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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
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Apparently NY Times is the only media outlet reporting this, so take this with a grain of salt.
While this was a blatant "Follow the Money", case (baby formula lobbiests? Really?), the one legitimate issue I could actually see coming up is how to address the concerns of Woman who, for one reason or another, can not.
Also notice how Russia stepped in to take the lead on this issue, giving them a big PR boast.
Edited by megaeliz on Jul 8th 2018 at 3:58:53 PM
Christ, the American right is nothing but a bunch of pathetic bullies they make a lot of noise, hurt little children, but roll over for any mediocre strongman. Makes me wonder what would happen if you smacked them in the nose with a rolled-up newspaper.
Edited by JBC31187 on Jul 8th 2018 at 2:40:29 AM
Reading tropes such as You Know What You Did
Ring of Fire made a video suggesting Trump is endangering the lives of the media, again, because of his attack on calling them fake. The last time this happened, so the video states, resulted in that mass shooting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXtcJkiQslU
What do you think? Long bow to draw in saying Trump is trying to incite killing journalists critical of him or a fair call?
Currently reading up My Rule Fu Is Stronger than YoursThe baby formula lobby is huge and has huge political muscles in a lot of countries. It's how baby formula got off the ground and became so successful in such a short space of time. It barely took a single generation to completely flip human attitudes towards breastfeeding from something that's the norm and completely natural to something that's now viewed as weird, unnatural and even depraved.
The power of this lobby group has been causing problems in third world disaster zones for decades. Baby formula exposes babies and toddlers to unsanitary conditions (such as diseased water) that breastfeeding can protect them from, while also enforcing a resource (including financial) cost on parents who are in no position to cope with such pressures. International aid organisations these days ask people who wish to donate to disaster funds that they DO NOT provide baby formula: they try to encourage the women to breastfeed until their circumstances massively improve. That does not stop the lobby groups.
Edited by Wyldchyld on Jul 8th 2018 at 11:25:52 AM
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.![]()
That shooting didn't happen because of anything Trump did. (Not directly anyway.) It happened because of that one female Republican (can't remember her name, Goddamit,) who 'joked' about shooting up critics. There isn't going to instantly be another shooting just because Trump's running his big fat mouth.
Trump administration halts billions in insurance payments under Obamacare
[Reuters]
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which administers programs under the Affordable Care Act, said the action affects $10.4 billion in risk adjustment payments.
President Donald Trump’s administration has used its regulatory powers to undermine Obamacare after the Republican-controlled Congress last year failed to repeal and replace the law. About 20 million Americans have received health insurance coverage through the program.
The payments are intended to help stabilize health insurance markets by compensating insurers that had sicker, more expensive enrollees in 2017. The government collects the money from health insurers with relatively healthy enrollees, who cost less to insure.
CMS, which is overseen by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said the move was necessary because of a February ruling by a federal court in New Mexico, which found that the federal government was using an inaccurate formula for allocating the payments.
“We were disappointed by the court’s recent ruling. As a result of this litigation, billions of dollars in risk adjustment payments and collections are now on hold,” CMS Administrator Seema Verma said in a statement.
A federal court in Massachusetts upheld the same allocation formula in January.
The CMS statement said the agency has asked the New Mexico court to reconsider its decision and expressed hope for a prompt resolution of the issue.
Edited by Wyldchyld on Jul 8th 2018 at 11:37:54 AM
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.According to Kenneth C. Davis, author of Don't Know Much About History, Hoover has come down in the public consciousness as a do-nothing Nero who fiddled while Rome burned. But in reality, everything he tried to do to stave off the Great Depression either backfired, simply didn't work, or was too little, too late. His various programs and projects gave aid to failing big corporations while showing indifference toward the working-class poor. This did not reflect favorably upon his image in the public's eye.
Trickle-down economics didn't work back then either, even before it was called that. Anyone who had any money at all hoarded it and the economy stagnated.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank.His mass deportation of Mexican citizens is an incredible human rights violation that doesn't get nearly as much attention as it deserved.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.Regarding who will replace Kennedy (and I'm not sure if this is discussed earlier this weekend or not), McConnell claims that
2 of Trump's candidates would risk big Senate Fights
.note
One of them, Amy Coney Barret (popular among social conservatives for being open to the idea of overturning of Roe vs. Wade) had McConnell warning Trump that nominating her would invite moderate GOP senators to oppose him. The other, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, had authored enough documents that the Democrats can (and should) delay the confirmation until after the midterms (meaning that the Blue Wave, if it happens, would wash away Trump's chances of getting him in), He also seems concerned about opening Bush-era wounds.
Edited by MorningStar1337 on Jul 8th 2018 at 8:07:33 AM
The Democrats are already plenty motivated, though- that's why we're taking the possibility of a blue wave seriously. That's the reason why the special elections have been going so well for the democrats; Trump makes the democrats vote against him and the republicans stay home.
There aren't going be many democrats going 'well, I'm lukewarm on the Trump administration, but a supreme court spot means this is worth my attention' but there are gonna be a fair number of republicans saying that.
Trump's trade war may just be what people needed to abandon the Republicans.
How the trade war is changing minds in a Senate battleground [1]
Yet his 15,000 acres (6,000 hectares) two hours west of Nashville showcase the practical risks of President Donald Trump's trade policies and the political threat to red-state Republican Senate candidates such as Tennessee's Marsha Blackburn.
Tosh, a third-generation farmer who almost always votes Republican, said he's voting this fall for Blackburn's Democratic opponent, former Gov. Phil Bredesen, in part because Trump's trade wars are hurting his family business — a sizable one with some 400 employees and 30,000 pigs. The cost of steel needed for new barns is up, Tosh said, and the expanding pork market stands to suffer under new tariffs.
"This tariff situation has got me very, very, very concerned," Tosh told The Associated Press. "I just think Bredesen would be better on that situation." He said Blackburn has shifted "toward the center" on tariffs, "but in my opinion, it's a little late and not far enough."
Similar concerns are roiling high-profile Senate contests in Missouri, Indiana, Pennsylvania and North Dakota and forcing GOP candidates to answer for the trade policies of a Republican president they have backed on almost every other major issue.
In 2016, populist attacks against free trade defined Trump's political rise. Now, as he sparks an international trade war four months before the midterm elections, few policies could be more problematic for Trump's allies in pivotal Senate contests.
The Trump administration imposed a 25 percent tax on $34 billion worth of Chinese imports on Friday, and China is retaliating with taxes on an equal amount of U.S. products, including soybeans, electric cars and pork. The administration has penalized steel and aluminum imports from allies such as Canada and Mexico, leading to retaliation against American-made products such as blue jeans, motorcycles and whiskey.
The tension has reshaped the race to replace retiring Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. Blackburn, an eight-term congresswoman, has been one of the president's biggest boosters for the past two years, yet with the business community up in arms, she's dramatically softened her support for Trump's trade policies, at least.
"We fully appreciate that some of these countries have had a trade war against us for years, certainly China would be in that list, and it's time that somebody really stands up," Blackburn told AP. "But with that said, it does cause us tremendous concern, just grave concern."
Still, Blackburn opposed a proposal by Corker that would have given Congress new authority to check the president's trade moves. She called Corker's approach "a little bit too broad."
Instead, Blackburn helped write a letter urging Trump's commerce secretary to reconsider broad tariffs so as to avoid harm to Tennessee's economy.
An estimated $1.4 billion in Tennessee exports are threatened by Trump's trade moves, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a longtime Republican ally. Those exports are linked to more than 850,000 jobs in the state related to farming, steel, baked goods, car manufacturing, whiskey and more.
Nationwide, the U.S. Chamber reported that $75 billion in U.S. exports will soon be subject to retaliatory tariffs. Many of the hardest hit states are those that backed Trump and feature top-tier Senate races in November.
Indiana, where Republican Senate candidate Mike Braun is trying to defeat Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly, has more than 812,000 jobs tied to global trade, the Chamber found. In April, Braun said concerns about the tariffs were being "overdramatized."
Missouri Sen. Claire Mc Caskill, a Democrat, has pounded her Republican opponent, Josh Hawley, for backing Trump's trade decisions. Hawley, whose state has more than 826,000 jobs tied to global trade, says the president is right to shake up trade deals and should have time to negotiate.
And in North Dakota, Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp has seized on Republican challenger Kevin Cramer's description of the tariff fallout as "hysteria." Cramer blames China for the trade dispute that could affect as many as 111,000 jobs.
But back in Tennessee, Blackburn has been backed into a corner by the state's business leaders.
Tennessee whiskey maker Jack Daniel's, for example, sends roughly 60 percent of its business out of the country.
Jack Daniel's parent company was forced to increase prices across Europe as a result of tariffs imposed by the European Union in response to Trump's tariffs on U.S. steel and aluminum. Shares of the company dropped sharply last month after Mexico announced plans to impose a 25 percent tariff on whiskey in response to Trump's moves.
"Tariffs such as these, they can only do harm," said Jack Daniel's general manager Larry Combs.
Another major Tennessee employer, home appliance maker Electrolux, continues to delay a $250 million expansion in Tennessee "given the uncertainty of U.S. trade policy," said company spokeswoman Eloise Hale.
"These tariffs are directly increasing our costs," she said.
The Democrat in the Senate race, former Gov. Bredesen, has seized on the issue. Even in a state Trump won by 26 points, he's betting he can use Blackburn's loyalty to the president against her because of the tariff-related fallout.
"She clearly is very loath to do anything contrary to what the Trump playbook is," Bredesen said.
"The way I've read her expression is, 'We elected Trump president. I'm here to make sure he gets his agenda passed,'" Bredesen continued. "What I would like to do is say, 'Look, I'm there to be with the president on stuff that makes sense for Tennessee, to be against him on stuff that is not.' And that's true whether it's a D or an R president."
Blackburn is eager to change the subject.
She's quick to highlight her support for the GOP's tax cuts. And with a sudden Supreme Court vacancy that gives the GOP an opportunity to cement a conservative majority for a generation, she's emphasizing the importance of having a Republican Senate majority to approve Trump's judicial appointments.
But back at the hog farm, Tosh is worried about the family business.
"The pork producers in the country are probably being impacted more so than any element of the economy right now," he said. "We're probably going to scale back some plans that we had, at least put them on hold."
Edited by megaeliz on Jul 9th 2018 at 8:38:28 AM

The Trump Administration threatened to cut funding to WHO, punishing trade action, and suspension of aid towards a number of countries in order to oppose a resolution encouraging breastfeeding.
Because, you know, why not.
The blackmailing only stopped when Russia introduced the measure on its own. Trump's people did not attempt to threaten the Russian delegates.