https://www.heraldsun.com/news/local/article223117890.html

W00t! Another sanctuary city!

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/15/trump-vietnam-war-refugees-california-gop-orange-county-1066639

https://www.essence.com/news/botham-jean-amber-guyger-murder-charge/

I should set up another Google news alert.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a25574930/new-york-times-rightwing-extremism-white-supremacist/

“dragged like Hector’s corpse all over the electric Twitter machine”

I might need to subscribe to Esquire on the basis of that phrase alone. (But… what will he say next time?)

[That asterisk on “president*” is pretty cool, too. Does he always do that?]

https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1073775725293973504?s=17

The Senate is a problem.

Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) Tweeted:

Certainly not impossible. But you could easily have, say, the D presidential candidate win by 7 points in 2020, Dems add another 10-12 House seats… but they win “only” 3 Senate seats so the Senate is R 51-D 49 for President Beto/Harris despite two wave elections in a row. https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1073775725293973504?s=17

https://www.vox.com/2018/12/14/18065838/obamacare-unconstitutional-texas-ruling

Well, we’ll see what happens next (and next after that).

«Legal experts on the left and the right believe the arguments being made by Republican-led states are, on their face, uncompelling and unlikely to succeed in overturning the Affordable Care Act.

At the same time, there is a history of lawsuits that most legal experts thought were unpersuasive nonetheless putting ACA in mortal danger — first the lawsuit against the individual mandate and then the challenge to insurance subsidies.

With this first victory, it becomes a more real possibility that this lawsuit could end up in that category.»

https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1073744063675928577?s=17

New supreme Court. Elections have consequences. Enjoy your new no-healthcare Trump and 3rd-party voters.

emptywheel (@emptywheel) Tweeted:

Surprised he waited a whole month after the election. https://t.co/4jrEL4lg1F

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/gmails-auto-complete-feature-makes-us-feel-like-robots/578155/

Actually, @dkthomp … when I see that auto-complete text, I take it as a signal that I should pause to reflect on my feelings to be sure I really do feel the way the machine thinks I do, bearing in mind that the machine, like any good liar, will be correct only 50% of the time. I DON’T see it as a challenge to write something better, nor do I see it as the machine scoffing at me. Sometimes predictability is good. Who wants to be surprised by a dance partner’s moves? And so often, communication is dance, n’est-ce pas?

«Google’s auto-reply feature reveals to us the previously hidden vapidity of our communications. That’s why we—or I, at least—hate Smart Compose. Not, again, because the tech is bad. But because it’s good enough to illuminate the exclamation-marked inauthenticity of our correspondence.»

https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/her-skills-are-real-how-pelosi-put-down-a-democratic-rebellion-in-bid-for-speaker/2018/12/13/27bbc7c6-fefa-11e8-ad40-cdfd0e0dd65a_story.html

«A day later — after some finishing touches and crossed wires — Pelosi made her statement: “I am comfortable with the proposal, and it is my intention to abide by it whether it passes or not.” Seven rebels endorsed her candidacy.

“The way she did it is why she’s been the leader for so long,” said David Axelrod, former political adviser to President Barack Obama. “It’s incredibly challenging to put together the votes for anything in Congress, and she’s a master at it. She listens and knows each person’s interests and their concerns. And she puts the puzzle together, making concessions where necessary.”»