Jack Parkman

C'mon man. You can't get anything without a job......You might as well have a gun to your head and be forced to work. The only people that don't work are those shut out by the employers or have a spouse willing to support them. One of the biggest myths out there is that people that otherwise need to, choose not to work. That doesn't happen. People are shut out of the workforce because they're considered "undesirable" for one reason or another, whether that be past mistakes or something else entirely.

We have that. It's called Medicaid. Medicaid is what it is. Part of the issue is I don't believe in for-profit healthcare because insurance is an exclusionary product, and they behave in ways to make excuses to deny coverage, regardless of whether or not your doctor thinks that it's necessary. Also, did you know that they passed a bill in like 2012 or so that does not allow anyone to negotiate the price of drugs and medical procedures?

I don't believe in exploitative business models and they should be illegal and a violation of labor law. Sorry. It's not that he sucks at what he does, it's that his business model is faulty. Get a business model where the numbers actually work and are not exploitative. I think a lot of business models that are commonly accepted are unacceptable and unsustainable.

You don't seem to understand how the public option regardless of income works. You pay into the system based on income. It comes out of your taxes. For example, if you make between $75-$100k as a household in the current M4A bill, then you pay an extra 4k in taxes. For example, in the private insurance market place, average deductibles are in the $8-12k range, along with your monthly premiums, let's say around $600-800/month. If you end up in the hospital, you're paying 16-20k out of pocket before you get any coverage.

No, the minimum wage should be tied to cost of living among other things. However, if the convenience store owner can't afford to pay his employee a living wage.....then maybe he shouldn't be in business and his business model is bad? It's up to the owner to make the numbers work.

Thank you for proving my point for me. @Balta1701 is right. If you don't treat internet as a utility, people get left behind. Also, as fast as cell phone hotspots are, they are nowhere near as fast as gigabit or 10 gigabit internet that you get from an ISP.

Yup........that's what I mean by the welfare system subsidizing corporate profits.

That's a myth actually. The companies that pay their workers minimum wage are so profitable that even doubling it would barely put a dent into their profits. The only thing that raising the minimum wage does is puts more money in people's pockets. Go look at the study that was done in King County, WA after the minimum wage was raised to $15. The welfare system actually doesn't subsidize people......it subsidizes corporate profits.

Think of Maslow's Hierarchy of needs. When it comes to things that should be provided by the government: Food, if you can't afford it Shelter, if you can't afford it. A Public Option for healthcare if you want to use it.....regardless of income. Also, you can't function in the modern world without internet access, so I think that should be included in your utilities. Everyone should have access. Same with cell phones, they can be attached to your internet access. That's it.... HOWEVER: There are things that legislation could and should do to make the path to independence/the middle class as smooth as possible such as: 1. Reigning in college tuition and capping student loan interest rates at 1% 2. Strengthening workplace protections and labor laws.....making employers have to recognize a union if one wants to form. There should be no barriers to creating a union if the workers so choose. 3. Reigning in capitalism's excesses, by taking down corporations such as Amazon, Facebook, Google, and the big banks, also groups like Comcast, and cell phone providers, etc....competition leads to innovation. The Sherman Antitrust act is there for a reason.....use it. 4. Strong minimum wage laws and limits on how much a person can work during the week. 5. End the Independent contractor bullshit. That's just a way for an employer to skirt around paying benefits packages. 6. Instead of just handing out tax breaks to corporations like candy, instead make them earn them. If they reinvest in their employees, reinvest in their company..hire more people....things that actually help the economy.....If they do those things, then they get a tax break. 7. Make it easier for small businesses to compete on a macro level and grow......BREAK UP MONOPOLIES AND CARTELS!!! A huge thing is how businesses react to downturns in the economy in this culture.......instead of laying people off, everyone takes a pay cut...that's a more humane option.

There are people on one side of the aisle that continue not only to ignore human suffering, but actually enhance it. Bunch of sick sadists, they are. They couldn't give a flying fuck if people are dying. Did my donors make money last week? How much are they going to contribute?

Yup.....Plausible deniability. Lots of in person meetings that leave no record in discreet locations.

The way that you see what people actually want is on the state ballot initiatives. Things that seem to pass overwhelmingly Decriminalization of drugs/legalization of marijuana Raising the minimum wage Making healthcare more affordable so far..... What would also help is if economists would quit lying to the American people. More disposable income in the hands of more people is better for the economy than the wealthy continuing to hoard.

If I felt that there were a lot of people that actually wanted those things....yeah. I believe in the vision of Franklin D. Roosevelt. A necessitous man is not a free man. I have a very different definition of freedom than the modern GOP.

Not necessarily. I think there is a large portion of any country that is susceptible to propaganda though. It takes a keen eye to separate the facts from the bullshit. For example: Do I think that Putin has something on Trump? Yeah. Do I think the KGB interfered in US elections? Yeah. Do I think they're responsible for Trump being elected in 2016? No. We did that to ourselves.

There are no contribution limits anymore. Those were stripped by the Buckley vs. Valeo decision by SCOTUS in the mid 70s. In 2010 the SCOTUS stripped it even more with the Citizens United decision, saying that a donor can be anonymous and that campaign limits violated the 1st amendment, as money is speech. So therefore, you can have as much free speech as your money can buy.

There are people that don't give a fuck about democracy as long as they win their culture war.

A system in which elected officials are held accountable to the voters in their district/state rather than whomever can give them the most money for their campaign? Shit would get solved really quickly and bipartisanship would return. American Politics has turned into a culture war rather than actually solving the problems facing the country.

They both may be liars, but you know exactly who they are and who they serve despite what comes out of their mouth. What I mean is that they're transparent about who they are and what they stand for. They don't hide it.

That's because both parties are servants to the corporate interests and wealthy donors that finance their campaigns. What's good for the people doesn't matter, the only thing that both parties care about is how to keep getting donations. The GOP tells you exactly who they are. The Dems talk a good game, while walking the line of what they can actually give to the people without pissing off their donors. The reason why the GOP wins elections is that the public will vote for an honest asshole over a compassionate liar the majority of the time. The GOP pushes the envelope of how much of an asshole they can be before voters turn on them. But really, without campaign finance reform, we all have to realize that we are not either party's constituents. Those are the wealthy donors. Nothing substantial will change and our rights will continue to be eroded in the name of making a buck. If you don't reign in the excesses of capitalism, it will cannibalize democracy.

^^^^^^

Most willing to trade: Stiever/Madrigal/Cease Least willing to trade: Crochet/Vaughn/Kopech

What if taking Blackmon allows an acquisition of Marquez without trading a major prospect?

Yeah, Portillos is probably fake but it's fun, so let's roll with it. He's probably dead wrong.

Jimenez.

They might be tearing it down and they'd want the extra control that Vaughn provides.