Politics 2: Electric Boogaloo — Page 337

NeverarGreat said:

The silver lining is that, freed of the reliance on established media sources, more and more people are able to aggregate quality information and discuss methods of minimizing their own biases.

That’s not really much of a silver lining. Aggregating information, researching, fact-checking, comparing multiple sources, consulting with subject matter experts–that’s a full-time job. Specifically, it’s the full-time job of someone who works in the media (whether or not they actually do that job is beside the point for the moment). While the “old dead tree media” may very well get replaced by the “new Internet media”, the whole idea of media organizations of all stripes disappearing entirely and getting replaced by a network of crowdsourced volunteers is frankly appalling to me. It’s this very thing that would allow, say, a foreign intelligence service to much more easily slip propaganda into the news stream of another nation’s population. Sure, I get that the old corporate monolith system also allows rich corporations to ensure that all media organizations have different degrees of the same conservative bias, and so it’s not like the old media networks like CNN and whatnot don’t suffer from this. But at least with that system you can usually pretty easily identify who’s peeing in the pool.

I don’t normally post long video links, but this is really worth it IMO:

William Browder, CEO of the Hermitage Capital Management Company, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee today. Hermitage was the employer of Sergei Magnitsky, the auditor who uncovered Russian corruption and was later murdered, triggering the Magnitsky Act, which is central to the Trump-Russia affair.

https://twitter.com/TopherSpiro/status/890659871472795648?

A Politico headline for the ages.

Also, don’t the Senate’s emails look like they were written in 1996?

I don’t think the current procedure allows for filibustering.

Warbler said:
huh? please explain.

The republicans are trying to push the bill through using an expedited process called “reconciliation”, which (among other things) prohibits filibuster. Look up the Wikipedia page on “reconciliation”.

Warbler said:

huh? please explain.

1. There is no single Senate GOP healthcare bill, yet. McConnell has already put two bills for a vote to test the waters, both of which failed by about ten votes. He’ll probably put the final bill up for a vote tomorrow.

2. Here’s a good primer on how the procedure this is going through works. Filibustering is not allowed because this is a reconciliation process, which has all sorts of different rules than the normal process.

We have a bill.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/live-blog/senate-vote-health-care/?lpup=18258989#livepress-update-18258989

We have a “skinny repeal” bill.

It’s just eight pages. It includes a provision that would prevent Medicaid funding from going to Planned Parenthood for a year, a provision the Senate parliamentarian has advised is outside the bounds of Senate rules. It would effectively end the individual mandate, as well as the employer mandate. It would extend the delay on the medical device tax to 2020 and increase limits on health savings accounts. It also would expand waivers that states could use to get around the regulations on insurance markets imposed by the ACA.

Looks like this has a good shot of passing. Here goes everything.

The yeas were 49 and the nays were 51.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/27/politics/health-care-debate-thursday/index.html

It took 7 years to write that? It reads like it was written by a 12 year old in a half hour. Geez, our country has slipped even further than I thought.

TV’s Frink said:

moviefreakedmind said:

It’s very rare to my knowledge. I think it’s just a way for Republicans and Democrats to distract from real issues.

How are the Democrats distracting from real issues? It is certainly real to the people who were allowed to be open about being trans and now are being kicked out.

Real was an inappropriate word, obviously it’s very real to the people it affects. I meant that it distracts from the wars and the NSA spying that are both completely supported by Democrats and Republicans. Things like the indiscriminate drone strikes that kill mostly civilians, the compiling of our emails, the assault on whistleblowers, and the nonstop military conflicts in the Middle East are supported wholeheartedly by both parties. The Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations are all equally guilty in terms of that stuff.

TV’s Frink said:

Holy shit McCain finally did the right thing.

I called it. He does that from time to time.

Fox & Friends is having a full Fox freakout over the full failure of this failed healthcare bill.

“Congratulations, the healthy people are paying for the sick people.”

https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/890912321404641280

Fox & Friends are very mad about Democratic senators taking selfies after the health bill went down.

[video]

https://twitter.com/bubbaprog/status/890815543258865664

BAH GAWD THAT’S STEVE AUSTIN’S MUSIC

[video]

https://twitter.com/alexburnsNYT/status/890814131695009792

In the end, the president’s closing message – that his attorney general is terrible – couldn’t put the bill over the top

In other news:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/north-korea-missile-launch-detected-pentagon/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7e&linkId=40316036

A ballistic missile launch was detected from North Korea on Friday, the Pentagon said.

“We are assessing and will have more information soon,” said Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.

Japan’s prime minister says what is believed to be a missile may have landed in the sea.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters that officials are analyzing the apparent launch and that he has called a meeting of the National Security Council.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that the object flew for about 45 minutes, the Reuters news agency reports.

That post has been updated to make the order of things more clear.

moviefreakedmind said:
Real was an inappropriate word, obviously it’s very real to the people it affects.

I took your remark to mean something that I’ve been noticing over the years. I sometimes view “real” issues as either “wide” or “narrow”. A wide issue being one that seriously affects a substantial proportion (or all) of the population. A narrow issue is one that either has minimal impact, or effects a small proportion. There are also issues that are “very narrow”, that although they truly impact some people, will have absolutely no impact on 99+% of the population.

Examples of wide issues: health care, social security
Examples of narrow issues: federal funding for abortion, prayer in school
Examples of very narrow issues: transgenders in military, 10 commandments on state capitol, the death penalty

Now, I know that the death penalty certainly seems like a big deal. But, viewed coldly, I would hazard a guess that 99% of people in the U.S. will never be impacted by it regardless of its form. I’m deeply against it, but I have to admit that of all the time spent debating it, it is probably one of the things that is least likely to affect me or anyone I know. By contrast, health care legislation affects everyone I know, a lot!

We need compassion and intellect to make good decisions on all issues, whether wide or narrow. However, wide issues are generally so complex and impactful that in my opinion they deserve a greater proportion of attention than they are getting - from the public and the politicians.

Very narrow issues serve as fantastic distractions from difficult situations. For one thing, the voting public sees no distinction between a wide issue and a narrow one. In fact, they often make voting decisions entirely based on one very narrow issue, particular if it relates to religion, even if it has absolutely no impact on them at all. We’ve all met people whose decision on who to vote for was based solely on something like transgender bathrooms, even though they’ve never even met (and may never meet) a transgender person. Again, not that these aren’t real issues, and yes they certainly will seriously impact some people, and I wouldn’t begrudge someone actually affected to base their vote thusly. However, when a politician makes one of those the primary focus, they are usually doing it to manipulate and/or distract. It’s a tactic that has proven highly effective.

I’m not at all surprised that Trump would bring up transgenders in the military at this key time. It’s a great way for him to re-frenzify the support of his base lest they notice that some really big things are going to hell in a handbasket.

I had to write McCain an apology letter last night after ripping him in a previous letter earlier in the week. At least he can do the right thing sometimes. Good on him.

And yeah, Priebus is out. I wonder just how far Donald “Lame Duck” Trump is from just firing and replacing everyone. At least he can get something removed and replaced then.