a few months ago I said "having generative AI handle absolutely anything with regards to healthcare is a nightmare and should be banned" and a bunch of people made fun of me and called me stupid. anyways,

The RIFs language is actually great. Not only does it rehire the people RIFed during the shutdown, it makes it an unequivocal Antideficiency Act violation to do ANY MORE RIFs through the duration of the CR (Jan 30) Completely stops Trump/Vought Phase 2 for now Would love to see this standardized

1.) I disagree that this was the best way forward. The RIF language pretty clearly indicates to me that there's a taste in the senate GOP (at least) for reigning in Vought. Vought is probably incredibly mad about it, because it directly contradicts what he wants to do.

"What do you need health insurance for if you never get sick?" is one of the most insane/stupid arguments I've ever seen made in our political system so of course Republicans are making it.

Look I don’t expect you to like the deal- I don’t!- but also it’s goddamn infuriating that your answer to “what else could we get?” has been “who knows? Let’s just keep everything shut down until we feel like we got what we wanted!” without acknowledging the cost of that.

I, a 15-year career federal employee, am responsible for ACA subsidies being taken away. Not the tens of millions of people who voted to give Donald Trump's Republican Party control of the American government, no, they're blameless victims. It's my fault and I should suffer for it. fuck this shit.

Okay so what should they have gotten out of it, concrete, in plausible terms Be specific, because I understood (unlike the average bsky poaster apparently) that the healthcare ask was fundamentally glonzo kayfabe that was eventually going to collapse, because math is math and the GOP hates the ACA

if we get rolling RIF prevention and very short CRs until 2027, that is actually almost a win.

yes correct elections have consequences, and the theory of victory is figuring out how to convince the idiot median voter of these facts, not just making a couple million people who work for you go without a paycheck for over a year because it makes you feel good

I'm going to say this just once and then step away: Any federal government shutdown falls on the backs of federal employees. We are the ones without paychecks going on a month. I want every person who calls this a "cave" to ask themselves if they'd be willing to skip a month's pay for this.

The only exception to that is with respect to reductions in force (RIFs). The bill appears to both roll back RIFs announced during the shutdown and prevent any further RIFs between now and Jan 30.

Setting aside this is transparently the squishies trying to pressure vs an actual done deal, something I think a lot of folks on here have not effectively come to terms with is actually getting change on the subsidies was always a dead letter Also small but non zero chance point 3 drives a veto lol

If that's the deal, and the minibus stops RIFs, and we can just do this all over again in February if they renege... I think that's a viable outcome. The bottom line is that if the GOP wants to break the ACA, they're going to be able to do it, and we should chain it to their necks in the midterms.

I think that the disconnect here is that real household income is absolutely (indisputably!) up, but the price of the most essential household good, the fucking house, has dramatically increased beyond general inflation (due to both lack of supply as well as lifestyle inflation)

man if this is coming from josh lol

All of republican governance in our lifetime has now devolved to angry white men incoherently screeching—in the halls of power and online alike—that nothing is working and they demand democrats put it back together in the exact way that republicans want or else they’ll start killing more people

15 percent of American homes lacked indoor plumbing in 1960. The idea that everyone in 1955 America lived in a split-level suburban home with two cars and three kids and one income is, quite simply, a fantasy borne of media consumption.

Hot take: if you refuse to take my credit card because of a 2% interchange fee, I'll refuse to shop at your store. Besides, if I pay you in cash, it's going to cost you way more than 2% to handle that money.

We've spent years and years snd years litigating "wokeness" and "critical race theory" and "DEI" and "political correctness" and spilling untold gallons of ink explaining how complicated and nuanced it is, and it always seems to turn out to be exactly what you'd expect.

That is the sexiest fucking catch I have seen in forever

OH MY GOD OMAR COOPER

Welp, IU. Who are you right now?

europa universalis is the closest you can get in a single game to playing minecraft or skyrim with 900 incompatible mods

Gus Johnson calling meaningful Indiana Hoosiers football games in November. God, I lived to see the day.

I know everyone thinks all feds are like GS-15s in NoVa with a consultant spouse pulling down six figures, but in reality land shit is starting to Get Bad even for those of us with decent financial resources

Holy shit, Chuck Schumer broke his already fragile brain

the fact that Trump and Vought have put such an emphasis on purging the civil service should be instructive here. people are, in fact, policy. most people who work in government do it because they believe in the mission of their agencies. empower them to do it better and with more resources!

get rid of qualified immunity and you will quickly break law enforcement that doesn’t know or can’t be bothered to learn the law and civil rights

The highly skilled, downwardly mobile members of the working class tend to be the leaders of social democratic movements, yes.

I've come across a fascinating gay newsletter from the 1930s called "The Guiana Hobby Club," ostensibly a publication for stamp collectbors. But something might catch your eye in the "Membership List." You see all those letters and numbers? Well ...

I can’t believe Zohran is transing the trains already www.mta.info/article/f-m-...

I pulled about a third of my savings last night to pay my credit cards for this month. Next month, it'll be half. Month after that? 😬

Abolish Border Patrol.

Impossible to repost or discuss this chart too many times. A tale of two crises & two policy responses. One of them we still inexplicably talk about as a success, & one we still inexplicably talk about as a failure. 1.5 years of modestly high inflation did a number on us.

This is demonstrably wrong because ICE wasn't doing this under the Biden Administration! Like, one year ago there were no mobs of masked federal thugs disappearing people off the streets. You do not have to think that Biden was perfect to understand the difference between his policy and Trump's!

Trump at a -16 net approval rating among all adults now, per our average at @fiftyplusone.news, and flirting with dropping below 40% approval. fiftyplusone.news/polls/approv...

this should be one of defining images of his second term, because its impossible to tell from looking at it whether he is too indifferent to care or too senile to notice

Take Thursday Night Football out back and shoot it already.

Geno Smith looks like a character in Blitz: The League. Half-expecting an X-ray vision zoom-in for the next sack, showing his spleen exploding or something.

lol, lmao, classic Thursday Night Garbage Football.

Whiplash how fast they went from sadistic triumphalism to pants pissing

Nope

The shutdown hasn't been good for my waistline, so now I'm trying to get out and hike at least a mile in the park every day. And bonus: dusk over Snake Valley.

When the mass intelligentsia seizes state power, it will raise civil service salaries because that is in its class interest. But in doing so, it will also serve the interests of the other laboring classes as well, because this will result in better public services to the benefit of all.

This goes for civil service salaries, too. Outside of major metros where locality pay boosts apply, the highest-paid federal civil servant tops out at $190,000. We literally can't build software in-house because almost nobody is willing to work for federal salaries. It all has to get contracted.