{"id":23102,"date":"2016-07-17T13:19:19","date_gmt":"2016-07-17T20:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=23102"},"modified":"2016-07-17T13:19:19","modified_gmt":"2016-07-17T20:19:19","slug":"open-thread-7172016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2016\/07\/17\/open-thread-7172016\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread – 7\/17\/2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wendy has been here.  She fluffed and buffed the TomCat, swept and mopped the floors, made a run to the corner store for some instant coffee (my coffee maker died! \"Crying), and joined forces with me in cooking a several day supply of Pork Verde, a dish with sufficient fire to make me an air quality hazard. \"Sick  Tomorrow I go to the arthritis doctor, so please expect no more than a Personal Update.<\/font><\/p>\n

Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

Today’s took me 2:50 (average 4:37).  To do it, click here<\/a>,  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

Short Takes<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

From The New Yorker<\/a>: <\/font>The retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson told reporters on Saturday that he is \u201cextremely confident\u201d that Donald Trump will choose him to be his Vice-Presidential running mate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a betting man, but I would bet a million dollars it\u2019s going to be me,\u201d he told reporters at his residence, in West Palm Beach. \u201cThere are times in life when you\u2019re just positive about something, and this is one of those times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carson did not indicate how he had determined that he would be Trump\u2019s pick. \u201cLet\u2019s just call it a strong feeling I have,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to say anything now that might jinx it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he awaits the all-important call from Trump, Carson said that he and the billionaire would be a \u201cdream team\u201d for the Republican Party in 2016.<\/p>\n

Dang, Andy!! Uncle Token would be like a broken watch, but he’s never even right twice a day!!<\/font><\/p>\n

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>For several years, the Obama administration has urged state insurance regulators to use tools provided by the Affordable Care Act to hold down health care premiums.<\/p>\n

Now federal officials will have a chance to practice what they preach as they confront big increases proposed in several states where they are responsible for reviewing rates.<\/p>\n

Federal officials defer to the insurance commissioners in 46 states deemed to have \u201ceffective rate review\u201d programs. But in Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming, the federal government is in charge of reviewing rates.<\/p>\n

And those reviews create an exquisite political challenge, spotlighting a pocketbook issue that affects millions of voters.<\/p>\n

In Texas, Blue Cross and Blue Shield is requesting rate increases of nearly 60 percent for 2017. In Oklahoma, Blue Cross and Blue Shield has proposed increases that average 49 percent. And in Missouri, Humana has filed for a 34 percent increase. All three carriers say they have lost money on many policies sold to individuals and families under the Affordable Care Act.<\/p>\n

Such large requests are not typical and will test the rate review process, described by the Obama administration as one of the most important consumer protections in the Affordable Care Act.<\/p>\n

Unless these increases are stopped, very large increase requests will become the norm. This shows the need for Medicare for all, or at least a public option,.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Alternet<\/a>: <\/font>At best, it\u2019s an Oscar-level performance in tone-deafness.<\/p>\n

Republican National Convention staffers are scrambling to remove signs labeling a bank of elevators as \u201cwhite elevators,\u201d the Wall Street Journal\u2019s Byron Tau reports<\/a>. Tau is in Cleveland, along with many reporters, gearing up for the Convention. The signs, meanwhile, are being frantically replaced.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m told it\u2019s being replaced for obvious reasons,\u201d Tau tweeted.<\/p>\n

According to the New York Daily News<\/a>, the signs were spotted in Cleveland\u2019s Quicken Loans Arena.<\/p>\n

\"0717Elevators\"<\/p>\n

No matter how hard Republicans try to cover-up the appearance of racism, they cannot hide the very real racism in their statements, positions, and policies.<\/font><\/p>\n

Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

\"0717Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wendy has been here.  She fluffed and buffed the TomCat, swept and mopped the floors, made a run to the corner store for some instant coffee (my coffee maker died! ), and joined forces with me in cooking a several day supply of Pork Verde, a dish with sufficient fire to make me an air […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-open-thread","category-personal","category-politics","category-35-id","category-3-id","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23102\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}