The Politics Thread (PLAY NICELY!)

Another mystery of the universe:. Tatsu leaving comedic videos posted in a thread usually used to discuss political opinions.

The notion that comedy which targets politics and indeed is informed by the cultural and political biases of its host and guests is apolitical (and thus not appropriate for a politics thread) is funny

In fairness he was posting those over in the YouTube thread until I gave him an ear-bashing.

I don't even know why those offend you so much. can you enlighten me?

plus is it not a "libtard" thing to be easily offended?

alternatively you could listen to something that requires as much deconstruction but is ... you know ... grounded in reality...

Wait, I missed that.

Are we defending Alex Jones now? Is that a thing we do?

elodea, are you sure you're not a Trump supporter? All conspiracy theories and made-up scams are rooted in something vaguely realistic. The classic Nigerian prince is rooted in cultural assumptions about which countries are still likely to have monarchies, among other stereotypes.

Claiming that someone took a bunch of statements and tied them together with "connections" and "patterns" is not a defense of them making something up. I can use the existence of the sun to claim we're being brainwashed by UV rays. It doesn't make me right.

That's the most roundabout defense of someone I've ever seen, and it comes from someone who calls himself rational and skeptical of unsourced claims (hence his opposition to Democrat idealism and similar "liberal" concepts).

I love John Oliver. He is a very funny guy. I wouldn't take his show as serious political critique.

He washes over obamacare issue with a wave of the hand, but criticizes the Republicans for not hastily creating some alternate. I don't want anything done hastily. I want it done right.

Hah Trump increase military budget by 10% cause yeah it was obviously needed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures

On that we agree.

just admit people wern't giving ACA time over the last eight years when every equivalent all over the world that actually works always took 50+ years to set up.

So that the US can win wars again.

You know, all those wars the US is dealing with where having dozens or hundreds of times more resources than any other party involved is not enough to win. Another 10% clearly will make a difference.

Another aircraft carrier perhaps. Or a few new high tech nuclear weapons. That'll teach em.

Whoever em is supposed to be.

In the meantime, people are dying from a lack of cover. And more could die.

It's hard to have sympathy for people paying a bit more than they used to for medical cover vs. people dying due to the lack of it.

It seems very doubtful the current US government has anything to offer that would be "done right". Yes ACA isn't all that great. It does look a lot like a stopgap measure, trying to at least turn the issue "people are uninsured and get ruined over it" into "everyone has to pay even more for healthcare, but nobody ends up sick and uninsured".

The real issue is the incredible inefficient medical system in the US in general. How the system somehow manages to cost the US more per citizen while it does much less than in many EU countries. The US healthcare model clearly does not work. They'd need to throw it all out, look around for the best working system they can find in some other country and copy paste that into their place. Obviously not an easy task, especially when you have a large group of people who profit from the current broken system who don't want change.

Issue is the republicans who are so aggressive about getting rid of ACA don't seem to have an solution to that either. Somehow I doubt many of them even recognize it as a problem.

The republicans lie too. They said they could tweak the ACA to cover those who need it without enforcing it, and it doesn't look like they are. Thus, someone is always affected. The more people that are affected though, the more doomed Trump's second term is, much less congressional election in 2018. He probably shouldn't start enforcing marijuana prohibition like his attorney general wants, for instance.

The ACA was a stopgap, but "extending medicare and medicaid to those below the poverty line" would have been a better one.

The medical system in the US is high-quality, and has a shorter waiting period, it's just plagued with... well... did you see the 8500% increase in a common infant drug recently?

I really am one of those people, you know, who actually thinks we should have a fire, police, and medical system, that serves and doesn't price-gouge the average citizen. Did you know even an ambulance trip, sans any medical supplies used, is close to a thousand dollars? The system that supports it, isn't that expensive, the most expensive part is trained EMS which could be lower if the higher-education institutions weren't also inflated.

Is anyone trying to address that though? Well, at most, Bernie Sanders, but they told him to piss off aye?

On that note, did you know the city charged Trevor Martin's family, with his police and ambulance cost? They showed up and shot him, if you show up and shoot someone, you should cut your losses on the cost, c'mon police...

You got down to the nitty gritty of it from a financial perspective. There are other actual healthcare problems in America as well, which are more important.

There isn't a one size fits all solution to American current healthcare financial woes. Right now there is a squeeze in the middle class because they are the ones significantly paying for Obamacare (paying 30% to 40% of your income in taxes and healthcare premiums/expenses is too much). I don't think that is going to change with any new ideas brought up by Trump's republicans.

I do think the "Traditional Republican" ideas of HSA and a healthcare refundable credit are good ideas. These should have been a stepping stone or the first step towards "universal coverage" rather than the last step.

No one died EVER from a lack of coverage!!!! EVER!!!! Done... this is a nonstarter. We always had a public healthcare system. Since Reagan anyone needing medical treatment had it (PERIOD).

Stop confusing health insurance with healthcare they are greatly different AND I know you know the difference.

I have no idea how much money a single ambulance trip costs and I doubt I'll ever need to know, as that's not something they'd charge anybody with unless they are called as a bad joke. Well maybe they charge the insurance of the unlucky person who needed the ride, but I dunno. Either way the person won't see the bill.

I don't know the specifics of those ideas. All I remember of them is John Oliver going over something like that quickly and it sounded to me like it was just some form of making poor people save money that they don't have to begin with. So how would it help? Maybe I am not understanding what it is exactly.

You mean net being 30-40% less of the gross income after all taxes, etc, pp. that are deducted before you even see the money is too much?

Umm.... as a single unmarried person without children in Germany that's not an unusual range. Like I'd pay that much right now if I had not decided to go study at an university instead, but I'll certainly pay that much again after.
Not having children and being unmarried is expensive in terms of taxes and such. Then again having children is expensive in terms of children being expensive and being married with only one person working also means you have more expenses you have to pay.

http://www.vox.com/2017/2/8/14532310/obamacare-aca-repeal-hiv-aids

You might want to read up on "pre-existing conditions". Given that the window for signing up this year has already passed, combine this with a need to stockpile drugs to keep people alive and / or health for the next X months (or years), people are going to be out of the drugs they normally have access to.

I've read that people have already struggled to get certain drugs under prescription, but I can't find a news outlet source on it, so I won't continue that any further.

But please, let's not be blind to the consequences.

You are still wrong. Those drugs keep the people alive. I know someone with AIDs before Obamacare. He couldn't afford the drugs, but the drug company's offered rebates to help him pay for it. That system worked well until he went on Medicare. Again, this doesn't prove anything.

The threat of getting fired over political differences, is very real. Don't like someone's ideas? Great, they're racist then, fire them and arrest them and take away any form of communication they have, quarantine their disgusting life from everyone else. Yep. This is how we stop "fascism". With "enforced political ideals".

I bet they learned a very valuable lesson indeed. Never EVER vote for liberals no matter what, because they fire you, vandalize your car, and some extreme ones would in fact kill you if they could. Made an anti-voter for life, him and probably his family and friends. Plus, the ones fired before him. Plus, all the voters disenfranchised last election. Plus...

...well, I just don't think the Democrats are winning the next election either. Not like this.

That's my post. Speaks for itself.

Hey, look, I found the last unbiased news in all the damn world: A factual research-based PDF. The news ratings would plummet, but this should be the news, 24/7. To hell with the Kardashians.

Says here, in Germany, emergency response is trained with a course of many hours by peers. Almost nothing that isn't cashiering or stocking, is hired or employeed this way, in the US. We require an expensive 4 years of college and age 20-25 with 30 years of work experience, here. This is the problem, not "we need the ACA" or anything like that. We need a whole better damn country, not sketchy programs to make the terrible problems "tolerable".

https://web.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-project/Available/E-project-042413-092332/unrestricted/MQFIQP2809.pdf