Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[SeattleLionsFan]

Talent,
I have no doubt that the rhetoric hurts electoral chances. Who doesn't want to be conned and lied to, instead of facing hard truths. No one. Doesn't make it any less true and maybe the snowflakes should suck it up.

[SeattleLionsFan]

Enemies of das Volk!!

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/...08293516632065

He's just going right down the line. America Uber Alles!

[AlabamAlum]

MIDDLE-MIDDLE??

HOW DARE YOU! HOW FUCKING DARE YOU!!

[hack]

I want the Ds to be the Bill Clinton Ds again. I can even make my peace w/ Obamacare and maybe even come to support it. But those Ds aren't ever coming back. So this is mostly just me bemoaning the loss of my party, a loss made doubly awful because the Rs simultaneously turned into Populist hot shit.

Agreed they are not coming back, and just IMO but they should not. It made sense at the time -- Cold War over, End of History, Market Democracy is the final/ideal form, etc. etc. No wonder Clinton liked triangulation. The costs have been clear. Freidman economics don't work for anybody but the people who are already rich. It's a Banana Republic now, and we now have Banana Republicans to fit. Ds need to own economics. They can. Just point the finger where everybody knows it needs to be pointed.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Disclaimer: I don't think Trump is Hitler. But this is one of my new favorite twitter accounts. Trump's words spoken by the Red Skull

[ame]https://twitter.com/PresVillain/status/832731459953635328[/ame]

[Dr. Strangelove]

[ame]https://twitter.com/PresVillain/status/832221609490579456[/ame]

[Dr. Strangelove]

Frank Luntz has pretty much stuck to his guns on hating Trump

[ame]https://twitter.com/FrankLuntz/status/832681198870753280[/ame]

[Dr. Strangelove]

Turns out Ford will open two new plants in Mexico as planned. The plant they are opening Michigan was never going to Mexico in the first place. They let Trump claim he 'saved those jobs!" in order to get him off their back

http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/02/17/ford-goes-forward-with-plans-to-build-plants-in-mexico-after-all/

[Whitley]

Turns out Ford will open two new plants in Mexico as planned. The plant they are opening Michigan was never going to Mexico in the first place. They let Trump claim he 'saved those jobs!" in order to get him off their back

http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/02...ico-after-all/

Not really news. These adding of jobs have been in the works for businesses for months. But they were willing to let Trump take the credit to try and get some good will from him down the line.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Petraeus now saying not interested in NSA job. Rumor is same reasons as Harward...Trump will not let NSA director choose his own staff. Underlings will be Trump loyalists.

[entropy]

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/02/17/chicago-gang-members-say-more-police-wont-stop-murders.amp.html

Chicago gang violence


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Jeff Buchanan]

The two links below shed some light on the detals of ACA, Repeal and Replace approach. The first link comes from the NYT so it has a lefty bias to it. It's still a good piece just not enough substance (and also contains the .pdf link I've provided below).

To understand Repeal and Replace (the R's Health Care Reform plan), you have to drill down to the details of the regulations and legislation. The second link does a little of that (not enough, IMO) that if you can manage to skim through all the R hype about how great it is and how shitty the ACA is.

It seems to me that what is going on here is that the administration wants to make the cost of government funded health care (Medicaid and Medicare) sustainable over time and default to the states how they are going to do that. Secondly, the administration wants to shape how the health care market place makes health insurance available to persons who are not in employer sponsored plans.

I can see the regulatory and legislative steps necessary to do both of these things. IMO, the federally mandated Medicaid expansion - with states allowed to opt out and the Health Care Exchanges (the ACA's mechanisms to do this) haven't worked well at all. Medicaid expansion, in the states that opted in - did expand health coverage to more vulnerable populations; the exchanges have not turned out to be effective in expanding coverage for others who don't have employer based plans. It remains to be seen if the R plan to do that will be any better.

I don't see any solid stuff in the R's plan that insures market forces can be applied to reduce costs to individuals who want to buy coverage and to employers who provide it for employees. Looks like the R solution to do that is primarily through Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and I agree with the NYT take on these that folks who have disposable income are going to benefit while those that don't are not ...... that a whole lot of folks who don't qualify for Medicaid or Medicare who are more or less left hanging.

I'm all for eliminating barriers to the sale of health insurance plans across state boarders that is something I don't see in the R's plan, although there has been talk about it. I do know that the health insurance business lobby has strongly opposed any legislation or regulation that opens the door to competition across state lines and why this is so is another discussion.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/16/us/politics/affordable-care-act-congress.html

https://gallery.mailchimp.com/301a28247b80ab82279e92afb/files/5c7c3226-a149-4842-ab43-707b7b4720fc/Healthcare_Policy_Brief.pdf?utm_source=HouseGOP%20Staff%20List&utm_campaign=ccecba1704-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_02_16&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f9e806e009-ccecba1704-132524909

[Dr. Strangelove]

All of Trump's Cabinet members should come to grips that Trump will not let them develop power bases of their own...or be little more than figureheads

Ben Carson "speechless" after Trump fires his good friend and top aide for having written an anti-Trump Op-Ed before the election

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/320194-carson-speechless-after-top-aide-fired-from-hud-over-anti-trump-op-ed

[Dr. Strangelove]

Trump on target to far outspend Obama in travel/security costs for himself and his family. Obama spent $97M over 8 years per hostile sources. Trump and his family are already well over $10M. I'm guessing Judicial Watch, which regularly lambasted the Obamas for wasting taxpayer money on vacations and travel, won't be quite as aggressive going after Trump.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/320212-report-trump-on-track-to-spend-more-on-travel-than-obama

[Da Geezer]

HACK:

Freidman economics don't work for anybody but the people who are already rich. It's a Banana Republic now, and we now have Banana Republicans to fit. Ds need to own economics. They can. Just point the finger where everybody knows it needs to be pointed.

And where should that finger point, pray tell?

Is there any difference between "Friedman economics" and capitalism?