Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

We still have time to mess this up!

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Let’s finish the job.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

The current Supreme Court is a rogue court. Very dangerous.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

The frogs are rarely mistaken.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

No, You’re Not Losing Your Mind Open Thread

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Totally open thread!

Just want to let you all know that I moved some posts around just now, because there are 3 things from yesterday that we want to be on the front page without making duplicate posts.

One is the post about OzarkHillbilly, because not everyone sees every post every day, so they should have a chance to read the post and say goodbye.

The second post is the announcement that the car magnets are available to for purchase on Cafe Press.

The third is the fundraising post – I don’t want to put another one up today, but yesterday’s is there for you to be able to be matched.

Open thread!

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Wednesday Morning Open Thread: #LFG!

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Harris Walz Car Magnets for Sale

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Update on Wednesday: originally published on Tuesday at 7:56 pm.  Not putting up a new magnet post today, so moving to Wednesday  so it’s still on the front page.

Here are the 4 car magnets that are currently for sale on Cafe Press.

The site is a mess, but if you click any of the 4 links below it should take you to the item and allow you to order.

We have not tried ordering yet, which is why it says “Theoretically”!   First order placed – success!

FYI: Cafe Press basically took the old site, threw all the items (that we had for sale since the beginning of time) into the cardboard box, in a jumble, and changed how you do everything.  Everything.  So beth has been tearing her hair out trying to make sense of it, and for now at least these 4 items are order-able, if anyone is interested.  We’ll have to get the store straightened out, but there’s no time to do that and have anything Harris Walz available before the election.

So here you go!  If anyone tries to order, let us know in the comments if you were able to place an order, so we know whether that’s fucked up, too.

Tunch

https://www.cafepress.com/shopdetail/balloonjuice.1222552312?

Steve

https://www.cafepress.com/shopdetail/balloonjuice.1222674605?

Dark Tunch

https://www.cafepress.com/shopdetail/balloonjuice.1222828098?

Dark Steve

https://www.cafepress.com/shopdetail/BalloonJuice.1222552305

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High Cost Risk Pools already exist

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The Concept of a Plan for the Trump health care plan that will (forever) be available in just two more weeks is risk rating with high cost risk pools.

Risk rating means insurers are allowed to charge individuals different premiums as a function of their predictable costs so that the insurance is truly “hit by a meteor” coverage instead of a payment club for predictable and anticipated expenses.  This means men between 18 and 40 will be charged a substantially lower premium than women of the same age and general health as women are capable of getting pregnant.  This means people with a family history of colon cancer will pay more than people whose family don’t have that nasty gene combination.  It means old people pay way more than young people.

It also means, without anything else, that people who have very high, recurring and very predictable costs are priced out of any competitive market.  The policy solution then would be high cost risk pools where state or federal funding covers a substantial portion of the premiums.

The policy concept is that healthcare spending is extremely skewed to the right and concentrated.  If the top 5-10-15% of spenders can be removed from the main risk pool, then the premiums collected in the main risk pool can be 40-50-60% lower.

If the high cost risk pool is funded well enough, then this could work where the private market is used to insure against one-off events, health savings accounts pay for medium size events and the high cost risk pools act as a pressure relief valve for costs after someone is diagnosed with cancer or has very predictable high cost diseases/conditions.  There could be generous subsidies involved depending on your value system.  And this could work.

It really depends on the high cost risk pool being very well funded.

Given that the Trump Administrations health policy plans were to dramatically reduce federal healthcare expenditures for anyone who would not benefit from generic Republican tax policies in 2017, that assumption that the high cost risk pool would be well funded is absurd.

But I want to make a very simple point. We already operate two high cost risk pools. We just don’t call them that and there are a few odd features in them that disguise the programmatic intent.

Medicare is a high cost risk pool. It covers two high cost groups.  First it covers almost everyone over Age 65 until death.  Secondly, it covers individuals with long term disabilities, end stage renal disease and ALS.  None of those groups are cheap.  There is some interesting gaming on optionality between Medicare, the ACA marketplaces  and kidney disease/dialysis companies but the fact is that Medicare pays for a very expensive portion of the population.

Medicaid is the other high cost risk pool.  It covers individuals with substantial developmental delays and disabilities, individuals needing substantial home health care and community supports, individuals who are on disability, and individuals who are in long term care/nursing homes.  Those are all expensive groups.  The two weird aspects of Medicaid in terms of eligibility is that it also covers a bunch of dirt cheap kids and pregnant women who may have an expensive event but quickly revert back to being relatively cheap again.

Medicare and Medicaid already suck up a good amount of the most predictably expensive people in the United States. The commercial markets are already fairly cherry picked markets where most of the bad risk is somewhere else.

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COVID-19 Coronavirus & H5N1 Updates: September 18, 2024

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***********

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On The Road – frosty – More Views of Ornament on Louis Sullivan Banks

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frosty

I mentioned in one of my comments, I had a 18-200mm lens so I could get some good zoomed-in shots of the ornament, which resulted in way too many to fit into the ten photos in each OTR post. I’ve picked out some of the best for this post. Most are from the interior of the first bank I saw in Owatonna, MN, which was the one most richly ornamented. Next was both exterior and interior from Sidney, OH. The bank in Newark, OH had less ornament and I didn’t get to see the interior because it was under construction but I’m posting one example.

On The Road - frosty - More Views of Ornament on Louis Sullivan Banks 9
Owatonna, MN

Office entrance sign

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Sad News, We Have Lost Our Beloved OzarkHillbilly

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Update on Wednesday: originally published on Tuesday at 1:30 pm.  We want to keep this on the front page for long enough for everyone to see it.

Medium Cool – Equilibrium!

Our beloved OzarkHillbilly is gone.

He left this earth at the end of August, just a small number of days after his last comment here.

Ozark didn’t want a funeral, or a fuss, or an obituary, and so there was none.

Such a special person.  Smart, thoughtful, kind, generous, knowledgeable, sharing his building experience with all of us as needed.   And not a bit of mansplaining!  I will remember him for his stories.  For the love of his land.  For his love of his dogs.  For his fierce love for his sons.  I will never forget when he nearly lost one of his sons in a terrible accident. For his love of family,  And oh, those grandkids!  How he loved his Mondays!

He shared a lot of himself with us through his stories.  But Ozark was also very private in some ways, keeping blog life separate from some of the people in his life.  So we’re going to respect that, and not post his name here.  I’m not about to “out” OzarkHillbilly and share any parts of him that he shared only with us.  We’ll allow his blog life and real life to remain separate.

It’s hard to read what you’re writing when your eyes are filled with tears, so I stopped to get a handkerchief just now, and I found this note in my handkerchief drawer.  I had seen it somewhere and it resonated with me because I sometimes struggle with all these things.

Be free.
Be free from pain
from fear
from regret
from guilt
and from heartbreak.
Be free.

We love you, Ozark, and you are already missed.  You’re with your beloved Woofmeister now.  Fly away, home!

i will probably repost some of the stories he sent me – he was such a great storyteller!  Here’s a photo from one of Ozark’s stories about his beloved dogs. Ozark had titled it longlastgoodbye.

And now we come to the Irish wake part, where I hope we can maybe smile through the tears and share our own stories about OzarkHillbilly and the world he shared with us.  If not today, then soon.

Raising a glass to you, Ozark, we are all lucky to have known you!

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It’s All Fun and Games Until the Leopard Eats Your Face

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It's All Fun and Games Until the Leopard Eats Your Face

Camera Bartolotta is a Republican State Senator in Pennsylvania, who apparently loves re-posting Libs of TikTok (Chaya Raichik) content except when the lies that Raichik tells hit a little too close to home.  So, the anti-trans, anti-LGBT, anti-drag show content that leads to bomb threats is generally OK, but in this particular instance, where Sen. Bartolotta actually knows what the facts are, it’s a bridge too far.  It apparently wasn’t too far for Sen. Bartolotta when a shooter who killed 9 people in Allen, TX dedicated his screed denouncing Drag Queen Story Hour to Libs of TikTok.  And it sure wasn’t too far when the lies Raichik told about childrens’ hospitals performing bottom surgery on minors caused led to bomb threats and made one of those hospitals transition their transgender support group from in-person to on-line.  Nope, all that stuff was A-OK for the good Republican Senator.

Will this change Sen. Bartolotta’s support of the Trump/Vance ticket?   Will she connect the lies from Libs of TikTok to other lies about immigrants?  I doubt it, since her career as a Republican depends on not doing either of those things.

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Operation Blue Arizona, Day 2 (with 48 days left)

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Update on Wednesday: originally published on Tuesday at 11:15 am.  Not putting up a fundraising post today, so moving to later in the day so it’s still on the front page.

It’s Day 2 of Operation Blue Arizona, and we have some new Balloon Juice Angels!

Angel Summary for Day 2

We have angels for 3 of our thermometers today!

lurker – Worker Power

silvery – Four Directions (+ external match!) so 4x matching

anonymous – Arizona Candidates 

Since you guys are already familiar with Worker Power and Four Directions,  I’ll include details about the candidates in this post, but just include the thermometers for the rest.  But if you have any questions, or you would like more information, let me know in the comments and I’ll include that in tomorrow’s post.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SHARE THIS POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA OR WITH ANYONE YOU KNOW WHO WOULD APPRECIATE KNOWING ABOUT GREAT ORGANIZATIONS AND CANDIDATES (where their contact information is not shared by default)

U.S. Congress

Amish Shah. Shah is an emergency room physician and State Representative who is taking on perpetually vulnerable Republican Congressman David Schweikert.  Schweikert retained his seat by only 3,000 votes in 2022.  Shah is running on protecting Medicare, border security and reproductive freedom.  Shah had to survive a primary in August, and needs the cash.

Kirsten Engel.  This is a rematch between first term Republican Congressman Juan Ciscomani and challenger Kirsten Engel.  In 2022, he won by only 1.5% in an off-year election.  Engel is currently ahead in fundraising, but insiders in AZ warn of an upcoming Republican money bomb.

Arizona State Legislature

  • Republicans control the state Senate 16-14
  • Republicans control the House 31-29.
  • A Democratic flip will protect voting rights.
  • The state Republican party is batshit crazy and in total disarray.

While there are any number of potential candidates to support, we’re targeting four candidates in Legislative Districts 16 and 17 (Tucson and Casa Grande), where the Worker Power team we’re helping support is canvassing.

Keith Seaman:  Keith was a retired teacher and Legislator who was so outraged by Dobbs that he ran for a Republican state seat in 2022 and won.  Barely.  This is our only retention play.

Stacy Seaman:  Stacy is Keith’s daughter, a school teacher running to flip a House Republican seat.  The Seaman family is well known and respected in Pinal County (Casa Grande).

Kevin Volk:  Kevin is a young Tucson native, former intern for Gabby Giffords and started a small business owner focused on building affordable housing.  Another potential flip.

John Mclean:  John is a retired CEO, running for Senate on reproductive rights and fiscal responsibility, against a dangerous Republican.

Maricopa County Recorder

Tim Stringham (former JAG officer)

The office of Maricopa County Recorder is arguably Arizona’s second most important election protection official.  The Recorder oversees elections in Arizona’s most populous County, with over 60% of the state’s population.  The Republican is  a notorious election denier who refuses to debate the Democratic candidate we’re supporting.

Operation Blue Arizona, Day 2 (with 48 days left)Post + Comments (28)