Lily loves her brand new frilly pink bed:
And I love Lily.
Archives for April 2021
Friday Evening Open Thread: Lousy Employers Decry Their Lost Hammocks
the people refusing to do shitty work for $9 are ruining society https://t.co/keOskHx9zw
— kilgore trout, toilet sword ninja (@KT_So_It_Goes) April 27, 2021
Such tales of performative woe will never stop being funny for me.
Friday Evening Open Thread: Lousy Employers Decry Their Lost HammocksPost + Comments (103)
It’s All Projection
I guess this is gross Republican week. You may remember the Duggars, the breeding Quiverfull family that were the subject of a TLC reality series, 19 Kids and Counting. Towards the end of the series, viewers were on the edge of their seats as Michelle, the mom, was about to deliver, since she had been advised by her physicians that she might rupture her uterus if she had another kid for Jesus.
That show came to an abrupt end when Josh, the oldest, was accused of molesting underage girls (including some of his sisters) as a teenager. He was also caught with an account at Ashley Madison. At the time those allegations surfaced, he was director of the lobbying arm of the Family Research Council, an anti-gay hate group. He quit that job and asked for forgivess.
Well, apparently Josh is going to have to get on his knees in front of Jesus again, since he was arrested yesterday for receiving and possessing child porn. I wonder if his wife will forgive him a second time, as she did when the Ashley Madison revelations came out, and Josh admitted to being unfaithful to her. She’s expecting the couple’s seventh child.
I’m thinking that there might be some child abusers who don’t work out of the basement of a DC pizza joint that doesn’t have a basement.
Another Step Along the Road to Serfdom
I’m “fully vaccinated” today so I went into the oppressor’s app (a.k.a. the New York Excelsior Pass Wallet) and downloaded my ball and chain. Here it is. It had nothing to do with my paper vaccine record — Big Brother knows when I was vaccinated, so he simply asked my name and address, when I got my last shot, in which county, and what brand it was. If I click on the pass, a QR code is displayed that can be scanned by any jackbooted thug who requests my papers.
There was some complaining in the last post that I made on this topic, centering around the need for a cell phone. Well, you can get it and print it out at home on the computer that you’re presumably using to read this blog. You could even go to a library and I’ll bet the librarian would help you print it out. For the events for which this pass will be used (football games, big concerts, etc.), attendees will already have a cell phone since most of those places sell only electronic tickets.
The important thing, as far as I’m concerned, is that a spiteful anti-vaxxing MAGA hat who wants to see a Bills game can’t fake this.
I interact with people from different parts of the world as part of my job (this week: Australia, Guatemala, Mexico, India). As much as I’m happy to be vaccinated, I’m just god damned embarrassed at the situation here. We’re begging people to get vaccinated, while those countries’ vaccination efforts are just getting started. In their eyes, I’m sure we look like the cliché ugly, spoiled babies that many of us are.
Changing the Administration changes Administrative Burden
The Biden Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the second portion of the 2022 Notice for Benefits and Payment Parameters (NBPP-2022). The NBPP is the annual “rulebook” for the implementation and operation of the ACA marketplaces and insurance policies. There is a ton of administrative discretion embedded in the ACA on how out of pocket maximums are calculated, how risk adjustment works, when open enrollment occurs, what events qualify for a special enrollment period and dozens of other details.
The new final rule has the following to say on verifying the reason on Special Enrollment Periods (SEP):
HHS is not finalizing the provision to require all exchanges to conduct SEP verification for at least 75% of new enrollments for consumers not already enrolled in coverage through the relevant exchange. HHS agreed with commenters’ concerns around imposing additional administrative burden on consumers, and administrative and financial burden on states at this time. [My emphasis added]
There is a growing literature on administrative burden which is the process of navigating a potentially complex process to show eligibility and compliance with rules. High levels of administrative burden will lead to fewer people receiving the benefit that they seek compared to scenarios of low administrative burden. Administrative burden can be used for either program integrity/anti-fraud purposes or to just not pay out benefits. Increased and specific verification requirements like requiring a letter from a former employer to show loss of employment based coverage instead of accepting an attestation of coverage loss due to job loss from an individual is an example of two different levels of administrative burden.
HHS thinking about administrative burden as a barrier to access and enrollment is a significant change from the Trump Administration to the Biden Administration. Over the past few years, I’ve moved from pricing as the first and primary consideration for enrollment levels towards pricing matters within the context of ease of access and enrollment. This means steps that lower the cost of navigating a complex system will likely have larger enrollment effects than modestly lower net prices while introducing frictions and additional steps can lead to enrollment loss despite silverloading leading to lower net premiums.
Changing the Administration changes the direction on the value of decreasing administrative burden.
Changing the Administration changes Administrative BurdenPost + Comments (3)
Constantly Being Led Astray
We haven’t had a post about the latest Matt Gaetz news — the Daily Beast got hold of his moron buddy Joel Greenberg’s confession. What’s new in the document is that after they found out that they had been having sex with a seventeen year-old girl, they did the gentlemanly thing and waited for her birthday before continuing to pay her to have sex. Also, Roger Stone set his Signal messages to auto-delete, but Greenberg took screen shots of their discussions about a pardon for Gaetz.
I don’t know about you, but looking at photos of Gaetz have always brought up a real “there’s something bad wrong with that boy” feeling for me. God knows what kind of life that seventeen year-old girl had that got her caught up with these two slimeballs.
Anyway, Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor-Greene are going on a nationwide joint appearance RINO hunt, since Gaetz’ Daddy Trump has decided that the best use of every Trumpy Republican’s time is to root out anyone who isn’t a true believer.
Repub Venality Open Thread: Senator RonJon, Willing Putin Asset
Usually I tell people not to assume that the GOPers doing stuff like this are stupid. In Ron Johnson’s case, I think you can assume that he is, in fact, as stupid as he appears to be. https://t.co/6HFylS2ZfV
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) April 30, 2021
Stupid, apparently, but still bloody dangerous…
Repub Venality Open Thread: Senator RonJon, Willing Putin AssetPost + Comments (69)