Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

If you consider household annual income, $450k is the top 1%. If you consider wealth, it's $8M.

All I can say is Dr. Mrs. better get a raise...

50% tax per year on all wealth over $8M. Problem solved.

I've seen a whole bunch of these "wealth calculators" ever since OWS had their 15 minutes. None of them have consistently told me where I fit, except somewhere roughly within 10% of **redacted**

That said, I doubt it ruins your point. Bring back the Eisenhower-era brackets, and we could fix a lot of sh*t. Then again, after 30 years of trickle-down-the-leg, it may be too late and we'll just totally fck ourselves with those brackets now.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

On 538 Polls Only, suddenly interesting* AZ wanders back into civilized territory. The bad news is it's on the strength of one garbage poll.

* A good omen for the future: every state I have moved to has trended more blue since:

CA 87 lean blue --> safe blue
MA 88 likely blue --> safe blue
NC 95 safe red --> toss-up
OR 97 lean blue --> safe blue
VA 03 likely red --> lean blue
MD 04 likely blue --> safe blue
AZ 23 ???

 

[Kepler]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

Good news outta Wisconsin, as the federal courts destroy another shameless voter suppression move by Walker et al.

The same (Republican) judges at the 7th Cicuit Court of Appeals who stayed Federal judge Peterson’s ruling greatly loosening the voter ID requirements, just refused to stay the rest of the ruling. And that means local election commissions can set the days and hours and LOCATIONS for early voting to meet the needs of their own communities. This is a big deal because the law Peterson overturned stipulated that every municipality could provide only ONE early voting location, regardless of how many eligible voters the municipality serves. So An upscale exurb like River Hills with a population <1500 got one location; Milwaukee with a population of >500k also got ONE and only one.

When you're too disgusting for even your own hand-picked judges, you should probably hang em up.

Speaking of disgusting, a brief history of how the GOP went "hunting where the ducks were" to peel off racist Dixiecrats and win the Solid South. The stinger's in the tail, though: the young and educated in the South hate the old racists and could be getting ready to kick them out of the GOP just like the Dems fumigated them fifty years ago.

We've never had a politically-interesting South since the small-d democratic reforms of the 1830s, only a backwards hateful one. The author is correct that if the South becomes gasp moderate over the next few decades it really will change the US political dialog, which has been mired in the problem of combating southern racism since the 1840s.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

Having alienated women, Latinos, blacks, liberals, moderates, the Republican establishment, Muslims, the disabled, economists, the educated, the military, in short, everyone except his base, Trump now makes his boldest strategic move: alienate his base.

The Donald Trump campaign has canceled a major speech on immigration that reportedly was slated for Thursday amidst renewed confusion on his stance on mass deportation.

A spokeswoman for the Trump operation in Colorado said the campaign had been looking into hosting such an event but the plans had changed, the Denver Post reported Monday. The campaign will not be hosting such an event when Trump swings through the state for a fundraiser, but supporters were told in an email "the speech (Trump) was planning on giving is still being modified," according to the Post.

NBC News also confirmed the speech had been postponed, but no reason was given for the reversal.

It was reported by Buzzfeed and Univision over the weekend that Hispanic leaders in a closed door meeting with Trump Saturday were told the GOP nominee was going to flesh out his proposal for dealing with the 11 million immigrants in the United States illegally and present it while in Colorado Thursday. According to those in the meeting, Trump appeared to be softening his stance on mass deportation and was open to a plan to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants.

[Eva:]
Oh but it's sad when a love affair dies
But we have pretended enough
It's best that we both stop fooling ourselves

[Che:]
Which means ...

Poor Trump bunnies.

The full treatment.

 

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

For some reason, people pretend that when money is involved, the desire is so high that the system is more likely to be optimized for whatever performance.

Yet I've rarely met anyone who's company actually performs that well- so the most obvious source of evidence is consistently ignored- who you work for.

It's quite funny that people do realize that Dilbert is funny because it rings so true, but they don't seem to realize that it's funny to everyone.

On the other hand, people pretend that when profit is not part of the equation that optimization is never possible. Even though that's not true, either.

There are some really big segments of society that have no need for making money, as the basic function should benefit us all equally- defense, schools, prisons, roads, etc. And I know a lot of people would put in basic health insurance as well. We have a good consumer based society as it is. Everything doesn't have to be pay to play.

The one caveat I would place here is that our government isn't always very good at finding the right way to measure things to improve them.

I work for an engineering firm that contracts out to the DoD on some military projects. Evidently, the biggest factor for us isn't drawings produced per month or per man hour. The biggest sticking point we get from the military is how many hours per week we log on the project (not as a cost saving measure, mind you, they slap our wrists if we don't put enough hours in during a given period).

The end result is that I, a fairly expensive hourly resource for the US Government, am incentivized to simply report the maximum hours that I can ethically justify, regardless of how productive I am in that time. That's insane and backwards.

 

[5mn_Major]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

Good news outta Wisconsin, as the federal courts destroy another shameless voter suppression move by Walker et al.



When you're too disgusting for even your own hand-picked judges, you should probably hang em up.

Speaking of disgusting, a brief history of how the GOP went "hunting where the ducks were" to peel off racist Dixiecrats and win the Solid South. The stinger's in the tail, though: the young and educated in the South hate the old racists and could be getting ready to kick them out of the GOP just like the Dems fumigated them fifty years ago.

We've never had a politically-interesting South since the small-d democratic reforms of the 1830s, only a backwards hateful one. The author is correct that if the South becomes gasp moderate over the next few decades it really will change the US political dialog, which has been mired in the problem of combating southern racism since the 1840s.

Wish the D's would put together their own solution for this (to which moderate GOP would join). Something that doesn't suppress voter turn out but does a passing ability to accomplish what all this GOP effort is about. I don't believe there's any reality to the GOPs position of election cheating. But if you can take the wind out of the sales...hopefully that would stop some of the waste on these efforts.

 

[alfablue]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

The one caveat I would place here is that our government isn't always very good at finding the right way to measure things to improve them.

I work for an engineering firm that contracts out to the DoD on some military projects. Evidently, the biggest factor for us isn't drawings produced per month or per man hour. The biggest sticking point we get from the military is how many hours per week we log on the project (not as a cost saving measure, mind you, they slap our wrists if we don't put enough hours in during a given period).

The end result is that I, a fairly expensive hourly resource for the US Government, am incentivized to simply report the maximum hours that I can ethically justify, regardless of how productive I am in that time. That's insane and backwards.

I don't doubt that government doesn't do a better job. I just want to end the notion that private companies do it better just due to possible profit. There's plenty of corruption and waste in companies who are trying to make money.

I had to deal with the same thing - we worked on a government sponsored project, so we had to log our hours on a daily basis. That's probably a law based on some anti corruption measure that someone thought was a good idea.

 

[alfablue]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

Wish the D's would put together their own solution for this (to which moderate GOP would join). Something that doesn't suppress voter turn out but does a passing ability to accomplish what all this GOP effort is about. I don't believe there's any reality to the GOPs position of election cheating. But if you can take the wind out of the sales...hopefully that would stop some of the waste on these efforts.

The GOP's "effort" is to stop something that isn't happening. By making it a leading boogyman, it's easy to pass voter suppression laws under the "anti fraud" banner. Just like a LOT of other things they force through (which have their own threads).

The real solution is to try to get the voter population over 50%. And I'm sure the GOP will fight tooth and nail to keep it low.

 

[dxmnkd316]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

I have no idea where else to ask, but does anyone have any thoughts on a replacement for Gawker?

I used to have two websites always open on my phone: USCHO and Gawker. I need a replacement.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

The GOP's "effort" is to stop something that isn't happening. By making it a leading boogyman, it's easy to pass voter suppression laws under the "anti fraud" banner. Just like a LOT of other things they force through (which have their own threads).

The real solution is to try to get the voter population over 50%. And I'm sure the GOP will fight tooth and nail to keep it low.

This. You can't put forward an alternative solution to a non-problem because it's a non-problem. I know what OP was driving at but it is a little like saying "if the Democrats put forward an alternative solution for dealing with gay and trans people's pedophilia that would take the wind out of the GOP sails."

The GOP is becoming a niche party and is trying to protect themselves by making it harder for non-old whites to votes. There is nothing more to it than that. The solution is for the rest of us to drag ourselves to the polls, get rid of GOP incumbents, and then undo all their damage and nominate judges who will prevent any future attempt to try these stunts.

But at bottom the solution is simple. Remember those moronic bumper stickers in the 90s: "make a Democrat miserable: be happy"? Make a Republican miserable: vote.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

I have no idea where else to ask, but does anyone have any thoughts on a replacement for Gawker?

I used to have two websites always open on my phone: USCHO and Gawker. I need a replacement.

Depends. If you liked their politics and social commentary maybe HuffPo? If you liked their paparazzi consider some life changes.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

Kos has added a nice bug on their front page summarizing polls. It links to this page.

 

[bronconick]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

PEC update seems to rule out Trump win, Clinton landslide

 

[Kepler]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

PEC update seems to rule out Trump win, Clinton landslide

Interesting and helpful work.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

The private sector works.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/24/u...-congress.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0

Members of Congress are expressing rising alarm about the increasing costs of the lifesaving injection device for people with severe allergies, and they are hearing from anxious parents.

Senator Charles E. Grassley, the Iowa Republican who leads the Judiciary Committee, was the latest to weigh in on Monday, sending a letter to the head of the pharmaceutical company Mylan, which produces EpiPens. Mr. Grassley demanded an explanation for the 400 percent price increase — to as much as $600 — since the company acquired the product in 2007.

“Access to epinephrine can mean the difference between life and death, especially for children,” Mr. Grassley wrote, noting that many of the children who need EpiPens are enrolled in government health care programs. “It follows that many of the children who are prescribed EpiPens are covered by Medicaid, and therefore, the taxpayers are picking up the tab for this medication.”

**** you, Mylan.

 

[BassAle]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

The private sector works.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/24/u...-congress.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0



**** you, Mylan.

There really is no reason for it being so expensive, especially considering you can get a whole vial of epinephrine way cheaper than an epipen (so it isn't the drug that makes it expensive, and I can't imagine the pen itself costs more than a few cents to manufacture).

I know some guys that lead backcountry trips, often for kids. They need to have epinephrine on hand (and they can't always rely on every kid bringing their own pen). They are trained as EMTs/WFRs and end up getting a doctor to sign off on them administering epinephrine while in the backcountry or at summer camp (without doctors approval they can't even legally administer an epipen that a kid brings to summer camp -- they can 'help' the kid administer it themselves). Once a doctor as signed off on them administering epinephrine, that doctor can provide them with a vial of epinephrine. They bring the vial and a bunch of syringes on their back country trip. They get a lot more doses for way less money, but it isn't as idiot-proof as an epi-pen since they have to measure the dose. It's also a legal grey area. Many states have laws that allow trained personnel in schools/overnight camps to administer epinephrine with an auto-injector, and many states also allow EMTs to use auto injectors but. It's not really clear in some cases if a doctor can legally give medical oversight and an Rx for a vial of epi for someone to administer to an unknown 3rd party.

This is pure greed on the part of the manufacturer and it is causing safety issues / potential legal issues

 

[burd]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

There really is no reason for it being so expensive, especially considering you can get a whole vial of epinephrine way cheaper than an epipen (so it isn't the drug that makes it expensive, and I can't imagine the pen itself costs more than a few cents to manufacture).



This is pure greed on the part of the manufacturer and it is causing safety issues / potential legal issues

I suspect their excuse is trial lawyers.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

People are making decisions about not buying the pens they need now because of the cost. Someone is going to die because of them and they will have zero liability.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

VA settling into a groove.

 

[Craig P.]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XVI: KICK THE BABY!

Wish the D's would put together their own solution for this (to which moderate GOP would join). Something that doesn't suppress voter turn out but does a passing ability to accomplish what all this GOP effort is about.

You appear to be making an arguably unwarranted assumption about "what all this GOP effort is about." Some would argue that the entire raison d'etre is suppressing voter turn-out (particularly turn-out of likely D voters).