Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

You cannot shame the shameless.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

We will not go back.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

Too little, too late, ftfnyt. fuck all the way off.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

“A king is only a king if we bow down.” – Rev. William Barber

You are here: Home / Archives for 2020

Archives for 2020

Military Life: Two Perspectives with Leto & Avalune, an Introduction

by | 234 Comments

This post is in: ,

We thought it might be really interesting to have a guest post series about military life, brought to us by Leto and Avalune.  The idea came about after an exchange a few weeks ago between Leto, Avalune, and another commenter.  We suggested the guest posts, and they graciously agreed!

They plan to wow us with as many unintelligible military acronyms as they can promised to keep these threads as jargon free as possible.

Over the course of several weeks, we’ll introduce the series and cover deployments, moving, working for the military, and military family life.  In the next post, we’ll get the perspective of the person being deployed, and the following week we’ll cover the same topic from the perspective of the spouse who was not.

Military Life:  Two Perspectives with Leto & Avalune, an Introduction 1

So… we’ll have two perspectives on each topic, plus this introduction, for a total of 7 posts – unless folks are wildly interested in some other military-related topic that gets raised in one of the posts.  But we can’t go on for too much longer than that, because Leto and Avalune are scheduled to do a one-week bike tour in Maine in May.  Can you believe it?

show full post on front page

Military Life: Two Perspectives with Leto & Avalune, an IntroductionPost + Comments (234)

The COVID 19 Coronavirus and the President’s Remarks

by | 209 Comments

This post is in: , , , , , , , ,

Here’s the live feed for the President’s scheduled 6:30 PM EST address this evening on the COVID 19 coronavirus.

I honesty don’t know what to expect from him tonight. Apparently the President is very angry with Dr. Nancy Messonnier, who is the career, professional infectious disease specialist leading the CDC’s response.

https://twitter.com/EamonJavers/status/1232748464972476416

It doesn’t help that Dr. Messonnier is former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s sister, which has set Rush Limbaugh and other supporters and surrogates of the President off on a variety of related conspiracy theories about how COVID19 is somehow a deep state conspiracy against the President. Which I’m sure makes all of seriously ill and dead people in dozens of countries feel much better.

I’m sure someone has recommended that the President be put on a script loaded into the teleprompter, kept as calm as possible, told to just go out and do the “just the facts ma’am” address about what is going on, and then turn it over to the medical professionals from the CDC and the NIH. But as is always the case with the President, there is no way to know whether we’re going to get a very subdued President who makes his way through a statement he clearly doesn’t want to make and then quickly leaves without taking questions or whether we’re going to get an unleashed President who doesn’t stay on script, opens up for questions, and then answers them however he feels like doing so. The former would be okay, the latter would create a whole series of new problems given the President’s and his administration’s well documented history of lying, presenting factually inaccurate information, and promoting conspiracy theories.

There are, however, a number of good quality sources for accurate information. Anne Laurie has been bringing us all an early morning round up of a lot of those sources – most of whom are medical professionals and researchers working on these issues. Here is the link to the CDC’s recommended guidance. And here is the link to the CDC’s updates on the COVID 19 coronavirus. Here’s one from The Washington Post that Cheryl sent me, as well as an excellent article from Foreign Policy she passed on as well. You should also give this article that Cheryl highlighted in a tweet yesterday a read too.

https://twitter.com/CherylRofer/status/1232435184684826624

A lot of the recommendations are the common sense ones that we all use for cold and flu seasons: wash your hands regularly, don’t touch your face, eyes, nose, mouth unless you’ve washed or sanitized your hands, if you’re feeling ill stay home if possible and contact your physician for guidance, cough and sneeze into a disposable tissue or the inside of your elbow (vampire sneeze or cough), if you are experiencing respiratory difficulties, seek medical assistances as soon as you can. And, of course, get a flu shot or the nasal mist. It won’t help with COVID 19, but it will provide some protection against the seasonal flu and potentially remove that as a potential medical issue for you. And, of course, the normal emergency preparations that we’ve posted about in regard to natural disasters apply: have a week to two week’s worth of non-perishable food, make sure your prescription and over the counter medicines are filled, make sure your home first aid kit is properly stocked, get plenty of rest, check reliable news sources, the usual.

Unfortunately, in terms of the official US response, we are in something of uncharted waters with the COVID 19 virus. The President is a known conspiracy monger who lies frequently and who has been more than happy to politicize public health and other potential national security issues for his own advantage. We all remember his helpful and thoughtful contributions to the US government’s response to ebola in 2014. It also doesn’t help that the President has overseen the degradation of the US’s ability to respond to a public health emergency by firing the National Security Staff members on the National Security Council who coordinate public health emergency and pandemic response, as well as cutting the CDC response teams and efforts by 80%. The President has also reduced US national health spending by $15 billion and eliminating the $30 million complex crisis fund, which would ordinarily be tapped to respond to something like the COVID 19 outbreak. Just as personnel is policy, so too is budgeting. What the President is and is not willing to fund is as much a determinant to what the official policy of the US is as who is hired to oversee and implement it and how it is officially delineated. It won’t matter a bit if the President delineates a strategy tonight to respond to the COVID 19 outbreak because the personnel and budgeting that the President have put forward would be trying to ask of that strategy that which no strategy could provide: ways and means that do not exist.

The President has repeatedly demonstrated that he doesn’t value intelligence. By this I’m referring to the product produced by the US intelligence community (IC), as well as other information coming from professional sources intended to enhance decision making. The purpose of intelligence is to provide timely, useful, and accurate information in a digestible format so that senior leaders and decision makers can make appropriate assessments of threats, challenges, and opportunities and the best decisions possible to deal with them. It is the role of senior advisors to provide the President what he needs to know, not what he wants to hear, based on the most timely and accurate information and analyses possible. And the President has also, repeatedly, indicated he doesn’t value this either. The firing of Vice Admiral Maguire as Acting DNI ten days ago is just the most recent example of this unfortunate reality.

If the President can be convinced to get out of the way and let the professionals at the CDC and the NIH and what is left of the US’s national public health officers corps do their jobs, let Congress quickly ramp up funding to allow these agencies to rapidly expand their personnel and operation, we might be okay. But if he cannot control his impulses, things are likely to be far rougher than they would need to be going forward. And even if he can contain himself, he can’t and won’t stop his surrogates and supporters spreading conspiracy theories that will make it much harder for the Federal, state, and local governments to respond.

We are off the looking glass and through the map.

Open thread.

The COVID 19 Coronavirus and the President’s RemarksPost + Comments (209)

Breaking News: Colorado Repeals The Death Penalty

by | 15 Comments

This post is in: 

It makes the 22nd state without a death penalty.

Colorado Repeals The Death Penalty
The Colorado State Capitol, Feb. 14, 2018. (Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite)

Colorado House passes bill today:

DENVER – The bill to repeal Colorado’s death penalty cleared its final legislative hurdle Wednesday afternoon in a 38-27 vote in the House of Representatives, and the governor’s office says he will sign the measure in what is expected to be one of the most consequential moments of the 2020 legislative session.

The measure passed its third reading Wednesday morning after passing its second reading early Tuesday morning after an 11-hour debate period. There was more than five hours of emotional testimony from lawmakers before the final vote Wednesday. Passage of the bill, HB20-100, was all-but a foregone conclusion after the bill cleared the Senate late last month because of the strong Democratic majority in the House.

Open thread

Breaking News: Colorado Repeals The Death PenaltyPost + Comments (15)

Cat Rescue REBOOT: Shakespeare (NYC) Still Needs A New Home

by | 36 Comments

This post is in: ,

Cat Rescue Bleg - NYC

Update from Deb S:

Still need a home for Shakespeare. He got sick over the weekend, and the timing was good because we found out after an ultrasound and before the planned adoption that he has two chronic conditions. The first is a slow-growing benign liver tumor that will only become a health issue if it gets large enough to put pressure on something important.

The other condition is either inflammatory bowel disease or a slow-growing bowel cancer. Treatment for both is the same: monitor for symptoms and treat as necessary.

All of this makes the adoption more difficult as he must now be considered a special-needs cat. The jackal who had planned to take him has no means of transportation and has reluctantly backed out. I would still like to get him adopted out of NYC if possible rather than take him to Maine with me where I think I’ll have a harder time finding a home. So if anyone is interested he is still available. Thanks.

Cat Rescue Bleg - NYC 1

Hello Juicers. I’m a long-time lurker, from the days when B-J was on the Dkos blog-roll and John was still a republican.

My mom is in home hospice in Manhattan on the Upper East Side, and neither my brother nor I can take Shakespeare, her part Russian Blue mix. He is the best cat to ever own her. Typical Russian Blue personality, his goal in life is to be on a person. Vocal and loving, if he’s complaining either his food dish is empty or you need to SIT DOWN THIS MINUTE so he can jump into your lap. The picture is of him homing in on my lap like a heat-seeking missile.

My mom got Shakespeare about 10 years ago from a rescue connected with her vet’s office, after losing her prior cat to old age. He is at least 13, and maybe older.

He has a tilt to his head and is a bit asymmetrical, we think he might have been hit by a car or suffered some other traumatic injury before my mom got him. And he has a nervous habit of over-grooming and pulling out his own fur that has gotten worse as my mom’s condition worsened and she could no longer give him the attention he was used to.

He needs a lot of love and would probably do best with another shut-in, or a family with one or more older children who can dote on him and give him the affection he craves. He loved visits from the children who used to live next door. I don’t know how he would do with other pets but safest would be a home with none.

Steeplejack would probably attest — for someone who works from home, a senior cat can be the perfect pet.

If you’re interested, or know someone who might be, leave a comment or contact me via the link in the blogroll.

Cat Rescue Bleg - NYC 2
Deb S:It’s hard to get a good picture – if he’s awake and you’re near him he’s heading for your lap. In this pic he’s reaching for my hand because I’m not petting him as I should be.

Cat Rescue REBOOT: Shakespeare (NYC) Still Needs A New HomePost + Comments (36)

Biden nabs Clyburn endorsement

by | 384 Comments

This post is in: , ,

Here’s the tweet:

Endorsements don’t seem to mean as much as they used to, but Clyburn’s is still a pretty big deal. I don’t think there’s much of a chance for an upset in South Carolina — Biden is expected to win, and he almost certainly will.

As loathsome and regrettable as it is, the media narrative following South Carolina’s vote may make a difference. If Biden wins narrowly, they may choose to spin it as a negative. If it’s a blow-out, the Beltway gang may make Biden’s political resurrection the big story leading up to Super Tuesday.

Meanwhile, millions of people are already voting across multiple states. After the rubble is cleared away from this primary season, maybe we need to rethink the timing of the debates in light of early voting? I don’t know, and I’m glad it’s not my job to figure it out.

Open thread.

Biden nabs Clyburn endorsementPost + Comments (384)

If you’re happy and you know, comment on a rule

by | 5 Comments

This post is in: 

The Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters (NBPP) for 2021 draft rule is how the Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) intends to run the ACA exchanges for the 2021 plan year.  It has some good stuff in it, some exceedingly boring technical minutia that needs to be addressed but can also serve as an over the counter sleep aid, and some major proposed policy changes.  I am paying particular attention to the proposal to change how automatic renewals are mapped when individuals are eligible for zero premium plans as automatic renewals and zero premiums have been a significant chunk of my published research over the past year.  I’ll be submitting a comment on that matter by the end of the week.

Comments on rules are important for several reasons beyond active and engaged exercises of citizenship.

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.

This is what is killing Medicaid work requirements as the Secretary of Health and Human Services has been repeatedly informed through comments on the work requirement waivers that the proposals would lead to huge enrollment losses with little attendant gains.  With that knowledge, the Secretary of HHS has not addressed how the waiver squares the circle of trying to promote the core objective of Medicaid (paying for medical services) and massive disenrollment.  Those waivers have been deemed to be arbitrary and capricious. 

Comments build the legal record that can be used in litigation to stop or slow down rules that interested stakeholders don’t like.  At the same time, comments aren’t everything as a non-arbitrary rule can look at comments, acknowledge that the commenters have a good point but say that other factors that are legitimate decision making reasons outweigh the commenters’ good points.  Most of my risk adjustment comments are addressed this way.

If you have specific expertise or interest in anything that the Federal government touches, be ready and willing to comment.

Regulations.Gov is the nation’s one stop shop for commenting on proposed rules.

The best comments have a few common themes.  First, they identify a specific set of issues within a proposed rule.  Then the authors establish their expertise and illustrate why they have some capacity to offer valuable insight into the problem.  And then evidence is brought to bear on the relevant points.   My comment for NBPP 2021 is basically a literature review of recent peer reviewed research and then a discussion of the implications of the proposed CMS policy change using the best available evidence.

Finally, these comments need to be well written and clear as the first reader at the federal agency is an intern or someone in their first job.  They won’t know everything about a subject.  They are mainly screening for subject area and duplication.  Big rules that have high public profiles can often have advocacy entities generate tens of thousands or millions of comments that are virtually identical.  Those comments will be collapsed into a single text string and barely be looked at.  The advocacy entities are mainly using notice and comment as a way to activate their base and maintain and build their mailing lists.  More agency time will be used on comments that offer unique insight into the problem that the agency is grappling with.

So if you have time, and either interest or specific expertise, comment on the rule making process for the things that you care about.  This is an active step of citizenship.

If you’re happy and you know, comment on a rulePost + Comments (5)