Hot Coffee, the fast-paced, info-packed exploration of tort reform exposes the real story behind Stella Liebeck, who sued McDonalds after being badly burned by spilled coffee, an incident which wrongly entered the collective consciousness as a prime example of a “frivolous” lawsuit. First time director Susan Saladoff, a civil litigator with 25 years of experience, uses the McDonalds coffee case as the starting point and from there builds a strong case that tort reform, binding arbitration and non-economic damage caps subvert justice and benefit big business.

It is almost impossible for me to freshly describe the ongoing disconnect between what we see and hear coming out of the mouths of people in and around the Beltway Village and the facts on the ground for the rest of the country. I won’t say that they must be on drugs because I’ve used drugs and I never was as far away from reality as the Beltway Village Idiots Pundits, Politicians, and Courtiers. They just live inside a fantasy bubble. It might be acceptable if the decisions they make each day didn’t have such negative consequences for the rest of us.

While the economy probably seems fine for the millionaires in Congress and the millionaires they hang out with at expensive fundraisers, lower income Americans are struggling.

My first reaction to this story about McDonald’s potentially dropping its health insurance coverage for employees was to ask myself, “McDonald’s offers health coverage to employees?” The answer is yes. They offer really bad health coverage.