Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

In my day, never was longer.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

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

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

A dilettante blog from the great progressive state of West Virginia.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

Infrastructure week. at last.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

You are here: Home / 2018 / Archives for November 2018

Archives for November 2018

And It Begins

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The legislation, called H.R. 1, sets the tone for Democrats as they take the majority in January.

The bill would create national voter registration and expand access to early, online voting. It would increase federal support for state voter systems, including paper ballots to prevent fraud.

Bring it on…

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Thoughts on the new 1332 waiver concepts

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The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released four Section 1332 waiver concepts yesterday. One is non-problematic, the other three are likely to result in a lot of lawyers billing a lot of time as soon as a waiver similar to these concepts is filed or approved. We’ll start with the non-problematic concept first.

  • Split Risk Pool for tail cost smoothing

CMS is encouraging states to split their risk pools. Most people will stay in the general pool while some likely to be high cost people are split off to the side. This sounds nefarious but it is not. This is how reinsurance actually works on the already approved 1332 reinsurance waivers. There are a dozen different flavors on how the actual details can be implemented: visible or invisible risk pools, claims cost triggers, diagnosis triggers, or hybrid triggers.  All of those details can then vary at attachment points. But those are fundamentally minor details.

I think a waiver that is just a reinsurance program of whatever flavor will and should go through the approval process with only actuarial challenges and not legal challenges.

That is the simple and straightforward concept.  It does not have legal risk.

The next three concepts are ambitious and legally suspect on rule making administrative procedure grounds as outlined by Christen Linke Young of the Brookings Institute. These concepts all split the market and shift significant resources away from highly likely to be high cost to likely to be low cost populations.

The three concepts can be short-handed as:

  • Defined Contribution
  • Subsidy re-allocation (Iowa Stopgap Measure Version 1.0)
  • Subsidize anything

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Open Thread: The G20 Tango

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(The boss isn’t crazy about performance reviews either, y’know.)

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On the Road and In Your Backyard

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Good Morning All,

On The Road and In Your Backyard is a weekday feature spotlighting reader submissions. From the exotic to the familiar, please share your part of the world, whether you’re traveling or just in your locality. Share some photos and a narrative, let us see through your pictures and words. We’re so lucky each and every day to see and appreciate the world around us!

Submissions from commenters are welcome at tools.balloon-juice.com

 

This Friday is a compilation of a few submissions, all from the same series. I apologize if I got something out of order. I’m thrilled to see so many pictures of Africa, land of my birth. I’ve been blessed with two trips to sub-Saharan Africa, both in the early 1980’s. Luckily on one I got to South Africa and saw where I was born. I was disgusted and horrified by Apartheid and hated being there.  I did have some adventures and those travels shaped me. If you ever have the chance to go to Africa – any part – do it! It will change and enrich you immeasurably.

Have a wonderful day and weekend, and enjoy the pictures!

 

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Zombie-Eyed Granny Starver Open Thread: Requiem for A World-Class Fraud

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Almost titled this “Respite from A WCF”, because we know he’ll be back on the Very Serious Media no later than Jan. 6 2019 (even sooner, if Trump completely decompensates and/or flees the country before then), making bank to represent whichever batch of oligarchs and kakistocrats offers him a dirty dollar.

But in this happy moment, let us remember the True Paul Ryan: lifelong suckler upon the gubmint teat, devout Ayn Rand fanboi, personage who stood out for unlikeability even in a party figureheaded by Donald Trump and frontlined by such specimens as Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, and Stephen Miller…

A special panel dreamed up by Speaker Paul Ryan to end the constant cycle of government shutdowns crashed and burned on Thursday.

The special panel tasked with recommending budget fixes overwhelmingly rejected its own set of proposals, even after lawmakers admitted the package included only modest changes to the way Congress approves budgets and funds the government…

Over several months, the leadership-appointed panel swatted down the most ambitious ideas for overhauling the budget process. The final text of the agreement contained changes like requiring Congress to pass a budget every two years, instead of annually. It also would have required a “fiscal state of the nation” report each year.

Sweeping proposals to “de-weaponize” the debt ceiling, tighten spending limits and disband Congress’ budget committees were all voted down or withdrawn…

He’s going out as he came in, attempting to delegitimize votes along strictly partisan lines…

… Gee, ZEGS, let’s try to parcel this out, shall we? You fronted for an administration* that was xenophobic to the point of ripping families apart, apparently for sport, and for taking a brutally hard line on all immigrants, legal and otherwise. A somewhat gentler version of that was enough to end Pete Wilson’s political career in California 20 years ago. And Wilson was reasonably popular at the time and not a maniac…

Remember when people thought this guy was smart?

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Late-Night Reiteration #1,357 Open Thread: Bernie Sanders Has Exactly *One* Principle

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… “What’s in it for me, Bernie Sanders?”

Now that Bernie has all-but-officially launched his 2020 candidacy, he’s gonna be waaay too busy collecting tributes from his cultists to actually spend time or prestige on the job he’s already got…

… Sanders outranks Manchin in seniority on the committee and could block him. But the Vermont independent has shown little inclination to leave his perch as the ranking member of the Budget Committee — even though he made climate change and clean energy a major plank in his 2016 presidential run and plans a national town hall on the issue Monday…

Sanders, who is exploring a 2020 presidential campaign, wrote in an email to POLITICO on Wednesday evening that he is proud of his work on the Budget Committee, where he’s been for his past two terms, and suggested he’d likely stay.

“As ranking member I have helped fight for budget and national priorities, which represent the needs of working families and not just the 1 percent. I look forward to continuing the fight in the new session for social, racial, economic and environmental justice,” he said…

Manchin’s critics aren’t explicitly pressuring Sanders to seize the Energy spot. Some say it’s up to Schumer to reassess seniority rules or do whatever necessary to prevent Manchin from moving up. Other committee Democrats who are more senior than Manchin and could step into the role include Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, who are currently ranking members of the Finance and Agriculture committees, respectively….

Stabenow would also have seniority over Manchin and could face pressure, though she expressed happiness with her current top slot on the Agriculture Committee this week…

Ron Wyden, as we know, has been an Intelligence workhorse for keeping pressure on the GOPers trying to hide Trump’s crimes. And the Ag Committee also controls food stamp regulation, where Debbie Stabenow has done important work protecting Michigan farmers and those who most need government support.

Unless I’ve missed something — feel free to update me! — all Bernie has done on the Budget Committee is make finger-wagging, social-media-friendly speeches complaining that none of his fellow members appreciate Bernie Sanders’ brilliance.

And I guess that’s all the “help” environmentalists should expect from Bernie Sanders, now or in the future.

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Nicolle Wallace Broke Some Interesting News Today: Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein and Special Counsel Mueller Edition

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This afternoon during her MSNBC show Deadline: White House, Nicolle Wallace broke some interesting news when talking to Rachel Maddow. Specifically, Wallace reported that based on her sources at the Department of Justice Deputy Attorney General is still overseeing the Special Counsel’s investigation. She supported this by explaining that today’s plea agreement between the Special Counsel’s Office and Michael Cohen went through the same chain of approval that all of the previous plea agreements that the Special Counsel has agreed to, as well as all of his indictments. That chain of approval stops with Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein. Here’s the clip – the information pertaining to Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein still supervising the Special Counsel’s investigation begins around the 20 second mark:

This is very interesting.

Open thread!

 

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