his lips down like he’s trying not to smile.

“A week? A whole week?” The Captain honest-to-God whines, looking up at him, sitting up with perfect posture that makes his chest thrust out in such a distracting way.

(Those eyes should really be illegal.)

“Absolutely. I’m saying only a week, okay? That is very, very good news for you. From the scans taken less than an hour ago, you’re healing quickly and well. Still, we’re not going to take anything to chance.”

He grins down, completely confident he’s giving Steve the chance to get out in the world more, maybe get out from under all the Agent-Agents around here.

It’s all too soon he’s being ushered out the room and back to his Penthouse in New York, his heart thundering in his chest. The last twenty-four hours seem like some kind of dream, some kind of forbidden fantasy, something he couldn’t have really done, and being set back at his place with his bots and his lab, his nice office in Stark Medical waiting for him tomorrow, with endless calls from Pepper about the Board really wanting him present for the Quarterly Meeting this time, all of reality lays so heavy on him that he thinks maybe Agent Tight-Ass messed with his memories somehow so he’d never be able to tell anyone why S.H.I.E.L.D really wanted him in the first place.

He goes back to bed for an hour of sleep, thinking about Sergeant Barnes’ hand and Captain Roger’s eyes.

Dodging Pepper’s calls the next day between consults, residents, trips to the robotics, and some time spent in the lab, he’s in his office for a whopping fifteen minutes when his secretary knocks on his door.

“I’m sorry Dr. Stark, but they said they know you and he’s your patient–”

When Captain America and Bucky Barnes appear over her shoulder, looking a devilish mix of sheepish (Steve) and smary as hell (of course, the crackshot), Tony wonders how much effort it would take to clear his schedule completely–

–for the next seven days.

[oldguardaudio]

Rush Limbaugh 🙈 FAKE NEWS Drags Me Into the Weeds on the Congressional Budget Office

Rush USA Flag at HoaxAndChange.com

rush-limbaugh @ Old Guard Audio

FAKE NEWS uncovered at HoakAndChange.com

Mar 14, 2017

  RUSH: Now, look at this. CNN has a banner up, or they had one up just moments ago. “Soon: First Briefing Since Health Care Price Tag Revealed.” Meaning: Sean Spicer’s about to go out there and get scalped. The first White House briefing ever since the price tag of the Ryan-Trump health care bill was announced. So, that’s how it’s all set up. Of course, the CBO has now killed this, they say, because they’ve exposed the fraud, they’ve exposed the waste, they’ve exposed… The CBO score exposed the death and the killing that will occur resulting from people losing health insurance.

I mean, this is all out there now. And now CNN is saying that Paul Ryan doesn’t care. He’s not backing off of this no matter what anybody says. He doesn’t care what the CBO says, doesn’t care what Trump says. He’s not backing off. Meaning Ryan is not going to react to any of the backlash against this at all. But I want to go back to this CNN health care little headline here, their banner. “Soon: First Briefing Since Health Care Price Tag Revealed.” Price tag? Look, even the CBO… Here I’m violating my own statement. I said I was not gonna get into the weeds on this but now I’m gonna do it ’cause CNN is dragging me there with their irresponsible, fake news.

Look, the CBO said, if you must know, that the Ryan-Trump repeal-and-replace plan would save over $337 billion in 10 years. That’s right. They say that this will reduce the deficit by $337 billion in 10 years and that it would bring down the cost of premiums at least 10%. If that’s the price tag… I think all of that, frankly, is BS, folks. I don’t think anybody can possibly know what this is gonna be in 10 years because they don’t dynamically score this! It’s meaningless what the CBO says, except in terms of making it livable or unlivable to members of Congress.

But it doesn’t have one thing to do with reality, because they don’t score it dynamically. In other words, they don’t calculate what the impact of the changes will be on the way people live. And the best example I can give you of what I mean by dynamic-versus-static scoring, is CBO can only use the numbers they are given by people who write the legislation. That’s all they can do. So if the bill has a tax cut in it and if writers of the bill say, “We’re gonna cut taxes a half a trillion dollars, $500 billion over 10 years,” the CBO then subtracts $500 billion from the federal Treasury in 10 years, because the tax cut, well, they’re taking money away.

But what happens when you cut taxes? You often end up with more revenue. When you cut taxes, you happen to spur economic growth. When you cut taxes, you generally have new jobs created, and you generally have, then, more taxpayers, which is how you have additional tax revenue. The CBO doesn’t do any of that. In the CBO’s world, a tax cut automatically means the government loses whatever that amount of money is. A tax increase, by the same token, the government automatically gains that kind of money.

Well, let’s look at it that way. Let’s say this piece of legislation has $500 billion of tax increases in it. Well, only if people pay it. What if the tax increases result from behavior, such as a mandate to have health insurance? What about the people that say, “Screw you! I am not doing that!” Well, we got a fine mechanism over there and the CBO counts what that money is. They have no idea what effect… Well, they do not calculate — they don’t even try to calculate — the impact of a tax increase. They just assume everybody’s gonna pay it.

They just assume in a tax cut, everybody’s gonna get it. They do not — even with gazoons and gazoons of years of experience, they never even attempt to — dynamically score it. It’s straight-up-and-down numbers, and 10 years out, how can anybody…? These guys at the National Weather Service couldn’t even forecast where a blizzard was gonna hit 24 hours out, and it was on the map! We saw the blizzard! And they even gave themselves outs. I looked at AccuWeather.

They had three different paths this thing could take. They knew to cover their bases. But the Drive-Bys, of course, had to report that it was gonna hit the most densely populated places, and it was gonna kill, and it was going to ruin, and it was going to destroy. So the airlines cancel 8,000 flights. Airports in New York are at a standstill ’cause nothing’s going on there, and the storm may give eight inches, not two feet. There was no reason to do any of this.

But here you have a government agency that can’t even forecast when the blizzard’s out there! It’s coming in from Canada, it’s in the Northern Plains, and it’s moving right in with the jet stream or whatever other meteorological factors. I believe forecasts are political. I believe, just like in hurricanes, the early forecasts always including major population centers. I think the reason for that is it gets everybody’s attention, and if you’re trying to sell the idea that global warming creates more hurricanes and death and destruction and all that…

So you track it five or six days out or 10. The original track, nobody’s gonna pay attention if it tracks turning out into the ocean and not hitting land. So nobody pays attention to those. But just like this thing, they had the forecast hitting New York, then it was gonna destroy Boston, and before that was gonna destroy Providence, was gonna destroy Newport. Sorry, Newpo’t. Then it was gonna go out and destroy Kennebunkport, and it was gonna leave death and destruction and disaster. And that was last night. And this morning, “Uhhhhhh, you know what?

“It’s still gonna hit but it’s gonna be out there in parts of New York where people live but we just don’t care about ’em as much.” So there is a blizzard, but 24 hours out they had no idea where it was going, and we have the CBO telling us that in 10 years the deficit’s gonna be reduced by $337 billion. Do you realize, folks, that over 10 years we’re talking dimes and quarters? It’s nothing to get excited about either way, either increase the budget or decrease.

Ten years?

There’s no way that they can possibly know what legislation that might be signed next year, today, next week, is gonna mean 10 years from now.

It might be so bad that it has to get replaced between now and then. This is all such smoke and mirrors. I’m convinced CBO serves the purpose of giving legislators an out or giving them an in if they want to support something, and it also serves to keep the public totally confused. And it’s complicating something here that need not be complicated. What we know is Obamacare is bad, that it’s in a spiral of implosion here, and that it needs to be done away with because it’s irresponsible. It’s destroying things, it’s not helping people, and it’s running the danger of ruining the health care system.

It’s got to be gotten rid of and that premise is now invisible. And it’s been replaced by, “Well, I don’t know, you can repeal certain parts of it, yeah, but the other parts, Mr. Limbaugh, we need to go reconciliation, and that we can do, but non-reconciliation we gonna need 60 votes and we don’t got 60 votes.” I’ve been hearing that — well, as long as I’ve been talking to senators. “Rush, the only thing you need to know about the Senate, young man, the only thing you need to know, you can’t do anything without 60 votes.”

It’s the biggest excuse I have continuously heard, ’cause nobody ever has 60 votes. No party ever has that. Well, the Democrats once did, but the Republicans don’t. That’s another built-in excuse for not doing anything. Motivations, I don’t know. Some people think the Republicans are more comfortable as the losing party not having to govern, not having to take leadership, not having the responsibility. Some people think that the Republicans, the Democrats, are no different when it comes to Washington. They want it as big and powerful as it can be. Some people think that the Republicans are so embarrassed and angry that Trump’s elected they’re gonna do what they can to undermine him regardless what the Democrats do.

I mean, there’s all kinds of theories that explain the motivation, the behavior behind people that are posing this. But when you get down to brass tacks, common sense, there’s no reason — if you couple it with campaign promises, everybody knows this bill is a disaster. It was designed to be a disaster. That’s the thing that we need to have people start admitting. This thing was designed to be in the same situation, the exact place it’s in.

It was presumed that a Democrat would be president today. It was presumed that a Democrat would be president when Obamacare, by design, imploded on itself and collapsed. And at that point the Democrat president was gonna say, “You know what? We really gave markets a shot. I mean, we’ve never had more free market opportunities in health care than in Obamacare, and look what happened. The free market botched it, because of selfishness and greed and the insurance companies, so we must go the government taking it over and single payer or put everybody on Medicare.”

That was the design. And we are at the stage of design where implosion was slated to happen. The thing that’s upset the works is that a Democrat’s not in the White House. We have a Republican in the White House who promised to repeal and replace it. We have Republicans in the House and the Senate who heard the promise and themselves made the promise when they would never, ever have to really act on it, but now there aren’t any excuses ’cause they have the House and the Senate but they don’t have 60 votes in the Senate. They still can’t do anything.

So we have to chip away here, chip away there, and do it straight up here, reconciliation over here, and I’m sorry, but I think it’s all smoke and mirrors. And it appears to me that there are enough Republicans that don’t really want this to happen. As I say, I’m not gonna get into the motivation, ’cause there’s probably all kinds of different valid explanations or excuses. And there are plenty conservative Republicans in the House who are out there saying they’re never gonna sign this, that this is nothing more than a new welfare program, that it is not fulfilling the campaign promise that people made. So it’s not all Republicans, don’t misunderstand.

But CNN with this banner talking about price: “CBO score at first press briefing after cost of health care is –” if I didn’t know any better, just watching the Drive-By Media, I would think that there are 20 million people that we’re talking about here, that all that matter are 20 million people, 20 million people that don’t have health care. That’s all we’re talking about because that’s the focus, 20 million people are gonna die, 20 million people are gonna get sick, 20 million people are gonna bankrupt, 20 million here, 20 million there, but it’s always the people that ostensibly do not have health insurance.

Well, now, wait. Obama said that that’s the great thing about Obamacare is it’s covered 20 million people who didn’t have it, so how does it still eventuate that 20 million people don’t have Obamacare after Obama sings the praises of having 20 million people that didn’t have it covered? Were there 40 million people that didn’t have insurance when Obama started this whole thing? You look at the cost, you look at the analysis, you look at CNN and the fake news, and you would think that all we’re talking about here is 20 million people.

Okay, 300 million people in the country. Are we gonna do or not do, stop the presses, go forward on 20 million people and the impact on 20 million? But even this is to miss the point. None of this has to be the case. This is the United States of America with one of the greatest growing, natural, free market economies out there. I don’t pretend to have detailed, specific answers to every objectionable question that I would be asked.

But I know principles, and I know economic rules, and I know human behavior mixed with economic rules and reactions, and I can tell you that there is no way 2,000-plus pages of legislation is the way to administer the health care system of this country. In fact, 2,000 pages is the greatest evidence we have why it’s all wrong. And how it’s gotten wrong is the attempt by some to legislate virtually every aspect of going to the doctor, sitting in the waiting room, getting a Band-Aid.

It’s absurd. And then the presumption of elected officials, many of whom have never ever been anywhere near the health care industry, insurance industry, presuming to be the ones with all the answers. That was my big rub with Obama. He was the supposed expert in fixing everything, and he’d never done anything.

Rush Limbaugh 🙈 FAKE NEWS Drags Me Into the Weeds on the Congressional Budget Office Rush Limbaugh 🙈 FAKE NEWS Drags Me Into the Weeds on the Congressional Budget Office Mar 14, 2017…