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This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

It’s a doggy dog world.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

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I really should read my own blog.

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

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

“Cheese and Kraken paired together for the appetizer trial.”

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

The frogs are rarely mistaken.

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

…and a burning sense of injustice to juice the soul.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

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You are here: Home / 2015 / December / Archives for 8th

Archives for December 8, 2015

Tuesday Night Open Thread

by John Cole|  December 8, 20158:33 pm| 207 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

I am so sick and tired of hearing about Trump, and I am doubly disgusted by the “Woah, he’s gone too far” bullshit coming from the Republican assholes who created this monster by egging on gun nuts, racists conspiracy theorists, Christianist nutjobs, and every other variant of know-nothing slack-jawed shitheel for the last 30 years. Fuck you Paul Ryan and Dick Cheney and all of you now pretending TRump is out of line. Trump is the logical conclusion for the bullshit you’ve been peddling for decades.

Consider this a Trump free open thread.

Tuesday Night Open ThreadPost + Comments (207)

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: The Tribute Vice Pays to Virtue

by Anne Laurie|  December 8, 20156:11 pm| 139 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, Hail to the Hairpiece, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Republicans in Disarray!, Assholes

gop bloviation upgrades ohman

(Jack Ohman via GoComics.com)
.

Final Trump tweet: I've dismissed such conspiracy theories before…but how do we REALLY know that Trump isn't a Clinton double agent?

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) December 7, 2015

I don't believe Trump believes most of what he's said. Or he just believes it for as long as it's of use to him.

— Steve Deace (@SteveDeaceShow) December 7, 2015

Is the @realDonaldTrump candidacy a stealth operation to make Republicans unelectable for the next 20 years? Call it a working theory.

— Eli Lake (@EliLake) December 7, 2015

So many Beltway people prefer to think Trump is a conspiracy, not a reflection of actual GOP voter preferences. https://t.co/BelMC2BIWe

— Josh Barro (@jbarro) December 7, 2015

News update: Trump will not be attending tomorrow’s big RNC fundraiser… although there seems to be some disagreement as to whether he was dis-invited, or just decided it wasn’t worth it.

***********
Apart from getting healthful exercise rolling our eyes, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: The Tribute Vice Pays to VirtuePost + Comments (139)

Site News – Hiccups Coming Soon!

by Alain Chamot (1971-2020)|  December 8, 20154:33 pm| 95 Comments

This post is in: Previous Site Maintenance

Folks,

I just wanted to give you some warning on the upcoming hiccups. I have to update the site’s theme, and that will temporarily overwrite many cosmetic changes I’ve made recently. Don’t worry – I am backing up all my files and will re-apply the edits as fast as I can! I will be doing this Wednesday, so the site may look a little screwy here and there while things get done.

 

Theme Update

In WordPress, the theme controls how the site looks – its layout, features, fonts, colors, borders, etc. – pretty much everything visual about the site. The site you see right now is the “current best”, and once the updated theme is applied, we’ll be many steps back. I will try to return the site to the”current best” state ASAP – I will try to incorporate everything I’ve changed in the theme, but I will likely miss a thing or two, and that’s where you come in! I will post an “I think I’m done” post when I truly think I am done. At that point, I will rely on you to post additional things that I missed.

This update is happening because the theme version we have has some issues, like the sidebar at the bottom of the page when looking at posts instead of the home page.

 

SSL

I will also take the opportunity to enable SSL so Balloon Juice will show up as secure in your browser, and your comments and the things you read on the site will be protected by encryption, protecting your privacy from all but the most-determined forces. This will improve your privacy, and will improve the site’s ranking (and related things).

 

Final Tweaks

Once the updated theme is set, and the site is back to “current best”, I will post a list of open issues so that you know what is still being worked on. Please remember that at this time, preparing for the new comment system will likely absorb much of my “Balloon Juice time”.

My hope is to have everything fully done and put to bed, including some major behind-the-scenes tweaks to improve site performance, reduce bandwidth load, etc. by mid January. Then we’ll leave the site alone until it demands attention.

 

New Commenting System

The last major change coming soon is the updated comment system. I’ve worked hard to tweak the existing system, but it has issues as it is just the default WordPress commenting engine with some plugins and the theme layered on top.

Looking to 2016 and the increase in site load from commenters during the election season, I think that this new system will do a better job, even if it is a bit different from the current system. The developers behind this comment system are actively adding new features, so should something not be perfect at launch, I’d expect improvement in a matter of weeks.

I expect this new comment system to be deployed in 2-3 weeks.

Some of the improvements include:

  • Improved/enhanced support for HTML in posts
  • Many additional buttons for comments so you can underline, italicize, include in-line pictures, etc.
  • A notifier that new comments have been made in the post you’re in
  • A refresh comments/load comments button to update the comments you see
  • Longer time to edit posted comments
  • (optional) voting on comments
  • “lazy load” comments on page scroll (reduces initial page load for posts w/lots of comments)
  • a “read more” button for super-long comments (can you say mclaren?)
  • “load more comments” button/link when appropriate
  • less need to reload the entire page; the notifier and refresh control only load new or changed comments, reducing the overall load
  • All-new layout and appearance; these can and will be tweaked, but the current comment look will not endure
  • You will still be able to comment without logging in, just providing your name and email address.

On the down-side, I’m sure one or more features that either works right now, or used to work before the site was redone, won’t work, at least initially. But be patient; we’ll get through this and after the dust settles, it will be better for all users, and that’s an unqualified good!


 

 

Feel free to use this post to ask questions, etc.  I will try to monitor it a bit this late afternoon but I’m busy IRL away from the pc, so I won’t be hovering!  As for any issues already reported, I’ve got a big list and some things (like the alternate approach to  block quote visuals) I decided to postpone until the final version of the theme is in place.

 

Thanks to John, and all of the Balloon Juice community, for your patience, encouragement, and enthusiasm for making this site better. We’re getting so much closer!

 

Happy holidays to all,
Alain

 

 

ETA: Sorry to stomp your post Richard!

Site News – Hiccups Coming Soon!Post + Comments (95)

Medicaid expansion as a one way ratchet

by David Anderson|  December 8, 20154:02 pm| 15 Comments

This post is in: Anderson On Health Insurance, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome

PPACA’s Medicaid expansion is embedding itself into the American system.  The latest round of evidence is from Kentucky.

 

Bevin also said he intends to “copy” Indiana’s alternative Medicaid expansion. Gov. Pence of Indiana is in audience, listening to speech.

— Abby Goodnough (@abbygoodnough) December 8, 2015

Bevin started his campaign with the intent to throw 400,000 people off of Medicaid expansion.  He ended his campaign saying he would apply for an 1115 waiver from Health and Human Services to tweak the Medicaid expansion so that it is more punitive, more complex and expensive to administer and no more effective than straight up expansion.  That is what he announced today.

So we’ll probably see a 5% to 10% reduction in Kentucky Expansion enrollment when the decision maker originally started calling for a 100% reduction.  Is this absolute good news?  Hell no.  Is it relative good news both locally in Kentucky and nationally in its implications?  Yes.

PPACA’s Medicaid expansion is a one way ratchet when reality and accountability meets rhetoric.

Medicaid expansion as a one way ratchetPost + Comments (15)

Cartnapping (Open Thread)

by Betty Cracker|  December 8, 20153:32 pm| 128 Comments

This post is in: Domestic Politics, Food, Open Threads, General Stupidity

Yesterday, I went to the grocery store during the workday to pick up a few things, including a bottle of Marsala wine I needed for a recipe. Our grocery store has a large wine section, praise Jeebus, but there’s not any particular display order I can discern.

The expensive stuff is on the top shelf and the cheap crap on the bottom, but aside from that, reds, whites, pinks, etc., are intermingled, as are wines from all regions. Because of this (and because I buy it so rarely), I had a helluva time locating the Marsala.

I left my cart at one end of the aisle and paced up and down the length of it, scanning the bottles and not finding the Marsala. I was pretty sure it’s an Italian wine, so I located the Chiantis to see if it was nearby. Nope. Ditto Spain.

A man asked me if I knew of a sweet wine that would be good to use for making fruitcake. I was unable to persuade him to abandon the fruitcake project altogether, but I urged him to go with a dark rum instead, and he thanked me and left. (The recipients of that vile fruitcake will thank me later too when the rum numbs their taste buds to the horrid fruitcake flavor…)

A store employee was restocking chips across from the wine, and I enlisted him in the Marsala search, but he had no better luck than I and went in search of someone who could help. The person he brought back located the Marsala in about two seconds — randomly plonked amid unrelated wines on a middle shelf.

Realizing the length of the Marsala search had put me seriously behind schedule and in danger of missing an appointment, I chucked the bottle in the cart and raced frantically around the store to gather the other items on my list. I flung produce into the cart, then hurriedly made my way to the dairy section on the other side of the store. There, I noticed that a box of Wheat Thins was in the cart. I hate fucking Wheat Thins.

There was also an outlandish flavor of yogurt I would never buy and some other random stuff I did not recognize. Moreover, the items that should have been in my cart — including my purse — weren’t there. I realized with dawning horror that I’d taken someone else’s cart on my frenzied race around the supermarket.

I figured the switcheroo must have happened on the wine aisle. And as soon as I rounded the corner at that location, I saw a woman standing next to my actual cart, who threw her hands up in a thank-bloody-Christ gesture when I arrived.

She told me she’d chased me all over the store before giving up and just returning to the wine aisle, thinking I’d have to come back eventually since my car keys were dangling off my purse. I apologized profusely, fished out several items I’d added to her cart by mistake and put them in mine, then proceeded to checkout.

God, I’m stupid. The end.

Cartnapping (Open Thread)Post + Comments (128)

Updated! DO NOT ADJUST YOUR SETS!!! There is Something Wrong With the Comment Moderation Filter

by Adam L Silverman|  December 8, 201512:58 pm| 56 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

Update: We’re all fixed. Apparently there was a glitch and it is now corrected!

————-

Hey, I get to step on my own post. I feel like both John and AL and Betty C all rolled into one!

Anyhow, something funky seems to be happening with the comment moderation filter. I’ve just cleared out about 20 comments. Other than the one obvious spam one trying to sell us all something, I didn’t see anything in any of the comments that should have landed them in limbo. I’m sure the tech folks will be checking in to sort it out. So please be patient – one of us with the keys to that vault may not be constantly around to free your insights.

Updated! DO NOT ADJUST YOUR SETS!!! There is Something Wrong With the Comment Moderation FilterPost + Comments (56)

And Now a Few Words from President Washington: The Government of the United States which Gives to Bigotry No Sanction Edition

by Adam L Silverman|  December 8, 201512:49 pm| 55 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

On August 21, 1790 President Washington sent a letter in reply to one which had been read to him on 18 August by Moses Seixas. Washington was making his first trip to Rhode Island and this was shortly after Rhode Island had ratified the Constitution. Seixas was a member and official of the Jewish synagogue in Newport. This congregation is now known as Touro Synagogue and is considered the oldest continuous Jewish congregation in the US. President Washington was so moved by Mr. Seixas’s remarks, including those about tolerance, that he sent a written reply to the entire congregation. It is reproduced below and is followed by an image of the original letter.

President Washington’s Letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport, Rhode Island

Gentlemen:

While I received with much satisfaction your address replete with expressions of esteem, I rejoice in the opportunity of assuring you that I shall always retain grateful remembrance of the cordial welcome I experienced on my visit to Newport from all classes of citizens.

The reflection on the days of difficulty and danger which are past is rendered the more sweet from a consciousness that they are succeeded by days of uncommon prosperity and security.

If we have wisdom to make the best use of the advantages with which we are now favored, we cannot fail, under the just administration of a good government, to become a great and happy people.

The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy — a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.

It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.

It would be inconsistent with the frankness of my character not to avow that I am pleased with your favorable opinion of my administration and fervent wishes for my felicity.

May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants — while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.

May the father of all mercies scatter light, and not darkness, upon our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in His own due time and way everlastingly happy.

G. Washington

gw

And Now a Few Words from President Washington: The Government of the United States which Gives to Bigotry No Sanction EditionPost + Comments (55)

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