I think it’s common knowledge that insurers don’t make money paying claims. They’re very careful to pick and choose coverage they offer from place to place. The more likely you are to need coverage for something, the less likely the coverage will be available (or affordable). Now insurance companies have taken that standard strategy one step further: they’re simply not selling insurance in some places. Clearly the idea of some “visionary” CEO somewhere…

Several companies have abandoned California due to fires and earthquakes and sinkholes and crop loss due to drought and, well, the odds an insurer might have to actually pay out are just too high. Then I learn that they’re starting to do the same thing in Florida. That seems an odd strategy. “Hey, let’s just not sell any more policies. That should strengthen our business!” Will it, though?

It’s a tough spot for insurers. If they sell a policy, they may have to pay out and that’s bad for business. If they DON’T sell policies, they certainly won’t have to pay out but there will be no revenues and that’s bad for business, too. It seems climate change has been – and will increasingly be – hard on the insurance companies.

I’ll tell yo this: If they hadn’t been such manipulative, corporate jerks through the years, I might be able to muster some sympathy for them…

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There’s an old joke: if “pro” is the opposite of “con,” then the opposite of “progress” is “congress.” It turns out, though, it’s not much of a joke. Our Congress Critters have LOTS of ways to NOT do their jobs – all “procedural.” One such is the ‘hold.’ A hold isn’t a formal procedure. It’s something the Critters started doing as a courtesy to some member who couldn’t make a scheduled debate date but wanted to participate. It pretty quickly became a weapon to stop things from happening. A hold isn’t exactly a filibuster but can be used the same way in some cases.

Senator Tommy Tuberville, the bigot-supporting Republican (of course) from Alabama has a hold on military promotions and nominations. See, he has realized that women in the military STILL have control over their own reproduction and he effing HATES that. So? No more military promotions or nominations until Tommy says. The result? The Marine Corps doesn’t have a permanent leader for the first time in 100 years and the Army, Navy, and Joint Chiefs are all looking at the same fate in the next few weeks if he doesn’t stand down. Currently, he’s blocking more than 270 positions from being filled. So much for supporting the military…

It’s not ALL Republicans, though. My boy Bernie Sanders (D, Vt) has a hold on Biden’s nomination to lead the National Institute of Health along with other nominees to the health department until the administrations sends over it’s comprehensive plan to lower drug prices. (Biden should write Sanders a note: “My plan is to get Congress to do it’s effing job…”)

I don’t like either one of the holds, but at least Sanders’ goal is help people by lowering drug prices for ALL Americans – or at least highlight the problem. Tuberville wants, maybe needs, someone to suffer. It’s STILL the Republican way, these days.

Last month, Senator J.D. Vance (R-Oh), placed a hold on all Biden nominations to the Justice Department in “protest” of the indictment against Donald Trump, proving, once again, cons are caught up in a delusional fever-dream that pretends crime is okay if committed by someone on their team. Cons are always on about “slippery slopes” but never seem to realize when they’re actually on one…

Last year, Senator Rand Paul (R, Ky) put a hold on additional approval for $40 million in aid to Ukraine until the bill included language for an Inspector General to scrutinize the spending, which is laughable in view of the fact that military spending is sacrosanct to both parties and the Pentagon – by FAR the worst offender of “fraud, waste, and abuse” – has never once passed an audit.

I’ll tell you this: these guys – all of them – should just do their jobs. I DO NOT LIKE that one person can hold up ALL business of Congress on a given subject just by saying “Hold.”

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Every Republican accusation is a confession. The cons are out, in force, claiming the Biden Administration is “weaponizing” the government by allowing the Department of Justice to investigate the many, many, MANY crimes of the trumpster. Turns out – and you may want to sit down for this – it was the TRUMP administration that weaponized the government. When people gave trump an answer he didn’t like, he had the IRS open “investigations” into them. These were simply harassment cases, the very definition of weaponizing government.

I’ll tell you this: Of COURSE cons are screaming. They would HATE it if someone did to them what they do to people on a daily basis…