The General US Politics Thread

I mean, to a point I'd agree, but if your point is that the only way things could possibly change is that it becomes almost impossible for any Republican to get elected, that's wrong. They don't all have to stop getting elected to stop being politically viable.

I just read what was posted here, but that made it seem like it wasn't particularly well thought out for something of that size. If it goes poorly, it could probably make the efforts for single-payer in other states and nationally even harder. From the sounds of it, the way it was forced through sounded very Republican-esque, which doesn't not stir up confidence.

edited 6th Jun '17 1:39:52 PM by LSBK

On the contrary, Tobias, in the various elections at various levels that've happened since the election, the democrats have been doing an average of 14 points better than they did in November. That should worry any Republican who's not in a safe race.

edited 6th Jun '17 1:38:08 PM by Gilphon

When they've actually hashed out the details, then we'll see. Right now, it's just a nice concept and little else.

edited 6th Jun '17 1:39:04 PM by TheRoguePenguin

The thing is I'm unsure about single payer...I'm all for universal healthcare, yes, but single-payer is only one possible way to offer universal healthcare.

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -Thomas Edison

I have a pretty low opinion of the single payer system, mostly because that's what the NHS is based on and we can currently see very well how it works...or doesn't really. There is a reason why the countries with the best Healthcare don't have the single payer system, and instead went for a construct of insurance companies which operate under strict rules.

With something of the size of California's proposal, I am wondering about conservation of mass. Large amounts of money spent don't simply disappear. I also wonder about who would be eligible.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

I feel like "single-payer!" has become something of a meme on the progressive side. I think people confuse it and the concept of universal healthcare as a whole.

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -Thomas Edison

I noticed that, too. They should better take a good look on what was Obama's original proposal before he was forced to water it down. That was a system similar to the one Germany and a lot of other European countries have - and Germany has one of the oldest health care system of the world with a reasonable good success rate, so why not taking your inspiration from there instead of a system which has proven to be a waiting list nightmare.

It's better than what we have now.

"You can't change the world without getting your hands dirty."

~Iaculus, thoughts about that statement about the NHS? Something sounds off about using it as an example of how single payer does not work.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

Speaking of healthcare, Nevada's state legislature has passed a bill that would allow anyone to sign up for Medicaid. It could still be vetoed but it basically provides a "public option".

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -Thomas Edison

The country is fractionalizing. The US doesn't know how to handle its increasing diversity and an increasingly brainwashed white population that is being told diversity is bad.

Something has got to give.

"You can't change the world without getting your hands dirty."

For the record, no, this isn't what the leaked documents said. The Russians appear to have gotten into the company's network, and from there used that access to spear phish local election officials. Neither of these things would have allowed them to actually alter vote counts. They may have been trying to get voter registration info, but if that's what they were after, it's unclear how successful they are or what they would do with it. They may also have been after something else entirely.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

I mean, it's not like it's anything new, immigration and increasing diversity have always been looked on with suspicious and nativism. Now ironically, a lot of the same people expressing that nativism are descendants of immigrants, but unlike a lot of people I've never found that particularly surprising or infuriating.

It's not like people are generally rational creatures. People can always rationalize ways for why their situation or that of their ancestors is different.

edited 6th Jun '17 2:27:13 PM by LSBK

I'd like to note that the Republicans have not won all the elections since November, when it comes to local elections they've been loosing heavily.

A lot comes down to the pre-existing bias of the places holding elections. Until somewhere that the a Dems need come 2018 holds an election we can't say if the Republican strategy is actually enabling them to win where it counts.

But what we can say is that they certainly believe that it is.

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran

Senate Budget Committe says the AHCA passes the Reconciliation Process.

"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."

x3 Well I can't really speak for anyone outside of my family (including myself back when The Old Bastard and The Old Bitch were the sole shapers of my ideology), but the general logic I've heard was "We suffered through the process of becoming full and legal American citizens, why can't THOSE people?"

And some more news, Trump pitched the idea of a 50ft solar panel covered border wall to Republicans today.

"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."

I'm aware, and I'm aware of the willful ignorance involved.

edited 6th Jun '17 3:03:38 PM by LSBK

According to Spicer, Trump tweets are official White House statements! Apparently the person who made @RealPressSecBot, has the right idea.

the ACLU already may use his tweets in Travel Ban case, so thanks Spicer for just giving them more leverage.

edited 6th Jun '17 3:11:55 PM by megaeliz

I'm sure Mueller and the Supreme Court will take that into consideration.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.

Worth mentioning is that 70% of the votes had already been sent before news of that broke, so we don't know if it would have had an effect otherwise

1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KV

And if Trump doesn't back off on Comey, and this case goes further, he'll probably commit felony intimidation of a witness eventually.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.

CNN: Russian Hackers planted fake news that lead to Qatar blockade

Remember when trump was blasting Qatar on Twitter? 🤔

New Survey coming this weekend!

@Crimson Zephyr: Aaaaand that sounds an awful lot like fearmongering, ignoring the fact that Democrats have and are continuing to be elected into office. Sure, not into every office the way we'd like, but the defeat has not been total nor will it be one that lasts forever. (Nothing really lasts forever in politics, at least not in the US, and declaring defeat forever is not only defeatist, it ignores our own history in which both parties have undergone changes in both their policies and their level of influence over time.)

I mean, yeah, it's easy to declare voter we don't like an idiot, but it's not even close to a solution. It is, again I must say, a call to give up and roll around in the mire that is fatalism. Democrats CAN win, they just have to re-evaluate what works (which they are doing), and build on whatever small successes they can win. (Closing the gaps in these special elections are a small success, and the losses can teach us something if we're willing to listen.)

In US politics, no condition lasts forever. We shouldn't act like it does.

In other news, boy I hope all this Comey stuff is leading up to something actually important on Thursday.

edited 6th Jun '17 3:26:36 PM by AceofSpades