Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

I really should read my own blog.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

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

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

We still have time to mess this up!

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

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

Tick tock motherfuckers!

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Thursday Evening Open Thread: Jack Smith Is Not Known for Messing Around

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John L. Smith has a considerable CV, which would indicate that he’s a very effective prosecutor, but not one much given to self-publicity:

… The requests for records arrived in Dane County, Wis.; Maricopa County, Ariz.; and Wayne County, Mich., late last week, and in Milwaukee on Monday, officials said. They are among the first known subpoenas issued since Smith was named last month by Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee Trump-related aspects of the investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, as well as the criminal probe of Trump’s possible mishandling of classified documents at his Florida home and private club.

The subpoenas, at least three of which are dated Nov. 22, indicate that the Justice Department is extending its examination of the circumstances leading up to the Capitol attack to include local election officials and their potential interactions with the former president and his representatives related to the 2020 election…

The department’s long-running Jan. 6 investigation has moved beyond the large pool of people who directly took part in the bloody riot at the U.S. Capitol to focus on other aspects of the attempts to overturn the election results. Prosecutors are examining the fundraising, organizing and rhetoric that preceded the riot, and looking at failed efforts to authorize alternate slates of electors. They secured subpoenas this spring and summer for communications between Trump’s inner circle and scores of campaign officials, potential electors and others.

After Trump declared last month that he would again seek the White House in 2024, Garland appointed Smith, a longtime federal prosecutor who once headed the Justice Department’s public corruption section, to oversee the elements of the Jan. 6 investigation potentially related to the former president.

Smith also is overseeing the Mar-a-Lago criminal investigation, which began this spring, after months of disagreement between Trump and the National Archives and Records Administration over boxes of documents that followed the former president from the White House to Mar-a-Lago, his Florida residence and private club…

About those Mar-a-Lago boxes…

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War for Ukraine Day 288: Drunk Putin!

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Putin had a bit too much champagne earlier today:

Who could’ve possibly predicted that this was Putin’s thinking and motivation? Eez a puzzlement!

Before we go further I just want to make two quick points regarding the exchange that has brought Brittney Griner home. First, given the churlish and vile responses to the news from the usual suspects it is important to remember that Bout’s life is going to be significantly less safe than it was in the SuperMax in the US. Bout’s arms deals made a lot of enemies. There are a lot of states and non-state actors, both groups and individuals, that want him dead. I expect that sooner or later, and I reckon it’ll be sooner, he’s going to fall out a window or get beat up by his sink, bathtub, and/or toilet or somehow shoot and/or stab himself in the back multiple times. Or all of the above! Moreover, he really can’t just pick up the arms business where he left off. Both because it has changed since we scarfed him up, tried him, and put him away and because he’s going to be watched by our and our allies’ and partners’ intelligence services. Additionally, by returning him, US taxpayers are no longer paying to house, feed, clothe, and provide him with medical care. The administration will continue to work quietly and diligently to get Paul Whelan home. But exchanging Bout for Griner isn’t the catastrophe that the usual suspects are making it out to be.

Second, here’s the real reason that Paul Whelan is still in a Russian prison:

And even if President Biden was willing to exchange Krasikov for Whelan, it isn’t his call to make. He’s got to get the German’s to agree to do it as a favor to us/for us.

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

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Trump Had A Week To Act, And He Didn’t Do It

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I read earlier today that “sources” said that Trump didn’t plan to appeal to the so-called Supreme Court, so I figured that because they always lie, that could mean that he would appeal at the last minute.

But apparently the week has come and gone, and the 11th Circuit formalized their ruling this afternoon.  Oh, to have been a fly on that wall as his attorneys beat him into submission, as they surely must have had to do.

So if I understand this correctly, the whole special master debacle has officially gotten the kibosh, for real.  Ding dong, at least that is dead.  No one is probably happier than Judge Dearie.  I hope no one is sadder than the corrupt hack judge who managed to delay things for months.

Open thread.

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Some Excellent News

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This is great:

The House on Thursday passed landmark legislation that would enshrine marriage equality in federal law, granting protections to same-sex and interracial couples and clearing the way for President Biden’s signature.

“Today, Congress sends the Respect for Marriage Act to the president’s desk, a glorious triumph of love and freedom,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), quoting the gay rights activist Edith Windsor in comparing marriage to magic. “This legislation honors that magic, protecting it from bigoted extremism, defending the inviolability of the same-sex and interracial marriages.”

The House had already passed an earlier version of the Respect for Marriage Act in July, but the Senate delayed its vote on the bill until after the midterm elections. Late last month, the Senate passed the bill with a bipartisan amendment to allay some Republicans’ concerns about religious liberty. The amended bill passed the Senate in a 61-36 vote, with 12 Republican senators joining Democrats in favor of it.

Biden, Pelosi, and Schumer just keep getting shit done, and I gotta say I am still shocked how much Biden and Schumer have done. Nancy is Nancy and I knew she would come through, but the other two surprise me.

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Give the Gossip Sheet Its Due

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Politico is out with a report on the culture surrounding the “centrist” lobbying group No Labels, and it turns out that Nancy Jacobsen, Mark Penn’s wife, runs a toxic organization that hasn’t met an ass grabber that it doesn’t want to hire:

  • There is lingering discord over the decision to hire and ally with individuals who left prior jobs under allegations they’d sexually harassed women.
  • Two former staffers said they witnessed one of the organization’s few Black employees being singled out to discuss race issues at a staff meeting.
  • At least three ex-aides have sought remuneration from the group over the nature of their termination in the last two years.
  • Two female staffers recalled management telling female employees to dress more conservatively after a colleague was improperly touched by a male member of Congress at a No Labels event.
  • Staffers are bombarded with emails and demands by Jacobson. They come at all hours of the day, sometimes with odd requests, such as changing the employer listed on their LinkedIn profiles to “America” to throw off a journalist trying to locate them.

As the piece points out, No Labels hired noted harassers Mark Halperin and former Rep. Tom Reed to aid in their quest to shit on Democrats. The whole thing would be terrible just for the employees and ex-employees of the place, if Jacobsen wasn’t raising a war chest of $70 million to bring her brand of centrist fuckery to the 2024 election.

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All Class: Grace Under Fire

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The statement from the family of Paul Whelan are all class, grace under fire. Total respect.

NBC Article

The family of Paul Whelan, a businessman and former Marine imprisoned in Russia on suspicion of spying, said they were told by the Biden administration in advance that he would not be part of the prisoner swap Thursday that allowed the release of American basketball star Brittney Griner.

Whelan’s brother, David Whelan, said in a statement that while he can “literally only imagine the joy she will have, being reunited with her loved ones, and in time for the holidays,” the inability to also bring Whelan home remains difficult for the family to process.

“That early warning meant that our family has been able to mentally prepare for what is now a public disappointment for us. And a catastrophe for Paul,” David Whelan said. “I do not know if he is aware yet, although he will surely learn from Russian media.”

Whelan has been jailed in Russia since December 2018 on charges of espionage, which he and the U.S. government has denied. He was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in jail. During his arrest, he was working as the head of global security for an auto parts supplier in Michigan.

David Whelan said gaining the release of Griner, who was detained in February at a Moscow airport after Russian authorities said they found vape canisters with cannabis oil in her luggage, was the “right decision” rather than “waiting for one that wasn’t going to happen.”

“It is so important to me that it is clear that we do not begrudge Ms. Griner her freedom,” David Whelan said. “As I have often remarked, Brittney’s and Paul’s cases were never really intertwined. It has always been a strong possibility that one might be freed without the other.”

A senior U.S. official told NBC News that the U.S. government had sought to have both Griner and Whelan released as part of a swap with the Kremlin, which wanted the return of Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer who has served 11 years of a 25-year sentence in the U.S. But the official said Russia has treated Whelan differently because he is an accused spy, and that the Kremlin gave the White House the choice of either Griner or Whelan — or none.

Whelan’s Russian lawyer, Vladimir Zherebenkov, also said Thursday that the deal was an exchange of “one to one,” and that choosing Griner appeared “more humane” because she is a woman and an Olympic champion, while Whelan was in the military and it is “easier for him to be in custody.”

Zherebenkov said negotiations remain underway for Whelan, and that he could be freed in an exchange with Russia in the next couple of months. It’s unclear what he is basing that on, and the White House did not immediately comment on whether that would happen.

Amid questions as to why both Whelan and Griner could not be released together, President Joe Biden said at the White House on Thursday that “we have not forgotten about Paul Whelan” and that negotiations would continue to set him free.

Open thread.

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Automatic Re-enrollment and the ACA

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The first big milestone in the ACA Open Enrollment period is next Thursday night.  If you want coverage that starts on January 1, 2023, you need to select your plan by 11:59PM local time.  You’ll then have two weeks to make arrangements to make the first payment if you either choose a non-zero premium plan or you choose a different insurer or you transition from a zero premium plan to a not zero premium plan at the same insurer.

One of the critical things that people who are currently enrolled SHOULD DO is actively go into the Healthcare.gov or state marketplace account and make an active choice.  Insurers are currently in the process of mapping current enrollee to 2023 plans or already placed people into default 2023 plans depending on the state you’re in. These defaults, in most states, are fairly crude matches that don’t take into account premium or other comprehensive revealed preferences.

So look around even if you’re pretty happy with your plan and your premium this year.  An automatic default plan might not have the same premium next year as it does this year.  Sometimes it will be cheaper.  It may be more expensive; occasionally a lot more expensive (manuscript under development right now).  So look around!

 

 

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