Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Not all that redacted, except for names. So far, it seems like the whole story could be there, minus names.
h/t everyone i the previous thread!
NEW: Judge Chutkan has unsealed Jack Smith’s 165-page motion for presidential immunity! storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us…
— Joshua J. Friedman (@joshuajfriedman.com) October 2, 2024 at 2:38 PM
.h/t Omnes for the BlueSky link.
Jack Smith Brief Released! (Mostly in Full, Names Redacted)Post + Comments (190)
Walz rally scheduled for today starting around 3 pm Eastern
Harris briefing on the hurricane around 4 pm Eastern
I am making broccoli quiche because I wasn’t in the mood to go to the store. I had broccoli, green onions, a frozen pie crust, swiss cheese and half-and-half, so I figured I could make it work.
Let’s just say it’s not going great. The broccoli was a couple of ounces less than I needed, not a big deal. The I started it steaming and forgot about it, so it’s definitely not “partially cooked”. I started the garlic sautéing in butter while I cut up the green onions, which were definitely older than I expected. Then the alarm went off to tell me it was time to force the post to publish. Then i noticed that the butter / garlic was brown because I hadn’t gotten the green onions in to sauté.
This will not be the best quiche ever. I’m normally a good cook. Really. sigh.
Update: while we’re waiting for the rally to start. I truly think this might be the best Liberal Redneck video ever.
h/t eclare
ON THE JD VANCE AND TIM WALZ DEBATE pic.twitter.com/gOcZjgDYak
— Trae Crowder (@traecrowder) October 2, 2024
Walz PA Rally at 3pm, Harris Remarks on Helene at 4pm (Open Thread)Post + Comments (69)
All the clips I’ve see show the if an undecided voter took a stand after watching last night, it did not go well for Voce.
Undecided Michigan voter: The one thing that stuck out to me was JD Vance's refusal to say whether or not Trump lost the 2020 election. It makes me think he is not as trustworthy pic.twitter.com/jEkVLacndA
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 2, 2024
— Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) October 2, 2024
Pretty sure Robinson is toast!
SCOOP:
As Helene approached N.C., Gov. Roy Cooper asked top officials for emergency powers as he mobilized response efforts.
Every Council of State member voted yes, except one:
Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who didn’t respond to the request at all. #ncpolhttps://t.co/LRi9W6Yigs
— Andy Specht (@AndySpecht) October 2, 2024
Open thread.
Did All the Undecided Voters Take a Stand Against Vance Last Night?Post + Comments (114)
I was frustrated during last night’s VP debate because of the excessive comity and deference that I felt Walz was giving Vance, and I posted about that at halftime. The polls I’ve seen show that Walz improved his favorables, as did Vance, though JD is still underwater. Walz’ favorable minius unfavorable is like +33% in the poll I saw, which is just amazing in this environment. So, if the “JD and I have areas of agreement” strategy was to keep increasing the already positive opinions of Walz held by the public, it worked.
I’ve also seen commentary that Walz’ strategy was to get the message out that JD has some reasonable views, but since he’s gotta kiss Trump’s ass, he’s afraid to do it. That sure worked in the J6 exchange, which I think was the moment where Vance done fucked up. Walz’ reaction shot on that one was priceless, as was his remark that the only reason Vance was on the stage is because Pence wouldn’t do what Trump wanted on January 6.
That all said, they don’t come any slicker than Vance, and expecting Walz to match that slickness is a mistake, and I don’t think I made that mistake. Walz is smart and he’s good at explaining important policies from the heart. It’s easy to appear smooth if all you’re doing is cranking out lies, which is what Vance was doing. Vance as couchfucker was a good laugh, and he can be awkward when he’s not scripted. But when he’s prepped and scripted, he’s a scary motherfucker, because he lies so well, and he expects that his lies will carry the day. He’s not wrong, because if you look at the press coverage this morning, most of the big news orgs are sticking with theater criticism instead of looking at the content of what Vance said. Vance’s clear expectation that he should never be fact-checked, coupled with the weak institutional press that is scared of fact-checking Republicans, should scare everyone who cares about preserving our democracy and treating everyone humanely. Jay Rosen gets this exactly right:
I’m not a woman (obvs), but the anecdotes I’ve seen indicate that women in general got a real “ewww” feel from Vance, especially when he mentioned that a lot of women want to go to work right after having a baby. It’s interesting that the yuck vibe from women is about a strong in the negative direction as the yum vibe from male, younger beltway media. Vance is a member of the same tribe as those guys: Ivy education, slick with words in a formal setting, struggles to fit in socially in any but the Ivy/preppie context, and a real fucking misogynist when you get down to it. Also, his constant bragging about his kids has a real “I got laid” stench. Ryan Lizza is the archetype of the kind of beltway dude I’m thinking of, and the news that he blackmailed Olivia Nuzzi with the RFK Jr sexting stuff is very Vance-like.
Finally, a word about Usha Vance. I see a lot of comments about how she’s going to divorce him because folks have a hard time imagining that a woman would put up with a guy like him. Nope, she’s cut from the same ambitious, shape-shifting cloth. They’re an awful, ugly power couple and we’ll unfortunately be hearing more from them.
NOTE: I added this post under MM’s (i.e., self-bigfooted) because I don’t want to clog up prime blog real estate with a discussion focused on my medical issues.
John let me know some folks had contacted him to see if I was okay since I haven’t posted or commented much lately. That’s sweet, and I appreciate the concern. Short answer: I’m okay!
I wrapped up chemo and radiation around the end of August and spent September physically recovering from that. I’m still getting maintenance immunotherapy infusions every three weeks, but the side effects aren’t as debilitating as the truly hellish intensive treatment phase was.
My primary struggle now is to overcome (or learn to live with) the psychological trauma of the whole thing. It turns out a life-threatening illness and sudden decline in customary levels of physical activity and abilities can fuck with the mind in insidious ways.
I’m starting to feel stronger, but it’s taking longer than I thought it would, and that’s frustrating. Also, I’m reluctant to loll around on the sofa engaged in mindless activities like re-reading old favorites or watching cooking shows on TV because it seems like a waste of time, and I don’t know how much time I have left. But sometimes that’s all I can manage because if I sit with my own thoughts, I tend to go down every dark path.
I don’t think that tendency is unwarranted pessimism on my part. While my docs are optimistic about my response so far, I know there’s a high chance of a recurrence. And if that happens, I don’t think I’ll be willing to go through treatment hell again. I feel like I took my one shot at something like a return to normal. Now I have to get busy living again and hope for the best.
Most of all, I don’t want to squander the time I bought (at great cost) on moping around and worrying about things I can’t control. But it’s so damn hard to stop doing that!
In my best frame of mind, my focus has been to live in the moment and find beauty and joy where I can. That — along with the love and support of my family and friends, including those here — got me through the worst of this past summer. I have to trust that approach to see me through.
So that’s where I am. Thanks for listening. Now go argue about politics or pets in the threads above and below. Peace, love and strength!
RevRick sent me this photo from a rally a week or two ago. Can anybody name the person on the left?
If you’ve been to a rally recently, send me your best pic!
I’ll post the first 7.
Open thread.
Update: Name your favorite thing about Harris and about Walz. Only one favorite thing for each. Okay, two. One personal thing and one bottom line position that matters most to you.
Let’s rewind history.
The Trump Administration in 2017 worked their asses off to repeal the ACA and dramatically reduce the Medicaid program by converting it into a block grant structure where federal funding would shrink as a percentage of spending over time.
Let’s look at the legislative history in 2017:
We had ACHA V1 that never came to a vote in the House in March 2017.
We had ACHA and the MacArthur amendments that were a fig leaf of a high cost risk pool pass the House in May 2017.
We had the CBO say that bill would cause tens of millions of people to lose coverage.
We had a bunch of competing bills ping-ponging in the Senate for the first half of the summer.
The Cruz Amendment of parallel risk pools and authorizing cocaine and hookers via a waiver process becomes the blue print for conservative health policy since then.
Vote-a-rama happens in the Senate.
Cassidy-Graham-Heller try to block grant the ACA to states with lots of money going to states that chose not to expand Medicaid (IE the 25 governor/50 Senator plan) That never comes up for a vote
2017 Tax cut bill eliminates the penalty for failure to have creditable coverage effective 1/1/19.
Now let’s look at the regulatory side:
The first executive order from the Trump Administration was on the ACA. It directed the federal government to find every way possible to not spend money on the ACA. This resulted in television advertising being immediately shut off in the last few days of the open enrollment period. This led to an immediate 30% decline in enrollment applications relative to the same week in the prior year.
Open enrollment periods were reduced.
Navigator funding was slashed to eventually 10% of pre-Trump levels.
Massive political uncertainty likely drove out some insurers in 2017 and 2018 (some were leaving anyways).
I can say that the Trump administration did three intentional things that were ACA supportive. They did one thing that pragmatically was supportive although they intended the action to blow up the market.
First, they pushed for rapid deployment of Enhanced Direct Enrollment to Healthcare.gov which makes the task to enroll people a lot easier for brokers.
Second, they created regulations for Individual Contribution Health Reimbursement Accounts as a way to chip away at the employer sponsored market and bring new folks into the individual market.
Third, they approve a lot of reinsurance waivers which are good at reducing premiums for upper middle class folks.
The biggest support policy for the ACA from the Trump Administration was an accident. In October 2017, direct reimbursement for Cost Sharing Reduction (CSR) subsidies was stopped. The administration intended to make the market roil as insurers would be required to offer a benefit without a source of cash to pay for it, thus leading to a lot of mid-year exit and chaos. OOPS!
Insurers and states responded with Silverloading that made subsidized insurance a lot cheaper for ACA enrollees with incomes under 400% FPL.
