Clown Car III: Who's Laughing Now

[Takhisis]

Wouldnt it be better to buy a new dog ? /s

This sounds awfully close to immigrashun.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Wouldnt it be better to buy a new dog ? /s

I didn't buy the first dog.

 

[Cutlass]

"Nobody's ever done a better job than I'm doing as president. That I can tell you."
-- Trump

"It's hard to argue with the fact that this president has had the most successful two first years of any president in history."
-- WH Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders

 

[Yeekim]

Something is fishy here.

Alec's pharmacist told him his diabetes supplies would cost $1,300 a month without insurance — most of that for insulin. His options with insurance weren't much better.

Alec's yearly salary as a restaurant manager was about $35,000. Too high to qualify for Medicaid and, Smith-Holt says, too high to qualify for subsidies in Minnesota's health insurance marketplace. The plan they found had a $450 premium each month and an annual deductible of $7,600.

 

[Arakhor]

So, $15,600 annually without insurance or $5,400 with insurance. That's a considerable sum.

 

[Broken_Erika]

Guy gets booted from trump rally for not clapping hard enough and failing to show proper reverence to the Donny!
https://twitter.com/AynRandPaulRyan/status/1038011250276352000
https://twitter.com/AynRandPaulRyan/...32402013011968

Trump blasts the Anomynous NYT source!
https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1037883056252694528

 

[tjs282]

So, $15,600 annually without insurance or $5,400 with insurance. That's a considerable sum.

No, if I understand it right, it would have been more than $5400 with insurance, because you also have to add on the deductible (what in the UK we would call the excess, i.e. what the policy-holder has to pay from their own pocket before the insurer will start chipping in). So even if the dead guy had been insured on that $450 per month plan he and his mom found (which he wasn't), he would still have had to pay $13000 p.a., to the insurance company (on that plan) and pharmacist combined, just to avoid a premature and painful death from hyperglycaemia (or other medical inconvenience).

OK, $13000 is less than $15600 — but presumably his $35000 p.a salary was pre-tax, so his take-home would have been a little under $32000 p.a. (marginal tax rates in 2018 = 10% up to ~$9500, then 12% up to ~$38700). So his essential medical-care costs would either have been ~40% (insured) or 50% (uninsured) of his gross income, leaving him with (much) less than $1600 per month for everything else: housing, utilities, food, transport, and some kind of retirement-fund (because obviously hypothermia, starvation, and/or unemployment aren't great outcomes, either).

To get a lower deductible (reducing the amount he had to pay the pharmacist), he would have had to pay a (much) higher premium to the insurer (because his diabetes was a pre-existing condition that they would have known they're going to have to pay out on), so either way he would likely have eaten a large proportion of his own cost-of-care.

 

[metalhead]

Trump blasts the Anomynous NYT source!

*Anomynyshh

 

[Broken_Erika]

Like the Royal Canadian Air Farce presenter trying to pronounce "Millenium"
Milleninum! waaaaaaah!

 

[Cutlass]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/06/poli...content=2018-09-06T19:51:03&utm_medium=social


So called "libertarian" Senator Rand Paul is calling for a fascist witch hunt for the culprit of the annoymous white house op-ed.

 

[Cutlass]

Fox Business Host Calls Former President George W. Bush a 'Radical' Liberal
By Nicole Goodkind On 9/7/18 at 11:22 AM

Fox Business News Host Lou Dobbs called former Republican President George W. Bush a liberal on his show, Lou Dobbs Tonight, Thursday.

In a segment on free trade, the conservative host, who has interviewed President Donald Trump on numerous occasions, called President Barack Obama a “radical left-winger,” and said that Republican President George W. Bush was “a radical... What would you call him? A liberal himself. He wasn’t a conservative.”

Bush considered himself a “compassionate conservative,” and often had single-digit approval ratings from Democrats during his presidency.

Dobbs’s guest, Wall Street Journal editorial page assistant editor James Freeman avoided agreeing with Dobbs, but did concede that Bush “grew government in a big way.”

Later in the program, Dobbs returned to his point about Bush’s political leanings. He called both Bush and Obama “disasters” and joked with Freeman that he had “blinked when I said that Bush was a liberal, not a conservative!”

President Trump has criticized and poked fun at the Bush political dynasty on multiple occasions during his campaign and, later, his presidency.

https://www.newsweek.com/fox-lou-dobbs-george-bush-liberal-1111686

 

[Ajidica]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/06/politics/rand-paul-white-house-op-ed-donald-trump-new-york-times/index.html?utm_source=twCNN&utm_term=image&utm_content=2018-09-06T19:51:03&utm_medium=social


So called "libertarian" Senator Rand Paul is calling for a fascist witch hunt for the culprit of the annoymous white house op-ed.

Hands up everyone who is surprised by this.
Rand Paul sold whatever soul he had hidden in his terrible hairdo when he began his presidential campaign in front of a battleship.

 

[metalhead]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/06/politics/rand-paul-white-house-op-ed-donald-trump-new-york-times/index.html?utm_source=twCNN&utm_term=image&utm_content=2018-09-06T19:51:03&utm_medium=social


So called "libertarian" Senator Rand Paul is calling for a fascist witch hunt for the culprit of the annoymous white house op-ed.

He's a Berzerker libertarian.

 

[Takhisis]

Fox Business Host Calls Former President George W. Bush a 'Radical' Liberal

The Onion will have to start suing these people soon.

 

[Broken_Erika]

Fox Business Host Calls Former President George W. Bush a 'Radical' Liberal
By Nicole Goodkind On 9/7/18 at 11:22 AM



https://www.newsweek.com/fox-lou-dobbs-george-bush-liberal-1111686

Soon they'll be saying that Reagan was a Radical Communist.

 

[Gori the Grey]

You know, now I think on it, I actually can't think of an example of a Trump lie that seemed just for the hell of it.

He once told Maria Bartoromo (I think it was) that he was eating "the best piece of chocolate cake you've ever seen" when he ordered the missile strike on Syria.

They're often these little off-hand things, mixed among the instrumental lies.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Fox Business Host Calls Former President George W. Bush a 'Radical' Liberal

But somehow Republicans elected him TWICE !

 

[Broken_Erika]

The End of Neutrality
Society’s shared middle ground is quickly turning into a battlefield. What will that do to democracy?

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/09/06/common-ground-good-america-society-219616

 

[bernie14]

Something is fishy here.

maybe he ate too many chocolate chip cookies??

THANKS @Hygro !!

 

[Synobun]

Hey, remember when presidents could piece together comprehensible sentences?

Obama held a speech yesterday. It touched on a few poignant things.

Here is a video thread on Twitter about it, chopped up into digestible chunks: https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1038096435856715777

The highlights:

- The Republicans of today aren't new, they're just emboldened.
- Trump relies on fear, it is how he grows power and influence.
- Obligatory "Republicans used to be anti-Communist and now they love Putin" remark to abide by American Patriotism standards.
- Indifference and cynicism are more dangerous to democracy than fear and authoritarianism.
- "Better" is the goal, not perfect. Analogies to social security and civil rights are made, which are valid. Better can only be achieved if you care and act.
- Young people need to vote regardless of affiliation. If no young people vote (and by all metrics they basically don't), they can't be surprised that Congress doesn't relate to them.
- Callback to Obama's campaign mantra of hope: he believes in you.

I'm just happy to listen to a politician speak and not laugh or sigh after every soundbite. It helps that the message, despite being anti-Republican, is essentially sound of mind.