Of course the system can be changed. Why would I bother spending 14 years of my life blogging if I didn't believe that?

We stiffened the penalties for fraud, we extended nationwide efforts to make sure that payments are accurate and they closed a loophole in which people were gaming the system. We didn't change eligibility requirements or reduce the level of benefits.

They [Republicans] assume that military action always shows strength, while avoiding military action always shows weakness. That's just crazy.

When Donald Trump disingenuously demands to know why [Hillary] Clinton never tried to close the loopholes he used, the answer is: She did. And if there had been any way to make it retroactive, she probably would have voted for that too.

There's no liberal equivalent of Donald Trump.

If Robert Heinlein is more to your taste than George Lucas: “If you are part of a society that votes, then do so. There may be no candidates and no measures you want to vote for, but there are certain to be ones you want to vote against.” That’s certainly true of me. Over my lifetime, the Republican Party has done far more to repulse me than the Democratic Party has done to appeal to me. But the result in the voting booth would be about the same either way.

The WHO took care to explicitly say that processed meat didn’t rank alongside smoking when it comes to cancer risk.