Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield (Post 506416)

I just don't we'll find much of a link to Trump.

Originally Posted by Adder (Post 506417)

Not the hacking. The coordinating with Trump. One advantage they get out of coordinating with Trump is influence over Trump, including the ability to threaten him with the release of the coordination.

Stop being intentionally obtuse.

Originally Posted by Adder (Post 506420)

If you mean they won't find Trump personally on the phone, that might be right, but we're already aware of two of his top aids, and Roger Stone, so I'd call that a link. We just don't know how serious the things they were up to are.

As for connecting to Trump personally, this seems a bit conspiratorial so I'm not going to vouch for it's credibility, but check out this Twitter thread.



No, you were equating how normal people are now freaking out to how the Fox News crowd freaked out under Obama. These things are not the same. Which I why I listed valid reasons for freaking out, only one of which is Russia.



Feel free to share what you think has been positive. All I've got is that in sort of respecting the courts on his immigration orders, he's not been as horribly authoritarian as I'd feared. Yet.

Meanwhile, he's till openly courting racists.



So crazy to care about refugees, immigrants and vaild visa holders. Or the 24 million people who will lose their health insurance (won't actually as they've already failed to pass the AHCA, but still). Crazy to think immigration raids and deportations of people are scary and unwarranted. Just total batshit.

But we know, you don't care about other people.

ETA: Oh, yeah, and how his DOJ is going back into private prisons. That's great.



No it isn't, especially not in the stupid, ham-fisted way he's "attempted" to do it. Seriously? An exec order that creates extra busywork for beaurocrats to rearrange regs to they can count fewer? It's meaningless on it's face.



Honestly, I don't even know if it's in the AHCA, but no, it's not "good" and it's not "competition." It's being able to sell the shittiest policy you can get past the shittiest state regulator nationwide.

Or do you think health insurance doesn't need regulation? Because it very much does.

If you want the federal government to take over insurance regulation, then fine, you can sell it across state lines.



OMG. Seriously? No, this is widely acknowledged, like all across the political spectrum, as bad policy.



Is it? How can you tell if you don't know what it actually means?



They're aren't any dishes good enough to make it worthwhile. This isn't normal. He's not W.

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield (Post 506421)

Dude, seriously... Are you asserting Trump's people engaged in espionage by putting themselves in a position to be blackmailed?

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy (Post 506422)

Here's the thing on foreign policy, where I'm accustomed to finding plenty of Rs to agree with in dealing with one issue or another: his approach to every situation is just incredibly assinine. He's a clown who has assembled a clown car for a team.

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield (Post 506411)

It's also a lot of fun to say, "I like Trump. I think he's doing a great job," to Lefties at parties. It works like that line in Dylan's "Motorpsycho Nightmare," where he screams "I like Fidel Castro and his beard!" to piss off the crazy farmer. Thankfully, the Lefties don't chase you from the room with a shotgun.

I suggest trying it. It also works on Bush Republicans.

Originally Posted by Pretty Little Flower (Post 506425)

You mischievous rascal! How I'd love to be a fly on the wall for all that. I bet your fellow party-goers, after their initial outrage, end up having a grudging respect for your witty provocations.

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield (Post 506409)

Encouraging an enemy of a political opponent to smear her with stolen emails is not conspiracy.

Originally Posted by SEC_Chick (Post 506418)

I will have to say that my absolute favorite story of this year is how Shia Labeouf cannot even successfully fly a stupid flag in protest, even outside of the US. I know virtually nothing about 4Chan, but if the CIA showed that kind of initiative, the world would be a safer place.

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski (Post 506429)

Health Care: what to change that could get through Congress

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski (Post 506429)

Health Care: Spending a year with people actually thinking about what to change that could get through Congress might be a good thing. An actually functional HC act would be a good thing. And I've felt forever that 2018 and the "Ford Pinto" tax kicking in would be the point that makes clear the ACA was a really evil deal. Once 50% of America sees its HC significantly lowered there might be critical mass to fix some shit.

And the failure to push through some half-baked hate act, despite the "it is all in our control" gives me a little bit of hope that we will ultimately be able to get through this*?


*this being the next years, not just HC

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski (Post 506429)

Health Care: Spending a year with people actually thinking about what to change that could get through Congress might be a good thing. An actually functional HC act would be a good thing. And I've felt forever that 2018 and the "Ford Pinto" tax kicking in would be the point that makes clear the ACA was a really evil deal. Once 50% of America sees its HC significantly lowered there might be critical mass to fix some shit.

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop (Post 506427)

Perhaps not, but hacking is pretty easy to prosecute (cf. Aaron Swartz), and the line between encouraging and conspiring is not one I'd want to count on to keep me out of prison.

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy (Post 506431)

The pinto/caddy tax, whatever you want to call it, has been delayed to 2020. While apparently economists who like to force people to see the real cost of their health care, instead of the tax-advantaged costs, people don't, and most betting is that it will be foreover out there, a gimmick used to offset accounting costs that is forever delayed.

The only people who can do a big health care bill, that addresses system-wide issues, on the scale of the Affordable Care Act or even Trump Care, are the republicans. What do you think their next bill will look like? Do you see any chance they'd even talk to Dems about the shape of the bill while they control both houses?

Expect dems to put forward a series of little bills, fixing individual pieces or making proposals on one part or another - e.g., a government payor option at least for places where a state opts for it or where there is only a single option under ACA, an attempt to fund the coops, that sort of thing. Anything else is for show, and can't have a snowball's chance in Hell until they have control of at least one house, and probably at least one house and the Presidency.