StrangeSox

yep that's me, the Bernard Brother who demands immediate perfection. I've argued for years that people need to vote in the most efficient way possible, even if it's for the best of bad options, and I'll continue to do that. That doesn't mean I can't find this latest messaging attempt to be absolutely pathetic and uninspiring. This was their big, new unveiling. This was their chance to lay some bold policies out. They didn't do that. They've chosen a bunch of meh around the margins. There's nothing big and aspirational there. Putting out a bunch of policy papers over the coming months won't matter, either. e.g.: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/for...8db8_story.html

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 03:18 PM) You literally have no idea how to win voters. It's the economy. It's always the economy. Why are you ignoring ending drug price gouging? Why are you ignoring the minimum wage increase? Why are you ignoring that the business tax credits help to TRAIN AND EMPLOY WORKERS who have been struggling ever since 2008? These are the first of many new policies. It's a great start. It shows they know why they lost, and know what they have to do to win. But, because we're liberals, we just like whining and b****ing instead of doing the necessary work. Specifically on the bolded, because it's a policy that's been tried for decades and doesn't work. Where's Medicare for All or some other similar UHC program? Where's anything major on college? Where's the headline on minimum wage? What have they actually committed to here? What's the exciting part?

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 03:00 PM) No one's not holding him accountable for this vote. Some of us are looking at the bigger picture. If he fails to live up to his speech when his name is called in the final vote, I'll be just as disgusted as you. McCain's entire history in the Senate is a failure to do anything brave when it matters. He could have lived up to his speech today, he could have lived up to the speeches the last couple of weeks he made decrying that things weren't regular order, but he chose to vote yes. There's zero reason not to be disgusted with him right now. And, of course, the 49 other Republicans who voted in favor of this.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 02:42 PM) Stop being fatalist. We've seen that people power can stop these votes. It's happened over and over again all year, thus far. Just keep doing the work, stop whining, and don't give up. BTW my billionaires reference was to Heller being a no until Steve Wynn called him every day demanding that he switch to yes. It's cool when someone with more wealth than they could spend in several lifetimes has the individual power to control Senators into harming tens of millions.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 02:52 PM) He has another vote. He had a vote today and he chose to take a major step towards killing thousands of Americans a year and bankrupting many more. Him giving some speech decrying the very thing he just did is absolutely typical McCain, but it's not brave or bold or powerful.

That's not really much of a change but okay. McCain's speech won't do or mean s***. His vote had the power, and he chose how to use it.

I'm sure those Obama voters are going to come crawling back for business tax credits. Better to go after them than do anything to shore up your base and get non- or reluctant voters to be more engaged.

He could have voted No today and stopped this dead in its tracks. Instead, he voted yes and then gave a speech lamenting the fact that he just voted yes. That's all the information we need to form our judgement.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 02:45 PM) Not yet. You must have been letting your anger blind you to that speech. If he ends up voting Yes on either of these terrible bills, or some version thereof, I'll be right with you. He voted yes to proceed when he was the deciding vote. He could have forced a return to regular order. Instead, like every other time in his life, he expressed his deep concerns about the thing he did anyway.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 02:44 PM) Who'd replace him? A Trump loyalist? AZ governor would appoint a replacement to continue to the term until the next general election in the state, which is 2018, and that person would then finish out the rest of McCain's term until 2022.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 02:42 PM) Stop being fatalist. We've seen that people power can stop these votes. It's happened over and over again all year, thus far. Just keep doing the work, stop whining, and don't give up. It's worked up until the point it doesn't. We stopped the House bill! Oh until they brought it back and passed it. We stopped the Senate bill, they don't even have 50 to proceed! Oh, until they did.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 02:41 PM) Not like this. Not with the fanfare and the epic storyline of coming back for this vote, brain cancer, all of it. History was watching that moment in particular and he seized it. We'll see what it all means for him and America soon enough. The epic story line of coming back during brain cancer to kill tens of thousands of Americans a year and throw many more into financial destitution. A firm "NO" and a presser afterwards would have had an enormous impact. He absolutely seized the moment, and he sealed his legacy as a craven scumbag.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 02:40 PM) ^ But we'll see. In the meantime, keep calling your Senators. Sorry, the billionaires leaned on them, and in a plutocracy, that's all that matters.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 02:35 PM) Depending on the final outcome, John McCain's speech on the floor of the Senate after voting to allow debate on a mystery healthcare bill either goes down in history as a great moment for the Senate and the country, or one of the great farces. It was a truly powerful speech, and it will define Senator John McCain's entire legacy. The only question is how. "This thing I just did and had the power to stop is very bad!" Jesus christ no, McCain is a scumbag who just voted to take the next step in killing tens of thousands of Americans a year. f*** him and f*** every Dem who applauded him as he did it. QUOTE (Reddy @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 02:36 PM) Had he voted No, he wouldn't have had the platform to give this speech. Interesting twist. We'll see how it plays out. He's a long-sitting and popular US Senator who can go on any news program or call a press conference that'll get coverage whenever he wants. He didn't need to do this at all. He wanted to.

don't forget to add PR in there too, then we'd have 54-50.

Well at least McCain's switched things up, now he's whining after his vote about why things can't return to regular order. You gutless asshole, you had the power to stop this.

QUOTE (illinilaw08 @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 12:00 PM) The giant crossbow is stupid in any event because it should already exist in this world (ie, it's not some super impressive discovery by Qyburn). Additionally, in the battle they showed this week, there are literally flying projectiles zooming through the sky - again making it appear that this weapon already exists. It was a pretty seriously underwhelming reveal. I mean, the dude that creating FrankenMountain's best anti-dragon idea is a super big crossbow? Come on... That's a good point. This show is basically feudal Europe late Middle Ages in terms of culture and tech. Ballistas were a Roman invention a millennium before. We've already seen more advanced catapults and trebuchets.

And the Democrats applauded him as he did it

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 02:04 PM) Excellent tweet that sums up my feelings: Yeah. Between this and their milquetoast "Better Deal" platform, ugh

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 12:53 PM) This whole idea that Democrats shouldn't try to talk to EVERYONE and expand the tent blows my mind. I don't get it. Honestly. They're going to vote Republican anyway. Trying that outreach failed spectuclarly for Clinton, and it's really dismaying to see that D leadership has apparently learned nothing from 2016. And when you make outreaches like that while doing absolutely nothing for your more left base, you're going to lose more votes than you could even hope to pick up. Nobody gets excited or motivated by "tax credits for businesses to do job retraining!" and "Better Deal" is just more of the "we're not as bad as Republicans" with nothing inspirational at all behind it. Democrats need to be going after 1) their own base and 2) the ~50% of the population who doesn't vote. I really don't see anything in this platform that's going to get anyone engaged, and I can already see it's DOA with the more Bernie side of the base.

Welp, that's 50 for the MTP. Guess we're going to see exactly how dumb and awful the GOP can be in rewriting the whole insurance industry over the next ~20 hours before melting everything down.

Per Rand Paul, they're voting on the 2015 "gut all of the ACA funding" R&R plan, so Paul will vote for the MTP, which means the MTP will definitely succeed later today. This plan will destroy a whole lot of the health care industry in this country. e: vote plan per multiple sources: The Cruz Amendment is so bad it's literally "does not compute" when you try to analyze its effects because it'll blow up the markets.

Any day now the GOP will actually do something to stop our slide into a banana republic!

McCain was part of the Keating 5. He's been scummy since the 80's at least. He also gave Sarah Palin a national stage

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Jul 25, 2017 -> 08:04 AM) Wouldn't want to anger the small business owners. more flashbacks to Clinton's "let's court moderate suburban republicans!" strategy that worked out so well