Random Thoughts (Political Edition)

Cobol74 said:
No freeloaders here, you are sick you need treatment, you get it - end of story.
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I am sure the Daily Fail archive can come up with a story about sick eastern Europeans traveling to Britain just to freeload on the NHS.
 
LiveToWin said:
The government overlords demand that I buy health insurance. Then, despite the fact that I was on the Federal payroll before, I file taxes every year, and I am currently receiving a Pell Grant, they can't verify my identity for me to register on the marketplace. I've tried 5 times now, despite the fact that I know I won't be able to afford health insurance (which is why I didn't have it in the first place). Every time I call them, they've just told me to "try again later".

TL,DR:
Feds have no problem verifying my identity when thousands of dollars are involved, but can't be bothered to get their act together so that I can avoid their healthcare tax (or maybe even get health insurance, but I doubt it).
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If you are on a Pell Grant then your income is probably below the threshold to be required to buy insurance so you can qualify for an income exemption.

If you are getting a pill grant then you are an undergrad correct? Most likely then you are 26 and under and can be on your parents' insurance assuming your parents have insurance and are alive.

Lastly being on a pell grant makes me think you would probably qualify for medicaid if AZ had expanded Medicaid. Go complain to your GOP run obstructionist state gov't.
 
British_Rover said:
Go complain to your GOP run obstructionist state gov't.
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Just as soon as the millions who lost health insurance recently go complain to the socialist in the White House... We can debate free market vs single-payer, but I think you're the only one that's defending Obamacare. You've mentioned before that you actually benefited from the ACA so maybe these last two sentences are somehow related :dunno:
 
LeVeL said:
Just as soon as the millions who lost health insurance recently go complain to the socialist in the White House... We can debate free market vs single-payer, but I think you're the only one that's defending Obamacare. You've mentioned before that you actually benefited from the ACA so maybe these last two sentences are somehow related :dunno:
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No I haven't because I have insurance through work. I would love to get out of it and into the exchanges but I cannot because of the family glitch. I could save over a 1,000 a year.

Also double checking it seems that AZ did expand medicaid and the legislature sued Gov. Brewer over it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/08/arizona-medicaid-expansion_n_4752664.html

Single-payer was never going to happen in the US and I don't see it happening anytime soon. Also when you say single-payer you have to define which kind. Fully integrated like Canada and the UK where hospitals are owned by the gov't and doctors are gov't employees or something more like German and Australia that is a mixed system.

The ACA is going to turn out net positive. Most of those millions of people will get right back on insurance plans that qualified to the ACA rules and they will probably cost them less money assuming they ever actually lost insurance in the first place. Most of the individual claims I have seen from people tended to be shown to be bogus that they lost insurance and couldn't get it or it cost much much more.


And remember their is a ton of misinformation being put out by people against the ACA. You yourself have posted that misinformation or did you forget that?

here is a decent explanation of net canceled policies. Most of those millions simply signed up for new insurance that was ACA compliant after their old plans were canceled and 1.5 million got grandfathered in.

http://www.acasignups.net/14/04/02/...ew-york-times-makes-amazing-discovery-updated


The guy running that site had one of the non-compliant policies and had it canceled then got a new policy that was ACA compliant.

http://acasignups.net/14/03/24/polite-response-somewhat-polite-critique
 
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LeVeL said:
Just as soon as the millions who lost health insurance recently go complain to the socialist in the White House... We can debate free market vs single-payer, but I think you're the only one that's defending Obamacare. You've mentioned before that you actually benefited from the ACA so maybe these last two sentences are somehow related :dunno:
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Obama isn't a socialists. I know, I am one.
 
argatoga said:
Obama isn't a socialists. I know, I am one.
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Obama is just yo the left of Reagan right around GHWB although I think he has been pushed that way. He is a pragmatist not an idelogue
 
Socialism is pragmatic. :)

Nationalized Romney Care does more harm than good. Most Americans are now convinced we have a "socialist" medical system, so the demand for a single payer one is now little.

I will say at least American corpretism is closer to the original ideal than the mad dictatorships of the last century. Still I don't see it ending well.
 
British_Rover said:
-snip-
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Essentially, the vast majority of enrollments have been due to cancellations in the first place; many people are paying more for plans they did not want; the website is still plagued with issues; and the whole thing is projected to cost $1.3 trillion over the next 9 years or so. Correct me if I'm wrong on any of that, as I do want to learn more about the "other" side of the story. So far it doesn't sound "net positive" to me.


Anyways,
Feds, Nevada rancher facing off over public lands

BUNKERVILLE, Nev. -- Dozens of armed federal officers are preparing for a showdown with a Nevada cattle rancher regarded by some as an outlaw and a hero by others.

Rangers and agents from several federal agencies have surrounded a 600,000-acre section of public land and are preparing to move against rancher Cliven Bundy whose cattle have been grazing illegally for the past 20 years.

"This is the freedom we have in America right now. You got to have your freedom inside that fence there," Bundy said.

Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy thinks the federal government has overplayed its hand in preparing to round up his cattle.

Example, there are two fenced spots where the public will be allowed to protest the roundup. A sign inside the fence shows how some people feel about a First Amendment zone.

During the I-Team's tour with Bundy, a passer-by stopped to offer encouragement.

"I'm one of your neighbors. I get to look at that every day of my life. Hang in there my friend," his neighbor said.

"This has become a police state, and this is an example of it right here," Bundy said.

Miles away, just off the interstate, another fenced area is the where media are allowed. Armed agents in trucks form a wall to prevent anyone from approaching what resembles a military staging area, the heart of the Bundy roundup operation.

More rangers sit at every road leading into the 600,0000-acres Gold Butte area to prevent the general public from coming in.

"With all these rangers and all this force that is out here, they are only after one man right now. They are after Cliven Bundy. Whether they want to incarcerate me or whether they want to shoot me in the back, they are after me. But that is not all that is at stake here. Your liberty and freedom is at stake," Bundy said.

Bundy has had a long time to sharpen his message. The fight has been building since 1993, when the Bureau of Land Management changed grazing rules for Gold Butte to protect the endangered desert tortoise.

Bundy refused to go along and stopped paying his fees. Since then, the BLM and federal courts have ordered him to stop letting his cattle roam throughout Gold Butte, and he has ignored the orders because he does not recognize federal authority over the land.

"My forefathers have been up and down the Virgin Valley ever since 1877. All these rights I claim have been created through pre-emptive rights and beneficial use of the forage and water. I have been here longer. My rights are before the BLM even existed," Bundy said.

The Bundy family was already ranching here long before the Department of Interior was born, and long before tortoises were protected. But federal courts say he doesn't have a legal leg to stand on. BLM has long sidestepped the fight in part because of concerns about what might happen, if it tried to round up his 500 or so cattle that even now are grazing on forbidden public lands.

Bundy says he has always been willing to pay fees but not if it helps to cut his own throat.

"I got no problem with that. I've tried to pay it to Nevada state, to Clark County. They have some of my money in their coffers right now but I'm not going to pay money for the wrong landlord, and I am not going to pay my money to BLM to manage me out of business," Bundy said, "The federal government has seized Nevada's sovereignty, Nevada's statehood. They have seized Nevada's laws and our public land. We have no access to our public land and that is only a little bit of it."

Critics say Bundy is being arrogant and that his cattle have caused irreparable harm to Gold Butte's fragile environment.

Environmentalists forced BLM's hand by threatening to sue in federal court. The bureau will pay nearly a $1 million to a private contractor to round up Bundy's cows, but with dozens of government agents positioned all around the area for what might take weeks or even months, the true cost could be much higher.

Bundy's cowhands have time to kill because they are prohibited from heading out to work their cattle. And soon enough, there could be no cattle left. The BLM plans to sell off Bundy's herd. Bundy stops short of saying how far he is willing to take it.

"I've fought this thing legally. I've fought it politically. I've fought it through the media. and I will fight it on the ground if I have to," Bundy said.

The I-Team has been asking to speak with Cliven Bundy for more than two years. He told the I-Team that while he agreed to speak to other media, he intended to save us until the end, and that could come soon.

The BLM won't say exactly when the roundup will begin but it could happen as soon as this weekend.
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Emphasis added for WTF!

Source.
 
I agree with the insanity of fenced protest zones. There should be a lawsuit.

As for protected lands, I do agree with the idea and many of the implementations. Many regions of the U.S. were logged dead by the logging industry.
 
Spotted this the other day on /r/Cigars.

 
I'll assume irony else I'll cry.
 
I do think there are advantages that make it worthwhile to live in the U.S. We are one of the rare countries which legally allows its flag to be burned and otherwise defecated (free speech). Republicans can say they want the poor to be thrown in volcanos and what have you.

So yes I do agree America has freedoms to be praised. Organizations like the A.C.L.U. do much work to protect them. Obviously we have problems, horrendous ones


But overall I think it is a boon to live here.
 
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Someone shared this on FB, it's a long read and I haven't finished it yet, but so far some interesting points have been made:

How politics makes us stupid

There?s a simple theory underlying much of American politics. It sits hopefully at the base of almost every speech, every op-ed, every article, and every panel discussion. It courses through the Constitution and is a constant in President Obama?s most stirring addresses. It?s what we might call the More Information Hypothesis: the belief that many of our most bitter political battles are mere misunderstandings. The cause of these misunderstandings? Too little information ? be it about climate change, or taxes, or Iraq, or the budget deficit. If only the citizenry were more informed, the thinking goes, then there wouldn?t be all this fighting.

It?s a seductive model. It suggests our fellow countrymen aren?t wrong so much as they?re misguided, or ignorant, or ? most appealingly ? misled by scoundrels from the other party. It holds that our debates are tractable and that the answers to our toughest problems aren?t very controversial at all. The theory is particularly prevalent in Washington, where partisans devote enormous amounts of energy to persuading each other that there?s really a right answer to the difficult questions in American politics ? and that they have it.

But the More Information Hypothesis isn?t just wrong. It?s backwards. Cutting-edge research shows that the more information partisans get, the deeper their disagreements become.
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tl;dr of the parts I've read so far:

People's core beliefs change slowly, if at all. Giving them access to more information makes no difference, it just gives them a bigger bag of cherries to pick from.

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LeVeL said:
Went there and found this:

(picture)

:thumbsup: :clap: :thumbup: :dance: :bow:
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Good grief... that takes flag-waving to a new level. :blink:
 
argatoga said:
I do think there are advantages that make it worthwhile to live in the U.S. We are one of the rare countries which legally allows its flag to be burned and otherwise defecated (free speech). Republicans can say they want the poor to be thrown in volcanos and what have you.

So yes I do agree America has freedoms to be praised. Organizations like the A.C.L.U. do much work to protect them. Obviously we have problems, horrendous ones


But overall I think it is a boon to live here.
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Sorry if this is a bit provocative now but I'd really like to know how many Americans, who are proud and happy to live in the USA, actually know how it is to live in another place... :p

I always felt the reason for a lot of American national pride is also a lack of perspective...
 
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MacGuffin said:
Sorry if this is a bit provocative now but I'd really like to know how many Americans, who are proud and happy to live in the USA, actually know how it is to live in another place... :p

I always felt the reason for a lot of American national pride is also a lack of perspective...
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I'd really like to know how many Europeans that love to criticise the United States actually know how it is to live here :p

<- born and raised in Russia. Definitely know the value of freedom of opportunity. The USA is not perfect, no country is, and it has its shortcomings, but I firmly believe that it is the best country in the world for me overall. Then again, I adhere rather closely to the old-school protestant ideal of hard work, as well as the founders' belief in personal responsibility/accountability and minimal government interference. The American dream is far from dead, imho.
 
LeVeL said:
I'd really like to know how many Europeans that love to criticise the United States actually know how it is to live here :p
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I must confess, I enjoyed living in the US (ok, New England, which is "USA light" in comparision to, say, Memphis, TN) much more than I thought I would before I actually tried it out.
 
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LeVeL said:
I'd really like to know how many Europeans that love to criticise the United States actually know how it is to live here :p

<- born and raised in Russia. Definitely know the value of freedom of opportunity. The USA is not perfect, no country is, and it has its shortcomings, but I firmly believe that it is the best country in the world for me overall. Then again, I adhere rather closely to the old-school protestant ideal of hard work, as well as the founders' belief in personal responsibility/accountability and minimal government interference. The American dream is far from dead, imho.
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Heh, spoken as a (presumably) young, healthy, educated, mid-income, male... How hard can it be? In any western country.
 
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