WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2025
As told on the Fox News Channel: At long last, the word is going forth to the nations.
We refer to the two American nations, to America Blue and Red. This very afternoon, the New York Times is reporting that the word has started to go forth about Obamacare—i.e., the Affordable Care Act:
Obamacare Prices Become Public, Highlighting Big Increases
The Trump administration has released a preview of the available plans sold through Obamacare marketplaces in 30 states, giving Americans who buy their own health insurance a first look at just how much prices would go up.
Insurers have increased rates significantly for next year—an average of about 30 percent in the states where the federal government manages markets, and an average of 17 percent in states that run their own markets, according to a new analysis from KFF, the health research group.
But most of the more than 20 million Americans covered by the Affordable Care Act don’t currently pay the full price of their insurance, because they qualify for income-based tax credits that help make the plans affordable. That financial assistance has been in place since the federal A.C.A. marketplaces opened in 2014, and became even more generous in 2021, when Congress increased the aid. The extra help is scheduled to expire next year unless Congress acts.
The looming expiration of those subsidies has been a key sticking point in congressional wrangling over the government shutdown, which has lasted nearly a month. Democrats have demanded an extension of the subsidies as a condition of supporting legislation funding the entire government...
As everyone knows, "Democrats have demanded an extension of the subsidies as a condition of supporting legislation funding the entire government." Meanwhile, how much extra might a person be required to pay? The report includes this example:
Sue Monahan, a former university administrator in Oregon who is now retired, is one of the many Americans who face a steep increase if the enhanced subsidies expire. Ms. Monahan, 61, paid $439 a month for her coverage in 2025 after receiving a federal tax credit that covers roughly half of the premiums for her plan. When she went to shop for next year’s plan, she learned that the monthly cost would jump to $1,059 for the same plan with an annual deductible of $7,100.
Ms. Monahan said that as a former kidney donor, going without insurance is not an option. “It’s not there for what you foresee; it’s there for the unexpected expensive events,” she said.
Her cost would go up a lot.
For the record, did we mention the following fact? This time, we'll place it in italics:
"Democrats have demanded an extension of the [Obamacare] subsidies as a condition of supporting legislation funding the entire government."
Everybody understands what Democrats are demanding. Rightly or wrongly, Dems are holding out for this:
Democrats have demanded an extension of the [Obamacare] subsidies as a condition of supporting legislation funding the entire government.
For the record, those subsidies go to American citizens like Monahan—not to unauthorized / undocumented / illegal residents / immigrants / aliens.
That's what Democrats are doing—unless you live in Red America and thereby receive your round-the-clock messaging from TV shows on the Fox News Channel. Last Saturday morning, the messaging came bright and early on Fox & Friends Weekend, courtesy of the deeply devout Rachel Campos-Duffy:
JENKINS (10/25/25): Democrats seem to really think that this is working in their favor. But talk about a telling moment, when Chad Pergram, our Capitol Hill senior reporter, sat down with the number two Democrat. She basically says the quiet part out loud, admitting that families will suffer under Chuck Schumer's government shutdown.
[...]
CAMPOS-DUFFY: The pain is going to—is spreading out among all Americans, and is being touched by all Americans. And they're willing to leverage that for what? So that illegals can get health care. It just seems so ridiculous.
If you live in Red America, you're routinely told that Democrats are holding out for that remarkably different reason. That very night, on that very same channel, we saw Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) say this to Lara Trump:
TRUMP (10/25/25): We're here in Washington, D.C., and we're in the midst of, you know, almost the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. What so you think needs to happen, from maybe both sides of the aisle, to finally bring this to an end?
STEFANIK: Well first of all, Republicans have done our job. We passed a clean funding bill—and this is the same bill that Democrats voted for thirteen times, except this time they chose to shut down the government. They're trying to leverage the American people, hurt the American people, to focus on their partisan priorities. They want to spend billions of taxpayer dollars to give illegals health care.
As you may already know, Stefanik can be like that. We could have given you more examples, but we watch football on TV in the fall.
At any rate, that messaging is standard on the "cable news" channel in question. Red America, Blue America? Under current corporate arrangements, never the twain shall meet!
Democrats often assume the divide is just about “ignorant Fox viewers.”
ReplyDeleteBut the counterintuitive truth is that both Red and Blue audiences live inside reinforcing systems of meaning. Each side gets confirmation that the other side has lost its mind, ensuring the permanent division that allows elites to run roughshod over both groups.
Such dispassionate analysis is strictly verboten.
DeleteThis is oversimplified bothsider-ism. Blue audiences do not consume information that neatly parallels the right in propaganda value, nor do left-wing sources lie as blatantly as Fox does. Blue sources do not chase conspiracy theories, do not justify racism and sexism, and do not ignore stories that reinforce right wing beliefs. Blue sources are not creating fake videos to advance talking points, the way Fox has done.
DeleteBlue audiences are more likely to read beyond so-called Blue media (not the Blue media Somerby talks about, which is actually now a red corporate legacy media, especially as CBS goes red). Blue voters read foreign media sources and alternative media and some consciously read what the right produces, even though it does not reinforce their "systems of meaning." Blue audiences read more books and spend less time on social media. Blue sources are more likely to be targeted by foreign influences paid for by Trump's billionaires, which do not support their own "systems of meaning" but undermine them.
So-called elites are part of the media, not distinct from it. I assume perhaps you mean oligarchs but didn't want to say so? These are primarily players on the right because left systems of meaning are not compatible with their greed and plans to look the country. Robber baron types are inherent to the right, not a force that left and right together might confront if only they didn't disagree on so much else.
When judgment is untethered from access to reliable information, as has occurred on the right, it may appear they have lost their mind, but the fault is not that left and right inhabit two distinct worlds, but that the right wing media deliberately lies to its audience at the behest of those who will profit financially. That is much less true on the left, but the right poisons the minds of its audience so that it will not read or discuss alternative information, but blindly support Trump, as long as he throws them the red meat of racism and sexism. That is not happening on the left.
loot the country, not look
Delete"That is not happening on the left."
DeleteThen why were we so surprised when the debate exposed the extent of Biden's cognitive decline?
There has been no proof that Biden was in cognitive decline. That is a right wing conspiracy theory invented to damage Biden (and excuse Trump for using his own autopen). Note that Dogface accepts it whole cloth when it is as empty as other right wing conspiracies, such as that Biden is a lizard person or the military has medbeds (so who needs health care any more).
DeleteWhen right wing trolls like Dogface come here and repeat right wing talking points and conspiracy theories (as does Somerby) it should be obvious whose systems of meaning they have adopted and which side they are batting for (Hint: not ours).
To see this about Biden, compare any extemporaneous speaking opportunity of Biden's (excluding the debate) with any such speaking opportunity of Trump. Trump is an example of what someone with dementia is like -- unable to stay on topic, unable to find real words, inventing things to fill his memory gaps, making up shit that isn't true (magnets do not fail when wet), talking too long, and unable to read from a teleprompter (which he insists has failed again). Trump has dementia. Biden is sane and mentally competent, but he stutters (as he always has) and he may occasionally forget a name or mix up a city (as all politicians do from time to time regardless of age -- hence called gaffes).
The idea that Biden was dysfunctional came from the right without proof. Biden as many testimonials from responsible people (not a paid Dr. Feelgood) such as members of congress (yes, opposition too), foreign leaders, people who worked with him recently, saying that he is on top of the facts, fully participating and mentally sharp. Only Tapper (a conservative) and George Clooney say otherwise.
The debate was explained fully by Biden's staff. He had a cold, jet lag, and was given cold medication that prevented him from functioning well during that debate. Afterward he was fine, as evidenced by subsequent speaking engagements (including off the cuff ones). Of course, the Republicans piled on. Obama also had a bad first debate but he got a second chance that Biden did not.
History will examine the reasons for and the people behind the displacement of Biden on his party's ticket. Concerns about Biden's age are not equivalent to saying that Biden was in cognitive decline or not in charge of the govt. It is important not to confuse the conspiracy theory ginned up by the right with whatever facts exist about Biden's health. Note that the people who worked from the Democratic side to remove Biden from the ticket, did not support Harris either and there were no concerns about her health. I, for one, want to know who was behind that attempted coup, because it seems to me that it put Trump into office for his second term and it may be possible if not likely that Trump's people had something to do with the Democratic disarray right before the election. History will tell.
DeleteThen why were we so surprised when the debate exposed the extent of Biden's cognitive decline?
DeleteWhat is the extent of Biden's cognitive decline? I did not realize that it was "exposed".
George Clooney decided that Biden must have dementia when he didn't stop at his table at a banquet.
DeleteSelf-delusion conquers all. The debate was so bad that a sitting president dropped out of his race for re-election because he lost the confidence of his party. It just can't get worse than that.
DeleteBut go ahead - believe that Biden was sharp as a tack, but knifed in the back by Pelosi et al. It's a soothing fairy tale.
DeleteAnd then you don't have to deal with the dissonance you feel when you realize that, just maybe, you've been fed some porridge by your trusted media sites.
DeleteIIya, it wasn’t Biden’s cognitive decline that caused the Dem leadership to ask Biden to drop out. It was Biden’s cognitive REcline. Weeklong naps.
DeleteTo say that there's "cognitive decline" at the age of 80 is to say nothing. It's trivially true. Is Biden any less sharp than Trump? I don't know if Biden was ever sharp as a tack, but let's face it: presidents don't have to be. Dems piled on because they thought that someone else would be better. It turned out that someone else might have been better -- but that someone was not Kamala. It also irked more than enough people that there was no primary.
DeleteSo, I actually agree that Biden shouldn't have run for the second term. However, his sharpness was not the main issue, so far as I was concerned.
"Is Biden any less sharp than Trump?"
DeleteIf you watched the debate, you saw that both were ridiculously bad. Trump was babbling on about post-birth abortions, for God's sake.
Then what was the main issue, if not his sharpness?
DeleteAnd I disagree about Kamala not being better. Biden would have gotten fewer votes than she did because he would have been out in public continuing to make gaffes and having his brain-freeze moments.
"the conspiracy theory ginned up by the right".
DeleteYou mean the one that played out in front of tens of millions of people in a nationally televised debate? That conspiracy theory?
The Republicans are trying to execute a heads-I-win-tails-you-lose strategy against the Dems.
ReplyDeleteIn the run up to the current shutdown, Senate Dems sought a continuation of ACA tax subsidies. In support of that position, they produced their own version of the continuing resolution. (Doing so deprives the GOP of the opportunity to claim Dems have no plan of their own and are just voting No.)
The Dem version repeals a subtitle of the recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill--the subtitle that includes language that ends expanded ACA tax subsidies.
But that's not the only provision that would be nixed if the Dems version prevailed. There is also language in that provision that denies Medicaid coverage to people in the US who have been paroled into the US after showing up at the border.
The GOP classes these parolees as "illegals." In fact, people who were paroled temporarily into the country have legal status--but it's a status that has yet to be finalized.
So the GOP points the the Dem version of the CR that would repeal that part of the OBBB as evidence that Dems are "demanding" free healthcare for migrants.
It's all blatantly dishonest.
Bob is insinuating that Republicans lie.
ReplyDeleteHere is an example of Fox messaging that is important to me:
ReplyDelete"Last week Fox News presented the record-breaking No Kings protests as an epic failure filled with deluded geriatric fools, antifascist activists were presented as dangerous terrorists while Trump’s complete destruction of an entire wing of the White House was celebrated.
As usual Trump’s failure to seek permission to radically change historic federal property was seen as a sign of strength not a reckless lack of impulse control.
The East Wing of the White House was just like the list of women who Trump causally sexually assaulted without a second thought. Several women described incidents where Trump, a total stranger to them, walked up and grabbed their body parts or forcibly kissed them without even a hint of consent.
To Trump nearly everything and every person is something he can bully and dominate. The only exception seems to be cruel despots whom he admires.
Fox New is more than happy to fuel his narcissistic abuse. Trump is the center of the universe and the rest of us, including the folks at Fox, are placed on this planet to fuel his pathology." [Decoding Fox News podcast]
Fox does this. Not Trump, but Fox, in the way they cover his transgressions.
It is unclear to me whether Fox drives support for Trump or Trump threatens and bullies Fox to drum up support for him among its viewers. If Trump is abandoned by key supporters, will Fox support for Trump shift to reflect that or will Fox continue to push Trump and the govt agenda to a MAGA base that is no longer enthusiastic about him? Fox broke with Trump briefly before. Will it do it again?
When the ship starts to sink, all the rats will jump off.
DeleteIf you choose to consume information at a channel that manifestly lies, what does that say about you as a voter? Nothing good, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteThe unfairness of much that goes on at Fox News and its shows (such as calling Joy Behar a whale) should turn a fair person off from watching that source. Instead Fox viewers enjoy the mockery and denigration of liberals. They get off on it. You cannot say that they are being fed this stuff when they actively choose to watch the shows that provide it. The viciousness of what passes for humor on the right has no equivalence on the left.
The Haitians are eating the cats and dogs. The left didn't promote this story. What "systems of meaning" permit the right to disregard the values that would make their judgment more sound?
DeleteYes, Fox is doing a bad job as a news source. But it is in collusion with its audience, who does not want to hear boring facts about ACA but wants to be told that Democrats want to give their health care to illegals. No one on the left is forcing right wingers to be deceived by those they trust. And no, it is not just the same on the left. We were told what was actually happening to those pets, which enabled us to understand that JD Vance is a liar, and that means we will not be voting for him ever.
Anonymouse 4:36pm, on Bob’s blog you sound like someone who doesn’t see the advantages of a campaign stop, let alone a party convention, or a highly-rated politically-oriented tv “comedy” show.
DeleteGood for you! Absolutely no one worries that anonymices are deceiving anyone but themselves.
As I posted before, both parties are spinning (lying) about the shutdown. The Dems are demanding that this item be negotiated and settled before the government can be re-opened. Reps demand the government be re-opened before such negotiations take place.
ReplyDeleteThe difference is that the left wants to reopen the government while the right does not (except for MTG).
DeleteThe face-value dispute is about ACA but underneath is the fear that when the House reopens, a vote will be taken to release the Epstein Files. Trump does not want that, so he has instructed the Republicans to keep the House out of session, which means the govt will remain shutdown. Trump is doing whatever he wants regardless of Congress, so it is no inconvenience to him to have the House out of session.
DeleteJohnson needs to swear in Grijalva and take that Epstein vote so that the impasse over govt funding can be settled. It cannot be, as long as Trump is protecting his ass from whatever is in the Epstein Files.
Why is Somerby and others pretending this has to do with ACA when it is about Epstein?
John Thune, majority leader of the Senate, doesn’t need Democratic votes. He could nuke the filibuster if he really wanted to reopen the government.
Delete"both parties are spinning (lying) about the shutdown."
DeleteNo. Spinning and lying are not the same thing.
You can spin without lying by emphasizing facts/arguments that support your position, and skipping over those that don't. That's not lying.
Anonymouse 4:10pm, It won't be the core voters and the red podcast crowd that distances themselves from PresTrump. It will be the politicians— initially in a subtle way that gradually becomes more pronounced as the mainstream media gets louder and amplifies their voices. Eventually, we would see Fox News adopting a more cautious and far less obsequious stance toward Trump. That’s what happened in the past and it might have continued had your Blue team not gotten off their meds.
ReplyDeleteCecelia, you are neglecting what the polls are saying. They tap into what the voters think, not politicians. They are showing Trump sinking rapidly across all categories. That means Trump is losing voter support. Meanwhile, Fox is bleeding hosts and staff as they decide they don't want to be part of Trump's propaganda organ any more. Fox was separating from Trump before he won his election and now Trump has been strong-arming all of the media into support him using financial coercion.
Deletehttps://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/mar/12/fox-news-donald-trump-relationship
At the same time, the ownership of Fox News was in dispute and the pro-Trump faction eventually won. It is not the case that blues being off meds caused Fox to return to Trump, but Trump's election victory that did it. Even so, there is a fair amount of disaffection between Trump and Fox.
What happens when the Epstein Files are finally released? Trump may or may not have molested young teens, but he certainly was closely tied to Epstein himself as a friend and as someone who enabled Epstein's sex trafficking (if he wasn't complicit in it). Not only will Trump be damaged but also whatever top Republicans surround Trump and participated in sex activities with Epstein victims. These names will come out. The main question is when and how much damage it will do to Trump and Republicans when it happens.
It is a toss-up whether the destruction of the economy and the coming depression will be Trump's undoing or the Epstein files will be. If Trump starts a war with Venezuela, there will be a large backlash and that too may rearrange loyalties on the right. Or Trump may become too sick to function as president. In that case, I do not see JD Vance as strong enough to prevent the in-fighting that is already occurring to a degree. Republican cohesion will decline and the Democrats will be able to participate in government again.
None of this has anything to do with blues being off any meds. The Republicans are creating their own problems and we only need to step back, let it happen, and then pick up the pieces.
Anonymouse 5:08pm, I’m not seeing where you have said anything particularly contradictory as to my theory as to what went down with Fox and the Trump folks during Biden’s presidential tenure. Golly, yes, the Republicans create their own problems. Yes, indeed, the Trump people are very good at putting their own politicians, public, AND media folk…in a tight spot. We’re certainly in agreement there. And of course, in your book,, aside for your Dem leadership that made Biden step down…Democrats did nothing that facilitated a Trump win and anyone who thinks otherwise is either a boob or a traitor. I’m been here for awhile. I know how you think and I know your limitations.
DeleteLow Democratic turnout was responsible for Trump's win. Why was that turnout depressed compared to previous elections?
Deletea) Biden didn't drop out soon enough;
Deleteb) Harris, asked which of Biden's policies she would change, said none of them.
"WEDNESDAY: Why are Democrats holding out?"
ReplyDeleteWhy is this the title of Somerby's essay? My understanding is that it is the Republicans who are holding out.
No. As in any dispute of this nature, both sides are holding out
DeleteHow Trump is solving the homelessness crisis:
ReplyDeleteAdd the Over Half a Million Illegals deported plus Another 1.5 Million Self-Deported plus all the illegals who didn't come in adds up to a lot of housing now available for legal US residents.
https://pjmedia.com/catherinesalgado/2025/10/29/dhs-removes-half-a-million-illegals-from-usa-n4945369
Good grief! This is so dumb, it leaves one speechless.
Delete