NASA is hinting that the Curiosity rover has made a major discovery, but the agency is being coy about the details. Unless it’s an ancient crashed starship or a monolith, I’ll be disappointed. More likely, it will be more equivocating about how Mars may have once had a pond or something. Unless it has something to do with Twinkies.
Slate columnist Dahlia Lithwick describes the current mood in Israel:
You want to hear about what it’s like here? It’s fucking sad. Everyone I know is sad. My kids don’t care who started it and the little boys in Issawiya, the Arab village I see out my window, don’t care much either. I haven’t met a single Israeli who is happy about this. They know this fixes nothing. The one thing we learned this week is how quickly humans can come to normalize anything. But the hopelessness seeps right into your bones as well.
The rest of her essay is worth a read. I don’t have anything insightful to add, other than to express hope that both sides can find a way to end the violence.
Last week, I wrote about how many GOP-led states are declining to establish health insurance exchanges, choosing instead to cede to a federally-administered exchange. Residents of these states will still be able to purchase insurance and receive subsidies through the federally-facilitated exchange. But as Sarah Kliff explains, these states are also declining to participate in the Medicaid expansion that the Supreme Court made optional in its June ruling. Low-income people in these states will suffer as a result. They can go to the Exchange, but coverage will not be nearly as affordable as Medicaid. Hospitals and other providers will also lose out on funds to deliver what is currently uncompensated care to these individuals.
Denying access to affordable health care for what amounts to geographical reasons is both cruel and unnecessary, but those are the politics of the moment. Perhaps these states will be more inclined to expand Medicaid once bordering states do so, sparking complaints from local advocates and health care providers. Some states are pushing the Obama administration to lower the income threshold required for the expansion, but I’m not sure that diluting the law’s intent is a good idea. Medicaid is already a fragmented program with wildly varying eligibility requirements across states. Allowing states to duck that requirement would only perpetuate that fragmentation, which the Affordable Care Act was designed to remedy. An all-or-nothing expansion requirement might not help some people in the short term, but it will eventually result in a stronger Medicaid program.
If you’re in Minnesota, you still have a few hours to donate to your favorite charities as part of Give to the Max Day. Over the last few years, Give to the Max has become my primary means for year-end charitable giving. I made donations to several worthy causes and I hope you’ll do the same.
I’m in the process of getting a new wheelchair approved because my current chair is eight years old and its age is beginning to show. The vendor that I’m working with told me to first get an assessment from the University of Minnesota, which required a doctor’s order. When I went to the assessment yesterday, I was told I would need to get another assessment from a separate clinic because I use a customized seating system. When I called the other clinic to set up that appointment, I was told I would need to get another doctor’s order.
I understand the need to demonstrate medical necessity for major equipment purchases like this, but the fragmented medical bureaucracy isn’t making things any easier. Can I please just have a new chair without the hoop-jumping?
Here’s Paul Ryan commenting on that out-of-nowhere defeat he and Romey suffered last Tuesday:
When we saw the turnout that was occurring in urban areas which were really fairly unprecedented, it did come as a bit of a shock.
Is Ryan conceding that the GOP base is limited to rural and exurban America? More specifically, white rural and exurban America? I’m not arguing the point. It’s just a little surprising to hear a Republican still in office be so candid about the demographic realities of conservative politics. Next thing you know, Ryan will be blaming the Jewish and atheist vote for his loss.
Second, any future attempts by Ryan to describe himself as a “numbers guy” must be met with snickers and guffaws. A quick glance at any number of reliable polling aggregators should have disabused Ryan of his near-certitude regarding a Republican victory. Let’s hope his inability or refusal to grasp simple math isn’t a hindrance when he returns to his day job of House Budget Committee Chairman.
The first two episodes of Blood and Chrome, the Battlestar Galactica prequel series, are worth watching. The first episode is a bit by-the-numbers, but things get more interesting in the next chapter. Visually, it looks great and is true to the series’ frenetic style, particularly in the space battle scenes. I’d rather see this as a full-fledged television series, but perhaps it has a brighter future on-line.
Here’s the first episode:
I’m looking forward to a long weekend free of obsessively refreshing the FiveThirtyEight blog. For your Sunday health policy reading, I recommend Sarah Kliff’s piece on how recalcitrant Republican governors are letting the federal government step in to run health insurance exchanges instead of establishing state-based exchanges. GOP governors figure that, rather than try to do all the heavy lifting necessary to set up an exchange, it’s better to let the feds shoulder the burden.
It’s hard to disagree with their reasoning. Minnesota is creating an exchange and it’s a gargantuan task requiring lots of planning and coordination. I’m learning more about business process modeling than I ever anticipated or desired. Minnesota will be successful in its efforts, but I don’t see how a state that previously resisted health care reform could now reverse course and have an exchange ready to go by next year.
Time has a great article describing the critical role of the sophisticated data mining operation that identified potential Obama voters through e-mail, social media, and television advertising. The article highlights how data mining guided the Obama campaign’s decisions to have the President appear on Reddit and run ads during niche TV shows like The Walking Dead.
It’s inevitable that political campaigns would become much more data-driven enterprises and I expect Republicans will eventually learn to play the game with equal skill. But for now, Democrats and their geeks have mastered 21st century retail politics.
While Election Night in 2008 was exhilarating, last night’s big victories for Democrats and progressive causes felt more satisfying and durable. A few thoughts:
Finally, thanks to the good friends who shared the evening’s excitement with me. The company of fellow travelers made the moment that much sweeter.