Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

In after Baud. Damn.

This fight is for everything.

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

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

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

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

He really is that stupid.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Reality always gets a vote in the end.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

That meeting sounds like a shotgun wedding between a shitshow and a clusterfuck.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

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

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

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

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Archives for 2020

What About the Next Election?

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The drama in Michigan continues with Monica Palmer (say her fucking name) attempting to rescind her certification vote,  and revealing that she got a call from Trump.

Elections run on election officials from each party having at least a tiny modicum of good will and connection with reality. One of the lasting effects of this election will be a further degradation of the quality of election officials, for two reason:  First, nobody wants to go through something like this.  Second, future elections that aren’t even close (remember, Michigan isn’t close) will see Republicans trying to disenfranchise voters up and down the ballot.

So, I’m expecting many more coup attempts in the future, whether or not this one succeeds.  This election didn’t finish anything — it just got it started.

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Open Thread: Obama Drops In On The Twins

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You all know I just adore TwinsthenewTrend and their videos. Today they got the best surprise.

I hope this serves as some respite for you. If Biden speaks today, I’ll post that as well.

bonus because I’ve gotten requests. Gabe guarding the garden:

Open Thread: Obama Drops In On The Twins

I feel bad because I had to get that photo, but of course since I went outside, it disturbed him and he had to come over to see what I was doing. Then he rolled over in the leaves for a belly rub. I wish I could have gotten that photo because his coloring in the fall leaves was beautiful.

Open thread

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Plan offering optionality on Healthcare.gov

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This is going to be geeky (even for me).

On Healthcare.gov, insurers are required to offer everyone a single plan if they are selling anything that is subsidy eligible.  Insurers are required to offer a gold plan somewhere within each rating area that they participate in.  A rating area is a geographic region where a particular plan has to be offered at the same premium.  A rating area can be a single county or it can be an entire state or anything in-between.  Most rating areas are several counties.  An insurer can elect to offer or not offer bronze and platinum plans at their discretion.

I am curious about the optionality that insurers exercise.  The unit of analysis is insurer (HIOS ID), County and metal level triad.  The maximum count is silver as any on-exchange insurer has to offer a silver plan everywhere.  Every other metal level has some degree of optionality.  The extreme was 2019 Holmes County, Ohio where a single silver plan was offered as the only choice.

County-Insurer-Metal triads on HC.Gov with optionality

Platinum is a rare beast.  It always had been lightly offered and now, it is very seldom offered in 2021.

Insurers are currently offering gold everywhere they offer silver on Healthcare.gov .  From 2016 to 2019, that was not the case, with a peak optionality-opt-out in 2017.

Bronze is a consistent modest opt-out.  Some insurers don’t want to offer low actuarial value plans and this seems to be mostly consistent across years.

Why does this matter?

Optionality implies the possibility of strategic decision making by insurers.  An insurer can look at a county and decided that beyond a single silver plan, the most profitable offering for County A could be Bronze, Gold and Platinum while net of risk adjustment profitability for County B is only silver.  This requires a degree of nimbleness that I am having a hard time seeing in the marketplace but optionality is valuable.

Optionality is also a way around pricing rules that could make some metal tiers less profitable than other tiers.  If a state has a rule that makes gold plans less profitable than silver net of risk adjustment, an aggressive insurer can significantly reduce their gold footprint to only offering gold in a the least unprofitable county in each rating area.

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Thursday Morning Open Thread: The Work Continues

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On The Road – Steve from Mendocino – Pacific Ocean Park

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Steve from Mendocino

In 1967 I was mostly working on fixing my GPA in anticipation of going to Art Center. This was also the last year of Pacific Ocean Park in Santa Monica. It was a fun place to photograph, and an opportunity to experience old timey amusement park vibes in the spirit of old Coney Island. Decidedly down at the heels, but a trip to walk around in. My pictures are posted without additional commentary.

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On The Road - Steve from Mendocino - Pacific Ocean Park 7
Comptche

Late Night Open Thread: More Good News About the Biden Transition

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Booga-booga, Mean Lady Senator-Professor Warren a-comin’! Actually, seems to me this is more of a wink-wink, don’t-worry-if-you’re-not-dirty story…

… President-elect Joe Biden’s agency review teams include several people who share Warren’s reputation for being tough on the financial industry.

It’s more evidence of the influence of Warren, a fierce opponent of big banks and the excesses of Wall Street — as well as an early signal that Wall Street will be under much greater scrutiny, especially compared to four years of President Donald Trump’s efforts to dismantle regulation and unshackle big banks…

Biden tapped about 500 people to work with government agencies, from the CIA to the United States Postal Service, and help shape the future of government policy and appointments.

Perhaps top on Wall Street’s worry list is Gary Gensler, who will lead the team working with financial regulatory agencies including the Federal Reserve, SEC and FDIC. Gensler led the Commodity Futures Trading Commission from May 2009 to January 2014.

Among the Obama-era regulators, Gensler was the most aggressive in implementing the Dodd-Frank financial reform law that Wall Street opposed.

Although Gensler is a former Goldman Sachs banker, he is now viewed as a tough-on-Wall-Street ally of Warren…

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