7a-7p two days in a row (I'm the charge so with administrative shit - I don't usually get out until 8 - though have all my food planned - so I can get to bed.
I just had one of those brief, yet revitalizing little daydreams that delirium brings...
In which JB Pritzker is president and has just announced a DOJ FTC antitrust, pro- consumer task force, created and led by Lina Kahn... Many billionaires took their money and f̶l̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶j̶u̶r̶i̶s̶d̶i̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶ self-deported...
If the US is no longer a capitalist playground, the uber rich are running out of countries that will allow them pillage freely. Maybe they'll like Argentina for as long as that lasts ...
Well after hunting around and getting my plan code wrong and then fixing it and doing math, looks like my insurance premium is going up $20 per paycheck on my end. So only ~$520 a year from me which while not great could be WAY worse. Going up $50 a month in total but the govt (my employer) is paying ~$30 of that.
I attended my county's open enrollment last week. We're keeping the same health insurance, although the premium has gone up slightly; we've changed dental provider, and premiums are 14% lower. The offsetting premiums and my discount make the rise small and manageable.
My California state gummint jerb didn't cover dental or vision, but made them available at the group rate. I still pay for those policies in retirement, and I don't mind. They're both reasonably priced and I get my money's worth.
The whole process sucks. And the least little thing seems to get you a penalty. And getting rid of that is more suckage, if you can get rid of it. I am not sure I'm going to like being retired.
My coverage this year includes vision which saves me like $5/month. My company pays my full premium so I am fortunate not to have to worry too much about cost, but on the flip side, I am wedded to whoever they choose for me.
My company changed insurance AGAIN, for the third time in 5 years. We were with cigna who approved my Ajovy and Nurtec very quick, now we are with UnitedHealth and they are slow. I've got to message my doctor about getting my prescriptions transferred over to home delivery today as I used my last Ajovy shot last night.
Yeah I've been lucky with BCBS. While I've had to do prior approvals for almost all my migraine meds tried over the past few years, my neurologist's office is Really Good at making sure they always get done, justified, and so on so I usually just have to write them like "hey, BCBS says they need you to request renewal of prior approval within 2 months, thanks" and it's handled. One of the nurse pracitioners who works for the neurologist said they have one person in the office where that's like, all they do now, getting those through.
Meanwhile it took my dermatologist's office two tries to get approval on One Skin Cream that I only use like 1 tube of a year if that (only need it when it's crazy hot, usually, and a little goes a loooong way) to totally manage an issue.
Well, we all saw the massive bailout that propped up an economy his policies had demolished. We'll see what a couple more years of that do soon enough.
$20 billion in loan guarantees for the currency and another $20 billion to buy the election. It will be interesting to watch how fast Milei spends all that money on himself.
I watched Kathryn Bigelow's excellent "House of Dynamite" on Netflix last night. Told in real time, it shows military and political response to a missile inbound to America. Bigelow shows the thirty minute event from four overlapping perspectives. Watching the president (Idris Elba) struggle with uncertainties, conflicting advice and the morality of counter-strike, I could not help but fear how our current leadership would respond. Highly recommended.
Well, my AC is out, but at least it chose a good week, we stay below 65° through next Sunday. I'm hoping it stays cool through the next few months so I can put off getting it fixed. I'm hoping it's just the capacitor and not the compressor. Ugh, this is stressing me out.
Yeah, I've got a friend of a friend who said they will look at it. Hopefully they come by this week. I'm hoping I can watch YouTube and do the repair myself.
"The small electoral bump the Times attributes to moderation isn’t a feature of ideology at all. It’s a phantom effect created by ignoring the two most powerful forces in American elections: fundraising and incumbency..."
"The Times editorial anticipates objections to its analysis by dismissing academic research as overly complex and disconnected from voter perceptions:
“[S]ome progressive analysts and professors say it has little effect. The debate involves statistical complexities that are difficult for most people to follow. Yet there is a simple way to see the weakness of the argument that moderation is unimportant...
This preemptive dismissal is telling. The Times needs to discredit academic research because that research has reached an inconvenient consensus: the electoral benefits of moderation have largely disappeared. An influential 2018 study claiming large advantage for moderates was corrected by its own authors."
Beyond the 100 level statistics errors, and past the bad faith framing, this is nothing but an advertisement for crusading inertia, we let them own the economy, they give the illusion of democracy...
Aside from all the problems laid out well here, and the fundamental issues with polling (modern polling techniques are not getting a representative sample of the population), imagine thinking 2026 is the same election as 2024. Because that's what the NYT has done here.
Yep. Tho I did love the article calling out that both they and the NYT folks are in the10% of US bubble of "having coherent policy goals and ideas" as opposed to what 90% of the nation votes over instead. Like. "Hello, yes, we have this bias and so do you, maybe account for that?!?"
The Vichy Times is trying SO HARD to prove candidates like Zohran Mamdani, who have very democratic socialist messages, will lose. The uber rich DO NOT want a resurgence of FDR-style "New Deal" candidates and legislation. Rich white people are scared ... hence the corporate politicians backing that dickhead Cuomo.
Two good things: 1. they're wrong ... the message is a winner, and 2. The Vichy Times still thinks it's the "newspaper of record" ... they're not.
They're wrong ... and they're lazy. Mamdani is beatable in NYC, but not by Andy-boy Cuomo. The rich assholes who oppose Mamdani pulled a very stupid move in going shopping for a ready made candidate. If they had promoted some unknown Wall Street I-banker from Goldman as a "sensible, fiscally responsible" alternative to the "wild eyed Muslim socialist" in the Murdoch-owned press (Post & WSJ), I think that the low information idiots in my native outer boroughs would've bought it. Cuomo is just cheap, has-been tabloid fodder & people hate his name. The Hamptons crowd evidently hasn't caught on to that yet, though. Good. Tactical blunder. It's almost November & Mamdani's almost in. Let's see what he can do.
If Mr. Mamdani achieves even just a few of his goals, he's a lock. The blue book NYC society will pay but they will incessently WHINE about it while they shop for a new Maserati SUV for little Taylor to drive to their private school.
So true. And they're NEVER going to leave the comfortable little Westchester/Wall St/Hamptons axis they've built for themselves, so the City can slap them with a millionaires tax anytime it wants. They're fish in a barrel. I'd love to see them fried.
So, Ronald Reagan 'loved tariffs' so much, 'he used them sparingly' . . .
Serious question: do people even listen to what he actually says anymore? 🙄
Acyn @Acyn
Trump: Ronald Reagan loved tariffs. He used them sparingly, which he probably made a mistake in that. I was the biggest fan of Reagan, but on finance, on trade, it wasn't his strong suit. But he liked tariffs.
0:39 / 0:42
5:06 AM · Oct 27, 2025
·
𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕖_𝔾𝕦𝕣𝕝 @SundaeDivine
·
16m
Every time he’s on Air Force One, it’s like he’s doing improv in the sky. He just makes shit up, and the press pool writes down whatever he says and calls it America’s Rorschach test.
Imagine anyone thinking that Reagan was a politician of substance. We were there. The guy was a joke, a mouthpiece and a senile idiot. To idolize that guy...
Populists. People think fondly of him because they were personally doing well under him, or because they like 80s music, or whatever. Never mind that he was a senile fucker who allowed himself to be used as a prop so they could harm poor people and cut funding for AIDS research cause GAY! Not to mention all the other shit, but those two to me were the most callous, the most odious, because they were outright admitting they wanted people to die already.
And Dumb W. Line these Republicans up in order from Eisenhower to Trump & they've each outdone their predecessors in screwing this country. Trump is the worst so far, but a downward trajectory is a downward trajectory & I guess it's possible that we'll eventually end up with someone even worse than him...
Even Poodlehead can be right once in a while ... but he's still a libertarian assclown.
𝗥𝗲𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝗺𝗽’𝘀 𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗮𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗸𝗲𝘀 ‘𝗲𝘅𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗷𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀’
Rand Paul’s comments come days after president claimed US lawmakers wouldn’t take issue with Venezuelan strikes
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/27/rand-paul-trump-military-airstrikes-venezuela
A cock with no hands can be right once in a while.
Don't you dare fix that typo.
That was a [sic] typoe.
Gee where was he when this began?
Suddenly remembered he's an antiwar libertarian?
Suddenly he read some history about how authoritarians take over?
I get the sense Rand is pretty sure he already knows everything, and spends more time talking than reading.
naw randy man still thinks he gets to come out on top
He's fine with authoritarianism
.....off to work first of TWO 12-hour shifts at the hospital (I'll be off on Wednesday)
Stay safe ...
24 straight? Holy Clara Barton, Batman!
7a-7p two days in a row (I'm the charge so with administrative shit - I don't usually get out until 8 - though have all my food planned - so I can get to bed.
Phew. I used to work 6 to 6, but I sympathize.
I think it's one today, one tomorrow.
I was hoping so.
I just had one of those brief, yet revitalizing little daydreams that delirium brings...
In which JB Pritzker is president and has just announced a DOJ FTC antitrust, pro- consumer task force, created and led by Lina Kahn... Many billionaires took their money and f̶l̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶j̶u̶r̶i̶s̶d̶i̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶ self-deported...
Fun, but quite a letdown when reality got back.
though - Pritzker's commission led by Lori Lightfoot (not only former Mayor - but lawyer and former prosecutor) is a small bit of hope.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/10/23/chicago-pritzker-to-document-ice-immigration-abuses/86851971007/
That may have been the spark that lit up my delirium! I have become pretty fond of our governor...
If the US is no longer a capitalist playground, the uber rich are running out of countries that will allow them pillage freely. Maybe they'll like Argentina for as long as that lasts ...
Well, dam . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-_Au9g1I_w
Opps!
It's Monday which means I get TWO naps today if I play my cards right.
Yay!
Yesterday was playtime
https://substack.com/@bobathonic/note/c-170502343?r=2kpbl7&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
We were talking about Land Of The Giants last night, Mr. Fitzhugh!
Rattling them bones, while the Blue Meanies lurk.
Well after hunting around and getting my plan code wrong and then fixing it and doing math, looks like my insurance premium is going up $20 per paycheck on my end. So only ~$520 a year from me which while not great could be WAY worse. Going up $50 a month in total but the govt (my employer) is paying ~$30 of that.
One less anxiety for next year.
But yeah, OPM has all the new premiums up for govt. employees. https://www.opm.gov/healthcare-insurance/healthcare/plan-information/premiums/
I attended my county's open enrollment last week. We're keeping the same health insurance, although the premium has gone up slightly; we've changed dental provider, and premiums are 14% lower. The offsetting premiums and my discount make the rise small and manageable.
I don't have dental but my dentist is fairly reasonably priced without it. I do have optical.
*twitch*
You work for the fed and don't have dental.
I hate this worst timeline so very very very very much. I really do.
My California state gummint jerb didn't cover dental or vision, but made them available at the group rate. I still pay for those policies in retirement, and I don't mind. They're both reasonably priced and I get my money's worth.
Yep. It's so weird since I DO have optical. And very comprehensive mental health care coverage. But no dental.
I have the vision plan as well.
What I'm dreading is next year, because at 65 I have to apply for Medicare and I'm not sure it'll be existing next year.
The whole process sucks. And the least little thing seems to get you a penalty. And getting rid of that is more suckage, if you can get rid of it. I am not sure I'm going to like being retired.
My coverage this year includes vision which saves me like $5/month. My company pays my full premium so I am fortunate not to have to worry too much about cost, but on the flip side, I am wedded to whoever they choose for me.
I'm wedded to the provider as well; what's fortunate is that they haven't changed provider in the seven years since I retired.
My company changed insurance AGAIN, for the third time in 5 years. We were with cigna who approved my Ajovy and Nurtec very quick, now we are with UnitedHealth and they are slow. I've got to message my doctor about getting my prescriptions transferred over to home delivery today as I used my last Ajovy shot last night.
Yeah I've been lucky with BCBS. While I've had to do prior approvals for almost all my migraine meds tried over the past few years, my neurologist's office is Really Good at making sure they always get done, justified, and so on so I usually just have to write them like "hey, BCBS says they need you to request renewal of prior approval within 2 months, thanks" and it's handled. One of the nurse pracitioners who works for the neurologist said they have one person in the office where that's like, all they do now, getting those through.
Meanwhile it took my dermatologist's office two tries to get approval on One Skin Cream that I only use like 1 tube of a year if that (only need it when it's crazy hot, usually, and a little goes a loooong way) to totally manage an issue.
My neurologist is really good with the paperwork, too, thank goodness!
A majority in all three elected positions. Huh ... wonder how much that cost Elno to accomplish ...
𝘏𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘺, 𝘓𝘢 𝘓𝘪𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘥 𝘈𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘻𝘢, 𝘸𝘰𝘯 𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺 41% 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘰𝘵𝘦, 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 13 𝘰𝘧 24 𝘚𝘦𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 64 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 127 𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳-𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥.
𝘏𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘔𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘪 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘶𝘴𝘩 𝘢𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘩 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘮𝘺.
𝗔𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗮'𝘀 𝗠𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗶 𝘄𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝗯𝗶𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗺𝗶𝗱𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗺𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 '𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗮𝘄' 𝗮𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gw8qpyvqdo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss
41% doesn't seem like a big win...
But control of the upper and lower houses of their congress is.
Well, we all saw the massive bailout that propped up an economy his policies had demolished. We'll see what a couple more years of that do soon enough.
Yep, this wasn't just Elon. This was also 47 saving his bacon
$20 billion in loan guarantees for the currency and another $20 billion to buy the election. It will be interesting to watch how fast Milei spends all that money on himself.
"Don't cry for me, Argentina." indeed.
This morning's Vincent Price (for me) is Cry Of The Banshee.
Nice wail, banshee.
Ooooh, I LOVE that one!
I watched Kathryn Bigelow's excellent "House of Dynamite" on Netflix last night. Told in real time, it shows military and political response to a missile inbound to America. Bigelow shows the thirty minute event from four overlapping perspectives. Watching the president (Idris Elba) struggle with uncertainties, conflicting advice and the morality of counter-strike, I could not help but fear how our current leadership would respond. Highly recommended.
God I wish Idris Elba was our president.
With our current leadershit, we would be fucked something fierce, I'm damnsure.
Well, my AC is out, but at least it chose a good week, we stay below 65° through next Sunday. I'm hoping it stays cool through the next few months so I can put off getting it fixed. I'm hoping it's just the capacitor and not the compressor. Ugh, this is stressing me out.
Do get it done before you need it. When Spring comes, demand for A/C repairpersons will jump.
Yeah, I've got a friend of a friend who said they will look at it. Hopefully they come by this week. I'm hoping I can watch YouTube and do the repair myself.
I hate when that happens, since my AC usually conks out when it's 90F.
A two party riddle:
https://substack.com/@oppositeofoligarch/note/c-170608419?r=1y1t5s&utm_source=notes-share-action&utm_medium=web
Morning, all, and I have been a slugabed. (coffees)
You? Wow! Actually, if I remember, you are running a bit late.
Yeah, I'm usually up around 4 Eastern or earlier. But there are times when my body says, "You need the sleep, so nighty-night."
Heh. Hamilton is the King of Slugabeddon.
I needed the sleep, apparently.
I got narcolepsy, fer damn sure. (Type 2)
Morning all. ☕️
#Worldle #1375 (27.10.2025) 3/6 (100%)
🔥 Current Win Streak: 2 days
🟩🟩🟩🟨⬜↙️
🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜↘️
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🎉
https://worldle.teuteuf.fr/share
Good morning, Diane! ☕️
#Worldle #1375 (27.10.2025) 1/6 (100%)
🔥 Current Win Streak: 1 days
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🎉
🧭⭐📜🛡️📐
https://worldle.teuteuf.fr/share
Morning, Bob!
Good morning, Diane!
Substacker statician reads NYT for filth for misinterpreting their data and overall being dicks. https://open.substack.com/pub/gelliottmorris/p/the-new-york-times-makes-several?r=25ocek&utm_medium=ios
From Adam Bonica's piece
"The small electoral bump the Times attributes to moderation isn’t a feature of ideology at all. It’s a phantom effect created by ignoring the two most powerful forces in American elections: fundraising and incumbency..."
"The Times editorial anticipates objections to its analysis by dismissing academic research as overly complex and disconnected from voter perceptions:
“[S]ome progressive analysts and professors say it has little effect. The debate involves statistical complexities that are difficult for most people to follow. Yet there is a simple way to see the weakness of the argument that moderation is unimportant...
This preemptive dismissal is telling. The Times needs to discredit academic research because that research has reached an inconvenient consensus: the electoral benefits of moderation have largely disappeared. An influential 2018 study claiming large advantage for moderates was corrected by its own authors."
Beyond the 100 level statistics errors, and past the bad faith framing, this is nothing but an advertisement for crusading inertia, we let them own the economy, they give the illusion of democracy...
Subtle, like midair plane collisions.
Nothing like pre-emptive dismissal to justify your erroneous article.
Manipulating mother fuckers.
As I said, READ FOR FILTH
A comprehensive reading...
Hand waving that "one simple trick".
Aside from all the problems laid out well here, and the fundamental issues with polling (modern polling techniques are not getting a representative sample of the population), imagine thinking 2026 is the same election as 2024. Because that's what the NYT has done here.
Yep. Tho I did love the article calling out that both they and the NYT folks are in the10% of US bubble of "having coherent policy goals and ideas" as opposed to what 90% of the nation votes over instead. Like. "Hello, yes, we have this bias and so do you, maybe account for that?!?"
"All the news that's fit to print."
Right. Who decides?
The Vichy Times is trying SO HARD to prove candidates like Zohran Mamdani, who have very democratic socialist messages, will lose. The uber rich DO NOT want a resurgence of FDR-style "New Deal" candidates and legislation. Rich white people are scared ... hence the corporate politicians backing that dickhead Cuomo.
Two good things: 1. they're wrong ... the message is a winner, and 2. The Vichy Times still thinks it's the "newspaper of record" ... they're not.
They're wrong ... and they're lazy. Mamdani is beatable in NYC, but not by Andy-boy Cuomo. The rich assholes who oppose Mamdani pulled a very stupid move in going shopping for a ready made candidate. If they had promoted some unknown Wall Street I-banker from Goldman as a "sensible, fiscally responsible" alternative to the "wild eyed Muslim socialist" in the Murdoch-owned press (Post & WSJ), I think that the low information idiots in my native outer boroughs would've bought it. Cuomo is just cheap, has-been tabloid fodder & people hate his name. The Hamptons crowd evidently hasn't caught on to that yet, though. Good. Tactical blunder. It's almost November & Mamdani's almost in. Let's see what he can do.
If Mr. Mamdani achieves even just a few of his goals, he's a lock. The blue book NYC society will pay but they will incessently WHINE about it while they shop for a new Maserati SUV for little Taylor to drive to their private school.
So true. And they're NEVER going to leave the comfortable little Westchester/Wall St/Hamptons axis they've built for themselves, so the City can slap them with a millionaires tax anytime it wants. They're fish in a barrel. I'd love to see them fried.
I mean did they see the primary results?
That's pretty much NYC in a nutshell there.
In the 21st century, being the "newspaper of record" is as meaningful as being the "buggy whip of record"
I have their phone number, right here in my Rolodex Of Record.
Good morning,
So, Ronald Reagan 'loved tariffs' so much, 'he used them sparingly' . . .
Serious question: do people even listen to what he actually says anymore? 🙄
Acyn @Acyn
Trump: Ronald Reagan loved tariffs. He used them sparingly, which he probably made a mistake in that. I was the biggest fan of Reagan, but on finance, on trade, it wasn't his strong suit. But he liked tariffs.
0:39 / 0:42
5:06 AM · Oct 27, 2025
·
𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕖_𝔾𝕦𝕣𝕝 @SundaeDivine
·
16m
Every time he’s on Air Force One, it’s like he’s doing improv in the sky. He just makes shit up, and the press pool writes down whatever he says and calls it America’s Rorschach test.
https://xcancel.com/Acyn/status/1982735528350077124
That's cause he can't do rallies anymore
Imagine anyone thinking that Reagan was a politician of substance. We were there. The guy was a joke, a mouthpiece and a senile idiot. To idolize that guy...
Populists. People think fondly of him because they were personally doing well under him, or because they like 80s music, or whatever. Never mind that he was a senile fucker who allowed himself to be used as a prop so they could harm poor people and cut funding for AIDS research cause GAY! Not to mention all the other shit, but those two to me were the most callous, the most odious, because they were outright admitting they wanted people to die already.
See too: Trump.
And Dumb W. Line these Republicans up in order from Eisenhower to Trump & they've each outdone their predecessors in screwing this country. Trump is the worst so far, but a downward trajectory is a downward trajectory & I guess it's possible that we'll eventually end up with someone even worse than him...
"Spare the tariff, spoil the Americans" -- Paul 12:17