Politics 2: Electric Boogaloo — Page 151

My point is that you said Wikileaks is a tool of the Russian government probably for no other reason than because you read it over and over again in the New York Times or heard it over and over again on MSNBC or CNN or something.

They are very clearly just an outlet for anti-government, anti-corruption whistleblowers. If you don’t want them publishing anything on you, don’t do anything corrupt. It’s pretty simple. Who cares who reports the intel, if government officials, CEOs and the like weren’t doing questionable or illegal things, there wouldn’t be any stories to talk about in the first place.

I think it’s important to realize that Wikileaks can have ulterior-motivations beyond simple “anti-corruption.” Obviously this past election cycle has proven this with their taking a side and all the nefarious implications happening behind the scenes.

Now I’m no Patriot Act fan or anything like that, so I don’t necessarily take issue with exposing the overextension of government surveillance, but the truth is the power of an outlet like Wikileaks is simply very dangerous. Calling it Russian run or whatever is a bit much, but we should acknowledge that at the very least, to some extent, the Russians are in bed with them (at what point will people finally give up the stupid as fuck “but that’s a conspiracy theory” bullshit on this?). Classified info is, believe it or not, often classified for reasons other than “fucking over the American people.” We need to be careful with what we condone when it comes to these sorts of leaks, and realize when the motives might be, in some cases, to cripple certain parts of our government when they aren’t playing nice with other countries or even other parts of our government itself.

The FBI director saying “there is no such thing as absolute privacy”, coming from an organization which has a disturbing history of illegally wiretapping and spying on private citizens; details of programs that involve mass data collection, backdooring consumer electronics equipment and software, hacking remote cars to commit assassinations…yeah I guess we can chalk all of that kind of behavior up to benign peacekeeping, right?

Alderaan said:

My point is that you said Wikileaks is a tool of the Russian government probably for no other reason than because you read it over and over again in the New York Times or heard it over and over again on MSNBC or CNN or something.

Alderaan said:

Wrong.

Have fun, non-rich Trump voters.

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/09/the-republican-health-care-bill-threatens-trumps-voters.html

And in more “forgot to drain the swamp” news…

https://www.propublica.org/article/meet-hundreds-of-officials-trump-has-quietly-installed-across-government

The list we obtained includes obscure campaign staffers, contributors to Breitbart and others who have embraced conspiracy theories, as well as dozens of Washington insiders who could be reasonably characterized as part of the “swamp” Trump pledged to drain.

The list is striking for how many former lobbyists it contains: We found at least 36, spanning industries from health insurance and pharmaceuticals to construction, energy and finance. Many of them lobbied in the same areas that are regulated by the agencies they have now joined.

That figure is almost certainly an undercount since we only included those who formally registered as lobbyists, a process increasingly avoided by many in Washington.

During the campaign, Trump said he would have “no problem” banning lobbyists from his administration. But they have nonetheless ended up in senior roles, aided by Trump’s weakening of Obama-era ethics rules that modestly limited lobbyists’ role in government.

You should probably look up the definition of the world “or”.

Great article from Andrew Napolitano:

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/03/09/andrew-napolitano-spies-among-us-congress-has-created-monster-that-is-coming-for-us.html

Alderaan said:

The FBI director saying “there is no such thing as absolute privacy”, coming from an organization which has a disturbing history of illegally wiretapping and spying on private citizens; details of programs that involve mass data collection, backdooring consumer electronics equipment and software, hacking remote cars to commit assassinations…yeah I guess we can chalk all of that kind of behavior up to benign peacekeeping, right?

I’m sorry, is this in response to me?

NeverarGreat said:

Puggo - Jar Jar’s Yoda said:

There is an aspect to this Obamacare/repeal/replace effort that I haven’t seen discussed, so here goes:

Every time I talk to someone that is angry about Obamacare, their reason is simple: “my premiums went up”. Well, of course they went up. Requiring coverage for pre-existing conditions, and expanding health care for the previously uninsured was certain to raise premiums for those who previously were insured. How could it not?

Right now, a lot of reports seem to assume that if Obamacare is repealed, then the sudden loss of insurance for 20 million people will backfire on Trump and the Republicans. Hogwash! There are over 300 million people in the U.S., so by that math less than 10% of people would lose their insurance. Heck, if 100 million people lost their insurance, that would only be 33% of the people. And then what would happen?.. a huge majority of people will see their premiums go back down. All those people who complained that Obamacare caused their premiums to go up - surely the vast majority of Americans - will rejoice that Trump saved the day and their premiums went back down, “correcting” the wrong done by Obama.

All that is required to stay in power is to make the majority happy. How did slavery manage to last so long? Because most people vote their pocketbook. The republicans are going to be heros.

One factor to take into consideration: the cost of health insurance has continued to rise for decades, so I doubt that it would decrease with the repeal of the ACA. Perhaps it wouldn’t rise as fast, but there are factors other than the ACA to take into account.

Yep, and “I lost insurance because of Trump and the Republicans” is a much easier narrative to sell than “My premiums increased but not quite as much as they did last year.”

Puggo - Jar Jar’s Yoda said:

moviefreakedmind said:

Alderaan said:

You should probably look up the definition of the world “or”.

Again, I don’t even quite get what this is supposed to mean. I know what “or” means.

Computer scientists and electronic engineers are aware that there are two definitions of “or”… inclusive-or and exclusive-or. “OR” by itself is ambiguous, except in digital logic, wherein inclusive-or is assumed. To wit:

“you can have cake OR you can have candy” (exclusive or, both not an option)
“applicants must have a PhD OR equivalent experience” (inclusive or, both an option)

The interpretation of your earlier post depends on which “or” you intended, which presumably is why you were asked if “both” was an option.

Maybe we just need to start using “and/or” and/or “nor” more.

Replacing Obamacare is a must. Of course, I’m in favor of single payer, but they need to fund it. That’s the problem Trump and the RINO’s are going to run into: they aren’t offering funding for what they are proposing. It’s just an empty equity transfer from poor people on the margins of coverage to wealthy insurance execs and CEOs.

Terrific article on the Republican healthcare lie:

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/09/gop-is-now-paying-for-years-of-obamacare-lies-commentary.html

http://www.businessinsider.com/tom-cotton-tweets-on-republican-obamacare-replacement-ahca-2017-3

Sen. Tom Cotton, the influential Arkansas Republican, used Twitter on Thursday morning to express his displeasure with House Republicans’ new healthcare legislation and the speed at which it was advancing through Congress.

“House health-care bill can’t pass Senate w/o major changes,” Cotton tweeted. “To my friends in House: pause, start over. Get it right, don’t get it fast.”

It really sounds like the GOP is gonna have to come up with something different.

JEDIT:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/839883804315684864?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^tweet

Despite what you hear in the press, healthcare is coming along great. We are talking to many groups and it will end in a beautiful picture!

Oh, ok.

Alderaan said:

hacking remote cars to commit assassinations…

Wait, we’re hacking cars to commit assassinations? I didn’t know this. Who have we assassinated via this method, so far?

So far only Mater and Sally, but we’re working on better targets.

http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/323226-three-states-sue-to-stop-trumps-new-travel-ban

Now up to four, including Hawaii.