The Swamp

I've been one of the biggest defenders of the ACA from the beginning. But as it has turned out, premiums under the ACA in many areas are high enough that they take a bite for many people who made just too much to qualify for subsidies.

In my own personal view, that is more than outweighed by the millions of others who could get coverage for the first time in their lives, or who could quit their jobs to start businesses because they could keep insurance, or who no longer had to worry about losing coverage for pre-existing conditions.
But it has caused real pain to real people.

These problems could be easily fixed, though. Kevin Drum had a list of easy quick fixes that would take care of most of the problems - increase subsidy amounts, increase subsidy eligibility, require insurers who participate in Medicare or Medicaid to also participate in the individual network (marketplaces). Because the ACA has saved so much more money than anticipated, subsidies could be increased without hurting the overall balance of the program.

Also, it really really really helps individuals to get help by people who know what they are doing. Last year, bronze-level plans were basically free, because subsidies were tied to silver-level plans and the Trump Admin's fucking around jacked up the premiums for silver level. But you'd have to use a "navigator" to know that, and of course the Trump Admin slashed the budget for outreach. (I met the guy because I was volunteering to assist people in signing up for ACA coverage.)

Of course, the biggest problem has been the Republicans. From refusing to allow easy modifications, to Trump's deliberate sabotage, there's no way a big new program could ever overcome those obstacles.

So now, the only option is Medicare for everyone, whatever it costs, just because it is less subject to sabotage by a political party that defines itself by hatred towards large groups of Americans.

Just saw this on Deadspin.

Straight to the "Seemed like a good idea at the time" file.

Wtf.

That's like an SNL skit that just keeps repeating one joke but with no payoff. (In other words, just like an SNL skit.)

Steve of phpBB wrote: ↑Tue Jun 12, 2018 10:16 amIn my own personal view, that is more than outweighed by the millions of others who could get coverage for the first time in their lives, or who could quit their jobs to start businesses because they could keep insurance, or who no longer had to worry about losing coverage for pre-existing conditions.
But it has caused real pain to real people.

I wonder how accurate it is to say "its caused pain to people not used to being on the wrong side of this sort of equation" and just how much that drives perception.

That dude just wasted a lot of water.

Johnnie wrote: ↑Thu Jun 14, 2018 6:41 pm

That's classic Hillary - over a year behind the curve.

I think she was saying it was bullshit from the get go but the media didn’t care.

Keeping with the theme of Just Say It's... here's the headline of a CNN piece:

Texas Democrat: 'Strong racist element' to child detentions

His name is Beto O'Rourke, for fuck's sake. He's challenging Ted Cruz for his Senate seat in Texas. Use his name in the fucking headline. And any time Beto has a position other media outlets treat him similarly.

I swear to God the media is complicit in all of this. There's no literal reason to not use a person's name. It's ridiculous.

I love Beto.

This is really, really good.

Johnnie wrote: ↑Fri Jun 22, 2018 7:38 pm This is really, really good.

Damn, that’s the best political ad I’ve seen in a long time.

I wish I could get excited about these awesome candidates from my home state, but I’ve lived in my home state my entire adult life, so yeah.

Meant to post this when it appeared in my YouTube subscription timeline, but Michelle Wolf nails it. She's stating what I have all along. I'd even go so far as to say that Jeff Zucker cums his pants every time Trump says "CNN is fake news."

Maybe a little good news

She has never held elected office. She is still paying off her student loans. She is 28 years old. “Women like me aren’t supposed to run for office,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in a viral campaign video released last month.

They certainly weren’t supposed to win.

But in a stunning upset Tuesday night that ignited the New York and national political worlds, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, a Bronx-born community organizer and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, defeated Representative Joseph Crowley, a 19-year incumbent and Queens political stalwart who had not faced a primary challenger in 14 years.

Mr. Crowley, who is twice Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s age, is the No. 4 Democrat in the House of Representatives and had been favored to ascend to the speaker’s lectern if Democrats retook the lower chamber this fall.

Johnnie wrote: ↑Mon Jun 25, 2018 2:16 pm Meant to post this when it appeared in my YouTube subscription timeline, but Michelle Wolf nails it. She's stating what I have all along. I'd even go so far as to say that Jeff Zucker cums his pants every time Trump says "CNN is fake news."

Maybe I'll give her show another chance.

It put me in mind of the classic Jon Stewart/Crossfire appearance all those years ago. That was one of the great things about Jon Stewart's Daily Show - the focus was so often on the media.

Pruitt wrote: ↑Wed Jun 27, 2018 6:37 am

Johnnie wrote: ↑Mon Jun 25, 2018 2:16 pm Meant to post this when it appeared in my YouTube subscription timeline, but Michelle Wolf nails it. She's stating what I have all along. I'd even go so far as to say that Jeff Zucker cums his pants every time Trump says "CNN is fake news."

Maybe I'll give her show another chance.

It put me in mind of the classic Jon Stewart/Crossfire appearance all those years ago. That was one of the great things about Jon Stewart's Daily Show - the focus was so often on the media.

I haven’t watched CNN once since the 2016 Election, when it became more and more apparent as the night wore on that at the time we’d been played by the “left” media as hard as the “right”.

rass wrote: ↑Wed Jun 27, 2018 5:56 am Maybe a little good news

She has never held elected office. She is still paying off her student loans. She is 28 years old. “Women like me aren’t supposed to run for office,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in a viral campaign video released last month.

They certainly weren’t supposed to win.

But in a stunning upset Tuesday night that ignited the New York and national political worlds, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, a Bronx-born community organizer and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, defeated Representative Joseph Crowley, a 19-year incumbent and Queens political stalwart who had not faced a primary challenger in 14 years.

Mr. Crowley, who is twice Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s age, is the No. 4 Democrat in the House of Representatives and had been favored to ascend to the speaker’s lectern if Democrats retook the lower chamber this fall.

That result is a huge shot across the bow to the Democratic establishment. Ocasio-Cortez got no support whatsoever from the party and was outspent by magnitudes, and still won comfortably. From what I’ve read of her politics, she’s also well to the left of virtually every Congressional Democrat. She worked as an organizer for Bernie Sanders and at least on some issues (like Palestine) is significantly even Sanders’ left. It will be very, very interesting to see how much support she gets from the party now, as much of its strategy over the last several election cycles has been rooted in the premise that candidates like her “can’t win.” I worry that we may even see a rehash of Lieberman-Lamont where the party backs an independent or a Republican in the general election.

EnochRoot wrote: ↑Wed Jun 27, 2018 7:52 am

Pruitt wrote: ↑Wed Jun 27, 2018 6:37 am

Johnnie wrote: ↑Mon Jun 25, 2018 2:16 pm Meant to post this when it appeared in my YouTube subscription timeline, but Michelle Wolf nails it. She's stating what I have all along. I'd even go so far as to say that Jeff Zucker cums his pants every time Trump says "CNN is fake news."

Maybe I'll give her show another chance.

It put me in mind of the classic Jon Stewart/Crossfire appearance all those years ago. That was one of the great things about Jon Stewart's Daily Show - the focus was so often on the media.

I haven’t watched CNN once since the 2016 Election, when it became more and more apparent as the night wore on that at the time we’d been played by the “left” media as hard as the “right”.

(I write as a Canadian...)

I do not see CNN as "left," it's rather a fount of hype. I don;t think the network has an agenda or ties to any ideology, other than to make everything equally as important and ire-raising. And since it seems to be working on the premise (probably correctly) that its viewers have the attention span of 5 year olds, each issue - whether it's rumours surrounding Melania's hospital visit, or a trade war with China - is given the same importance.

What would be the furthest left of the major US media companies/outlets? Like one that actually has an agenda/ideology?

Pruitt wrote: ↑Wed Jun 27, 2018 7:59 am

EnochRoot wrote: ↑Wed Jun 27, 2018 7:52 am

Pruitt wrote: ↑Wed Jun 27, 2018 6:37 am

Johnnie wrote: ↑Mon Jun 25, 2018 2:16 pm Meant to post this when it appeared in my YouTube subscription timeline, but Michelle Wolf nails it. She's stating what I have all along. I'd even go so far as to say that Jeff Zucker cums his pants every time Trump says "CNN is fake news."

Maybe I'll give her show another chance.

It put me in mind of the classic Jon Stewart/Crossfire appearance all those years ago. That was one of the great things about Jon Stewart's Daily Show - the focus was so often on the media.

I haven’t watched CNN once since the 2016 Election, when it became more and more apparent as the night wore on that at the time we’d been played by the “left” media as hard as the “right”.

(I write as a Canadian...)

I do not see CNN as "left," it's rather a fount of hype. I don;t think the network has an agenda or ties to any ideology, other than to make everything equally as important and ire-raising. And since it seems to be working on the premise (probably correctly) that its viewers have the attention span of 5 year olds, each issue - whether it's rumours surrounding Melania's hospital visit, or a trade war with China - is given the same importance.

What would be the furthest left of the major US media companies/outlets? Like one that actually has an agenda/ideology?

That’s why I put L and R in quotes, as it really isn’t entirely analogous as to their methods. Both Fox and CNN certainly exploit human weakness (fear sells) for profit.

MSNBC is the left-most trough.

Every CNN viewer is an upper-middle class white woman who voted for both GW Bush and Obama and whose emotional response to an out of state kidnapping is perfectly correlated to how much it looks like one of her grandchildren.

Pruitt wrote: ↑Wed Jun 27, 2018 7:59 am

I do not see CNN as "left," it's rather a fount of hype. I don;t think the network has an agenda or ties to any ideology, other than to make everything equally as important and ire-raising. And since it seems to be working on the premise (probably correctly) that its viewers have the attention span of 5 year olds, each issue - whether it's rumours surrounding Melania's hospital visit, or a trade war with China - is given the same importance.

What would be the furthest left of the major US media companies/outlets? Like one that actually has an agenda/ideology?

I also think it's hilarious when people say CNN is some radical Weather Underground outlet or something like that. What's the craziest left-wing conspiracy theory you've heard getting serious airtime on CNN? Meanwhile Fox News is off and running with Seth Rich-style shit every other day.

mister d wrote: ↑Wed Jun 27, 2018 8:09 am Every CNN viewer is an upper-middle class white woman who voted for both GW Bush and Obama and whose emotional response to an out of state kidnapping is perfectly correlated to how much it looks like one of her grandchildren.

Nice. An aged basic bitch with a sudden affinity for HELPING YOU GROW YOUR OWN BUSINESS FROM HOME and definitely thinks The View is some sort of council of the elders with divine wisdom.

rass wrote: ↑Wed Jun 27, 2018 5:56 am Maybe a little good news

She has never held elected office. She is still paying off her student loans. She is 28 years old. “Women like me aren’t supposed to run for office,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in a viral campaign video released last month.

They certainly weren’t supposed to win.

But in a stunning upset Tuesday night that ignited the New York and national political worlds, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, a Bronx-born community organizer and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, defeated Representative Joseph Crowley, a 19-year incumbent and Queens political stalwart who had not faced a primary challenger in 14 years.

Mr. Crowley, who is twice Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s age, is the No. 4 Democrat in the House of Representatives and had been favored to ascend to the speaker’s lectern if Democrats retook the lower chamber this fall.

Similar thing up here (NY-24), although the incumbent is a Republican.

Dana Balter, the progressive candidate, won the Democratic primary with just shy of 63% of the vote. Her opponent, Juanita Perez-Williams, was the preferred candidate of the party and had $250K spent on ads the last couple weeks while Balter raised about $300K for her entire campaign. Balter had pretty much a clean sweep of endorsements locally. Wonder how much being personally pro-life (there were Facebook posts), but running as someone who claimed to be pro-choice, affected her.

Wait ... what? She was the progressive candidate but also anti-abortion?

mister d wrote: ↑Wed Jun 27, 2018 9:24 am Wait ... what? She was the progressive candidate but also anti-abortion?

No, the loser, who the Democratic party recruited to run against the progressive candidate. Poor writing by me.

My daughter is majoring in the same things at the same scool as Ocasia-Cortez. Weird coincidence.

Gunpowder wrote: ↑Wed Jun 27, 2018 8:28 am

Pruitt wrote: ↑Wed Jun 27, 2018 7:59 am

I do not see CNN as "left," it's rather a fount of hype. I don;t think the network has an agenda or ties to any ideology, other than to make everything equally as important and ire-raising. And since it seems to be working on the premise (probably correctly) that its viewers have the attention span of 5 year olds, each issue - whether it's rumours surrounding Melania's hospital visit, or a trade war with China - is given the same importance.

What would be the furthest left of the major US media companies/outlets? Like one that actually has an agenda/ideology?

I also think it's hilarious when people say CNN is some radical Weather Underground outlet or something like that. What's the craziest left-wing conspiracy theory you've heard getting serious airtime on CNN? Meanwhile Fox News is off and running with Seth Rich-style shit every other day.

I've said this many times, I have CNN on in my office (mostly muted) almost all day, every day. You guys are 100 percent correct. EVERYTHING is "Breaking News!!" There's no real filter and they run some absolutely bullshit false equivalency stories at the top and bottom of every hour. They are pushing drama and tension and intrigue, NOT a leftist agenda.

MSNBC is the closest to pushing an agenda, but even those guys will take the Trump-bait and spend a day on fucking nonsense rather than doing what Fox does and just push whatever agenda/talking points they are being fed.

Have these Saul Alinsky-ist Soros news networks even mentioned the Trump kid-fucking parties from the 1990s? Like, that's the real off the wall stuff that Fox would run with a question mark after it and they don't even mention them.

She's quickly becoming the newest Satan over at Fox News.



The gall of her having good ideas.

That looks like a free commercial to me! I'd vote for that!

degenerasian wrote: ↑Thu Jun 28, 2018 11:40 am That looks like a free commercial to me! I'd vote for that!

"Housing as a human right"

"Women's Rights"

"Support Seniors"

"Curb Wall Street Gambling"

And these are presented as negatives? I am as far from a naive person as you will ever meet, but I am still surprised by that...

That AOC graphic needs to be saved in a time capsule labeled "What Happened".

Solidarity with Puerto Rico... Fucking. Hell.

Apologies if this has been posted before.

But it's a classic.

UK government about to collapse.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... -charlatan

Pruitt wrote: ↑Mon Jul 09, 2018 4:53 pm UK government about to collapse.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... -charlatan

Boris really is a duplicitious cnut