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Re: US Politics Thread
Buzz, I'm not quoting your post because it's a page or so back, but I totally agree with most of what you say about healthcare. It's screwed up. I don't have an answer. I do know that I think the cost of health care, drugs, rooms, even getting an education that gets you into the industry is incredibly overpriced and rising at astonishing rates. Why? I wish I knew.
I don't have a suggested plan. Universal healthcare? Sounds good. Who pays? We all do with higher taxes. I don't think dismantling what we have without giving the people who rely on it something else is wise. COBRA is laughingly expensive, and that's what many of my friends have had to do before the ACA.
You clearly have a much more intimate look at this topic with a deeper knowledge. I can only speak to what my dozens of laid off friends and family members have gone through. It's been shitty and as you say probably will remain so.
I do know a lot about it, but I don't know everything, and admittedly I have my biases because I see things from a point of view that may not be a popular point of view. Here's what I do know...the government can't do anything efficiently. Ask a veteran about their VA experiences for example. I don't trust them to be able to effectively run healthcare. I know some disagree with that, but I've seen nothing that even hints they can do it.
I think the solution has to start with controlling costs...any meaningful solution at least. The question is how do you do that? There are so many issues between people not having insurance (even when required), malpractice insurance, pharmaceuticals, etc. That's before even getting to insurance contracts with providers. Providers set prices, insurance companies say they'll only pay so much, prices for other stuff goes up, insurance companies say they'll only pay so much, prices go up on other things. The whole system is broken. The problem beyond that is that there's no simple answer and both parties are politicizing this (shocking!) instead of trying to do anything positive for the American public.
Re: US Politics Thread
In general, we have a government philosophy and zeitgeist of the past 35 years that has been all about tiny government, pour money into the private sector.
We apparently keep choosing this until shit hits the fan and then we get an Obama type. Obama rose to political power because the Conservative way of running our economy blew up again.
Republicans = loyal to the extremely rich and corporations
Democrats = that, but liteThat's the way 'we', the public keep wanting it. We vote for these people repeatedly. This is no one's fault but our own.
So you understand all of this, yet you take the positions you take instead of trying to be part of the solution. Until people figure out neither party right now is interested in making your life better, we're fucked. All of us.
- Randall Flagg
- Rep: 139
Re: US Politics Thread
I have mixed feelings on Trump using executive privilege. Yea, Obama did it to protect Holder, but I feel any effort to prevent Mueller from testifying is bad mojo.
Re: US Politics Thread
Don Jr subpoena'd, by Republican led Senate Intelligence Committee - https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/08/politics … index.html
Likely about his (false) statements about not discussing the setup of a meeting with the Russian national, or his discussion with Cohen over Trump Moscow.
- Randall Flagg
- Rep: 139
Re: US Politics Thread
Don Jr subpoena'd, by Republican led Senate Intelligence Committee - https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/08/politics … index.html
Likely about his (false) statements about not discussing the setup of a meeting with the Russian national, or his discussion with Cohen over Trump Moscow.
He has to appear. Trump can’t shield him with executive privilege. And if he pleads the fifth, he looks like a criminal. If he committed perjury, he should be held to the same standard as anyone else.
But he’s also free to tell Democratic Senators taking pop shots for late night zingers and HuffPo, to go fuck themselves.
Re: US Politics Thread
PaSnow wrote:Don Jr subpoena'd, by Republican led Senate Intelligence Committee - https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/08/politics … index.html
Likely about his (false) statements about not discussing the setup of a meeting with the Russian national, or his discussion with Cohen over Trump Moscow.
He has to appear. Trump can’t shield him with executive privilege. And if he pleads the fifth, he looks like a criminal. If he committed perjury, he should be held to the same standard as anyone else.
But he’s also free to tell Democratic Senators taking pop shots for late night zingers and HuffPo, to go fuck themselves.
Lock him up! Lock him up!
Re: US Politics Thread
We're smack dab in the middle of a constitutional crisis as this point.
Let's look at what's happened over the last week (there are even more sub threads inside each one of these news bits, but I don't have time to go through them all) :
1) Mueller has written two letters to Barr, expressing his anger of his lies about the report. Turns out Barr did exactly what I said he was doing. Working as a cover up stooge for our wanna-be-dictator-president. A few people from Mueller's team also expressed outrage over what Barr did.
2) Last I checked, we're up to 700 former federal prosecutors, both Republican and Democrats, who signed a statement asserting that Mueller's conclusions alone would produce felony obstruction charges against Trump if he weren't in the White House.
3) Barr ignored his subpoena to appear before the House Judiciary Committee. Because of this The Judiciary Committee just voted to hold Barr in contempt.
4) The Department of Justice has also ignored a subpoena to provide the un-redacted version of Mueller's work. Trump now claiming executive privilege over the entire report and any associated documents.
5) The White House has ordered their former counsel Donald McGahn not to comply with his subpoena.
6) In a stunning move, the Republican Senate Intelligence Committee has subpoenaed Trump Junior. We know he lied about the Trump Tower meeting for some time, lying to Congress the last time he was questioned. Cohen testified that Junior, at the direction of Trump senior, met at least 10 times to discuss Trump Tower Moscow, during the election. Something they all lied about. Junior's world is about to get considerably shittier. About time...
7) Trump is suing Deutsche bank in order to block subpoenas issued by The House.
8) Mnuchin said he would not turn over the President's tax returns. Ignoring federal law.
(On a side note, and not surprisingly Trump spoke with Putin about a week ago, tweeting about his conversation with Putin and how they discussed the "Russian Hoax." So our president still stands eagerly beside Putin and thumbs his nose at our country and our intelligence agencies.)
Does this sound like an innocent person to you? A man who first proclaimed the Mueller report cleared him (just like his nitwit supporters celebrated) but now is doing everything he possibly can to stop the report from being reviewed in its pre-redacted form.
As I said, this is a full blown constitutional crisis in my opinion. This is serious and everything this country stands for is in grave danger because of this group of lawless criminals. Trump and his gang are acting as authoritarians, dismissing all checks/balances and violating the principles this country was founded on. The executive branch is not above the other branches of government, period.
People who believe(d) the Mueller report not only cleared Trump, but ended this saga are spectacular in their naivete or willful ignorance. All hell is breaking loose right now and it's only going to accelerate towards what I'm guessing is an explosive and frankly frightening ending.
