xpostfactoid
@xpostfactoid.bsky.social
Blogging mostly healthcare policy at http://xpostfactoid.substack.com. ACA implementation watcher. CSR czar. AKA Andrew Sprung.
Mad Libs! Under an ethical cloud over allegations of sexual harassment involving two of his female staffers, Rep. Chuck Edwards R-NC announced overnight that he will drop his _________
Jamie Dupree@jamiedupree.bsky.social · 13h agoUnder an ethical cloud over allegations of sexual harassment involving two of his female staffers, Rep. Chuck Edwards R-NC announced overnight that he will drop his bid for re-election. jamiedupree.substack.com/p/under-ethi...
"one can’t rule out the possibility that the emerging health care financing crisis will trigger a recession." - @gooznews.bsky.social
Health care headed for a financing crisis
Uncompensated care for the uninsured is skyrocketing ahead of major cuts in federal funding, setting the stage for a major spike in insurance premiums for the privately insured.
open.substack.com
What do you call it when the federal government secedes from the union?
Lindsay Beyerstein@beyerstein.bsky.social · 5d agoI can't stress enough what a crisis this is. Trump's own intelligence agencies concluded that Iran attacked Minnesota's critical infrastructure and Trump is saying that it's Minnesota's own fault and denying it was Iran. The federal government won't defend blue states in a literal war.
I know of 6 refugees who arrived in the U.S. btwn Jan. 2024 and Jan. 2025. All applied timely for green cards; none have them. All would be eligible for Medicaid if their green cards arrived timely; all will be ineligible as of Oct. 1. These indivs don't need Medicaid, but some in this situ must.
NEW FROM ME: A frenzy of cruel and unusual ICE flights over the last few days suggests the Trump admin is ratcheting up its ethnic cleansing campaign. And it may be increasingly desperate to find willing collaborators. My breakdown: gillianbrockell.com/frenzy-of-cr...
Frenzy of cruel and unusual ICE flights shows Trump’s ethnic cleansing campaign is escalating – again
Seven apparent ICE removal flights in the last few days – including third-country removals, prolonged shackling, and failed deportations – reveal an agency ratcheting up.
gillianbrockell.com
This is good. See also Pema Levy on the "dual state," where a defined class of people are placed outside the rule of law. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
The “dual state” theory was invented to describe Nazis. The Supreme Court could take us there.
Authoritarianism—but make it look like the rule of law.
motherjones.com
Guardian US@us.theguardian.com · 6d ago"A concentration camp, in its most basic definition, is a place where a targeted civilian population, not necessarily accused of a crime, is detained and at least some of their basic rights are suspended," writes @jwashing.bsky.social. "That’s precisely what’s happening in the United States today."
Thought bubble: A desperate Trump is a dangerous Trump
The entire GOP is disgraced by moving in near unison to confirm this open, obvious enemy to the rule of law. They are, as a body, enemies of the rule of law.
PBS News@pbsnews.org · last wk.A planned vote to move forward with Todd Blanche's nomination for attorney general appeared in doubt as a key Republican senator demanded more assurances from the Justice Department about the settlement of President Trump's lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service. https://to.pbs.org/4pJlkKu
No one needs to feel protective of the much-attacked Emily Wilson: she is the Achilles of classicist scholarly debate.
𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙲. 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚗@charlescmann.bsky.social · last wk.A side benefit of the fuss over the Odyssey movie is that people have been interviewing Homer translator Emily Wilson, who is unfailingly interesting on these matters. Her new talk with @dkthomp.bsky.social, who has the wit (all too rare among interviewers) to stay out of the way, is terrific.
When ICE isn't meeting Stephen Miller's quotas they have to find more people to deport ... ICE agents have begun arresting foreign citizens with expired U.S. visas as they travel through airports, including spouses of Americans — opening up a new pool of possible deportees 🎁 article @nytimes.com
ICE Arrests Surge at Airports, Opening New Front in Deportation Drive (Gift Article)
Federal agents are arresting spouses of Americans, tech workers and others whose visas have expired, including many who have active applications to stay in the country.
nytimes.com
Susan Collins voted for $70 billion in ICE funding just before an ICE agent gunned down a young immigrant father in Maine. Collins also voted against an amendment requiring bodycams. These votes will now be hung around her neck, Dems in the state tell me. New piece: newrepublic.com/article/2133...
Trump Badly Screws Susan Collins as Maine ICE Death Takes Darker Turn
Collins cast some recent votes that can help likely Democratic challenger Troy Jackson tie her to Trump and to ICE. And there’s evidence that both liberals and moderates will listen.
newrepublic.com
Sorry, but Cassidy's career-defining vote was to confirm RFK Jr.
Cassidy's career-defining vote
Cassidy must decide whether to cast a defining vote on Thursday to advance Erica Schwartz, Trump's pick to lead the CDC, or to snub the president.
politico.com
"Homer’s Odysseus is a complicated man, polytropos, whereas Matt Damon in the film is traumatized Jason Bourne. He’s an action hero who feels bad about being an action hero." Delightful to hear Emily Wilson expound at length.
What Is Lost When We Make 'The Odyssey' Modern
Christopher Nolan's 'Odyssey' is an extraordinary, modern epic. Homer's Odyssey is an even more extraordinarily strange one.
open.substack.com
"If you come at the poem with the most boring kinds of strangeness up front, like putting the verb in the wrong place, that distracts the audience from what’s fundamentally strange in Homer."
What Is Lost When We Make 'The Odyssey' Modern
Christopher Nolan's 'Odyssey' is an extraordinary, modern epic. Homer's Odyssey is an even more extraordinarily strange one.
open.substack.com
Can't get numb to this: The United States is stuck in a war it started, cannot end, and may further escalate to no avail, having dismantled its diplomatic apparatus, depleted its military stockpile, and destroyed its credibility. A historic strategic mistake harming millions in many different ways.
I have loved the Odyssey since I was 7 years old (children's versions), but I don't think I could take all the violence that's bound to be in a good movie version.
There were 53,808 in absentia removal orders nationally in June, a 55% jump from a month earlier.
Deportation Orders Soar in NYC as Trump 'Mega Master' Hearings Accelerate
A new report finds removal orders for people who missed hearings more than doubled in New York City in June, as a new tactic of hastily scheduled court dates rolled out.
thecityreporter.nyc
This is the first main part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act kicking in. The second part, restricting Medicaid, is timed to happen after the midterms.
Andrew Russeth@russeth.bsky.social · 2w ago"Four months into an appeal, Ms. McDonald, a cancer survivor who weighs 69 pounds, bustles to food banks, stretches ground turkey with oatmeal, and skips meals to feed three teenage boys." www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/u...
Just as I try to settle down to work, my daily morning terrorfication...
Greg Sargent@gregsargent.bsky.social · 2w agoCrucial from @ryanenos.bsky.social: If you doubt Trump might try to seize ballot boxes, recall that not long ago it seemed outlandish that armed government militias would be roving our streets, killing people. On the pod, Ryan is so good on the danger of this moment: newrepublic.com/article/2132...
Coming out for "open Medicare," as @brianbeutler.bsky.social proposes, is different from "surrendering" re "Medicare for All." "Open Medicare" bills have been around since the early 2000s. It's always been the most obvious glide path to Medicare for all. 1/
Surrender To The Left On Medicare For All
It's better than tearing the party apart!
open.substack.com
Underwear will be worn on the outside www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_g5...
Bananas 1971 The Communist Dictator Is Crazy
YouTube video by Z3P3G3
youtube.com
Timothy McBride@mcbridetd.bsky.social · 3w agoLunacy and offensive: Hegseth Plans to Screen All Troops, Including Women, for Low Testosterone www.nytimes.com/2026/07/15/u...
Hey, remember that video Trump posted showing him shitting all over the country? prospect.org/2026/07/16/h...
How Donald Trump Created the Worst Diarrhea Outbreak This Century - The American Prospect
The ‘MAHA Trots’ are what happens when Republicans implement their anti-government agenda.
prospect.org
Taking a moment to grieve that the U.S. federal government is putting forward this lifelong charlatan as my personal health guru.
