American attack ads are hilarious...
"Oh no, they are going to treat me for free! I wanted to get charged $200,000 in live in crippling debt for the rest of my life" cue Student Debt, cue Employment issues in repaying.
American attack ads are hilarious...
"Oh no, they are going to treat me for free! I wanted to get charged $200,000 in live in crippling debt for the rest of my life" cue Student Debt, cue Employment issues in repaying.
Days since the Apocalypse began
"We are living in space-age times but there's too many of us thinking with stone-age minds" | How to spot a Humanist
"Men of Quality do not fear Equality." | "Belief doesn't change facts. Facts, if you are reasonable, should change your beliefs."
Our written Constitution doesn't allow the President or Congress to pose questions directly to the people. Sounds like your unwritten Constitution allowed British politicians to dump their responsibility on charged political questions in a very divisive way...
What difference does it make if the result was unexpected?
Many Californian Republicans don't show up in California because they feel the state is lost to the Democrats already. Never mind the fact the CALGOP lost the state when they went full Nazi in asking for complete removal of the brown people in the state.
Also, this might be alien to people who live outside of California, but since California is solidly blue and has a solidly blue government, we have been generally content with the current state of California politics.
Governor Moonbeam has been an amazing governor and is the reason I hate term limits.
To answer the ad:
It looks very sexy (in both ways), so sit back and relax?!
The only odd thing is the universal job guarantee, but I guess it riles up the working class who prefer to work in a coal mine for themselves rather than let a robot do it and enjoy socialist paradise.
"Topic is tired and needs a nap." - Tosa Inu
Prop 187?
What's Brown like on immigration? I heard he hated it back in the 1970s. Then again, many labor Democrats did yet.
That's actually a very interesting question. Does Congress lack the authority to pass enabling legislation allowing the invocation of national referenda that would have the force of federal law/policy, or require the implementation of corresponding law/policy? Maybe such a thing already exists, idk.Our written Constitution doesn't allow the President or Congress to pose questions directly to the people. Sounds like your unwritten Constitution allowed British politicians to dump their responsibility on charged political questions in a very divisive way...
What difference does it make if the result was unexpected?
###
Rory, on the subject of discourse and governance, I came upon this quote from Aneurin Bevan, godfather of British socialism in the 20th century and architect of the NHS:
On one hand, uhhh...."The eyes of the world are turning to Great Britain. We now have the moral leadership of the world, and before many years are over we shall have people coming here as to a modern Mecca, learning from us in the twentieth century as they learned from us in the seventeenth," said Mr Aneurin Bevan, Minister of Health, at a Labour rally in Manchester yesterday.
The meeting was called to celebrate the anniversary of Labour's accession to power. The Labour party, he said, would win the 1950 election because successful Toryism and an intelligent electorate were a contradiction in terms. His own experiences ensured that no amount of cajolery could eradicate from his heart a deep burning hatred of the Tory party. "So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin," he went on. "They condemned millions of people to semi-starvation. I warn you young men and women, do not listen to what they are saying, do not listen to the seductions of Lord Woolton. They have not changed, or if they have they are slightly worse."
The Government decided the issues in accordance with the best principles, he said: "The weak first; and the strong next." Mr. Churchill preferred a free-for-all, but what was Toryism except organised Spivvery?
As a result of controls, the well-to-do had not been able to build houses, but ordinary men and women were moving into their own homes. Progress could not be made without pain. People who campaigned against controls were conducting an immoral campaign. There was a kind of schizophrenia in the country, so that people reading newspapers and hearing talk in luxury hotels got an entirely different conception of what was happening, which did not square with the statistics. The bodies and spirits of the people were being built up - but the Government's efforts could not be sustained except by the energies and labour of the people. Production must be raised to make the new legislative reforms a living reality.
The Government never promised in 1945 that everybody was going to be better off. It knew some were worse off to-day, but it always intended they should be.
[Bevan's "vermin" remark - one of the most famous jibes in politics - was adroitly turned against the Attlee government by Tory speakers, who pretended it insulted their voters rather than policy makers. However, Bevan merely retorted that men of Celtic fire were needed to bring about great reforms like the new NHS. That was why, he explained, Welshmen were put in charge instead of "the bovine and phlegmatic Anglo-Saxons."
On the other hand, the Republicans like to say that the people want someone who "tells it like it is".
Last edited by Montmorency; 11-12-2018 at 03:44.
Vitiate Man.
History repeats the old conceits
The glib replies, the same defeats
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I find all this talk about stratagem to be misplaced. One of two things will eventually happen to kill the GOP. The old people who vote for them will pass or younger people will reach a critical mass of participation and cause a tipping point.
That is the reason for the obsession with the supreme court and voter suppression tactics, the GOP knows the math.
Now obviously that is something to fight because of everything that has happened. However Democratic leadership either seems oblivious or willing to wait them out. That is the totally wrong way to deal with a group who knows their collective fate is sealed.
Beto lost , Frustrating with someone as unlikeable as Cruz. Even more frustrating, half of Texans didn't vote.
There, but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford
My aim, then, was to whip the rebels, to humble their pride, to follow them to their inmost recesses, and make them fear and dread us. Fear is the beginning of wisdom.
I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation.
Of course you are not treated for free, you pay for the healthcare in forms of taxes and other fees. Publicly funded health care is a mandatory insurance with the state as the insurance company. If you want to be treated for free with public healthcare, you'll have to be on welfare so that you don't pay anything to the state; but that's for the few.
Runes for good luck:
[1 - exp(i*2π)]^-1
Hillary is there, can someone feed her som crickets that is what I do with my reptiles.
Days since the Apocalypse began
"We are living in space-age times but there's too many of us thinking with stone-age minds" | How to spot a Humanist
"Men of Quality do not fear Equality." | "Belief doesn't change facts. Facts, if you are reasonable, should change your beliefs."
Of course that is not correct since Germany has several public insurance companies that are not directly run by the government.
They're technically (partially) government entities, but work independently, similar to a self-governing province one could say. If the government were the insurance company, there would be only one, but we have quite a few of them: https://www.krankenkassen.de/gesetzl...nkassen-liste/
"Topic is tired and needs a nap." - Tosa Inu
Prop 187 was one part. Keep in mind that some really disgusting Propositions get passed and then California goes ape-shit and flips the opposite way.
This is the same state that passed Prop 8 as well...
Brown isn't as loose on immigration as many San Fransisco liberals want, but to the overwhelming majority of liberals in here it fits right in. Welcome to come here and participate under no discrimination, but there is a legal difference between being a citizen and a non-citizen and we should keep a difference if we want immigrants to assimilate and become citizens. His first term was before my time, but my understanding is that he has mellowed out since the 1970s.
His admin has been the gold standard (among US governors) for encouraging Climate Change driven policies towards cap and trade and renewable energy. Debt as GDP for California has also decreased since 2010/2011.
I think the Constitution makes it clear about a "republican" form of government. Idk how the courts would interpret that in the context of the representatives choosing to provide public referenda though.That's actually a very interesting question. Does Congress lack the authority to pass enabling legislation allowing the invocation of national referenda that would have the force of federal law/policy, or require the implementation of corresponding law/policy? Maybe such a thing already exists, idk.
So, very broadly speaking, you currently have the same health care system in Germany as the US has, aka Obamacare.
If you actually pay for your health care directly through bills (or can see the amount deducted from the salary for this purpose), it should be even more obvious that it is not free; and that over a lifetime, it should amount to quite a sum. A sum that you could use to pay for the treatment of a disease that the public health care system is unwilling to cash out for, either because the treatment is too expensive or experimental. Different health care systems have different benefits and drawbacks, and you can expect that some individuals will fall through the cracks with any system.
In other words, health care "free at point of access" - if you actually get access to it, which in practice is not always.
Last edited by Viking; 11-12-2018 at 21:25.
Runes for good luck:
[1 - exp(i*2π)]^-1
FFS, there are many different models of healthcare in the world. And almost all scale on approximately a line where extra money leads to extra improvements. The main outlier is the USA with their extremely inefficient system.
An enemy that wishes to die for their country is the best sort to face - you both have the same aim in mind.
Science flies you to the moon, religion flies you into buildings.
"If you can't trust the local kleptocrat whom you installed by force and prop up with billions of annual dollars, who can you trust?" Lemur
If you're not a liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative by the time you're 35, you have no brain.
The best argument against democracy is a five minute talk with the average voter. Winston Churchill
Apparently, maintaining a small majority in the Senate and losing it in the House counts as a great victory. Did a portion of the electorate always suffer from such a severe lack of touch with reality or has it recently become worse, due to polarization?
No, we don't. Only some people pay a bill and there is also a parallel private insurance system, where people also pay a monthly bill.
What you can access is defined by the state as a minimum level of care and it covers pretty much everything essential that is not a very experimental treatment abroad or whatever. For medications you usually have to pay a little.
What you're really wrong about though, is that I was arguing about it being free or not. I don't know why you bring up that strawman argument when I didn't even touch the subject of cost.
That no system is perfect is a terrible argument if many of them are vastly superior over the crappy one you're defending.
"Topic is tired and needs a nap." - Tosa Inu
History is not exactly replete with pols who, following poor election results, openly declare 'we got our asses handed to us by the voters. We clearly need to rethink things.' In the USA's current delirium of narcissistic polarization, no admission of weakness can be made lest the other side use it against you. So "we've always been at war with Eastasia."
Of course a portion of the electorate suffers from being haphazardly indexed with reality. Rabid single issue voters who would vote for to adopt a dictatorship as long as abortion was outlawed; people whose nativism is driven more by a desire to retain the advantages they enjoyed from the lottery of birth without an appreciation for the value of change; people like my mother in law who voted straight democrat in every election for nearly 40 years (despite being pro death penalty, anti-amnesty for illegals, convinced that the welfare system was a hammock and not a safety net, and a believer in lower taxes) -- we have always had our voters who were out of touch.
But it is the self-chosen ignorance of our electorate that allows for and encourages the polarization. The loudest voices from the political extremes scream for their agendas, the media gleefully exacerbates on and focuses upon "the race" or the conflict or who is "on top" because THAT is good for revenues, and the ignorant mass -- a goodly portion of whom vote despite their ignorance of the particulars -- fall in line with the loud voices as feels most emotionally rewarding to themselves.
"The only way that has ever been discovered to have a lot of people cooperate together voluntarily is through the free market. And that's why it's so essential to preserving individual freedom.” -- Milton Friedman
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." -- H. L. Mencken
Where does it say anything about what you are arguing? No, the point is that if you are in a healthcare system where you can easily see how much money you are investing in it, its total cost for you personally is also easy to calculate; a cost with which you can establish a much better basis for comparing healthcare systems.
Establishing facts; not defending, not attacking.That no system is perfect is a terrible argument if many of them are vastly superior over the crappy one you're defending.
Runes for good luck:
[1 - exp(i*2π)]^-1
Trump is there to stay, for a while at least he will be impeached evenyualy. I don't like him because the always objective notion that I don't like his face. But he isn't really doing such a bad job, it is just impossible to find him sympathatic
It doesn't because I wasn't. My post cannot say anything about something it wasn't saying. It's not a hard concept.
Your point is beside my point and therefore irrelevant to my argument that you were wrong.
You keep trying to drag me into your discussion that I specifically wish not to enter. So get your filthy hands off of me.
Except that your fact was either wrong (not a fact) or irrelevant to my counter that wasn't even aimed at your fact. Depending on what fact you are talking about. My original point was very much related to post #39, if that helps you in any way.
With that said, I've only recently enjoyed some of that free healthcare.
Last edited by Husar; 11-14-2018 at 15:49.
"Topic is tired and needs a nap." - Tosa Inu
I don't think you understand the state that many Americans are in. Many have been conditioned, since youth, that they are merely temporarily embarrassed millionaires, and that Democrats are standing in their way to prosperity with over-taxation and over-regulation. They can do it all by themselves, and that welfare is only for those who are lazy.
Polarization hasn't helped.
Requesting suggestions for new sig.
-><- GOGOGO GOGOGO WINLAND WINLAND ALL HAIL TECHNOVIKING!SCHUMACHER!
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Nation's first use of ranked-choice in a congressional race delivers House seat in Maine to Dem candidate.
(For the ranked-choice fans out there)
I said at the top of the thread the final result for the House would be something like 229-206. I was too pessimistic. Now it looks like 234-201, an almost 40-seat pickup. I was wrong that there would end up being 10 Republican House victories within 1%, but there are at least 10 such within a margin of 2%. For anyone wondering whither the top-end estimate of a 50+-seat Democratic gain, maybe attribute to the aforementioned Trump wave.
It'll be a while before we get a conclusion to the Senate/Governor races in Georgia and Florida. ANTICS. Hashtag Florida, man.
Held that there is no actual leadership challenge to coming Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, because there aren't even any challengers willing to stand against her; the right-wing Democrats are just agitating performatively toward their inane campaign promises.
The left wing of the Democratic Party is dissatisfied with her just like the right wing, but not as vocally (it's the converse when it comes to Internet intellectuals, but those don't matter in Congress). Nancy Pelosi took the realist measure of co-opting the left wing of the party, mollifying them with grants of Land and Title while basically ignoring the right wing.
"Progressives back Pelosi for speaker — in return for more power"
In a sign of the rising influence of the Progressive Caucus leaders, outside groups specifically held off on endorsing Pelosi until she committed to these asks.Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Given that there's no credible alternative to Pelosi for years to come, we should focus on replacing Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. That guy has assisted Republican aims so far he's practically Mitch McConnell's deputy. (Also, he's totally compromised with respect to Facebook, for whom his daughter works.)
Last edited by Montmorency; 11-17-2018 at 01:02.
Vitiate Man.
History repeats the old conceits
The glib replies, the same defeats
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Someone else should take up posting midterm updates, of which there have been a few. Instead:
1. If this table is correct...
2. Wrong thread, but the latest on Trump's authoritarian escalations is that he is more directly trying to authorize military orders bound to violate federal law on the domestic conduct of the Army. Remember when the French Foreign Legion was legally prohibited from operating on French soil, but the French government deployed them anyway to massacre thousands of Parisian communards while France was under German occupation in 1871? It's the kind of thing that makes the Posse Comitatus Act (1878) a good idea in theory, though at the time it was intended as one of the Reconstruction-killing acts.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Also, he repeatedly tried to get Justice to prosecute Hillary Clinton and James Comey for being political enemies of his. Depending on the extent of Trump's official instructions, this alone could be a more severe abuse of power/obstruction than Nixon was impeached over. Add to the tally. And the ouster of Sessions with Whitaker? Forget about it.
Whar 2nd Amendment militias? Whar?
Vitiate Man.
History repeats the old conceits
The glib replies, the same defeats
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
To paraphrase Stalin - one death is a disaster, one million is a statistic.
Previous politicians were brought down by one or at most a few related disasters and the learn here is to continue to create new ones so no one focuses on any one long enough. Rather than ever accept reality, continue to brazenly lie and just like in the Soviet Union, people start to believe it due to repetition (e.g. many in Russia view Stalin as a hero rather than a greater Xenophobe and genocidal maniac than anyone except Mao). His base likes his equivalent of a 5 Year Plan and choose the bubble. The odd voting system the USA is rather similar to the "rotten boroughs" in Britain c. 200 years ago where a few hicks hold a disproportionately large amount of power.
An enemy that wishes to die for their country is the best sort to face - you both have the same aim in mind.
Science flies you to the moon, religion flies you into buildings.
"If you can't trust the local kleptocrat whom you installed by force and prop up with billions of annual dollars, who can you trust?" Lemur
If you're not a liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative by the time you're 35, you have no brain.
The best argument against democracy is a five minute talk with the average voter. Winston Churchill
So the probably racist Cindy Hyde-Smith won re-election in Mississippi (to the shock of nobody). GOP now has a 3 seat lead in the Senate. Might be tough for Dems to retake the Senate in 2020.
On the Path to the Streets of Gold: a Suebi AAR
Visited:
Hvil i fred HoreToreA man who casts no shadow has no soul.
A 6-seat lead, probably surmountable depending on the 2020 climate.
Interesting about Mississippi 2018:
First Senator election, the white man Democrat pulled in 39% of the vote.
In the second Senator election (runoff), a black man went against a neo-Confederate and achieved 46%. He had come within 1% in the first round, where a second Republican candidate split the vote from the eventual winner. Turnout was identical between the two races.
(It should be noted that the Republican frontrunner and winner for the second Senate seat is a woman, so that may have just as much to do with the narrower race as neo-Confederatism turning off voters, or the Democrat being black attracting voters.)
Last edited by Montmorency; 11-28-2018 at 06:14.
Vitiate Man.
History repeats the old conceits
The glib replies, the same defeats
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
On the Path to the Streets of Gold: a Suebi AAR
Visited:
Hvil i fred HoreToreA man who casts no shadow has no soul.
Vitiate Man.
History repeats the old conceits
The glib replies, the same defeats
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Current (early ) projections suggest most of the seats are "safe."
3 of the 33 "lean" Republican and 1 Democratic.
The Dems would have to sweep all 4 close races to take the Senate. In a Presidential Election year with high turnout and Trump pulling as much of his base as remains.
Figure a Dem pickup of a seat or two, but not a majority.
"The only way that has ever been discovered to have a lot of people cooperate together voluntarily is through the free market. And that's why it's so essential to preserving individual freedom.” -- Milton Friedman
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." -- H. L. Mencken
Assuming that Trump is the 2020 nominee of course. I think theres a very slim chance he either chooses not to run ("Ive done enough and saved the country") in order to save his own behind or gets primaried. If he chooses not to run again I would think its either due to mounting investigations or to just prevent the hit to his ego if he loses. Being primaried out is a very slim chance but you never know. I would highly doubt it though considering how much of the GOP have become Trumpish in the past couple of years. If he doesnt run for re-election then I think the Dems chance of taking the senate grows as I think a lot of the GOP base would not show up out of protest.
On the Path to the Streets of Gold: a Suebi AAR
Visited:
Hvil i fred HoreToreA man who casts no shadow has no soul.
"The only way that has ever been discovered to have a lot of people cooperate together voluntarily is through the free market. And that's why it's so essential to preserving individual freedom.” -- Milton Friedman
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." -- H. L. Mencken
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