It all comes down to this. Does it get any better than game 7 between two long-suffering, scrappy-ass teams? Totally neutral open thread for the baseball event!
Archives for November 2016
The shaving razor’s cold and it stings
I hear a lot of people saying “I wish the election was over, I can’t take it anymore”. I too wish that Hillary had already won the election officially, but when I probe, that’s not what these people usually mean. Instead they mean that they don’t like to be confronted with the reality that the GOP is a white nationalist party that nominated an ignorant, xenophobic sex abuser, and that the voters of the country are so out of it that at least 40% of them will vote for this lunatic.
Now, I understand wanting to hide from reality. I hide from it as much as possible myself! It’s always been hard for me to tell the difference between denial and what used to be known as hope.
But too much denial is a bad thing. People shouldn’t wish to go back to believing that the GOP is run by well-meaning daddies who just happen to have a different point of view than we do. Because it’s not. But after Hillary wins, most people will go back to believing it anyway. That’s the most dangerous thing of all.
Wednesday Evening Open Thread: More Popcult Favs for HRC
Imagine if Frodo was all "Sauron's bad, but Gandalf's done some morally gray stuff, too, so I'll stay home."
Don't get eaten by orcs. Vote.
— James L. Sutter (@jameslsutter) November 1, 2016
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Apart from GOTV, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
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Also, wise words: “If you vote for Hillary you’re a grownup; if you vote for Trump you’re a sucker; if you don’t vote for anyone, you’re an asshole.”
(NSFW – language)
Wednesday Evening Open Thread: More Popcult Favs for HRCPost + Comments (88)
GOTV – Joss Whedon/Chris Pine Style + Bonus POTUS Halloween Video
Joss Whedon got together with his friends again and the results are…hilariously scary.
And here is the Obamas celebrating their last Halloween at the Whitehouse in case you missed it. My two favorites were Pres. Obama singing Purple Rain and of course the Lame Duck – probably the best and ballsiest costume of the day.
Open thread.
GOTV – Joss Whedon/Chris Pine Style + Bonus POTUS Halloween VideoPost + Comments (178)
Now Come the Days of Dorito…
…May they be blessed!
Chickens are like people in that they are constantly angling for power. Ours is a rooster-less flock, but there’s a boss hen and a scapegoat. The former role is transient, whereas the latter appears to be permanent. Boss hens are evidently deposed by coalition.
By my reckoning, we’re on our third boss hen since the formation of the flock: Joan Jett, the largest black hen pictured above, was recently deposed by Dorito, the orange hen. Joan Jett rose to power by deposing Big Foot, not pictured.
Also, it turns out the chickens DO like bananas. Someone had asked about that. Now you know.
Open thread!
ETA: My hubby and I are thinking about moving at some point in the future, and I’m not looking forward to moving the chickens. Maybe we’ll just put “chickens convey to new owner” in the listing? Nah. But I’m not sure how we’ll move them. We have a large dog kennel that we were going to use to round them up when a hurricane threatened, but thank dog we didn’t have to do it. I guess we’ll move them in that. It’ll be fun! Not.
Who owns directory data
@wcsanders @bjdickmayhew found out that the community health center in Concrete WA is labeled multiple ways on WA exchange provider search
— rebeccastob (@rebeccastob) November 2, 2016
Rebecca is an actuary and a health policy nerd who has been extremely helpful to me during many Twitter conversations. She is identifying a very legitimate problem of directories. who owns the source of truth?
Right now, providers own their data. They decide what they call their practice, they decide what address format they submit. They decide if they are taking new patients, they decide what their hours are. The providers then supply that data to the different carriers that they contract with. They also supply that data to a number of third party web display vendors. The downstream entitities can correct for obvious errors like a four digit zip code or a street address that was fat fingered and placed the office location in the middle of an Army Corps of Engineers’ lake. But the insurers don’t own the data.
Some regions will have a common sheet for the carrier to fill out, most regions have a variety of sheets or data entry screens for the carrier to complete. This is where there are significant problems.
A low level staffer could be told to complete the office profile for eight insurers by the end of the week. The office thinks they are doing well as they are engaged in a timely data refresh and revalidation cycle. This is an improvement over letting the data sit for three to ten years and seeing half the original practice working on their golf swing in Florida during their well earned retirement. But it is flawed.
123 Main Street is a legitimate address.
Suite 500, Big City Medical Commons is the same location with a wildly different descriptor.
Main and Elm Streets, NE Corner is also the same location.
123 North Main Street is also the same location.
No one owns the data validation and data consolidation step. These are all valid addresses/locations. Some are in a more preferred format than others but the postal service will deliver mail to all of these locations especially if there is a valid and relevant zip code attached.
AHIP, the insurance industry group/lobby, is playing around with a single source of truth portal in half a dozen states so that providers enter their data in a single location, that single location curates and validates the data, and then the single location serves it out to the relevant insurance companies. This would be a significant improvement. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is cracking down hard on bad directories and more importantly, out of date directories. There is effort to get better data out there for people to use. As we see a proliferation of high deductible plans along with narrow networks tied to plan designs that do not give out of network benefits, the data has to be better.
We’re not there yet.
Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Almost At the Finish Line
Bedwetters: You don't an extra big White House if you get over 270 EVs, Clinton Camp smart to lock down the states she needs to win
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) November 1, 2016
Best media response of the week (if not longer):
@Smitter11 @MichaelRCaputo @Fahrenthold The Washington Post is an asswipe and a disgrace to real journalism.
— Steve Elliott (@SteveSanAntone) November 2, 2016
We welcome anyone who buys the WaPo print edition. No judgment. We don't ask what you do with it once it's yours. https://t.co/QXiYLG1YRy
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) November 2, 2016
What’s on the agenda as we strive through this last week?
Oh, and speaking of long-awaited happy endings…
The fella at the next table was nice enough to help me hold the flag after the Cubs won!!! Go Cubs and fly the W!!#GoCubsGo #FlytheW #Game7 pic.twitter.com/QJVaPgOTDH
— Bob Newhart (@BobNewhart) November 2, 2016
Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Almost At the Finish LinePost + Comments (263)