Moe Lane

America, Simon & Garfunkel

‘Cold?’ Or ‘Sterile?’ …Either way, eh, I’ve already given my opinion on the style of this band.

Of course.

Wikipedia administrators have imposed a ban on page edits from computers at the US House of Representatives, following “persistent disruptive editing”.

The 10-day block comes after anonymous changes were made to entries on politicians and businesses, as well as events like the Kennedy assassination.

The biography of former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld was edited to say that he was an “alien lizard”.

Although that one arguably pales in comparison to the nameless Congressional staffer who needed the world to know that Mediate is “sexist transphobic*.”  Or perhaps not; but I’m noting it largely because I’d like the record to show that this is all at best (or worst) a bipartisan exercise in wearing-your-posterior-as-a-head-covering.  And, of course, to make it clear that, to the best of my knowledge, Donald Rumsfeld is NOT an alien lizard.  I mean, sheesh: everybody knows that he’s from a cadet branch of the Merovingian dynasty.  Where do you think he got the money to fund Fang Island in the first place? (more…)

Like one does: “Iowa Democratic Senate hopeful Bruce Braley has shaken up his campaign, parting ways with admaker Larry Grisolano and pollster Diane Feldman after Republican Joni Ernst emerged from the primary with more momentum than anticipated, three sources confirmed to POLITICO.”

…Well, for given values of ‘one.’ Like, say, when ‘one’ means ‘a candidate who is suddenly discovering that the incumbency advantage of the now-retiring officeholder is not particularly transferable.’ What’s interesting here is that the two staffers involved were both long-time Obama hirelings; what’s even more interesting is that the campaign fired them last month and hid the news for as long as possible.  Says quite a few things about the Braley campaign, none of which are good but all of which are amusing. (more…)

This did not make me spray soda all over the monitor screen:

In 2004, Democrats won the working-class vote by 11 points; George W. Bush was reelected. In 2006, Democrats won the working-class vote by 22 points and took the House and Senate. In 2008, Democrats won by 22 points again, and President Obama was elected. In 2010, the margin narrowed to 11 points, and Republicans took the House back. In 2012, Obama was reelected—on the strength of another 22-point margin among voters making under $50,000.

…but this did: (more…)

I was alerted by Constant Reader prayerborne here that the RPG PDF Bundle of Holding site was doing One-Roll Engine, so I checked it out and picked it up. I have the print versions of Godlike (WWII supers roleplaying) and Wild Talents (supers roleplaying), wanted the PDFs, and was happy to pick up Better Angels and eCollapse and a couple of other items. I like ORE – it’s straightforward, and doesn’t try to force itself to be comprehensive – and the flavor-text writing is good. Check it out.

“@CBR: #SDCC: Sam Raimi Reveals He's Writing "Evil Dead" TV Series with @GroovyBruce http://t.co/O7qfC4UfWw pic.twitter.com/2bz7B7TZQv” Huh.

— Bruce Campbell (@GroovyBruce) July 25, 2014

Only one response, really.

Essentially, I got Atomic Robo Volume 3: Atomic Robo and the Shadow from Beyond Time and The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 in the same Amazon shipment.  Because I’m weird that way, apparently.

Dear God but the Left is going to hate that term by the time we’re done with it. Via Breitbart: “An audio clip from a public appearance [Jonathan] Gruber made at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco on January 10, 2012 reveals he made the same connection between subsidies and state-based exchanges on at least one other occasion (hat tip to MorgerR).”

Here’s the video (actually, audio clip on Youtube):

…and it’s pretty clear that in 2012 Jonathan Gruber fully endorsed the idea that the federal government did not set up Obamacare subsidies to be accessible to federal exchange policyholders and that that was a good thing.  Gruber considered that a feature, not a bug: the idea was that the lack of subsidy money would push states without exchanges to set them up, or else suffer the wrath of the electorate*.  It wasn’t until so many states declined to sign up that the Democrats changed their tune. (more…)

I Wanna Be Sedated, Ramones

This is a temptation:

…but I don’t have the core rules. How is Better Angels as a RPG? I quite like Arc Dream as a game design company.

Oopsie?

Jonathan Gruber, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist who helped design the Massachusetts health law that was the model for Obamacare, was a key influence on the creation of the law. He was widely quoted in the media. During the crafting of the law, the Obama administration brought him on for his expertise. He was paid almost $400,000 to consult with the administration on the law. And he has claimed to have written part of the legislation, the section dealing with small business tax credits.

After the law passed, in 2011 and throughout 2012, multiple states sought his expertise to help them understand their options regarding the choice to set up their own exchanges. During that period of time, in January of 2012, Gruber told an audience at Noblis, a technical management support organization, that tax credits—the subsidies available for health insurance—were only available in states that set up their own exchanges.

(more…)

And it’s a sockeldanger.

New IRS draft 1040 form shows Obamacare indiv. mandate under “Other Taxes” — line 61: pic.twitter.com/0oWbEwkXur

— John Kartch (@johnkartch) July 25, 2014

Line 6[1]: it’s official and the federal government has to admit it. The individual mandate is a tax. That means that changing it even by a penny is – no fooling, seriously, this is not something that you can just executive-order away – only possible via an Act of Congress. This will not happen (Obamacare was designed to keep Republicans out of the loop for as long as possible) which means that the current very low penalties for noncompliance are never going to get any higher.

Shoot, at the rate things are going paying the fine and getting insurance on your own will be a pretty good deal. Assuming, of course, that the Supreme Court doesn’t make the whole thing moot by declaring that the individual mandate is invalid in federal exchange states*.

Moe Lane

*Yup, Halbig. If the government can’t provide subsidies to a state that doesn’t have an exchange, effectively the mandate goes away for that state. Dang but the Democrats are bad at writing legislation, huh?