StrangeSox

I said it a while ago, but this administration is going to do generational damage.

Lol it's published in an Objectivist magazine, 100% guaranteed to be nutty.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Mar 8, 2017 -> 02:32 PM) No, they are bringing those jobs back to the US. Except for Trump ties, and shirts and such, the steel he uses to build his buildings*, and Ivanka's stuff, everything needs to be made in the USA, and Trump will make it happen. Believe me. steel for the pipelines too

Nobody was talking about health care in this thread though?

It's being RAMMED DOWN OUR THROATS!!!

AARP Opposes Healthcare Bill American Medical Association also opposes the bill. Who actually likes this thing?

BJ jokes may be inappropriate, but sexual assault and bragging about how you can get away with it because of your wealth is much, much worse.

Don't forget to both write and call your Rep and Senators.

QUOTE (bmags @ Mar 7, 2017 -> 11:55 AM) This is very true. There were conservative think tanks that for years reported on health care policy and none of their interesting ideas seem to be included except state lines and block granting. But the block granting is insane as it betrays one of the core conservative critiques of programs for the poor as it is designed to incentivize making less and staying on Medicaid. But it also puts hard caps on Medicaid spending and can be a method to slowly strangle the programs to death. Right now, states automatically get increased matching federal funds if they have some sort of health crisis they're dealing with (e.g. Zika, which took Congress almost a year to provide a fraction of the additional funds requested). This way, federal Republicans can say "hey, we gave you funding, it's your fault for not spending it better!" and wash their hands of any responsibility.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 7, 2017 -> 11:50 AM) What's most striking is how derivative and unimaginative the whole thing is with 7-8 years to study the weaknesses of ACA. That's the best they can come up with? Gutting Medicaid and disadvantaging everyone over 60 that's not rich (fixed income population)? No wonder everyone is losing faith in government. Bannon is getting his way, and so is Ryan. Hope they can deal with protests and primary challenges the next two election cycles. That's their new reality. When the GOP starts pointing to the success of anything Scott Walker has done in WI, look out. They needed to craft a bill that would hopefully: 1) appease the right wing 100% repeal-with-no-replacement faction 2) appease the general conservative faction that don't like the Medicaid expansion or many of the regulations or taxes (but this one keeps the Cadillac tax everyone hates? what?) 3) have a non-zero chance of getting through the Senate 4) doing it all with no tax/budget changes so they can get it through reconciliation and avoid the filibuster 5) doesn't cause their various bases to revolt and throw them out of office because while lots of their voters hate "Obamacare" and the mandate isn't particularly popular, the ACA in general is and the specific provisions (kids on until 26, no lifetime caps, pre-existing conditions) are and throwing tens of millions of people off of insurance probably wouldn't work out so hot for them. This one sort of does 1 and 2, but several Republican Senators came out recently against Medicaid cuts and Rand Paul called this bill DOA. It turns out health care is hard and complicated! Who knew??

QUOTE (bmags @ Mar 7, 2017 -> 11:30 AM) It's goal is a stick to keep people insured even when healthy, which, the more healthy people insured the better the insurance marketplace. However, after the ACA challenges of yore, it is very legally questionable. The ACA mandate passed because it was a "tax" which government had unquestionable authority to do. This is mandating that private companies charge more for behavior. Is this going to be seen the same as a price floor? The commerce clause was narrowed so it would be interesting to see the verdict. I think it allows companies to charge more, not that it requires them to.

The Amazon forest is the result of an 8,000-year experiment Ancient peoples discovered agriculture by cultivating trees in the Amazon.

Senate subcommittee is going to investigate Trump's unsupported claim of being wire tapped by Obama. https://twitter.com/thehill/status/83890430...src=twsrc%5Etfw

House GOP replacement plan is out. Largely terrible, it keeps pre existing conditions while eliminating the mandate which will lead to an individual market death spiral, and it ends the Medicaid expansion in 2020, which will throw about 15 million people as of today out of coverage. https://twitter.com/charles_gaba/status/838...src=twsrc%5Etfw Edit: it appropriately renames the affordable Care act to the "American health Care act" Also offers big tax deductions for healthcare CEOs because why not https://twitter.com/ZekeJMiller/status/8388...src=twsrc%5Etfw

White House put out a press release praising Exxon Mobile with language copied verbatim from Exxon's own release. https://twitter.com/_cingraham/status/83887...src=twsrc%5Etfw

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Mar 6, 2017 -> 04:53 PM) We're a couple months into this presidency and so far it's controversy after controversy, gaffes, investigations, embarrassing interviews and numerous flat out lies from the President and members of his staff, as well as an alarming number of senior positions requiring Senate confirmation that have yet to be filled. Has there ever been a start to a presidential term that has been remotely as disastrous? ...we're not even that far in. It's day 45. 6 weeks, 3 days.

This thing for sure happened though, Trump sending campaign fundraiser emails promoting today's EO

http://thefederalist.com/2017/03/06/house-...6B-PdB0.twitter

Rather than the paranoid ramblings of a crazy old man, here's a f***ed up thing that's actually happened: edit: state dept. says it's not them Gold Star father cancels speech in Toronto, reportedly after being told his 'travel privileges' were under review

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 6, 2017 -> 04:04 PM) The United States as a long and storied history of using its spy agencies as tool for those in power to monitor and even intimidate opponents. Throw in the stories about involvement with Russia during the election and it is not kind of a leap of faith to see Trump and people in his team being tapped and monitored by our spy agencies. Okay, you are free to believe this evidence-free claim from a man with a history of promoting paranoid conspiracy theories. I'll duck back out of the Republican/MAGA thread.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Mar 6, 2017 -> 04:01 PM) You take things too literally, when it suits you. Yes, Obama did not go down there and demand records of all these reporters, but someone in his administration did. he gets the good, he also gets the bad. You're making excuses for the words Trump used because it suits you. Trump made a specific claim with zero evidence. That the Obama administration collected phone records of reporters says nothing about the plausibility of the Obama administration ordering the illegal wiretapping of Trump.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Mar 6, 2017 -> 03:57 PM) AP says they did it to their reporters. So no, it isn't that much of a stretch. And you all are taking 'wire tap' too literally. You know he means he was spied on, by whatever means it happened. http://bigstory.ap.org/article/govt-obtain...e-records-probe Obama did not wiretap reporters. Do you understand the scale of the 100% evidence-free claim that Trump has leveled here? QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 6, 2017 -> 03:58 PM) You have a lot more faith in the United States spy agencies than I do. This just seems like an excuse to believe in things with zero evidence. We know about Trump campaign/admin contacts with Russian ambassadors because we monitor the Russian ambassador. That doesn't mean or lend any support to a claim that the President ordered illegal wiretapping of a US citizen.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 6, 2017 -> 03:54 PM) I know what the accusations are. I can also take a piece of lunacy and see where the reality in it might come from. Again, tell me where you think all of this information about Russia is coming from? Falling out of the sky? Monitoring of Russian foreign nationals by both US and potentially other Western intelligence services. This is tens of thousands of miles from Obama ordering illegal wiretaps of a US citizen/political opponent.

The accusation from Trump/Breitbart fever swamps is that Obama personally ordered illegal wiretaps on Trump Tower. Accusing the former President of literally doing Watergate 2.0 with zero evidence is a big f***ing deal. e: the contacts with Russia have been documented because it's obvious to anyone who has even a pop fiction level familiarity with the intelligence community that a Russian Ambassador's phone lines are going to be monitored by the US intelligence community (and probably every other major IC in the world). To go from Trump aide's various public links to Russia, off-the-books stuff that came to light in other ways (Manafort being on pro-Russian Ukranian payroll), and conversations with Russian foreign nationals to the President of the United States ordering illegal wiretaps of a political opponent is a gigantic chasm of a stretch.