REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

A thread for Democrats Only

POSTED BY: THGRRI
UPDATED: Monday, October 21, 2024 20:59
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Saturday, October 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


Stop Americans From Filing Their Taxes for Free

In 2008, TurboTax was a market leader, but only a small portion of Americans filed their taxes online. By 2019, nearly 40% of U.S. taxpayers filed online and some 40 million of them did so with TurboTax, far more than with any other product.

But the success of TurboTax rests on a shaky foundation, one that could collapse overnight if the U.S. government did what most wealthy countries did long ago and made tax filing simple and free for most citizens.

For more than 20 years, Intuit has waged a sophisticated, sometimes covert war to prevent the government from doing just that, according to internal company and IRS documents and interviews with insiders. The company unleashed a battalion of lobbyists and hired top officials from the agency that regulates it.

Internal presentations lay out company tactics for fighting “encroachment,” Intuit’s catchall term for any government initiative to make filing taxes easier — such as creating a free government filing system or pre-filling people’s returns with payroll or other data the IRS already has. “For a decade proposals have sought to create IRS tax software or a ReturnFree Tax System; All were stopped,” reads a confidential 2007 PowerPoint presentation from an Intuit board of directors meeting. The company’s 2014-15 plan included manufacturing “3rd-party grass roots” support. “Buy ads for op-eds/editorials/stories in African American and Latino media,” one internal PowerPoint slide states.

The centerpiece of Intuit’s anti-encroachment strategy has been the Free File program, hatched 17 years ago in a moment of crisis for the company. Under the terms of an agreement with the federal government, Intuit and other commercial tax prep companies promised to provide free online filing to tens of millions of lower-income taxpayers. In exchange, the IRS pledged not to create a government-run system.

Since Free File’s launch, Intuit has done everything it could to limit the program’s reach while making sure the government stuck to its end of the deal. This year, Intuit was close to realizing a long-held goal: enshrining the Free File program in law, effectively closing the door on the IRS ever creating a free tax filing system. But an outcry followed ProPublica’s reporting on the matter and Intuit’s treatment of its customers, prompting the provision to be dropped and state and federal investigations into Intuit’s practices.

Yet even after this setback, the company remained steadfastly confident that its clout in Washington would win the day. Intuit revved its lobbying machine. A group of Republican lawmakers, led by TurboTax’s hometown congressman, wrote to the agency arguing that there was no reason for the government to “compete” with the “well-established” private tax prep companies. Intuit’s lobbyists also went above the OMB and pressed their case directly to the White House, Forman recalled.

At the IRS, “all hell broke loose,” remembered Terry Lutes, who was then the head of electronic filing at the agency. Intuit’s clout on the Hill meant that lawmakers were soon accusing the IRS of making “secret plans to undercut the industry,” Lutes said. The agency ran the risk of seeing its funding cut if it were to pursue the Free Tax Filing software plan.

Intuit’s success has made the men who run the company rich. Smith, the CEO who stepped down last year and is now executive board chair, had a stake worth $20 million when he became chief executive. It ballooned to $220 million by last year. Co-founder Scott Cook is now among the country’s wealthiest people, his fortune soaring to $3.3 billion.

More at www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-fight-to-stop-ameri
cans-from-filing-their-taxes-for-free

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, October 19, 2019 9:09 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

That's why I hate you Democrats so much for the last 10 years and pushing me to that side.

Open your fucking eyes and see that the other side of the Legacy Media arm is programming you dumb fucks the exact same way.

They're all in cahoots.
Somehow, I don't think I'm being programmed, but rather the bottom 50% are programmed to accept their fate without violence against people like me:
Quote:
Between 1989 and 2018, the top one percent increased its total net worth by $21 trillion. The bottom 50 percent actually saw its net worth decrease by $900 billion over the same period.
I don't have to do a damn thing to protect myself because the GOP protects people like me from people like you by keeping the minimum wage at a minimum and by lowering my taxes. On the other hand, the Democrats don't protect me from higher wages and higher taxes. Maybe I should vote for Trump next time?

www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/14/eye-popping-analysis-shows-top-1-
gained-21-trillion-wealth-1989-while-bottom-half

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



Oh... that's right. I woke up this morning and forgot entirely that you're rich.

Thanks for our daily reminder of how great you are.

Do Right, Be Right. :)
6ix, you are thinking small. As far as I know, you can't remember details from one day to the next, except your bitterness at how poorly you have it in life, something I see in nearly all Trump lovers. Trump voters who are rich don't love Trump. It is too obvious to them how dishonorable and greedy he is.

6ix, you have not been able to put what few details you remember to good use in building a prediction model of how the world works and people react in order to predict what will happen next. Knowing what is likely to be next gives you a huge advantage over people who can't, or won't, do it, people who live in the eternal now with no larger purpose than birds, pets, and bees have - Jayne Cobb, for a fictional example and Adam Baldwin for a real example. Today, Baldwin only has 172 bird tweets, because he keeps erasing older tweets and forgetting his past. The only thing he clearly remembers in detail is his bitterness at his enemies. Trump remembers his past. He has 45,200 tweets and he obviously does have a prediction model of how the world works and people react. Too bad about what he uses his model for.
https://twitter.com/AdamBaldwin
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump

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


There's no evidence that I don't remember everything since I sobered up, nearly 3 years ago.

There is plenty of evidence that you chucklefucks can't remember what happened in the news 2 weeks ago (Caused by 1 part ADD and 1 part it's-the-only-way-to-justify-your-otherwise-constant-state-of-hypocrisy).

When do you hear me bitching about my life?

I'm out here solving problems all the time and making constant improvements.

You're out here projecting again.


You're rich. STFU and take a dip in your golden coin tower, McDuck.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Saturday, October 19, 2019 9:16 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Stop Americans From Filing Their Taxes for Free

In 2008, TurboTax was a market leader, but only a small portion of Americans filed their taxes online. By 2019, nearly 40% of U.S. taxpayers filed online and some 40 million of them did so with TurboTax, far more than with any other product.

But the success of TurboTax rests on a shaky foundation, one that could collapse overnight if the U.S. government did what most wealthy countries did long ago and made tax filing simple and free for most citizens.

For more than 20 years, Intuit has waged a sophisticated, sometimes covert war to prevent the government from doing just that, according to internal company and IRS documents and interviews with insiders. The company unleashed a battalion of lobbyists and hired top officials from the agency that regulates it.

Internal presentations lay out company tactics for fighting “encroachment,” Intuit’s catchall term for any government initiative to make filing taxes easier — such as creating a free government filing system or pre-filling people’s returns with payroll or other data the IRS already has. “For a decade proposals have sought to create IRS tax software or a ReturnFree Tax System; All were stopped,” reads a confidential 2007 PowerPoint presentation from an Intuit board of directors meeting. The company’s 2014-15 plan included manufacturing “3rd-party grass roots” support. “Buy ads for op-eds/editorials/stories in African American and Latino media,” one internal PowerPoint slide states.

The centerpiece of Intuit’s anti-encroachment strategy has been the Free File program, hatched 17 years ago in a moment of crisis for the company. Under the terms of an agreement with the federal government, Intuit and other commercial tax prep companies promised to provide free online filing to tens of millions of lower-income taxpayers. In exchange, the IRS pledged not to create a government-run system.

Since Free File’s launch, Intuit has done everything it could to limit the program’s reach while making sure the government stuck to its end of the deal. This year, Intuit was close to realizing a long-held goal: enshrining the Free File program in law, effectively closing the door on the IRS ever creating a free tax filing system. But an outcry followed ProPublica’s reporting on the matter and Intuit’s treatment of its customers, prompting the provision to be dropped and state and federal investigations into Intuit’s practices.

Yet even after this setback, the company remained steadfastly confident that its clout in Washington would win the day. Intuit revved its lobbying machine. A group of Republican lawmakers, led by TurboTax’s hometown congressman, wrote to the agency arguing that there was no reason for the government to “compete” with the “well-established” private tax prep companies. Intuit’s lobbyists also went above the OMB and pressed their case directly to the White House, Forman recalled.

At the IRS, “all hell broke loose,” remembered Terry Lutes, who was then the head of electronic filing at the agency. Intuit’s clout on the Hill meant that lawmakers were soon accusing the IRS of making “secret plans to undercut the industry,” Lutes said. The agency ran the risk of seeing its funding cut if it were to pursue the Free Tax Filing software plan.

Intuit’s success has made the men who run the company rich. Smith, the CEO who stepped down last year and is now executive board chair, had a stake worth $20 million when he became chief executive. It ballooned to $220 million by last year. Co-founder Scott Cook is now among the country’s wealthiest people, his fortune soaring to $3.3 billion.

More at www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-fight-to-stop-ameri
cans-from-filing-their-taxes-for-free

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



12 years of public school and they never bother to teach you how to fill out a 1040. I blame that.

Filing your own taxes for a majority of Americans is so ridiculously simple that I don't feel bad for anybody who doesn't do it.

I'm one of what is likely a small percentage of Americans who still mails in their tax forms every year. One might assume that's because I'm an old dog who doesn't learn new tricks, but that couldn't be further from the truth.

The TRUTH is, the "free" online filing the government offers is several links to accounting firms that you need to sign up with and provide extremely personal data (not to mention your income to the penny), and their "I agree" buttons allow them to do whatever-the-fuck they want to do with all of that data you've just given them.




The way I see it, either demand that they start teaching kids how to do their own taxes in high school (even going so far as to taking in their taxes from their jobs that they might have at 16 years old to work on in the class), or demand that the government sets up a system where you can file everything online directly with them without any third party accounting firms in the mix (there is zero legitimate reasons why this couldn't be streamlined and made extremely simple and efficient for most Americans that don't own a business and work for somebody else).


Oh... and in case you weren't aware of it with the mountains of tax paperwork you need at your big business, Second, under the Trump administration the standard 1040 form is quite a bit shorter than it has ever been in my life. Even easier for the idiot proles to figure out.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Saturday, October 19, 2019 1:06 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:

12 years of public school and they never bother to teach you how to fill out a 1040. I blame that.

Filing your own taxes for a majority of Americans is so ridiculously simple that I don't feel bad for anybody who doesn't do it.
It is not school's fault that 90% of Americans are stupid about money. (90% are stupid about politics, too.) As a 12 year old child, I was filling out my income tax return. I must have let my Father mail it, because I don't have a copy of that 1964 return, but I do have all of them from 1968 to today. In 1968 my wages were $1,236.84. My interest was $248.07. I paid $111.70 to the IRS. If I had been paying more attention to Warren Buffett, who was already famous, than my Burger King manager Father, I would have placed my money in the stock market rather than the Savings and Loan.
www.forbes.com/profile/warren-buffett/

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, October 19, 2019 1:22 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

12 years of public school and they never bother to teach you how to fill out a 1040. I blame that.

Filing your own taxes for a majority of Americans is so ridiculously simple that I don't feel bad for anybody who doesn't do it.
It is not school's fault that 90% of Americans are stupid about money.


Yes. Yes it is.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Saturday, October 19, 2019 2:17 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:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

12 years of public school and they never bother to teach you how to fill out a 1040. I blame that.

Filing your own taxes for a majority of Americans is so ridiculously simple that I don't feel bad for anybody who doesn't do it.
It is not school's fault that 90% of Americans are stupid about money.


Yes. Yes it is.

Do Right, Be Right. :)
In 1968 my income were $1,484.91.
Adjusting for inflation, $1,484.91 in 1968 equals $10,955.86 in 2019. Way back then I could have been making more than 6ixStringJack makes today. I did that while working only on Saturday and half of Sunday. (Went to Church in the afternoon). The rest of the week, Monday through Friday, I was either at school or vacation. Those were the good old days. I could have married my wife then instead of 11 years later. (I was worth waiting for, she says. She's being nice.) My oldest daughter would be 50 years old today rather than a 39 y.o. And I could have avoided Vietnam. But then I might have ended up as Burger King manager, same as my Father. Those are the trade-offs.

www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1968?amount=1484.91

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, October 19, 2019 2:50 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
my wife
My oldest daughter
OMG. Given, yanno - who you are online - it sounds like they're in a hostage situation.

And I sure hope their politics never, ever strays one iota from yours, otherwise you'll do anything from fire them in the meanest way possible to bragging about how good a shot your are with a rifle and talking about how death is too good for them.

The insane never-Trumpers will be driven even more insane in the wash/rinse/spin/repeat/ cycle they mistake for reality.

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Tuesday, October 22, 2019 9:05 AM

SECOND

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


The embarrassing epilogue to the media’s obsession with Hillary Clinton’s emails

Maybe Clinton’s emails shouldn’t have been covered as if they were the single most important issue facing 2016 voters?

We can all finally stop worrying about Hillary Clinton’s emails.

Last week, Congress received a brief, nine-page report from the State Department, which summarizes the department’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email account to conduct work business while she was secretary of state. The report can be fairly summarized in two sentences: She shouldn’t have done that. But it wasn’t that big of a deal.

Thus, America finally has closure on a minor scandal that many of the nation’s most powerful and influential news editors treated as if it were the most important issue facing voters in the 2016 election. “In just six days,” according to an analysis of 2016 coverage published in the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR), “the New York Times ran as many cover stories about Hillary Clinton’s emails as they did about all policy issues combined in the 69 days leading up to the election.” And the Times was hardly alone in this regard.

By contrast, the Times’s piece on the State Department report concluding that her emails weren’t actually that big of a deal ran on page A16 in print.

More at www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/10/22/20924795/hillary-clinton-em
ails-new-york-times-state-department

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, October 22, 2019 9:51 AM

CAPTAINCRUNCH

... stay crunchy...


Same as it ever was - no change for Russian hacking in upcoming 2020 election:

https://wapo.st/35XSFbF

"Facebook takedowns show new Russian activity targeted Biden, praised Trump
The company disabled a network of accounts that posed at times as locals in swing states to post on divisive political issues and the upcoming presidential election

By
Tony Romm and
Isaac Stanley-Becker

Oct. 21, 2019 at 6:46 p.m. EDT

Facebook on Monday said it removed a network of Russian-backed accounts that posed as locals weighing in on political issues in swing states, praising President Trump and attacking former vice president Joe Biden — illustrating that the familiar threat of Russian interference looms over the next U.S. presidential race.
Facebook said the network bears the hallmark of the same Kremlin-backed group that interfered in the 2016 election by sowing social discord, seeking to boost Trump and attacking Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. The new disinformation campaign appears to follow the same playbook.
This time, a coordinated group of Russian accounts that appears to show some links to the Internet Research Agency largely took to Facebook’s photo-sharing app, Instagram, to post content this year about U.S. politics and memes targeting Democratic presidential contenders.

The operation demonstrated a sophisticated understanding of the schisms within the Democratic Party as it labors to choose a nominee to face Trump in 2020. One Russian account, which portrayed itself as a black voter in Michigan, used the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag to hammer Biden for gaffes about racial issues. Some of the accounts boosted one of his rivals on the left, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
The Russian network was the subject of one of four takedowns Facebook announced Monday; it also disabled three misleading campaigns originating in Iran. Researchers said the efforts demonstrated how those seeking to interfere in U.S. politics continue to exploit radioactive topics, including racial and religious fault lines. And they said it offered fresh evidence that foreign actors are pursuing new platforms that rely on a steady stream of images, making detection more difficult despite Facebook’s heightened investments in election security."

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Tuesday, October 22, 2019 9:58 AM

SECOND

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


As a reminder of how a little Russian influence can go a long ways:

You Could Fit All the Voters Who Cost Clinton the Election in a Mid-Size Football Stadium

While nearly 138 million Americans voted in the presidential election, the stunning electoral victory of Donald Trump came down to upsets in just a handful of states that Hillary Clinton was expected to win. It has been cold comfort for Democrats that Clinton won the popular vote—at the last count, she was up by about 2.5 million votes, and climbing, as ballots continue to be counted. Even more distressing is the tiny margin by which Clinton lost Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania—three states that were supposed to be her firewall in the Rust Belt, but that ultimately tipped the electoral college map decisively in Trump’s favor.

Trump’s margin of victory in those three states? Just 79,316 votes.

This latest number comes from Decision Desk’s final tally of Pennsylvania’s votes, where Trump won 2,961,875 votes to Clinton’s 2,915,440, a difference of 46,435 votes. Add that to the official results out of Wisconsin, where Clinton lost by 22,177 votes, and Michigan, which she lost by 10,704 votes, and there you have it: 0.057 percent of total voters cost Clinton the presidency.

It is not entirely unusual for the electoral college to be lost by such a slim margin. In 2000, Al Gore lost Florida (and therefore the election) by 1,754 votes, triggering a painfully drawn out recount drama that only ended with a Supreme Court ruling. And in 2004, John Kerry lost to George W. Bush by losing Ohio by a little over 118,000 votes. But it is worth considering just how few voters ultimately set the country on its current, arguably terrifying course. The 79,316 people who voted for Trump in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania—all states that Democrats carried since 1992—is less than the entire student body of Penn State (97,494 students). If you put all these voters in the Rose Bowl, there would be slightly over 13,000 seats left over.

More at www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/12/hillary-clinton-margin-loss-votes

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, October 22, 2019 10:03 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by captaincrunch:
Same as it ever was - no change for Russian hacking in upcoming 2020 election:

https://wapo.st/35XSFbF

"Facebook takedowns show new Russian activity targeted Biden, praised Trump
The company disabled a network of accounts that posed at times as locals in swing states to post on divisive political issues and the upcoming presidential election

By
Tony Romm and
Isaac Stanley-Becker

Oct. 21, 2019 at 6:46 p.m. EDT

Facebook on Monday said it removed a network of Russian-backed accounts that posed as locals weighing in on political issues in swing states, praising President Trump and attacking former vice president Joe Biden — illustrating that the familiar threat of Russian interference looms over the next U.S. presidential race.
Facebook said the network bears the hallmark of the same Kremlin-backed group that interfered in the 2016 election by sowing social discord, seeking to boost Trump and attacking Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. The new disinformation campaign appears to follow the same playbook.
This time, a coordinated group of Russian accounts that appears to show some links to the Internet Research Agency largely took to Facebook’s photo-sharing app, Instagram, to post content this year about U.S. politics and memes targeting Democratic presidential contenders.

The operation demonstrated a sophisticated understanding of the schisms within the Democratic Party as it labors to choose a nominee to face Trump in 2020. One Russian account, which portrayed itself as a black voter in Michigan, used the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag to hammer Biden for gaffes about racial issues. Some of the accounts boosted one of his rivals on the left, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
The Russian network was the subject of one of four takedowns Facebook announced Monday; it also disabled three misleading campaigns originating in Iran. Researchers said the efforts demonstrated how those seeking to interfere in U.S. politics continue to exploit radioactive topics, including racial and religious fault lines. And they said it offered fresh evidence that foreign actors are pursuing new platforms that rely on a steady stream of images, making detection more difficult despite Facebook’s heightened investments in election security."



Oh well... It's called the Internet man. The only way to lock that down is to tie every single post and activity directly to individual people and go full blown Orwellian police state on the internet. Is that what you want?



In the mean time, the French have been rigging the election against Donald Trump.

Oh. Wait...

That was Mitt Romney's sockpuppet.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/10/21/mitt-romney-pierre-de
lecto-twitter-slate/

Quote:
“Why are we talking about Pierre Delecto,” one person asked.

“WTH is a Pierre Delecto & why is everyone going crazy about it?” another wanted to know.

On Sunday, Twitter users lost their collective minds when they learned that Pierre Delecto wasn’t a bot or a random Romney superfan, but an account run by the Republican senator himself. As Delecto, Romney, who has become one of President Trump’s most vocal GOP critics, used the account to like critical tweets about the president, while also occasionally defending himself against detractors. By early Monday, the unusual pseudonym was a trending moment on Twitter and had been mentioned in more than 47,000 tweets.


Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Tuesday, October 22, 2019 10:07 AM

THG


Quote:
Originally posted by captaincrunch:
Same as it ever was - no change for Russian hacking in upcoming 2020 election:

https://wapo.st/35XSFbF

"Facebook takedowns show new Russian activity targeted Biden, praised Trump
The company disabled a network of accounts that posed at times as locals in swing states to post on divisive political issues and the upcoming presidential election

By
Tony Romm and
Isaac Stanley-Becker

Oct. 21, 2019 at 6:46 p.m. EDT

Facebook on Monday said it removed a network of Russian-backed accounts that posed as locals weighing in on political issues in swing states, praising President Trump and attacking former vice president Joe Biden — illustrating that the familiar threat of Russian interference looms over the next U.S. presidential race.
Facebook said the network bears the hallmark of the same Kremlin-backed group that interfered in the 2016 election by sowing social discord, seeking to boost Trump and attacking Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. The new disinformation campaign appears to follow the same playbook.
This time, a coordinated group of Russian accounts that appears to show some links to the Internet Research Agency largely took to Facebook’s photo-sharing app, Instagram, to post content this year about U.S. politics and memes targeting Democratic presidential contenders.

The operation demonstrated a sophisticated understanding of the schisms within the Democratic Party as it labors to choose a nominee to face Trump in 2020. One Russian account, which portrayed itself as a black voter in Michigan, used the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag to hammer Biden for gaffes about racial issues. Some of the accounts boosted one of his rivals on the left, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
The Russian network was the subject of one of four takedowns Facebook announced Monday; it also disabled three misleading campaigns originating in Iran. Researchers said the efforts demonstrated how those seeking to interfere in U.S. politics continue to exploit radioactive topics, including racial and religious fault lines. And they said it offered fresh evidence that foreign actors are pursuing new platforms that rely on a steady stream of images, making detection more difficult despite Facebook’s heightened investments in election security."


Yep, to true G. I'm pretty sure these big social media companies are going to be regulated like main stream media. After all, it called social media. It can't happen soon enough for me.

T


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Tuesday, October 22, 2019 12:25 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Yep, to true G. I'm pretty sure these big social media companies are going to be regulated like main stream media. After all, it called social media. It can't happen soon enough for me.


Of course you can't wait.

You're an authoritarian jackboot thug.

You would have made an excellent Nazi in the mid 40's.




But seriously. Nobody is worried about your type.

If and when you morons manage to bleach and sanitize the mainstream social media sites, and Mika gets her wish that Morning Joe will control what everyone thinks, everyone with half a brain will have already jumped ship to alternative media sites that are already on the rise.

I'm just fine with two Internets.



You can have the millennials who are mostly going to stay over there. Gen Z will be following Gen X to the cool side.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Tuesday, October 22, 2019 2:40 PM

THG


T





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Tuesday, October 22, 2019 2:56 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


I'll remember you posted that cartoon when you hate on her next week.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Tuesday, October 22, 2019 3:40 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


"You Could Fit All the Voters Who Cost Clinton the Election in a Mid-Size Football Stadium"

Shit, you could fit all the people who cost Clinton the election in one chair.



She was the one who ran such a lousy campaign it was that close over many, many states.

MEANWHILE, we still have the electoral college because GUESS WHAT!! it's written in the Constitution. Get over it ... unless you really like being anti-American.


The insane never-Trumpers will be driven even more insane in the wash/rinse/spin/repeat/ cycle they mistake for reality.

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Tuesday, October 22, 2019 9:56 PM

THG


Tomorrow's another big day for Trump. 10 am streaming live on C-span, can a sitting president be indicted? Looks like he can so far. The sitting judge says Trumps assertion he could not was repugnant. Look it up. Trumps lawyers appeal tomorrow, federal district court.

tick tock

T


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Wednesday, October 23, 2019 6:40 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Here's the actual court document, since you can't even be bothered to provide a link to a Legacy Media article that boils a 75 page document down to a one sentence sound byte with a big word like repugnant in it.

https://games-cdn.washingtonpost.com/notes/prod/default/documents/d396
4ebc-adb2-4ff9-9364-9fda4b4ae025/note/9c4663de-c5c5-495e-ace4-757acc13e0de.pdf#page=1

Who is Victor Marrero?

- 78 year old Senior Judge of the US Court for the Southern District of New York, originally from Puerto Rico.

- Appointed by Bill Clinton in October of 1999.

- Preceded by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.




At the end of the day, I don't even disagree with the assertion that a sitting president cannot be indicted. Unlike our rabid lefty partisans here, I can recognize how bending the laws today to get what you want will lead to the next guy or gal bending them even further until one of them breaks the whole damn thing off.

That being said, however, let's not kid ourselves that this particular Judge was ever going to side with Trump on anything, however benign it may have been.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Wednesday, October 23, 2019 6:50 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
"You Could Fit All the Voters Who Cost Clinton the Election in a Mid-Size Football Stadium"

Shit, you could fit all the people who cost Clinton the election in one chair.



She was the one who ran such a lousy campaign it was that close over many, many states.

MEANWHILE, we still have the electoral college because GUESS WHAT!! it's written in the Constitution. Get over it ... unless you really like being anti-American.


The insane never-Trumpers will be driven even more insane in the wash/rinse/spin/repeat/ cycle they mistake for reality.



Even the Legacy Media is turning against Hillary.

I'm starting to have my doubts that she will be a late entry into the race. It's not good when the Clinton News Network is taking jabs at her over her comments on Tulsi.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/22/politics/tulsi-gabbard-hillary-clinton-
russia/index.html

This is just one of quite a few articles and videos from CNN on the topic. They've gone as far as to actually say the words "conspiracy theorist" when referring to Clinton here.

And as far as I can find, none of the other Democrat candidates still in the race agree with Clinton's tweet either. Sanders and Buttigieg have both come out defending Gabbard.








But, overall, the Democrats are scared. They know they have nothing.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/22/us/politics/democratic-candidates-2
020.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

Quote:
Anxious Democratic Establishment Asks, ‘Is There Anybody Else?’

Party leaders who are fatalistic about Democrats’ chances in 2020 are musing about possible late entrants to the race. Sherrod Brown? Michelle Obama?



This has even given AOC the opportunity to make the tweet of her short political career:

https://twitter.com/aoc/status/1186633016807964673

Quote:
If ~2 years and 20+ candidates aren't enough for ya, I don't know what to tell you.


Priceless.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Wednesday, October 23, 2019 7:11 AM

THG


Follow jacks link and read pg. 68. Trump loses. Judges says Trump does not have immunity from prosecution. Jacks a moron. He posted proof of what I posted. Thanks moron...

https://games-cdn.washingtonpost.com/notes/prod/default/documents/d396
4ebc-adb2-4ff9-9364-9fda4b4ae025/note/9c4663de-c5c5-495e-ace4-757acc13e0de.pdf#page=1

T


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Wednesday, October 23, 2019 7:18 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Read my post, idiot. I didn't argue that.

Fucking moron.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Wednesday, October 23, 2019 8:53 AM

SECOND

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


Despite the wealth tax being the shiny object for those wanting to tax the rich, why should Dems put all their chips on a tax that could easily fall short of hyped expectations?

Economic Analysis: Risking the Wrath of 900 Billionaires
www.taxnotes.com/featured-analysis/economic-analysis-risking-wrath-900
-billionaires/2019/10/18/2b1m3

You can safely ignore the possibility of a U.S. wealth tax. But you should not ignore the political and economic developments that are putting it in the news.

About the impossibility of a wealth tax: First, as is common knowledge, there may be at least even odds of Democrats winning the White House and keeping the House, but their taking the Senate is a long shot. And even in the unlikely event of a Democratic hat trick, the Dems would have to use the budget reconciliation process or invoke the nuclear option (repealing the Senate rule requiring 60 votes to proceed) to enact any tax increase over Republican objections. Those are some high hurdles. (Perhaps the Democrats’ chances improve in 2022, but we’ll wait on that.)

Second, and more fundamentally, despite the wealth tax being the shiny object for those wanting to tax the rich, why should Dems put all their chips on a tax that could easily fall short of hyped expectations? Reforms of existing taxes can achieve similar objectives. On the estate tax: Raise the rates, get rid of the valuation allowance for family limited partnerships, and adopt a half-dozen other estate tax reforms drafted at Treasury during the Obama administration. On the income tax: Raise the capital gains and dividend tax rates, raise the regular income tax rates at the top end, and — to effectively tax the superrich — tax capital gains on an accrual basis or repeal the step-up in basis at death. Lawmakers have a record of starting with a bold, complicated reform like a wealth tax and settling for something less grandiose. For example, in 1993 what started as a Btu tax ended up as a simple hike in the gas tax. What started in 2004 as an intricate corporate integration plan ended up as just a cut in the dividend and capital gains rate.

Part 1: A Provocative Book

Now let’s move on to why the current conversation about a wealth tax is prevalent, even if it has about as much chance as Tulsi Gabbard becoming president.

More at www.taxnotes.com/featured-analysis/economic-analysis-risking-wrath-900
-billionaires/2019/10/18/2b1m3

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, October 23, 2019 9:34 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
First, as is common knowledge, there may be at least even odds of Democrats winning the White House and keeping the House, but their taking the Senate is a long shot.



Common knowledge, huh?

I guess Moody's didn't get the memo.

https://www.moodysanalytics.com/-/media/article/2019/president-electio
n-model.pdf

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Wednesday, October 23, 2019 11:06 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:
First, as is common knowledge, there may be at least even odds of Democrats winning the White House and keeping the House, but their taking the Senate is a long shot.



Common knowledge, huh?

I guess Moody's didn't get the memo.

https://www.moodysanalytics.com/-/media/article/2019/president-electio
n-model.pdf

Do Right, Be Right. :)
To quote Moody: "The model did not account for the individual attributes of the candidates other than whether they belonged to the incumbent political party. In other words, it assumed Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were generic candidates, which they were not. In 2020, President Trump will be as much the nongeneric candidate as he was in 2016, and Democrats may also nominate a candidate who is a break from past party nominees".

If Mike Pence and Joe Biden were running for President, rather than Trump and Who-knows-who-the-Democrat, then the Moody model assumption of generic candidates is true. Otherwise, the Moody model does not work. Just flip a coin to see who wins. That would be about as scientific. There may be at least even odds of Democrats winning the White House.

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, October 27, 2019 7:44 AM

SECOND

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


A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America.

The boomers, according to Bruce Gibney, have committed “generational plunder,” pillaging the nation’s economy, repeatedly cutting their own taxes, financing two wars with deficits, ignoring climate change.

Sean Illing: Who are the baby boomers?

Bruce Gibney: The baby boomers are conventionally defined as people born between 1946 and 1964. But I focus on the 1946-1958 boomers because their experiences are pretty homogeneous: They were raised after the war and so have no real experience of trauma or the Great Depression or even any deprivation at all. More importantly, they never experienced the social solidarity that unfolded during war time and that helped produce the New Deal.

But it’s really the white middle-class boomers who exemplify all the awful characteristics and behaviors that have defined this generation. They became a majority of the electorate in the early ’80s, and they fully consolidated their power in Washington by January 1995. And they’ve basically been in charge ever since.

Sean Illing: So how have they broken the country?

Bruce Gibney: Well, the damage done to the social fabric is pretty self-evident. Just look around and notice what’s been done. On the economic front, the damage is equally obvious, and it trickles down to all sorts of other social phenomena. I don’t want to get bogged down in an ocean of numbers and data here (that’s in the book), but think of it this way: I’m 41, and when I was born, the gross debt-to-GDP ratio was about 35 percent. It’s roughly 103 percent now — and it keeps rising. This year the debt will increase by 4.6% www.crfb.org/blogs/debt-could-reach-record-levels-2030

The boomers inherited a rich, dynamic country and have gradually bankrupted it. They habitually cut their own taxes and borrow money without any concern for future burdens. They’ve spent virtually all our money and assets on themselves and in the process have left a financial disaster for their children.

We used to have the finest infrastructure in the world. The American Society of Civil Engineers thinks there’s something like a $4 trillion deficit in infrastructure in deferred maintenance. It’s crumbling, and the boomers have allowed it to crumble. Our public education system has steadily degraded as well, forcing middle-class students to bury themselves in debt in order to get a college education.

Then of course there’s the issue of climate change, which they’ve done almost nothing to solve. But even if we want to be market-oriented about this, we can think of the climate as an asset, which has degraded over time thanks to the inaction and cowardice of the boomer generation. Now they didn’t start burning fossil fuels, but by the 1990s the science was undeniable. And what did they do? Nothing.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=oJ3Q


Sean Illing: Why hasn’t this recklessness been checked by the political system? Is it as simple as the boomers took over and used power to enrich themselves without enough resistance from younger voters?

Bruce Gibney: Well, most of our problems have not been addressed because that would require higher taxes and therefore a sense of social obligation to our fellow citizens. But again, the boomers seem to have no appreciation for social solidarity.

But to answer your question more directly, the problem is that dealing with these problems has simply been irrelevant to the largest political class in the country — the boomers. There’s nothing conspiratorial about that. Politicians respond to the most important part of the electorate, and that’s been the boomers for decades. And it just so happens that the boomers are not socially inclined and have a ton of maladaptive personality characteristics.

Sean Illing: It’s interesting that Ronald Reagan is elected right around the time that boomers become a majority of the electorate. Reagan himself wasn’t a boomer, but it was boomers who put him into office. And this is when we get this wave of neoliberalism that essentially guts the public sector and attempts to privatize everything.

Bruce Gibney: Right. Starting with Reagan, we saw this national ethos which was basically the inverse of JFK’s “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” This gets flipped on its head in a massive push for privatized gain and socialized risk for big banks and financial institutions. This has really been the dominant boomer economic theory, and it’s poisoned what’s left of our public institutions.

Sean Illing: So what’s your explanation for the awfulness of the boomers? What made them this way?

Bruce Gibney: I think there were a number of unusual influences, some of which won't be repeated, and some of which may have mutated over the years. I think the major factor is that the boomers grew up in a time of uninterrupted prosperity. And so they simply took it for granted. They assumed the economy would just grow three percent a year forever and that wages would go up every year and that there would always be a good job for everyone who wanted it.

This was a fantasy and the result of a spoiled generation assuming things would be easy and that no sacrifices would have to be made in order to preserve prosperity for future generations.

Sean Illing: Something that doesn’t get discussed enough is how hostile so many of these boomers are to science. It’s not hard to connect this aversion to facts to some of these disastrous social policies.

Bruce Gibney: This is a generation that is dominated by feelings, not by facts. The irony is that boomers criticize millennials for being snowflakes, for being too driven by feelings. But the boomers are the first big feelings generation. They’re highly motivated by feelings and not persuaded by facts. And you can see this in their policies.

Take this whole fantasy about trickle-down economics. Maybe it was worth a shot, but it doesn’t work. We know it doesn’t work. The evidence is overwhelming. The experiment is over. And yet they’re still clinging to this dogma, and indeed the latest tax bill is the latest example of that.

Time after time, when facts collided with feelings, the boomers chose feelings.

More at www.vox.com/2017/12/20/16772670/baby-boomers-millennials-congress-debt

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, October 28, 2019 6:24 AM

SECOND

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


39% of Americans take mixed ideological positions. Peek beneath the surface of that number, and you find that many of these 39% are not ideologically moderate; they are ideologically mixed up. In many cases, they hold an eclectic assortment of extreme positions.

Something analogous is also true of the two political parties. Assuredly, Democrats and Republicans are much more purely left-wing and right-wing, respectively, than they were 50 years ago. Certainly, Republicans are more hostile to government than are Democrats. Ideologically, the parties stand on opposite shores. But they still are far from internally coherent in any philosophical sense. Democrats are divided between market-oriented technocrats and self-declared democratic socialists. Republicans are in the grip of a populist takeover that defies the relatively libertarian, internationalist orthodoxy of their heretofore dominant Reaganite wing. Are the Democrats center-left or socialist? Both. Are the Republicans populist or libertarian? Again, both. We are not seeing a hardening of coherent ideological difference. We are seeing a hardening of incoherent ideological difference.

And that is really the essence of what feels like a growing division in our country.

More at "Rethinking Polarization"
www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/rethinking-polarization

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, October 28, 2019 10:42 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
First, as is common knowledge, there may be at least even odds of Democrats winning the White House and keeping the House, but their taking the Senate is a long shot.



Common knowledge, huh?

I guess Moody's didn't get the memo.

https://www.moodysanalytics.com/-/media/article/2019/president-electio
n-model.pdf

Do Right, Be Right. :)
To quote Moody: "The model did not account for the individual attributes of the candidates other than whether they belonged to the incumbent political party. In other words, it assumed Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were generic candidates, which they were not. In 2020, President Trump will be as much the nongeneric candidate as he was in 2016, and Democrats may also nominate a candidate who is a break from past party nominees".

If Mike Pence and Joe Biden were running for President, rather than Trump and Who-knows-who-the-Democrat, then the Moody model assumption of generic candidates is true. Otherwise, the Moody model does not work. Just flip a coin to see who wins. That would be about as scientific. There may be at least even odds of Democrats winning the White House.

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




Justify your wishful thinking however you want. But a few things first before you lie to yourself too much.

1. EVERYBODY said that Trump was going to lose and lose big last time. Only two polls ever showed that wasn't the case, and they were largely ignored.

2. Trump was running against a well known Clinton. She's a piece of shit, but (at least back then) everybody still loved Billy.

3. The only people that Trump have pissed off are the people who are still screwed in the head that he won in the first place after being lied to for a year.

4. Trump already has several keys to the white house, as well as the incumbent advantage. There are also easily as many hard core Trump fans out there are people who hate the guy.

5. The loud minority on the Left has become insane and completely out of touch with the rest of the country. Just ask Bill Maher about his frustrations that Democrats on the debate stage keep pandering only to people that were already never going to vote Trump, as well as people who can't even legally vote (felons, illegal aliens, etc.) Outside of socialists, and the rich white woke crowd, their messages don't resonate at all with the people who are going to vote.

The Democrat candidates are so bad this time that they're a plus in Trump's favor. Their lack of any legitimate platform for the people are Trump's biggest ally.


The only coin flip here is how many people are going to vote, and how many are going to stay on the couch. Which is exactly what Moody's says. Only in the extreme case of record voter turnout do Democrats have a chance at eeking out a victory. Trump wins in all other scenarios, and if voters are demoralized and stay home, he could get 380 electoral votes this time.



Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Wednesday, October 30, 2019 7:59 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:

Justify your wishful thinking however you want. But a few things first before you lie to yourself too much.

1. EVERYBODY said that Trump was going to lose and lose big last time. Only two polls ever showed that wasn't the case, and they were largely ignored.

2. Trump was running against a well known Clinton. She's a piece of shit, but (at least back then) everybody still loved Billy.

3. The only people that Trump have pissed off are the people who are still screwed in the head that he won in the first place after being lied to for a year.

4. Trump already has several keys to the white house, as well as the incumbent advantage. There are also easily as many hard core Trump fans out there are people who hate the guy.

5. The loud minority on the Left has become insane and completely out of touch with the rest of the country. Just ask Bill Maher about his frustrations that Democrats on the debate stage keep pandering only to people that were already never going to vote Trump, as well as people who can't even legally vote (felons, illegal aliens, etc.) Outside of socialists, and the rich white woke crowd, their messages don't resonate at all with the people who are going to vote.

The Democrat candidates are so bad this time that they're a plus in Trump's favor. Their lack of any legitimate platform for the people are Trump's biggest ally.


The only coin flip here is how many people are going to vote, and how many are going to stay on the couch. Which is exactly what Moody's says. Only in the extreme case of record voter turnout do Democrats have a chance at eeking out a victory. Trump wins in all other scenarios, and if voters are demoralized and stay home, he could get 380 electoral votes this time.
In 2016, 538 predicted Trump had a 50% chance of winning. It fluctuated, but Trump's chances were always better than the chance that an oil well would be a gusher. Gushers are what keeps Texas #1! We don't get depressed by chances less than 50%. We keep drilling. Trump kept drilling. Trump hit a gusher. He could do it again in 2020. Or, just maybe, it will be a Democrat who hits the gusher. There can only be one gusher at a time. No sharing. Never two.
Look at the data: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/

6ixStringJack is economically anxious. How does anxiety affect voters?
Quote:
Trump, as FiveThirtyEight contributor Jed Kolko noted immediately after the election, won most counties — and improved on Romney’s performance — where a large share of jobs are vulnerable to outsourcing or automation. And while there is no standard measure of economic anxiety, a wide range of other plausible proxies shows the same pattern. According to my own analysis of voting data, for example, the slower a county’s job growth has been since 2007, the more it shifted toward Trump.1 (The same is true looking back to 2000.) And of course Trump performed especially strongly among voters without a college degree — an important indicator of social status but also of economic prospects, given the shrinking share of jobs (and especially well-paying jobs) available to workers without a bachelor’s degree.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/stop-saying-trumps-win-had-nothin
g-to-do-with-economics/

Vote your fears and anxieties, 6ixStringJack!

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, October 30, 2019 8:02 AM

SECOND

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


Have you got a minute? MASH-UP: Trump’s al-Baghdadi Speech & Obama’s Bin Laden Speech



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, October 30, 2019 9:15 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Who says I'm economically anxious?


When I do work again, it's going to be another near minimum wage part time job, just like the last one I worked. Those are easy to find no matter who is president. ;)

In the mean time, have you gleaned any expressed concern I have about not currently working?


I'll answer that for you.

No. No you haven't.



Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Wednesday, October 30, 2019 9:19 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


And you're going to lie and say that 538 or anybody said it was a cointoss now?

I also predicted this would happen.


Guess I have to put another win in my column.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Saturday, November 2, 2019 10:07 AM

SECOND

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


Brett Kavanaugh has got a problem with his ethics. That Is Not a Surprise!

Just how friendly should US Supreme Court justices be with friends of the court, the amici who file briefs based on their interests in a case where they aren’t litigants?

On Oct. 29, Brian S. Brown, president of the conservative advocacy group National Organization for Marriage (NOMA), tweeted a photo of himself with justices Brett Kavanaugh and Samuel Alito and boasting about a “great day” at the US Supreme Court. The tweet raised alarm bells for court critics.

NOMA regularly files amicus briefs with the court, as it already has this term in some of the most controversial cases before the justices. Brown’s organization, as a “friend of the court,” submitted a filing opposing a finding that Title VII, an anti-employment-discrimination statute, protects gay and transgender people.

The court is considering the issue in three cases and heard arguments on Oct. 8. Less than three weeks later, while justices were still mulling the matters, two of the bench’s conservatives had a friendly meeting with an activist who has made it abundantly clear how he feels they should rule.

While the justices might not necessarily be swayed by anything Brown said when they all hung out, and they probably didn’t discuss their upcoming decision, the mere fact of the meeting casts doubt on their impartiality. And the appearance of fairness, the sense that litigants have a fair chance in court, is key to public confidence in the legal system. That’s why US Code Section 455 provides that “[a]ny justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.”

In response to the revelation of the meeting on social media, Fix the Court, a nonpartisan organization advocating for judicial transparency, sent a letter to the chief justice’s counsel asking that the court either withdraw NOMA’s brief or explain why the justices may continue to sit on the cases given the standard in federal law. The organization’s executive director, Gabe Roth, told Quartz that as of Nov. 1 it had not received a response.

More at https://qz.com/1740845/

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, November 2, 2019 10:25 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:
And you're going to lie and say that 538 or anybody said it was a cointoss now?

I also predicted this would happen.


Guess I have to put another win in my column.

Do Right, Be Right. :)
The last presidential election featured one of the more accurate sets of early polls for this point in the cycle: Hillary Clinton led Donald Trump 46.2 percent to 41.2 percent in an average of all polls conducted in November and December 2015, missing the eventual national popular vote margin by about 3 points. (The actual result was Clinton 48.0 percent, Trump 46.0 percent.)
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/should-we-take-these-early-genera
l-election-polls-seriously-no/

That was the 538 website in November 2015. How is Trump doing in November 2019?
Warren 49.7% to Trump 44%
www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/general_election_tr
ump_vs_warren-6251.html

Biden 50.1% to Trump 43.4%
www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/general_election_tr
ump_vs_biden-6247.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, November 3, 2019 6:56 AM

SECOND

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


The late Svetlana Boym, a professor of comparative literature at Harvard, wrote on nostalgia in Atlas of Transformation. She expounded on how nostalgia can swing in both progressive and regressive directions, identifying two types: restorative and reflective.

The former, Boym warns, can breed monsters. It’s mistaking one’s fantasy of a bygone era as reality, resulting in the desire to restore a time and place that never existed. It does not think of itself as nostalgia, Boym writes, but as truth and tradition. This flavor of nostalgia fueled the age of Trump, whose assurances spoke to the insecurities of a sizable demographic of older Americans fearful that a changing world would threaten their well-being. Some fear of change among the aging is understandable; does anyone want to go gently into the good night of their own obsolescence? But Trump’s campaign team harnessed the sinister side of nostalgia, convincing a massive portion of the population to scapegoat various imagined boogeymen for the supposed degradation of the country: immigrants, feminists, intellectuals, scientists.

Reflective nostalgia, however, is far less menacing. It’s a self-aware brand of nostalgia, one that doesn’t always take itself quite seriously. It can be ironic, funny, and irreverent. It knows, Boym says, affective memories cannot and should not prohibit critical thinking. Reflective nostalgia does not oppose progressivism. In fact, it can even support it as it’s an effective tool for assessing the present. The fantasies of the past, Boym tells us, often give us insight into what’s missing in the present and can in turn shape the future.

More at "How to Resist Late-Stage Capitalism — and Other Lessons From Charlotte’s Web"
https://lithub.com/how-to-resist-late-stage-capitalism-and-other-lesso
ns-from-charlottes-web/

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, November 3, 2019 7:05 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Svetlana, huh?

Sounds Russian.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Sunday, November 3, 2019 7:15 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
And you're going to lie and say that 538 or anybody said it was a cointoss now?

I also predicted this would happen.


Guess I have to put another win in my column.

Do Right, Be Right. :)
The last presidential election featured one of the more accurate sets of early polls for this point in the cycle: Hillary Clinton led Donald Trump 46.2 percent to 41.2 percent in an average of all polls conducted in November and December 2015, missing the eventual national popular vote margin by about 3 points. (The actual result was Clinton 48.0 percent, Trump 46.0 percent.)
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/should-we-take-these-early-genera
l-election-polls-seriously-no/

That was the 538 website in November 2015. How is Trump doing in November 2019?
Warren 49.7% to Trump 44%
www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/general_election_tr
ump_vs_warren-6251.html

Biden 50.1% to Trump 43.4%
www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/general_election_tr
ump_vs_biden-6247.html

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




That's an article about it, but not a link to an archive that shows it.

I don't put any stock in polls other than watching general trends. They're all lies and manipulated to favor Democrats in their methodology, always. So it's impossible to actually know what Trump's true approval rating is. What you can see is that in spite of all of this impeachment circus and cake, his approval rating is holding steady.


We'll see what happens when Trump is going head to head with a single candidate. The top three candidates for the Democrats are far different platforms to each other and cater to a specific base. The eventual nominee is going to lose a lot of that support.




Only assholes and idiots answer polls anyhow. The proper response when some stranger calls you up out of the blue and asks you who you're going to vote for President is "your mom" and then a prompt hang up.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Sunday, November 3, 2019 8:38 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:

So it's impossible to actually know what Trump's true approval rating is.
If Trump loses, you are going to feel crushed. I'm going to feel crushed, too, because there won't be another round of tax cuts for the wealthy. But the previous Trump tax cuts will still be around because Republican Senators will still be able to filibuster any changes. No matter how wonderful an orator is the next Democrat in the White House, it is the Senate that stops those fancy words from becoming real. The GOP can filibuster so long as they control 41 seats. FDR became a great President not because he talked pretty and made big promises, but because the Senate shifted from Republican to Democrat starting in 1930, two years before FDR was elected.

Every two years there were fewer Republican Senators, which made FDR look more and more like a political genius, but it was not him. It was the voters shifting to different Senators, mainly because the Republican Senators made it obvious to voters that the Great Depression was not going to change the GOP's principles. Nowadays, GOP Senators are smarter about keeping their principles a secret.

(Did I mention that I talked to Sen Cornyn and Cruz? What a sneaky pair of dirtbags -- in private. Those two absolutely know how to keep their real principles a secret.)

53 GOP Senators in 1928 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1928_United_States_Senate_elections

50 GOP Senators in 1930 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1930_United_States_Senate_elections

36 GOP Senators in 1932 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1932_United_States_Senate_elections

25 GOP Senators in 1934 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1934_United_States_Senate_elections

But in 1938, GOP Senators starting returning, more and more, year after year, until they were once again the majority in 1946. Democrats had control for only 14 years, 1932 to 1946.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1938_United_States_Senate_elections

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, November 3, 2019 11:39 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
If Trump loses, you are going to feel crushed.


Nah. I'll just disappear from paying attention to politics until the next idiot is out like I did with Barry.

I certainly will not behave like you have the last 3 years.


Quote:
(Did I mention that I talked to Sen Cornyn and Cruz? What a sneaky pair of dirtbags -- in private. Those two absolutely know how to keep their real principles a secret.)


Nope. You didn't didn't tell us that lie yet.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Monday, November 4, 2019 9:09 AM

SECOND

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


I remember joking to someone as we were writing our book, “Oh, could you imagine if they just stopped having press conferences?” It was kind of unthinkable that that would actually happen in the White House, but it happened — along with countless other departures from what we’d consider “normal.”

So what we’ve learned in that last few years is that many things we considered impossible are, in fact, possible. And the norm violations are just getting worse seemingly every day.

But I would say I’m a little optimistic. In the last month, there have been signs that some Republicans are willing to separate themselves from Trump and I think that’s really crucial right now.

There are a couple of ways this thing could go. One is that there’s a Democratic victory so dominant and so overwhelming that it produces a kind of shock and awe model of social change. The Democrats get what they want, implement big changes, and force the GOP to correct course.

The other thing we could hope for is that Republicans finally break from Trump and reorganize themselves in a way that’s compatible with democracy. I’m not saying this is at all likely, but it’s at least possible. I recognize that Trump isn’t an aberration. In many ways, he’s the logical outcome of the Republican Party.

And yet, if we want our two-party system to work, we need both parties committed to the rules of the game. There’s just no other way forward.

It’s hard to see a way out of this trap. Democratic politics is a game that relies on the good faith of the players involved. If one side decides to ignore the rules for the sake of power, the other side has no choice but to capitulate or respond in kind, which leads to a death spiral of illiberal behavior.

I mean, this is basically our current situation, no?

Yeah, and the only way I see out of it is for the Republicans to face a series of devastating defeats and realize that the path they’re on is no longer viable. Now I understand all the pitfalls of that as a solution. First, it assumes there can be a series of devastating defeats. Second, it assumes that if those losses occur, the losers will interpret it correctly and realize what they’re doing isn’t working as opposed to just doubling down.

So all of this might be unrealistic, and I get that. But someone has to show me an alternative path forward, because I just don’t see it given the limitations of our system. So if something like this doesn’t happen moving forward, I’d be deeply worried about what comes next.

More at www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/11/4/20898605/america-democracy-p
opulism-republicans-daniel-ziblatt

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, November 4, 2019 2:01 PM

SECOND

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


New Poll Shows Democratic Presidential Candidates Have Been Living in a Fantasy World

In 2018, Democratic candidates waded into hostile territory and flipped 40 House districts by avoiding controversial positions, and focusing obsessively on Republican weaknesses.

The Democratic presidential field has largely abandoned that model.

Working from the premise that the country largely agrees with them on everything, or that agreeing with the majority of voters on issues is not necessary to win, the campaign has proceeded in blissful unawareness of the extremely high chance that Trump will win again.

More at www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/11/the-2020-election-is-still-wide
-open/

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, November 4, 2019 2:41 PM

THG


Exclusive: Ukraine to fire prosecutor who discussed Bidens with Giuliani - source

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine plans to fire the prosecutor who led investigations into the firm where Joe Biden's son served on the board, a central figure in the activity at the heart of impeachment proceedings against U.S. President Donald Trump, a source told Reuters.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/exclusive-ukraine-to-fire-prosecu
tor-who-discussed-bidens-with-giuliani-source/ar-AAJPw4K?ocid=spartandhp


T


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Monday, November 4, 2019 2:49 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
New Poll Shows Democratic Presidential Candidates Have Been Living in a Fantasy World

In 2018, Democratic candidates waded into hostile territory and flipped 40 House districts by avoiding controversial positions, and focusing obsessively on Republican weaknesses.

The Democratic presidential field has largely abandoned that model.

Working from the premise that the country largely agrees with them on everything, or that agreeing with the majority of voters on issues is not necessary to win, the campaign has proceeded in blissful unawareness of the extremely high chance that Trump will win again.

More at www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/11/the-2020-election-is-still-wide
-open/

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



Ya don't say, huh?

Don't believe it every time I've said it, but Mother Jones tells you that it's true so I guess it's true now.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Monday, November 4, 2019 3:18 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:

Ya don't say, huh?

Don't believe it every time I've said it, but Mother Jones tells you that it's true so I guess it's true now.

Do Right, Be Right. :)
There is a huge difference between Trump having approximately 50/50 chance of winning, which I always believed, and Trump being approximately 100% certain to win, which seems to be the default belief/position of Trump lovers.

Why does Trump have a 50/50 chance? Because 50% of voters are stupider than average. If you are salesman, as Trump is, you don't need to persuade everybody since defrauding the dumbest 50% will make you fabulously wealthy.

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, November 4, 2019 3:24 PM

THG


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Ya don't say, huh?

Don't believe it every time I've said it, but Mother Jones tells you that it's true so I guess it's true now.

Do Right, Be Right. :)
There is a huge difference between Trump having approximately 50/50 chance of winning, which I always believed, and Trump being approximately 100% certain to win, which seems to be the default belief/position of Trump lovers.

Why does Trump have a 50/50 chance? Because 50% of voters are stupider than average. If you are salesman, as Trump is, you don't need to persuade everybody since defrauding the dumbest 50% will make you fabulously wealthy.


I believe you're paraphrasing PT Barnum Second. There's a sucker born every minute.

T


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Tuesday, November 5, 2019 12:53 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 THG:

I believe you're paraphrasing PT Barnum Second. There's a sucker born every minute.
I will give you another: Only suckers believe Medicare 4 All could possibly become law.

Elizabeth Warren announced her Medicare for All plan last week but it doesn’t matter. For starters, to put the plan in place she’d need to win the presidency and the Senate, and that’s a tough task. Then we’d need to eliminate the filibuster, which is very, very unlikely since a few Democrats have already said they wouldn’t join in.

But suppose we miraculously do all that. Actual legislation depends mostly on the Senate, not on President Warren or Speaker Pelosi. This means that health care legislation can’t be more progressive than the 50th most liberal senator, which is likely to be someone like Joe Manchin of W Virginia or Doug Jones of Alabama. So even in the best case we won’t get the M4A plan that Warren is campaigning on. Not even close.

What this means is that these M4A plans shouldn’t be treated like real legislation to be scored by the Congressional Budget Office. Rather, they should be treated like Republican tax cut proposals. Nobody bothers to analyze them (except for liberal think tanks, natch) because no one takes them seriously. They are meant merely as markers to show where your heart is. A weak plan shows that you’re a RINO. A big tax cut shows you’re a strong conservative. And a ridiculous plan shows that you’re a lunatic—which might or might not be a good thing depending on the mood of the electorate.

So forget the details. Warren and Sanders are deliberately selling themselves as lunatics. Their plans mean nothing except that they are true blue liberals. Don’t try to read any more than that into them. Biden and Buttigieg and Booker are demonstrating that they’re part of the mainstream Obama wing of the party. And Amy Klobuchar is demonstrating her DINO credentials as a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, Minnesota's loose affiliate of the Democratic Party.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Democratic%E2%80%93Farmer%E2%8
0%93Labor_Party

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, November 6, 2019 7:47 AM

SECOND

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


Donald Trump lost Kentucky for the Republicans – the 2020 presidential election is now the Democrats' to lose

If past experience is anything to go by, Donald Trump will shortly be tweeting from the comfort of his bathroom to the effect that the soon-to-be-former Governor Matt Bevin of Kentucky is a stone cold loser that Trump has never actually met – and who, even if he had met him, would not have been impressed. This, of course, despite the fact that Trump himself turned up in Kentucky on the eve of a rally for his Republican colleague and declared to the audience that seeing Bevin lose to the Democrats “sends a really bad message”, pleading with his supporters, “you can’t let that happen to me!”

Well, they did.

www.independent.co.uk/voices/trump-kentucky-virginia-democrats-win-rep
ublicans-2020-a9187161.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, November 7, 2019 7:04 AM

SECOND

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


If you think Trump has few real accomplishments, mostly fake or overblown ones, you forgot Judgeship appointments:

As of Nov 6th, President Donald J. Trump has appointed—and gotten confirmed—158 life-tenured federal judges:

President Trump’s nominees alone fill one-quarter of the seats on our nation’s Circuit Courts of Appeals.

His nominees fill two of the nine powerful seats on America’s Supreme Court.

He has seen more Circuit Court judges confirmed by this point in his presidency than any past president in United States history.

The average age of these new circuit judges is less than 50 years old—a full 10 years younger than the average age of former President Obama’s circuit nominees. That fact is important. President Trump understands that appointing good, fair judges is one of the most important legacies a President can leave. And thanks to the extraordinary number of young, talented judges he’s selected, that legacy is likely to last for decades to come.

www.whitehouse.gov/1600daily/
www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trump-appoi
nting-historic-number-federal-judges-uphold-constitution-written/

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, November 7, 2019 9:34 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


lol

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Thursday, November 7, 2019 10:30 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:
I will give you another: Only suckers believe Medicare 4 All could possibly become law.

Elizabeth Warren announced her Medicare for All plan last week but it doesn’t matter. For starters, to put the plan in place she’d need to win the presidency and the Senate, and that’s a tough task. Then we’d need to eliminate the filibuster, which is very, very unlikely since a few Democrats have already said they wouldn’t join in.

But suppose we miraculously do all that. Actual legislation depends mostly on the Senate, not on President Warren or Speaker Pelosi. This means that health care legislation can’t be more progressive than the 50th most liberal senator, which is likely to be someone like Joe Manchin of W Virginia or Doug Jones of Alabama. So even in the best case we won’t get the M4A plan that Warren is campaigning on. Not even close.

What this means is that these M4A plans shouldn’t be treated like real legislation to be scored by the Congressional Budget Office. Rather, they should be treated like Republican tax cut proposals. Nobody bothers to analyze them (except for liberal think tanks, natch) because no one takes them seriously. They are meant merely as markers to show where your heart is. A weak plan shows that you’re a RINO. A big tax cut shows you’re a strong conservative. And a ridiculous plan shows that you’re a lunatic—which might or might not be a good thing depending on the mood of the electorate.

So forget the details. Warren and Sanders are deliberately selling themselves as lunatics. Their plans mean nothing except that they are true blue liberals. Don’t try to read any more than that into them. Biden and Buttigieg and Booker are demonstrating that they’re part of the mainstream Obama wing of the party. And Amy Klobuchar is demonstrating her DINO credentials as a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, Minnesota's loose affiliate of the Democratic Party.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Democratic%E2%80%93Farmer%E2%8
0%93Labor_Party

For once, I agree.

This is exactly why I wasn't too frightened of Trump's domestic proposals ... three branches of government, two legislative houses, all counterbalancing each other as designed by the Framers of the Constitution. Sometimes that leads to gridlock, even when urgent action is needed. But we've been here before and survived as a nation... just consider the War of Independence and how hard it was to raise money to provision the troops!

The idea of Medicare for All has to be won by Senatorial and House candidates, NOT the President of the USA. It needs to be on THEIR platforms and in THEIR campaigns, and it needs to be won state by state, simply by making sense to a lot of people. A President can jawbone the issue but can never push it to the finish line.

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

You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY

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Thursday, November 7, 2019 12:25 PM

THG


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Donald Trump lost Kentucky for the Republicans – the 2020 presidential election is now the Democrats' to lose

If past experience is anything to go by, Donald Trump will shortly be tweeting from the comfort of his bathroom to the effect that the soon-to-be-former Governor Matt Bevin of Kentucky is a stone cold loser that Trump has never actually met – and who, even if he had met him, would not have been impressed. This, of course, despite the fact that Trump himself turned up in Kentucky on the eve of a rally for his Republican colleague and declared to the audience that seeing Bevin lose to the Democrats “sends a really bad message”, pleading with his supporters, “you can’t let that happen to me!”

Well, they did.

www.independent.co.uk/voices/trump-kentucky-virginia-democrats-win-rep
ublicans-2020-a9187161.html



Yep, all true.

T


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