Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[iam416]

Clapper didn't know of Comey's investigations, if you weren't privy to those investigations you would have no idea. So no, you're wrong read up. Even DJT took down that blatant lie from his header last night.

Thanks, Froot. So, Clapper still unequivocally has seen zero evidence of any Trump-campaign collusion with Russia?

[iam416]

The "pre-existing" lie of the left: http://www.nationalreview.com/articl...ts-are-telling

Duh.

[hack]

That rhetoric is jumping the gun, but serious investigations that aren't being done by compromised investigators should be undertaken. Hacking like this by a foreign power is very serious and should be a concern for any US politician. The Republican senators yesterday besides Ben Sasse did not seem concerned at all about the Russian hacks. One thing is for certain, even if they have found something damaging, Hillary Clinton won't be awarded the Presidency nor will Merrick Garland get a hearing.

But for then to put their heads in the sand regarding the Russian hacks says one thing, "The end justifies the means." That is what their actions are saying.

It seems like the RussiaWatch people are pretty sure the FBI is working on that and that the big hammer is coming down soon. Again, I'll believe it when I see it. There's so much money on the table for the 1% here that they would stand to lose.

[Jeff Buchanan]

The "pre-existing" lie of the left: http://www.nationalreview.com/articl...ts-are-telling

Duh.

Fundamentally, I don't have a problem with the article. However, how this works is not easy to understand as is implied by the author of it.

The complexity of coverage for pre-existing conditions comes in the form of the ability of the state's to request a waiver to the federal regulation that, in general, insurers cannot refuse coverage because of a pre-existing condition.

While the circumstances by which a waiver might be granted seem straight forward, I have to read them a couple of times to be clear about them and if I'm a HS graduate, unemployed or minimally employed and I'm 60 with heart disease and diabetes, and I'm shopping for commercial insurance though the exchanges, I dunno.

I do disagree with this assertion at face value:

The Obama Care exchanges are failing becasue of the Law's tangle of regulations that drove up costs and made insurance economically unappealing to the young and healthy.

The ACA exchanges are failing because the mandates were challenged in the courts. I think one can argue that the young and healthy aren't enrolling but that is, at baseline, why the exchanges can't work in providing low cost coverage for everyone.

One other thing ...... while it's true that Medicaid beneficiaries are not affected, that some states did not expand Medicaid coverage and those that did will, by funding restrictions for Medicaid, be forced to reduce coverage. I don't know the estimated numbers but it is not "a fraction of a fraction of a fraction" that are going to be searching for essentially unaffordable health care insurance on the broken exchanges.

I do think there is something in the current AHCA that provides some kind of relieve for that but I'll be damned if I can understand it. Talk about a "tangle of regulations."

[crashcourse]

4500 a month after taxes along with free medical and dental and commissary and PX privledges along with military discounts on a lot of things and travel stuff is not a bad life for 40 hrs a week

unfortunately the military is more like a 60 hr a week job--as an E6 he's probably been deployed twice for 2 years without his family

pros and cons--its not gravy on the outside either

[iam416]

Jeff:

The mandate was upheld by the Court. The problem is that the fines are either too small or a paper tiger in terms of enforcement. That is, it's a problem if you want young folks enrolled.

[KidD]

4500 a month after taxes along with free medical and dental and commissary and PX privledges along with military discounts on a lot of things and travel stuff is not a bad life for 40 hrs a week

unfortunately the military is more like a 60 hr a week job--as an E6 he's probably been deployed twice for 2 years without his family

pros and cons--its not gravy on the outside either

PX is nice, commissary is only useful for meat, everything else is negligible difference from Wal-Mart or your local grocery. Military discounts can be useful. But you're kidding yourself if you think I've deployed twice. I've been to the Middle East 4 times for a total of 46 months. I've done a 6 month training rotation in the Baltics, got back in October from 9 months training in South Korea and am leaving for the Baltics for 9 more months at the end of this year. So a total of 5 out of 12 years not on American soil, and that's not counting the months of field time or the NTC/JRTC rotations.

Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for my pay. I know it could be worse. We get lots of extra days off, I don't pay for my healthcare. Though my Battalion's PA got his medical degree in dermatology, so good luck getting his to diagnose much of anything worth value.

I will say as a final note from my soapbox; the American people are not the problem, the politicians are. At the first sign of defense budget resistance they start talking about cutting cost by lowering pay increases, taking benefits and cutting soldier programs. Not big budget "future forces" programs, half of which will never see production. Over 8 years of President Obama being in office we had 2 pay increases that actually kept pace with inflation his first year (A Bush budget) and this last year.

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk

[froot loops]

Banana Republic time

[Dr. Strangelove]

Holy damn shit...

[Dr. Strangelove]

Trump's people are citing events that took place before the election as reason's for Comey being fired. So why wasn't he fired on Day 1?

Trump needed time to learn what Comey is investigating, is my guess...

[The Oracle]

Well oiled machine here.

[hack]

All the "Trump is a dictator-in-waiting" people predicted this. He keeps on passing all the mileposts on the road to dictator. I still think he's just a kleptocrat, but it's getting harder to ignore the warnings.

[Dr. Strangelove]

When Trump says he's firing Comey for being unfair to Hillary Clinton during the Election, I'm sure he's telling the truth

[froot loops]

I know right

In Trump's letter he is projecting, he mentions about comey not investigating 3 time.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Fox is presenting James Kallstrom as 'someone who knew Jim Comey well". He went on a diatribe condemning Comey as betraying the FBI.

Here's his wiki page.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Kallstrom

Kallstrom is a Trump supporter who last worked for the FBI in 1997 and is a regular guest on Limbaugh's show. If he 'knows Comey well", I'm Bonnie Prince Charlie. This is a good example of how Fox totally misrepresents it's 'experts' when it suits their needs.