Only Down From There

It is no secret that I do not love the American health care system and do not think the ACA - and how the system has evolved since - has solved all of our problems. But there is no magic Republican solution that will make it in any way better. Either you improve the regulations/subsidies on the private side (boo), or you an enhance the eligibility for the public side (yay). Anything else will just make it noticeably and recognizably worse/more expensive for people.

The Obama version is better than what Republicans would have ever come up with in various ways, but it is still true that the ACA is, basically, a conservative private-sector focused health care plan with some public sweeteners that were put in largely to make the bill have a better CBO score (lol).

They don't have a plan because you can't make it "more Republican" and "better/cheaper."

"My plan would reduce your insurance premiums by stopping government payoffs to big insurance companies and sending that money directly to the people," Trump said in a video announcing the plan.

However, the video and one-page fact sheet posted on the White House website were light on specifics about how much would actually go to Americans or how much funding the plan would require or how the funds would be distributed.

"One-page fact sheet."

To make real whatever is sloshing around Trump's pudding brain, you'd basically regulate all prices and dissolve the insurance companies. Essentially it'd be Medicare only you'd get the bill. Of course Republicans can't do that.

I AM GOING TO TARIFF YOU

Trump is going to add more tariffs to goods from European nations that won't give him Greenland and I admit that's pretty funny. Gramps is out of juice.

WINTER FUNDRAISER DAY 3

I'll only use my power for good!

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Use It

If there is one good lesson from Trump, it's use power when you have it.

With Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger (D) set to take office Saturday, three University Board of Visitors members resigned Friday, including Rector Rachel Sheridan and Vice Rector Porter Wilkinson. According to reporting by the New York Times and the Washington Post, Spanberger called on at least five members to resign.

Board Member Paul Manning — the donor behind the Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology who gave a $100 million dollar gift to the University to fund the project — was also asked by Spanberger to resign. Manning resigned Friday, and Board members Douglas Wetmore and Stephen Long were also asked to resign, according to the Washington Post. It is unclear whether others besides the Rector, Vice Rector and Manning submitted resignations.

All members of the Board had been appointed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R). Prior to the resignations Friday, the Board had 12 of its 17 voting-member seats filled after Senate Democrats rejected five members this past fall.

They were busy destroying UVa.

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Sometimes Not Taking A Stand Is Actually Taking One

In favor of the status quo.

When someone asked “Why would you as a business choose to piss off 1/2 of your potential customers? Just curious what sense that makes.” the bakery responded with “I don’t want those customers.”

A post from Tuesday morning stated “imagine sending me death threats, threatening my family AND CHILDREN, and calling ME deranged… while I’m just over here baking cookies.”

That's a bakery selling "Fuck Ice" cookies.

Sure that's provactive, but I remember this kind of thing from the Iraq war era, when putting up flags, George Bush pictures, and weepy tributes to the Troops were not seen as "taking sides" even though of course, at that moment, they were.

Acting as if everything is normal and acceptable is taking a side.

Shocker

Watching Sinema, you would've never imagined she was high out of her mind all the time.

Former Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, the Democrat turned independent who served one term before leaving office last year, was accused in federal court this week of conducting an affair with a member of her Senate security team, a married father of three.

Ms. Sinema also encouraged Mr. Ammel to bring MDMA drugs on a work trip, so she could help guide him through a psychedelic experience, the lawsuit claimed.

Spicy Chatbots

Repeating, again, that AI was first sold as "we are about to create God" and then "it will cure cancer, invent new forms of metal and other materials" and now it's "it will write your emails for you and be your pocket pal."

In an X (formerly Twitter) post shared by slow_developer, Suleyman can be heard saying that these AI companions will be able to see, hear, prefer, and feel the same as the user.

“In five years’ time, everybody will have their own AI companion who knows them so intimately and so personally that they will come to live life alongside you,” the CEO said.

“It will see what you see, hear what you hear, and understand your context, your preferences, and your motivations, and it will feel like an ever-present aid or friend that is there to help you navigate life’s big challenges,” Suleyman shared.

Nerds always jump in and say it's good at "coding" or whatever. I have no idea but most people don't need these niche applications! Most people don't need to code!

Trump Cards

At best you're going to get some cards with teaser rates, quickly replaced by 'normal' usurious rates and I think it will be hilarious if they are in anyway branded with Trump.

Kevin Hassett on Trump's 10% cap on credit card interest rates: "Our expectations is that it won't necessarily require legislation because there will be great new Trump Cards provided voluntarily by the banks."

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 16, 2026 at 2:35 PM

Hassett is probably to dumb/cloistered to get this.

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Newsom

Something I say about (most) Dems regularly is that their entire pitch is to centrism. Even, or especially, when they are doing something lefty, their talking points are all aimed at addressing the basic DC "centrism" of political journalists and imagined moderate voters.

You know, "how are you going to pay for that???" and not "if Medicaid expansion is actually cheaper than ACA private subsidies, why don't you make the whole bill out of Medicaid expansion?"

That is why Newsom talks to Ben Shapiro and not, for example, Sam Seder.

There are exceptions, course, but even the Leftier ones are accustomed to communicating to this (somewhat imagined) audience.  What if you get goaded into accidentally speaking the truth, or the people who work for you get a bit too feisty with their comms? You might have to walk it back. You might get asked to condemn yourself for the next few years if you are dumb enough to walk it back!

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Oh No

No fair!

Amazon wants a federal judge to reject Saks Global’s bankruptcy financing plan, writing in court papers the beleaguered department store “burned through hundreds of millions of dollars in less than a year” and failed to hold up their agreement. 

Suckers! 

The Joke

I am cursed with a memory for things people have forgotten. So, as a reminder, in 2020, Dems won the House, the Senate, and the presidency, and for 2 years the news was filled with fretting Democrats - including the President, the Speaker of the House, and probably the Senate Majority Leader but I am too lazy too google that at the moment - discussing the need to put "defund the police" behind them.

They won everything in the year of peak woke! Of peak police protest! Of peak poll support for police reform!  

The phrase they came up with to reverse the catastrophic losses that did not happen was - and I am not kidding - "fund the police."

This was not after huge losses. This was not after any losses at all. This was after they won everything!!!  And they were talking like losers who desperately needed to change course!

That is why they initially embraced Eric Adams. Here was the black cop who pretended to be for the right kind of police reform (no police reform at all) to save them all from the horrible political fate that had not befallen them. 

Then, in 2022, dipshit centrists spent the entire year trying to will a dire election result into being. They pre-wrote the death of the Democratic party, blaming it on trans people, "defund the police" people, and the economic policies of Liz Warren staffers who supposedly ran the White House.

That last bit is key. A  lot of people didn't get the executive branch jobs they believed they were entitled to and were getting revenge! Two years working in the White House on your CV is ego and career gold! They were denied that and were angry!   

When the midterm elections went well for Democrats, by the standards of midterm elections, they just pretended things happened as scripted.  Another catastrophic loss, all the fault of the wokes.

Some of you get mad at me for yelling at Democrats, but it is the rich people who give them money who call them on the phone and really yell at them! Those rich funders and their familiars in the press and consulting world - including all the effective altruism/SBF money - were driving all of this.

Then, of course, we get to the 2024 election when they all praised Harris's centrist campaign, until she lost, and then it was somehow the fault of The Left yet again.

I'm just a guy with a blog that isn't very influential anymore.  Think about who is really driving the bus most of the time! It isn't me! It isn't the wokes, or the groups, or the dirty hippies, or "The Left" who nobody can really name because they barely exist in public life.  It's the rich assholes and smug centrists!

He Will Do It Eventually

No actions or restraint by protesters will causr of prevent it.

Not can they stop the major news outlets from privileging whatever fake justification they come up with.

We all know law enforcement causes violence then claim the victims cause it. We all know they can just make up things and news outlets will dutifully report it.  

WINTER FUNDRAISING DAY 1

Probably the wrong time for this but I'm not sure when the right time will be, so I'll stick to the "schedule."



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Sure Glad I'm Not The Governor Of Minnesota Right Now

Or any prominent elected Dem. Though I didn't ask for those jobs, in part because I'd be shit at them. Certainly I'd be shit at an executive job like governor.

Tough times, but you gotta figure out something more than "only 3 more years of this, then vote harder!!!"

State investigators have been on the scene in North Minneapolis. I know you’re angry. I’m angry. What Donald Trump wants is violence in the streets. But Minnesota will remain an island of decency, of justice, of community, and of peace. Don’t give him what he wants.

— Governor Tim Walz (@governorwalz.mn.gov) January 15, 2026 at 5:06 AM

I get why he's saying this. I'm just not sure what he expects people to do when they are flashbanging babies just because. It's a terrorist occupation.

We do make movies about heroes who resist such things. In the past.

And, yes, he is saying more than this.

Walz: "What's happening in MN defies belief. News reports simply don't do justice to the level of chaos & disruption & trauma the federal govt is raining down... This long ago stopped being a matter of immigration enforcement. Instead, it's a campaign of organized brutality against the people of MN"

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 15, 2026 at 2:17 AM

Tim Walz calls on residents to film ICE agents in their communities, citing widespread misconduct. "If you see ICE agents in your neighborhood, take out that phone and hit record. Help us create a database of the atrocities … to bank evidence for future prosecution."

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— Matt McDermott (@mattmfm.bsky.social) January 15, 2026 at 2:58 AM

...adding for clarity: the man has a hard job and I don't know what he should do, but people are out protesting because nobody is coming to save them.  It is the feds that are inflicting violence, and while Trump and Miller are hoping for something obvious, like a protester shooting an ICE thug, they do not and will not require it for their next steps.

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Thunderdome Thursday