Campaign 2016 Part XXII: Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Politicians!

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XXII: Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Politicians!

Don't worry yourselves if there's any doubts, left-wingers... Soros has you covered. http://www.lifezette.com/polizette/concern-grows-over-soros-linked-voting-machines/

 

[E.J. Smith]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XXII: Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Politicians!

When McCain put up that trial balloon of never approving any Democratic nominee that likely ensured Clinton will put up her own nominee. It is only a question now of whether the GOP can fast track Garland during lame duck. Everything says they should but their ineptitude is such that it looks 50/50 at best.

McCain is interesting. This is almost certainly his last election. I think he's in say what I need to say to get elected mode, but once he's in office it could get interesting. He certainly can't be happy about where "his" Republican party has been taken. He clearly knows which group of people took it there, and he might just be interested in sticking it to them.

Who knows. I never liked the guy. But a senator in his 80s, angry with his own party might be fun to watch.

Probably too much to ask but fun to think about.

 

[Handyman]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XXII: Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Politicians!

I dont think McCain will be any different now than he has been. The guy sold out and has become progressively dumber since 2008.

 

[Wisko McBadgerton]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XXII: Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Politicians!

As I mentioned before, Southern Dem shift left can be explained almost entirely by the replacement of southern white conservative democrats and by powerless blacks who didn't vote in the 60s/early 70s...to empowered blacks and many Hispanics today. Northern dems are the same as they were in the 60s.

Sure, but just about 6 years ago Blue Dog Dems were close to 25% of Dems in the House. Blue Dog's came together during Clinton's first term after they were "left out in the cold" (thus the term "Blue") by the Dem leadership's left turn. They had some power, but broke themselves for the party supporting Obamacare and Cap and Trade against their constituents will. Now there's just a handful left because they either quit or were tossed out in favor of R's, and with them went the House. Big price to pay for the ACA, but real lefties never liked them anyway, I suppose.

True that Northern Liberals have been on or near the hard left for a long time but they weren't the whole party. So you had a left turn during Bill's first term, and more recently the loss of center and left center Blue Dogs which resulted in the center of the House Dems being further left than it's been in a long, long time. It's also narrowed in focus ideologically. It's not a new thing though. More than a century ago Democrats threw out the classically liberal Bourbon Dems and proceeded to lose the next 6 cycles in the House.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XXII: Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Politicians!

Don't worry yourselves if there's any doubts, left-wingers... Soros has you covered. http://www.lifezette.com/polizette/concern-grows-over-soros-linked-voting-machines/

You don't know what "left-wing means" if you think the left wing is looking forward to a borderless, feudal, corporate-owned Holy Roman Empire where environmental and labor regulations drop to the lowest common denominator.

And that's the thing about you wingnuts. You conflate all your bugaboos -- socialists, feminists, Black Lives Matter, environmentalists, Wall Street, the International Jewish Conspiracy -- into The Grand Conspiracy, which is plotting to enslave the world. Except there's no Grand Conspiracy and there isn't any world separate from the interplay of all these forces to enslave. The world is all the "conspirators" with their cross-cutting interests.

In that real world, all those groups and a million more we don't know about are competing with or often directly fighting one another. When they temporarily ally it's to fight the others and it breaks up almost immediately. Plus each of those groups itself in not monolithic or permanent, as they continually split and reform into factions and sects.

The Persecuted Man wants to believe everybody's conspiring against him because then he has some modicum of control (as well as romantic honor). In reality, a million groups are each doing their own thing and aren't thinking about him at all. And from moment to monment the roster of groups is changing.

You think you like truth? OK, here is the truth:

I. There is no conspiracy against The Little Guy.

1. There is no conspiracy.

2. There is no Little Guy.

3. There are only recently-descended-from-monkeys animals walking around in silly clothes.

4. Some of those monkey people own things that others use.

5. That gives them power, but...

5a. ...each of them has so many conflicting "group consciousness" identities (race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, political affiliation, industry, sports team, favorite color) that concerted action over a non-trivial length of time to actually achieve a plan is nearly impossible.

6. We are all -- from the lowliest dirt farmer in Slovakia to the most diamond-encrusted Rothchilde -- trapped in the unforgiving gears of this reality on a short, one-way slide to the oblivion of the grave.

7. Nobody is in control.

7a. Not just no man in the sky (which is obvious) but...

7b. ... no clique of Illuminati or Reptilians or bond traders. Individuals and groups are capable of causing lots of damage but not "control."

II. “Life has no meaning a priori… It is up to you to give it a meaning, and value is nothing but the meaning that you choose."

1. "They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it's night once more."

2. The future rushes towards you like asphalt against the bare skin of a falling motorcyclist.

2a. All we can do is make one decision... then the next, then the next... but the world rushes in and around us and carries us in directions we can't predict.

2b. "Staring at the sea, staring at the sand, staring down the barrel," -- you can choose.

2bi. Actually, you must choose. There is no escaping it.

2c. The sum of all those choices is you.

3. Life does not have a Plan for you

3a. Nobody is coming to hurt you

3b. And sure as hell nobody is coming to save you

3c. "You and me are real people, operating in a real world. We are not figments of each other’s imagination. I am the architect of my own self, my own character and destiny. It is no use whingeing about what I might have been, I am the things I have done and nothing more. We are all free, completely free. We can each do any **** thing we want. Which is more than most of us dare to imagine."

 

[MaizeRage]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XXII: Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Politicians!

Donald Trump said his employees have had horrible problems with Obamacare. He was fact-checked 25 minutes later, by Donald Trump, who said his employees don't use Obamacare.

 

[5mn_Major]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XXII: Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Politicians!

Sure, but just about 6 years ago Blue Dog Dems were close to 25% of Dems in the House. Blue Dog's came together during Clinton's first term after they were "left out in the cold" (thus the term "Blue") by the Dem leadership's left turn. They had some power, but broke themselves for the party supporting Obamacare and Cap and Trade against their constituents will. Now there's just a handful left because they either quit or were tossed out in favor of R's, and with them went the House. Big price to pay for the ACA, but real lefties never liked them anyway, I suppose.

True that Northern Liberals have been on or near the hard left for a long time but they weren't the whole party. So you had a left turn during Bill's first term, and more recently the loss of center and left center Blue Dogs which resulted in the center of the House Dems being further left than it's been in a long, long time. It's also narrowed in focus ideologically. It's not a new thing though. More than a century ago Democrats threw out the classically liberal Bourbon Dems and proceeded to lose the next 6 cycles in the House.

The blue dogs are still there but have been swamped by minority demographics. The change is a 1970s increase in black voting, blacks voting not toeing the line with southern 60s policy, a huge later increase in Hispanics, minority migration to southern cities and gerrymandering. Urban migration is why NC and GA are now moving towards being purple and MS is not. The nature of democratic policies have not changed...the urban south has shifted to become true democrat due to demographics.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XXII: Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Politicians!

Donald Trump said his employees have had horrible problems with Obamacare. He was fact-checked 25 minutes later, by Donald Trump, who said his employees don't use Obamacare.

Not sure he's wrong. Obamacare has ****ed me over and I don't "use" it.

 

[aparch]

Not sure he's wrong. Obamacare has ****ed me over and I don't "use" it.

It's hard to believe the insurance companies cry foul over Obamacare when a company like Aetna threatens to leave Obamacare and then in the next breath they announce continued increased revenue.

Or UnitedHealthcare who claim they are "expecting to lose about $1 billion on Obamacare policies in 2015 and 2016," yet they headlined their second quarter report with:

UNITEDHEALTH GROUP REPORTS SECOND QUARTER RESULTS
• Second Quarter Revenues of $46.5 Billion Grew 28% Year-Over-Year
• UnitedHealthcare Grew Revenues 14% Year-Over-Year,
Adding 2.1 Million More People in the Past 12 Months
• Optum Grew Revenues 52% Year-Over-Year to $20.6 Billion
• Cash Flows from Operations were $1.7 Billion in the Quarter
• GAAP Net Earnings of $1.81 Per Share Grew 10% Year-Over-Year
• Adjusted Net Earnings of $1.96 Per Share Grew 13% Year-Over-Year

So these companies need to make up their goddammed minds.

 

[The Sicatoka]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XXII: Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Politicians!

Not sure he's wrong. Obamacare has ****ed me over and I don't "use" it.

So are you saying you're being "used" by it?

 

[The Sicatoka]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XXII: Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Politicians!

It's hard to believe the insurance companies cry foul over Obamacare when a company like Aetna threatens to leave Obamacare and then in the next breath they announce continued increased revenue.

Or UnitedHealthcare who claim they are "expecting to lose about $1 billion on Obamacare policies in 2015 and 2016," yet they headlined their second quarter report with:


So these companies need to make up their goddammed minds.

Please do not use "revenues" as the measure. Your revenues can go up, but if your expenses exceeded revenues, you're in the red.

If you're going to complain, complain about net earnings. That's the bottom line. So in this case:

• GAAP Net Earnings of $1.81 Per Share Grew 10% Year-Over-Year
• Adjusted Net Earnings of $1.96 Per Share Grew 13% Year-Over-Year

But even with those earnings their P/E ratio is a far from impressive lowish-20s. Aetna and Cigna run in the mid-teens.

 

[Wisko McBadgerton]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XXII: Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Politicians!

It's hard to believe the insurance companies cry foul over Obamacare when a company like Aetna threatens to leave Obamacare and then in the next breath they announce continued increased revenue.

Or UnitedHealthcare who claim they are "expecting to lose about $1 billion on Obamacare policies in 2015 and 2016," yet they headlined their second quarter report with:


So these companies need to make up their goddammed minds.

I haven't looked lately, but as of about 6 months ago I looked it up and the top half dozen or so Health Insurance providers AND the top half dozen Health Care providers were all outperforming the S&P 500 by 200-500% since ACA came in. Figure that out.

 

[5mn_Major]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XXII: Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Politicians!

It's hard to believe the insurance companies cry foul over Obamacare when a company like Aetna threatens to leave Obamacare and then in the next breath they announce continued increased revenue.

Or UnitedHealthcare who claim they are "expecting to lose about $1 billion on Obamacare policies in 2015 and 2016," yet they headlined their second quarter report with:


So these companies need to make up their goddammed minds.

This is the issue with the health care industry. An extremely powerful health care insurance industry saw that it would be required to take care of a more expensive segment of the population...and said no thanks. We'd rather keep our record profits and pulled out of the exchanges. Other providers saw the opportunity for more profits...and said 'yeah we'll stay in, but we need to make far more money'. When the entire health care system thought it would need to compete on price (when it first entered the exchange) it was no surprise that the bloated insurance segments of these companies lost money. These are the circumstances that most other industries have to operate under (airlines, groceries, etc) every day, but that health care insurance doesn't. And just because they run at lower multiples...doesn't mean anything. They provide very little benefit to society...you pay them money and they pay it to health care providers.

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XXII: Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Politicians!

pay no attention to the man behind the curtain

Oh look, still trying to distract the public. Why do we have people "disappearing"? Why are there numerous exiles, including most recently Eric Braverman? Why is so much effort being placed into cover-ups if there wasn't something amiss?

I once believed the narrative. I took the bait. People tried to convince me otherwise, but I wouldn't budge. Then I realized that the only way to solidify a hypothesis is to challenge it. So I did. It turns out what I had believed was wrong. It was painful, just as much as it is painful to see other people fall under the same trap. The experience was very liberating, and the mind is as free as ever.

Challenge the hypothesis. Always continue to ask questions.

 

[rufus]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XXII: Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Politicians!

Sure, but just about 6 years ago Blue Dog Dems were close to 25% of Dems in the House. Blue Dog's came together during Clinton's first term after they were "left out in the cold" (thus the term "Blue") by the Dem leadership's left turn. They had some power, but broke themselves for the party supporting Obamacare and Cap and Trade against their constituents will. Now there's just a handful left because they either quit or were tossed out in favor of R's, and with them went the House. Big price to pay for the ACA, but real lefties never liked them anyway, I suppose.

That has nothing to do with the party or its politics. Southern voters were faced with an option: vote for a Democrat pretending to be a Republican, or vote for the real thing. As in anything in life, given the choice of the imitation or the real thing, which do you choose?

 

[rufus]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XXII: Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Politicians!

Donald Trump said his employees have had horrible problems with Obamacare. He was fact-checked 25 minutes later, by Donald Trump, who said his employees don't use Obamacare.

I was gonna say, why doesn't Donald Trump, who hires the bestest and the greatest of everything, offer his employees health insurance?

 

[St. Clown]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XXII: Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Politicians!

It's hard to believe the insurance companies cry foul over Obamacare when a company like Aetna threatens to leave Obamacare and then in the next breath they announce continued increased revenue.

Or UnitedHealthcare who claim they are "expecting to lose about $1 billion on Obamacare policies in 2015 and 2016," yet they headlined their second quarter report with:


So these companies need to make up their goddammed minds.

You're aggregating UNH's revenues as a whole, not their various product lines. We don't have access to each product line, though state regulators do, so you and I don't know exactly how their ACA products fared. Apple turns profits like it's nobody's business, but (hypothetically) their iPad product might be in the red. We wouldn't see that in their quarterly financial reports that then get repeated in the financial headlines, where their iPhone could be masking the iPad's dismal performance.

 

[Scarlet]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XXII: Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Politicians!

So, what are the odds this is true?

 

[rufus]

Re: Campaign 2016 Part XXII: Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Politicians!

Gee, millionaire in his mid-thirties/early forties during the cocaine-fueled 80's? Naw, would never happen. Never.


That's kinda like saying Keith Richards had a slight fondness for heroin.

 

[Jimjamesak]

The blue dogs are still there but have been swamped by minority demographics. The change is a 1970s increase in black voting, blacks voting not toeing the line with southern 60s policy, a huge later increase in Hispanics, minority migration to southern cities and gerrymandering. Urban migration is why NC and GA are now moving towards being purple and MS is not. The nature of democratic policies have not changed...the urban south has shifted to become true democrat due to demographics.

I'd argue there's a rise in "western liberals" as well. Think Oregon, Washington, and parts of California that have shifted due to migration and education.