American Politics Thread: Orange is the new POTUS

[ResAlien]

Originally Posted by photon

This kind of sounds like a trap, I highly doubt he's suddenly switched to wanting to actually fix or improve healthcare.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday that if the chamber's fledgling Republican Obamacare repeal effort falls short, Congress will have to pass a more limited bill to shore up health insurance markets.

"If my side is unable to agree on an adequate replacement, then some kind of action with regard to the private health insurance market must occur," McConnell said at a Rotary Club luncheon in Glasgow, Ky., the Associated Press reported. "No action is not an alternative. ... We've got the insurance markets imploding all over the country, including in this state."

A bill to strengthen the insurance markets would presumably need Democratic support to get 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. McConnell in the past has warned fractious GOP lawmakers that if the Republican-only repeal effort failed, he would be forced to work with top Democrat Chuck Schumer on legislation that conservatives would likely oppose much more than the GOP repeal bill.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/0...-fix-it-240270

It's the final call to arms for Republicans.

Join me and vote Yes for our thing or else I will make concessions to Democrats and your opponent in your next election will use your refusal to vote for us as ammunition against you. You don't want to be known as the kind of scumbag that reaches across the aisle to get thing accomplished do you? That message doesn't play well at the local Golden Corral.

[MarchHare]

Donny demonstrates how to sound exactly like a raving fascist in 140 characters or less:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/...12994145280000

@realDonaldTrump
THE WEST WILL NEVER BE BROKEN. Our values will PREVAIL. Our people will THRIVE and our civilization will TRIUMPH!

[belsarius]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

Donny demonstrates how to sound exactly like a raving fascist in 140 characters or less:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/...12994145280000

@realDonaldTrump
THE WEST WILL NEVER BE BROKEN. Our values will PREVAIL. Our people will THRIVE and our civilization will TRIUMPH!

All the history lessons and books could never really explain to me how the Germans could elect and follow a sociopath to their ruin. I think I get it now.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Illuminaughty

I honestly never thought I'd meet somebody that believed in 70 plus genders and biology isn't grounded in sex. But here we are.

I think the difference here is that you actually use the myth of the American Dream as real justification for the economic theory of capitalism. At least gender identity is restricted to the individual, and I would think a heavy proponent of individualism would find great joy in celebrating an individual's right to determine their own identity and have unrestricted rights.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by Illuminaughty

Yeah it does, it happens all the time. It doesn't happen in heavily regulated economies.

Actually, no it doesn't.

http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/in-pl...ds-f8C11555175

Want to move up the economic ladder? Go to college, find a spouse who works and try to avoid getting laid off.

College graduates, people in dual-earner families, whites and those lucky enough to escape a bout of unemployment are also the most likely to move from the bottom fifth of the income ladder to at least the middle, according to a new Pew Charitable Trusts analysis of family income trends.

“Education, race and family employment matter for movement out of the bottom,” Diana Elliott, a research officer on economic mobility at the Pew Charitable Trusts, said Thursday.

In general, Pew researchers have noted, the rags-to-riches tale so popular in Hollywood is less likely than many Americans would like to believe.

The researchers’ analysis of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, an in-depth look at family finances from 1968 to 2009, found that just 4 percent of Americans who grew up at the bottom fifth of the household income ladder made it to the top fifth as adults.

I already explained how you can't take a tiny country in both population and area like Denmark (minus Greenland) and compare it to a giant country like the USA. There's other factors as well.

Okay, which ones? How should we compare these countries? And why can we only compare Denmark to the United States? There plenty of capitalist countries similar in both size and population that we can compare to the Scandinavian countries and they all fare worse than their socialist counterparts. So on what basis are you making the assertion that they're failing and unsustainable?

HAHAHA My favourite Neo-Marxist response, that wasn't real Marxism...... It never is is it?

Right, so just as I said then. When socialism fails, it's because of socialism. When capitalism fails, it's because of other underlying circumstances.

Tell me your thoughts on free tuition or some other Bernie rhetoric?

Pretty hilarious considering one of us has been backing up what they're saying with links to various sources and evidence and the other keeps resorting to tired right-wing platitudes and propaganda.

Now compare all those innovations of science and Nobel prize winners to the US. I honestly can't think of one Soviet era invention I use in my every day life. I like how you included contributions made after the collapse as well.

I don't think anyone is saying that the Soviets were as innovative as the Americans, but I find it hilarious that once again underlying circumstances apparently are only considered when pondering the pitfalls of capitalism.

It's a hard comparison to make, there are way to many factors at play. Socialism can work for a small country for a time, but I don't think it could work for the US, there are many different circumstances. I think it would be foolish to try.

So if it's a hard comparison to make, then why do you keep asserting it as if it's an objective truth.? You've clearly made the comparison based on something but you can't tell me what that something is, other than that the Soviet-style socialism was a massive failure, and even that is a very basic and ahistorical perspective.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by photon

This kind of sounds like a trap, I highly doubt he's suddenly switched to wanting to actually fix or improve healthcare.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday that if the chamber's fledgling Republican Obamacare repeal effort falls short, Congress will have to pass a more limited bill to shore up health insurance markets.

"If my side is unable to agree on an adequate replacement, then some kind of action with regard to the private health insurance market must occur," McConnell said at a Rotary Club luncheon in Glasgow, Ky., the Associated Press reported. "No action is not an alternative. ... We've got the insurance markets imploding all over the country, including in this state."

A bill to strengthen the insurance markets would presumably need Democratic support to get 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. McConnell in the past has warned fractious GOP lawmakers that if the Republican-only repeal effort failed, he would be forced to work with top Democrat Chuck Schumer on legislation that conservatives would likely oppose much more than the GOP repeal bill.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/0...-fix-it-240270

This is a threat to get the conservatives in his party onside to implement the agenda as he is not moving it right.

[direwolf]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

Donny demonstrates how to sound exactly like a raving fascist in 140 characters or less:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/...12994145280000

@realDonaldTrump
THE WEST WILL NEVER BE BROKEN. Our values will PREVAIL. Our people will THRIVE and our civilization will TRIUMPH!

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Illuminaughty

Yet you can't find a better example of a society where an individual can be born into abject poverty, and rise up to the wealthiest class then in a capitalist society. I think the individual makes their own opportunities, luck also can play a big role.

There are no pure capitalist societies. You seem to be creating a false premise that the US is a capitalist society where's as European nations are socialist. Where really you are comparing countries across the middle of the spectrum.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gove...centage_of_GDP

The united states a governments spend 42% of GDP, Canada 42%, and Sweden 51%.

The industrial revolution prior to the rise of unions might be the last form of pure capitalism we have seen in the world.

Your argument about class mobility should be easy to prove. Index class mobility by government spending as a % of GDP and see which societies perform the best.

[photon]

Originally Posted by GGG

This is a threat to get the conservatives in his party onside to implement the agenda as he is not moving it right.

I thought that could be too, though that threat he could easily deliver in private.

[photon]

Trump gets to appoint his own ethics chief after the current one quit today.

Walter M. Shaub Jr., the government’s top ethics watchdog, who has repeatedly gone head-to-head with the Trump administration over conflicts of interest, said on Thursday that he was calling it quits.

Mr. Shaub’s five-year term as the director of the Office of Government Ethics is not set to expire until January, but with little chance of renewal and an appealing offer in hand from a nonpartisan advocacy group, he said the time was right to leave.

“There isn’t much more I could accomplish at the Office of Government Ethics, given the current situation,” Mr. Shaub said in an interview on Thursday. “O.G.E.’s recent experiences have made it clear that the ethics program needs to be strengthened.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/06/u...cs-resign.html

“Do you think the president and his family are using the office to enrich themselves?” Julianna Goldman of CBS News asked.

“I can’t know what their intention is,” Schaub said. “I know that the effect is that there’s an appearance that the businesses are profiting from his occupying the presidency.”

The absence of real information creates at least the appearance of impropriety. “Appearance matters as much as reality,” he said. “So even aside from whether or not that’s actually happening, we need to send a message to the world that the United States is gonna have the gold standard for an ethics program in government, which is what we’ve always had.”

But shouldn’t the Office of Government Ethics know if Trump or his associates actually are profiting from the presidency?

“You can’t be sure, and so it almost doesn’t matter whether they are profiting or not,” said Shaub. “America should have the right to know what the motivations of its leaders are, and they need to know that financial interests, personal financial interests, aren’t among them.”

https://news.vice.com/story/trump-wi...icial-gives-up

[DuffMan]

Originally Posted by Illuminaughty

I honestly never thought I'd meet somebody that believed in 70 plus genders and biology isn't grounded in sex. But here we are.

Wow
Go hug your gun, you'll feel better

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

I think this is the perfect time to introduce the absolute necessity of a universal basic income scheme into this conversation. I expect everyone's all on board with that idea?

Most people who follow the political threads probably already know I strongly disagree with this concept but I've given this subject a lot of thought and I think some form universal guaranteed services and/or benefits is a much safer road to go down. Keeping people employed can be achieved by doing things like reducing work weeks and legislating lower overtime thresholds. This can be implemented over time as the unemployment rate rises. By going down this route I believe we avoid giving businesses and workers who were able to maintain employment the power to dictate what the workers who are replaced by automation deserve as a universal income. If this Trump presidency has taught us anything, it's that billionaire businessmen shouldn't be expected to look out for what's in the best interests of the general population.

[Lanny_McDonald]

But the left is violent...

http://www.politico.com/magazine/sto...c-posts-215344

[schooner]

CP poster Schooner: Oh wow, Im a couple 100 posts behind, this will be interesting to catch up.

/reads thread

CP poster Schooner: Oh God, what a mess.

[chemgear]

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer...ck-merger.html

White House Warns CNN That Critical Coverage Could Cost Time Warner Its Merger

So, now, his administration is openly threatening to punish the network by sending the Justice Department after its parent company. As the New York Times reports:

White House advisers have discussed a potential point of leverage over their adversary, a senior administration official said: a pending merger between CNN’s parent company, Time Warner, and AT&T. Mr. Trump’s Justice Department will decide whether to approve the merger, and while analysts say there is little to stop the deal from moving forward, the president’s animus toward CNN remains a wild card.

[wittynickname]

Originally Posted by chemgear

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer...ck-merger.html

White House Warns CNN That Critical Coverage Could Cost Time Warner Its Merger

So, now, his administration is openly threatening to punish the network by sending the Justice Department after its parent company. As the New York Times reports:

White House advisers have discussed a potential point of leverage over their adversary, a senior administration official said: a pending merger between CNN’s parent company, Time Warner, and AT&T. Mr. Trump’s Justice Department will decide whether to approve the merger, and while analysts say there is little to stop the deal from moving forward, the president’s animus toward CNN remains a wild card.

There are any number of reasons to block a Time Warner/AT&T merger, but CNN criticizing this administration shouldn't be anywhere near that list.

This is one of those weird moments where blocking the merger would be good (aren't there supposed to be anti-trust laws in the US?) but the reasoning behind blocking it would be pretty bothersome.

[Roast Beef]

Originally Posted by wittynickname

There are any number of reasons to block a Time Warner/AT&T merger, but CNN criticizing this administration shouldn't be anywhere near that list.

This is one of those weird moments where blocking the merger would be good (aren't there supposed to be anti-trust laws in the US?) but the reasoning behind blocking it would be pretty bothersome.

This isn't about blocking or not blocking a merger, that's not the goal. This is the next step in the systematic destruction of critical news and media. It's a targeted threat that now puts *all* media under a spotlight. No matter what CNN says or does, no matter what the parent companies do now, it's going to be tainted by this "threat". It's all about continuing to erode trust in the media. Even media that has nothing to do with this "merger" is now under a spotlight. Going forward the Trump administration now has ammo to question the authenticity and motive of every story. This is just the beginning of the next phase, I foresee this happening multiple times, in various ways, until it just becomes the new facts.

[Senator Clay Davis]

The insanity doesn't stop just because he's on another continent

[DuffMan]

Who cares? He's obsessed with it, I'd say he cares.
I don't know how any of the other leaders could take him seriously, if they read his tweets.

[Lanny_McDonald]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

The insanity doesn't stop just because he's on another continent

Podesta didn't have the authority to do anything with the DNC server. He wasn't employed by the DNC when these events took place. This man an unhinged lunatic.