Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

So many bastards, so little time.

Fear and negativity are contagious, but so is courage!

Fucking consultants! (of the political variety)

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

Come on, man.

Wait, what?

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Let me file that under fuck it.

They spent the last eight months firing professionals and replacing them with ideologues.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

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

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

You are here: Home / Archives for 2024

Archives for 2024

War for Ukraine Day 785: Chernihiv Attacked!

by | 45 Comments

This post is in: , , , , , , ,

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

Quick housekeeping note: Tonight’s post is going to be very brief. I’ve spent the late afternoon into the early evening at the emergency vet. Rosie will be staying overnight with them. She’s stable. She was diagnosed with lymphoma about two and a 1/2 weeks ago. They caught it early. She just started chemo and at least one lymph node shrank a lot as a result of that first treatment. However, she wouldn’t stand up when I got home, not even for her supper, which she didn’t eat. So I took her right in. She was running a high fever, they started her on fluids right away, and she started to perk up. Her bloodwork is within normal ranges, though she’s a bit anemic. The vet thinks this is likely a side effect of the chemo, has spoken with the oncology vet, and will leave the final determination to be made by the oncology vet in the morning. Right now everything is looking cautiously optimistic. But a long day got a lot longer. So I’m just going to cover some basics, get cleaned up, give Ruby some attention and rack out. Good thoughts for Rosie are, of course, always appreciated.

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

show full post on front page

War for Ukraine Day 785: Chernihiv Attacked!Post + Comments (45)

Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Baltimore Bridge Updates

by | 55 Comments

This post is in: ,

Three weeks! Time flies… Per the Associated Press, “Salvage crews race against the clock to remove massive chunks of fallen Baltimore bridge”:

Nearly three weeks since Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed under the impact of a wayward cargo ship, crews are using the largest crane on the Eastern Seaboard to haul the wreckage to a nearby salvage yard.

The heaviest section so far weighed about 450 tons (408 metric tons). In the salvage yard Monday morning, workers disassembled the metal trusses by attacking them with propane torches and a pair of giant shears that sliced them into more manageable pieces. Rising from the water nearby was the Chesapeake 1000, a floating crane with a storied history that includes helping the CIA retrieve part of a sunken Soviet submarine…

Salvage crews are hoping to recover the two remaining bodies once more of the debris has been removed. They’re also working toward their goal of opening a temporary channel later this month that would allow more commercial traffic to resume through the Port of Baltimore, which has remained largely closed since the March 26 collapse. Officials plan to reopen the port’s main channel by the end of May.

So far, over 1,000 tons (907 metric tons) of steel have been removed from the waterway. But the work is tedious, dangerous and incredibly complex, leaders of the operation said Monday during a visit to the salvage yard at Tradepoint Atlantic, the only maritime shipping terminal currently operating in the Port of Baltimore…

In the meantime, state leaders are echoing calls by President Joe Biden for Congress to authorize the federal government to pay for 100% of the cleanup and reconstruction. That would require bipartisan support, and some hard-line congressional Republicans have already suggested controversial demands to offset the funding…

show full post on front page

Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Baltimore Bridge UpdatesPost + Comments (55)

Humpty Trumpty (Open Thread)

by | 175 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

Dems made quick work of the House Republican impeachment circus, striking the tents in an afternoon. Ted Cruz had time to make an ass of himself, but that’s an everyday thing. Good work, Senate Dems!

It was considerate of Republicans to deliver charges today, when Trump’s trial in New York is NOT in session. Now they won’t get the hoped for distraction. And they need to draw the nation’s attention elsewhere because, as Josh Marshall at TPM observes, Trump’s entire game is domination. And in the courtroom, the judge is the alpha dog:

What is clear to anyone who has ever tried to understand the man is that he lives in a binary world of the dominating and the dominated. The visuals around the man endlessly illustrate this. Most of us live in a much more fluid and textured world. We interact with most people on a ground of relative equality. Where real differentials of power exist most of us try to paper over those realities with softening trappings. Trump’s whole world view, the way he interacts with friends and foes, won’t accept any middle ground. And this is more than just performance. It’s clear that this is deeply rooted in his experience of the world. Being dominated is a kind of social and ego death. That’s why he’s so good at his whole racket. Because it’s coded so deeply into him.

Nothing puts you more squarely in the bucket of the dominated than being a defendant in a criminal trial and at risk of losing your freedom. The state makes its case against you and you have to sit there and take it. In case there was any question, the judge told Trump you have to be here in my court and sit here. A dozen randomly picked people hold your fate in their hands. You have to make your case, an actual case. Bullshit and attitude, Trump’s coins of the realm, could work. Unless those twelve people decide it doesn’t.

Seeing Trump sitting there, even on this least weighty prosecution, you get a sense of why he’s fought so tooth and nail to avoid this. The biggest and most obvious reason is that he doesn’t want to go to jail. That is certainly a sufficient reason. But it’s not the whole story. At the most basic level, sitting in the dock is horribly and perhaps even fatally off brand. Trump’s brand is swagger and impunity. Always be dominating. Until you’re not.

I think that’s right. I also agree with something Dan Pfeiffer said about the effect of the trial, which many pundits are assuming (as an article of faith) will not harm Trump at all in the upcoming election.

The scale of his crimes (Donald Trump falsifying records to cover up an extramarital affair) seems like small potatoes when compared to his violent attempt to overthrow an election or stealing closely-held national secrets from the White House and then showing them to random people at his beach club. Trump is unlikely to be sentenced to prison if convicted. Still, a felony conviction months before a divisive election is nothing to scoff at.

Pfeiffer notes that in close elections, everything matters. He also cites polls that show majorities of voters take the charges seriously — even a quarter of Republicans:

One in four 2020 Trump voters are not yet sure if Trump should be acquitted. What happens to those voters if Trump is convicted? Most of them vote for Trump anyway. Partisanship is a hell of a drug, but the results of the Republican Primary suggest that drug’s effects may be waning. The exit polls consistently showed that about 30% of Republican primary voters would not believe Trump was fit for the presidency if convicted.

Even if only a fraction of these voters stay home or vote for Biden, it will be enough to tip the election. In the Times poll, Trump is up by one point while getting 94% of his 2020 voters. If only 3% of those voters decide not to vote for Trump, Biden will win by a decent margin…

Finally, Trump being in the news has generally been bad for him and a high profile trial in the media capital of the world guarantees that much of the political coverage will be centered on the former President for the duration of the trial.

Of course, a conviction doesn’t guarantee a Trump loss, but that’s not the same as saying it doesn’t matter.

I’m not even sure a trial ending in an acquittal or hung jury would erase the spectacle of Trump being dominated daily in the courtroom and raging incoherently on the sidewalk afterward. I agree it doesn’t mean he’ll definitely lose, but it’s not the nothingburger some pundits are making it out to be.

My theory is their brains broke when The Beast clawed his way back to GOP dominance after the coup attempt. So now they think Trump is invincible. With that group, at least, he’s still the alpha dog who they roll over for every time.

Open thread.

Humpty Trumpty (Open Thread)Post + Comments (175)

I Am All For This!

by | 194 Comments

This post is in: ,

.

.

Open thread.

I Am All For This!Post + Comments (194)

Arizona In The Crosshairs

by | 149 Comments

This post is in: , , , ,

I try not to write really long posts because I know that for most of you, your eyes glaze over if a post is too long.  But I hope you will forgive me, just this once, and actually read the whole thing.  I want everyone to know what we’re up against.

A gun-toting Trump supporter attends a protest outside the Maricopa county tabulation and election center on 5 November 2020. Photograph: Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

It’s a Tragic Sign of Our Times That Any Secretary of State Is Now Forced to Use War Preparation Tactics to Ensure Ballot Access

Guess which state?  Three guesses, and the first two don’t count.

The Guardian recently published a deep dive into the evil machinations of the Arizona Republican party in its efforts to retake power by any means necessary.  It’s not pretty, and their strategy is a roadmap for the authoritarian ascendency.   Here’s a link to the full article (it’s quite lengthy):

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/16/arizona-election-denial-consequences

show full post on front page

Arizona In The CrosshairsPost + Comments (149)

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: The GOP Insists There Will Be Blood Impeachment

by | 213 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

Per the “Senior Congressional Correspondent for Fox News”, as of this morning:
Wednesday Morning Open Thread 6
Wednesday Morning Open Thread 7

The Washington Post, yesterday — “Mayorkas impeachment moves to Senate, where trial could end fast”:

… Led by 11 impeachment managers appointed by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), House Republicans have demanded a full trial, while Senate Democrats, who hold a 51-49 majority, are planning to band together to dismiss or table the trial. Most Senate Republicans, despite previously voicing concerns about the substance of the two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, have echoed the lower chamber’s calls for the Senate to adhere to precedent and hold a trial.

At least one Republican — Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah) — said last week that he planned to vote against a full trial. On Tuesday, Romney softened his position, telling reporters that he at least wanted debate on the articles before moving to dismiss them and therefore did not support tabling the charges. Several others who have been critical of the impeachment have yet to stake out their position, including GOP Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska). Collins, citing her role as a juror in the trial, declined to weigh in on how she will vote, and Murkowski vaguely said she wanted “process.”…

show full post on front page

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: The GOP Insists There Will Be <del>Blood</del> ImpeachmentPost + Comments (213)

Distribution of Medical Spending in the US Population

by | 30 Comments

This post is in: 

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality just released an update on my favorite health policy factoid — the distribution of spending in the US civilian non-institutionalized population over time using the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS).

This is the overall distribution by selected percentiles:

Spending by selected percentiles in the US 2018 to 2021 by AHRQ using MEPS. Top 1% use about a fifth to a quarter of all services.
The first thing to remember is that we are seeing some COVID effects.  Pre-COVID, the top 1% of the spending distribution uses about a fifth of all medical services and during early COVID, the top 1% uses just under a quarter of all services.

The top 5% (inclusive of the top 1%) generates about half of all spending plus or minus a wiggle.  And the bottom half uses about 3% of total spend.

And here the dollar figures matter a lot!

AHRQ average spending 2021 inflation adjusted dollars by percentile group

The bottom half of the US spending distribution spends around $400 a year ON AVERAGE on healthcare.  If we are really granular, we see a lot of people with zeroes (probably 20-25% of the population) and the median American probably spends about $1500 a year.

Now this is a huge indicator of the political challenges of health reform as most of the time, most people are barely touching the system.  What is going on is probably working okay-ish for them and changing to high deductible health plans and underwriting for all doesn’t effect them just as switching to single payer as written by Bernie Sanders really won’t effect them.  Most of the benefits and costs of the coverage debates are over 10% to 15% of the spending distribution and a decent chunk of that group is already covered by Medicare or Medicare Advantage so they don’t care either except to protect themselves.

Distribution of Medical Spending in the US PopulationPost + Comments (30)