Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

This is dead girl, live boy, a goat, two wetsuits and a dildo territory.  oh, and pink furry handcuffs.

No one could have predicted…

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

A fool as well as an oath-breaker.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

The words do not have to be perfect.

There are times when telling just part of the truth is effectively a lie.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

When we show up, we win.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

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Lots of people on the ACA down South

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Yesterday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released the final enrollment for the 2024 Open Enrollment Period for the ACA:

 

Marketplace and Consumer Type Cumulative 2024 OEP Plan Selections 
Total: All Marketplaces 21,310,538
          New Consumers 5,045,290
          Returning Consumers 16,265,248

The Confederacy has substantial market share.  The four big states of North Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Texas have 47% of all national enrollment.  A lot of this is that three of these four states have yet to expand Medicaid.  However, even North Carolina with recent Medicaid Expansion has enrollment several times the per-capita rate of California, the largest state based market place.

 

State Platform Enrollees National Share
Florida HealthCare.gov 4,211,902 19.8%
Georgia HealthCare.gov 1,305,114 6.1%
North Carolina HealthCare.gov 1,027,930 4.8%
Texas HealthCare.gov 3,484,632 16.4%

Over a quarter of 18 to 64 year olds in Florida have an on-market ACA plan. Enrollment is very high in a swing state (GA) and a light pink state (NC) so the question I would ask my masters’ students is “Is this enough to think that the ACA has become entrenched?”

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Thursday Morning Open Thread: Proud to Be A Union Man

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Remember – Sharing is caring!

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On The Road – Dan B – A collector’s garden on Whidbey

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Dan B

Many years ago I met a couple from Whidbey Island at a workshop at fabled Heronswood Nursery on the Kitsap Peninsula.  They seemed determined to purchase every plant offered by Heronswood, more than 3,000.

They have a large property overlooking the graceful sweep of Useless Bay (lovely, shallow) and the jagged front range of the Cascades east of Everett.  These peaks rise nearly vertically 7,000 feet above the terrain like stone incisors.

The gardens near the house were a riot of variegated, vividly colored foliage, dramatic textures and shapes.  In a word, chaos!  Fascinating but like one hundred Divas all singing at once.

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On The Road - Dan B - A collector's garden on Whibey. 7

The gardens around the house were cut off from the house by three quarters of a story and from the entry parking by a fence that rivaled the complexity of the plants.  The weathered fence read as drab, not great in overcast weather.

Cold Grey Pre-Dawn Open Thread: Further Proof You *Can’t* Fake Smart

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‘Course, if they could fake smart, they’d probably be beaten to death by their angry colleagues….

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Readership Capture Open Thread — Music Edition

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I bought my first music t-shirt at a Bonnie Raitt tour!

Pretty wide range of venues nationwide, running from late April through late June… and a Scalper Prevention Strategies page, too.


From GQ, “Jason Isbell is Keeping His Night Job”:

We find a corner table and order lunch. He came to Los Angeles to play at a Robbie Robertson tribute concert, and now he’s got a day off and time to kill while he waits for a flight out of here. Sporting a sharp denim jacket and brand new teeth, 44-year-old Jason Isbell looks Hollywood enough for where we are—the restaurant at the Chateau Marmont—but he doesn’t really act like he belongs here. He speaks low and chooses his words carefully, almost like he’s in church. He’s transparent: “I’ll talk about absolutely anything.” My pastor called it being “the same on both sides of the fence.” This makes it seem obnoxious, even grotesque, that a guy at the next table is hollering about being friends with Elon Musk and going skydiving with Richard Branson…

Weathervanes, Isbell’s ninth and most recent album with his band The 400 Unit, is one of his best: unflinching, emotive, literary work by a songwriter still looking for, and finding, new mountains to climb. Hell of an accomplishment for a dude who writes music like he’s been doing this for, conservatively, 50 years longer than he has. (Two of the songs he wrote when he was with the Drive-By Truckers in the early aughts, “The Day John Henry Died” and “Goddamn Lonely Love,” sound like the work of an old folk master, or at least a soulful middle-aged troubadour with an expansive and magnanimous view of human foibles. He was 25.)

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War for Ukraine Day 700: Odesa in the Crosshairs & Murkiness Surrounding the Downed IL-26

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Screen shot of new artwork by NEIVANMADE. The background is black. In the bottom foreground are grey Ukrainian homes and apartment buildings being bombarded by red Russian missiles with the Special Military Operation "Z" symbol on them. Above the missiles, written in red is the word "Ruzzians". Below the buildings being attacked is the statement "Turns Homes Into Graves".

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

Russia opened up on Odesa earlier this evening local time.

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

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Wednesday Night Open Thread

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Another drizzly overcast day today in the 50’s. Joelle worked from home today so with both of us here, it has been free range kitties, and Maxwell and Steve have been wandering around the house. I think that is just how we are going to do it. Keep them in crates in the kitchen overnight and when we are not around, and let them out under close control.

Just spent an hour caramelizing onions to make french onion soup. I had my bag of frozen veggie scraps and the bone from the steak the other night in the freezer, so I made some beef stock. Cooked that down a bit then poured it through some cheesecloth, added a pat of butter, just a small squeeze of tomato paste (tomato paste in the tube is a must have- the cans are great when you know you are going to use the full thing, but if you just need a little bit, a tube on hand is awesome and does not take up fridge space) some thyme, a little salt, a bay leave, and let it reduce more, then started on the onions.

It’s such a long, slow process. Also- pet peeve- people referring to sauteed onions as caramelized when they are not even remotely the same thing. Caramelizing is like making risotto- you gotta strap in for the long haul.

Turned the leftover garlic knots I made for Joelle’s office staff into some croutons, and realized I had no worcestershire sauce. Joelle was heading to the store, so I made a list of stuff, and it’s funny how I’m really not very brand conscious about things, but there are a few key items where I draw the line. It’s gotta be Heinz ketchup, it’s gotta be Duke’s or Hellman’s mayo, and it has to be Lee & Perrin’s worcestershire with the paper wrapper.

When we went over the list, I said “and it has to be Lee & Perrins” and she said “with the paper wrapper” and I said “my girl” and smiled at her.

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