ABCOT: An acronym for “Anybody But Cruz Or Trump”, so that’s what I’ll start calling these voters. It fits, no? Kind of elitist. And the ABCOTs feel they have been waiting around long enough for something major to happen. Thanks to The Hill, we discover their patience is just about out.

“Get ready for major Republican officials and large donors to begin a campaign to unite behind an alternative to presidential candidates Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) and put intense pressure on two of the leading center-right candidates to drop out of the race before the Super Tuesday GOP voting.”

Leaving the writer’s (Brent Budowsky) personal bias aside, he foresees the ABCOTs coalescing into a “movement”, then things get really dirty.

“I expect a movement to promote anybody but Trump and Cruz to emerge shortly after the South Carolina primary. The battle from South Carolina through Super Tuesday through the GOP convention promises to become very ugly.”

Hillarycare is now Donation-care?  Bill Clinton was in Memphis recently stumping for Hillary at a high school. The Commercial-Appeal has all the details, including how he gave a shout out to a well known local hospital:

“Clinton paid homage to Memphis’ good qualities as well, singling out St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for not requiring patients to pay, and said that’s how health care should work.”

“We need health care plans to induce doctors to do what they do at St. Jude, where nobody pays,” he said.

St. Jude does have to pay for things. And needs funds for that. But St. Jude’s gets 75 percent of its funding from public donations. So, is this going to be our new healthcare plan?

Doom in Louisiana for the Tigers?   Louisiana needs $940 million to fix a budget shortfall.  Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards has come up with a package of tax increases to get the funds. He tells the GOP legislature it better pass the package or….doom.

“Among the worst-case scenarios, he said, is that college campuses would be forced to close in April, resulting in student-athletes receiving grades of “incomplete” on their report card, making them ineligible for the fall 2016 season.

“That means you can say farewell to college football next fall,” Edwards said in the address.”

Cuts won’t just be made to education, says FoxNews. Healthcare and other services are also on the chopping block. But if you want to grab headlines put the focus on a state’s football team.

KY’s Viagra bill:   A Kentucky lawmaker filed a bill Thursday involving Viagra. Dem Mary Lou Marzian claims the bill is about “family values” but is also in response to “several anti-abortion measures in the current legislative session.”  The Courier Journal has the details:

“Kentucky men would have to visit a doctor twice and have signed permission from their wives before obtaining a prescription for Viagra or other such drugs for erectile dysfunction,…”

“HB 396 also specifies that only married men may obtain the drug and requires “a man to make a sworn statement with his hand on a Bible that he will only use a prescription for a drug for erectile dysfunction when having sexual relations with his current spouse.”

PETA pulls protest when no pigs are present: In NH, PETA began protesting the 100th Newport Winter Carnival. The carnival promised a “Greased Pig on Ice”, according to Yahoo. But PETA withdrew the protest after learning there’s no pig involved . It’s “.. just a man on skates in a pig costume with dollar bills tied to his tail.”  The carnival organizer said the group never asked about the event, instead it sent an email alert.

“It talked about “subjecting these highly sensitive animals to such a chaotic and violent ordeal rife with screaming participants.” It also mentioned capturing the pigs and stuffing them into barrels.”

Epic PETA fail.

• Quickhits – $15 for a cup of coffee? A Bay area coffee shop in California is selling a special cup of coffee for $15 and, strangely, people are buying it. The special beans take 8 years to grow. The shop sells the beans for $75 a half pound if you want to brew it at home.
• The Democrats are out with the first 16 candidates in it’s Red To Blue plan. The plan is designed to focus on Dem candidates “in open seats and districts held by Republicans” which the DCCC hopes to flip. See if one of your lawmakers is on the list.
• Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. Drop your ideas for giving or getting down below, as some of us are still looking for ideas.
• This blog boasts “Oregon Standoff” themed Valentines. Some are pretty good. Like, “You set a fire in my heart that even the BLM can’t extinguish” or “Other than this pocket sized reproduction of the Constitution, you’re the closest thing to my heart.”  Sweet. Check out blogtown at The Portland Mercury.

Today is World Radio Day. During which we are to remember the “unique power of radio.”

That’s all for the watercooler today. Hope you found something interesting to comment on. Feel free to do so down below. Or bring something in from elsewhere. Its all good. The Water Cooler is always an Open Thread.

*all emphasis mine.