U.S. Politics: Dining on Doritos with Derrida and Donald

[Martell Spy]

Enrolling Americans in Medicaid Is Now Cheaper Than Subsidizing Their Obamacare Coverage

https://slate.com/business/2018/08/medicaid-expansion-is-now-more-cost-effective-than-obamacare-exchanges.html

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Here’s a data point that I fully expect to see fans of single-payer health care cite in the future: For the federal government, helping Americans buy private insurance under Obamacare is now more expensive per enrollee than simply covering them through the law’s Medicaid expansion.

That’s according to the most recent estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, which were highlighted Wednesday in an article by Susannah Luthi of Modern Healthcare. This year, Capitol Hill’s official scorekeeper predicts that Washington will spend an average of $6,300 on each individual who purchases subsidized health insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges. Meanwhile, it’s set to spend just over $4,900 for each Medicaid recipient who enrolled thanks to the law’s expansion of the program.1

That wedge will only widen in the coming years, according to the CBO. By 2028, the federal government will be spending 57 percent more, on average, to cover people who purchase subsidized coverage on the exchanges than it will paying for people’s Medicaid benefits. Even if you include state spending, signing up folks for Medicaid will still be cheaper for taxpayers than helping to foot the bill for private insurance.

 

 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

15 minutes ago, DMC said:

• First and foremost, the public gives contradictory answers on government spending.  Throughout time, more people have almost always favored "small government and fewer services" over "big government and more services."  Concurrently, the majority wants to either keep spending the same or increase it when you ask about specific programs:  "a majority of the public wants to either keep funding the same or increase it for 18 of 19 federal programs the poll asked about."
•  

I think this goes to the evil genius behind conservative leaders of the 80s (likesay Reagen and Thatcher). Their message was essential, do you hate paying taxes? Vote for me and you'll pay less taxes. That less taxes means less for the state to spend on infrastructure education and all those other neat things voters actually like, was the bit that was left out. In the same sense, people like small goverment, but they also like free college education Sanders promised, or an the state spending on infrastructure. For some reason the voters just don't seem to be able to connect those two things. And that pay less taxes (aka tax cuts) is what conservatives still ride on.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

4 hours ago, Erik of Hazelfield said:

This is just plain wrong.

Going to Mars is for Elon Musk as the America’s Cup was for Sir Thomas Lipton - something he’s passionate about and willing to spend his money on. There is no plausible way of getting any return on investment from a Mars colony. Mining on Mars and shipping to Earth wouldn’t be worth it even if there were heaps of pure gold there. The cost of interplanetary space travel is enormous. 

The SpaceX thread might be a better place for this discussion though. 

Well, if your a billionaire and all the terrestrial landmarks have been named already, You gotta go to Mars to get your name on some prime real estate.

I mean if Olympus Mons were renamed "Elon's mountain" who would kick up a fuss?  Some science nerd bastards who've never built a casino or high rise condo in their life?

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

So musky.

[Jace, Extat]

12 minutes ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

Well, if your a billionaire and all the terrestrial landmarks have been named already, You gotta go to Mars to get your name on some prime real estate.

I mean if Olympus Mons were renamed "Elon's mountain" who would kick up a fuss?  Some science nerd bastards who've never built a casino or high rise condo in their life?

Olympus Elon

[Martell Spy]

Why You Shouldn’t Care Whether Kavanaugh Is an ‘Originalist’
There are far more important criteria for determining what makes a good judge. Here’s what you should care about instead.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/08/09/kanavaugh-originalist-why-you-shouldnt-care-219344

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Worse, judges can easily dodge accusations of infidelity to the original sense of the Constitution because the label “originalist” has become malleable to the point of meaninglessness. Consider the 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, invalidating school segregation. As clear-sighted conservative originalists in the academy recognize, the 40th Congress that enacted the Equal Protection Clause did not think it was invalidating segregated schools. Yet in his confirmation hearing, Roberts matter-of-factly described Brown as “consistent” with “original understandings” of the Fourteenth Amendment.

As Roberts intuited, the public brand of “originalism” as a comprehensive theory of judging has to square with widely shared ethical commitments—or else it’s toast with the public. Hence the heroic, yet unconvincing, efforts by one of the founders of the Federalist Society--which is known for its guiding influence on President Donald Trump’s judicial picks--to show that the Congress of 1868 intended to prohibit gender discrimination when it enacted the Fourteenth Amendment. (Given that it took another half century to enact the Nineteenth Amendment, this might have surprised many alive in 1868.) Such efforts are better proofs of originalism’s plasticity than anything its critics could conjure.

 

 

[Martell Spy]

The White Nationalists Are Winning
Fox News anchors and high-profile politicians are now openly pushing the racism of the alt-right. The fringe movement’s messages have permeated the mainstream Republican Party.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/08/the-battle-that-erupted-in-charlottesville-is-far-from-over/567167/

 

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A year after white nationalists in Charlottesville chanted, “You will not replace us!” their message has been taken up and amplified by Fox News personalities. Tucker Carlson tells his audience that “Latin American countries are changing election outcomes here by forcing demographic change on this country.” Laura Ingraham says that “the America that we know and love doesn’t exist anymore” because of “massive demographic changes” as a result of “both illegal and sometimes legal immigration that progressives love.” They echo the white-nationalist claim that America is at risk because the nation is growing more diverse, an argument that treats the mere presence of nonwhite people, citizen or noncitizen, as an existential threat to the country. White nationalists like Cantwell are cheered to hear their beliefs championed on Fox. Cantwell wrote last year that Carlson “is basically telling white America to prepare for war as directly as he can get away with while remaining on Fox News.”

 

[Martell Spy]

There is a way popular liberal economic positions have an effect on policy. Initiatives and refendums. Look at what happened in Missouri.

[Altherion]

11 hours ago, Crazy Cat Lady in Training said:

What does "environmentally friendly" on Mars even mean?

I mean environmentally friendly with regards to Earth's environment. It doesn't mean anything on Mars (not yet, anyway).

11 hours ago, Crazy Cat Lady in Training said:

The only way to be environmentally friendly there is to leave it alone. Mars isn't remotely like Earth. It may have been at one time, but it isn't now. Before we do anything, we have to ascertain that there is no life there, otherwise the consequences would be disastrous for any existing ecosystem.

It's hard to be sure there is no life there without going there. We've never showed this degree of environmentalism anywhere on Earth (where there were obvious ecosystems) and I really don't see us doing so for Mars. Besides, there's no conclusive evidence of life there -- past or present.

11 hours ago, Crazy Cat Lady in Training said:

That being said, it will be virtually impossible to terraform Mars for long time scales. It simply isn't big enough to hold on to a nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere, especially in the absence of a magnetic field. There also isn't enough CO2 to work with. However, even if we did manage it, Mars is much further from the sun than Earth--it will still be much, much colder than Earth.

Terraforming assumes the existence of technology that we haven't even dreamed of. With current tech, people would need to live in well-shielded, environmentally controlled environments (most likely underground).

[Serious Callers Only]

I'm pretty sure the reason some of the GOP is not turning is that several of them have committed high treason by being stupid. Think about it, is Russian intelligence only going to float the possibility to hack clinton emails just to the president campaign?

 

Or are they going to open a shitload of channels to the NRA, the campaign, congressmen etc to 'offer some help', which was accepted in masse. Considering the likely cutout to the emails things with wikileaks was found 'suicided' with a note saying 'NO COLLUSION' (actually 'no foul play') after his 'smart' plan to acquire Clinton emails succeeded, what do you think happened?

 

These stupid fucks will do treason, figure out 2 days later when the contact gets murdered 'maybe this was a bad idea' and then run the country into the ground because of their criminality.

 

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In a first-person account published on the website Lawfare last year, Tait, the former GCHQ information security officer, said he warned Smith about the Clinton email operation.

“If this dark web contact is a front for the Russian government, you really don’t want to play this game. But [Smith and Szobocsan] were not discouraged. They appeared to be convinced of the need to obtain Clinton’s private emails and make them public, and they had a reckless lack of interest in whether the emails came from a Russian cut-out,” he wrote. “I never found out who Smith’s contact on the ‘Dark Web’ was. It was never clear to me whether this person was merely someone trying to dupe Smith out of his money, or a Russian front, and it was never clear to me how they represented their own credentials to Smith.”

 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

41 minutes ago, Serious Callers Only said:

I'm pretty sure the reason some of the GOP is not turning is that several of them have committed high treason by being stupid. Think about it, is Russian intelligence only going to float the possibility to hack clinton emails just to the president campaign?

 

Or are they going to open a shitload of channels to the NRA, the campaign, congressmen etc to 'offer some help', which was accepted in masse. Considering the likely cutout to the emails things with wikileaks was found 'suicided' with a note saying 'NO COLLUSION' (actually 'no foul play') after his 'smart' plan to acquire Clinton emails succeeded, what do you think happened?

 

These stupid fucks will do treason, figure out 2 days later when the contact gets murdered 'maybe this was a bad idea' and then run the country into the ground because of their criminality.

 

 

I remember having a conversation with a Republican friend of mine back around '99-'00 about Russia.  He was concerned about this new Russian leader that had come to power named Vladimir Putin.  Not only was Putin a member of the former regime, he was a high ranking KGB officer.  I think at the time I commented that it would be hard to find Russian bureaucrats that weren't also high ranking Soviets at one time.  I think my attitude was "Don't jump to conclusions. Wait and see."

How the hell did the GOP go from that level of suspicion to openly embracing the guy.  People have been photographed at a recent Trump rally wearing "I'd rather be Russian than a Democrat" T shirts and saying to the press that it was "good" that the Russians interfered in the election and they love Putin for it.

 Personally, I think it has a lot to do with the culture war.  There are Republicans that really admire the image Putin projects (Manly, subtle but not overly cerebral, caucasian). But the first time I started to see right wingers, especially religious conservatives, speak openly about Putin in really positive terms was when he began rolling back LGBT rights and protections in Russia.  This came at a time when the exact opposite was happening in the US.  Fox news was positively gushing about the guy.

Maybe I'm wrong.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

5 hours ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

Olympus Elon

The Mound of Musk

[ThinkerX]

Too much hype here about the rise of the racist right.  The alt-right DC rally looks to draw hundreds, not hundreds of thousands - enough, maybe to fill a good sized restaurant.

 

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/its-right-there-in-front-of-the-white-house-is-dc-ready-for-unite-the-right/ar-BBLK9Im?li=BBnbcA1&ocid=msnclassic

[Morpheus]

The numbers at an individual rally are not the point. The number of people who openly self-identify as Nazis or white supremacists is not the point.  The fact that the genral mass of white grievance, “everything is racist according to the libs”, immigrant scapegoating, “all lives matter”, MAGA dipshits and their out and proud card carrying hate group brethren are more and more emboldended to spew hatred and gather publicly because we have a white supremacist administration feeding them and a state run media giant which airs prime time rants parroting racist youtube garbage is what is important. 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

5 hours ago, ThinkerX said:

Too much hype here about the rise of the racist right.  The alt-right DC rally looks to draw hundreds, not hundreds of thousands - enough, maybe to fill a good sized restaurant.

 

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/its-right-there-in-front-of-the-white-house-is-dc-ready-for-unite-the-right/ar-BBLK9Im?li=BBnbcA1&ocid=msnclassic

It is likely this movement doesn't have the staying power, but I wouldn't count those chickens yet.

20 minutes ago, Morpheus said:

The numbers at an individual rally are not the point. The people who openly self-identify as Nazis or white supremacists is not the point.  The fact that the genral mass of white grievance, “everything is racist according to the libs”, immigrant scapegoating, “all lives matter”, MAGA dipshits and their out and proud card carrying hate group brethren are more and more emboldended to spew hatred and gather publicly because we have a white supremacist administration feeding them and a state run media giant which airs prime time rants parroting racist youtube garbage is what is important. 

Bingo.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

I've been seeing youtube ads from donaldjtrump.com asking me to participate in an "official Presidential Approval poll".  Apparently my choices are "Okay", "Good", and "Great".

[Paladin of Ice]

The number of people at the rally is especially irrelevant considering that some of the biggest Alt-Reich sites and figures have actually been calling for supporters to stay away from rally.

But in general the people who go to a march or a rally are a tiny fraction of the people who approve of it.

[Zorral]

2 hours ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

It is likely this movement doesn't have the staying power, but I wouldn't count those chickens yet.

Bingo.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/10/business/media/charlottesville-jason-kessler-npr.html

Of course NPR has been doing this sort of thing for decades, since Reagan at least.  Making the false equivalences  and playing soft ball with the racists and cray cray.  But it's really gotten worse in the last decade -- as though the nazis and Black Lives Matter are the same damned thing, while publicizing to all and sundry that damned DC gathering and the commemorations in Charlottesville.  Their idea of 'push back' is so soft it's like throwing cotton balls at an anvil.

 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

57 minutes ago, Zorral said:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/10/business/media/charlottesville-jason-kessler-npr.html

Of course NPR has been doing this sort of thing for decades, since Reagan at least.  Making the false equivalences  and playing soft ball with the racists and cray cray.  But it's really gotten worse in the last decade -- as though the nazis and Black Lives Matter are the same damned thing, while publicizing to all and sundry that damned DC gathering and the commemorations in Charlottesville.  Their idea of 'push back' is so soft it's like throwing cotton balls at an anvil.

 

CBC is the fucking worst.  To the extent they cover anything substantive at all, it is done in the most provincial way.  If a literal black hole swallowed Madagascar, CBC would give it 2 minutes of more or less quantifiable fact claims.  Within 12 hours, the coverage reverts to the human-interest-Canadian-angle.  If some tourist got sucked into the void when Madagascar was vaporized and he has a half sister in Saskatoon, the half sister gets on the news.  Otherwise, there's a yawn inducing follow up and it disappears.

Why the fuck is NPR even giving a platform to these people?  Their coverage should be the moral equivalent of "these idiots we refuse to platform? here's what they're saying now. "

[Zorral]

23 minutes ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

CBC is the fucking worst.  To the extent they cover anything substantive at all, it is done in the most provincial way.  If a literal black hole swallowed Madagascar, CBC would give it 2 minutes of more or less quantifiable fact claims.  Within 12 hours, the coverage reverts to the human-interest-Canadian-angle.  If some tourist got sucked into the void when Madagascar was vaporized and he has a half sister in Saskatoon, the half sister gets on the news.  Otherwise, there's a yawn inducing follow up and it disappears.

Why the fuck is NPR even giving a platform to these people?  Their coverage should be the moral equivalent of "these idiots we refuse to platform? here's what they're saying now. "

  butbbbbbbb-u-u-u-u-u-t free speech free press (ha! effing ha), and fair and balanced, dialog, blab blah effin' blah.