Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

Bark louder, little dog.

Books are my comfort food!

It’s the corruption, stupid.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

They don’t have outfits that big. nor codpieces that small.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

So very ready.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

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

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

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The Political Press Needs a Reset

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The Political Press Needs a Reset

I watched the Harris/Walz interview with Dana Bash and I thought it was good for Harris/Walz, and at the same time bad TV and poor journalism.  Atrios has helpfully summarized all the questions asked if you want to remember just how lackluster they were.

The interview was bad TV because the questions were mostly shitty gotcha attempts about fairly old history (Harris’ 2019 campaign, and Walz’ campaign for House).  Those kind of Russert-style gotchas are aimed towards the ever-dwindling audience of the Sunday morning political TV shows (Meet the Republicans, Face the Republicans, This Week in Republicans), which at last look was a pathetic 2.7 million for MTP, the biggest of the shows.  People — especially those who are not targets for laxative, Ozempic or statin ads — are not watching that shit.

The interview was poor journalism because there wasn’t a lot of information imparted to the viewer.  For example, Kamala Harris was VP for a while.  Tim Walz was the very successful governor (by Democrats’ standards) of a good-sized state.  You might have missed both of those facts if you watched the interview.  Why not examine some of the Biden administration’s policies?  Ask Walz whether his experience getting legislation through on tiny margins would be relevant.  There’s a lot to ask if you really do care about informing your viewers.

Of course, when Bash did ask about Biden administration policies, she began with the DC/Republican frame that the economy was terrible, and also tried some gotchas on the border.   It all devolved into stupid “jousting”.

That’s because, unlike the rest of the known universe, Bash believes that she’s a weak reporter if she interviews to inform.  Not a lot of DC Press interviewers are good at both questioning and informing (Ezra Klein, for all his faults as a pundit, is good at this, so it’s not an unknown trait in those circles).

Bash is an intelligent, well informed person, but she’s in a reward structure where the only win is to get a “gaffe” from a Democrat.  Well, she didn’t, so the interview was good for Harris/Walz,  and the DC press will keep whining until a gaffe appears.

I hope Harris and Walz choose to do a lot more social media with influencers, and a lot less of this shit, in future.

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Automatic re-enrollment and 1332 funding wedges?

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This is a quarter baked idea. 

I was talking through a research project yesterday with a co-author.  There was a mention that re-enrollment algorithms put people into bad plans at time.  By bad we meant plans where strict domination was occurring where for the same insurer and network, a person was being defaulted into a plan with worse benefits and more expensive premiums.

This is a wedge for states to fund Section 1332 waivers if they operate a state based marketplace.

Coleman Drake, Petra Rasmussen and I estimated in 2021 the incidence of automatic re-enrollment algorithms placing people into strictly dominated plans.

5.8% of 748 087 California marketplace enrollees currently default to dominated health care plans with higher premiums and cost sharing; more than 98.0% of enrollees have low incomes. By comparison, an alternative smart default system would default many enrollees to more generous plans with approximately $100 lower monthly premiums and almost $2000 lower deductibles.

About half of this action were people in Bronze plans who were eligible for zero premium Silver CSR plans.

CMS updated the automatic re-enrollment algorithm in 2024 to move people who had zero premium Bronze plans to zero premium Silver CSR plans. This moves low income folks from plans with $8000 or $9000 deductibles to plans with $300 to $1200 deductibles.

States may have a policy wedge here. States can apply for Section 1332 waivers where they can modify their markets to suit local needs as long as coverage is provided for at least as many people, at least as affordable, at least as comprehensive and does not contribute to the federal deficit relative to the non-waiver guidelines. If a state saves the federal government money, that money is “passed-through” to the state to contribute to the Section 1332 goals. The dominant approved waiver has been reinsurance.

States can elect to use Healthcare.gov, run by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), or operate a state-based marketplace like Pennie in Pennyslvania, or Covered California or CoverMe in Maine. More states are electing to run their own marketplace as CMS under the Obama, Trump and Biden Administrations have made it clear that there is little customization capacity of Healthcare.gov to fit local state needs.

A state with an SBM could file a waiver where they would change the automatic re-enrollment algorithm so that enrollees with incomes over 150% FPL with strictly dominated plans as previously defined, would be placed into superior plans whose premiums were below the benchmark plan. Enrollees, would, as aloways have the option to opt-out of the default re-enrollment option. However the enrollees who did not opt out would reduce the amount of federal subsidy paid in the cases where the newly designated plans were zero premium plans. [in 2018, CMS has thought about metal choice selection factors for the Basic Health Plan financing so the concept is not new to them] This creates a small wedge of federal funds that could pass through to the state.

And those funds could be used to buy down de minimas premiums or non-EHB benefits or reduce deductibles by funding small state-funded cost-sharing boosts like New Mexico and Massachusetts. We can improve the value of coverage by reducing dumb choices in states that operate their own markets.

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On the Road Again, Montana!

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Officially announcing the start of our Four Directions Montana fundraising!  As we all know, Montana is about keeping Jon Tester’s senate seat, as well as helping Native people have more of a voice in elections.  Besides being “boots on the ground for the Native vote”, Four Directions also litigates – and often wins – on their behalf.

I got word late yesterday that Four Directions has fund a match for the full $30,000 we are trying to raise!  Thank you, Four Directions, for finding the match, and thank you to the two $15,000 external matchers that were found!

And we have a Balloon Juice Angel for you, right out of the gate – who has been patiently waiting for Montana to be up at bat!  Not sure if I can use their nym or not (waiting to hear) so for now it’s anonymous.   Thank you, Marleedog!

Matching up to $100 per person, for a total of $1,000!  To count toward the match, tell us about your donation in the comments or via email to me.   With the external match and the Angel match, this is a 4x donation.

THIS LINK IS FOR MONTANA DONATIONS – NOT FOR THE RAFFLE

Also: raffle tickets for the Native-made quilt will be available until Sunday evening, 9/8.
$25 each.  Here’s the link to buy raffle tickets and see the quilt raffle announcement and details.

Open Thread & New $1,250 Angel Match for The Civics Center

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Quick Rosie Update

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Quick Rosie Update

Rosie is doing fine. She still hides when I come in, but comes out when I sit there for a while. She is eating, drinking, and pooping, so the big stuff is ok, right now we are just figuring out consent issues. She is allowed to rub on me and loop in between my legs and be lovey all over me, but I get hissed at if I try to get handsy. Feels like I am back in High School, to be honest.

Also I slept for 16 hours and feel a ton better and do not have covid.

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TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: Hoping for A Quiet Holiday Weekend

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DeJoy better not be lying again. “Postmaster general is confident about ability to process mail-in ballots“:

… The Postal Service has been undergoing rapid changes, including the opening of large hubs, but some of those changes are being paused before the election to ensure they don’t interfere with performance, DeJoy said. And it will be all hands on deck to ensure the millions of mail-in ballots are delivered swiftly to their destinations.

“We’re going to be in great shape for the election. I’m pretty confident about everything that were doing,” DeJoy told The Associated Press ahead of an official rundown Thursday of election mail practices. “The American people should be confident.”

It’s a far cry from four years ago, when DeJoy, just a few months into the job, was being criticized as a Donald Trump crony who was dismantling mail-processing machines and removing blue postal boxes to undermine the election as Trump, the president at the time, sowed distrust in the Postal Service. Despite being excoriated, DeJoy’s Postal Service performed admirably under a crush of mail-in votes during the pandemic, and strongly pushed back against what they said were false claims of any intentional effort to damage the postal service before the 2020 election…

U.S. Postal Service officials briefed news reporters Thursday on measures that are being taken to ensure election mail reaches its destinations, building on its performance in 2020, when 97.9% of ballots were returned to election officials within three days, and in 2022, when 98.9% of election mail was delivered within three days. DeJoy said he’d like to inch closer to 100% this election cycle.

The lack of drama is a welcome relief from four years ago, when the Postal Service was dogged by backlogs and accusations of voter suppression ahead of the 2020 presidential election, in which more than 135 million ballots were delivered to and from voters.

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On The Road – frosty – Farmer’s National Bank of Owatonna, Louis Sullivan. Interior

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frosty

The interior of the bank in the previous OTR includes two stained-glass windows designed by Louis J. Millet, murals by Oskar Gross, and four immense cast iron electroliers designed by Sullivan’s associate George Elmslie, who also designed much of the interior and exterior ornament. The interior has been described as a “Symphony of Color” using over 240 shades of yellow, red-orange, and green. People have described it as similar to entering a cathedral. I have to say that’s the way I felt too. The high ceiling, the light from the stained glass, and the expanse of the space give it the same feeling.

The interior was remodeled in 1940 when a local contractor attempted to modernize the bank and, in the process, destroyed terra-cotta decorative elements, installed fluorescent light fixtures, and sold Sullivan’s ornamental teller’s windows as scrap metal for eighty cents each. A subsequent remodeling in the 1950s restored much of the ornament and art and preserved the historic character. The teller windows are gone though.

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On The Road - frosty - Farmer's National Bank of Owatonna, Louis Sullivan. Interior 8
August 19, 2024

This is the first thing you see when you walk in the door.

Late Night Open Thread: Early Responses to That CNN Interview

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It seems — and this is probably a net positive — to have been a disappointment to Our Most Public Media. The NYTimes is disappointed that Harris didn’t give them any actual ‘gaffes’ they could use against her…

The main reason CNN’s interview with Vice President Kamala Harris turned out to be remarkable was that it was the first one she had done since President Biden bowed out and tapped her as his successor.

Seated alongside her running mate, the quietly supportive Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, Ms. Harris parried questions from Dana Bash on Thursday without causing herself political harm or providing herself a significant boost.

She was methodical and risk-averse in the 27-minute interview, performing like a top seed in the early rounds of the U.S. Open tennis tournament trying to hold serve, survive and advance to the next round — in this case, her Sept. 10 debate with former President Donald J. Trump…

Meanwhile, Fox News is pissed that Dana Bash didn’t work hard enough to make Harris, and Walz, look bad. (Always blame the woman, it’s the Fox News creed.)

Here’s some snippets. Remember: Sharing is caring!

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