The General US Politics Thread

If that was a guy who got expelled the reaction would have been much different, I promise.

Really a lot of things are screwed up here.

Well, from my understanding it wasn't always a lie, it just became one somewhere in the 70s and most people haven't been quick on the uptake.

Tom Menino, Boston's longest-serving mayor who oversaw the city's renaissance, died Thursday after a lengthy battle with cancer.

1) Mississippi, one of the poorest states doesn't have a medicaid buy in, a public option if you will. That means no assistance for those 138% or below the federal poverty line to buy healthcare. So they can either feed their family, or buy insurance. They can't do both. So tax penalties for them.

2) Georgia, Arkansas, and Tennessee have all found out that while the ACA has 9 essential components, insurance companies have found loopholes around this and are basically legitimately cutting off care with the state specific example of injected medications: insulin, depo shots, protein, vitamin b, if you use a needle to take your medication, you have to have it administered by a doctor at a doctor's office, or it's not covered.

Previously one could go to a pharmacy and get the medication and wither then go to a doctor or inject themselves. Not so anymore. This is especially problematic for colleges and small health clinics that don't have an on site pharmacy even though they have people to administer care. It targets poor people.

3) You can't even get a flu shot covered unless it's through a doctor's office. So instead of being able to go to Walmart after work for a shingles, flu, tetanus vaccine, you have to go to a doctor. The Insurance company knows that most people can't get off work to just run to a doctor for a shot. So they would rather cover a $150 doctor's visit instead of a $28 vaccine because over all, they're saving a shit ton of money.

4) People are being forced to buy shit plans to avoid a penalty. They mandated plans have to cover hospitals and prescriptions but they didn't mandate caps on deductibles. If your business offers insurance, and that insurance is less than 9.8% of your gross (mind you not net) income, you have to buy the insurance your boss offers if you expect to get a tax credit. So businesses have started offering really shitty and cheaper bronze or basic plans that barely cover the mandates and cost 8%. But the deductibles can range anywhere from $1500 to $5000 before the plan pays out. So these people are in fact, wasting their money because it is actually costing them at least $2700 in premiums and deductible fillers a year before their insurance will even begin to cover anything.

I could go all day with this.

It all ties into how the Republicans have declared war on the poor and war on the Democrats and the Democrats have let them.

I really wish more Democrats would get a backbone and engage the people more before they lose them and let the Republicans fuck even more things up.

Black unemployment higher than that for whites partially because blacks are less likely to give up looking for work.

Intersting. Kind of another shot at the "they're just lazy' mentality.

Maine Governor Paul LePage said Thursday that talks with nurse Kaci Hickox had broken down and that he is ready to exercise the "full extent" of his authority to force her to adhere to a 21-day quarantine aimed at Ebola health workers.

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed an order on Friday that affects medical workers and other “high-risk” travelers who have been around Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, Guinea or Liberia.

Ordering firm restrictions for U.S. troops returning from West Africa, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Wednesday that the military men and women helping fight Ebola must undergo 21-day quarantines — longer than required for many civilian health care workers.

This is a rough guess, but I suspect it has something to do with the fact that black Americans and other minorities do not have the financial and social safety nets that many white Americans tend to have. This isn't to say that white post-grads are lazy, entitled brats who just mooch off their parents, but when you come from a poor, black family, you have heightened social barriers to deal with in addition to not being able to afford to idle about between jobs. You take what you can get.

Also, it's not clear whether it's a choice - genetic influences and similar effects do exist. Nevermind that obesity does affect fellow people

Also, most people don't live in places where they can walk or bike everywhere.

Businesses blame it for all their layoffs and insurance hikes.

Just experienced that first hand. The sad part is that the company's own benefit information shows that it's not high enough to be affected by ACA, so they're definitely lying somewhere.

It seems that Warren's great advantage over many of her colleagues is her use of the old fashoned Stump Speech, while her colleagues have been trained only to attack what their opponent says wrong, not stump and argue for what they believe in.

The Roberts court, has managed, one good thing: Less frivolous software patent lawsuits are cropping up after Alice v CLS.

edited 31st Oct '14 12:25:39 AM by PotatoesRock

Your reaction to gross images can predict your political beliefs with 94% accuracy.

Interestingly, on the flip side of the above, I just read an article (paper magazine, so I can't link) that found that people exposed to the smell of vomit subsequently reported more conservative viewpoints on social issues.

The Oregonian ran an article this morning that examined phobias among different demographics, and found that Democrats are noticeably more likely to be afraid of clowns.

Being afraid of clowns is smart. To be that happy is inhuman and diabolical.

I remember reading about an old study that showed bored Republicans by and large would draw geometric shapes on the margins of the papers in front of them when sitting through meetings, while Democrats would usually doodle figurines.

Notable exception to the trend was Ronald Reagan, which the study explained a result of him being a Democrat in the past.

I'm liberal and I drew geometric shapes into my papers when bored.

But there are exceptions to that study.

A Mexican judge has ordered the release of Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi due to his mental state, but did not issue a ruling on the Marine's illegal gun charge which put him into jail in the first place.

I voted yesterday. There were like a couple dozen ballots for district judges of different kinds, and most of them were listed as Democrats. I'm not sure what to make of that, really.

I turned in my ballot today. I left the votes for judges blank since I had no idea who any of them were.

Well, in most cases it didn't matter because for several of them there was only one person running. High stakes races those were not. And I voted straight party anyway.

Don't most states have some sort of online portal where you can find out who will be on your ballot? You could use that to do some research in advance, next time (though it might not help; I often have a hard time finding anything concrete in the lower-profile elections).

I don't know what state you're in, but here in PA it's only one judge because we have a "vote to retain" system. Judges get appointed, but they need a majority of votes in a regular referendum to keep their seat, which is why there's only one. Obviously it's hard to dislodge a judge in that manner, but it would work if they made some spectacularly unpopular decision (if not outright illegal, because then they're removed from office by other means, like that monstrous judge accepting kickbacks from private prisons for putting as many juveniles in jail as they could)

I always vote to burn judges, precisely because we have the vote-to-retain system, and any judge who gets close enough to burning that my vote would tip him over the edge probably needs to go.

Somehow that doesn't seem like a terribly well informed way to vote, actually.

Anyway... I don't know what system we have as regards judges, but if they're on the ballet I don't we have the sort of system where they're appointed by other means? But I haven't seen ads for any of them like I have for other positions. Like I said, most of the judge positions were only one person per position so it's not like those were terribly high stakes races.

The fact that you guys get to vote for judges/sheriffs bewilders and scares me.

I don't actually know any of the judges around here to vote for.

Know who I want for sheriff though. He's awesome.