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DarkCrawler posted:https://www.newsweek.com/stacey-abrams-pac-wipes-out-212-million-medical-debt-108000-people-5-states-1643189 I would love it if they ran a fake candidate in an unwinnable race to gather up all the lib money that goes to empty flightsuits like McGrath and then did this with it.
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# ? May 26, 2024 10:35 |
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Mellow Seas posted:I think his calculation was more like the CPC's: This isn't happening, so let's get something moving and then try to save whatever scraps we can. He could have pulled the same strategy on them: throw the combined bill on the floor and dare them to vote it down, threaten to blame them for blocking his whole agenda, make fake promises that if they just vote for it now he'll ensure the house addresses all their concerns before passing it, etc. His tactics make it clear which side he is on. But whatever I don't care about looking into his soul, my point was just that his deal with the CPC was an offer to let them back down in a face-saving way, nobody really expects he'll keep that pinky promise
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selec posted:Yes, but he yells and reminded some of the commentariat of their abusive fathers, and also I guess told a woman she’d never be president, which led to her coming in third in her own state primary. Nobody who has that much power to move reality should ever be president. That Jude Doyle tweet about the pot roast is an all timer.
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VitalSigns posted:He could have pulled the same strategy on them: throw the combined bill on the floor and dare them to vote it down, threaten to blame them for blocking his whole agenda, make fake promises that if they just vote for it now he'll ensure the house addresses all their concerns before passing it, etc. VitalSigns posted:But whatever I don't care about looking into his soul, my point was just that his deal with the CPC was an offer to let them back down in a face-saving way, nobody really expects he'll keep that pinky promise Mellow Seas posted:I doubt very many of them expected the 1.75T reconciliation to pass the House, let alone get Manchin and Sinema - arranging that vote was just a fig leaf to give them cover for their capitulation.
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-Blackadder- posted:Is the current inflation issue still just coming from the supply chain log jam? This is a global problem. I work in a role that has me managing basic raw chemical materials that go into everything from household cleaners, paints, plastics, packaging to pharma applications and in the last year due to supply shortages I have sold over 1500 Metric tons less material than 2022 but I made 3.5 million dollars more than last year in margin. So I'm selling less product for exponentially more money per unit to a gigantic payout for my company of which I will see maybe $5000 in bonuses for despite being stressed out and overworked trying to keep up with this demand. You want to know where the inflation is, it starts there. Then for every less unit of product my customers get, which they pay incrementally more for, they then increase their own unit costs and it cascades exponentially until it reaches your shopping cart. This has nothing to do with printing money and government policy and everything to do with COVID shocking the JIT business model and overloading the logistics system. People are stressed and overworked. They're less willing to put up with bullshit so they're quitting their jobs or refusing to do them which in turn further makes the situation worse. Yet no one wants to pay more due to even greater fears of inflation. For my industry I'm still dealing with the consequences of the freezing weather in Houston back in Feb 2021 which we're still reeling from. Everyone is back online now but there's so many back orders and pent up demand that chemical factories are working full time and unable to meet demand. Then there was hurricane Ida which made things lovely again. Pandemic demand for Chinese goods has caused Amazon, Wal-Mart and other major companies to monopolize global freight logistics which also has ripple effects. Meanwhile the semiconductor market is locked down by big players like Apple who pre-purchased production capacity from TSMC years in advance. You've got some big players who've secured all their demand while the rest of us are in what amounts to a permanent ongoing auction for cargo space and limited products. The government isn't fixing this unless they launch a giant public works program where they start building nationally owned chemical plants, port expansion projects and wage subsidy programs for truckers and others. They have to step in and make investments that the private sector is too cowardly to invest in despite sitting on gigantic piles of cash that theyd rather invest in the stock market and shareholders than in their plants and employees. Like seriously most major private sector companies are very flush with cash. They just aren't spending any of it and choosing to wait all this out hoping that we private citizens will run out of money first and go back to begging for our jobs. Even a public works program like this won't solve things because as those workers jump in for huge salaries to help rebuild the economy and expand logistics, you still have a short-run supply problem and those extra dollars will start chasing increasingly scarcer goods. I can imagine your average construction worker landing an 80k/yr job helping expand the port of los angeles would immediately turn around and buy a fully loaded car brand new for 72 months financing and then prices start skyrocketing again. Kraftwerk fucked around with this message at 17:44 on Nov 10, 2021 |
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DarkCrawler posted:https://www.newsweek.com/stacey-abrams-pac-wipes-out-212-million-medical-debt-108000-people-5-states-1643189 RIP Medical Debt is an amazing non-profit; they've wiped out over $5 billion in medical debt to date. If anyone's thinking of making a year-end charitable contribution and is able to do so, RMD is a worthy recipient. Shame we have to have fundraising tools for medical bankruptcy because of our not joining the rest of the world in granting healthcare as a human right in the first place, though. ![]() And it'd be nice to see Abrams become an advocate for single-payer; instead, she's promoting expanded Medicaid for Georgians, but that would mean that anyone earning over $18k/year is vulnerable to medical debt & bankruptcy, and even those whose incomes would qualify would be subject to Medicaid clawback after death.
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Any reason why Bannon isn't in jail for contempt? What the gently caress is Merrick Garland and the Biden DOJ waiting for, exactly? It's been over two weeks.
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ex post facho posted:Any reason why Bannon isn't in jail for contempt? What the gently caress is Merrick Garland and the Biden DOJ waiting for, exactly? It's been over two weeks. Rich white knows politicians etc
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ex post facho posted:Any reason why Bannon isn't in jail for contempt? What the gently caress is Merrick Garland and the Biden DOJ waiting for, exactly? It's been over two weeks. Cowardice.
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Mellow Seas posted:None of those things would have made the bill any more likely to pass, IMO. Well we'll never know because he didn't even try I don't really buy all this "the president just CAN'T CONTROL two legislators in his party" stuff when we just saw him put the screws to 60 legislators in his party and crush their will The party can whip its people they make ideological decisions about when to do that
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VitalSigns posted:Well we'll never know because he didn't even try There are differences. Objective difference: the CPC is facing elections in '22, Manchin and Sinema do not have elections until '24 (and Manchin might run for Governor instead.) Subjective difference: The CPC actually cares about policy outcomes, which means that passing the BIF was actually more important to them than it was to M+S. Caring about policy outcomes also means caring about keeping the majority, which it's not clear that M+S care about. Bad people always have an advantage over good people (well, fine, the 'more bad' of two groups of people have an advantage over the 'less bad') because bad (worse) people are willing to do bad (worse) things. Making the entire post-ARP 117th Congress a total wash is a bad thing that M+S were willing to do and the CPC wasn't.
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Mellow Seas posted:There are differences. Guys we can't do good things now because we need to elections in the future so we can do good things then we pinky promise
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Yeah I don't buy any of that "electoral realities" stuff when the party clearly favors people like M+S in primaries. Their hands aren't tied, they choose to back conservatives. And I don't think Manchin and Sinema really want nothing to pass ever, they want to bring home pork for their states, they want to say they got stuff accomplished rather than just saying "no" all the time, they never had to make that choice because at the end of the day leadership took their side and forced the CPC to be the target of their big public vote-whipping spectacle
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ex post facho posted:Any reason why Bannon isn't in jail for contempt? What the gently caress is Merrick Garland and the Biden DOJ waiting for, exactly? It's been over two weeks. This has me loving livid and of all things to do it this is the thing that for some reason makes me want to completely step away from politics and stop giving a drat about anything. They just issued a new round of subpoenas to a bunch of people, you think any of them are going to loving show? We're going to get waxed in the midterms.
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Eric Cantonese posted:That doesn't really explain Trump, though. Most candidates who have to lean into "experience" tend to be easy pickings in times like these. Ask Hillary C. or Terry McAuliffe (when he wasn't just saying "Youngkin is Trump and Trump is BAD." The elderly have more resources, time and longer resumes. Donald Trump ran hard on his business experience—dubious though it is—even if he didn’t have political experience.
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https://youtu.be/hNDgcjVGHIw A NYT video looking at what the democrats do when they have all of the power. They look at the inequality in blue states run by democrats that is perpetuated by politicians and liberal residents.
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Trying to cast Youngkin as Trump was so god drat stupid. Like, for all that we hate Trump's bigotry and authoritarianism, and associate those qualities with Republicans in general, there's a lot of people who hate him because he's uncouth, sounds like an idiot when he talks, and looks ridiculous (hair, skin, clothing) in ways that betray deep insecurity. Pointing to some normal-seeming guy who's just sitting there spouting vague conservative platitudes like Youngkin and saying "HE'S JUST LIKE TRUMP!" is just going to confuse people. Can't wait for them to use that strategy against DeSantis!
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I mean it isn't surprising, the dems run their campaigns like out of touch wine parents. People came out in record numbers to vote against Trump? Nah don't worry it's not because they're scared of fascism and racism, it isn't because Trump is slowly choking the climate and the economy, it's just this Trump guy, specifically. All elections are about Trump now because the focus group shows that gets people in the voting booth!
Mendrian fucked around with this message at 18:39 on Nov 10, 2021 |
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He’s gonna walk. https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1458488220006719494?s=21
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Is a Judge getting that loud in public a thing that happens much?
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This judge is something else, how the hell is this allowable?
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CommieGIR posted:This judge is something else, how the hell is this allowable?
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Harold Fjord posted:Lots of members of that caucus aren't actually progressive. I agree, but it's still handy for identifying the group of Dems that are ostensibly somewhat left of center
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theCalamity posted:https://youtu.be/hNDgcjVGHIw This is a good video - let me embed it in case anybody missed it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNDgcjVGHIw I don't think it's going to tell people around here much that they don't know yet, but it's a good rundown. It highlights the problems caused by (although the NYT isn't willing to put it in these terms) having the party divided by class, when wealthy liberals are willing to stomp all over the needs of the lower classes, despite their rhetoric. A lot of wealthy Democratic constituencies will throw a god drat fit if anybody does anything to help anyone poorer than them, and most politicians don't challenge them on it. e: One of the examples he uses is education in Connecticut. The education situation in Connecticut is hosed because it's a state full of small, rich towns and poor, medium sized cities (Stamford, Bridgeport, New Haven, Waterbury, Hartford) who lost their tax bases decades ago to the rich towns. But if somebody ran for governor on a platform of pooling property taxes and funding schools equally, I can't even begin to express how badly they would get destroyed by the voters here. The politicians aren't good but the voters aren't either - it's really loving hard to help the urban poor when your voter base is rich suburbanites. Mellow Seas fucked around with this message at 19:00 on Nov 10, 2021 |
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FlamingLiberal posted:He’s apparently really bad The prosecution seems pretty poo poo as well and hasn't prepared well. Are they stuck in the 90's? https://twitter.com/Andrew_Havranek/status/1458482982830940162
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Christ
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This judge has been very demonstrably biased against the prosecution from the get go and set out to make it as difficult as possible to make their case with his weird ground rules about not referring to those killed as victims, lamenting "politics" in the case and reading a book during some of their argumentation. Like it's really hard to give any benefit of the doubt at this point. I don't know about walking since it's up to the Jury but if this was trial by judge I feel like it would have been dismissed already somehow.
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CommieGIR posted:This judge is something else, how the hell is this allowable? The prosecutor was bringing up statements of Rittenhouse's that the judge had refused to allow heard by the jury without prior notice. The prosecutor was being an rear end in a top hat and knowingly risking a mistrial.
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Kale posted:This judge has been very demonstrably biased against the prosecution from the get go and set out to make it as difficult as possible to make their case with his weird ground rules about not referring to those killed as victims, lamenting "politics" in the case and reading a book during some of their argumentation. Like it's really hard to give any benefit of the doubt at this point. Best/Most Entertaining Comedy option is for the jury to find him guilty on all counts and to have the judge melt down and nullify it so that Kyle can walk and join him for supper.
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Thom12255 posted:The prosecution seems pretty poo poo as well and hasn't prepared well. Important to note here that Garland's DOJ could have chosen to pursue this federally with a pretty lengthy list of charges, probably provoking a plea deal including jail time, and just... didn't. Decided to leave it up to the states while going after leftists involved in protests following the slaying of George Floyd for minor offenses.
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Baronash posted:The prosecutor was bringing up statements of Rittenhouse's that the judge had refused to allow heard by the jury without prior notice. The prosecutor was being an rear end in a top hat and knowingly risking a mistrial. In their position I might have done the same. Feels like it's time to start throwing the ball downfield, as it were.
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skylined! posted:Important to note here that Garland's DOJ could have chosen to pursue this federally with a pretty lengthy list of charges, probably provoking a plea deal including jail time, and just... didn't. Decided to leave it up to the states while going after leftists involved in protests following the slaying of George Floyd for minor offenses. Garland's DOJ was also waiting in the wings to drop charges on what's his name the guy who murdered Floyd + his pig accomplices, and launched an investigation into the MPD the day after the guilty verdict. Land of contrasts, I suppose. Maybe they're waiting with Fed charges, to see what happens here.
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I kinda wish we had a Rittenhouse trial thread but not wish it enough to make a high effort OP. ![]()
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Enigma89 posted:I kinda wish we had a Rittenhouse trial thread but not wish it enough to make a high effort OP. Eh, there's a couple Rittenhouse threads and they are not going well elsewhere in the forums.
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DandyLion posted:Best/Most Entertaining Comedy option is for the jury to find him guilty on all counts and to have the judge melt down and nullify it so that Kyle can walk and join him for supper. At this point I wouldn't rule it out. I've scarcely seen a judge make it harder for a prosecution side to present their case let alone for such a high profile trial. It's just a little too obvious at this point. The defense gets all this leeway and I haven't heard the judge say anything about their case while the prosecution is constantly under fire or having weird restrictions imposed on them from the outset. Like I get that the onus is supposed to be put on the prosecution, but this is another thing entirely and not really what I would call adhering to the principles of Audi alteram partem. At the very least this exchange probably should have taken place in chambers, but this judge seems to have such a hard on against the prosecution of course it's in front of cameras and possibly the jury and now he looks biased as loving poo poo before the whole world and it's on the record.
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CommieGIR posted:Eh, there's a couple Rittenhouse threads and they are not going well elsewhere in the forums. can confirm
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Mendrian posted:I mean it isn't surprising, the dems run their campaigns like out of touch wine parents. People came out in record numbers to vote against Trump? Nah don't worry it's not because they're scared of fascism and racism, it isn't because Trump is slowly choking the climate and the economy, it's just this Trump guy, specifically. All elections are about Trump now because the focus group shows that gets people in the voting booth! This should definitely be the thread title for this months thread.
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LeeMajors posted:If only we could nominate someone who wasn't cannonballing mid-air into a loving casket.... I get where you're coming from, and I don't nessicaraly think you're wrong, but tell me this: do you honestly believe Obama did a better job as president than Biden is doing now? This isn't meant to defend Biden, it's just a reminder that we did very recently have a much younger president and he performed just about the same as the super old ones. Politicians can be gently caress ups and disappointments regardless of what age they are.
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mdemone posted:In their position I might have done the same. Feels like it's time to start throwing the ball downfield, as it were. I mean really same. The judge stated it was inadmissible for the prosecution to enter evidence of a loving video of Rittenhouse saying he wish he had an AR-15 to shoot protestors at a CVS before purchasing an AR- 15 illegally, traveling to another state, and shooting protestors it’s clear which way the judge wants the verdict to go and at that point it doesn’t matter if you mistrial or not
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# ? May 26, 2024 10:35 |
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ex post facho posted:Any reason why Bannon isn't in jail for contempt? What the gently caress is Merrick Garland and the Biden DOJ waiting for, exactly? It's been over two weeks. It's been over a year since the election and nobody in Trump's orbit has gotten in legal trouble for anything, it's not a new thing it's obvious that they have no desire whatsoever to use the justice system to target politicians, no matter how insanely and obviously guilty they are
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