Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Dr. Strangelove]

Looks almost certain to have been a terrorist attack in London. Lot of unknown details but a guy might've run over some people just outside Parliament then got out and attacked with a knife before being shot.

Also happens to be the one-year anniversary of the Brussels airport bombing

[Jeff Buchanan]

If we had continued under Obama care the premiums would have ate those alive in the middle class who made enough to support their family but were getting ready to be crushed by a 3-4fold increase in premiums. and benefitted those who cant or wont work --already were on every free program they could get and their expanding numbers were who obamacare was aimed at--more free gifts for those not seeking employment.

under trumpcare the free helath care for 70 million would dwindle creating the so called vacuum of 25 million being uninsured who cant or wont get out and try to make things on their own. It benefits those whom already have coverage by slashing those expensive premiums the middle class was getting ready to be crushed with. one of the main reasons working America said enough is enough and voted that pompous ass into the presidency in the first place

lot of ifs but you have to slash those 70 million who the rest of us support by creating jobs/decreasing the number who cant/wont pay for insurance.

cut the number of people coming into the country that cant take care of themselves
stop the mentality that its economically easier to not work at all then take a job that pays 40-50K a year which is the mentality we have now.

you cut the number of freeloaders and increase the work force and trumpcare would work just fine

I think this is an oversimplification - not entirely inaccurate but nonetheless somewhat misleading.

For political reasons, the R bill being proposed delays the Medicaid-expansion rollback until 2020. During that three years, the A.C.A. expansion would ?freeze.? The states which administer Medicaid, would no longer be able to enroll the types of people who gained access to coverage under the 2010 reform. Depending on your view, this may or may not be a good thing.

Under the new system, starting in 2020 Washington would pay the states a fixed sum for each enrollee. Ostensibly, if states decide they want to expand Medicaid coverage, they do so at their expense and can go to their legislators for tax increases to support it.

IMO, this is a good thing. Liberal states like Vermont, Oregon and Mass. who are quite liberal in terms of voter make-up, can tax their residents to redistribute their wealth to cover Medicaid expansion as they see fit ...... and the voters in those states are willing to approve. That should be interesting.

[entropy]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4323848/Questions-credibility-Trump-spy-claim-originator.html

a UK perspective on BO spying on trump..

[Da Geezer]

Hack:

If I'm not mistaken the way Ayn Rand would say that is that the ``rational interests of men do not conflict''. IOW, any loser in the marketplace accepts and appreciates the better product offered by his competitor, and then goes and finds another way to compete in the marketplace. Hurt feelings have no business here. That, to me, is a misreading of human nature on par with Marx's assumption that greed would be a thing of the past in his communist utopia. This is never going to happen. You can't find an example in human history of it happening, so you cannot ask for it to be restored. This idea of how markets work is a fantasy that is too fragile to exist in reality. And it ignores the actual reality that where you don't have governments and processes, you have warlords.

First, no one here is defending objectivism.

Second, where did you find that Rand quote? I believe you that she said it, but it is virtually opposite her actual belief in competition.

Third, you might take Amazon as an actual example of how free markets work. It started as an online bookseller and has morphed into a mammoth and disruptive vendor of just about everything. It did so by following the price and market signals seeking profit. Sears-KMart is down another 10% today and it is doubtful Sears will survive. No one is arguing that Sears is accepting of this outcome, but it is happening. Amazon v. "big-box-stores" is a good example of what I mean when I say free market. Creative destruction is a part of the process.

Fourth, as a wise man said, you are confusing "free markets" with "anarchy" (or the absence of the rule of law). Capitalism presupposes that there are rules and laws that govern human conduct because capitalism (which is synonymous with free markets for all practical purposes in this discussion) views man as evil. "Atomize everything" because power corrupts.

.

[Da Geezer]

My personal opinion is that this anti-PC stuff is just another way for white people to blame brown people for their problems. PC language is annoying and dweeby, but it serves a larger and valuable purpose

I credit you for your honesty. You consistently defend the "need" for political correctness. But you are utterly wrong about white people blaming brown people for their problems. It is not the conservative side that sees everything in terms of race. That is your side. But, as Hannibal said, our side has lost that argument. The education bureaucracy is fully in place and is mostly controlled by your side. Our side should have adopted what we consider squishy group-think long ago. Witness:

The banning of DDT in the late 60s was the most cunning and racist act of that time period. The white, first-world countries developed this very cheap and remarkably effective insecticide and applied it in their own nations to irradicate malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases. Then, ostensibly over a concern for the thickness of the egg shells of songbirds (!), those white majority countries banned the product and refused to sell it to third-world nations who could ill afford more expensive insecticides. Estimates are that two million mostly brown and black persons PER YEAR died in what can only be called eugenics at best and racial cleansing at worst

See. I can do it too. Teach this in schools for 10 years, and the progs will be putting the stuff on cereal in the morning.

[crashcourse]

not misleading

if you want further motivation to work start taking away some of those handouts. Medicaid is a handout

this population is motivated to not work for many reasons and some of it is just plain laziness. if you work in the health field I guarantee it least 1-2 times daily somebody is asking for further disability so they can increase their SS or VA benefits and become eligible for other programs like medicare. then you see them at the golf course or whatever hobby they have where that disability suddenly clears up. driving a better car then you

why go bust your ass for 50K when you can sit on your ass at home and get a tax free 50K

illegals occupy many of the jobs our forefathers worked at gladly years ago to feed their families and refuse to take government handouts. Trump partly was elected to start cleaning up that "I can't"attitude by taking away the candy many in government have been handing out for so long

[Hannibal]

TBF health insurance and health care are both ridculously expensive because the system is horribly broken. I have become more sympathetic to this as over the years I have noticed that being able to have more than two kids is starting to become a luxury that the country's middle class can afford less and less. This is one of the big reasons why birth rates in the West are declining. The Republican bill doesn't address the main structural problems with our system so I don't see much of a point in it. In fact, I think that it's one of the dumbest ideas in the history of politics. The Republicans will take complete ownership of a broken system that the Democrats were going to get the lions' share of the blame for. It's like bringing the Trojan Horse inside of the city walls despite the sign on it that says "Warning: Greeks Inside"

Universal health care, paid for your employer (if you have one), and coverage for preexisting conditions is here to stay. In other words, we're pretty much royally fucked so we might as well focus on mitigating the damage.

[Dr. Strangelove]

not misleading

if you want further motivation to work start taking away some of those handouts. Medicaid is a handout

this population is motivated to not work for many reasons and some of it is just plain laziness. if you work in the health field I guarantee it least 1-2 times daily somebody is asking for further disability so they can increase their SS or VA benefits and become eligible for other programs like medicare. then you see them at the golf course or whatever hobby they have where that disability suddenly clears up. driving a better car then you

why go bust your ass for 50K when you can sit on your ass at home and get a tax free 50K

illegals occupy many of the jobs our forefathers worked at gladly years ago to feed their families and refuse to take government handouts. Trump partly was elected to start cleaning up that "I can't"attitude by taking away the candy many in government have been handing out for so long

Correction: Trump was elected by many people who receive government handouts that are utterly convinced they themselves totally deserve the help, but millions of other people don't and need to be kicked off the system.

Socialism for some (mainly working class whites) and social darwinism for the 'undeserving'

[entropy]

Like most things, Political Correctness had a purpose.. a purpose that most would find necessary. I'm not sure I agree that purpose still remains. It has "evolved" into a tool for promoting thought and to control.

..but I'm of the opinion the right and the left really don't want freedom of thought or speech, they want to win. They want freedom of their thought and limits on conflicting beliefs. So, you may disagree.

[entropy]

Correction: Trump was elected by many people who receive government handouts that are utterly convinced they themselves totally deserve the help, but millions of other people don't and need to be kicked off the system.

Socialism for some (mainly working class whites) and social darwinism for the 'undeserving'

It's actually more basic than that... Americans believe handouts for others are being misused and unnecessary. Handouts for themselves are warranted and good for the country. Regardless of political leans, this seems true. We fill in the blanks about that which we have limited information but excuse that which we are well versed.

I forget where I read it but there was a great study on human behavior regarding imperfect information. We cast doubt and suspicion where we have limited info... it seems to be a human tendency.

[Hannibal]

It's actually more basic than that... Americans believe handouts for others are being misused and unnecessary. Handouts for themselves are warranted and good for the country.

If we define "others" as the 7 billlion people in the world who are not American citizens then I can get behind that logic.

[entropy]

A farmer with subsidized corn prices doesn't view that as a gov't handout, but will view welfare for someone living in the city of Detroit as freeloading.. Someone on food stamps in Chicago will feel it is justified due to the limited opportunity they face, but would suggest a corporate tax break to locate to a city is rich privilege. We can argue all day which "handouts" are valid and which ones should be cancelled, but at the core, the masses opinions come down to what is familiar vs what is not.. imo.

[entropy]

[ame]https://twitter.com/NWSKansasCity/status/844215124554645505[/ame]

a large fire in the KC metro was big enough to be seen on radar..

[Hannibal]

IMHO there is a substantial difference between being somebody who is a net burden on the system and being somebody who pays an effective tax rate of 20% instead of 25% because he takes advantage of tax breaks. The second guy might be benefitting from crappy policies but he's not on "welfare".

[Da Geezer]

Oracle:

....But yes, let's pay teachers $8/hr so the ceos can continue to do this. Fits right in with the swamp draining by your boy. Tools

No, I wouldn't support that hourly wage, but I do think we could cut back compensation to $ 50.00 per hour and that would be a fair starting pay.