There are lots of local elections tomorrow, in addition to the guv races in NY NJ and VA. Get out there and vote Democrat for all offices. This the only way we have right now to send a message that we hate Trump and we hate all the shitty legislation Little Paul is trying to ram down our throats.
TX Massacre Open Thread: Thots and Prey-ers
Reports out of Texas are devastating. The people of Sutherland Springs need our prayers right now.
— Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) November 5, 2017
It was a church. They had the prayers covered. What they needed was a gov't that loves people more than NRA money. https://t.co/mHjggII9GT
— Zeddy (@ZeddRebel) November 5, 2017
Enough with the “thoughts and prayers already.” The Bible teaches us that faith without works is dead. Do something or say nothing. https://t.co/ekYTtpQhDk
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) November 5, 2017
To people saying "Even churches aren't safe anymore," Dylan Roof killed 9 people at a church in 2015. They haven't been safe for a while.
— Sean Kent (@seankent) November 5, 2017
Churches have never really been safe.
4 little girls…Birmingham…1963…— TraumaQueen33 (@TraumaQueen33) November 6, 2017
TX Attorney General on Fox News says only way to stop mass shootings like this is for more people to bring their guns to church with them. pic.twitter.com/LVPqEu5ntY
— Angelo Carusone (@GoAngelo) November 5, 2017
At approximately the same time as the shooting…
Open carry rally begins 11 a.m. at the Texas Capitol https://t.co/R9JftcqmtC
— JJ MacNab (@jjmacnab) November 5, 2017
I just keeping thinking about the scene in Brazil where the bomb goes off in the restaurant and everyone just keeps eating and chatting while they cover the wreckage and wounded with a screen. Paul Ryan is the maitre d of that restaurant. https://t.co/bioq5Phyfo
— Matt Wallace (@MattFnWallace) November 5, 2017
TX Massacre Open Thread: Thots and Prey-ersPost + Comments (114)
The politics of no CSR funding
I don’t think Cost Sharing Reduction (CSR) subsidies will ever be appropriated. I have a hard time lining up the policy and political incentives in a way that have 60 Senators agreeing to vote on it. I think the politics don’t line up as the policy foundations are changing.
My friend in Chicago was complaining about a huge premium hike. After prodding from me, he found a Cigna bronze plan costing him $7.50.
— Harris Meyer (@MHHmeyer) November 3, 2017
If there is no CSR deal by December, then the expectation of what the baseline subsidized Exchange plans should look like and what the cheaper/inferior versions should cost will change. And those changes are not occurring just in Blue States. The changes are happening in Red States. The changes are happening in big cities. The changes are happening in little hamlets.
The fundamental expectations of what the ACA delivers is changing now because CSR has not been appropriated. That reality will proceed as the politics catch up to it.
Monday Morning Open Thread: “A Labor Union With Delusions of Grandeur”
This is the only chart that explains anything about where you stand on the political spectrum. pic.twitter.com/CwZF9kdNe8
— Jeff B back in black (@EsotericCD) November 5, 2017
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Of course NRO guy doesn’t approve, but my idea of the proper role for a modern American political party actually approximates “a labor union with national political sway” — i.e., a way for disparate groups to bargain for mutual benefit.
Of course, when I took the Pew Political Party Quiz* to which this tweet is a response, my final score was waaaay over beyond the leftmost blue/Democrat end of the scale. As would most of you fine jackals, I suspect…
*[which I can’t get to embed properly, but you can click over]
***********
Apart from taking online quizzes, what’s on the agenda as we start another week?
Monday Morning Open Thread: “A Labor Union With Delusions of Grandeur”Post + Comments (214)
Late Night {Face*Palm} Open Thread: “President” Klassy
Trump was supposed to feed the koi by the spoonful with PM Abe but quickly got impatient and dumped the whole box of food into the pond. pic.twitter.com/MZxNfqTRDB
— Yashar Ali ?? (@yashar) November 6, 2017
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It’s only embarrassing, and not potentially threatening to global peace. But it is most certainly embarrassing.
(Also, rude people on twitter are highlighting Trump’s hips and using the word “diapers”, which would just about complete the toddler analogy… )
Imagine going all the way to Japan and eating a hamburger at a country club pic.twitter.com/thYetsb5K0
— Josh Billinson (@jbillinson) November 5, 2017
I’ve long said PM Abe has been one of the best wranglers of Trump and his particular requirements on the world stage. https://t.co/79AE35gHHQ
— Aki Peritz (@AkiPeritz) November 5, 2017
Trump ran for president because he wanted the power he thought came with the job, not the job that actually comes with the power https://t.co/4ic0e0qCk1
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) November 4, 2017
Late Night {Face*Palm} Open Thread: “President” KlassyPost + Comments (45)
Late Evening Open Thread
Looks like it’s time for some nice, clean commenting real estate. Since it’s too soon to have a political discussion of firearms, here’s Jethro Tull singing about them in a bonus track from 1982’s Broadsword and the Beast.
Open thread!
Poo-Tee-Weet (Open Thread)
“It is so short and jumbled and jangled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again. Everything is supposed to be very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds. And what do the birds say? All there is to say about a massacre, things like ‘Poo-tee-weet?'”
— Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Slaughterhouse Five