Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
There’s still 75 minutes, but it looks like we made it out of this fucking shithole of a year 2020. I’m not even watching any of the bullshit on tv, I just don’t care. Just fucking go away, 2020.
Nice Zoom chat tonight, with a couple new faces. I wish more of you would show up- especially some of you lurkers. There’s no need to be intimidated, we’re all old and with no fucks to give, so if you have time check in tomorrow. It will be nice.
One last time:
Fuck this year.
A few Christmas memories. Thanks to Steve from Mendocino for editing.
Ghosts of Holidays Past: Janie M Christmas Snippets EditionPost + Comments (8)
My son lived outside the US for several years after college, so to have him come home for Christmas, on a snowy train no less, was a great occasion.
GOP Sen. David Perdue of Georgia will quarantine after coming into close contact with someone who tested positive for Covid-19 https://t.co/i4AIgkoDeI
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) December 31, 2020
This year will end as it began — with powerful Chaos Energy.
Open Thread: David Perdue Quarantining in GeorgiaPost + Comments (226)
We’ve stayed home on Amateur Night for many years now, but this evening, we have an adventure planned. We’ve seen Black-Crowned Night Herons hanging around a nearby marshy island in the river, and we plan to anchor our little Jon boat upstream at sunset and stake it out to see for ourselves if it’s true these birds work the night shift so as to avoid competition with daytime herons. Here’s a photo of one I took on a recent evening off said island:
I’m also hoping to see some owls. I hear Barred Owls every night from all directions but rarely see them. Must not forget the mosquito dope, or it’ll be a short trip. Other than that, no particular plans. What are you guys up to this evening?
Open thread!
In case you missed Tuesday’s announcement: Open Thread: New Year’s Zooms for Balloon Juice
We are having two Balloon Juice Zooms this week:
– New Year’s Eve on 12/31/2020 – 7-9 pm (Eastern) – zoom opens for general conversation 30 minutes before
– New Year’s Day on 1/1/2021 – 3:30 – 5:30 pm (Eastern) – zoom opens for general conversation 30 minutes before
Zoom links have been sent if you requested them by email.
If you haven’t already contacted me, but you want to attend, it’s not too late!
Totally unrelated, but this video is too good not to share again:
FOX News walked up rolling live, and I appreciated the free air time!
Also, Kelly Loeffler campaigned with a klansman. pic.twitter.com/ZlmO0xoFvr
— Jon Ossoff (@ossoff) December 31, 2020
OPEN THREAD.
Open Thread: New Year’s Zooms for Balloon JuicePost + Comments (37)
Yesterday, Drs. Petra Rasmussen, and Paul Shafer co-authored a public comment with me regarding the proposed rule for the ACA’s Notice for Benefits and Payment Parameters (NBPP-2022). NBPP is the ACA exchange rule book that lays out the general policy contours of the implementation of the ACA. I’ve co-authored with Petra for the first time this year. She has specific expertise in quality ratings and dominated plan choice. We’ve written together on dominated plan choice (paper just accepted before the holiday) and are planning to again write together on the matter of dominated plan choices and learning. Paul and I have an ongoing writing partnership. In 2019, we wrote about the change in elite messaging and operations during the end of the 2017 OEP leading to a loss of enrollment. In 2020, we published a study on the impact of advertising on enrollment. In 2021, we have an accepted manuscript that examines the impact of monopolies on insurer advertising levels. We have another ACA related paper under review and two non-ACA related papers cooking at the moment. He has also written extensively on Medicaid and preventative care. This year, I’ve also published research on zero premium plans, transaction costs, and quality ratings.
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services wants to do a lot of things in NBPP 2022. Some of the changes include display and collection of quality ratings, special enrollment periods after income shocks, lower exchange fees and therefore limits on outreach and advertising budgets and massive changes to the nature of what an exchange marketplace must be. Dr. Rasmussen, Dr. Shafer and I have written about these subjects. The three of us wrote a comment about what we know.
Commenting on executive agency rule-making is a form of active citizenship as I laid out last February:
First, it is a way to have some democratic accountability of the executive branch. Interested stakeholders can petition for redress of their grievances and bring about their particular and peculiar expertise to a subject that the government may or may not have as much in-depth knowledge. Sometimes comments can point out “DOH” moments to the agencies and allow for course correction.
Secondly, notice and comment is a core component of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The APA governs most of the rule-making regulatory state. A core APA tenet is rule-making entities can only implement final rules when the rules are neither capricious nor arbitrary. If comments identify a significant consequence or assumption of the rule that is not addressed in the final rule response to comments, that is good evidence that the rule may be flawed.
Our comment is below the fold:
— Tom Morello (@tmorello) December 30, 2020
Programming note:
Thursday Morning Open Thread: New Year’s Eve, At LastPost + Comments (326)