Anna Phylaxis

good.

Yep. They do everything they can to slow and delay provisioning of service, require you to ferry all information from insurance to doctor to express scripts to accredo yourself, make you sign up for BS discount programs to save themselves some cash and delay you as much as possible with “processing”

Image of a Freedom of Information Act request.

HHS reportedly plans to cut $10 billion from programs that help low income kids and families.

How is the Trump administration justifying this behind the scenes?

We filed FOIA requests for the data and methodology used to make these cuts.

The consequences will be severe, because while the US still enjoys preponderant power and will for some time, that power is finite, unevenly distributed and being wasted profligately.

Legitimacy makes it easier to use power, and easier to stop its abuse by others.

We will miss it when it is gone.

This is not to suggest that the US always abided by the rules and norms that confer legitimacy to its actions. But it operated along a spectrum over time, and Trump II is so far toward the end of the spectrum where legitimacy is disregarded that it is off the scale.

It's unfashionable to talk about legitimacy these days, but without it the US just invites others to follow its lead into a lawless world of power projection.

It's why process (making a case within the framework of domestic/international law to get congressional/UNSC authorizations) matters.

I already see some triumphalism from commentators who disapprove of the method but approve of the outcome.

But I think that's premature, for all the reasons above, but also for the impact on US legitimacy that I sketched out here.

For very obvious reasons, this kind of scheduled periodic meltdown is not sustainable for Israel, the US, the region or the world. Eventually it will invite even greater escalation, or else capitulation or collapse by one side or the other.

3. That also means the direct costs but also the second-order impacts will also be periodic: global oil and energy shocks, regional destruction and economic instability, global diplomatic crises. Again, all the dynamics of Israel's policy toward Gaza but with global economic repercussions added.

2. Of course, Iran's efforts to prevent this from happening again will increase the likelihood of it happening again, making this sort of operation a periodic necessity. Mow the lawn, but on a regional scale.

Since Trump II has now memory holed regime change as an official goal of the US war, we can assume a few things about the postwar landscape:

1. An Iranian regime hellbent on preventing this from happening again. That means rebuilding missile stocks and probably militarizing the nuclear program.

Judge Rules Columbia's Expulsions of Pro-Palestine Protesters Were Illegal The judge tossed out Columbia’s disciplinary actions against 22 students accused of occupying Hamilton Hall in 2024.

A New York judge has tossed out Columbia University's unprecedentedly harsh discipline against students accused of occupying Hamilton Hall during the 2024 Gaza protests, calling it arbitrary and capricious:

hellgatenyc.com/columbia-exp...

i was mostly thrown by the entertainment center being the place the pills live

TCW bitching about Bouie

genuinely convinced TCW believes the biggest crime on the planet is not thinking he's a good pundit

Genuinely incredible that the U.S. will celebrate the 250th without an Archivist of the United States.

a late night shot of a gas station pump, with the yellow and orange neon lights particularly strong

a photo of a rusty green bridge and a distant building over a river, caked in fog

a photo of a wooden ring in the snow, leading to some trees

a late night winter road, with deep red street lamps lighting everything

that's right! these two packs contain together over *six hundred* moody pics of maine, just like these, great for use in games, comics, albums, horror projects and more, all for just $20 bucks! ko-fi.com/s/bc50ecb11f

a compilation of my photos of maine, "A Place Without Bodies" volumes 1 and 2, to advertise it for my early spring sale. in the top left it says "Early spring/"FUCK! I got bills" sale!". in the middle, over a moody photo of a gas station, it says "Over 600 atmospheric photos of Maine in 2 volumes for $20! (That's 2/3rds off its normal price!)". and on the right, over a foggy photo of a bridge, it says "Licensed for commercial use! Use 'em in games, art, albums, more!"

hooooo heyo! some surprise bills have come up here, so i'm doing an early spring sale of my photo packs of maine, "A Place Without Bodies"! over 600 moody, atmospheric photos, WITH license for commercial use! normally $60, cut down to $20! and it lasts all march! ko-fi.com/s/bc50ecb11f

Trickle down economics working as intended (making all our youth suicidal)

Idk how Gen Z expects to afford a home when they're out here childishly splurging on all these $2 cans of V8 and $6 rotisserie chickens

Neat

"67% [of Gen Z adults are] saying they struggle to cover housing costs. By comparison, slightly more than half of millennials (53%) and Gen Xers (54%) reported difficulty, and 36% of baby boomers said they struggle."

As the laid off Middle East News Editor, I concur. Management eliminated the positions of every single staff correspondent and bureau chief in the Middle East.

I have to say the Post chose a hell of a moment to lay off all their foreign correspondents

They have wasted something like 4 or 5 hours of my time jumping through hoops and signing up for multiple services, I'm 2 days overdue for my shot, and now they're telling me it will be "5-8 days for processing" of a pre-auth that was granted, again, ON THE 18TH OF FEBRUARY.

Nightmare company.

Man, if you are a person who needs specialty medication, do anything in your power not to be on insurance that uses Express Scripts and Accredo.

These people are the biggest nightmare I've ever dealt with in my life - I got my pre auth on the 18th and am STILL battling to get my meds.

" [CMS] is required to give the state an opportunity for an administrative hearing to challenge its finding of noncompliance. On January 13, the state requested a hearing. Under its regulations, CMS has until March 7 (60 days after January 6) to schedule the hearing; it has not yet done so."

extremely true . story of our lives

arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...

This may sound counterintuitive for someone who works to fight antisemitism, but I wish the coverage around the recent growth of it didn't limit it to just anti-Jewish sentiment.

This is about a far broader transformation happening. A far right recruitment campaign and conspiracism spread.

I’m going to need to cut this line I like from a piece about the Iran War you’ll read tomorrow, so I post it here to tell my darling I will see it in the gardens of heaven:

“We will not get bored," Trump said on Monday, minutes before talking about how beautiful the White House drapes are.