This Is Fine - 2018-12-15

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user15026

12:07 AM

BREAKING: @OntarioPCParty government prepared to recall the legislature for an emergency Christmas session to stop a Power Workers' Union strike that would impact 50% of Ontario's electricity system, the @TorontoStar has learned. #onpoli https://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2018/12/14/tories-could-recall-legislature-over-christmas-to-zap-power-workers-strike.html

Tweeted by robertbenzie on December 14, 2018 at 4:30 PM

user15026

and a follow up:

user15026

#BREAKING - Government sources tell me the Ontario Legislature WILL be recalled at 1pm Monday, either to pass back to work legislation for Ontario Power Generation or to prevent a strike action by OPG. Would take 3-4 days to pass but NDP could delay for several more days. #onpoli

Tweeted by richard680news on December 14, 2018 at 7:34 PM

user15026

(I hope they can manage to avoid the strike, because....yeah, that would be bad.)

@GodEmperorDune I'm gonna be real here and admit I didn't realise that asbestos was essentially naturally occurring and wondered if the Pink Panther was just going around committing infanticide for this to have been going on so long

user15026

← 4 messages moved from The Bridge

12:27 AM

1/ Things are different at this year's U.N.'s climate talks, and it's because of (A) something that very nearly didn’t happen three years ago, and (B) science. A thread. #COP24 #COP24Katowice

Tweeted by katieworth on December 13, 2018 at 4:40 PM

@Ash Yeah, sigh :(

@MadScientist lol apparently not, there is no time limit so the expectation is he'll just stick with it indefinitely and no one knows why Trump said acting except that the president is in fact dumb

Good times

user15026

@TimStone I strongly suspect they'll come up with something, because going "Merry Christmas, your power might go out" is...not going to go over well. Like less well than the CP strike.

user15026

(I was slightly irritated that in one of my immigration chat groups, they were all "what if that delays my application" because all I can think of is "if some places lose power people could die" and I know it's a matter of perspective but like....people aaaaaa)

At the same time though like, I am not generally a fan of a boss being allowed to just say actually no strike and remove any incentive to negotiate in good faith

That said locked out gas workers in Boston and the ensuing New York contractors has just been bad

It's honestly a miracle these idiots haven't blown up more shit

user15026

12:42 AM

@Unionhawk Well, yes, but when it comes down to "this could actually kill people...."

user15026

So it's hard to have patience when it's winter and power is a pretty essential service

user15026

It's one of those things where yes, I get where the workers and union are coming from, but all I can see is "50% of Ontario with possibly no power* and I can't just sit with that and be like "that's an acceptable risk"

With any luck they get anything and not just a "fuck you you actually have no rights" but,

They won't

user15026

I'm sorry, I just can't help it - I get it, they are doing what they think is right for themselves, but I just keep thinking of the wider implications

user15026

Like...we literally can't power our province if they shut down.

12:48 AM

The conservatives are just not interested in negotiating, seems most likely to me, and they probably know they'll get away with it

user15026

And I think of hospitals and sick people and the elderly and babies and all the other vulnerable populations who could be caused great harm.

user15026

@Unionhawk Possibly. (Although Wynne was in when the mess started, so it's not just a conservative issue, because OPG's a crown corp, so iirc the Liberals could've worked something out before the election, as iirc this has been going on since...March/May this year or some such)

Ah so it's a Trudeau government issue to negotiate?

user15026

So yes, right now it's likely the cons don't feel like negotiating, but at the same time, someone's gotta sort something out, because....yeah, this is not a good position to put the province in.

user15026

@Unionhawk Nope, provincial

12:54 AM

Oh I see

user15026

OPG is owned by Government of Ontario

user15026

(Some Crown corps are federal, some are provincial)

Crown Corp as in give the workers what they want and make the queen pay imo (this is most likely not at all how it works)

user15026

(That's why it's Doug Ford calling legislature back, because it's Ontario who has to figure it out)

user15026

@Unionhawk Not even close.

12:56 AM

Wheeeeeeeeee

BREAKING: Federal judge in Texas strikes down the Affordable Care Act

Tweeted by PeterSullivan4 on December 15, 2018 at 12:52 AM

user15026

Teeeechnically the queen owns 'em all, but the actual running of Crown stuff is fed/prov gov't depending on what it is

But that's a technically in the same sense that iirc everything seeks royal assent

(which I assume is most often a solid "yeah whatever We do not care")

user15026

@Unionhawk Generally yes

user15026

Generally a lot of Canada belongs to the queen but doesn't actually in the day to day bits?

user15026

It's weird and slippery.

12:59 AM

@TimStone lmao

user15026

@TimStone What does this mean

The individual mandate is illegal and the judge also decided that because of this the rest of the law doesn't work (which is true) and is also illegal

(well true in the sense that the free market is literally incapable of providing affordable healthcare without a young healthy risk pool)

And since it doesn't work, if you have insurance through the marketplace maybe now you don't have insurance through the marketplace let's find out!

I could see a TRO going "hold on shut the hell up we're not shutting this down during open enrollment" possibly but

Ends tomorrow though right? The 15th?

1:04 AM

and then the "inseverable" part of this dies maybe

but the mandate is definitely going away

Which it's always been unenforced/unenforceable

Nobody tells the IRS they don't have insurance, just like nobody tells Ohio department of taxation if they've made untaxed online purchases

the uninsured number will double and people will die though

is what this means

People on already precarious individual market plans will be thrown into turmoil, and it's overall very bad

More so than the regular "my deductible is fifteen thousand dollars for some reason so why the fuck would I ever go to the doctor" (this is based on a real ACA plan in Ohio)

1:28 AM

It sounds like this is merely a declaratory judgement though so idk what that means

Other than they're pushing for coach k to rule that actually Medicare is illegal too or some shit

It's a partial summary judgment, the Federalist Society judge loves owning the libs so he just threw it up there that obviously the law is unconstitutional even though the circumstances here are Quite Dumb and this will almost certainly fall apart on appeal

I feel like we linked it before in here but I can't find it, anyway he's been sitting on this ruling for months

of course it was one of those, fucking vampires lol

they make up like half the Court now

Thank god Schumer got that extra week of campaigning though otherwise uhhh things would have been exactly the same

WH clarifies Mulvaney and OMB. @PressSec says Mulvaney "will not resign" from OMB, "but will spend all of his time devoted to his role" as Acting WH Chief of Staff. She says OMB Deputy Dir Russ Vought will handle day to day operations and run OMB.

Tweeted by markknoller on December 15, 2018 at 1:31 AM

Incredible

@Unionhawk This dude also struck down the Indian Child Welfare Act and Title XI and some other "How about...you just not be discriminatory? 🤔" case

Real classy fellow

🧛‍♂️🧛‍♂️🧛‍♂️

Every bit that gets reported further convinces me that Mulvaney just happened to be in Trump's office today and Trump was desperate for a WH COS, so he told Mulvaney -- literally the only person who would talk to him -- that he had to be the acting WH COS. https://twitter.com/markknoller/status/1073752359648591872

Tweeted by MaxKennerly on December 15, 2018 at 1:39 AM in reply to MaxKennerly

lol this is 100% what happened

Mulvaney was there for some unrelated meeting today and now he's "acting" CoS

1:54 AM

The court was specifically requested to wait until after Saturday to rule in order to avoid disrupting open enrollment. O’Connor then issued his decision Friday night nevertheless, which seems a lot like trolling in that context.

Tweeted by nycsouthpaw on December 15, 2018 at 1:54 AM in reply to nycsouthpaw

1 hour later…

3:11 AM

hmm I might be losing my coverage actually now that I think about it

extremely cool

I can't wait to pay premiums for a $1,500 deductible plan

health insurance is a scam

1 hour later…

4:22 AM

The recent federal court decision is still moving through the courts, and the exchanges are still open for business and we will continue with open enrollment. There is no impact to current coverage or coverage in a 2019 plan.

Tweeted by SeemaCMS on December 15, 2018 at 4:12 AM

Flash forward to Trump bursting onto the TL with some nonsense

Oh sorry flash backward he already did it twice

Mueller target Jerome Corsi raised $25K to pay for cancer treatment. One problem: the doctor Corsi claimed would get the money doesn't actually exist. https://dailycaller.com/2018/12/13/corsi-mueller-doctor-cancer/

Tweeted by willsommer on December 14, 2018 at 3:30 PM

Ugh, a Daily Caller link with a Chuck Ross byline, but nevertheless

5:16 AM

@TimStone shame they didn't use the guy who said trump was the healthiest person of all time or w/e

btw i had forgotten that said doctor got raided by trump's bodyguard and compared it to an atrocity

9 hours later…

2:30 PM

oh well then forget it

Tweeted by muhmentions on December 15, 2018 at 2:29 PM

lol

@TimStone Or, you do as Canada does, and job benefits fill in gaps above and beyond basic Medicare.

or check this shit out: it's a comprehensive program and you no longer need that at all

(aka we do it better than Canada)

Yeah but, how could we ever transition from one thing to another thing?!

That's a good point

By additional benefits I mean, medical care itself is paid for, but things around the edges, like dentistry, eyecare, things like that, are all job perks.

2:34 PM

was that before or after the ezra take about the court decision creating m4a

bc now people will find it necessary vs the totally cool and good situation under aca

before but same day

lol

> The Republican strategy to pass Medicare-for-all continues.

they're not accelerationist maoists or anything like that they just want to hurt people ezra

Secretary of the Interior @RyanZinke will be leaving the Administration at the end of the year after having served for a period of almost two years. Ryan has accomplished much during his tenure and I want to thank him for his service to our Nation.......

Tweeted by realDonaldTrump on December 15, 2018 at 2:14 PM

So the next one is out

chuckles in a dozen ongoing investigations

> what they failed to build in 2010: a universal health care system simple enough and popular enough

wait ezra are you saying that maybe the healthcare dot gov website isn't cool to literally any other person but you

Congratulations to Acting Secretary Chief Administrator of the Interior Staff's Management & Budget Mick Mulvaney

> assault on what was supposed to be a compromise bill

editor's note: it was literally a conservative bill from conservative think tank heritage foundation (the conservatives likely never actually wanted it, but it provided a nice thing to point to when asked "oh so you're a against people having healthcare")

Some personal news I am now a senior editor at voxdotcom

apparently

3:03 PM

Ryan Zinke resigned under pressure as administration officials concluded he was the most vulnerable Cabinet member to congressional investigations when Dems take over in January, @eilperin & @jdawsey1 report. His tenure was plagued by ethics scandals. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/interior-secretary-zinke-resigns-amid-investigations/2018/12/15/481f9104-0077-11e9-ad40-cdfd0e0dd65a_story.html

Tweeted by PhilipRucker on December 15, 2018 at 2:54 PM

He...he doesn't stop existing though after he quits 🤔

Elsewhere, the Kentucky GOP is submitting batches of open records requests for public school teachers who ran for office in the state this year to see if any of them ever said bad words about them. https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/12/14/kentucky-republicans-requests-teacher-emails-potential-political-misuse/2299048002/

Tweeted by pebonilla on December 14, 2018 at 6:18 PM

@TimStone hue

@TimStone the only cabinet member that I haven’t heard is doing crimes is Elaine chao

@TimStone don’t organize on company emails, folks

@GodEmperorDune Making McConnell happy is in fact a crime. She also apparently takes an unusually large amount of "private meetings", but all things considered that may not even make the cut here

@MadScientist Huh, I’m not sure who won in the Trump Admin death pool reddit.com/r/bestoflegaladvice/comments/a4s6kp/comment/ebh6hv1

End of the year is a bit too vague

If you’re going by announcement date then it’s the Dec 21 guess. Don’t think anyone expected the pool to only last five days

Yeah they go by announcement date

So who are you guys picking for the death pool?

3 hours later…

5:51 PM

Uh, did WikiLeaks just encourage a DoS attack on a refugee fundraising telephone line over an unrelated editorial complaint?

Tweeted by KlasfeldReports on December 15, 2018 at 4:52 PM

Why yes, yes they did

@TimStone not even a wiki

6:03 PM

Unemployment is at lowest level in almost 50 years, but: - 4 in 10 adults don't have enough savings to cover a $400 expense - 4.8 million Americans have part time jobs but want full time ones - wages are stagnant or *dropping* for working class jobs https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/12/13/benefits-this-strong-economy-have-not-reached-all-americans/?utm_term=.fec890e8f375

Tweeted by mims on December 13, 2018 at 9:24 PM

user15026

@GodEmperorDune Yeah, just having a job doesn't mean much

6:23 PM

@GodEmperorDune Hmm if only we hadn't set up a healthcare system where full time employment was discouraged 🤔

The classic "Ah no we can only give you < 30 hours because otherwise we'd have to give you benefits"

6:35 PM

@GodEmperorDune 40% with no savings at all seems very high to me

Unfortunately accurate though, a large portion of the population lives literally paycheck to paycheck

I would be curious how much this depends on the country (among similar countries as the US)

6:49 PM

Yeah, I'm not sure offhand. Our common inherent debts (student loans, car loans, health insurance, etc) certainly don't help things

7:28 PM

Ahahahahaha

I love working for the President and am incredibly proud of all the good work we’ve accomplished together. However, after 30 years of public service, I cannot justify spending thousands of dollars defending myself and my family against false allegations. Full statement attached.

Tweeted by SecretaryZinke on December 15, 2018 at 6:54 PM

Next Cabinet departures are likely to include Nielsen, Ross, per administration officials https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/15/us/ryan-zinke-interior-secretary.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

Tweeted by maggieNYT on December 15, 2018 at 7:28 PM

Missed point about the @MickMulvaneyOMB pick: By installing a Senate confirmed official as CoS (who is not quitting as OMB chief) Trump blunders into being the first POTUS to have a CoS who can be called to testify before Congress.

Tweeted by RonaldKlain on December 15, 2018 at 3:46 PM

Hmm, that seems like a fun legal boundary to poke

Since 1980, the story of wealth in America is deliberate redistribution from the bottom to the top. Average wealth holdings in 2016 dollars: Bottom 40% 1983: $6,900 2016: -$8,900 (yes, that's a negative) Top 20% 1983: $1,273,000 2016: $2,999,000 https://www.nber.org/papers/w24085

Tweeted by _cingraham on December 15, 2018 at 6:55 PM in reply to _cingraham

7:44 PM

@TimStone it's hard to interpret averages in this case, the top 20% value is pretty much meaningless as an average instead of a median

@TimStone word counts here are suspicious apparently

Which could explain the grammatical choices

@MadScientist That's true, though having a negative average for the bottom 40% is still Quite Bad

@TimStone and it's probably hiding the sheer amount of debt part of that group has

(total statement is 88, the "FACT:" portion is 14)

@Unionhawk Ughhh

7:56 PM

@TimStone but can you spend them defending against true allegations?

@TimStone oh yeah i forgot nielsen wasn't fired yet

@TimStone lol, rekt

@Unionhawk goddamn, q did it again

8:42 PM

(obvious caveat, per discord: "thing about it is you can't be 100% sure, so if you call it out, it's easy to dismiss you as nuts /n that's how dog whistles work... no one else hears anything, the ones it's meant for know not to react, and people who want to call it out look like they're just crazy /n in conclusion, "Shit's Fuckedtm"")

House Speaker Paul Ryan pushes for thousands of Irish visas as a nod to his ancestral heritage before leaving office https://politi.co/2EvZw1c

Tweeted by politico on December 14, 2018 at 10:00 PM

Qwhite interesting in that these immigrants are ok

2 hours later…

10:22 PM

DeFazio on climate: "This is the existential threat to the future of the planet." Insanity. For comparison, the atmosphere Venus is 96.5% CO2 -- and the planet is still there. In contrast, Earth's atmosphere is only ~0.04% CO2. https://politi.co/2rC6QA3 via @politico

Tweeted by JunkScience on December 15, 2018 at 1:51 AM

Why...why are these people?

NEW: Disputed North Carolina race exposes mail ballot flaws http://hill.cm/FHdUZSf

Tweeted by thehill on December 15, 2018 at 10:25 PM

throws a table

The hell does that have to do with anything? They knew ahead of time this jackass was doing this, it was the intent. Republicans were the flaw

I am actually now dumber for having witnessed these takes I demand compensation

user15026

@GodEmperorDune gee, what could it be that sets them apart...

@TimStone bruhhhhhhhhhhhhh

are you really suggesting that venus is habitable?

@TimStone the flaw that if someone illegally intercepts the ballots before they are dropped off at the registrar, they aren't counted?

A locked account points out that by being so absurd he's trying to reframe it as if climate scientists are suggesting that is what will happen, because he's a sociopath and should be thrown directly into a sulfur pit

> The kind of ballot-harvesting operation that allegedly took place in North Carolina’s 9th District is banned under state law, which allows someone other than the voter to return absentee ballots to elections offices in only limited circumstances.

ah, the flaw in our laws where people don't follow them

@GodEmperorDune They couldn't help themselves but to do election fraud, clearly! That's what the issue is, not that they wanted to do election fraud and controlled everything to allow them to do it

10:35 PM

@TimStone sulfur pit is too good for him, imo

It was just so possible

For my secret Santa gift I put a gift card in a hollowed out compartment in a copy of Decision Points

Tweeted by ablington on December 15, 2018 at 10:06 PM

lmao

11:33 PM

President Trump: "We're looking to expand Arlington National Cemetery by acquiring land around it. It's working out pretty well. We're working very hard on it. We'll get it done. They need it. They need it." http://hill.cm/S5qCodL https://t.co/juMEkUuv8s

Tweeted by thehill on December 15, 2018 at 11:33 PM

I take it we don't intend to stop that whole "sending people to die" thing anytime soon then

11:51 PM

@TimStone You might be at war with Iran before you can get rid of Trump, Bolton and Pompeo. And then you'll need more space

I appreciate your optimism that we'll only start one new war :P

I have a slight hope that even Trump isn't dumb enough to try something in North Korea

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