U.S. Politics: "Trump Is Dumber Than A Bag Of Hair"

[Kalbear]

Earlier it was asked what dems can do to change the gerrymandering and the response was win state elections. 

That's one thing. 

Many states also have ballot measures, and these can easily do the trick - they can require independent commissions for setting systems, they can enact ranked choice voting, they could in theory even do something like mmr voting (though a full version would require changing the states constitution).

 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

21 minutes ago, dmc515 said:

"She was bleeding badly from a face-lift.  I said no."  Oye.  Can't wait for Joe's reaction tomorrow, especially now that their relationship is public.  Also, what's up with his obsession in attacking women through implying menstruation?  I think our president may be a bear.

Well he's a germaphobe and an alleged serial graber, so put 2 and 2 together. 

Also, I learned the other day that Anchorman originally ended with the news team fighting a bunch of chimpanzees with ninja stars after a plain crash.

[DMC]

10 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Well he's a germaphobe and an alleged serial graber, so put 2 and 2 together. 

Also, I learned the other day that Anchorman originally ended with the news team fighting a bunch of chimpanzees with ninja stars after a plain crash.

Thanks for that, found it online quickly:

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“So throughout the movie we’re being stalked by orangutans who are killing, one by one, the team off with throwing stars. And Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) keeps saying things like, ‘Guys, I know if we just head down we’ll hit civilization.’ And we keep telling her, ‘Wrong.’ She doesn’t know what we’re talking about. So that was the first version of the movie.”

Awesome.

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

1 hour ago, Tywin et al. said:

Also, I learned the other day that Anchorman originally ended with the news team fighting a bunch of chimpanzees with ninja stars after a plain crash.

That was from the Bill Simmons podcast that he did with Will Ferrell. I thought he said that was the original plot of Anchorman 2. Ron Burgundy claims that he has a pilot's license when the pilot of their plane dies of a heart attack. He commandeers the plane, and promptly crashes it into a cargo plane that is transporting nothing but orangatauns and ninja throwing stars. Both planes crashland on a snowcapped mountain, and the first segment of the film involves the news crew being stalked through the snow by a band of murderous apes. 

[Zorral]

The longer they have before putting the Kill Bill to a vote the better becomes their chance to pass it.  They have more time to pressure, leverage, buy, etc.

This opinion of mine comes from a long study of the nearly incomprehensible fandango f wheeling, dealing,  intimidation, bribery, etc. that went on for months around Andrew Johnson's impeachment.  He was saved by a single vote -- a single bribed vote, after months of non-stop focus on impeaching him.

They have it a lot easier in Congress with the Kill Bill.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Man, that sounds even better than what was described on the radio. I'll have to go find that podcast. 

 

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

3 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Man, that sounds even better than what was described on the radio. I'll have to go find that podcast. 

 

/Good stuff, man. Check it out.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Trump really is a weird guy:

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It turns out that Ivanka isn't the only Trump child that the presidential candidate has objectified.

The Daily Show uncovered a 1994 interview in which the Donald talks about his then-infant daughter Tiffany's breasts. 

In the interview, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous host Robin Leach asks Trump and his then-wife Marla Maples which physical traits Tiffany inherited from each of them - a question all new parents will recognize. 

'Donald, what does Tiffany have of yours, and what does Tiffany have of Marla’s?' Robin Leach asked.

'Well, I think that she's got a lot of Marla,' Trump said. 'She's a really beautiful baby, and she's got Marla's legs.' 

Then Trump motions to his chest and adds, 'We don't know whether she's got this part yet, but time will tell.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3528887/Donald-Trump-talks-infant-daughter-Tiffany-s-breasts-uncovered-interview-1994.html

Also, it seems like Trump's tweets have really backfired. A lot of conservatives are trashing him for it, as they should. 

[DMC]

3 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Trump really is a weird guy:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3528887/Donald-Trump-talks-infant-daughter-Tiffany-s-breasts-uncovered-interview-1994.html

Also, it seems like Trump's tweets have really backfired. A lot of conservatives are trashing him for it, as they should. 

Wouldn't say this backfired.  This was his way of getting the media to stop talking about the horrible round of polling for Trumpcare that came out yesterday.  And, as usual, it worked.

[Fez]

I'm not entirely sure, but this could potentially be a big deal.

That is a Democratic amendment to the House defense appropriations that the GOP has adopted, which would repeal the September 18, 2001 AUMF (authorization of the use of military force) that is insanely broad, has no sunset date, and launched the President's ability to conduct "the war on terror" basically without congressional oversight.

The reason I'm not positive its a big deal though is because its a long way from getting in a bill that will pass (its very unlikely that any of the specific appropriations bills are getting finalized) and also its not the only active AUMF on the books. I'm not sure if this is still the one that gets cited for everything; though it is what the Trump administration cited as justification for the missile attack on Syria a few months ago.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

3 minutes ago, dmc515 said:

Wouldn't say this backfired.  This was his way of getting the media to stop talking about the horrible round of polling for Trumpcare that came out yesterday.  And, as usual, it worked.

Eh, most stories only have a shelf life of about 12-24 hours in today's media environment. It was a big story on the news last night, but it probably would have faded away by tonight's news cycle. Now it will either be "Has Trump hit a new low with his sexist, misogynistic attack on a female journalist?" or "Is Trump's mental state deteriorating?"

[OldGimletEye]

Well, it’s time once again to vote on this week’s “Conservative Clown of The Week”.

As usual, the competition in this category is extremely fierce, being that there are many choices and worthy candidates, for Conservative Clown of The Week, but I think we might have found ourselves a winner.

And the winner is:

Erica Greider

Greider, you doin' a heckuva job there!

http://theweek.com/articles/707712/gops-better-care-act-better-than-think

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Both sides are wrong. The Better Care act is better than you think.

 

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At first glance, it struck me as the kind of market-based plan conservative policy wonk Avik Roy, who once worked for Mitt Romney, would come up with if asked to replace ObamaCare. And on closer inspection, it is his plan, in key respects. That makes sense, given that Roy is the Republican Party's go-to expert on health-care policy. And considering the context, his influence on the bill is reassuring; when someone's expertise is undisputed, some degree of humanity can be safely inferred.

You mean the guy that just causally claims that not having to access to medicaid is no big deal. Okay, like he’s got any credibility.

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Many on the left would dispute that, at least in this case. "No tweaks by amendment can fix this monstrosity," tweeted Chris Murphy, the Democratic senator from Connecticut. "If you vote for this evil, intellectually bankrupt bill, it will ruin millions of lives." The bill's passage would, to be certain, have sweeping implications. But Republicans could make exactly the same normative claims about ObamaCare itself. They shouldn't, in my view; it's bad form to denounce people based on assumptions about their intent.

Fuckin spare me. Only an idiot when wouldn’t think that the Republican healthcare bill isn’t about giving tax cuts to the rich.

And no it isn’t true that Republican criticisms are equally valid as Democratic Criticisms. The fact of the matter there are plenty of reasons to think that more people will lose insurance because of the Republican bill and it healthcare will become more expensive for people that need it.

The fact is universal healthcare has always been a bigger liberal priority than a conservative one. But, you know, just ask everyone to ignore about 70 years  of history.

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But if we're going down this path, let's at least be consistent about it: While the Affordable Care Act has surely helped millions of Americans, it has also still left millions of Americans uninsured, and many more with higher premiums and deductibles than they had in 2009, when Democrats promised that their plan would deliver precisely the opposite, among other things.

Once again, we have another conservative failing to distinguish between what happened in the Employer based insurance market and what happened in the ACA exchange market. You’d have some credibility here if you made the distinction.

With regard to the employer based market: There is simply little evidence that the ACA caused premiums to grow that much, if we are comparing it to historical averages. In fact they were lower. With regard to user costs, in that market, maybe ACA caused them to increase. Personally the only data I could find on the user cost issue is on Kaiser. And it isn’t apparent to me that there was some kind of structural break, after the ACA, was passed. Maybe one of your conservative “experts” can point me to a reasonable source time series data on this issue.

Also, the premiums in the ACA came under CBO projections.

Also, it’s true the ACA didn’t get everyone covered. But, it is also true, more people got covered because of the ACA than if the ACA had not got passed.
 

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Even now, many Democrats are reluctant to acknowledge that ObamaCare's conservative critics were correct in predicting such problems, and that in some cases, at least, their objections were rooted in concern for the Americans who would be disproportionately affected by them, if so.

Because the conservative critics were largely wrong. There are some legitimate criticisms of the ACA. Problem is that conservatives weren’t making them. Talkin about “death panels” and such and making careless claims about premium inflation. The Republican criticism’s were largely dishonest and made up.

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This also explains why there's a lot to like about the Better Care Reconciliation Act. It's a market-oriented plan that's serious about the trade-offs involved in such an approach. If you want to remove some bureaucratic hurdles and government largesse from the health-care market, as many conservatives do, then some people will lose coverage, and others will see an increase in their out-of-pocket costs. That's how markets work, even if the architects of ObamaCare refused to believe it.

Once again we have a conservative presuming to lecture liberals "how markets work". But, before presuming to give us liberals a lecture about “how markets” work, I’d suggest you read Arrow’s classic paper about healthcare markets, as a start. Conservatives for whatever reason are always presuming to lecture others about how “markets work”, you know, the same people that told us about the wonders of the gold standard and the confidence fairy and were the same people responsible for the “Brownback Boom.” You just might want to take a break, just sayin.

Also, at the end of the day, most people, I think, don’t give a flyin’ fuck “about bureaucratic hurdles and government largesse” or whatever mealy mouthed conservative horse shit you want to bring into this debate. What they care about is access to decent access to healthcare at a reasonable cost. There is plenty of evidence to think the American healthcare system just isn’t that good. And there is no reason to think that “conservative market based principles” or whatever nonsensical conservative horse shit you want to throw in, is going to improve matters much. And most people probably don’t give a flyin fuck about “conservative market based principle” so long as the system works reasonably well.

And there is plenty of reason to think that we can deliver universal coverage at a lower cost. So like fuckin please conservatives stop lecturing people about how “markets work.”

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That was a humane and worthwhile achievement which Democrats deserve credit for, even if they are heartless monsters who left millions of Americans uninsured.

And once, again, we have a conservative idiot trying to make an equivalency here and failing epically. The difference here is the the ACA increased healthcare coverage compared to the status quo whereas the Republican bill is likely to reduce it and increase cost for people that need healthcare.

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It seems possible, as it stands, that none of this matters. On Monday, the Congressional Budget Office released its score of the bill, which found, among other things, that passage of the legislation would result in an additional 22 million Americans being uninsured in 2026, compared to projections based on the current law. 

Hey, Mulvaney called! He wants his bullshit back!

Look, even if the CBO’ projections here don’t exactly pan out, the fact of the matter there is every reason to think that the Republican bill will decrease coverage and make it more expensive for the people that need it.

So, yeah, the Republican bill is as bad as it sounds.
 

[Fez]

Amazing how much more policy-detailed (and consumer-focused) Republicans are when it comes to something that directly (and primarily) affects the well-off and the wealthy. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/senate-ignores-trump-moves-bill-that-keeps-faa-intact/2017/06/29/76e0488c-5ccf-11e7-a9f6-7c3296387341_story.html

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The Senate on Thursday ignored President Trump’s desire to lop more than 30,000 workers from the federal payroll, approving legislation that protects the Federal Aviation Administration from being split in two.

-break-

The bipartisan Thune-Nelson bill requires greater accountability by the FAA on the much-criticized pace of the modernization program, known as NextGen. It also includes new protections for airline passengers, deals with safety and privacy issues in the use of drones, and increases airport funding.

Airlines would be required to refund services, such as early boarding or seat assignments, that the passengers do not ultimately receive. Addressing another passenger complaint — shrinking seat sizes — the bill asks the FAA to review the safety implications of seat size.

 

As someone that does fly a lot, I appreciate this bill. But the fact that more care and attention was paid to this relatively niche issue than a bill that affects 1/6th of the US economy, remains astounding.

[Red Tiger]

5 hours ago, Kalbear said:

Earlier it was asked what dems can do to change the gerrymandering and the response was win state elections. 

That's one thing. 

Many states also have ballot measures, and these can easily do the trick - they can require independent commissions for setting systems, they can enact ranked choice voting, they could in theory even do something like mmr voting (though a full version would require changing the states constitution).

 

Thank you very much. I kept hearing about how screwed the Democrats are, but I really wanted to know how they could climb out of this disaster.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

That was a rough press conference, and even though she said some absurd things and told some outlandish lies, I actually felt bad for Sarah Huckabee-Sanders. She looked like she had seen a ghost by the end of it. 

[Kalbear]

:slow clap:

 

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

14 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

That was a rough press conference, and even though she said some absurd things and told some outlandish lies, I actually felt bad for Sarah Huckabee-Sanders. She looked like she had seen a ghost by the end of it. 

I swear she has that chameleon, swivel eye thing going. It's really rather creepy.

[Red Tiger]

1 hour ago, Tywin et al. said:

That was a rough press conference, and even though she said some absurd things and told some outlandish lies, I actually felt bad for Sarah Huckabee-Sanders. She looked like she had seen a ghost by the end of it. 

Don't feel bad for her, im quite sure she gets paid well to lie to people.

[Mexal]

4 minutes ago, Red Tiger said:

Don't feel bad for her, im quite sure she gets paid well to lie to people.

Same. Almost every sentence she utters is a lie. She wanted the job, so she can deal with the challenge.

[Red Tiger]

59 minutes ago, Mexal said:

Same. Almost every sentence she utters is a lie. She wanted the job, so she can deal with the challenge.

I am watching it now. Mnuchin makes my skin crawl and im really wondering if he's just a lizard wearing a human skin. There doesn't seem to be a hint of actual emotion with that guy.

Sanders is constantly saying the same thing "he is a fighter and the American people elected him cause of it. When pushed he is gonna push back".

Here's the thing, Ms. Sanders, he pushes back when you tap him on the shoulder. You don't have to push this crybaby.