Here’s the UN live feed:
Update: PBO was scheduled for 10 AM, but they just announced he’s running late.
President Obama to Address the UN General AssemblyPost + Comments (29)
This post is in: Open Threads
Here’s the UN live feed:
Update: PBO was scheduled for 10 AM, but they just announced he’s running late.
President Obama to Address the UN General AssemblyPost + Comments (29)
by David Anderson| 22 Comments
This post is in: Anderson On Health Insurance
Satisficing is choosing a solution that meets minimally defined criteria because the search costs of finding the optimal solution to a problem are too high and we are humans with bounded rationality and limited focus and attention spans. A common case of satisficing is finding and taking the first parking space seen at the mall on December 23rd. Sure it might be half a mile from the entrance and a mile from the one store you really need to get to and there might be a spot three spaces from the entrance that will be available just as you drive by but the spot is good enough so you take it.
What does this have to do with health insurance?
In my personal mental model of the firm, I believe that there are very few problems that are optimized and many problems that are satisficed. This includes a subset of problems that have the trappings of an optimization problem but there are numerous good enough assumptions built into the model so the optimization is either a GIGO optimization or more likely a good enough local near maximization instead of a universal optimization. Big company wide strategic decisions are likely to be nearly optimized while day to day decision making is often an accretion of satisficing decisions within multi-objective cross cutting frameworks of constraints.
This includes Human Resources and Employee Benefits. Under a strict optimization strategy, everyone would be paid their marginal value. Everyone would receive just enough of a total compensation package to match their actual contributions to the firm. That does not happen. There are some bullshit artists who have talked their way up. There are some people who have not been promoted for years and as soon as they leave for the competitor at the other end of town two entire departments fall apart because they were the off the org chart glue that made all of the kludges work smoothly.
Health insurance and benefits is also a problem. Typically the constraints of a problem space from the point of view of the benefit manager will be a fairly hard upper boundary on cost, a moderately hard constraint to not piss off very senior management by making their lives or more importantly their spouses’ lives more difficult, a softer constraint of keeping the offering vaguely competitive with peer offerings. Those will be the formal constraints. There can also be informal constraints. One of the big ones is keeping the number of people yelling at the benefit manager throughout the year to a minimum and making sure that people occassionally talk to the benefit manager when there is not a problem with benefits.
And this is where satisficing comes in.
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Election 2016, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat
Some of the first people in the country to vote for @HillaryClinton. pic.twitter.com/BoNVfGxwas
— Catherine Gabel (@catherine_gabel) September 19, 2016
In person early vote begins in some counties across Wisconsin today! https://t.co/fOxzV37f0E
— Lily Adams (@adamslily) September 19, 2016
As a reminder (and for those of you who only read Balloon Juice during office hours), MisterMix did some research and put together an ActBlue widget for those who want to donate to “winnable” races for Democrats competing in the Senate and the House:
(click on the widget pic to be redirected to the ActBlue page)
Apart from continuing the good fight, what’s on the agenda for the day?
Tuesday Morning Open Thread: A Place to Put Your Money Where Your Heart IsPost + Comments (133)
This post is in: domestic terrorists, Hail to the Hairpiece, Republican Venality, Just Shut the Fuck Up, Security Theatre
Never change New York dead tree front pages: pic.twitter.com/4paWHS3LLW
— bmaz (@bmaz) September 20, 2016
He was a would-be terrorist and failed murderer, a dumb criminal captured by good police work. Per NYMag:
The man suspected of planting bombs in New York and New Jersey over the weekend was charged with five counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer on Monday following a police chase and shoot out in Linden, New Jersey earlier in the day. His bail was set at $5.2 million and he is expected to face further charges.
Ahmad Khan Rahami – a 28-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen living in Elizabeth, New Jersey – was reportedly shot by law enforcement after firing on cops. Rahami was “conscious and awake” when taken away in an ambulance, though the extent of his injuries is unknown…
Standard GOP “Terrorism” Claim — A Bully Incites the Pants-WettersPost + Comments (94)
This post is in: Hail to the Hairpiece, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Assholes, Flash Mob of Hate
And I’m not talking about the Alabama teenagers pranking easily frightened authority figures…
This image says it all. Let's end the politically correct agenda that doesn't put America first. #trump2016 pic.twitter.com/9fHwog7ssN
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) September 19, 2016
He’s his old man’s son, that’s for sure…
“the chance of an American being murdered in a terrorist attack caused by a refugee is 1 in 3.64 billion per year” https://t.co/ZWsr8SsRLK https://t.co/NPsUxPhsFV
— Elise Foley (@elisefoley) September 20, 2016
And, crucially, refugees are human beings desperately seeking safety, not inanimate edible candies. https://t.co/qXQBrNTZQ3
— Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) September 20, 2016
… not only is it a disgusting metaphor, Don Jr. ripped it off without attribution… and from “the best” sources, too:
Hey @DonaldJTrumpJr, that's the point I made last month.
Glad you agree. pic.twitter.com/Nssw6KC1HY
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) September 20, 2016
If you think the choice of Skittles is accidental here, you haven't seen the George Zimmerman alt right fan memes. pic.twitter.com/OlZoMgHkze
— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) September 20, 2016
Late Night Open Thread: Creepy Clowns on the Loose!Post + Comments (68)
by John Cole| 37 Comments
This post is in: Assholes, Clown Shoes
I was reading a story about some scumbag wingnut who lost a lawsuit to a couple of Muslim he was harassing, when something caught my eye:
Look at the lower right hand corner, and you will notice that the photo credit is to the John Hugh Gilmore fan club. What kind of wrong turns must you have taken in life that you are a proud member of the John Hugh Gilmore fan club? At what precise point do you think things started to go so badly for you.
by Adam L Silverman| 101 Comments
This post is in: Domestic Politics, domestic terrorists, Open Threads, Silverman on Security
While everyone is still focused on the bright shiny objects of of Ahmad Khan Rahami, now in custody after a shootout with police this morning and Dahir Adan, the claimed by ISIL knife attacker killed by an off duty cop in St. Cloud, Minnesota, there are two other prime examples of leaderless resistance and self radicalization that aren’t getting wall to wall TV coverage. Carey Lee Ogborn was arrested in Houston on Friday and arraigned this morning for plotting to blow up a building and attempting to buy the explosives from an undercover Federal law enforcement officer. Last Wednesday Daniel Shiffmiller, a self proclaimed sovereign citizen, was arrested by the FBI. You will not be surprised to find that Ogborn and Shiffmiller look like this: