StrangeSox

Cable news is bad, folks (except for CNN chyron person)

I'm basing it on the "7-8% lower." That's not even enough to cover the typical year-to-year premium increase. e: Sanders plan doesn't hand waive away the costs. It explicitly spells them out.

Georgia lawmaker, wife of Tom Price, suggests people with HIV could be quarantined

QUOTE (bmags @ Oct 20, 2017 -> 11:19 AM) The multiple different proposals are starting to get very exciting. I do think this is my preferred approach. The reason being I think part of the reason America spends so much on Healthcare is because a small portion wants to. This would allow the group that just wants and needs basic healthcare to get a good exchange at a good price. https://www.vox.com/health-care/2017/10/20/...-x-single-payer It's an improvement over the status quo and maybe it's politically the only viable road in the foreseeable future, but I don't get the desire to perpetuate the scale of the private insurance industry. I'd still rather have a baseline guaranteed healthcare for every American rather than relying on exchanges and marketplaces. eg: that's still going to mean expensive premiums, possibly high deductibles for a lot of people who might still struggle to afford that. As a practical matter of "what can actually pass," okay, maybe this is the best that can happen in 2020. As a long-term goal though? We can and should do so much better than that. this is also emblamatic of how much of a wet fart of a pick Kaine was: sure buddy, keep hoping for good faith negotiation to expand health care on the part of Republicans, they sure have demonstrated that they deserve the benefit of the doubt here.

How Bad Is New Fox News 10 PM Host? She Says Adults Will Wear Diapers Instead of Sharing Restrooms with Trans People

Kelly definitely lied about Rep. Wilson in his fake teary speech about decorum and values that neglected to mention the family at all yesterday. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/...1020-story.html

It's come back into vogue because Kim Jong-Un called him that a few weeks back.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 19, 2017 -> 09:08 PM) So...I cannot vouch for this source/author, so this darn well might be fake news, but Senator McCain is out there saying there's more about Niger than we know and the Republican Congress won't investigate so I don't feel that bad about rumor mongering right now. At the very least I'm 99% sure I saw the "Private contractor evacuation" part of this verified today. WSJ reported earlier today that the FBI has been brought into the investigation. Something doesn't seem right here. https://www.wsj.com/articles/death-of-u-s-s...cism-1508457444

Flake may be speaking out, but he's still voting right in line.

This was from his testimony yesterday, but Sessions once again changed his story about his contacts with Russian agents. He has now admitted that he discussed policy issues with Kislyak at the RNC and in September, directly contradicting previous sworn testimony. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oc...e-shifts-ground

QUOTE (bmags @ Oct 19, 2017 -> 03:53 PM) Here's why I'm fine with your argument, because sure, evil is an absolute. But I find it immature that the approach is to force others to accept the framing that there can be no nuance in framing someone as evil. And I say this because it is so stupidly happening with racism. If you call someone a racist, people jump in front of him like heroes "No! No! he can't be a racist! Racists carry flaming torches and chant nazi phrases!" And when they ARE carrying torches and chanting nazi phrases "No, no, they...need to be physically attacking a minority and saying they are doing it because they are a minority!" Bush may not have been purposefully doing evil things because he likes doing things that offend the conscience, but he enabled and hired a whole lot of people in the administration that he was the executive that performed many evil acts. And maybe this was just a lack of uncertainty in the world. BUt their "we know the answers now give us the information to prove it" mindset created these gigantic cracks in the world that many innocent people slipped into with no way to get out. Crime charges with no way to prove innocence, captivity with torture, never ending war with no clarity with what constitutes success. But, at the very least, there were many moments in the Bush admin that showed they were still operating within the norms of American politics and civility. Ashcroft holding orders. When Scooter Libby was being prosecuted there was no sense they'd just pardon him before and refuse an investigation. They seemed to accept, if not respect, opposition performed through our institutional means. And that last graph is what I just don't see happening. They do not respect that checks can happen if they do not benefit them. And make the case that anything that does not benefit them is illiberal, but worse, partisan and part of a conspiracy. It's incredibly dangerous.

Because I think that argument is fundamentally bulls***. The John Birch Society started taking off in the 50's. Barry Goldwater's crazy ass was the Republican nominee back in '64. Reagan was a far right President who almost took the nomination in '76 and won in '80. Bush's administration was full of hardline neoconservatives and radicals with Liberty University fundamentalist backgrounds. McCain chose Palin to try to placate an increasingly radical base. Democrats pointing out that the GOP keeps getting more and more conservative doesn't cause people to vote for increasingly dumb and crazy candidates. If Obama had attacked Romney as a "moderate," that's not going to suddenly make the conservative base who jumped on board with Donald "Mexicans are drug dealers and rapists/ban all Muslims/Obama is a Kenyan" Trump from the beginning of his campaign to rethink their support.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Oct 19, 2017 -> 03:26 PM) Do you really believe that Bush is evil? Deep down, do you actually believe that? Its a serious question, because evil is a lot different than "terrible", "unqualified", etc. He did evil things and empowered evil people. His administration is responsible for two forever wars that have caused hundreds of thousands of deaths.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 19, 2017 -> 03:17 PM) Boy that sounds familiar... the key flaw in your argument is that you're basically always letting conservatives off the hook for voting for increasingly awful and incompetent candidates and policies. at the end of the day, they're still the ones who voted Trump and it shouldn't matter if Democrats called McCain or Romney too conservative.

CIA director distorts intelligence community’s findings on Russian interference

what if Bush and Trump are both evil and terrible Presidents but in different ways and neither should ever have come close to having any real power

Kelly seems to have thought along the same line: also seems to basically have confirmed that Trump said what the soldier's family and the congresswoman said he said

LEAKED MEMO REVEALS WHITE HOUSE WISH LIST

This, combined with gerrymandering, is the national GOP plan on how to "win" elections Rigged: How Voter Suppression Threw Wisconsin to Trump And possibly handed him the whole election.

Trump White House debates presidential visit to demilitarized zone along North Korean border

What do you think drives that overall percentage so high? It's the partisan split. Only 11% of Republicans don't think the media makes up stories to make Trump look bad. Anyway, this is the "Democratic Thread" and I posted the link to the article for anyone to read.

Everything that's been reported about deaths in Puerto Rico is at odds with the official count We took a look at the numbers, and they didn’t add up.

If you can't laugh at any of the absurdity and awfulness I'm not sure how you've made it through the last 11 months, to be honest. That wouldn't have been an appropriate joke to make to someone whose relative did die, but that's not the case itt.