Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Da Geezer]

Talent:

Well, win or lose the Senate, the Rs can still filibuster any Supreme Court nominee...

That is assuming the filibuster is agreed upon when the Dems organize the Senate. I agree that the Rs have a good chance of regaining the Senate in 2018, so the Dems will do what they did with other Federal Court appointments: they'll do away with the filibuster.

[Hannibal]

The Republicans won't filibuster shit. They will threaten and then the Liberal Media will roll out the "racism", "sexism", "mean-spirited", etc accusations and they will cave instantly. They always do.

[Da Geezer]

You have a major party nominee claiming the erecting...

I think Trump's erecting is functioning fine. It's his brain that I worry about.

[Wild Hoss]

I think Trump's erecting is functioning fine.

Disturbing

[CGVT]

87.4%

http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/

It's rigged!

Damn liberal media!

[hack]

Careful - any mention of erections may upset our southern friend here.

[hack]

Geezer, that number is astonishing isn't it? Goes to show how shallow their economy is. Appropriate a few key energy companies and you're almost halfway there, probably. Sure does make a mockery of any claims of socialism here at home.

I agree with you that Obama's lead-from-behind approach has really helped Putin. That said, I don't know what else you'd do. You can't run Middle East policy according to Russia policy.

[froot loops]

As I've said many times, I'm not voting for Trump. I just try to add some rational balance to the hyper-left discussions here.

Froot: did the FBI say that the Russians did the Wikileaks hack?

Techincally, the FBI is investigating it and not on the record. The official statement where the US government says Russia is involved with the WikiLeaks hack was a joint statement from DHS and the Director of National Intelligence. It was issued 10/7.

The FBI also believes the Russians were behind the hack to the Florida election system.

[AlabamAlum]

I'll put a definition to my prediction so that it is clear. The Rs will regain control of the Senate and pick up at least 10 seats in the House. Binary prediction. You can agree or disagree. I assume, for now, you disagree. Again, we'll see.

Why do you think this? Just good candidates in those races or a pendulum shift?

[Jeff Buchanan]

They're not going to get to single payer from here, and HRC knows it; that boat sailed in 2009. That's why, IMO, she's already talking in ways that sound like the ACA's organs are for sale even though she is one of SP's champions...trade that thing in while it still has value.

I think this is accurate. In discussing the issue of the ACA and what HRH plans to do with it, here's a link that contains another link to her proposals. The source or the content in it is immaterial. The link is material:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hillary-clinton-obamacare_us_5602b956e4b00310edf954cd

A word on the ACA. It sucks. It was poorly constructed from the beginning and was made worse by the typical horse trading that went on to get it passed by the Congress. My personal opinion is that it can't be fixed.

That is not to say I think the current mechanism for delivering health care is good. It too sucks and the reason it has not changed much since just after WWII when it began to take shape is because there are too many stake holders in it with vested interests.

If you believe that a country's citizens should have some form of healthcare available to them with federal government involvement to insure affordability, if there ever was a place where market capitalism has no place whatsoever in setting prices and determining costs, this is one. If you don't believe Government has some role in doing this, I don't know what to tell you nor do I wish to engage in argument about it.

I wish I could tell you that I think government involvement in just about any endeavor undertaken to provide services to its citizens is efficient and cost effective. It isn't and that gets thrown out almost every time as a reason for not having some form of a single payer health care delivery system for everyone that is like Medicare for the over 65s. We need to get over this hump and start thinking outside the box.

Medicare is a well established and I would judge an effective system for delivering health care that IS fixable when it comes to lowering drug prices or controlling the cost of getting care. The worst part, IMO, yet an entirely fixable one, of the current Medicare system is Part D - pays for a portion of prescription drug costs. That's as good of a place to start than any. It's complicated and with a lot of history. Here's a read to inform yourself about it if you're interested. Read the first link first. A little biased but it gives the history of the shit sandwich the Feds are in as a result of - in the writer's opinion - lobbyists from big pharma influencing the legislation that brought about Medicare Part D (and I fully agree with this). The second link is from HHS and clarifies the complexities and intended objectives of negotiating drug pricing:

http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2016/02/01/how-would-government-negotiation-of-medicare-part-d-drug-prices-work/

http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2016/02/01/how-would-government-negotiation-of-medicare-part-d-drug-prices-work/

[froot loops]

The Republicans won't filibuster shit. They will threaten and then the Liberal Media will roll out the "racism", "sexism", "mean-spirited", etc accusations and they will cave instantly. They always do.

Does that mean using the words of their standard bearer?

[entropy]

The Republicans won't filibuster shit. They will threaten and then the Liberal Media will roll out the "racism", "sexism", "mean-spirited", etc accusations and they will cave instantly. They always do.

This...


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[entropy]

Protests about police brutality turn into issues about the American flag... so "we" don't have to deal with the conversation.

Leaked emails and videos that prove how corrupt our political system has become is turned into an anti-Russia and security issue... so "we" don't have to deal with the gov't of the few.


Tails really do wag dogs.


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[froot loops]

They haven't caved on Garland. They didn't really cave throughout Obama's Presidency. They did an outstanding job on obstructing Obama at every turn. They tur ed the debt ceiling into a ridiculous game of chicken, putting the economy at risk. I'm not sure exactly what else they could do but they will come up with something.

And really this thing with Garland is unprecedented. It has not been done before and there has been no political cost, there will be no political cost if they stonewall Clinton.

[entropy]

I think they will cave on the Supreme Court nomination.. they will say no to a couple and then say yes. The position won't be open for 4 yrs.



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