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U.S. Politics: Trump of the Will


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Dejavu?  Unless I'm missing something crucial here, Team rump is being unbelievably stupid here.  Maybe a ready made campaign issue for the Democratic Party?

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ukrainian-officials-and-giuliani-are-sharing-back-channel-campaign-information-report/ar-AAEHnvW?ocid=msnclassic

 

Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman met with top figures in Ukraine and set up meetings for Giuliani in an attempt to gather information to use in the 2020 presidential election, according to the publication.

 

Their activities included pushing Ukrainian prosecutors to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, who is the current front-runner in the Democratic primary. The report also says that Ukrainian officials planned to intercede on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's behalf in the 2016 election by leaking information on Trump's then-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.

In March, about a month after a meeting with Parnas, Fruman and Giuliani, prosecutors in Kiev announced they would investigate certain officials in connection with trying to rig the election for Clinton, which Trump himself touted in an interview with Fox News.

Parnas has said he also expects information the two obtained to play a major role in Attorney General William Barr's investigation of the origins of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, according to BuzzFeed.

"It's all going to come out," he told the publication. "Something terrible happened and we're finally going to get to the bottom of it."

 

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If this trend continues, then Trump and his base could be in serious trouble...

 

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/04/politics/new-mexico-popular-vote/index.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=fbCNN&utm_content=2019-04-05T06%3A01%3A01&utm_term=link&fbclid=IwAR2kub2thHtYK3NOTtn30NUbSui9jDj5DZbFnTbIZs3T2PRNy56XxuxTDQU

 

New Mexico is the latest state to join a compact pledging to devote its electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote in future presidential elections if enough states sign on.

Democratic state Sen. Carlos Cisneros cosponsored the bill, which was signed by Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Wednesday. Cisneros said he hopes the elimination of the "archaic" Electoral College will give New Mexico more influence in national elections.
"Presidential candidates don't even bother to come into the state anymore because they really don't need to. They'll go after states that have a large number of delegate votes and exclude New Mexico," Cisneros said. "For us it is crucial that the election for president is predicated on popular vote rather than the traditional and historical way of doing that."
New Mexico is the 14th state to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, bringing it to 189 electoral votes. The states will not shift their vote allocations until their combined electoral votes equal 270, enough to decide a presidential election.

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I tend to agree with Matt Yglesias on Franken resigning.  Was if fair he pushed out given the comparable misconduct?  Of course not - but also who the hell ever said politics was fair?  Was it the right thing to do given the environment and circumstances at the time?  Absolutely.

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1 hour ago, Altherion said:

Wow, this is truly amazing. It only took the Democratic Senators a year and a half or so to figure out the value of the presumption of innocence and of due process. Who knows what they'll think of next -- the presumption of innocence dates back to at least the Code of Justinian so they have lots of low hanging jurisprudential fruit left.

By the way, the #2 book among new releases on Amazon and the #1 on Amazon's non-fiction charts for the week is Justice on Trial which details the Kavanaugh confirmation. I wonder if it will help Senator Collins.

Sarcasm aside, the problem is your side talking about innocent until proven guilty just looks like attempting to defend the indefensible. Its the last refuge of defense for your political allies, and it's seen as virtually an admission that there may indeed be some guilt, and the individual concerned is only trying to get off on a technicality. It's actually much more impact on your chances of surviving a media and public feeding frenzy if your political opposition applies that standard. But it so rarely happens.

Bill Clinton will always be an unconvicted rapist, and Hillary will always be an unconvicted murderer, and committed treason with her missing emails.

And, of course innocent until proven guilty is only a standard to be applied to legal prosecution. The concept does not exist in the court of public opinion. It's the mob that rules there.

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The Trump administration is proposing new rules that would cut food-assistance benefits from about 3 million people. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said the cost-cutting move would limit access to food stamps for households with savings and other assets. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said the new rules for the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) would end automatic eligibility for people who were already receiving federal and state assistance. “This proposal will save money and preserve the integrity of the program,” Perdue said. “SNAP should be a temporary safety net.” Acting Deputy Under Secretary Brandon Lipps claimed the proposal would result in annual savings of $2.5 billion and stop less needy individuals from qualifying for benefits.

Trump Administration to Take Food Stamps Away From Three Million Americans

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-administration-to-take-food-stamps-away-from-three-million-americans?ref=home

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New rules for ICE. Tvillainistas got rid of the rule that border agents and patrol can stop anybody anytime within 100 miles of the border and, if they decided you aren't a citizen, deport you on the spot. Now they can stop anyone anytime anywhere and deport you on the spot if They So. That means you and me too. They probably won't do it to some of the yous who post here, but they can if they choose to -- and they very well are likely to choose to if you or I are found in the company of people They deem suspicious -- which I, at least, could well be deemed the case. Which means I'm far more likely to be chosen than most of you, probably. 

Are we fascist yet? 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/trump-administration-to-expand-its-power-to-deport-undocumented-immigrants/2019/07/22/76d09bc4-ac8e-11e9-bc5c-e73b603e7f38_story.html?

This is the equivalent of the Fugitive Slave Act, which allowed anyone to be pointed at, accused of being a run-away slave -- made no difference as to how 'white looking' because there were more 'white' slaves all the time -- and be taken down south. That, as many a person realized, could mean his daughter in particular. This did more to radicalize the North into a sense that slavery was evil than anything else. The icing on that cake was that everyone was supposedly legally obligated to cooperate with the slave catchers.  Nor were the accused -- many who had been born and lived free -- allowed to speak a single word before the judge that provided the court order to remove the 'black' person. People who never before gave a damn about slavery, one way or another, now did.  They actively worked to block the slave catchers, which, of course, had the slaveocracy whinging and weeping even more about how victimized and martyred they were by insane northerners.  

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/nashville-human-barricade-ice-immigrant-neighbors_n_5d36640fe4b004b6adb4d490

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The loyalty oath to ICE's agenda is bizarre. 

dunno.  charlemagne required it, as did the NSDAP.  it might be said further that the totalitarianism of the latter finds a deep origin in the saxon capitularies of the former.

 

Are we fascist yet? 

who's 'we'? this sort of corporative identification of speaker with state is symptomatic of the defect that the question seeks to remedy.  that objection lodged, see above.

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10 hours ago, Martell Spy said:

Trump Administration to Take Food Stamps Away From Three Million Americans

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-administration-to-take-food-stamps-away-from-three-million-americans?ref=home

Obviously not actual savings in terms of the federal budget, since the money will just be directed to those corporate / military welfare programs right wing govts do like. How often to right wing govts actually decrease spending over all?

I guess lower socio-economic classes shouldn't even bother trying to improve their lives, because as soon as they even start to accumulate some financial security for their future, their current food security becomes fragile should some hardship befall them because they will be denied assistance until they've sold their house and used up all their savings in order to make ends meet.

16 hours ago, Triskele said:

Krugman has a piece sort of following up on that Huffington Post Jonathan Cohn piece on Biden v. Sanders on healthcare and ends by saying that both are poisoning the party's well in a way.  

Sanders is doing so by saying that only Medicare of All can purge the system of corporate greed (which Krugman argues is BS because versions of Obamacare with private insurers work quite well in other countries).

Biden is doing so by using scare tactics on the Sanders position that are not so dissimilar to GOP tactics saying it will cut current benefits when it won't.  

Really wish both would stop because whichever of these systems wins the day in the primary (and whether it's these candidates or others) these attacks are both some version of unfair and untrue.  If the Biden side wins the Sanders argument that now all is lost because only a corrupt and not good enough system is on the table.

If the Sanders side wins the the idea that Medicare for all could costs some Democrats their benefits is already nice and warm for a hand off to Trump for the general election.  

Poisoning the well is a good term for this.  

Do any countries have a Medicare for all system? Certainly not any of the US's usual comparitor countries: Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand. According to the internet about 75% of Canadians have private health insurance. I don't have health insurance because I'm a tightwad and I'm reasonably confident the public health system won't let me die, though I do think 5-year survival rates for cancer are probably a wee bit lower for people who rely on public health rater than private insurance. But I accept that risk for myself. I think everyone should be covered by the public health system in principle, but I think people who want less risk with their healthcare should be able to pay for that either out of pocket when they need it, or through insurance.

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23 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said:

Do any countries have a Medicare for all system? Certainly not any of the US's usual comparitor countries: Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand. According to the internet about 75% of Canadians have private health insurance. I don't have health insurance because I'm a tightwad and I'm reasonably confident the public health system won't let me die, though I do think 5-year survival rates for cancer are probably a wee bit lower for people who rely on public health rater than private insurance. But I accept that risk for myself. I think everyone should be covered by the public health system in principle, but I think people who want less risk with their healthcare should be able to pay for that either out of pocket when they need it, or through insurance.

Canada has a universal health care system that is not as good as what many European countries have, so people have private insurance to cover the gaps. However, not a great many actually buy private insurance (where did you get that number?) the additional coverage comes from employee benefits.

What is covered by health care will vary slightly from province to province, but basically all your visits to your doctor, most specialists (stuff like cosmetic surgery is on your tab, unless it’s deemed medically required, like for scars from a terrible accident) and treatment in hospital. While you are in hospital everything is provided, once you are discharged you pay for your own meds and supplies. Most tests are covered, like mammograms and colonoscopies. In fact I get reminder letters from the government telling me to book my mammogram and reminding me this is the year for PAP tests (the medical community concluded annual PAP tests aren’t needed and switched it to every two or three years). Vaccines for the young are covered, as are flu shots for everyone.

Our health care system does not pay for prescriptions, optometrists and corrective lenses, dental care or a lot of rehab treatment. Or ambulances, a big issue in rural areas, although most provinces have air ambulance serving very remote areas. Every election the question of dental care and prescription plans gets booted around by the parties. Private insurance, usually in the form of employee benefit plans, pays for prescription drugs, dental, eye ware, massage therapy, perhaps psychiatric counseling, and often some supplies like corrective foot ware.

Once you turn 65 your prescriptions are covered, with a small initial deductible of $100 a year for most people, and some stuff is added like the vaccination for shingles and eye exams.

My car insurance covers many extras if I am injured in an accident, perhaps that is included in the 75% number you quote. I looked at getting private coverage after I left my last employer, but decided the coverage was as expensive as paying for stuff out of pocket.

My brother had massive surgery in March, to repair a huge aneurysm found behind his stomach. The biggest out-of-pocket expense, paid by me, was the parking downtown, which hits $25 after a couple of hours. He’s been put on some very pricey drugs, but since he is 69 once he pays the annual $100 he’s covered.

 

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48 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said:

......

Do any countries have a Medicare for all system? Certainly not any of the US's usual comparitor countries: Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand. According to the internet about 75% of Canadians have private health insurance. I don't have health insurance because I'm a tightwad and I'm reasonably confident the public health system won't let me die, though I do think 5-year survival rates for cancer are probably a wee bit lower for people who rely on public health rater than private insurance. But I accept that risk for myself. I think everyone should be covered by the public health system in principle, but I think people who want less risk with their healthcare should be able to pay for that either out of pocket when they need it, or through insurance.

Australia and the UK certainly do. In the UK I would guess over 95% of services would go through it. In Australia we also have private insurance that supplements the public Medicare. 

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6 hours ago, Zorral said:

New rules for ICE. Tvillainistas got rid of the rule that border agents and patrol can stop anybody anytime within 100 miles of the border and, if they decided you aren't a citizen, deport you on the spot. Now they can stop anyone anytime anywhere and deport you on the spot if They So. That means you and me too. They probably won't do it to some of the yous who post here, but they can if they choose to -- and they very well are likely to choose to if you or I are found in the company of people They deem suspicious -- which I, at least, could well be deemed the case. Which means I'm far more likely to be chosen than most of you, probably. 

Are we fascist yet? 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/trump-administration-to-expand-its-power-to-deport-undocumented-immigrants/2019/07/22/76d09bc4-ac8e-11e9-bc5c-e73b603e7f38_story.html?

This is the equivalent of the Fugitive Slave Act, which allowed anyone to be pointed at, accused of being a run-away slave -- made no difference as to how 'white looking' because there were more 'white' slaves all the time -- and be taken down south. That, as many a person realized, could mean his daughter in particular. This did more to radicalize the North into a sense that slavery was evil than anything else. The icing on that cake was that everyone was supposedly legally obligated to cooperate with the slave catchers.  Nor were the accused -- many who had been born and lived free -- allowed to speak a single word before the judge that provided the court order to remove the 'black' person. People who never before gave a damn about slavery, one way or another, now did.  They actively worked to block the slave catchers, which, of course, had the slaveocracy whinging and weeping even more about how victimized and martyred they were by insane northerners.  

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/nashville-human-barricade-ice-immigrant-neighbors_n_5d36640fe4b004b6adb4d490

https://www.pri.org/stories/2019-07-23/new-trump-administration-policy-could-lead-more-us-citizens-being-deported?amp

For those who aren’t subscribed to WAPO.

Most conservatives are  either silent or drooling over this government overreach of course. 

“Habeas corpus is just a made liberal phrase meant to oppress white people.

 

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23 hours ago, Zorral said:

Right here -- and when you go the job site where these positions are offered there you are.  As the physicians being interviewed for the piece said, -- "I'm a GP, with years of experience and have board certification and I don't make anything likek $400.000 per annum." They are very concerned.  Being with the program is clearly not about health competence.

https://www.npr.org/2019/07/22/744206063/job-posting-for-doctor-at-an-immigrant-detention-facility-catches-peoples-attent

So I looked into this and found the job posting on JAMA.  Apparently, the job posting is by a company called Geo Group, which is a billion dollar for profit company that primarily runs prisons.  They've tweaked their posting since yesterday by removing the oath requirement (which I was still there yesterday when I first looked, but is gone now).   Must have started hearing about the bad press.

Now the 400K salary makes a little more sense.  You can't get that type of money if you were a government employee, but as a federal contractor, it's possible.  Geo clearly is just looking for any warm body that meets minimum standards.  The sooner they can hire someone, the sooner they can start billing the US government.  If they are paying that doctor with 2 years experience 400K, they might be billing the US government around $1 million, assuming a standard multiplier, for that position.  I'm sure that part of the job, probably the main part, will be to perform services, whether needed or not, that generate Geo Group the most profits.  There were lots of stories earlier in the year about detained children being prescribed and forced to take all sorts of psychotropic medications even though there didn't appear any need.

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17 minutes ago, Mudguard said:

  There were lots of stories earlier in the year about detained children being prescribed and forced to take all sorts of psychotropic medications even though there didn't appear any need.

Need should be clear. Keeps em quiet, probably.

"Sad mommy is in solitary? Here, take a Xanex."-Artist's rendering.

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10 minutes ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

Need should be clear. Keeps em quiet, probably.

"Sad mommy is in solitary? Here, take a Xanex."-Artist's rendering.

It's a pretty depressing situation.  You know where all that money from the recently pass border appropriations bill is going?  Straight into the pockets of private prison corporations like Geo Group and other federal contractors.  Democrats initially wanted to include minimum standard requirements in that bill, but they caved and passed a version with the requirements stripped out.  The rationale was that something was better than nothing.  I'd bet a substantial amount of money that companies like Geo Group lobbied for the removal of those requirements.  The House passed the border appropriation bill on June 25th, and the Geo Group job posting for the doctor with 2 years experience was posted on June 28th.  Ka-ching!

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For now, that’s good news for Biden. A Washington Post poll from late June to early July showed Biden earning the support of 47 percent of Democratic-leaning respondents over 65. Meanwhile, that same survey showed Sen. Bernie Sanders with just 3 percent backing him. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) polled at 10 percent, and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) at 13 percent.

Like any demographic group, voters 65 and older are no monolith. But there are certain characteristics that have come to define older Americans: that they’re generally more conservative, they really care about issues like Medicare, Social Security, and drug prices, and they vote. But advocates for seniors see an electorate actually more fluid than these tropes suggest. They’re also interested in what world they’ll leave for their grandchildren, from climate change to education access and income inequality. And broadly they’re shifting ideologically to the left.

“We have seen a shift since 2010 of older voters moving more Democratic than any other age group,” Richard Fiesta, the director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, said. The question is, just how far left are they willing to go?

 

The surprising thing about older voters: they’re moving more to the left
The question is just how far

https://www.vox.com/2019/7/23/20694693/seniors-voters-aarp-medicare-social-security-biden-2020

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So apparently some cops had some water thrown on them, which is apparently such a big deal the hashtag "respectthepolice" is now trending. Because cops getting wet is a big deal, black people being murdered by cops and cops assisting actual fascists, not so much.

In better news the 9/11 victim fund bill passed, without a time limit this time. Surprising no one one of the two douchebags to vote against it was Rand Paul. Maybe we can get #RandPaulHatesAmerica trending.

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