REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

A thread for Democrats Only

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Friday, April 26, 2019 8:29 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
How Should Liberals Fight a Citizenship Question on the Census?

Let’s suppose, as seems likely, that the Supreme Court lets Donald Trump go ahead with adding an obviously partisan citizenship question to the 2020 census. How should liberals react?

1) Mount a big educational campaign telling non-citizens not to be afraid of telling census takers that they aren’t citizens.

2) Mount a big educational campaign telling non-citizens to just go ahead and lie about being citizens.

This is what makes the cynicism of modern conservatism so toxic. The best bet for liberals is almost certainly the second one, but that merely fights cynicism toward governance with yet more cynicism. When does it end?

The Census Case Will Define the Roberts Court
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/04/census-case-roberts-court-
legacy.html

The court’s conservative wing disregarded the fact that both the original Constitution and the 14th Amendment require the Census to count all persons — citizens and non-citizens alike.


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly



Should probably just add the line: "Enter your Social Security Number Here" instead of asking if you're a citizen.

Then nobody has to lie.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Friday, April 26, 2019 8:42 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Should probably just add the line: "Enter your Social Security Number Here" instead of asking if you're a citizen.

Then nobody has to lie.

6ix, you disregarded the fact that both the original Constitution and the 14th Amendment require the Census to count all persons — citizens and non-citizens alike. If the Census form asks for Social Security numbers, at least a third of all Census forms that are mailed to homes will be dumped in the trash. It the same sort of thing that happens to Summons for Jury duty:

In a given year, 32 million people get summoned for service — though only 8 million of them actually report for jury duty.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-are-the-chances-of-serving-o
n-a-jury
/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Friday, April 26, 2019 8:48 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Yes. I did disregard that.

There's really no point to the census if we can't even get a proper idea of how many illegal aliens have invaded America with it.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Friday, April 26, 2019 9:00 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Yes. I did disregard that.

There's really no point to the census if we can't even get a proper idea of how many illegal aliens have invaded America with it.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

There is already a good enough method that doesn't require Trump making the Census inaccurate for the purpose in the Constitution :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_immigrant_population_of_the_Unit
ed_States#Estimation_method


The "residual method" is widely used to estimate the illegal immigrant population of the US. With this method, the known number of legally documented immigrants to the United States is subtracted from the reported U.S. Census number of self-proclaimed foreign-born people (based on immigration records and adjusted by projections of deaths and out-migration) to obtain the total, illegal immigrant (residual) population. This methodology is used by the US Department of Homeland Security,[12] the Pew Hispanic Center, the Center for Immigration Studies,[13] and the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Saturday, April 27, 2019 8:05 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Yes. I did disregard that.

There's really no point to the census if we can't even get a proper idea of how many illegal aliens have invaded America with it.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

There is already a good enough method that doesn't require Trump making the Census inaccurate for the purpose in the Constitution :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_immigrant_population_of_the_Unit
ed_States#Estimation_method


The "residual method" is widely used to estimate the illegal immigrant population of the US. With this method, the known number of legally documented immigrants to the United States is subtracted from the reported U.S. Census number of self-proclaimed foreign-born people (based on immigration records and adjusted by projections of deaths and out-migration) to obtain the total, illegal immigrant (residual) population. This methodology is used by the US Department of Homeland Security,[12] the Pew Hispanic Center, the Center for Immigration Studies,[13] and the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly





Here's the real point, Second.

Quote:

Federal Funding to the State. In some cases, the Census population count affects how much federal funds each state receives. That is, many federal statutes allocate funding to the states based on a formula that uses states’ populations—as determined by the Census—as one variable to determine their respective shares of the funding. In most cases, the higher a state’s population count, the more federal funding the state is eligible to receive. Similarly, certain federal funds provided directly to local governments and nongovernmental entities are based on Census population counts.


https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3909


Democrats, especially those in so-called "Sanctuary Cities" don't want this question asked because if illegal aliens dodge the census, they get less funding per person that is actually living in their state.

Period.

End of story.

Game Over.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Saturday, April 27, 2019 9:07 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Democrats, especially those in so-called "Sanctuary Cities" don't want this question asked because if illegal aliens dodge the census, they get less funding per person that is actually living in their state.

Period.

End of story.

Game Over.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

From the Business Insider: "These key psychological differences can determine whether you're liberal or conservative"
www.businessinsider.com/psychological-differences-between-conservative
s-and-liberals-2018-2


Republicans are scared. Scared of strangers. Scared of foreigners. End of story.

You can read in Scientific American: "Unconscious Reactions Separate Liberals and Conservatives"
www.scientificamerican.com/article/calling-truce-political-wars/

“These are not superficial differences. They are psychologically deep,” says psychologist John Jost of New York University.

Psychologists have found that conservatives are fundamentally more anxious than liberals, which may be why they typically desire stability, structure and clear answers even to complicated questions. Game Over.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Saturday, April 27, 2019 8:50 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Yes. I did disregard that.

There's really no point to the census if we can't even get a proper idea of how many illegal aliens have invaded America with it.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

There is already a good enough method that doesn't require Trump making the Census inaccurate for the purpose in the Constitution :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_immigrant_population_of_the_Unit
ed_States#Estimation_method


The "residual method" is widely used to estimate the illegal immigrant population of the US. With this method, the known number of legally documented immigrants to the United States is subtracted from the reported U.S. Census number of self-proclaimed foreign-born people (based on immigration records and adjusted by projections of deaths and out-migration) to obtain the total, illegal immigrant (residual) population. This methodology is used by the US Department of Homeland Security,[12] the Pew Hispanic Center, the Center for Immigration Studies,[13] and the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly





Here's the real point, Second.

Quote:

Federal Funding to the State. In some cases, the Census population count affects how much federal funds each state receives. That is, many federal statutes allocate funding to the states based on a formula that uses states’ populations—as determined by the Census—as one variable to determine their respective shares of the funding. In most cases, the higher a state’s population count, the more federal funding the state is eligible to receive. Similarly, certain federal funds provided directly to local governments and nongovernmental entities are based on Census population counts.


https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3909


Democrats, especially those in so-called "Sanctuary Cities" don't want this question asked because if illegal aliens dodge the census, they get less funding per person that is actually living in their state.

Period.

End of story.

Game Over.




Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Sunday, April 28, 2019 8:46 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Trump missed the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and the speech:

"Even though it may seem wistful and naïve and a touch quixotic, I would like to keep alive tonight the fading memory of more civilized dealings between chief executives and the news media. Call it a museum of presidential decorum. At this confrontational moment in American politics, we must recall that civility has been an essential lubricant in our democratic culture and that our best presidents have handled the press with wit, grace, charm, candor, and even humor."

Chernow is exactly right: That does seem wistful and naïve and a touch quixotic. It is true that Donald Trump is a different sort of president. Chernow made this point by tracing the history of presidential relationships with the press. This is the story about Ronald Reagan:

"Now, Ronald Reagan was a no less sunny personality and a past master, of course, of media relations. When he became president, he said, “I think that most of the time, the overwhelming majority of reporters do a fine job, and as a former reporter, I know just how tough their job can be.” Nevertheless, Reagan had a sometimes bumpy relationship with the press. Then on March 30, 1981, he was shot and nearly killed outside this very hotel, the Washington Hilton, as he was about to duck into his limousine. A bullet lodged within an inch of his heart. Reagan was scheduled to speak at, yes, the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. And so he telephoned in this line instead. “If I could give you just one little bit of advice: When somebody tells you to get into a car quick, do it.” That was a touch of class that has been sorely missing in our political culture in recent years. It was a subtle reminder that whether Republicans or Democrats, we are all bona fide members of Team U.S.A., and not members of enemy camps."

https://slate.com/culture/2019/04/white-house-correspondents-dinner-ro
n-chernow-whcd.html



The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Monday, April 29, 2019 8:29 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Fox programs influence Trump daily, but that has opened the network up to charges that it is State TV. Inside Fox, a long-running cold war between the network's journalists and right-wing, prime-time hosts has turned hot.

Fox journalists, bristling at being branded an arm of the Trump White House, are lobbying Fox News C.E.O. Suzanne Scott and president Jay Wallace to rein in Fox & Friends, Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs, and Jeanine Pirro. “Reporters are telling management that we're being defined by the worst people on our air,” a frustrated senior Fox staffer told me last month. News staffers are feeling emboldened to go after Trump in increasingly visible ways.

Fox's opinion hosts, meanwhile, have made the case that the prime-time lineup not only reflects the audience's worldview but is responsible for the majority of the network's advertising revenue and fees paid by cable companies that carry Fox. “We make the money,” an anchor close to Hannity told me.

According to a source, prime-time staff complained to Fox management in March when a Muslim producer on Bret Baier's staff tweeted criticism of Jeanine Pirro. “You can't have a producer attacking talent. [Roger] Ailes would never have allowed that,” a prime-time staffer said.
www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/04/fox-and-friends-will-be-next-lachlan-m
urdoch-is-in-a-trump-trap



Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
Will be interviewed by @MariaBartiromo on @FoxNews at 10:00 AM. Talking about the Southern Border and how the Dems MUST act fast to change our pathetic immigration laws. Will be tough, watch!
5:59 AM - 28 Apr 2019
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1122485588580605953

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Monday, April 29, 2019 9:03 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Yeah.

Tell it to Rachel Maddow's millions, Second.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Monday, April 29, 2019 10:56 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Yeah.

Tell it to Rachel Maddow's millions, Second.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

Complain about the unfairness of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The GOP was not allowed a rebuttal to this video seen by 4.3 million about Trump and Attorney General Barr. Hang in there for 60 seconds, 6ix:



Best Punchline: "If Bill Barr were the President's lawyer, he'd be in prison right now."
If you have to explain a joke, it is not funny, but Trump's lawyer is in prison.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Monday, April 29, 2019 8:37 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Not really worried what the opinions of the 4.3 million people who watch Stephen Colbert are. The 1 to 2% of people who tune into that show regularly are so far gone their minds have already been corrupted. If that number were to expand to say 10 million over the course of the next 6 years, that would be cause for concern.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Tuesday, April 30, 2019 7:02 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Behind the scenes, Democrats in Washington are trying to think about what they’ll do if the party wins the White House in 2021 on a Medicare-for-all platform. A Medicare for Kids Only program could accomplish a couple of key things. For one, it would cover the 4 million children who still lack health insurance.

It’s cheaper than Medicare-for-all, meaning it could be paid for with relatively modest and politically popular tax hikes on the rich and provide a clear, simple benefit to millions of families. New polling shows it’s an extremely popular idea. And most importantly, because kids would age out of the program rather than aging into it, they and their parents would create a natural constituency for further expansions so they can hold on to a benefit they currently enjoy and would fear losing.

Asked “would you (support or oppose/oppose or support) extending universal health care to all American children by giving all Americans under the age of eighteen coverage in a government health plan modeled off of Medicare, known as ‘Medicare for Kids?’” a solid 54 percent of the public said they supported the idea, with just 27 percent opposed. Fifty-three percent of whites like the idea, and African Americans support it 66 to 17.

This is similar to what the Kaiser Family Foundation finds for Medicare-for-all, so it’s natural that progressives continue to push for their dream solution. But in the past, initially well-polling state-level single-payer health care pushes have collapsed once the extent of the needed tax hikes becomes clear. It’s possible Medicare-for-all proponents will overcome those obstacles, but if they don’t, Medicare for Kids suggests itself as a drastically cheaper fallback.

More at www.vox.com/2019/4/29/18516408/medicare-for-kids

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Tuesday, April 30, 2019 8:36 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Nope. No support for medicare 4 kids.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Wednesday, May 1, 2019 7:07 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Nope. No support for medicare 4 kids.

That is no surprise since most Republican Congressmen were opposed to "Original" Medicare in 1965. If their votes had been needed, there would be no Medicare today, but the Democrats had the numbers even if every Republican had voted no.

57 Democrats voted for Medicare out of 100 Senators. The Republicans couldn't stop Medicare, even if they tried.

237 Democrats voted for Medicare out of 435 Representatives. Again, Republicans couldn't stop Medicare.

www.ssa.gov/history/tally65.html

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Wednesday, May 1, 2019 9:55 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


I don't have a problem with medicare.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Wednesday, May 1, 2019 10:18 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
I don't have a problem with medicare.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

Are you sure? You've complained about the tax taken from your paycheck: the Federal Insurance Contributions Act tax (FICA) to fund Social Security and Medicare.

Republican Congressmen "support" Medicare. Which means they want to "reform" the program: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in a round of media interviews after the Treasury Department reported that the federal budget deficit increased 17 percent year over year, to $779 billion in fiscal 2018 said, “It’s disappointing, but it’s not a Republican problem. It’s a bipartisan problem: unwillingness to address the real drivers of the debt by doing anything to adjust those programs to the demographics of America in the future.” He added that by “entitlement reform,” he was “talking about Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid.”

Every time Republicans have tried to alter these programs, they have paid a political price at the polls. They keep trying to "reform" because repeal will get them removed at the next election.

www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-16/mcconnell-blames-entitlemen
ts-not-gop-for-rising-deficits


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Wednesday, May 1, 2019 1:48 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
I don't have a problem with medicare.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

Are you sure? You've complained about the tax taken from your paycheck: the Federal Insurance Contributions Act tax (FICA) to fund Social Security and Medicare.



I have a problem with how it is taxed. Sure.

Going to have a much bigger problem with how it's taxed if I'm funding other people's kids and still don't have insurance myself.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Wednesday, May 1, 2019 4:09 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

I have a problem with how it is taxed. Sure.

Going to have a much bigger problem with how it's taxed if I'm funding other people's kids and still don't have insurance myself.

That is why the Republicans have a big advantage over Democrats. Democratic politicians know you have to pay, while Republican politicians know that the majority of voters don't want to pay. The winner tends to be the don't wanna pay Republican politicians, who also slip in LARGE tax cuts for the wealthy riding piggyback on tiny tax cuts for everyone else.

Another big advantage Republican politicians have is that they know in their gut nobody wants new programs for anybody but themselves. Democratic politicians are always falling into the trap of making programs broadly available for everybody, but people don't like that. They want programs targeted exclusive for themselves. With a program like Medicare-for-Kids-Only, all the childless people and all the people with grown-up-children don't want a program for Kids Only. Republicans can use that against Medicare-for-Kids-Only.

If Democrats try Medicare-for-All, the people that already have health insurance aren't getting anything new. The Republicans can use that against the Democrats.

The system can easily be jammed, or rusted in place, or stuck in the mud, by Republicans using a particular voter's unwillingness to pay for programs that aren't exclusively for that particular voter.

What happens is that Democrats temporarily get a majority in Congress because of a scandal like Herbert Hoover's idiotic handling of the Great Depression or Bush's Iraq War/Crash of 2008, then the Democrats pass some new programs, voters realize that all the benefits are not going exclusively to themselves, then the Republicans are back in power.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Wednesday, May 1, 2019 10:20 PM

JEWELSTAITEFAN


Looks like I've managed to avoid this thread since 16 December. And mostly just Trolls posting, hope I didn't miss anything.

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Wednesday, May 1, 2019 11:43 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
With a program like Medicare-for-Kids-Only, all the childless people and all the people with grown-up-children don't want a program for Kids Only. Republicans can use that against Medicare-for-Kids-Only.



Exactly. I managed to say in one single sentence what it took you 5 paragraphs to say.

Given how many working class people have family insurance that already covers their kids until they're out of college anyhow, and that this extended family insurance for the kids is markedly cheaper than individual plans are, the amount of children who would benefit from this is extremely small.

It doesn't do anything at all to address the fact that after 18 not only won't they have insurance anymore, but now they'll be paying for other kids insurance.

Social Security is already a ponzi scheme. I don't see what the point of Medicare-4-Kids is, other than to hook them on government benefits when they're young.


It's not even worth debating since this program has even less of a chance of ever passing than the UBI would.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Thursday, May 2, 2019 10:03 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


The relentless Republican assault on unions in the industrial belt states during the first half of this decade was an unquestionable success, politically speaking. It resulted in decreased Democratic turnout.

Three scholars have produced a detailed analysis of the political effects of right-to-work laws which have been enacted in 27 states. The authors found “strong causal evidence” for the demobilizing “effects of right-to-work laws — examining state and federal elections from 1980 through 2016.” For Democrats, the demobilization after passage of such laws is devastating. “County-level Democratic vote shares in Presidential elections fall by 3.5 percentage points relative to bordering counties.”

Let me repeat that: in places with right-to-work laws, which effectively shut down unions entirely, the Democratic vote share drops by 3.5 percentage points. With that many additional votes, Democrats would have won every presidential election since 1992. This is why destroying unions is so important to Republicans.

Of course, it’s also important to the rich. The decline of union membership matches the decline of working-class income. As the working-class income share declines, the top 1% income share goes up by almost exactly the same amount.

More at www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/05/why-unions-are-so-important-to-
republicans
/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Friday, May 3, 2019 5:41 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Bernie Sanders doesn’t do bipartisanship. He doesn’t even do unipartisanship, refusing to call himself a Democrat even as he seeks the party’s nomination. But what Sanders appears to believe is that he can convince voters not just to support progressive policies, but to support sweeping policy changes that would try to fix things most people don’t consider broken.

That, after all, is what his Medicare for All push, which would eliminate private insurance, amounts to. He is saying to the 180 million Americans who currently have private insurance, many of whom are satisfied with their coverage: “I’m going to take away the insurance you have and replace it with a government program. Also, you’re going to pay a lot more in taxes. But trust me, the program will be better than what you have now, and the new taxes will be less than you currently pay in premiums.”

Could those claims be true? Yes. Will voters believe them? Probably not. Polling shows that support for Medicare for All falls off drastically when people are informed that it would eliminate private insurance and require higher taxes.

You might try to rationalize the Sanders position by saying that Medicare for All is an aspirational plan, and that in practice he would be willing to accept a more gradualist approach. But that’s not what his behavior suggests. On the contrary, Sanders has conspicuously refused to support measures that would enhance Obamacare, even as a temporary expedient.

For Sanders, then, it seems to be single-payer or bust. And what that would mean, with very high likelihood, is . . . bust.

Sanders is a romantic. He appears to live in an imaginary future where a popular tidal wave for him washes away all political obstacles. The man seems unready for the tough fights that will follow even if he wins.

www.nytimes.com/2019/05/02/opinion/sanders-biden-2020.html

Most American workers would have more money with socialized health care:
https://qz.com/1610307/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Saturday, May 4, 2019 6:09 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Trump's negotiations on infrastructure leaves Republicans pushing back against Trump.

Every few months, President Donald Trump gets in the negotiating room with Democrats and everyone leaves happy — except for the president’s own party.

This time, Republicans had to rein in the president from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue since they didn’t have a seat at the table. But the message was basically the same: Trump’s tentative infrastructure agreement with Democrats is little more than a pipe dream that won’t go far in the GOP-controlled Senate. “A lot of us enjoy watching … the trial balloons he floats. And oftentimes they’re extreme and aspirational,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.). “And then the pushback comes, oftentimes from his own party.”

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) emphasized that any legislation needs to be fully paid for and sought to put some perspective on the massive price tag. “Two trillion is really ambitious. If you do a 35-cent increase in the gas tax for example, index for inflation, it only gets you half a trillion,” said Thune, a former commerce chairman.

www.politico.com/story/2019/05/02/trump-republicansinfrastructure-demo
crats-1296825


Well, fine, let’s do a 35-cent increase in the gas tax and settle for half a trillion. We’d get more infrastructure and a little less gasoline use. What’s not to like?

Just kidding, of course. That’s a tax increase. We all know that’s impossible. Really, the only way to fund infrastructure is to cut Medicaid and food stamps and then privately finance all the construction, to be paid for by tolls on its usage.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Sunday, May 5, 2019 4:27 PM

JEWELSTAITEFAN


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:

Originally posted by second:
With a program like Medicare-for-Kids-Only, all the childless people and all the people with grown-up-children don't want a program for Kids Only. Republicans can use that against Medicare-for-Kids-Only.



Exactly. I managed to say in one single sentence what it took you 5 paragraphs to say.

Given how many working class people have family insurance that already covers their kids until they're out of college anyhow, and that this extended family insurance for the kids is markedly cheaper than individual plans are, the amount of children who would benefit from this is extremely small.

It doesn't do anything at all to address the fact that after 18 not only won't they have insurance anymore, but now they'll be paying for other kids insurance.

Social Security is already a ponzi scheme. I don't see what the point of Medicare-4-Kids is, other than to hook them on government benefits when they're young.


It's not even worth debating since this program has even less of a chance of ever passing than the UBI would.

Do Right, Be Right. :)


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Monday, May 6, 2019 6:54 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Republicans, do you remember your great fear of inflation?

In 2010-2011, the U.S. economy remained deeply depressed from the aftereffects of the burst housing bubble and the 2008 financial crisis. Unemployment was still above 9 percent; wage growth had slowed to a crawl, and measures of underlying inflation were well below the Federal Reserve’s targets. So the Fed was doing what it could to boost the economy — keeping short-term interest rates as low as possible, and buying long-term bonds in the hope of getting some extra traction.

But Republicans were up in arms, warning that the Fed’s policies would lead to runaway inflation. A Congressman named Mike Pence introduced a bill that would prohibit the Fed from even considering the state of the labor market in its actions. A who’s who of Republicans signed an open letter to Ben Bernanke demanding that he stop his monetary efforts, which they claimed would “risk currency debasement and inflation.”

And supposedly respectable Republicans engaged in conspiracy theorizing, suggesting that the Fed was secretly in league with the Obama administration. Paul Ryan and the economist John Taylor declared that the Fed’s policy “looks an awful lot like an attempt to bail out fiscal policy, and such attempts call the Fed’s independence into question.”

Of course, all these warnings were totally wrong. Inflation never took off. Although almost none of the people who waxed hysterical over inflation have so much as acknowledged having been wrong, Bernanke and Fed economists were proved right: printing money isn’t inflationary in a depressed economy.

Fast forward to today: Donald Trump attempted to install Stephen Moore at the Fed. But Moore should have been rejected out of hand simply on the basis of his economic views. Not only was Moore wrong, again and again, during the financial crisis and its aftermath; not only did he refuse to admit error, or learn anything from his mistakes; but he turned on a dime as soon as Trump was in office. He demanded higher interest rates when unemployment was above 9 percent; now he’s demanding lower rates with unemployment below 4 percent.

The whole GOP has followed the same path. Mike Pence, who demanded higher rates in the deeply depressed economy of 2010, wants lower rates now. No Republicans in Congress seem to have criticized Moore for his policy views, as opposed to his misogyny. Aside from Harvard’s Greg Mankiw, not one prominent Republican economist stepped up to oppose Moore, even though he clearly was engaged precisely in the kind of politicization of monetary policy Taylor and Ryan claimed to see in 2010.

More at www.nytimes.com/2019/05/04/opinion/the-sabotage-years.html

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Tuesday, May 7, 2019 7:05 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


How Abraham Lincoln helped rig the Senate for Republicans

https://thinkprogress.org/how-abraham-lincoln-rigged-the-senate-for-re
publicans/amp
/

By 2040, according to a University of Virginia analysis of Census population projections, about half of the country will live in just eight states — which means 16 senators for one half of America and 84 for the other half. Meanwhile, according to Stanford political scientist Jonathan Rodden, partisanship closely correlates with population density — “as you go from the center of cities out through the suburbs and into rural areas, you traverse in a linear fashion from Democratic to Republican places.”

America is fast approaching a tipping point where the GOP will enjoy a permanent supermajority in the United States Senate — and with it, permanent control over the federal judiciary. Democrats have no choice. They must embrace the Party of Lincoln’s tactic of selectively admitting new states, or they must perish.

In 1860 the virtually unpopulated Nevada became its own territory. Republicans would admit it as a state just four years later. That gave the Party of Lincoln two extra seats in the Senate — helping prevent Democrats from simultaneously controlling the White House and both houses of Congress until 1893.

Nor was this selective admission of the Republican state of Nevada an isolated case. Among other things, the reason why there are two Dakotas — despite the fact that both states are so underpopulated that they each only rate a single member of the House of Representatives to this day — is because Republicans won the 1888 election and decided to celebrate by giving themselves four senators instead of just two.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Friday, May 10, 2019 12:53 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


The traditional economic analysis is that growth comes from innovation, innovation comes from competitive markets, and competitive markets come from government getting the hell out of the way. We’ve gotten that dead wrong. Yes, growth comes from innovation, and innovation comes from competitive markets, but competitive markets — be they economic or political — don’t come from a laissez-faire government. They come from policymakers breaking up concentrations of power, because the last thing power wants is competition.

At heart, the role of power in our society is straightforward. Unchecked power does what it does best: It replicates and concentrates. Power chokes off competitive markets, tilts political outcomes, rewrites the rules in its own favor.

Moreover, the idea that the rich and the powerful just want the government to leave them alone has been disproven again and again. What they want is to be protected from competition and subsidized by taxpayers:

Over the last 50 years, we see evidence of this approach in every sector of our economy. Agricultural giants not only fought for less oversight of food safety, but they also sought big subsidies for their companies. Drug corporations fought regulations that oversee the products that they introduce to the market, but they welcomed those that lengthen market exclusivity rights and allow their prices to skyrocket.

The story of this era is we handed our government over to markets and handed our markets over to corporations. The results speak for themselves. Slow growth. Weak wages. Rising inequality. The 2008 financial crisis. An angry populace that turned to an even angrier demagogue for salvation.

More at www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/5/10/18527233/democrats-2020-powe
r-sanders-warren-socialism-money


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Thursday, May 16, 2019 8:08 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


The congressional process for addressing disasters has been around for some time, and it’s heavily flawed. The sluggish appropriations process can cause significant delays in the delivery of aid.

It’s an unsustainable approach, disaster preparedness experts say, given the surge we’ve seen in natural disasters in recent years. And it desperately needs to change as this trend continues.

Over the past several decades, the government responded to roughly six disasters a year that caused $1 billion each in damages. But between 2014-2018 that number spiked to 13 disasters a year.

Massive flooding overwhelmed multiple states in the Midwest. A “bomb cyclone” exacerbated the issue. And lawmakers still have yet to approve a dime, on a package they’ve been debating since last December.

All of this is to say that the way the US approaches disaster aid hasn’t kept up with the pace of climate change.

Congress is currently caught up in a spending battle over disaster aid, and it’s largely because of Trump’s aversion to helping places that did not vote for him. The politicization of disaster aid has been disheartening for some experts.

According to a FiveThirtyEight analysis, “voters reward presidents for spending on relief, but not for spending on preparedness.” The argument for spending more on mitigation, though not as self-evidently and immediately beneficial, has been proven by numerous studies: A review by National Institute of Building Sciences found that every $1 invested in preventative efforts translated to $6 saved in longer-term relief costs.

More at www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/5/16/18617697/disaster-aid-senate
-puerto-rico-trump-climate-change


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Thursday, May 16, 2019 8:43 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
The congressional process for addressing disasters has been around for some time, and it’s heavily flawed. The sluggish appropriations process can cause significant delays in the delivery of aid.

It’s an unsustainable approach, disaster preparedness experts say, given the surge we’ve seen in natural disasters in recent years. And it desperately needs to change as this trend continues.

Over the past several decades, the government responded to roughly six disasters a year that caused $1 billion each in damages. But between 2014-2018 that number spiked to 13 disasters a year.

Massive flooding overwhelmed multiple states in the Midwest. A “bomb cyclone” exacerbated the issue. And lawmakers still have yet to approve a dime, on a package they’ve been debating since last December.

All of this is to say that the way the US approaches disaster aid hasn’t kept up with the pace of climate change.

Congress is currently caught up in a spending battle over disaster aid, and it’s largely because of Trump’s aversion to helping places that did not vote for him. The politicization of disaster aid has been disheartening for some experts.

According to a FiveThirtyEight analysis, “voters reward presidents for spending on relief, but not for spending on preparedness.” The argument for spending more on mitigation, though not as self-evidently and immediately beneficial, has been proven by numerous studies: A review by National Institute of Building Sciences found that every $1 invested in preventative efforts translated to $6 saved in longer-term relief costs.

More at www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/5/16/18617697/disaster-aid-senate
-puerto-rico-trump-climate-change


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly



The Russiagate lie didn't work. The tax issue is going nowhere.

Pray for violent acts of god to destroy everything so you can blame it on Trump.

Maybe that will work.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Thursday, May 16, 2019 8:53 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Pray for violent acts of god to destroy everything so you can blame it on Trump.

Maybe that will work.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

I read a story today where Trump says it is not his fault his business is in decline:

To explain the declines at Doral, the Trump Organisation issued a statement to The Washington Post that implicitly contradicted its own tax consultant and blamed factors that had nothing to do with Trump's name. The company cited fears of the Zika virus in 2016, and hurricanes in 2016 and 2017, for driving tourists away from South Florida.

But the statistics provided by the company's consultants to Miami-Dade County - which are legally required to be accurate - showed competing resorts in the same region of Florida still outperformed the Trump resort in the key metrics of room occupancy and average room rate.

"They are severely underperforming" other resorts in the area, tax consultant Jessica Vachiratevanurak told a Miami-Dade County official in a bid to lower the property's tax bill. The reason, she said: "There is some negative connotation that is associated with the brand."

In two years, the resort's net operating income - a key figure, representing the amount left over after expenses are paid - had fallen by 69 per cent.

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trump-business-decline-flori
da-doral-resort-documents-anu-717-am-a8916076.html


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Thursday, May 16, 2019 11:04 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


75% of women who obtain abortions are low-income, with nearly half living below the federal poverty level.
www.marketwatch.com/story/nearly-half-of-women-who-have-abortions-live
-below-in-the-federal-poverty-level-2019-05-17


Alabama’s Extremist Abortion Bill Ruins John Roberts’ Roe v. Wade Plan

There are easy and near invisible ways for the Supreme court to end Roe v. Wade. The five Republican justices in the majority could do it while finding ways to say that abortion regulations were not an “undue burden” on a woman’s right to choose. The courts and state legislatures could continue their lilting love songs to the need for the states to protect maternal health and to help confused mommies make good choices, and nobody need dirty their hands by acknowledging that the three decades’ worth of cumbersome clinic regulations and admitting privileges laws were just pretexts for closing clinics and ending abortion altogether.

Why feel sorry for John Roberts? Because what keeps the Supreme Court in business is polite subterfuge. It’s easiest when the court pretends to be a bit more human than it is while what are essentially unvarnished religious arguments get dressed up in platitudes about patient care, informed consent, maternal information, and solicitude for mothers in distress.

But the state of Alabama runs now to the Supreme Court with its mask of tender solicitude for women and their health askew. The briefest look at the debate as Alabama on Tuesday passed the cruelest and most punitive abortion regulation in modern American history shows exactly how much concern they have for the health of pregnant women. Every woman who suffers an unwanted pregnancy is bad, her baby is good, and such a woman should be punished and made to suffer for her sins. It’s about God. That makes things awkward for Chief Justice John Roberts and his tacit scheme to overturn Roe v. Wade.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/05/alabama-abortion-bill-supr
eme-court-john-roberts-roe.html




The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Friday, May 17, 2019 10:00 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Antitrust law can be used to dismantle the worst monopolists. But Galbraith believed that in an advanced capitalist economy, the inevitability of bigness needed to be recognized, even embraced. “People want large tasks performed,” he wrote, and “large tasks require large organizations. That’s the way it is.”

Once you accept that premise, the implications are clear. Bigness can only be checked by bigness. A healthy economy was one in which these countervailing powers balance each other. An unhealthy economy is one in which one or more of these powers was left to run roughshod.

We are, today, in an unhealthy economy.

It’s not just economic power that corporations and their owners have amassed. In the post-Citizens United era, they’ve been unleashed to purchase political power, which has made government, from the corporate perspective, into more of a cooperative power to corporations than a countervailing one. And a decades-long legal and regulatory onslaught has weakened labor unions as a check in the workplace and the political sphere.

A rediscovery of Galbraith’s ideas on "Countervailing powers" could clarify the deeper argument Democratic Presidential candidates are having, and permit clearer questions: Which institutions would they like to see gain power, and how would they do it? Which sectors would they like to see lose power, and what would that mean?

More at "Countervailing powers: the forgotten economic idea Democrats need to rediscover"
www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/5/17/18626801/2020-democrats-sand
ers-warren-buttigieg-power-socialism


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Friday, May 17, 2019 1:29 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


We've been in an unhealthy economy for at least 2 decades.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Friday, May 17, 2019 1:45 PM

THG


This Alabama abortion bill is a gift to democrats one year before the elections. Thanks guys...
T





Quote:

Originally posted by second:
75% of women who obtain abortions are low-income, with nearly half living below the federal poverty level.
www.marketwatch.com/story/nearly-half-of-women-who-have-abortions-live
-below-in-the-federal-poverty-level-2019-05-17


Alabama’s Extremist Abortion Bill Ruins John Roberts’ Roe v. Wade Plan

There are easy and near invisible ways for the Supreme court to end Roe v. Wade. The five Republican justices in the majority could do it while finding ways to say that abortion regulations were not an “undue burden” on a woman’s right to choose. The courts and state legislatures could continue their lilting love songs to the need for the states to protect maternal health and to help confused mommies make good choices, and nobody need dirty their hands by acknowledging that the three decades’ worth of cumbersome clinic regulations and admitting privileges laws were just pretexts for closing clinics and ending abortion altogether.

Why feel sorry for John Roberts? Because what keeps the Supreme Court in business is polite subterfuge. It’s easiest when the court pretends to be a bit more human than it is while what are essentially unvarnished religious arguments get dressed up in platitudes about patient care, informed consent, maternal information, and solicitude for mothers in distress.

But the state of Alabama runs now to the Supreme Court with its mask of tender solicitude for women and their health askew. The briefest look at the debate as Alabama on Tuesday passed the cruelest and most punitive abortion regulation in modern American history shows exactly how much concern they have for the health of pregnant women. Every woman who suffers an unwanted pregnancy is bad, her baby is good, and such a woman should be punished and made to suffer for her sins. It’s about God. That makes things awkward for Chief Justice John Roberts and his tacit scheme to overturn Roe v. Wade.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/05/alabama-abortion-bill-supr
eme-court-john-roberts-roe.html




The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


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Friday, May 17, 2019 1:52 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


lol.

Roe vs. Wade is not going to be overturned.

There is no gift. Just more chicken little media.

You can put that in the prediction thread.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Saturday, May 18, 2019 6:30 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
lol.

Roe vs. Wade is not going to be overturned.

There is no gift. Just more chicken little media.

You can put that in the prediction thread.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

Pre-viability bans (bans on abortions prior to 24 weeks) like the Alabama ban have never been enforced. Some of them have been enacted by a state but none of them have been enforced. That's because of the litigation that has stopped them from going into effect. But this time feels different because the law is anything that five Republican justices on the Supreme Court say it is.

We are getting some pretty arbitrary and capricious decisions from Trump and he chose two justices specifically to overturn Roe v. Wade. Anything could happen at the Supreme Court, especially since none of the GOP justices have to worry about being reelected in 2020. They can do whatever their hearts are pleased to do and there will be no consequences for themselves.

www.cnn.com/2019/05/15/politics/alabama-abortion-bill-fact-check/index
.html


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Saturday, May 18, 2019 6:49 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Not going to happen.

Overturning Roe vs. Wade is going to ensure that Trump loses and we don't see another Republican elected for a generation.

This is just another dead-end to try to get Trump removed. I wonder what it will be next week.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Saturday, May 18, 2019 7:23 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Not going to happen.

Overturning Roe vs. Wade is going to ensure that Trump loses and we don't see another Republican elected for a generation.

This is just another dead-end to try to get Trump removed. I wonder what it will be next week.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

The Supreme Court won't make a decision until after the 2020 election because the wheels of justice turn exceedingly slow, so overturning Roe v. Wade won't have any affect on Trump's election. Trump's popularity has not suffered from his cramming hundreds of hyper-conservative judges onto the court system. That is because 99% of voters don't know/care where judges come from (the GOP) and who picks them (Trump).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_federal_judges_appointed_by_Dona
ld_Trump


Five of the country's 12 circuit courts are now composed of more than 25 percent of Trump-appointed judges. We all deserve judges who can be fair and impartial, but we are not getting that. That's why protecting our courts needs to be a two-party job. Democrats and Republicans alike owe it to the American people to ensure that the federal courts remain an impartial institution administering 'equal justice for all,' not just the wealthy and the powerful.

The GOP has the Federalist Society. Trump nominees are members of the Federalist Society, an elite group that has made a point of creating a pipeline of future judges.

Last year, at its annual gala, the group honored former Trump White House counsel Don McGahn and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — a nod to their success in confirming federal judges. In a year-end fundraising letter for 2018, the Society reported that its network now numbers 75,000 people and "we are on the eve of closing a calendar year that was hardly imaginable in our early days."

It continued: "Our members--students, lawyers, law professors, legislators, public officials and more--are filling key positions in state and federal governments, in academia, and the private sector."

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Saturday, May 18, 2019 10:16 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
We all deserve judges who can be fair and impartial, but we are not getting that.



We're never going to get that.

I once thought that if we waited long enough for an AI to come along that was up to the job and we surrendered to their own judgement that it would be possible, but recent revelations about how algorithms have been designed and carried out to bring the "correct" news to people doing searches for news proves otherwise.

Any AI derived from humankind will be just as imperfect and petty as mankind itself.

Impartiality is a dream.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Saturday, May 18, 2019 10:43 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:

Originally posted by second:
We all deserve judges who can be fair and impartial, but we are not getting that.



We're never going to get that.

I once thought that if we waited long enough for an AI to come along that was up to the job and we surrendered to their own judgement that it would be possible, but recent revelations about how algorithms have been designed and carried out to bring the "correct" news to people doing searches for news proves otherwise.

Any AI derived from humankind will be just as imperfect and petty as mankind itself.

Impartiality is a dream.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

If impartiality is too much, in your opinion, is not lying under oath also too much? I bet Justice Brett Kavanaugh flat out lied about Roe v. Wade. He knew he would not get confirmed to the Supreme Court unless he said he would not overturn it. And nobody could test Kavanaugh's truthfulness until AFTER he is on the Supreme Court, where he cannot be removed. We will find out if Kavanaugh lied when the Supreme Court gets the case. I am not alone in my suspicions :

www.cnn.com/2019/05/16/politics/brett-kavanaugh-susan-collins-alabama-
abortion/index.html


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Sunday, May 19, 2019 6:13 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Global leaders find they can push Donald Trump around

Theodore Roosevelt, said it best: “To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”

With TR’s philosophy in mind, let’s review where things stand for Donald Trump on the global stage:

The Russians are pushing the president around, as demonstrated by Vladimir Putin’s telling him to keep his nose out of Venezuela—a country not in Russia’s backyard but ours. The Russians have also thumbed their nose at Trump in Syria and Iran.).

The leader of tiny, impoverished North Korea, Kim Jong Un, is the one making demands now, giving the president until December 31 to shape up and stop being “impracticable.” Trump once gushed like a giddy teenager about how he “fell in love” with Kim, and now wants another date—a third summit. But Trump doesn’t get that he’s been dumped. He still seems to think that Kim will magically give up his nuclear weapons, even though no one else, including the U.S. intelligence community, does.

And after promising that “trade wars are easy to win,” Trump faces a country that is digging in, now that China has struck back at us with tariffs of its own. White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow admitted Sunday that yes, Americans are being hurt.

There are many more examples, but the big picture clear: When it comes to foreign policy, we have a president who talks a good game, blows a lot of smoke, and has almost nothing to show for it.

More at www.marketwatch.com/story/global-leaders-find-they-can-push-donald-tru
mp-around-2019-05-17


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Sunday, May 19, 2019 6:32 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Does Anyone Actually Want Joe Biden to Be President?

Early polls are a poor barometer for electoral success. At this point in the lead-up to 2016, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and Scott Walker were the top contenders for the Republican nomination.

The case that people make for Mr. Biden’s electability is not that any one group of people is particularly excited by him, but that he stands the best chance of getting independents and perhaps even some moderate Republicans to cross over and vote Democratic; unenthusiastic lefties will nevertheless vote for him because this is an emergency and Donald Trump is so much worse. It’s Politics 101: The candidate closest to the median voter will scoop up the biggest share.

But getting elected is not about appealing to the bland median. It’s about appealing to the people who actually feel motivated to turn out and vote.

The Democratic Party of 2019 does not look much like Joe Biden. Women, African-American, Latino and Asian voters are all much more likely to say they support Democratic candidates than Republican ones. White voters, male voters and especially white male voters generally support Republicans.

Those assumptions about electability reflect entrenched biases more than political science, and have a dash of arrogance to boot. An electable candidate, the thinking goes, has to be authentic and broadly appealing. But authenticity itself is coded as white and male when it’s defined by white men.

This perpetual reading of the white working-class tea leaves (or beer hops?) only makes sense if those voters are actually more influential than all the others. In the Democratic Party, they’re not. Just under a third of white men without college degrees said they voted for a Democrat in the 2018 midterms. And Democrats don’t need anywhere near a majority of these men to win. Women vote in larger numbers than men; voters with college and post-graduate degrees turn out in larger shares than those without. These high-turnout groups are the same ones that are trending Democratic. If they're motivated to turn out to vote, a Democrat will wind up in the White House.

But what about those Obama-to-Trump swing voters who will reportedly make or break this election, as they did the last one? The Democratic Party shouldn’t leave anyone behind, but working-class white men are declining as a share of the Democratic base, while whites generally are declining as a share of the general population. The entire premise that white men without college degrees are the only possible swing voters is a faulty one.

There’s also little evidence that most voters pick a candidate based on policies and that a moderate candidate who wrote campaign talking points to appeal to a broad swath of voters would do significantly better than a more visionary and progressive one. Instead of trying to win back a waning electoral and demographic force (white males with no college degree), Democrats would be better served to consider what will get voters to the polls. Hillary Clinton’s loss can only be explained by a long list of factors, but surely one of them was apathy. (Biden is the personification of Apathy. Who is excited about Biden? Nobody.)

More at www.nytimes.com/2019/05/17/opinion/joe-biden-president.html

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Sunday, May 19, 2019 7:19 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Does Anyone Actually Want Joe Biden to Be President?

Early polls are a poor barometer for electoral success. At this point in the lead-up to 2016, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and Scott Walker were the top contenders for the Republican nomination.

The case that people make for Mr. Biden’s electability is not that any one group of people is particularly excited by him, but that he stands the best chance of getting independents and perhaps even some moderate Republicans to cross over and vote Democratic; unenthusiastic lefties will nevertheless vote for him because this is an emergency and Donald Trump is so much worse. It’s Politics 101: The candidate closest to the median voter will scoop up the biggest share.

But getting elected is not about appealing to the bland median. It’s about appealing to the people who actually feel motivated to turn out and vote.

The Democratic Party of 2019 does not look much like Joe Biden. Women, African-American, Latino and Asian voters are all much more likely to say they support Democratic candidates than Republican ones. White voters, male voters and especially white male voters generally support Republicans.

Those assumptions about electability reflect entrenched biases more than political science, and have a dash of arrogance to boot. An electable candidate, the thinking goes, has to be authentic and broadly appealing. But authenticity itself is coded as white and male when it’s defined by white men.

This perpetual reading of the white working-class tea leaves (or beer hops?) only makes sense if those voters are actually more influential than all the others. In the Democratic Party, they’re not. Just under a third of white men without college degrees said they voted for a Democrat in the 2018 midterms. And Democrats don’t need anywhere near a majority of these men to win. Women vote in larger numbers than men; voters with college and post-graduate degrees turn out in larger shares than those without. These high-turnout groups are the same ones that are trending Democratic. If they're motivated to turn out to vote, a Democrat will wind up in the White House.

But what about those Obama-to-Trump swing voters who will reportedly make or break this election, as they did the last one? The Democratic Party shouldn’t leave anyone behind, but working-class white men are declining as a share of the Democratic base, while whites generally are declining as a share of the general population. The entire premise that white men without college degrees are the only possible swing voters is a faulty one.

There’s also little evidence that most voters pick a candidate based on policies and that a moderate candidate who wrote campaign talking points to appeal to a broad swath of voters would do significantly better than a more visionary and progressive one. Instead of trying to win back a waning electoral and demographic force (white males with no college degree), Democrats would be better served to consider what will get voters to the polls. Hillary Clinton’s loss can only be explained by a long list of factors, but surely one of them was apathy. (Biden is the personification of Apathy. Who is excited about Biden? Nobody.)

More at www.nytimes.com/2019/05/17/opinion/joe-biden-president.html

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly




Why don't these racists and sexists that write articles like this focus on what the candidate's platforms are instead of the color of everyone's skin and what sexual organs they possess?

This is why Democrats lose. Always.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Sunday, May 19, 2019 8:05 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Why don't these racists and sexists that write articles like this focus on what the candidate's platforms are instead of the color of everyone's skin and what sexual organs they possess?

This is why Democrats lose. Always.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

Elections are not won by platforms and policy statements. They are won by how many come out to vote. Trump got people to vote by saying Lock Her Up and Make America Great Again. He understands the voters perfectly. It is the Democratic candidates that waste time describing the thousand nuanced details of their policies that 99% of voters can't be bothered to understand. Check out https://peteforamerica.com/issues/ for all the mind-numbing details that 99% of voters don't give a damn about. This Pete Buttigieg guy is smart enough and hard working enough to be President, but he will never get elected. Why? Because he has a complete platform. He should throw it away and do what Trump does -- bullshit his way to the Presidency.

Since you won't click the link, I'll give you the last 3 items on Pete's 1,000 item platform. None of them will move even a single voter to the polls:
Quote:

https://peteforamerica.com/issues/
1) Electoral College
Democracy means that nothing should be allowed to overrule the vote of the American people when it comes to choosing our nation’s leader.

Key Policy: A national popular vote to replace the Electoral College

It’s simple: the candidate who gets the most votes should win. States don’t vote, people vote, and everyone’s vote should count exactly the same. The Electoral College has to go.

The best route to removing the Electoral College would be a constitutional amendment. Recognizing that this cannot be done overnight, Pete supports the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact to ensure the president is chosen by the American people while we seek constitutional reform.

2) Judicial System
Democracy means depoliticizing our judicial system.

Key Policy: Depoliticize the Supreme Court

We need to reform the Supreme Court in a way that will strengthen its independence and restore the American people’s trust in it as a check to the Presidency and the Congress. One promising idea is to restructure the Court so that ten members are confirmed in the normal political fashion, with the other five promoted from the lower courts by unanimous agreement of the other ten. Others have proposed implementing term limits. As president, Pete will create a bipartisan reform commission for the purpose of recommending structural improvements to protect the Supreme Court from further politicization.

3) National Service
Democracy means more shared experiences in the service of our country.

Key Policy: Expand opportunities for national service

We need to grow our national service programs to give more opportunities for young Americans to serve. Service provides a deeper sense of community, tackles critical national and global challenges, and can help heal our divided nation.

When Pete was a Navy Reserve Officer, he learned to trust and collaborate with women and men from radically different backgrounds -- including different races, religions, and political leanings. Right now, we turn away hundreds of thousands of young people who volunteer to serve. Military service, Peace Corps service, and domestic service-year opportunities through efforts like AmeriCorps should be expanded until service becomes a universal expectation for every American youth.

Bringing together people of different backgrounds in pursuit of a common shared purpose -- from climate adaptation to supporting disinvested American communities and neighborhoods -- is America at its best.



The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Sunday, May 19, 2019 8:34 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Just a few short weeks ago, SECONDRATE was banging the "racist" angle, as in "Trump won only because racists voted for him".

It makes absolutely no difference to SECONDRATE whether you argue him to a standstill on any particular point, he'll just shift points and argue something competely different (even if it directly contradicts what he argued before) until he comes full circle back to the point he lost the first time. This is the "Iraq weapons of mass destruction" form of propaganda ... just keep piling on the bullshit by shifting the topics (even if they contradict each other) with one aim in mind:

If you can't dazzle them with brillince, baffle them with bullshit.

This technique was made famous by GWB and perfected by Trump. So, I guess SECONDRATE in some ways is just like the Republicans he claims to despise.


-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND

America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .

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Monday, May 20, 2019 6:22 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


The year 2016 brought the first genuinely post–Cold War election: the perennial carnage of American capitalism, intensified by forty years of growing inequality, prepared the ground for Bernie Sanders’s socialism, while the nativism and racism that had slunk just outside respectable politics returned full-throated. Trump is not an anomalous departure but rather a return to the baseline — to the historical norm.

The thing that really defined Trump’s political language was its nihilism about politics itself, the appetite it stoked for political bullshit that doesn’t even pretend to hold together, but just staggers from one emotional trigger to another. Trump essentially short-sold the high-minded political style of the late Cold War, betting that it would prove weaker than it looked under pressure — that people neither expected much from government nor thought it important enough to be well run; that a lot of voters despised their political class and the cultural and financial elites around it; and that recreational cruelty and you-can’t-bullshit-a-bullshitter snark would feel more authentic than any respectably sanctioned appeal to better angels. We are, he intimated, the barbarians we’ve been waiting for. His Trumpism is basically Reagan Republicanism without the California simulacrum of sunny goodwill.
www.dissentmagazine.org/article/normcore-trump-resistance-books-crisis
-of-democracy


For the American right, Donald Trump’s inauguration as the forty-fifth president of the United States was a moment of political rebirth. Elements of American conservatism had long fostered a reactionary counterculture, which defined the push for civil rights as oppression, resisted the equality of women and the transgression of conventional heterosexual norms, pilloried the hegemony of the liberal media, and was suspicious of globalism and its corporate liberal institutions, including the UN and the WTO. Already in the 1950s this reactionary politics had secured a niche on the right wing of the GOP. It was reenergized by the Goldwater campaign and the conservative backlash against the social revolutions of the 1960s. Reintegrated into the mainstream GOP by Ronald Reagan, it then flared into the open in the ferocious hostility to the Clintons in the 1990s. With Trump it finally claimed center stage. For the right, the explosion of “truth-speaking” by Trump and his cohorts, the unabashed sexism and xenophobia of his administration, and its robust nationalism on issues of trade and security need no justification. His election represents a long-awaited overturning of the consensus of liberalism.
www.nybooks.com/articles/2019/06/06/democracy-and-its-discontents/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Monday, May 20, 2019 8:44 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


It seems we've come full circle. Right back to the basket of deplorables.

How'd that work out for you in 2016?

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Monday, May 20, 2019 9:27 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
It seems we've come full circle. Right back to the basket of deplorables.

How'd that work out for you in 2016?

Do Right, Be Right. :)

Worked great! I got a huge tax cut from Trump and I fired all my "deplorable" Trump-loving employees. They were convinced they were essential, but they were wrong. My business runs so much smoother without those whiny Trump-lovers incompetently handling the jobs I assigned them. (New employment policy: 3 strikes and you're out. Funny how it was the Trump-lovers who all got fired.) How are things working for you, now that you are moving from the house where you once though you'd live forever? Did Trump not deliver on his promises to Make America Great Again? Did you get a tax cut to match the one Trump gave himself and me?

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Monday, May 20, 2019 9:29 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
It seems we've come full circle. Right back to the basket of deplorables.

How'd that work out for you in 2016?

Do Right, Be Right. :)

Worked great! I got a huge tax cut from Trump and I fired all my "deplorable" Trump-loving employees. They were convinced they were essential, but they were wrong. My business runs so much smoother without those whiny Trump-lovers incompetently handling the jobs I assigned them. How are things working for you, now that you are forced to move from the house where you once though you'd live forever? Did Trump not deliver on his promises to Make America Great Again?

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly



lol

It looks as though somebody is on tilt again.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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