Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

If you’re gonna whine, it’s time to resign!

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

Consistently wrong since 2002

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

We are learning that “working class” means “white” for way too many people.

In after Baud. Damn.

No Kings: Americans standing in the way of bad history saying “Oh, Fuck No!”

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

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

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

I really should read my own blog.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

“But what about the lurkers?”

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

When I was faster i was always behind.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

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Open Thread: DHS Secretary Mayorkas Is Much More Than A GOP Chew Toy

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Story is paywalled, but it’s clear Gym Jordan will not give up pestering Secretary Mayorkas while he thinks there’s a Newsmax hit or a spate of Truth Social attention left to milk. I’ve been collecting intriguing stories about Mayorkas since this sideshow started almost two months ago, and never found the right time to post them… but between my wonky personal schedule and the never-ending rush of news, it seems like there will never be a perfect time, so here we are.


Well worth reading the whole thing: Jonathan Blitzer, at the New Yorker, on “The Trials of Alejandro Mayorkas”:

In early December, 2020, Alejandro Mayorkas was called to Wilmington, Delaware, for a meeting with Joe Biden. The President-elect was choosing his Cabinet, and Mayorkas, whom Biden knew personally, had the sort of résumé that made him an obvious contender for a top role in the new Administration. Then a partner at WilmerHale, an élite white-shoe law firm in Washington, D.C., he had been a U.S. Attorney under Bill Clinton and Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security under Barack Obama. Now Biden wanted to discuss Mayorkas’s interest in running D.H.S. During their conversation, which lasted ninety minutes, Biden kept returning to the same question: “Are you sure you want to do this?”

D.H.S. has a sprawling portfolio, with two hundred and sixty thousand employees spread across two dozen agencies, including the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and a cybersecurity division. But the department is best known for presiding over what some have called the third rail of American politics: the country’s immigration system, which was last reformed in 1990 and has been in a state of disrepair for decades. “I’ve seen it,” Mayorkas told Biden. “I’ve been up close. I know what I’m getting into.”

Mayorkas made history twice when he was confirmed as D.H.S. Secretary, the following February. Born in Cuba and raised in Los Angeles, he became the first immigrant ever to head the department. He is also D.H.S.’s first homegrown leader; typically, secretaries have burnished their standing elsewhere in government or in public life. Marielena Hincapié, a former director of the National Immigration Law Center, told me, “Immigration was going to be front and center whether Biden wanted it to be or not. How would Democrats be able to present a different vision, and to talk about it? They had someone in Mayorkas.”

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Friday Afternoon Open Thread: In Legal News

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Small roundup of legal news because I’m still wound up about, well, all of it!

Andrew Weissmann gets smacked down.

Andrew Weissmann’s buddy Norm Eisen doesn’t agree with Andrew, either!

Speaking of Norm Eisen. This is a short clip where he explains that he thinks there is room for 2 Trump cases to go to trial before the election, which ones, and why.

For rikyrah:

Loved this from Sheldon Whitehouse. “If you wanna be a celebrity, be a chef.”

Open thread.

Update: I’ll put up another Worker Power fundraising thread tomorrow, but if you donate in the meantime, just let me know in the comments here.   frosty’s match is still active, and we have another BJ Angel waiting in the wings, so all donations up to $25 per person will be matched as long as you let us know in the comments.

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TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: The Ides of March

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Taking that warning to heart... Alex Seitz-Wald, at NBC – “Democrats prepare to go to war against third-party candidates”:

The Democratic National Committee is building its first team to counter third-party and independent presidential candidates, people involved told NBC News, as the party and its allies prepare for a potential all-out war on candidates they view as spoilers.

The DNC has hired veteran Democratic operative Lis Smith, best known for her work guiding the 2020 presidential campaign of Pete Buttigieg, to help oversee an aggressive communications component of its strategy, which also includes opposition research and legal challenges.

Underscoring how important Democrats view the effort, it is being overseen by Mary Beth Cahill and Ramsey Reid, two veteran DNC insiders, who have already started issuing rare public statements rebuking Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“We’re facing an unprecedented election and we know the GOP is already working to prop up third-party candidates like Robert Kennedy Jr. to make them stalking horses for Donald Trump,” Corridoni told NBC News. “With so much on the line, we’re not taking anything for granted. We’re going to make sure voters are educated and we’re going to make sure all candidates are playing by the rules.”

The move comes as a coalition of outside groups — which includes Democratic and anti-Trump Republican organizations — stockpile money and work to stymie third parties…

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Fulton County Fani Willis Ruling from Judge McAfee

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It may be early for a news post, but I’m so pleased that I don’t want to wait.

I have gotten so tired of judicial overreach that it’s a happy surprise when it doesn’t happen.  When it comes to the courts right now, I feel like the dog that expects to be beaten, rather than the dog that is occasionally beaten.  What a relief this ruling is!

In other news, I had misinterpreted Alvin Bragg’s “I won’t object to a 30-day delay”.  He apparently wasn’t volunteering for a 30-day delay on this – this was more of him setting down a marker – along the lines of I can live with a 30-day delay because of this bullshit, but it had better not be longer than that.

Totally open thread.

Update:  Oh, and if you donated for a match for Worker Power in AZ overnight, you can let me know in the comments here.   frosty’s match is still active, so all donations up to $25 per person are being matched.

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Revamping the ACA subsidy scheme

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New Mexico released its 2025 proposed state health policy plans yesterday afternoon. The state has been aggressive in the past several years in its actions to make the ACA more affordable and actionable for its citizens. It has used substantial state funds to do this.

Yesterday, it proposed to partially revamp the entire ACA subsidy scheme:

Starting in the 2025 Plan Year, the benchmark plan used to calculate New Mexico Premium Assistance payments for eligible households up to 200% FPL will be the second-lowest-cost Silver plan available in the applicable rating area with a 10% price multiplier applied. In practice, this will mean that the benchmark plan for this population will be 10% higher than the second-lowest-cost Silver plan. This policy is intended to increase coverage retention from year-to-year by expanding the number of no-cost Turquoise Plan options available to lower-income enrollees

Right now, the ACA strongly incentives insurers to capture shelf space on the first page. For enrollees with incomes under 150% FPL (~$15,000 for a single individual in 2024) the first two Silver plans are no cost (in most circumstances) and every other Silver plan has some positive fee. We know that zero premium plans are really important to minimize administrative burden and increase retention. Insurers that think they have the lowest price have a very strong incentive to create a near clone of that lowest cost plan to claim the 2nd Silver position. And if they are looking to capture people in cognitive traps, insurers have strong incentives to put a lot of very similar plans on the first page. I’ve called this strategy “silver spamming” in the past. It is not hard for the lowest cost insurer to create a strong pricing and cognitive friction advantage.

HOWEVER, this proposed subsidy system changes incentives as long as there are at least two insurers that are capable of pricing near the bottom of the pricing scale for Silver plans. The lowest cost insurer might be motivated to offer the least expensive plan that is guaranteed to be zero premium to the most people and then let the other insurer offer the benchmark plan.  The other insurer that has a low cost plan may elect to offer a tight spread so the incentives don’t matter all that much compared to today, or a broader spread so that they can also increase the value of the new benchmark.  The 2nd least expensive plan determines the benchmark as it is that plan +10%.

I think these dynamics get really messy when there are three or more insurers that can all credibly price at or near the bottom of the price range but the logic of not having to win either the #1 or #2 position in order to get zero premium CSR Silver plans is consistent.  Instead, lower income buyers are likely able to choose from more insurers that are offering at least one zero premium CSR silver plan which likely means better matching on non-price plan characteristics and a very different enrollment distribution.

This is fascinating!

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On The Road – Argiope – Quebec City

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Argiope

Late last Spring we found ourselves with a graduation at Mount Holyoke one weekend and a wedding in Buffalo the next.  We looked at each other and said “ROAD TRIP!” and, as the song says, got out the map.  We wanted to go somewhere new and thanks to the Louise Penny books I learned about from you all, I floated the idea of visiting Quebec.

We headed from MA to Quebec City for about 5 days, then wandered down to Lake Placid overnight and Buffalo for the knot-tying festivities. These photos will focus on Quebec City and later we’ll tour some areas upriver.  Quebec City was very European in character, yet we loved not having to do the whole overnight flight thing to get there.

People were very friendly (love me some Canadians) and there is a nice mix of natural beauty nearby plus great restaurants and patisseries.  So grab your passports, fill up the tank, and let’s head to Quebec this morning.  We could use a nice croissant about now, n’est-ce pas?

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On The Road - Argiope - Quebec City 9
National Assembly of QuebecMay 22, 2023

Let’s start with the Quebec parliament building, shall we?  Late May was lovely in this part of the world, not too hot but with brilliant blue skies.  Walking all around this building is possible and encouraged; Quebec City is highly walkable, and there are rental bikes, but you won’t need them near the city center because it’s not gigantic if you stay near the old town or within the old city walls.