Political Roundtable Part XXXIII

[Kanyewest]

People who argue politics and who have their health, their families, homes, gainful employment...

NVM

you'll note that the dem policies focus on people who don't have their health, families, home, gainful employment, etc.

you'll note that the republican policies focus on benefiting those who have it, at the expense and peril of those who don't.

fine, we don't use the words dem, republican. i don't think those exist anyway. establishment dems aren't going to promote social welfare, universal healthcare, curbing corporate greed, really they're neutral do-nothings. far left would enact policies (your bernies and AOCs). but the thing with the right is that they're going to actively harm the disenfranchised.

I guess Bernie and AOC are far left in this country although someone told me that Sanders specifically would be left of center in a European Nation.

But yeah I agree that not voting and or voting for Trump seems counter-productive in the short term. People were saying there was no difference between Hillary and Trump back in 2016 but as a result of Trump winning he has pulled the country even more to the right. Biden even kept some of Trump's policies in place (ie immigration plans) and now Trump is turning his attention to deporting American citizens.

Anyways here is Bernie and Jon Stewart talking it out for a bit on a podcast.

Watch on YouTube

;ab_channel=TheWeeklyShowwithJonStewart

[dobrojim]

[snip]
But yeah I agree that not voting and or voting for Trump seems counter-productive in the short term. People were saying there was no difference between Hillary and Trump back in 2016 but as a result of Trump winning he has pulled the country even more to the right. Biden even kept some of Trump's policies in place (ie immigration plans) and now Trump is turning his attention to deporting American citizens.

Anyways here is Bernie and Jon Stewart talking it out for a bit on a podcast.

Watch on YouTube

;ab_channel=TheWeeklyShowwithJonStewart

The worst long term consequence of Golfy winning in 2016 were Gorsuch, Cavanaugh and Barret.
Imagine how the court would look now if HRC had made those SCOTUS picks instead.
And barring unlikely SCOTUS reforms ie expansion, the court will suck for the rest of my life.

[Zonkerbl]

I was hoping the GOP would find themselves unable to win at the national level for another twenty years and they would wither away and die, and the Dem party would split into a moderate and a progressive wing.

I suppose the opposite could happen, the Democratic party could just wither away and die and the Republicans will split into wildly insane and somewhat less insane wings. But I don't think so, if the Dems wither away and die the Republicans will just surrender to authoritarianism, it's what they want.

I suppose the US will be like Russia under Putin. Other than the risk of being assassinated for leading the opposition party I actually have no idea what that's like or how it would be different than what we have now. I assume the GOP will continue to have "elections," it's just they'll start to win by suspiciously wider and wider margins and there will be no recognizable moment when we stopped having "real" elections

[bsilver]

Almost posted the assassination, but thought it may be too-much, the idiot went to Starbucks and they have a good look at his face from other security camera footage, I wonder if the killer will end up being just some angry guy who was phucked by Big Insurance.

I am surprised it took this long for something like this to happen.

The for profit healthcare system in the United States is evil and rotten to the core.

Agree, read the comments on social media about this story, people are fed-up with this corrupt system.

About 50 years ago I worked in insurance claims, for 3 years. It was Workman's Comp insurance, but the issues are similar.
Most cases are routine. A claim is made and insurance pays for it. Then there's the gray areas. The insurance company will routinely fight these cases. In Workmans Comp, an example would be a heart attack at work. The claimant's doctor would say the cause was work related stress. The insurance doctor would say it was an underlying condition and work had nothing to do with the heart attack.

Is the system corrupt? Maybe. The doctor wasn't paid to come up with their findings, but the doctors on each side know they wouldn't get referals if they couldn't count on the doctor's opinion.

The corruption goes both ways. I used to handle longshoreman cases. There wasn't enough work, so workers would fake or milk injuries to get Workman's comp. Their lawyers and doctors were part of the scam. At one point, for each longshoreman dollar paid in work wages, a dollar was paid in Workman's comp.

The system was disillusioning. It was part of the reason I left. I also knew insurance was not going to be a rewarding career.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

[snip]
But yeah I agree that not voting and or voting for Trump seems counter-productive in the short term. People were saying there was no difference between Hillary and Trump back in 2016 but as a result of Trump winning he has pulled the country even more to the right. Biden even kept some of Trump's policies in place (ie immigration plans) and now Trump is turning his attention to deporting American citizens.

Anyways here is Bernie and Jon Stewart talking it out for a bit on a podcast.

Watch on YouTube

;ab_channel=TheWeeklyShowwithJonStewart

The worst long term consequence of Golfy winning in 2016 were Gorsuch, Cavanaugh and Barret.
Imagine how the court would look now if HRC had made those SCOTUS picks instead.
And barring unlikely SCOTUS reforms ie expansion, the court will suck for the rest of my life.

They're aged 57, 59, and 52, respectively. All three are younger than I am.

They will likely outive me. Too bad Kamala lost because black lackey apologist Clarence Thomas is 76. He hates the color of his own skin.

[dobrojim]

Logical culmination of SCOTUS’ desire for an oligarchy, kleptocracy

Threat of Musk’s wealth against any GOP member that opposes one of his cabinet picks.

[FAH1223]

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

Trump praising Sinema and Manchin
https://time.com/7201565/person-of-the-year-2024-donald-trump-transcript/

Do you support ending the filibuster?

I want to leave the Supreme Court the way it is, most importantly. The filibuster is a mechanism that you're not going to totally overturn every single thing that was ever done. You know, it makes it very difficult in the Senate. It makes it very, very difficult to overturn things. Now, in one way, that's good. In another way, maybe you'd say it's bad. But you know, some of the things—I have great respect for Manchin and for Sinema, for the fact that they really held out. Look, she lost her career because of it. And you could say he maybe lost his career because of it. Actually, he became hotter because of it. And then he made the mistake of going for the Inflation Creation Act—which is my nickname, by the way, for the Inflation Reduction Act. Had he not gone for that because he was very popular. But no, I—and I think we have to do, we have. Our Supreme Court was under siege, and perhaps it still is, but now they don't have, now the other side doesn't have the power to do. I mean, I've heard as many as 25 justices, and they were all psyched. They were going to do a number on our Supreme Court that now it's not going to happen.

[AFM]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/13/health/aaron-siri-rfk-jr-vaccines.html

"Kennedy’s Lawyer Has Asked the F.D.A. to Revoke Approval of the Polio Vaccine"

[dobrojim]

I'm just barely old enough to remember when the polio vaccine was a new thing
and remember getting a sugarcube (I think that's how it was delivered).
Families ie parents had lived in great fear of this disease in the years
that immediately preceded my generation and of course, famously, FDR.
We were really grateful for the vaccine. <sigh>

(the youtube link below is also posted to the Life thread)

related topic

Watch on YouTube

[FAH1223]

Read on Twitter

?s=46

Read on Twitter

?s=46

[Zonkerbl]

Keystone kops in the house leading another "incompetence driven government shut down" effort. Like, not out of principle or anything. Just "can't get it done"-ness

[Zonkerbl]

After throwing the election to the Nazis, the WaPo has the nerve to cancel my gov subscription and demand I start paying.

Lol. LMFAO.

[pancakes3]

Keystone kops in the house leading another "incompetence driven government shut down" effort. Like, not out of principle or anything. Just "can't get it done"-ness

and blaming dems

[closg00]

Read on Twitter

[Benjammin]

^^^But I thought that Congress was a Dementia Care Home for several of its members...

[dobrojim]

^^^ my question is who is in charge of the process to replace her? The answer
to that might explain why her condition and her location was a secret.

Never mind...the piece says her replacement is a former TX state rep.
I guess the secrecy was simply to protect her privacy whatever the
consequences of that are.

[FAH1223]

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

[Benjammin]

It couldn't happen to a better group of people to see this nativist crap causing dissension.

Sent from my Pixel 9 Pro XL using Tapatalk

[closg00]

The Great Replacement Theory .....to benefit the new American Oligarchs

[TGW]

So basically the right split into two factions, tech right and right right, and the tech right is like "hey we need h-1b visa people to do the jobs," and the right right was like "no you need to hire americans," and the tech right is like "but you guys are (Please Use More Appropriate Word)," and the…

I chuckled at this for a good two minutes....

The company I work for uses H-1b visas to minimize their costs. Like most of our tech sector, they outsource those positions to cut costs on hiring an American. Globalization means you can shop around for candidates on a global level.

Americans definitely have the knowledge to do the job. It's just that an Indian or Chinese candidate will do it for less. Basic logic says pay less for the same output.