U.S. Politics: Russian Around

[OldGimletEye]

2 hours ago, Swordfish said:

Exactly.  I don't know why this is so controversial, given the current political shenanigans going on.

 

 

1 hour ago, Mlle. Zabzie said:

I firmly believe that the long-term orthodoxy of the Republican Party, though it will continue to pay lip service to "free markets" for a while, is actually inexorably shifting to more and more centralized control (to be fair, I think Democrats are and have been going the same direction, but for different reasons).  

After reading through this thread, again, just to make sure I wasn’t missing something, I have to say, objecting to UHC on the grounds it might get screwed up by the current Republican Party seems to be way off the mark.

There is really no indication that the Republican Party intends to go through with expanding healthcare coverage. The Republican Party has never been strongly committed to that. It has, however, been something on the Democratic agenda, since Harry Truman made a speech about it in the fall of 1945.

It’s true that Trump has somewhat made speeches that have deviated from Republican Party orthodoxy, like on free trade, and he talked a good game about protecting Social Security and Medicare. But, it would seem for the most part, he, along with the Republicans, is still relying on the same old, same old supply side cliches we’ve known for years.

The fact of the matter is that the usual forces of conservatism, which are not powerless in the Republican Party, at this juncture, like say the Kook Brothers, oppose any sort government involvement into healthcare. These people still have power and influence within the Republican Party. I don’t see their power and influence waning anytime soon.

At no point, do I see any attempt by the Republican Party to really try to expand healthcare coverage. That will have to await the Democratic Party retaking power and who knows when that is going to happen. The only thing the Democratic Party can do at this juncture is to hold the line on the ACA. That’s about it.

And since the chance of the Republican Party actually trying to implement UHC is exceedingly small, I sit here a bit perplexed, that an objection against UHC, would be based on the Republican Party trying to implement it.

Also the fact of the matter is that there are plenty of reasons to think that our current healthcare system needs improving. There is plenty of reason to think that we can expand coverage while driving down it’s cost. The potential welfare improving effects here are potentially large for most Americans, even if the top 1%, the pharmaceutical companies, and the health insurance companies have to take a bit of a hit.

Just a couple months ago, the Davos bunch sat around and worried about growing wealthy inequality and also, I think, about the threat to the liberal international order that has held the United States and it’s allies together since World War 2. The rise of people like Trump and right wing groups in Europe, is to some extent, I believe fueled by this rising wealth inequality, started by Reaganism and too much neoliberal dogma, and then compounded by a bad financial crises and then austerity. The Davos bunch rightly should worry about the breaking apart of the liberal international order. But, it is a world they helped to make.

And the left, I believe, better come up with some workable policies so people don’t feel they are being screwed by globalism. In the United States, one such policy would be improving our messed up healthcare system.

I strongly feel that completely excluding poor people from a basic level of decent healthcare is both ethically outrageous and shameful.

Given some of the systems we’ve seen in Europe and elsewhere there is every reason to believe that we can expand coverage while lowering our cost. I believe we should attempt to do so, even if there is a chance that the crazy old Republican Party might take power again. Hopefully, we’ll get lucky and the present Republican Party will just be outright annihilated.

[LongRider]

^^^ And how are the R's annihilated?  Where @OldGimletEye will you put your rage?  

[ThinkerX]

A new crisis fast approaches.  Except, it's an old crisis, largely manufactured by Republicans, who are about to find themselves caught in yet another trap of their own devising.

The debt ceiling.  If Stockman is right (maybe?) they got mere months to do something, otherwise a bit longer. But many of the Republican deficit hawks appear to believe their own rhetoric. Combine this with their adamant insistence on tax cuts for the rich... 

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/clock-starts-ticking-on-a-possible-treasury-debt-ceiling-crisis/ar-AAo7vwf?li=BBnbfcN&ocid=msnclassic

The clock is now ticking on the Treasury Department’s efforts to avert a first ever default on the nearly $20 trillion national debt, and  some experts say Congress and the Trump Administration have  until late summer or early fall  to act before the problem reaches crisis proportions.

 

On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin urged House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) to persuade the House to raise the legal debt ceiling above $20 trillion “at its first opportunity.” At the same time, Mnuchin announced that the Treasury has begun taking “extraordinary measures” to buy the government additional time before the government exhausts its borrowing authority.

[OldGimletEye]

1 hour ago, Nasty LongRider said:

^^^ And how are the R's annihilated?  Where @OldGimletEye will you put your rage?  

It probably won't for awhile or maybe ever. Doubt we'll get that lucky. But, it would be nice if it received a series of political defeats until it changed.

[OldGimletEye]

Today in Republican nutland:

http://www.vox.com/2017/3/10/14887006/sean-spicer-jobs-report

Quote

The issue was the release this morning of a strong jobs report indicating continued growth in the economy, which many Republicans took the opportunity to crow about. Given the frequency with which candidate Trump had questioned the integrity of government economic data (calling them “phony numbers” and “one of the biggest hoaxes in American politics”), the question went, was President Trump confident that today’s report was accurate?

Spicer, with a wry grin on his face, said, “They may have been phony in the past, but it's very real now.”

One of the problems with the orange swamp thing before he got elected was, despite his often populist rhetoric, he was so light and vague on specifics one would have got a sneaking suspicion that he would leave policy making largely to the Republican establishment.

That is what seems to be occurring here.

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/3/10/14881200/trump-health-care-promises

Quote

Trump’s embrace of more centrist positions on health care and retirement security was a crucial aspect of his campaign, and there was enough campaign-season tension between Trump and the GOP leadership that a voter could be forgiven for assuming Trump meant what he was saying.

Yes, let’s remember the kind of economy that got handed off to the Orange One, versus the one that got handed off Obama. But, hey you know, “The Party of Business!”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/03/10/the-obama-recovery-is-about-to-make-trump-look-good/?

Quote

President Trump has inherited an economy that set a record Friday with 77 consecutive months of job growth, or, as put it, a “mess.”

 

Quote

We’ve almost returned to normalcy. The labor market is finally tight enough that businesses are having to compete for workers by paying them more. Now, 2.8 percent wage growth is still well below our pre-crisis trend of 3.5 percent to 4 percent. On the other, it’s well above our 1.9 percent inflation rate. Workers, in other words, are seeing their standards of living rise after 15 years where they haven

You mean workers wages can rise faster than the general rate of inflation. It’s almost like you’re suggesting here the economy is non-Walrasian, where you know quantity ajustments, and not just price adjustments matter.

Quote

There are even some tentative (perhaps nascent) signs that this is pulling people off the sidelines and into the job market. The labor force grew by 340,000 last month, and the share of people in their prime working years — 25 to 54 year-olds who, for the most part, should be too old to be in school but too young to be retired — who are in fact working hit a post-criss high of 78.3 percent. We’re still probably a few years away from getting back to the 80 percent it was before the crash, but we’re more than two-thirds of the way back from where we were at the bottom of it

The fact that the EPOP is right around 78.3% suggest there is still some slack in the labor markets.

[LongRider]

About those labor numbers, could there be trouble in paradise?  Well, there is in Branson, MO...

Quote

BRANSON, Mo. – A change out of Washington D.C. has businesses in Branson scrambling before the season.

An exemption in the H-2B Visa program – allowing temporary workers from other countries to come into tourist destinations – could leave hundreds of jobs in Branson unfilled in 2017, many of which are vital to the city.

"There is just such a tremendous shortage [of workers] in this area,” says Chateau on the Lake general manager, Stephen Marshall. “It's not that we don't want to hire locals, there's just not enough.".....

.....Marshall requested 24 H-2B’s in 2017, he’s been told he will get zero.

"We’re still putting numbers to it, but were talking hundreds [of empty positions] possibly and that's a huge hit to Branson and the business community," says Branson Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce President, Jeff Seifried.....

......“I would tell you, with a lot of confidence, let's say I get approved from corporate office that we want to pay room attendants $15 an hour,” Marshall says.

“There's people that just don't want to do that work,” he says. “They just don't want to do it.”

http://www.ozarksfirst.com/news/branson-businesses-scrambling-to-fill-positions-after-visa-change/668894049

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

So AG Sessions may be appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the Obama Justice Dept.

http://www.salon.com/2017/03/09/jeff-sessions-may-order-independent-investigation-of-barack-obamas-department-of-justice/

:facepalm:

[LongRider]

Can the Party 'O Bidnizz^TM  do the math?  Lets see, plus 800 jobs good, minus 1100 jobs bad, net loss 300 jobs.  But wait, like all word math problems, there's a twist, it didn't create jobs in Tennessee, it just moved them there from Michigan.  All righty then. 

Quote

GM cuts 1,100 jobs in Michigan after creating 800 jobs in Tennessee

General Motors will cut its third shift at a Lansing, Michigan-area assembly plant in May after a product line moved out of state.

Employees at the Delta Township stamping plant were told on Monday, March 6, that the plant will go down to two shifts. 

The move affects 1,100 positions. Most are hourly workers, with about 14 salaried.

Here's is where the jobs went: GM announced in 2016 that it chose its plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, to build the new GMC Acadia. 

About 800 new jobs were created in that state as a result - and GM announced in January that it was adding a third shift in Spring Hill. 

http://www.mlive.com/auto/index.ssf/2017/03/gm_cuts_1100_jobs_in_michigan.html

So, Prez Orangie Birther, what sez you about these job numbers?

[OldGimletEye]

Just now, Nasty LongRider said:

Can the Party 'O Bidnizz^TM  

Oh that's good. I'll have to start using that one.

[LongRider]

10 minutes ago, OldGimletEye said:

Oh that's good. I'll have to start using that one.

You're welcome to it.  

With Branson, MO having trouble filling it's summer positions with immigrant labor, and seeing reports that many people in Europe and other places are not choosing to come to the USA for their vacations, it sounds like the Muslim ban and the New and Improved Muslim Ban^TM just might be causing alot of problems for a variety of tourist trade business including transportation. 

Blowback, it's a bitch.

 

[Rippounet]

On facebook, the Trump team is bragging about the hundreds of thousands of jobs that have been "created" in Trump's first months in office.

[LongRider]

20 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

So AG Sessions may be appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the Obama Justice Dept.

http://www.salon.com/2017/03/09/jeff-sessions-may-order-independent-investigation-of-barack-obamas-department-of-justice/

:facepalm:

Since the Party 'O Bidnizz^TM only knows how to do the monkey bidnizz of wasting the nations time and money on phony baloney investigations into Democrats who are Presidents, Democrats who are married to a President, and now a former President and Democrat, seems about right. After, all, these phony baloney investigations are popular with the rubes and get alot of press!

Their shiny new (ahem) health care proposal shows they can't legislate, might as well do what they're good at and have the experience for. 

[LongRider]

5 minutes ago, Rippounet said:

On facebook, the Trump team is bragging about the hundreds of thousands of jobs that have been "created" in Trump's first months in office.

That's been happening since Prez Orangie Birther Thing got elected.  Taking credit for every new job, even tho he and his policies had nothing to do with it.

[OldGimletEye]

Just now, Rippounet said:

On facebook, the Trump team is bragging about the hundreds of thousands of jobs that have been "created" in Trump's first months in office.

He's just upholding the finest traditions Party 'O Bidnizz TM*.

*@Nasty LongRider

where do I send the payments for use of this awesome term?

[LongRider]

Just now, OldGimletEye said:

He's just upholding the finest traditions Party 'O Bidnizz TM*.

*@Nasty LongRider

where do I send the payments for use of this awesome term?

Oh goody!  I'm rich!  LOL!  

If you block the 'TM' and hit this on the bar above; X² , then play around with the font size, you'll make the TM look right.  Send any gratuity to your local Planned Parenthood or no kill animal shelter.  Pay it forward, always pay it forward. 

 

[all swedes are racist]

http://www.statesman.com/news/court-voids-texas-congressional-districts/KVaIq89yr9TAmayWUhXYUK/

hopefully another (however slight) blow to gerrymandering

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

14 hours ago, OldGimletEye said:

I would just like to say that perhaps we ought to disband the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps on the grounds that some idiot might get elected to office, then said idiot might completely ignore the candid assessment of the Army Chief Staff about reasonable troop strengths to invade country, then send troops into said country without sufficient troop strength or planning and based on some fantasy about turning the place into a democracy overnight, and then parade around the top of aircraft carrier, like he was Horatio Nelson winning at Trafalgar, like you know, an asshole, and with some sign in the background that says "mission accomplished", when you know it would have been apparent to anyone with half a brain and drunker than fuck that we were headed for a very prolonged conflict.

Just sayin.

NO, NO, NO! Military is the one thing that government is good at! Haven't you heard? 

All the hand-wringing about "gubmint takeover of healthcare" is overwrought at best. The National Vaccine Program is arguably one of the most successful federal programs to have ever been enacted. Polio, whooping cough, measles, TB, small pox, tetanus and rabies all nearly wiped off the US map thanks to this one program. 

 The VA is always the negative example that is trotted out, but it really isn't analogous to this situation. We aren't talking about a federal system of hospitals here.

I think it's time to put this argument to bed. Our government has proven in the past that it can enact healthcare measures that are widely successful. 

[Commodore]

1 hour ago, supernintendo chalmers said:

http://www.statesman.com/news/court-voids-texas-congressional-districts/KVaIq89yr9TAmayWUhXYUK/

hopefully another (however slight) blow to gerrymandering

have districts drawn by a Democratic legislature ever been voided?

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

5 minutes ago, Commodore said:

have districts drawn by a Democratic legislature ever been voided?

I'd be shocked if that hasn't happened occasionally 

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

Rachel Maddow continues to dig up some really compelling Trump stories. This one involves a connection between Trump Tower Baku in Azerbaijan and an extremely corrupt Transportation Minister who is apparently laundering money for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard...