Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Hot air and ill-informed banter

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Donald Trump, welcome to your everything, everywhere, all at once.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

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

Republicans do not pay their debts.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

White supremacy is terrorism.

A consequence of cucumbers

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about it’s history.”

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

I’m more Christian than these people and I’m an atheist.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Democrats are back in array!

You are here: Home / Absent Friends / Small Site Updates, greennotGreen News

Small Site Updates, greennotGreen News

by | 111 Comments

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Folks,

I’ll be tweaking the sidebar a bit today and hope to add some nifty things to the comments either later today or tomorrow. Also, a rotating quote line is coming today!

On a more personal note, Terry, greennotGreen’s sister read the memorial thread and let me know how helpful it was:

Alain, I noticed the celebration thread up on BJ. Thanks so much. I’m actually going to use some of the quotations from Carol Ann for the memorial service. She would love the idea of writing part of it herself!

So there you go folks, well done!

 

Open thread!

 

ETA: OK, folks, exciting things just went live. Look below the comment form – there is now a comment help/tips section with lots of useful things (more to come, as things change).  And perhaps more importantly, a built-in pie filter. Use it to block annoying commenters and their comments. It’s harmless – enter a name or a comment number and all comments from that person will be turned into statements about pie. It works on a per-browser basis, storing your list in the browser’s site data.

All hail Major Major Major Major and cleek. Their help to convert the filter from something that you had to tack-on in a specific framework into a built-in function of the site was immense. Thanks guys, your help made this a better place for all.

Reader Interactions

111Comments

  1. 1.

    Yutsano

    Frabjous! What are the odds of the balloon man graphic returning to the main page?

  2. 2.

    Alain the site fixer

    I don’t think I have the old graphic, and as I recall, it wasn’t a)good quality/high-resolution; b)in a orientation that works for a banner graphic (it was much taller than wide).

    If you have skills or an archived image, I’d be happy to take another look then ask John if he wants to change.

    When the public Issues tracker launches, submit the idea so it doesn’t get forgotten.

  4. 4.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Good to know that the BJ dedicated memorial thread, as well as scattered comments and gnG’s own observations, were helpful to Terry and the rest of the family. I keep thinking of the mother, who has her own health challenges, I believe. Few things in life can be as cruel as losing one’s child, and my heart aches for her.

    Alain, thank you so much for the update.

  5. 5.

    Alain the site fixer

    @SiubhanDuinne: Yeah, their mother is in rough shape as I recall, a crisis that would overwhelm most families! I hope to get the time to put together the extract next week. I’ve got a few plugins that do what I want, I just need to figure out which one works best. The first was perfect in vision but didn’t work correctly, so it’s not as fast going as I’d hoped!

  6. 6.

    The Moar You Know

    Do the commenting changes include threading?

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Cole has said, often, that Balloon Juice will never have threaded comments. It took a long time for me to get used to the threadless posts but I agree with him now.

  9. 9.

    Alain the site fixer

    Folks – what do you think of these dotted lines between comments? I didn’t change that – the new theme version likely changed internal names so our style override is no longer functional. I’m no sure how I feel about them.

  13. 13.

    HeleninEire

    @Yutsano: When I moved Balloon Juice to my mobile home screen it shows as the Balloon Man.

    LOVE the Balloon Man.

  17. 17.

    Another Scott

    @Alain the site fixer: I don’t mind the dotted lines, but when the edit window is still open the dotted lines overlap the counter and stuff. Or at least they did when I last checked…

    Thanks for your efforts here!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  19. 19.

    Elizabelle

    Alain, I love that Terry is using some of Carol’s comments at the service. “She would love the idea of writing part of it herself!” That’s perfect. Thank you for making the memorial thread happen.

    And: happy we don’t have threaded comments. It’s not that hard to skim and follow a point.

    Some day, I would like someone to explain cleek’s pie filter to me, for about the fourth time. Like you’re talking to a child or explaining something to Donald Trump (without all the “Elizabelles”; will save you the typing there). Have not yet been tech savvy enough to install it … and am doing fine skipping right past the pieworthy, for the most part.

  20. 20.

    Alain the site fixer

    @hovercraft: No, I’m sure that’s JUST a coincidence! :)

    I’ll see what I can do re: the line placement, etc. a bit later, have a few other to-do’s with priority today.

  21. 21.

    Alain the site fixer

    @Elizabelle: You don’t need to install a thing- down below, type in a comment name from above and hit Add, then look to see what that person’s comments have been transformed into!

  22. 22.

    Elizabelle

    Ah. I hadn’t seen the pie filter at bottom; it was kind of a remembered ask the tech guy, and you’re ahead of us there. Well done.

    I will probably pie myself.

  25. 25.

    Elizabelle

    Can we take the person out of piehood?

    What if I accidentally pie raven? (And his pie should probably be mackerel.)

  27. 27.

    Alain the site fixer

    @Elizabelle: You can view the list and remove folks from it. The list is saved so it will work tomorrow, but just in that browser. So you have to set it up on each browser/device you use and you’re good-to-go!

    You can also view the list. Any pied comment can be viewed by clicking the double caret.

  28. 28.

    hovercraft

    @Elizabelle:
    It has an add and remove button. And it works beautifully, I just tried it out on Novo Russia in one of the threads downstairs. You also have the option of still reading responses to someone you’ve pied by clicking on those responses to see what they are saying to the annoying one, if you so choose.

    ETA: I see Alain is keeping an eye on us ; )

  30. 30.

    Roger Moore

    5. Cursing is allowed, being nasty can be almost obligatory, but if you are such a pain that many people complain, you’ll be banned.

    I don’t think this is true. Cole has always had a very light hand on the ban hammer and generally brings it out only for sustained harassment or quite specific bigoted words.

  31. 31.

    JanieM

    @The Moar You Know:

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Cole has said, often, that Balloon Juice will never have threaded comments. It took a long time for me to get used to the threadless posts but I agree with him now.

    Agreed. I guess I don’t have to plead if John has said no threading, but … please, no threading!

    More seriously, thanks as always to Alain and his helpers.

    Less seriously again, does the pie filter also block comments responding to the filtered commenters? Not a request, mostly just snark about a feature that would wipe out major proportions of some threads. I can take responsibility, if sometimes just barely, of walking away from the computer and doing something else when sanity requires it. ;-)

  34. 34.

    hovercraft

    EPA To Replace Dozens Of Scientists, Potentially Kneecapping Advisory Board

    The Environmental Protection Agency gave notice to dozens of scientists that they would not receive a second three-year term on an advisory board after their current term expires, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.

    The move offers the new administration’s EPA an opportunity to leave its mark on a key review board by filling it with a slate of its own appointments.

    The Post noted that it is standard practice for members of the EPA’s Board of Scientific Counselors (BOSC), which reviews research performed by the EPA’s Office of Research and Development, to receive a second three-year term.

    In May, half of BOSC’s executive committee members were told their terms would not be renewed — a decision that itself prompted resignations from the board in protest.

    The same notice has now been extended to a number of scientists on the board’s various subcommittees.

    “[W]ith the latest information from EPA, 38 of the 49 remaining subcommittee members will not be renewed at the end of August,” the current BOSC executive committee chair and professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota, Deborah Swackhamer, told the Post.

    “It effectively wipes out the BOSC and leaves it free for a complete reappointment,” she added, referring to the dismissals…………………

    A call for BOSC applicants posted by the EPA’s Office of Science Policy in May specifies who the EPA wants to replace the ousted board members: “EPA will consider nominees from industry, business, public and private research institutes or organizations, academia, government (federal, state, local, and tribal) and non-government organizations, and other relevant interest areas.”

    It later notes that criteria under consideration will include “background and experiences that would contribute to the diversity of viewpoints on the Executive Committee or Subcommittee, e.g., workforce sector, geographical location, social, cultural, and educational backgrounds, and professional affiliations.”

    Hmm. I wonder what types of diversity of thought they’re looking for?

  35. 35.

    JR in WV

    @Major Major Major Major:

    But, but…. I love to talk about pie, and all the pie filter does is tell us you have lost your pie.

    Yes, I admit, I addded Major Major Major Major to my pie filter, after adding Alain didn’t work at all. I suspect Alain wrote himself out of the pie filter so that he can rant to everyone no matter what!!! Which is both typical and OK, as the site code mamager needs to be able to tell people where to get off and back on.

    Then I took Major Major Major Major out of the pie filter, which also worked smoothly.

    Thanks Alain!!

    Did you see my comment on the photo submission tool? Just chatting, no big.

    Pecan pie, with ice cream, vanilla ice cream on the side to cut the richness of the pie. Sounds absurd, using ice cream to cut down the richness of a dessert, but there it is, it works.

    Sour cherry pie, ummmm good.

    Peach Kuchen, fresh peaches, cinnamon and sour cream, with a crunchy crust. The best!!!

  37. 37.

    Alain the site fixer

    @JanieM: We’re considering that addition. So when the Issues tracker is announced, add that so we don’t forget.

  39. 39.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Alain the site fixer:

    I don’t like the dotted lines.

    Also, thanks for the Comment Instructions/Help. Good reminders and summary, even for those of us who have been around for a while.

    Query: Would it be possible to include a button control for the strikeout feature? I don’t use it often, so typing in the angle-bracketed tags isn’t a hardship, but it would be a useful little shortcut. Thanks!

  40. 40.

    Elizabelle

    I would love if we put up a link to the greennotGreen/Carol Ann Bonner memorial thread, maybe just a link in dark green ink, for about another month. Maybe at the top right. To make it easy for folks checking in to find the donations info and read the obit and memorial comments. We have a lot of busy and also occasional readers.

    Would that be too long?

  41. 41.

    Alain the site fixer

    @JR in WV: I did, and it revealed a need – the form I see doesn’t tell me who the submission is from! Can you submit 3 or more pairs of pics (as different submissions). I want to see how the admin form handles such complications! (I haven’t gotten tons of submissions so far)

  44. 44.

    Alain the site fixer

    @SiubhanDuinne: I plan to launch a host of button controls. Also, I’ll be adding comment instructions to cover using the back button and other tips from users. So should you have anything to add to the instructions, drop me an email.

  45. 45.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @hovercraft:

    A call for BOSC applicants posted by the EPA’s Office of Science Policy in May specifies who the EPA wants to replace the ousted board members: “EPA will consider nominees from industry, business, public and private research institutes or organizations, academia, government (federal, state, local, and tribal) and non-government organizations, and other relevant interest areas.”

    What, no churches?

  46. 46.

    hovercraft

    I feel like the Twitler base is going to be our new voters o Maccombe County Reagan Democrats who wil be tudied and must be pandered to for the next couple of decades. Ugh!!
    Amanda Marcotte via Salon

    Why do Donald Trump’s supporters keep standing by their man, even in the face of mounting evidence of his administration’s incompetence and possible corruption? Dr. Justin Frank, a psychoanalyst and the author of “Obama on the Couch,” dives is into the psychology behind this phenomenon.

    Trump voters, like most of us, he argued, are trying to control anxiety and rationalize their own decisions. Trump made them feel good about themselves, and that is an emotional reaction that cannot be countered with facts or evidence.

    “The people who were Trump supporters were hungry,” Frank said. “When they started out they were hungry for something different, they were hungry for change, they were hungry and they needed something. And Trump seemed to provide them with that. And once you provide that for someone they are going to stay loyal to you regardless of what you do after that, unless you really turn your back on them.”

    “It’s like a child of an abused parent, or a child who is going to defend his mother against whatever attacks happen, because he touched people in a very deep core when he spoke to them,” Frank added……….

  47. 47.

    hovercraft

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    non-government organizations, and other relevant interest areas.”

    It’s right there, the most non governmental organizations are churches, well after corporations that is, and they both have areas of relevant interest.

  48. 48.

    SiubhanDuinne

    This site has a built-in pie filter that allows readers to add commenters they don’t like to a list that turns any of their comments to statements about pie. It only affects your browser, and is a great way to deal with trolls and others you’d rather avoid. You can always remove a commenter or see a specific comment, and it works across the site, so once you setup the filter in a browser, every time you return to the site in that browser, your filter will be in effect. Simple, better.

    Suppose I want to pie a particular individual who’s being an ass on a long thread, derailing the conversation at every turn, but I don’t want to pie them forever. Is there some easy way to remove the pie filter and reinstate that commenter in subsequent threads?

  50. 50.

    Another Scott

    Thanks for the “Comment Instructions/Help (click to toggle)” below, but it breaks one of the rules about GUIs – the mouse’s arrow pointer changes into an “I-beam” rather than a “Hand” to indicate that something happens on clicking. I initially didn’t click on it because it didn’t change to a hand…. But since it’s not a URL, I’m not sure what the appropriate mouse pointer should be… The mouse pointer above “(click to hide)” at the end does change into a hand.

    \pedant

    Maybe put a box around the “Comment Instructions…” like in the Pie Filter?

    Thanks!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  51. 51.

    hovercraft

    Cameraman forced to delete Jared Kushner pics as journalists barred from photographing him in Israel

    Journalists were told not to photograph the U.S. president’s son-in-law, and a photographer from the Associated Press was ordered to delete the images on his camera’s memory card.

    It’s not clear from the Guardian report, or another published by The Times, who issued those orders to journalists covering the White House official’s government business trip.

  52. 52.

    Alain the site fixer

    @SiubhanDuinne: Yes, you can add them and then remove them at a later date. So if someone gets testy one night, or your patience is done, you can temporarily enact the change.

  54. 54.

    Another Scott

    @SiubhanDuinne: I haven’t tried the built-in Pie Filter, but the standard one has a little “>>” icon at the end of the comment text, so you can temporarily see the original comment if you want. You can then decide to unpie them if you want.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  55. 55.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @hovercraft:

    Ah, of course you are correct. I usually think of non-governmental organizations more as professional or issue associations. What the Brits call QUANGOs.

  57. 57.

    JMG

    Senate health care bill revealed tomorrow. Collins and Murkowski have pretty much caved. They’ll vote for it if they can introduce an amendment on Planned Parenthood funding, which they know damn well will go down on Pence’s vote. Sen. Tillis says the parliamentarian can stuff his rulings. Partly line 52-48 vote due next Friday.

  60. 60.

    JR in WV

    @hovercraft:

    Hmmmm, lessee now. Creative thought? Close….hmmmm, Creationist thought~!!!! Yeah, that’s it, right there. Their sweet spot.

    No prissy formulae, no rules, just make it up, out of, sheer imagination, that’s right ~!!!~

  63. 63.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Alain the site fixer:

    I don’t think I have the old graphic, and as I recall, it wasn’t a)good quality/high-resolution; b)in a orientation that works for a banner graphic (it was much taller than wide).

    If you have skills or an archived image, I’d be happy to take another look then ask John if he wants to change.

    In the Balloon Juice Online Store, there’s an entire category of “Balloon Juice logo gear.” You might be able to grab the little man off an image there, or perhaps the Cafe Press folks could retrieve the original artwork.

  64. 64.

    JanieM

    @JMG: Collins has caved? What a surprise! And is she going to get all kinds of splashy publicity for having caved, like she did for allegedly not-going-to-cave? Nah…….. We’ve seen this movie before. Over and over and over.

  65. 65.

    Alain the site fixer

    Final new feature roll-out for the day: rotating quotes instead of the sidebar one that only changed on reload and was an odd fit.

    Enjoy, everybody, you’ve all done very well (waves cane and stumbles).

  68. 68.

    Boussinesque

    @hovercraft:

    “…because he touched people in a very deep core when he spoke to them,”

    PHRASING

    ETA: I hear they let you do that sort of thing, when you’re a star….now off to get some brain bleach.

  70. 70.

    The Moar You Know

    Why do Donald Trump’s supporters keep standing by their man, even in the face of mounting evidence of his administration’s incompetence and possible corruption?

    @hovercraft: Because he’s a racist asshole just like them. Thank you, you’re welcome.

    Everything else said by Dr. Justin Frank is horseshit.

  72. 72.

    cleek

    @Elizabelle:

    Some day, I would like someone to explain cleek’s pie filter to me, for about the fourth time.

    The pie filter works like this:
    1. your browser gets a web page (like this one) from Balloon Juice
    2. it scans through the page, and looks at each comment it finds.
    3. it looks at the author of the comment and compares that to the list of people you’re ‘pieing’
    4. if it finds a match, it replaces the text of the comment with a little comment about pie.

    It runs in your browser, so what you do with it has no effect at all on what anyone else sees. Everybody will have their own list.

    The controls at the bottom of the page let you add and remove names from the list of people you’re pieing. So, you could type ‘cleek’ in the little text box, hit ‘Add’, and then all of my comments will show up as little comments about pie. If you change your mind about me later on, you can type ‘cleek’ in the text box and hit Remove and it will remove me from your pie list.

    You can look at the list of all the people you’re pieing with ‘Show List’.

    You can also add people by typing in the number of one of their comments. So you could type “#71” in the text box and hit Add, and the pie filter will look for comment 71, get the comment author name and it will add ‘cleek’ to your pie list. Just to be clear, it’s adding the author of comment #71, not just comment #71. The pie filter always works on author names.

    The ‘#71’ feature will come in very handy if you want to Add/Remove someone who uses images in their name.

    It will also look for replies to people you have pied. If it finds a reply to someone in your pie list, regardless of who did the replying, it will ‘pie’ that comment, too.

    If you move to a different device or browser, your pie list will not follow you. The pie list is essentially stored in your browser.

    cheers

  73. 73.

    Alain the site fixer

    @Another Scott: I did then and do now, apparently – thanks, I hadn’t searched the site or media library for it yet.

    The thing is, that graphic on it’s own is not a banner. It’s a 250×300 low-quality PNG. Putting that as the banner is a no-go. Now I know that we had asked John back then, and he got the logo we have now. I am not a graphic artist, and my limited skills cannot make it look good. There are other issues – the balloon man has no balloon and is B&W.

    It’s on the list and this helps. I expect I’ll need a graphic artist to do some work; we need some kind of fusion of what we have now with that logo and I can’t do it.

  74. 74.

    Alain the site fixer

    @cleek:

    The ‘#71’ feature will come in very handy if you want to Add/Remove someone who uses images in their name.

    That’s clear problem analysis there, my friend. Thanks again, and let me know if I can ever help you!

  75. 75.

    Elizabelle

    @cleek: I will never pie you. But thanks for the explanation.

    The thought of never, ever having to read anything by that Hollandaise guy. Ever again?

    Calls for pie, in real life. To celebrate. I think the Wilmer types are the most grating.

  81. 81.

    Ohio Mom

    @JMG: sigh…

    On another note, continued thanks to Alain and everyone else working on the technical end of things.

    And, no, the dotted line does not bother me, and I appreciate the lack of threading.

  82. 82.

    Alain the site fixer

    @D58826: It did, but this theme didn’t support it (plus our solution will work on mobile) and so we had a sidebar.This is more like what it was, slightly improved.

  87. 87.

    sharl

    Although I’ve never used it, the built-in pie filter feature sounds interesting. Can’t see it at work – I assume that is due to the same workplace filtering that I assume is preventing auto-saving of my username/Email*. Looking forward to seeing it when I get home.

    *fyi, with this comment gonna change my Email-of-record. I understand that a moderator needs to OK this comment for the new info to be automatically accepted for future commenting.

  88. 88.

    Major Major Major Major

    @sharl:

    I assume that is due to the same workplace filtering that I assume is preventing auto-saving of my username/Email*

    If you can’t see the controls at all, then it’s determined your browser won’t support it and doesn’t load itself. Clever girl.

  89. 89.

    sharl

    @Major Major Major Major: It’s beyond my ken, so I’ll take your word for it. I do see the click/toggle for Comment Instructions at the bottom of the page, so unless I’ve overlooked the feature (e.g., elsewhere on the site), it ain’t there for me here at work (on Chrome using a PC with Win10).

  91. 91.

    Alain the site fixer

    @sharl: it would be below the red Comment help, so yeah, since it’s not showing, your browser doesn’t allow local data storage which is a common security policy for a number of companies, especially financial.

  92. 92.

    sharl

    @sharl: P.S. The same workplace filtering presumably also eliminated the feature that allows editing of comments for several minutes after posting a comment. That filtering, along with the aforementioned loss of auto-saved Name/Email, happened a few months ago. (Also, in case it wasn’t clear, the “feature” I was referring to in the final sentence of that last comment is the pie filter.)

    P.S.#2 – Thanks for quick approval of my new e-mail address!

  93. 93.

    Alain the site fixer

    @sharl: truth be told, I went to free it and it was already free. I suspect Betty in this clear case of good customer service!

  94. 94.

    JanieM

    @Yutsano:

    I’m curious: where is this information coming from?

    Ask @JMG, that’s the mention I’m responding to. I should have asked for a source myself, but it’s such a longstanding pattern it certainly wouldn’t be surprising. (Google produces nothing at the moment.)

  95. 95.

    sharl

    @Alain the site fixer: Well thanks to Betty (or whomever) and all the front-pagers for the posting and behind-the-scenes work you all do, and thanks to you in particular for all this time-consuming work you have been doing on the site, not to mention the worthy “side-projects” (gnG tribute, travel pics, etc.).

  96. 96.

    Alain the site fixer

    @sharl: My pleasure! There’s a few other enhancements coming soon. I want to test some new plugins for, and we’ve got some more customizations to, commenting that I think folks will love. The Pie filter was step 1 of 4 in making commenting better. We plan to have a pre-comment check to ensure banned words, etc. aren’t included. Lots of neat stuff.

  102. 102.

    sharl

    @JanieM: I just did a search* on the past 24 hours using the advanced twitter search feature, but nothing came up showing that Sen. Collins has committed to a decision on AHCA, but has rather been showing her usual mastery of being vague/ambiguous.

    *Here’s the link for that, but note that results sometimes tend to roll in slowly. Also, in my search set-up I used Collins rather than “Susan Collins” to cast a wider net, so I did haul in one or two irrelevant non-Susan’s in the catch, though the results list is still pretty short. [And FYI, if you want to catch same-day results using that Twitter Advanced Search feature, you have to manually enter tomorrow’s date as your end date for the search after you’ve executed a “Twitter-acceptable” search, since the date entry boxes in the search page won’t let you enter a future date. In other words, you have to tweak the search URL in the browser URL window in the results page (obtained upon execution of a Twitter-accepted search) to enter the tomorrow date. If you don’t normally mess with URL’s that way, it’s…complicated.]

  104. 104.

    Another Scott

    @sharl: Kinda sorta related. TheHill:

    Senators and lobbyists said they expected restrictions preventing tax credits from being used on insurance plans that cover abortion would not be allowed. House Republicans had demanded their inclusion.
    “I believe that did not pass through the parliamentarian’s review, so I don’t expect that to be in there,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Wednesday.

    Under ObamaCare, there is already an abortion restriction on tax credits, however, so Senate Republicans could just keep that in place to soothe conservatives. Senate Republicans are expected to keep the underlying structure of ObamaCare tax credits, which are given based on a recipient’s income.

    Another provision in trouble is language defunding Planned Parenthood, which provides abortion services and has long been targeted by Republicans.

    However, a lobbyist with knowledge of negotiations said that defunding Planned Parenthood is expected to remain in the draft Senate bill, but could have to be taken out before a final vote.

    Collins told reporters if Planned Parenthood language were included in the Senate bill, she and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) would introduce an amendment to strip it out. The pair introduced a similar amendment to the GOP’s 2015 repeal bill, but it was not accepted. Collins voted against the repeal bill while Murkowski voted for it.

    A roughly $100 billion stability fund meant to bring down the cost of premiums is also causing problems under the Senate rules. The stability fund money also has abortion restrictions.

    To get around that problem, the lobbyist said Republicans might funnel money for the fund through the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which is already subject to abortion restrictions.

    […]

    Separately, a lobbyist familiar with negotiations said a $45 billion fund for opioid treatment is unlikely to be included in the bill. That could anger Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), two centrists who say the fund is necessary to offset Medicaid cuts that could eat into medical treatment for opioid addicts.

    Senators are also trying to figure out how to raise more money to make up for the costs of changes they are making to the House bill. The Senate is expected to allow for a slower phaseout of additional funding for Medicaid’s expansion than the House, which raises the bill’s costs.

    It’s not a done-deal yet.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  105. 105.

    sharl

    @Another Scott: Thanks, that seems consistent with the current state of things that I’ve been seeing elsewhere.

    Phrases often used used by media outlets that I normally find irksome – like “(two) centrists” (in the excerpt you blockquoted) or “maverick” (Sen. Ragey McWalnuts) – I find 10x more irksome where huge issues like this are on the table. I think DC media act as enablers by incorporating such descriptors that are not only unnecessary for the story, but actually help to give these “centrists/mavericks” cover when in fact these kind of politicians so often cave in the end (Joe Lieberman was also a master of this sort of shit). I suppose it’s part of the cost for successfully practicing Access Journalism.

  106. 106.

    Gvg

    @Alain the site fixer: I did a Google search in google images of balloon juice and found one of balloon man. Not sure it’s better, but it said it was for Charlie’s Angels logo contest so that may be where it came from or they might have an original?

  107. 107.

    DaddyJ

    Alain, I think something is borked with your ad tracking. On Firefox there’s a super-annoying constant reload of Google Analytics and that annoying live-video ora.tv ad (Jesse Ventura/Larry King ad). Keeps cycling over and over, interferes with scrolling and commenting. Every time it cycles it adds to the page size, so I’m guessing leaving the page up long enough will crash the browser.

  109. 109.

    DaddyJ

    @NotMax: Thanks, NotMax. I may check it out.

    Alain, further investigation shows endless “Blocked loading mixed active content” error messages. Firefox is blocking http requests because your site is now https. But those pesky advertisers are determined to ram home their ads. If you are manually entering ad URLs, try removing the protocol from the start: “//edgecast-test.ora.tv/…”

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