The Worst Game of Hide and Seek

“We cannot find the bill": inside the frantic hunt for the GOP Obamacare replacement 

It sounds like an Onion article, right? It's not. See: New Obamacare replacement bill is being hidden in a basement, out of view of public, and even this GOP senator can't see it 

The healthcare bill planned to replace the ACA is hidden somewhere, and only certain people are allowed to see it. Even they aren't allowed to have an actual copy. Legislators from both sides of the aisle are wandering around trying to find it and running into locked doors and people politely yet firmly turning them away. 

Why would the bill be literally hidden away? 

 U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone has a likely explanation:

Pallone said he was pushing to get a copy of the most recent draft of the bill because he had heard Walden intends to have the committee vote on it next Wednesday — that timeline wouldn't give the Democrats and the public much time to analyze the legislation.

He compared what the Republicans are doing this week to what the Democrats did with their draft of the Affordable Care Act several years ago; Democrats posted the text of the ACA online 30 days before it went to members for a vote.

"The reason why Republicans were able to comment on the ACA — and of course many of them commented negatively — was because the bill was out there," Pallone said. [Source]

That right - after a previous version was leaked and met a great deal of resistance (because it's terrible), certain special GOP people have decided the bill they plan to vote on next week should be locked away so no one can read it and provide informed criticisms beforehand. That is in direct contrast to the handling of the ACA, which was posted online for a full month so that everyone - Congressmen and regular ol' citizens alike - could see what was being considered before it was voted on.

So much for government Of the People, By the People, For the People...

Here, you probably need a pretty picture:

Links!

• Library Land
• Arkansas Bill Attempts to Ban Books by Zinn in Schools 
• Two really awesome authors have birthdays today: Dr. Seuss (born 1904) and John Irving (born 1942). Hurrah!
• Digital history project opens up MLA to the world  "Goossen, a doctoral student in history at Harvard, is the author of Chosen Nation: Mennonites and Germany in a Global Era, forthcoming this spring from Princeton University Press, for which he has drawn extensively on the holdings of Bethel’s Mennonite Library and Archives (MLA). In the seven years he has been working on the book, he has also been contributing to a large-scale digital history project, the German Mennonite Sources Database, for the MLA. The database includes materials from more than a dozen libraries and archives in Europe, North America and Latin America – in particular, Germany, the United States and Paraguay."
• My Journey into the Unknown: From Endpapers to Ebru, the Turkish Art of Paper Marbling Nice! I may have to do this with the kids. This summer. Outside. Just in case they make a mess. 
• World Book Day: Without libraries we are less human and more profoundly alone 
  

  Librarians are the keystone of good libraries. Without them, dust gathers, book collections are not refreshed, readers do not feel enticed and beguiled, relationships between books and people dwindle into nothing.
  
  We’ve all seen libraries like that. The places where you walk through the door and a sepia tint descends on your soul. The very idea of choosing a book from the dingy shelves seems the epitome of pointlessness.
  
  Libraries get like this because they have lost their keystone. Someone with a spreadsheet decided that the internet was now a library so librarians were not needed.

• WNBA Will Send Trump a Book a Day in March  "As part of the celebration marking its 100th anniversary, the Women's National Book Association will send a book a day throughout March to President Trump that the organization believes sheds light on many of the critical issues faced by the country. The books have been taken from a list of the top 100 books in both fiction and nonfiction compiled by the WNBA to reflect, in its estimation, the most influential books written by women." It's a pretty good list to add to your own TBR pile. 
• Merriam-Webster posts 'feminism' definition after Kellyanne Conway remarks The snarkiest of dictionaries.
• Health, Science, & Technology
• How Does the Public’s View of Science Go So Wrong? TL;DR: "It happens because some people reject expert information when it goes against their personal values"
• There used to be 4 billion American chestnut trees, but they all disappeared  "The century-long drive to save the chestnut tree isn’t just about nostalgia or a funny manifestation of American exceptionalism. The American chestnut is distinct from other varieties for both its size and how quickly it grows, which is why it was historically such a valued source of wood. And given the starring role the nuts played in American cuisine until the trees died, they tasted pretty good too." Let's hope we can find a way to save them...
• Antarctica hits record high temperature at balmy 63.5 Fahrenheit  Well, that can't be good.
• New FCC Chairman Begins Attacks on Internet Privacy "Your ISP knows a lot about who you are and what you do online. Their records just got a whole lot less secure.... ISPs would have carte blanche when it comes to rifling through, sharing, and selling your private data."
• Randomnesses
• Near San Francisco, Karaite Jews keep an ancient movement alive "Karaite Jews differ from Rabbanite Jews, as Karaites call Jews who follow rabbinic tradition, in that they rely on what is written in the Torah and reject practices and interpretations derived from the oral law — the Talmud and other rabbinic literature.... Like many other small Jewish communities, they are concerned about the future. Who will induct their children and other interested Jews into Karaite traditions?  To ensure that future, the congregation has embarked on a relatively small construction project that will have a large and visible impact on their community: They are renovating their existing 3,500-square-foot prefab building and creating a 1,000-square-foot Karaite Jewish Cultural Center,attached to the synagogue, which will serve as a combination education program, museum and social center." That sounds really cool! It will also be the only one of its kind outside of Israel.
• Teaching kids philosophy makes them smarter in math and English "More than 3,000 kids in 48 schools across England participated in weekly discussions about concepts such as truth, justice, friendship, and knowledge, with time carved out for silent reflection, question making, question airing, and building on one another’s thoughts and ideas.Kids who took the course increased math and reading scores by the equivalent of two extra months of teaching, even though the course was not designed to improve literacy or numeracy. Children from disadvantaged backgrounds saw an even bigger leap in performance: reading skills increased by four months, math by three months, and writing by two months. Teachers also reported a beneficial impact on students’ confidence and ability to listen to others."
• Want to read the study for yourself? Here it is! 
• International
• Sweden Brings Back The Draft, Alarmed By Russian Activities 
• Russian Airstrike in Syria Hits U.S. Allies by Mistake "This is the second time in recent weeks that there has been an episode of so-called friendly fire involving the Russians. Last month, Russian fighters mistakenly bombed Turkish soldiers near Al Bab."
• U.S. News
• Ben Carson Confirmed As Secretary Of Housing And Urban Development "Carson was a controversial nominee to lead HUD because of his lack of experience in either housing or development — or government in general." Almost as though being eminently unqualified is a bad thing!
• Obama Administration Rushed to Preserve Intelligence of Russian Election Hacking Given the rate information is suddenly (and without warning or explanation) disappearing under Trump's administration (as well as the number of shady ties between this administration and Russia), it's a very, very good thing. 
• Speaking of which: Sessions met with Russian envoy twice last year, encounters he later did not disclose "One of the meetings was a private conversation between Sessions and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak that took place in September in the senator’s office, at the height of what U.S. intelligence officials say was a Russian cyber campaign to upend the U.S. presidential race." 
• Attorney General Jeff Sessions will recuse himself from any probe related to 2016 presidential campaign Well, yeah - it'd be weird to have him investigate himself...
• That should wrap up all the Trump folk who met with Russian envoys and didn't disclose it, right? No, wait - Kushner and Flynn Met With Russian Envoy in December, White House Says How many do there have to be before we admit Trump was wheeling and dealing with Putin? Good question - because Republicans aren't convinced yet. 
• But wait - there's two more! How many is that? I've actually lost count...
• Confused? Here's a refresher course: The 3 Trump-Russia Scandals, Explained "Individually, the mere hint of any one of these scandals would be bad. Put together, though, they point to one inescapable conclusion: Trump’s unprecedented friendliness with Russia’s dictator and willingness to tolerate staff with close Russia ties has already thrown his young administration into chaos. None of this would be happening if Trump hadn’t decided to buddy up with Vladimir Putin."
• Let's be clear: Lying isn't confined to just Trump - New EPA head told Congress he never used personal email for government business. But it turns out he did. 
• But, hey, there's some hope: President Trump finally went a full 24 hours without a false or misleading claim Of course, he didn't actually say much of anything. "Trump...made basically no public comments Wednesday.... It's also important to note that Trump's sudden factual restraint comes with a massive caveat: It came the day after arguably his worst factual day as president. On Tuesday...Trump made 26 misleading or counterfactual claims." Or maybe he gave up deceit for Lent? Let's see how he does over the next six weeks.