10 Thoughts for July 24, 2014

1. As a guy passed me by while I was walking the dog, early Wednesday morning, I suddenly realized who it was: Russell Hornsby, aka Hank Griffin.  He had a skull cap on, so I didn't figure out who he was until I had just passed by him.  The other day I know someone was filming in the neighborhood.  Turnaround is about 6 weeks between filming and airing of episodes, so Grimm season is right around the corner.  I've seen David Giuntoli, Silas Weir Mitchell, Sasha Roiz and now Russell Hornsby, yet the ones I'd really love to pass by in person are Bitsie Tulloch, Claire Coffee, Bree Turner and Jacqueline Toboni.
2. You probably heard about the mixed rulings, just hours apart, on the ACA.  In the federal 4th District Court, judges ruled that, absent explicit language in the ACA, Congress' intention in the ACA should be obvious: federal subsidies were meant to apply to both state and federal exchanges, as the federal exchange was a proxy for state-based exchanges, were states to choose not to set up their own exchanges.  In Halbig v Burwell, the DC Court sided 2-1 with plaintiff, David Klemencic, that on the same issue, Congress' intention was to not fund subsidies for the federal exchange.  Suffice to say, the 3-person appeals panel will end up being overruled by the full appeals court 11 members.  Why?  See next item.
3. The plaintiff, David Klemencic, insisted that he was harmed (a necessary requirement to receive standing in court) by the fact that, were he not to buy insurance from the federal exchange (since his state did not set one up), he would thus be on the hook for a tax penalty.  Somehow the DC Court took this as injurious to Klemencic, even though SCOTUS ruled 5-4 last year that the penalty was legal and justified, giving him standing.  Then they ruled that there was insufficient historical record to know what Congress wanted -- total bullshit, by the way, as even the CBO scored the budgetary effect of federal subsidies for those using the federal exchange -- and stated that the federal exchange couldn't offer subsidies.  Or as I've said elsewhere, "Sir, I doth protest this tax, such that I demand that you take away my subsidies!"  See how dumb the case is?
4. Russia continued to push faked evidence yesterday, showing that Ukrainian jets had followed MH17 closely, and were responsible for shooting down the aircraft.  Why is this pathetic?  There hasn't been a single eyewitness to the fact that there were jets pursuing MH17, and the videos of the explosion show the remains of a contrail from the ground, not from the air.  Furthermore, the videos do not contain the sound of jets.  If you live near a national guard, air force or naval air station, you know that jets are not quiet, especially when they turn around.  Finally, were this true, then why didn't the rebels shoot down the jets?  Just today, another two Ukrainian jets were shot down, and there were a couple others shot down the previous week.  Jets are far more threatening than a transport airplane, after all.  That Russia would actually fake evidence, is lame.
5. Ted Cruz has taken to using Fox News style faked scaling charts.  Hilarious.  In other Ted Cruz news, he stated today that the FAA's ban on flights to Israel's Ben Gurion Airport was a secret plot by Obama to punish Israel economically.
6. It boggles the mind, that anyone had to actually perform a scientific study to conclude that dogs express jealousy.  Every dog owner knows not to dote over someone else's dog excessively in front of their own dog.  But that's not the only emotion dogs show.  They also express impatience, frustration, guilt, excitement, sadness, fear, anxiety, boredom, happiness, and the over-the-top unbridled joy.  Anyone telling you that dogs can't have these emotions hasn't spent much time trying to understand dogs.
7. This year might be the year of the partisan poll.  Republicans have apparently determined that polls are tools to manipulate public opinion, so this year there are a dozen or so newly minted GOP pollsters.  Attempts to aggregate polling data is much less useful this year.  The only meaningful partisan poll is the one which agrees with the other side's polling data -- something that has always held special significance for me, when analyzing poll trends.  If a GOP poll shows a Democrat ahead, then you can rest assured that the Democrat is indeed ahead, etc.
8. Texas' Rick Perry has called up his national guard to protect the border with Mexico.  But as I've mentioned before, it makes no sense.  You can't shoot at little kids and mothers coming across the border, to scare them off.  About all they can do is observe and report to the Border Patrol on activity.  He gave the odd excuse that they were going to combat the drug cartels; I don't think we need any more proof that Perry still lives in the 80s.
9. Oh, and the drowning death toll continued in Oregon this week.  Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.  We're probably well past a dozen drownings this summer, and some people still don't have the fear of drowning.  You know, if waterboarding were compulsory as a part of PE, we'd probably have more people afraid of drowning.  I keed.
10. This was making the rounds yesterday: In the early 80s many Americans thought that an A&W 1/3rd pounder had less beef than the McDonald's 1/4 pounder.  The world makes a lot more sense to me, now.