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Yep he admitted that it's him in the blackface or the KKK robe. In his medical school yearbook, at 25 years old. Beyond disgraceful. And they allowed that in a yearbook in 1984.

He called for Trump to resign after Charlottesville
 
Even in the early 1980s, how little sense do you have to have to put that in a yearbook?

With universal healthcare, given the attitudes in a lot of America and the insurance lobby, probably the most realistic answer is that it has to be incremental with that as the last step. It's actually how a lot of socially liberal legislation got passed around the world. For example, the legalization of gay marriage got a lot of coverage but in most places it was 20 years in the making - eroding other anti-gay provisions of common employment, family law, etc legislation until the only major thing left was the marriage itself. There are a lot of people today who would find that unpalatable but realistically that's how it happened in most places where it was legalized without a lot of huffing and puffing about the sky falling.

I think this incrementalism is what Kamala Harris and Sherrod Brown are both advocating (after she backed off her initial stance) but I don't know how that plays in soundbytes as opposed to the simple "medicare for all" that Bernie, Warren, etc will run on without fleshed out costs and details.
 
He refuses to even say if he's in the blackface or the KKK robe. They're both horribly racist and horrific, but my gut tells me he's in the KKK robe. If the Democrats running for President don't come out quickly and strongly to denounce this guy that's a huge mistake.
 
The South is a special place. Jesus.
I’m curious as to how he will handle this, but it sure looks like he should resign.
 
Jussie Smollett, the actor from Empire who was attacked in Chicago, had a follow up interview with police. He confirmed to them that his attackers yelled MAGA country at him during the attack.

That makes me sick. And very angry.
So beyond disgusting and horrific. They put a fucking rope around his neck. Get the bastards!

Sarah Sanders told CBN that God wanted Trump to be President

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/30/politics/sarah-sanders-god-trump/index.html

Omg, i hadn't heard that. :|
Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona. Probably Ohio.

I don't predict Florida, which should be given back to Spain.
Sounds about right.

Yeah, just heard Booker's press conference... sigh.

This is why there are only two names to me that stand out far above the rest.
Biden and Harris. And of those two. It really is Biden who would be the lock.

Yep, he's an old white guy. Big negative off the bat. But beyond that - What used to be a problem for him, being gaff prone and saying things that might seem a bit off color, now is no longer a problem in a post Trump world. In fact it may be a positive. Doesn't always seem scripted and blah (Booker)

No one comes close when it comes to experience. No one comes close in being a lock for bringing back PA, MI and WI, no one comes close in name recognition, in being able to take it to Trump like someone needs to (except for Harris)
in making people genuinely feel like he understands them and would fight for the every day voter, in his personal life story that shows someone of integrity, hard work and devotion, who has the association with Obama and everything that brings - and as of recent polling, blows away every other candidate in who African Americans would vote for in a primary (33% to 6% for Booker) On top of that he has a good history with gun control and women's issues.

There just isn't a comparison. It's great to have a big field of new people, but at this time - to take back the White House from Trump. I don't see anyone stronger.
My dream ticket as of now (way early I know) Biden/Harris. It just seems bulletproof.

Another thing about Biden is his continuing commitment to the Gold Star families. Seen videos of him, very moving. A part from his gaffes, always liked him.and he still has a lot of energy.

I know the news is about Booker today, but can we talk about Sherrod Brown of my state of Ohio? This is a pretty good interview to read:

https://news.yahoo.com/sherrod-brow...re-for-all-or-a-green-new-deal-195128102.html

He's a progressive in a red-ish state. I find him to be one of the most 'real' (potential) candidates of the bunch.

He doesn't fully support m4a, but I feel like his answer is more honest than a lot of others - basically that he likes the idea but doesn't think it's politically realistic:



And his answer to whether he considers himself a populist:



I like the guy a lot, and he might be one of the most genuinely left-ish candidates in the field. That said, as a resident of Ohio, it's getting more and more difficult to elect a Democratic senator here, and I'd hate to lose him. I fear his seat would turn red for the foreseeable future.
I like Sherrod. And i hear what you're saying about his Senate seat, tho.
Thanks for the quotes, too. :up:
Well, looks like Virginia needs a new governor
Yep he admitted that it's him in the blackface or the KKK robe. In his medical school yearbook, at 25 years old. Beyond disgraceful. And they allowed that in a yearbook in 1984.

He called for Trump to resign after Charlottesville

Hoooo boy, just saw that about hour ago. Ugh, byyyeeee, Gov.
Disgusting photo.
 
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Even in the early 1980s, how little sense do you have to have to put that in a yearbook?

With universal healthcare, given the attitudes in a lot of America and the insurance lobby, probably the most realistic answer is that it has to be incremental with that as the last step. It's actually how a lot of socially liberal legislation got passed around the world. For example, the legalization of gay marriage got a lot of coverage but in most places it was 20 years in the making - eroding other anti-gay provisions of common employment, family law, etc legislation until the only major thing left was the marriage itself. There are a lot of people today who would find that unpalatable but realistically that's how it happened in most places where it was legalized without a lot of huffing and puffing about the sky falling.

I think this incrementalism is what Kamala Harris and Sherrod Brown are both advocating (after she backed off her initial stance) but I don't know how that plays in soundbytes as opposed to the simple "medicare for all" that Bernie, Warren, etc will run on without fleshed out costs and details.
Canada got it's current health care because one ?providence voted for it. Then t he rest of them saw how well it was working and eventually it went national.
 
The South is a special place. Jesus.
I’m curious as to how he will handle this, but it sure looks like he should resign.



Fact is he did some stupid shit in his past. Even if it wasn’t intended to be racist or provocative, it is, and for the sake of eroding racism he should resign now rather than fade in popularity until a real racist is elected in the name of Trump because progressives don’t show up to vote for someone who has such a gross mark on him.
 
DyQLVXeWoAElC6U.jpg:large

Just wanted to say I love this :up:.

So just a question to everyone. What states that Trump won in 2016 do you think will definitely flip to blue, will probably flip blue, or have an outside chance of flipping to blue.

I know it depends on the candidate, but

I think WI will flip back to blue
and PA will flip back.

I think AZ and MI are possibilities

I think NC, GA, and OH are outside chances

I really hope Iowa goes back to blue. I think, depending on the candidate, there's a good chance it could.

Now if we could just send Steve King packing as well...
 
Or for a Bernie supporter to say “some people will find any reason to not vote for a woman.”
Of course sexism hurt Clinton. How could it not? That is obvious. I will state it unequivocally, since apparently you have not seen a Sanders supporter (only insofar as he is the only one in American presidential politics with even a passing interesting in leftism, I am far from a fan of any elite): sexism was a factor in Clinton losing to Trump. As was James Comey's ridiculous stunt in the lead up to Election Day. She had adversity to deal with, of that there is no doubt.

But Barack Obama had to deal with racism, just as Clinton had to deal with sexism. And he won two elections against much more competent and respected opponents.

My point, which often gets lost as everyone gets mad about people not hating Trump hard enough, is that liberalism offers very little to people. And instead of getting mad about people not voting against Trump, maybe try running on something that people want, that they should have and don't? That's all I'm suggesting. Running to the middle is running away from the things people want. And it loses a whole hell of a lot.

The Democratic Party, liberals, and their supporters are awfully arrogant for being really consistent losers.
 
WALL STREET!!!!!

I think he backed some legislation that was favorable to WS, so that'll lose the progressive vote. I believe he also backed some Big Pharma bills too.

He's out. My candidate has to be pure of heart and soul
Jesus Christ, man. The hysterics of liberals when it comes to criticism of candidates is fucking childish.

Cory Booker hates education. He loves charter schools, which are a naked attack on education in this country. There's a start for you. Go nuts, I'm a purity test dipshit! Really let me have it!
 
Jesus Christ, man. The hysterics of liberals when it comes to criticism of candidates is fucking childish.

Cory Booker hates education. He loves charter schools, which are a naked attack on education in this country. There's a start for you. Go nuts, I'm a purity test dipshit! Really let me have it!

:love:
 
Of course sexism hurt Clinton. How could it not? That is obvious. I will state it unequivocally, since apparently you have not seen a Sanders supporter (only insofar as he is the only one in American presidential politics with even a passing interesting in leftism, I am far from a fan of any elite): sexism was a factor in Clinton losing to Trump. As was James Comey's ridiculous stunt in the lead up to Election Day. She had adversity to deal with, of that there is no doubt.



But Barack Obama had to deal with racism, just as Clinton had to deal with sexism. And he won two elections against much more competent and respected opponents.



My point, which often gets lost as everyone gets mad about people not hating Trump hard enough, is that liberalism offers very little to people. And instead of getting mad about people not voting against Trump, maybe try running on something that people want, that they should have and don't? That's all I'm suggesting. Running to the middle is running away from the things people want. And it loses a whole hell of a lot.



The Democratic Party, liberals, and their supporters are awfully arrogant for being really consistent losers.





What is it you think people want?




(No snark, I genuinely want to know)
 
Bill de Blasio was just on Bill Maher. Piqued my interest somewhat. Talking about guaranteeing health coverage in NYC for anyone not getting coverage from ACA/work/medicare/medicaid. Also about requiring everyone in NYC to get two weeks paid vacation per year. Oh, and potential marijuana legalization/decriminalization "without corporatization".

Might be an interesting left-leaning candidate if he runs.

Any thoughts on him?
 
What is it you think people want?




(No snark, I genuinely want to know)



To be bold and set goals that make real changes that genuinely fix things, not just put bandaids on broken systems by way of inching somewhat into a progressive cause.

This sort of relates back to the health care discussion we just had. Yes, Obamacare was a justice for people who could not afford health care. It did a lot of good. But the system is still broken because it’s still insurance. It brought basic health care to people who couldn’t afford simple things like going to the doctor etc., but for the vast majority of Americans they are still forced into crippling or unpayable debt from various different health insurance related financial incidents. And a lot of people get downright royally screwed by the system. I mean, I literally just got screwed by it. I was an intern for the first half of the year and was on the absolute worst cheapest insurance I could find on the marketplace, and it still cost something stupid like $250 a month and basically covered NOTHING. Of course I used the tax credit to cover that, because I absolutely did not have $250 for health insurance. So yes, it brought health care to me. I got a full time job after that, where my employer covered my health insurance. That rose my income and now the system wants all of the tax credit back (well over $1000) because I made above the threshold over the course of the year.

Whether or not you think that’s justice, I don’t know. Doesn’t really matter though. The point was that I was paying for little to no coverage, and whether or not intern me or full time employee me are or are not contributing to the tax pool, that fact of no-coverage simply does not change. Even my “good” health insurance through my employer is a shit scam. God forbid I show up at the wrong hospital in an emergency, I might as well throw my insurance money in a fire pit instead. Maybe as I’m bleeding out I’ll ask if there’s an in-network doctor in the building? Assuming that’s the case, I still can’t pay the $5,000 ambulance bill that most instances won’t cover after the basic deductible of your $10,000 x-ray which took 30 minutes just to say “no it’s not broken and you weren’t bleeding out sir.”

I don’t have that kind of money. I have loans that I take out for that kind of money that take years to pay off and that’s on a paycheck-to-paycheck basis.

What do people want though? No more of this bullshit. That’s what people want. I’ll happily contribute my taxpayer money to a system that takes care of its people. This system doesn’t actually do that.
 
Bill de Blasio was just on Bill Maher. Piqued my interest somewhat. Talking about guaranteeing health coverage in NYC for anyone not getting coverage from ACA/work/medicare/medicaid. Also about requiring everyone in NYC to get two weeks paid vacation per year. Oh, and potential marijuana legalization/decriminalization "without corporatization".

Might be an interesting left-leaning candidate if he runs.

Any thoughts on him?
He sucks
 
Ok he doesn't suck... he built his campaign off of ripping Mike Bloomberg for being out of touch with the regular horse and too in bed with Wall Street.

He's gone on to simply continue what Bloomberg started, and is very much in bed with Wall Street and big real estate. And good on him for doing so... New York doesn't run without those two things.

He's using the huge tax revenue to fund social programs for those who aren't as well off (a continuance of what Bloomberg, and even yo lesser degree that nut job Giuliani).

New York is still crazy unaffordable. Nothing has changed there. It's why we don't live there anymore, and we're not struggling. In DC I get an apartment twice the size, a car (which we didn't have in NYC), and 5 day day care for 2 kids for win has been getting rid of stop and frisk while continuing to keep the crime rate low. To be fair to the previous administration, there used to be so many guns in New York that drastic measures we're needed. They were taken, and it was time to go away.


Deblasio is also gaffe prone and is habitually late. He's also very much tired to the Clinton's.
 
To be bold and set goals that make real changes that genuinely fix things, not just put bandaids on broken systems by way of inching somewhat into a progressive cause.

This sort of relates back to the health care discussion we just had. Yes, Obamacare was a justice for people who could not afford health care. It did a lot of good. But the system is still broken because it’s still insurance. It brought basic health care to people who couldn’t afford simple things like going to the doctor etc., but for the vast majority of Americans they are still forced into crippling or unpayable debt from various different health insurance related financial incidents. And a lot of people get downright royally screwed by the system. I mean, I literally just got screwed by it. I was an intern for the first half of the year and was on the absolute worst cheapest insurance I could find on the marketplace, and it still cost something stupid like $250 a month and basically covered NOTHING. Of course I used the tax credit to cover that, because I absolutely did not have $250 for health insurance. So yes, it brought health care to me. I got a full time job after that, where my employer covered my health insurance. That rose my income and now the system wants all of the tax credit back (well over $1000) because I made above the threshold over the course of the year.

Whether or not you think that’s justice, I don’t know. Doesn’t really matter though. The point was that I was paying for little to no coverage, and whether or not intern me or full time employee me are or are not contributing to the tax pool, that fact of no-coverage simply does not change. Even my “good” health insurance through my employer is a shit scam. God forbid I show up at the wrong hospital in an emergency, I might as well throw my insurance money in a fire pit instead. Maybe as I’m bleeding out I’ll ask if there’s an in-network doctor in the building? Assuming that’s the case, I still can’t pay the $5,000 ambulance bill that most instances won’t cover after the basic deductible of your $10,000 x-ray which took 30 minutes just to say “no it’s not broken and you weren’t bleeding out sir.”

I don’t have that kind of money. I have loans that I take out for that kind of money that take years to pay off and that’s on a paycheck-to-paycheck basis.

What do people want though? No more of this bullshit. That’s what people want. I’ll happily contribute my taxpayer money to a system that takes care of its people. This system doesn’t actually do that.



Could you take any of what you wrote and put it into policy or law ?

What is fair ? Is the solution to redo the tax code or system so it doesn’t favor the top bracket ? How do you keep politicians at their word when each new round that comes in eventually gets bought out by lobbyists?

How do we restructure our defense budget without the other side claiming we are weakening the country’s ability to defend

The issue is how do you convince nearly half of the population to vote for the best interest of society versus tribal votes to “own da libs “ or vice versa?

Is the solution something like NY where the state takes over more control of healthcare and taxes ?

It’s easy to say to vote out the GOP but the way the system is set up, and the southern parts of the country, we’re stuck with these trump like pols

I want a fair system. I have no desire of having a family of my own, yet I’m willing to see my taxes go towards the greater good. Not just the freaking debt and military.
 
Could you take any of what you wrote and put it into policy or law ?

No because I’m not a lawyer or legislator. But it’s tiring to hear people say “it’s not possible” as though all of our western allies don’t have hacks at it.

American exceptionalism is very real if you think our system is better than theirs because of stupid things like wait times or whatever those propaganda arguments tend to be.


What is fair ? Is the solution to redo the tax code or system so it doesn’t favor the top bracket ? How do you keep politicians at their word when each new round that comes in eventually gets bought out by lobbyists?

Also not my job. I don’t think the top “bracket” is “favored.” The taxation system is fair, but people with a lot of money do find ways through the system to not pay their taxes. It’s not necessarily Bob the doctor making 300k that’s circumventing a tax system through its own rules, but maybe Jimmy the doctor who owns his own practice and “employs” his wife and blah blah blah has all the strategic possibility in the world to do whatever. I don’t know I’m not a tax genius. But rich people shouldn’t be vilified.

All in all we can all do with paying a little more taxes but raising the floor on when taxes start. As an intern, NASA avoided paying me Medicare, social security, and any form of benefits by funneling my money through a proxy organization and hiring me as an independent contractor at a sub-market value. That means that I owed back almost 20% of the 12k I got paid over 4 months. I already could barely survive pre-tax on that, given student loans, car, etc. etc.. there are too many systems where the middle and lower earning groups of people are taxed when their summation/contribution to the pool has little effect on the size of the pool. Whereas now, I’m earning a full salary and bth the government and the state are taxing the heck out of me and my complaints are not “I can’t survive” but rather “I’m paying for stupid shit like worthless health insurance that wouldn’t financially protect me or anyone who has it.”

I’m ranting. Lobbyists? I don’t know. That’s what people want to see. Bolder politicians. That’s why the orange guy was elected from his deplorable base. He was more likely to actually try things than a politician.

How do we restructure our defense budget without the other side claiming we are weakening the country’s ability to defend

The issue is how do you convince nearly half of the population to vote for the best interest of society versus tribal votes to “own da libs “ or vice versa?

Is the solution something like NY where the state takes over more control of healthcare and taxes ?

Maybe the solution is for the states to take over a little more control. It tends to work well when a leader state implements something that’s successful and others follow suit. Typically over time you have a feedback loop from up top in the federal government, and the holdout states eventually jump on board. But this particular scenario being presented is not workable, because the federal government has too much of a grip on health “care” already. Between Medicare and ACA and general income tax, you’d need a state to seize those funds. Which it cannot do. So, I would imagine a new system would require to come from the top.


It’s easy to say to vote out the GOP but the way the system is set up, and the southern parts of the country, we’re stuck with these trump like pols

I want a fair system. I have no desire of having a family of my own, yet I’m willing to see my taxes go towards the greater good. Not just the freaking debt and military.



Well you and I are two in the same there. The beautiful thing about military spending is that you technically don’t have to give up a lot of capability and/or “defense” to free up some cash from it. It’s such a bloated establishment that could run a lot leaner than it does.
 
The governor should step down. But so should Steve King.

The difference is that the Governor probably wouldn't get re-elected with this hanging over his head.

The fine people in King's Iowa congressional district have sent him back to Washington HOW many times when he's an open racist?
 
The difference is that the Governor probably wouldn't get re-elected with this hanging over his head.



The fine people in King's Iowa congressional district have sent him back to Washington HOW many times when he's an open racist?



In hindsight, time cures all. Didn’t NJ just re-elect a criminal senator?

But yeah, I won’t be driven out to the polls if he seeks re-election.
 
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