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Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

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Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

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Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

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

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Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

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Bark louder, little dog.

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You are here: Home / Anderson On Health Insurance / The Deadline That Wasn’t

The Deadline That Wasn’t

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Folks,

The deadline to renew your health insurance coverage via Healthcare.gov is NOT today, as I had in my head the past couple of days. But it IS one month from today.  There’s no time like the present to get ‘er done, especially if you find some unfilled time. The site is improved and worked quite well.

I spent part of yesterday signing up – I’m all done, and happy to see a new competitive offering in my marketplace. I went ahead and added VSP to my 2019 plans because I will need some new glasses and I prefer the bells-and-whistles, and those options add up, now don’t they! Without David’s advice from over the months and years, I know I would have made poorer choices, so thanks David!

I also spent some time early Christmas shopping (research and online purchases) and took advantage of the early Thanksgiving Dell pricing to get a new 15″ laptop and docking station. It’s not the greatest computer for all needs, but it should suit me well. It will be nice moving on from my 7 year old, 17″, 8 pound monster laptop. Even though I just upgraded the memory and hard drives early this year, it made sense to buy new, now, before the new anti-Chinese tariffs kick in January 1st (10% goes to 25%).

I will now have a smaller, faster, better machine and can add dual 4k monitors when the time is right (i.e., when the price is right). Coupled with my other new machine (an Intel NUC and associated parts arrived today, getting it working later and tomorrow), I expect to have a much better future with technology. I expect I’ll be using approximately 30% of the power to do the same things, so it’s not just replacing older hardware, it’s wasting less money on electricity bled as heat and then paying more to cool my house in warmer months.  My desktop tower – from 2010 – puts out as much heat as a person, even when just sitting on and doing nothing except awaiting an incoming network connection and otherwise being on. You can feel it in the summer months when it has been on for a few hours versus off; the room temperature in this top-floor office is much warmer. The new NUC sips power, and will do what I need performance-wise. It doesn’t have a gaming-class graphics card, but it’s sufficient to do what I need, and it takes up the space of three stacked packs of Dunhills (my old smoke, back when I was a nicotine junkie).

On that note, I hope you find good deals and neat stuff in your insurance, tech, and non-tech shopping over the next few weeks. I believe this is the first Christmas where I’m far ahead of the game. That’s a good thing as I hope to get outdoors and play a bit in December as I try to develop some better lifestyle and activity habits.

Open Thread!

 

oh – don’t forget, if you play Fallout 76, drop me a line (I play on Xbox) so we can connect in-game. If you play on PC, let me know so I can put you in contact with other jackal Fallout 76 PC players. Use the Contact a Frontpager form. We need to hang together, there are nasty folks out there. Having my power armor already helps a bit, but since I’m not a high-enough-level, I can’t wear anything but the frame. Ok I lied, I have two sets, but they don’t provide the protection I need, so I’m LFG.

Reader Interactions

41Comments

  3. 3.

    cain

    I’ve been having problems signing up. It’s mostly because the damn site won’t accept my alien number even though it took my citizenship certificate. They want me to submit forms that is in regards to immigrant visa type stuff which doesn’t apply to me.
    I finally ended up checking my employment status and it says I’m not qualified to work because there is some discrepancy on my social security which I find very strange. I’ve been a U.S. citizen for 25 years now. I’m slightly worried that there is some shit going on with these guys It’s hard to trust Homeland security these days.

  5. 5.

    Alain the site fixer

    @cain: I had something like that a few years ago. It turned out that in the 1980’s, some idiot changed my date of birth and country (from South Africa to Saudi Arabia, both being SA, of course). I had to get birth certificate record from State Department to then provide to Social Security to get my master record updated correctly. I suspect you’re in some similar situation (I’m citizen born abroad so sightly different, but sounds similar)

  7. 7.

    A Ghost To Most

    My son participated in the Fallout beta, and was like a kid at Xmas waiting for the CD to arrive. I can ask him what his screen name is if you’d like.

    I’m still using my original Surface Pro from 2013.

  8. 8.

    Spanky

    Attention, Saudi “special” agents! The royalty might make you the next fall guy:

    Saudi Arabia’s crown prince had no knowledge of the operation, Shaalan al-Shaalan, a spokesman for the prosecutor, said at a news conference in Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

    He said that 11 suspects had been indicted and that authorities were seeking the death penalty for five of them. The order to kill Khashoggi, who had criticized the Saudi monarchy over the past year, had come from the leader of the Saudi team in Istanbul, Shaalan said without naming any of the suspects.

    Suuuuuuure.

  9. 9.

    cain

    @Alain the site fixer:

    @cain: I had something like that a few years ago. It turned out that in the 1980’s, some idiot changed my date of birth and country (from South Africa to Saudi Arabia, both being SA, of course). I had to get birth certificate record from State Department to then provide to Social Security to get my master record updated correctly. I suspect you’re in some similar situation (I’m citizen born abroad so sightly different, but sounds similar)

    Oh boy, I hope it isn’t something that complicated. But you know there has been a lot of data leaks over the years, so I can imagine some shit going down.

    I did a FOIA on myself (long story, it was for an indian tourist visa) and got my entire immigration history. I’m ready for anything. I’ m heading in today with my passport in hand.

  10. 10.

    Barbara

    @Spanky: They are seeking the death penalty because dead men don’t talk. But then, any of the assassins might have stopped to consider that having been asked to conduct such a coldblooded extrajudicial killing for the convenience and pique of the ruling prince, if they became an inconvenience they would be expendable in largely the same way.

  11. 11.

    rdldot

    Thanks for the tip on the Dells. I need a new one too, so should I go with the I3 processor for $479 or the i5 for $549, I have an I5 now but it is always slow and says its out of memory. Both of the new ones have 24GB of memory. Help!

  12. 12.

    donnah

    I was hoping to buy a new iPad after Christmas and after googling a few sources, it still isn’t clear to me whether the new round of tariffs coming in January will affect the prices. The sources are dated from September and a few say that Apple has negotiated to keep the tariffs away from some of their imported products, but I haven’t seen anything definitive.

    Has anyone else found information about this?

  13. 13.

    Boussinesque

    If there happen to be any fellow jackal PS4 players for Fallout 76, do you think you might connect us as well? I noticed my system of choice was absent from the list, so I wanted to double-check.

  15. 15.

    WaterGirl

    @donnah: I doubt that you will be able to get a definitive answer on that. If the tariffs could be high, it’s probably safer if you get it before christmas unless there’s a reason you can’t do it sooner.

    My two cents.

  18. 18.

    WaterGirl

    @Yarrow: Whatever it is, it surely looks creepy on Cole’s twitter feed. I even wrote to Cole asking him what it was, and then say your question. I am not alone! :-)

  19. 19.

    Yarrow

    @WaterGirl: It does look creepy. Alain says “it’s a pretty holiday loaf” but it doesn’t look pretty to me. I thought it was some animal part.

  20. 20.

    gvg

    @Yarrow: It’s called a yule log. Its a brown loaf baked in a pan that makes it shaped like a stylized log with a few decorative holly leaves. the loafs are usually something like spice cake or banana nut bread. I’ll link a pan without the cake

    Cole’s pic is of the cake on a black mesh cooling rack so it’s hard to see well when it’s tiny. I had to blow it up to recognize it.

  21. 21.

    gvg

    and now I am looking at various yule log images on google and craving the chocolate ones…..I didn’t know they came in chocolate. Its a modern version of bringing in the big yule log to burn on the longest night. Germanic or viking tradition from before Christianity. I’ll take the cake custom myself.

  22. 22.

    Mary G

    WaPo says “Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi says she has the votes to become the next House speaker” and if she says she has the votes, she has the votes. WaPo doesn’t believe her, though:

    The defections, if they stand, would leave Pelosi, who has led the Democrats for more than 15 years, several votes short of the 218 she would need when the full House votes . However, no Democrat has stepped forward to run against her for a job she held from 2007 through 2010.

    Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (D-Ohio) told reporters Wednesday that she’s being encouraged to stand for speaker if Pelosi doesn’t have the votes.

    In an interview with The Washington Post on Thursday, she said she has been “overwhelmed” by the support from many of her colleagues for her possible entry into the race.

    “Over the last 12 hours, I’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of support I’ve received,” Fudge said, adding that “probably closer to 30” Democrats have privately signaled that they are willing to oppose Pelosi.

    “Things could change rapidly,” she said.

    Or they could not. Honestly, just toss Steny over the side and put a younger person in his seat. Preferably a POC. Female.

  24. 24.

    Mary G

    OMG these clowns:

    NEW: Exclusive: Trump admin. officials asked federal law enforcement agencies to examine legal ways of removing exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen from US in attempt to persuade Turkish Pres. Erdogan to ease pressure on Saudi gov't, four sources say. https://t.co/tliMZnXsmZ— MSNBC (@MSNBC) November 15, 2018

    Jared’s bestie needs help, let’s throw this guy out to the dictator that wants him dead.

  25. 25.

    Mary G

    @Mary G: From the NBC story:

    Career officials at the agencies pushed back on the White House requests, the U.S. officials and people briefed on the requests said.

    “At first there were eye rolls, but once they realized it was a serious request, the career guys were furious,” said a senior U.S. official involved in the process.

  26. 26.

    Spanky

    @Mary G: I was going to ask if such a thing were even legal (not that Trump cares). Certainly it could get tied up in the courts for a long time.

  27. 27.

    Mary G

    @Spanky: It doesn’t specifically say if it’s legal or not, but this paragraph implies that it isn’t:

    One option that Turkish and Trump administration officials recently discussed is forcing Gulen to relocate to South Africa rather than sending him directly to Turkey if extradition is not possible, said the U.S. officials and people briefed on the discussions. But the U.S. does not have any legal justification to send Gulen to South Africa, they said, so that wouldn’t be a viable option unless he went willingly.

  28. 28.

    Spanky

    @Mary G: I’m hoping he’s on his way to Canada even as we comment here. It would be totally in keeping with this administration to learn that ICE is hunting for him.

  32. 32.

    WaterGirl

    @MomSense: So happy for you! And for the rest of Maine, of course. It’s been a long dark road in Maine and it’s so encouraging to see some light there.

  33. 33.

    guachi

    @MomSense: Yay!

    Do we know the outcome of Poliquin’s lawsuit?

    I think with the likely defeat of the D candidate in Utah and the victory of Cisneros over Kim (Cisneros is currently behind) the Democrats will net +38 seats from the 2016 election.

  35. 35.

    Roger Moore

    @Barbara:

    But then, any of the assassins might have stopped to consider that having been asked to conduct such a coldblooded extrajudicial killing for the convenience and pique of the ruling prince, if they became an inconvenience they would be expendable in largely the same way.

    What is your proposed alternative? Refusing to participate would probably have gotten them killed along with Khashoggi. Once you’re one of the ruling Crown Prince’s elite goon squad, it’s too late to change your mind about what kind of awful stuff you’ll get involved in.

  36. 36.

    Michael Cain

    My wife and I had a Colorado exchange plan this year, but don’t need one next year because Medicare. Even though that transition is done and the exchange plan cancelled, we are inundated by both paper mail and e-mail reminding us that open enrollment is going on, that we need to sign up, etc.

  37. 37.

    WaterGirl

    @MomSense: I wonder if Collins understands that she sold her soul (whatever soul she had) to remain part of the boys club, and lost. She will never be part of the boys club and she has lost the respect of all thinking women everywhere.

    I hope she crashes and burns politically in her next step, whatever that is.

  38. 38.

    Gelfling 545

    @gvg: Im my family we’ve always made bûches de Noël. My sister having a Jan 1 birthday, it’s become her official birthday cake,the baking of which falls to me since our Mom is gone. I’m going to enlist her son to help this year so somebody in the next generation knows how to do it.

  41. 41.

    david

    Got mine done two days ago. I got tired of the daily e-mail reminders and multiple phone calls.
    Don’t know how anyone can miss the deadline when they’re constantly there tapping on your shoulder.

    The administration may not be gung-ho on it, but the bureaucracy will not be deterred!

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