Political Roundtable Part XVI

[stilldropin20]

Aight, got me a firestick n im headed to star wars. May the Swartz be with you all!

Sent from my SM-N920T using RealGM mobile app

[TGW]

Before I went to China I had a cardiac incident called for ambulance rushed to hospital which made sure I was stable. In 2 days was in for surgery to put in a stent. Spent one more night in hospital was released and had follow-ups with stress tests. At the time of the incident I was running and cycling everyday in perfect health it was a hereditary problem.

My total out of pocket was $25 the portion of the ambulance cost OHIP didn't cover. The service I received was top notch and equipmnt a surgury staff would rival any in the USA.

Glad you're doing well, cammac. Wish we had that system here in the states. You might have died if you were here in the states...I used to work for a cardiologist in Washington D.C. (actually one of the individuals who invented the stent) and that procedure costs $30,000. If you don't have the cash, they don't operate.

[cammac]

Before I went to China I had a cardiac incident called for ambulance rushed to hospital which made sure I was stable. In 2 days was in for surgery to put in a stent. Spent one more night in hospital was released and had follow-ups with stress tests. At the time of the incident I was running and cycling everyday in perfect health it was a hereditary problem.

My total out of pocket was $25 the portion of the ambulance cost OHIP didn't cover. The service I received was top notch and equipmnt a surgury staff would rival any in the USA.

Glad you're doing well, cammac. Wish we had that system here in the states. You might have died if you were here in the states...I used to work for a cardiologist in Washington D.C. (actually one of the individuals who invented the stent) and that procedure costs $30,000. If you don't have the cash, they don't operate.

Its a major bonus in this troubled world that fortunately Canadians don't have to worry about.
Most American haven't the real concept of socialism they believe it is some type of communism when I lived in China the health insurance is very similar to the USA.

[cammac]

1% in Canada and USA
http://business.financialpost.com/news/economy/canadas-top-earners-still-a-modest-lot-compared-to-u-s

[FAH1223]

Read on Twitter

[cammac]

The holiday season is the time to give!
Which the Republican tax plan certainly does!
In the boardrooms and mansions of the rich lots of caviar & champagne!
But for lots of Americans it will be rather Scrooge like!
Even the few moderate Republicans are losing all ethics in this budget shame on Susan Collins.
Just a few bad things that await people.

Taxing scholarship and deferred tuition as income even though it is never eligible as salary for the student;
No longer allowing students to deduct student debt on taxes;
Making it possible for student debt to be transferred AFTER death to heirs, parents, and spouses;
Eliminate deduction for teachers buying their own supplies (every education major I know has been forced to do this by the poverty of the inner-city schools);
Eliminating the estate tax so billionaires can transfer billions to their heirs without any inconvenience thus accelerating class division beyond the ability to repair it;
Money laundering for corporations that repatriate funds (temporarily of course) at a lower 7% tax rate;
10 million Americans lose health insurance;

Nearly 5 million children losing health insurance;

Defund cancer treatment for medicare patients (what a nice Christmas present! Really, What would Jesus Do, Republicans?)
Eliminate deductions for state and local taxes;
Eliminate deductions for fire, earthquake damage... but not hurricane damage;
Eliminate mortgage deductions;
Big corporations get a tax cut from 35% to 20%;
Individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act;
Allowing oil drilling in Alaska’s national wilderness (?!);
Saying parents can save for their “unborn child’s college expenses,” thus defining LIFE. (Yeah, they are trying to take a step toward making abortion illegal through a tax reform bill.

This is a good read!!!!!!
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/12/14/1724489/-Consequences-for-Bad-Faith-Why-Republicans-Aren-t-Learning-from-their-Mistakes-and-how-to-fix-it

Also a interesting piece by 538 on corporate tax rates
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-gops-corporate-tax-cut-may-not-be-as-big-as-it-looks/

[gtn130]

Also, DC, you should look into Chattanooga's municipal broadband offering before you declare that any government involvement is counter to innovation.

https://www.thenation.com/article/chattanooga-was-a-typical-post-industrial-city-then-it-began-offering-municipal-broadband/

Why would not supporting net neutrality put me at logger heads on this issue? If anything this goes to prove the point, no? I would have no problem with investments in infrastructure - block grants if you will to state and local governments.

Or tax breaks for Spacex - although I hate tax carveouts.

Personally, I think that net neutrality was set so they could slap the same fee structure on that they slapped on phones. A very regressive tax.

I think not treating the internet like a utility is by far the best way to continue to innovate - since we don't really know what that innovation will look like

My point, though, is that nobody can really innovate or compete in the current environment because there's no realistic point of entry into the market. Google tried and failed because it's simply too expensive to build and deploy in cities. If Google can't break into the market, there can't be any reasonable expectation that consumers have any 'choice' here in who serves them their internet. If my ISP decides to throttle Netflix to the point of it being unusable, my option isn't to switch to a different ISP - there's only one in my area!

I genuinely don't see a path to competition in this space without government involvement.

[closg00]

Read on Twitter

If anyone has the back-story on this embarrassing example of political corruption, please share/

[closg00]

Before I went to China I had a cardiac incident called for ambulance rushed to hospital which made sure I was stable. In 2 days was in for surgery to put in a stent. Spent one more night in hospital was released and had follow-ups with stress tests. At the time of the incident I was running and cycling everyday in perfect health it was a hereditary problem.

My total out of pocket was $25 the portion of the ambulance cost OHIP didn't cover. The service I received was top notch and equipmnt a surgury staff would rival any in the USA.

Glad you're doing well, cammac. Wish we had that system here in the states. You might have died if you were here in the states...I used to work for a cardiologist in Washington D.C. (actually one of the individuals who invented the stent) and that procedure costs $30,000. If you don't have the cash, they don't operate.

Yup,camas would be dead here, or he would have a Go Fund Me account going to raise money for the operation...hoping he doesn't die before he can raise the cash.

[TGW]

DCKings....you gonna learn today.

When your internet gets slowed down to the point where your forced to upgrade to the "platinum speed" package from your ISP, and you can't get to realgm because it's not part of your "package", then you'll see why you're on the wrong side of the debate.

[dckingsfan]

Also, DC, you should look into Chattanooga's municipal broadband offering before you declare that any government involvement is counter to innovation.

https://www.thenation.com/article/chattanooga-was-a-typical-post-industrial-city-then-it-began-offering-municipal-broadband/

Why would not supporting net neutrality put me at logger heads on this issue? If anything this goes to prove the point, no? I would have no problem with investments in infrastructure - block grants if you will to state and local governments.

Or tax breaks for Spacex - although I hate tax carveouts.

Personally, I think that net neutrality was set so they could slap the same fee structure on that they slapped on phones. A very regressive tax.

I think not treating the internet like a utility is by far the best way to continue to innovate - since we don't really know what that innovation will look like

My point, though, is that nobody can really innovate or compete in the current environment because there's no realistic point of entry into the market. Google tried and failed because it's simply too expensive to build and deploy in cities. If Google can't break into the market, there can't be any reasonable expectation that consumers have any 'choice' here in who serves them their internet. If my ISP decides to throttle Netflix to the point of it being unusable, my option isn't to switch to a different ISP - there's only one in my area!

I genuinely don't see a path to competition in this space without government involvement.

See, the thing about innovation...

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/11/spacex-plans-worldwide-satellite-internet-with-low-latency-gigabit-speed/

And block grants to states/local communities to flesh out their own infrastructure seems reasonable. Why create another (very political) bureaucracy?

[gtn130]

Why would not supporting net neutrality put me at logger heads on this issue? If anything this goes to prove the point, no? I would have no problem with investments in infrastructure - block grants if you will to state and local governments.

Or tax breaks for Spacex - although I hate tax carveouts.

Personally, I think that net neutrality was set so they could slap the same fee structure on that they slapped on phones. A very regressive tax.

I think not treating the internet like a utility is by far the best way to continue to innovate - since we don't really know what that innovation will look like

My point, though, is that nobody can really innovate or compete in the current environment because there's no realistic point of entry into the market. Google tried and failed because it's simply too expensive to build and deploy in cities. If Google can't break into the market, there can't be any reasonable expectation that consumers have any 'choice' here in who serves them their internet. If my ISP decides to throttle Netflix to the point of it being unusable, my option isn't to switch to a different ISP - there's only one in my area!

I genuinely don't see a path to competition in this space without government involvement.

See, the thing about innovation...

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/11/spacex-plans-worldwide-satellite-internet-with-low-latency-gigabit-speed/

Come on, man. Has Tesla turned a profit yet? How's the Hyperloop coming? Elon Musk has lots of cool ideas, but literally none of them have been categorically successful yet, and most of them range from highly unrealistic to facing massive viability-threatening obstacles.

But even still - what is the timeline for this? In ~10 years we'll have global satellite internet, so we're all good here? Not a strong argument my dude.

[Wizardspride]

Read on Twitter

[dckingsfan]

My point, though, is that nobody can really innovate or compete in the current environment because there's no realistic point of entry into the market. Google tried and failed because it's simply too expensive to build and deploy in cities. If Google can't break into the market, there can't be any reasonable expectation that consumers have any 'choice' here in who serves them their internet. If my ISP decides to throttle Netflix to the point of it being unusable, my option isn't to switch to a different ISP - there's only one in my area!

I genuinely don't see a path to competition in this space without government involvement.

See, the thing about innovation...

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/11/spacex-plans-worldwide-satellite-internet-with-low-latency-gigabit-speed/

Come on, man. Has Tesla turned a profit yet? How's the Hyperloop coming? Elon Musk has lots of cool ideas, but literally none of them have been categorically successful yet, and most of them range from highly unrealistic to facing massive viability-threatening obstacles.

But even still - what is the timeline for this? In ~10 years we'll have global satellite internet, so we're all good here? Not a strong argument my dude.

Tesla and Spacex are two different companies

Remember, they said the same about Amazon.

And you think a bureaucracy would move faster?

Also, why can't local municipalities compete?

[gtn130]

See, the thing about innovation...

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/11/spacex-plans-worldwide-satellite-internet-with-low-latency-gigabit-speed/

Come on, man. Has Tesla turned a profit yet? How's the Hyperloop coming? Elon Musk has lots of cool ideas, but literally none of them have been categorically successful yet, and most of them range from highly unrealistic to facing massive viability-threatening obstacles.

But even still - what is the timeline for this? In ~10 years we'll have global satellite internet, so we're all good here? Not a strong argument my dude.

Tesla and Spacex are two different companies

Remember, they said the same about Amazon.

And you think a bureaucracy would move faster?

They are two different companies, but they share a lot of common traits. My point was that Elon Musk claiming to having a solution for something means basically nothing.

And yeah, building public municipal broadband would be faster than SpaceX building global satellite internet by many orders of magnitude. This isn't debatable.

[Wizardspride]

Read on Twitter

[FAH1223]

Read on Twitter

[JWizmentality]

Read on Twitter

If anyone has the back-story on this embarrassing example of political corruption, please share/

Sorry, this is banana republic type sh*t. Sorry America, there is nothing exceptional about you.

[dckingsfan]

Come on, man. Has Tesla turned a profit yet? How's the Hyperloop coming? Elon Musk has lots of cool ideas, but literally none of them have been categorically successful yet, and most of them range from highly unrealistic to facing massive viability-threatening obstacles.

But even still - what is the timeline for this? In ~10 years we'll have global satellite internet, so we're all good here? Not a strong argument my dude.

Tesla and Spacex are two different companies

Remember, they said the same about Amazon.

And you think a bureaucracy would move faster?

They are two different companies, but they share a lot of common traits. My point was that Elon Musk claiming to having a solution for something means basically nothing.

And yeah, building public municipal broadband would be faster than SpaceX building global satellite internet by many orders of magnitude. This isn't debatable.

Of course it is debatable. And you don't need net neutrality to build municipal broadband or for Elon to do something or for someone else to do the work.

The cost of service, IMO, would rise faster with the taxes that would be applied under net neutrality than on its own. But I guess, if your point is that we could use those taxes (which will inevitably come) to redistribute bandwidth then okay. I just don't think it would be cost effective - nor do I think the FCC could react fast enough to changing market conditions to not be a burden.

[cammac]

Before I went to China I had a cardiac incident called for ambulance rushed to hospital which made sure I was stable. In 2 days was in for surgery to put in a stent. Spent one more night in hospital was released and had follow-ups with stress tests. At the time of the incident I was running and cycling everyday in perfect health it was a hereditary problem.

My total out of pocket was $25 the portion of the ambulance cost OHIP didn't cover. The service I received was top notch and equipmnt a surgury staff would rival any in the USA.

Glad you're doing well, cammac. Wish we had that system here in the states. You might have died if you were here in the states...I used to work for a cardiologist in Washington D.C. (actually one of the individuals who invented the stent) and that procedure costs $30,000. If you don't have the cash, they don't operate.

Yup,camas would be dead here, or he would have a Go Fund Me account going to raise money for the operation...hoping he doesn't die before he can raise the cash.

If it wasn't for universal healthcare I would have had insurance.
But my story was in response to popper about a example of universal healthcare.
I could afford private insurance but many couldn't thats why single payer is a better solution.