US Politics: Ted Cruz - A Tale of two Snowflakes

[Fez]

House Dem leadership was pretty pathetic tonight. The background:

This would be the perfect opportunity to show that things actually are different, and the House Republicans deeply involved with the fringe are non grata in the chamber. Instead, House Democratic leadership whipped in favor of the bill because they didn't want to see a post office renaming fail, and it passed 406-15. 

It doesn't go more low stakes than this, but its illustrative of the complete lack of a spine that deeply pisses me off sometimes.

[A True Kaniggit]

Just now, larrytheimp said:

you could live on $1600 a month, until something happens

I could whatever. While still saving a few hundred bucks a month. But I’m single, no children, and play a lot of video games for entertainment. 
 

I understand this doesn’t apply to most Americans. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

13 minutes ago, larrytheimp said:

you could live on $1600 a month, until something happens

Silly Larry, this is called freedom.

[A True Kaniggit]

18 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Silly Larry, this is called freedom.

What we need is that sweet, sweet Tricare for all. 
 

That shit was amazing. 

[Centrist Simon Steele]

1 hour ago, A True Kaniggit said:

What we need is that sweet, sweet Tricare for all. 
 

That shit was amazing. 

Best insurance I ever had. Everyone should have it, and it should be free (free in the sense we get a modest tax hike that's not nearly so crippling as the monthly premiums of shittier private insurance). When my son was born, we had not one single bill--and he had jaundice and had to sleep in an ultraviolet looking suitcase thing--delivered to our house, a nurse came too and explained to us how to use it. Not a single copay for anything.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

A part, though small, of my job is dealing with some health insurances, and it's unrealistic to cover everyone with Tricare. Some form of M4A would be better.

They do largely have their shit together though. 

[A True Kaniggit]

43 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

A part, though small, of my job is dealing with some health insurances, and it's unrealistic to cover everyone with Tricare. Some form of M4A would be better.

They do largely have their shit together though. 

It’s sad that the best healthcare in the country is unrealistic for everybody. 
 

Not saying you’re wrong, but it is sad. 
 

(I suppose at a minimum it would require the nationalization of every single hospital in the country, and to put all healthcare workers on a set pay scale)

[A True Kaniggit]

56 minutes ago, Centrist Simon Steele said:

Best insurance I ever had. Everyone should have it, and it should be free (free in the sense we get a modest tax hike that's not nearly so crippling as the monthly premiums of shittier private insurance). When my son was born, we had not one single bill--and he had jaundice and had to sleep in an ultraviolet looking suitcase thing--delivered to our house, a nurse came too and explained to us how to use it. Not a single copay for anything.

Yep. I think the most expensive procedure I had done was getting all of my wisdom teeth removed in one sitting. Didn’t cost me a cent. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

26 minutes ago, A True Kaniggit said:

It’s sad that the best healthcare in the country is unrealistic for everybody. 
 

Not saying you’re wrong, but it is sad. 
 

(I suppose at a minimum it would require the nationalization of every single hospital in the country, and to put all healthcare workers on a set pay scale)

In other words, militarize the healthcare industry. Talk about a socialistic orgy. 

[A True Kaniggit]

6 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

In other words, militarize the healthcare industry. Talk about a socialistic orgy. 

Damn straight!

[Fury Resurrected]

8 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

This kind of response honestly frustrates me. That may be your view from Minnesota, and maybe you'd never live in Texas. But states like Texas and Florida and other states that have no or very low income taxes exist because so many Americans devoutly believe capitalism is the answer for everything and no one should ever pay more taxes than are absolutely necessary. The power grid privatized because of the belief that the market, like water, will always find it's level. And another strong American belief that "business will do the right thing because if they do the wrong thing they'll be out of business".  And yet another belief, that anything run by the government is bloated, expensive, inefficient and badly run.

Texas is not ever going to "reclaim the grid for the public". The public in Texas wants to be independent, that's why they live in Texas. The defenders of the system in in Texas are already saying it was a matter of extreme weather, not the Texas system. In fact, I'm seeing stories that say the fact that the Texas grid did not collapse, no matter how close it was to collapsing, just proves the Texas grid is just fine, thank-you very much. It just needs to be tweaked a little, which will happen after the state does it's investigation.

You're trying to impose the way you think in your state on Texas, exactly what Texas doesn't want and the reason why they did not join the two national grids in the US almost a hundred years ago. I gather from articles that there is an "East" grid and a "West" grid. El Paso decided they wanted to be part of the West grid and, because of the independence of the power companies in the state, were perfectly free to do so. I gather there were areas in the north of the state that were hooked into Oklahoma and got through just fine as well.

It is also part of another issue in the US I always see (and in Canada as well), that people want everything as cheap as possible. That's why your tvs and your Tylenol come from China.

In my reading on the subject I was reminded that California deregulated as well, which resulted in a lot of price gouging and made the state make modifications to their system. The same is probably going to happen in Texas. I didn't see any mention about what California did about the outrageous power bills that resulted. I assume there was forced forgiveness, but maybe someone in California knows and can tell us.

I was flabbergasted to find out, reading these stories, that the Texas legislature only meets every two years. 140 days every two years to be exact. When you live in a state that has that kind of mindset, the way the power system is organized shouldn't be a surprise. Hell, didn't surveys just show that 50% of the population would like to secede? Now that there's been a disaster, of course, they want federal money, which goes back to my original point that Americans should be upset about the way that money might be spent. If they're such capitalists, the companies should have to act that way.

The reason is that FEMA funds, if used, don’t come only from Texas. As for the secession- Half of Minnesota at least would gleefully join Canada, America is full of malcontents. Why should the entire country foot the bill to rebuild an electrical grid that was mismanaged into killing tons of people and then billing thousands to others, just to put it back into the hands that caused the mess in the first place? Much like how most of law works, you have a lot of rights to choose things. But generations ago some Texans with power and influence chose to have a shitty unregulated grid that has just proven deadly. And, you don’t just get to decide to kill people because it’s cheaper and you don’t like rules. Montana didn’t wanna have speed limits, but eventually they had to join the rest of the country for the sake of public safety. I don’t know what’s so frustrating about tying aid to prevention, which has been done in many previous bailouts. You don’t get to have the benefits of a federal system without the drawbacks, and they’re holding Texans hostage to get the nanny state that you’re claiming Texans don’t want to come do the nannying.

[A True Kaniggit]

10 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

In other words, militarize the healthcare industry. Talk about a socialistic orgy. 

Wait! Are you claiming that the military is socialist?

“Gasp”

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

5 minutes ago, A True Kaniggit said:

Wait! Are you claiming that the military is socialist?

“Gasp”

What about it isn't? Fixed pay? Government benefits? Retirement plan? Planned housing? Spouse and family benefits from the government? 

What sounds more like capitalism when the military tells the Congress to please stop spending money on things they don't actually want?

[Gertrude]

10 hours ago, Mindwalker said:

I think they're both trolls. And does anyone truly believe that voters will remember the Cancun incident in 2024?

We got hit with flooding in 2008 and a huge portion of the city was uninhabitable and it took a looooong time to get people back in their houses with working gas, water, permits, etc. I was one of them. I still remember an interview with our mayor. It took place in her home and she was settled in her comfy chair in front of the fireplace with her feet propped up on an ottoman. That image is still burned into my brain and can get my blood to boil a bit. Yeah, it's just optics, but when you've gone through the shit, the optics are visceral.

I'm not saying he won't get reelected. He's an incumbent R after all, but I do think it will have a lasting impression.

[Fragile Bird]

Kevin McCarthy is on CNBC spewing his crap. Among other things, no, Trump was not happy about the events that happened on Jan6. History being rewritten! And the Covid relief bill will fail because only 9% of it is for Covid. I think he’s only counting money for testing and PPE. $100 M is going to Pelosi’s district (for the train to nowhere?) and millions to Schumer’s district for a bridge.

eta: oh, and discussion about Romney’s Op Ed in the WSJ criticizing the relief bill, “if you have list Romney it’s not going to get passed”

[Ser Reptitious]

23 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

Kevin McCarthy is on CNBC spewing his crap. Among other things, no, Trump was not happy about the events that happened on Jan6. History being rewritten! 

Well, it's probably partly true, since he undoubtedly was very unhappy with how things ended (i.e. the coup attempt failing).

 

On a separate note, with Black History Month about to come to a close, I found this video very enlightening (and infuriating) about how even the building of the interstate highways had a very (deliberate) detrimental effect on black communities: 

 

 

 

[Martell Spy]

Texas disaster puts Beto O’Rourke back in business
The onetime Democratic sensation has new political life — and, perhaps, hope for the governorship.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/24/beto-orourke-texas-governor-471254

Quote

 

While Ted Cruz was getting clobbered for fleeing Texas amid its historic winter storm, the Democrat he defeated in 2018, Beto O’Rourke, was already deep into disaster relief mode — soliciting donations for storm victims, delivering pallets of water from his pickup truck and once again broadcasting his movements on Facebook Live.

It was part of an effort orchestrated by O’Rourke and his organization, Powered by People, in response to the crisis. It was also, to Texas Democrats, a sign that O’Rourke the politician is back.

The former congressman and onetime Democratic sensation acknowledged last month that he’s considering running for governor in 2022, and he has discussed the possibility with Democratic Party officials and other associates. The drubbing that Texas Republicans are taking in the wake of the deadly storm may provide him with an opening — even in his heavily Republican state.

“After all of Texas freezes over because of poor leadership, I think it’s a different state of Texas than it was two weeks ago,” said Mikal Watts, a San Antonio-based lawyer and major Democratic money bundler.

If O’Rourke runs for governor, Watts said, “I think he could catch fire.”

 

 

[Ser Reptitious]

31 minutes ago, Martell Spy said:

Texas disaster puts Beto O’Rourke back in business
The onetime Democratic sensation has new political life — and, perhaps, hope for the governorship.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/24/beto-orourke-texas-governor-471254

 

Interesting, but even if he were to somehow pull out a win (which is in itself still a long-shot, imo), he would almost certainly have to deal with a Republican legislature, so what could he really accomplish? He might be able to veto some stuff, but would that be enough to get re-elected and/or help the Democrats in other ways? Would he still have an impact on districting maps, or would that already be all wrapped up by the time he'd be sworn in?

But still, it's great to see a prominent Democrat potentially eyeing a state-level office, instead of always almost exclusively focusing on the federal level.

[Maithanet]

33 minutes ago, Ser Reptitious said:

Interesting, but even if he were to somehow pull out a win (which is in itself still a long-shot, imo), he would almost certainly have to deal with a Republican legislature, so what could he really accomplish? He might be able to veto some stuff, but would that be enough to get re-elected and/or help the Democrats in other ways? Would he still have an impact on districting maps, or would that already be all wrapped up by the time he'd be sworn in?

Don't think he'd have any impacts on redistricting, but the Governor of Texas has a lot of powers that are independent from the legislature.  Winning that office is a big win, beyond just the ability to veto the legislatures terrible ideas (which is itself significant).  In addition, Democrats haven't won the Texas governors mansion since Ann Richards in the early 90s, and would be a big sign that things are really changing in Texas. 

That said, I'll believe Beto can win the governorship when I see it.  I personally doubt he'll ever get as close as he did in 2018 to winning statewide office in Texas. 

[Ormond]

12 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

Don't think he'd have any impacts on redistricting, but the Governor of Texas has a lot of powers that are independent from the legislature.  Winning that office is a big win, beyond just the ability to veto the legislatures terrible ideas (which is itself significant).  In addition, Democrats haven't won the Texas governors mansion since Ann Richards in the early 90s, and would be a big sign that things are really changing in Texas. 

That said, I'll believe Beto can win the governorship when I see it.  I personally doubt he'll ever get as close as he did in 2018 to winning statewide office in Texas. 

I am sure the Texas governor has some powers independent from the legislature, but I know I have been told for years (including I am sure by people on these threads) that the powers of the governor in Texas are way less than that of the governor in most other states, so much so that it's been implied that being governor in Texas isn't as attractive a job to politicians in that state as it is in most others.