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[wierd]

Changing gears a little--

More news about Donald and the Giant Impeach

Diplomat revises official statement to investigators, admits quid pro quo for Ukrainian aid.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/05/politics/gordon-sondland-kurt-volker-transcripts-impeachment-inquiry/index.html

Graham refuses to read testimony, asserts "It's bullshit" as reason; further questions if quid pro quo is even impeachable.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/469135-graham-says-he-wont-read-the-trump-impeachment-transcripts


So, looks like "Oh right--- THAT quid pro quo.. Yeah, I remember saying and doing that thing..."

right along with "Nobody got hurt by it, it's bullshit to enforce the rules on this-- besides, what's wrong with shamelessly demanding assistance in upsetting an election using a foreign government as a tool in exchange for military assistance anyway?"


Really, that latter implication just floors me.

[PTTG??]

The onion's coverage is alarmingly accurate.

[wierd]

At this point, they should just be asked-- deadpan-- what they consider *IS* an impeachable offense.

[SalmonGod]

At this point, they should just be asked-- deadpan-- what they consider *IS* an impeachable offense.

I would not be surprised if one of them straight up responded "being a democrat"

[Kagus]

At this point, they should just be asked-- deadpan-- what they consider *IS* an impeachable offense.

I would not be surprised if one of them straight up responded "being a democrat"

Something something Lewinsky.



I guess it's different when it's your daughter doing it instead of an intern? Keeping the privates within security clearance, and all that...

Slightly inverse from when the Aussie politicians tried arguing that the one minister inventing a cushy government job for his mistress was not an example of nepotism; because she technically wasn't family.

[Reelya]

we have the evidence of history to show that only national health care works

Yeah, this is related to one of the most tired arguments that gets put forth: the argument that if we change Policy X then "terrible consequence Y" will happen, despite lots of places already having implemented Policy X and Consequence Y not having happened in any of them. There are lots of examples, but a couple relevant to America are the idea that National Health will effectively mean Death Squads deciding who lives and dies, and the idea that reducing gun deaths will automatically lead to an equal increase in knife deaths. We have 200 different nations on Earth each with different laws, so each nation is effectively a natural experiment in the general effect of different law options. For example, some people might claim that decriminalizng pot will lead to crazed gangs of youths murdering people with chainsaws. Which is all well and good to speculate on, except for the fact that a lot of places have already decriminalized pot without any such effects occurring.

Most fear-mongering about change is in a similar boat to this. Easily debunked by just pointing at places where they didn't happen. A topical example is fear-mongering about all the bad things that will happen if they bring in UBI (everyone suddenly quitting their jobs). Well, there are nations with universal welfare benefits, equal to around the USA minimum wage for a 40-hour week. And those places aren't in fact plagued by pandemic laziness. Only a small percentage of people are happy to live on just that.

[Zangi]

Murrica is the best place in the world.  Anyone saying some other place is better then us at anything is wrong, lying, and most importantly fake news.  It ain't never gonna get better then this, unless someone with lots of money and says they are an 'R' tells you otherwise.  (Then you can watch Fox news fall over themselves to walk back on their previous statements.)

[Teneb]

Murrica is the best place in the world.  Anyone saying some other place is better then us at anything is wrong, lying, and most importantly fake news.  It ain't never gonna get better then this, unless someone with lots of money and says they are an 'R' tells you otherwise.  (Then you can watch Fox news fall over themselves to walk back on their previous statements.)

The worst part about this statement? It's deeply ingrained in the Stater mindset. To the point that there is a mountain of research on the subject. It's kinda disturbing, really.

[wierd]

Ever since the second world war, when the US learned about the joys of propaganda use on its own citizens, (and the pleasures of controlling the press AND the movie industry for this purpose), the people here have been subjected to this kind of forced reprogramming, and the results are just awful.

I like to chip in with "Yes, the US is definitely #1 at prison population convicted of petty crimes! We are also #1 at exporting parasitic foreign policy to other countries so wealthy people can get even richer! We really gotta do something about those Chinese though, they are working hard to take these titles away from us!" when I am confronted with that drek.  Maybe I am just too much of an asshole.. hmm..

[Teneb]

Ever since the second world war, when the US learned about the joys of propaganda use on its own citizens, (and the pleasures of controlling the press AND the movie industry for this purpose), the people here have been subjected to this kind of forced reprogramming, and the results are just awful.

I like to chip in with "Yes, the US is definitely #1 at prison population convicted of petty crimes! We are also #1 at exporting parasitic foreign policy to other countries so wealthy people can get even richer! We really gotta do something about those Chinese though, they are working hard to take these titles away from us!" when I am confronted with that drek.  Maybe I am just too much of an asshole.. hmm..

Oh no wierd, it goes way back, way before that. It dates more or less to the start of the independence process of the US.

Y'see, during the colonial period the colonists saw themselves as "fellow british brothers" to the rest of the British Empire. When they found out, however, that the english saw them as inferiors... things got messy and Stater Exceptionalism was born.

[Iduno]

I also cringe that politicians think the root cause of high health care is lack of single payer and everyone ignores the regulatory capture that makes it impossible for health care to be a natural market where people should be falling over themselves to create private practices to get some of that sweet healthcare money.

They're paid millions of dollars to ignore regulatory capture, and design more systems to promote it.

Well, one of the problems, per provider count, is that the medical schools have a very limited throughput of doctors, which is very intentional, and keeps salaries high. Unsure if nursing has a similar thing, though I doubt it. Secondly, Rural hospitals have been going under for a damn long time now - moving everyone to a single banner, and formalizing access to health care as a right will likely revitalize rural practices, due to lower administration efforts (Medicare billing is rough, but only one insurance company that way) and said right to access - fed government can likely provide more formal support for rural docs.

Many politicians and lobbyists have the goal of "poor people shouldn't get medical coverage". That's why they fight free clinics, planned parenthood, regulations, reasonable insurance, etc.

At this point, they should just be asked-- deadpan-- what they consider *IS* an impeachable offense.

If you do that, you'll get some 1984-esque description of things exactly as they are with a dead-eyed stare. The real answer is "fuck off, plebe." The rich people in charge of making other rich people have consequences for their actions aren't going to do anything, because that sets a bad precedent for their own actions having consequences.

More news about Donald and the Giant Impeach

Well done. Everyone can go home, our jobs are done here.

[Teneb]

Since it's kind of a slow period... apparently there's an unusual rate of CEOs cashing out for a period that's not a recession.

The article states that this might mean that they know a recession is coming and are cutting their losses.

[Reelya]

I also cringe that politicians think the root cause of high health care is lack of single payer and everyone ignores the regulatory capture that makes it impossible for health care to be a natural market where people should be falling over themselves to create private practices to get some of that sweet healthcare money.

They're paid millions of dollars to ignore regulatory capture, and design more systems to promote it.

However the idea of natural markets for health care is ... dangerous. turning it into a "natural" "free market" style approach means we're leaving it up to normal folks to decide whether the treatments they're buying are real or snake oil.

Humans have already shown that they're not very good at deciding whether the products they're being offered are deadly or not. They just don't have enough information to make that decision. There used to be a natural market for treatments. The horrors that ensued are why regulation was brought in. Medical licensing and standards were brought in for the same reason.

Yeah, maybe more small practices is a good idea, but de-regulating the field of medicine isn't the way to go to achieve that. The point of a single-payer is that it levels the playing field without lowering standards and opening the floodgates for "alternative" treatments from any quack who can afford a stethescope.

[Iduno]

They're paid millions of dollars to ignore regulatory capture, and design more systems to promote it.

However the idea of natural markets for health care is ... dangerous. turning it into a "natural" "free market" style approach means we're leaving it up to normal folks to decide whether the treatments they're buying are real or snake oil.

Humans have already shown that they're not very good at deciding whether the products they're being offered are deadly or not. They just don't have enough information to make that decision. There used to be a natural market for treatments. The horrors that ensued are why regulation was brought in. Medical licensing and standards were brought in for the same reason.

Yeah, maybe more small practices is a good idea, but de-regulating the field of medicine isn't the way to go to achieve that. The point of a single-payer is that it levels the playing field without lowering standards and opening the floodgates for "alternative" treatments from any quack who can afford a stethescope.

There are other, non-insane, ideas for avoiding regulatory capture as well.

[PTTG??]

Boomberg files to run as a Democrat in Alabama.

Why do I have the terrible feeling that the DNC is going to back him?