There was a picture of several adult Trump children with a caption that these are the faces you see when you wake up in a motel bathtub full of ice minus one kidney.

Cocky is fine, but Simmons also became lazy and ignorant, which make him just another shitty-take-haver.

I’m cynical. I’ll bet it’s a “plumbing job” like JJ Watt’s phony “cabin in the woods” that’s nicer than my house. I refute your thesis, sir or madam!

The ACA made people healthier, and gave them access to health insurance in a competitive market regardless of health history. I’m much more concerned about access than the price of the premium, esp if the premium is subsidized for low income families. Paying out of pocket til you go broke if you get sick, then going…

Those insurance premiums are lower than they would be without ACA. But a lot of people would not pay for insurance at all, and many of them would get away with it instead of going bankrupt from “unexpected” healthcare costs.

That’s a big decision. Once he’s a Jet, he’s a Jet all the way.

I agree with you about legality being little actual protection against bumfuckery by the executive branch. But everything that happens will have his name on it, which does matter to him, if only because he’s dimly aware that he’ll be considered the Republican Jimmy Carter if he isn’t reelected. The mob that elected…

Legally, there are tasks and decisions he can’t delegate unless he wants to invoke the 25th Amendment and officially make Pence the Acting President. But personally running for President was about his own vanity. His reputation and image matters to him, the same way it did to Bush the Lesser when his staff fucked up…

SHUT UP AND PLAY BAW

PLAY BAW!

He doesn’t strike me as jolly.

If the interview process and new employee orientation are too much for him, there’s no goddamn way he’s going to actually be able to do the job.

What are the odds that an overweight old man survives four years as President?

There’s a lot to be said for putting NAFTA back on the table and making the plutocrats pay for it if they want it, instead of giving it away and getting nothing.

PLAY BAW!

Madeleine, thank you for reminding me of why I stuck around today when the voting stopped for a while (I don’t think it was deliberate, but I hate that one side or the other will be able to blame stuff like that). This wasn’t my year to be super proud like that, but I’ve been there.

Remember, ESPN’s “business model” is mostly an accidental collision of content and bottlenecks. Sports Illustrated was a powerhouse 40 years ago when there were two local papers and four local TV channels. Now it’s merely a more respectable alternative to Bleacher Report, and I don’t think there’s much they could…

It’s a two-way street. If ESPN unbundles itself, cable and satellite operators can play hardball with ESPN without instantly pissing off and losing subscribers who don’t have any other access to ESPN.

ESPN is a unique case because it’s a “basic” cable channel that’s priced to distributors like a “premium” channel. The actual viewing audience at any time for ESPN regulars like Sportscenter and PTI isn’t bigger than popular basic cable channels like USA, but it’s a unique, reliable source for sports when viewers…

Cable operators wouldn’t drop ESPN if it were available direct. But they’d make it a la carte. IIRC, there are about 40 million US HBO subscribers (including many women who probably don’t have any interest in paying extra for ESPN). That’s probably about the best that ESPN could do as a freestanding property.