tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post6544444527527105863..comments2024-03-28T21:56:51.675-04:00Comments on Face to Face: Dems = Wall St. Party, GOP = Pentagon Partyagnostichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-62003888839986513442017-05-07T01:52:16.627-04:002017-05-07T01:52:16.627-04:00Its a pretty simple point: since generals and com...Its a pretty simple point: since generals and combat soldiers tend to be conservative, America's military policy tends to be conservative; conversely, since businessmen tend to be liberal, America's financial policies tend to be liberal.<br /><br /><br />Curtisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-543447350804658982017-05-06T01:55:44.015-04:002017-05-06T01:55:44.015-04:00Simple thought experiment: suppose that the jihadi...Simple thought experiment: suppose that the jihadist Gulf states begin to target Israel the way they target Shia or Christian people in the Mid-East. They really turn up the heat on the Jewish state, for jihadist reasons plus perhaps a little anti-colonialist spirit.<br /><br />Suppose that by that point, Russia has become a regional player (after intervening in Syria), and is staunchly anti-jihadist.<br /><br />Israel would then align, at least for the moment, with Russia and against Saudi Arabia.<br /><br />That would contradict their longstanding alliance with the US, who always supports the Saudis and always goes against the Russians. Suddenly Israel comes into the cross-hairs of the Pentagon, and no amount of kvetching about "the only democracy in the Middle East" or "save your Christian Holy Land, you dumb goyim!" is going to change that geopolitical re-calculation.<br /><br />I'm sure a lot of Jews tell themselves the same myths about "Jewish control over US military policy," and will be caught with their pants down when the US Air Force is launching airstrikes on Tel Aviv for choosing Russia over Saudi Arabia.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-16628439471431300512017-05-06T01:44:33.077-04:002017-05-06T01:44:33.077-04:00Pentagon has always been controlled by Celts, not ...Pentagon has always been controlled by Celts, not Jews. Cold War targeted Soviet Union long before neoconservatism was a thing, and long before Israel became a client state (both phenomena 1970s).<br /><br />To the extent that Jews' ethnic animus toward Slavs coincided with the Pentagon's geopolitical goals against the Soviet Union, the Jews were hangers-on or parasites of the Pentagon -- not the tail wagging the dog.<br /><br />Eisenhower sided with Nasser in 1956 against Israel and the old imperial powers UK and France, Suez Crisis. How's that for a shabbas goy military?<br /><br />If Israel or the Jews ever get in the way of the Pentagon's objectives, you will see the same thing again.<br /><br />Jews control Wall Street and the Fed, along with the media, not the Pentagon or resource extraction industries.<br /><br />Referring to the Pentagon as Uncle Schlomo *ironically* is fine, to point out how politics makes strange bedfellows. But to earnestly argue that the Jewish tail is wagging the Celtic dog, could not be more clueless.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-58182012123405285002017-05-06T00:23:25.539-04:002017-05-06T00:23:25.539-04:00So one thing I've been wondering as now we see...So one thing I've been wondering as now we see increasing war efforts being ramped up against Russia and its allies is how much of it is a Jewish thing? Jews, as a culture, seem to hold very strongly onto the idea of "never forget, never forgive" and given a.) Russian pogroms and b.) the large Jewish presence in neoconservatism I wonder if the idea of getting payback against Russia for the crimes of the Tsar.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-28709212440974734202017-05-05T21:25:31.100-04:002017-05-05T21:25:31.100-04:00Hi there.
Off-topic, sorry for that.
I read you...Hi there. <br /><br />Off-topic, sorry for that.<br /><br />I read your article about Sandra Bullock. I wanted to ask about your opinion on whether the singer of Guano Apes is a transsexual. The voice in "Open your eyes" doesn't sound female to me at all, I always thought it was a male voice. What do you think?testhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10547032177296183547noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-4657641399825728172017-05-05T17:09:45.682-04:002017-05-05T17:09:45.682-04:00If the Pentagon went on strike, it would be guaran...If the Pentagon went on strike, it would be guaranteed that all sorts of enemies would hit us in order to settle old scores. Imagine how weak and defenseless that would make the US look -- to normal people, not ones who make a point of quibbling.<br /><br />Obamacare is popular enough that it must be replaced with something better for those it was intended to help. Otherwise voters are going to blame those heartless Republicans for insisting on screwing over the sick yet again.<br /><br />Remember that in a lot of ways people do not vote their own narrow self-interest. To the point, it's young people who are most in favor of single-payer healthcare, even though they're already healthy and won't benefit much from any change to the system one way or another.<br /><br />And if the healthcare system explodes before the '18 elections, and before a truly better replacement is in effect -- guess what, the Republicans are going to get blamed for the explosion since they were the ones to touch it last. "Obamacare may not have been flawless, but it went along for years and years until the Republicans quote-unquote reformed it, and then it exploded. We just can't trust them to do the right thing for something as sacred and crucial to our very survival as healthcare."<br /><br />But the idiotic GOP is still too stupid to see that. Trump will get blamed big-league, too, even if it's Ryancare rather than Trumpcare. His approval ratings took a nose-dive when the House fucked up their first attempt at repeal-and-replace, and that was among Republican voters.<br /><br />At this rate, it may be worth having a bare Democrat majority in both houses. At least we'd get further moves toward single-payer, rather than getting bogged down in things that are low priorities for Trump like cosmetic reforms to Obamacare (which will get him blamed for its imminent explosion), and reforming the tax code.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-71037819380710490872017-05-05T15:30:46.974-04:002017-05-05T15:30:46.974-04:00A few quibbles.
"The second is the military, ...A few quibbles.<br />"The second is the military, based in the Pentagon, who can bring physical security to a halt at a national level."<br /><br />Not really. Whatever the most extreme range of outcomes between hawk and dove, nothing would affect security at the national level. If the US utterly caved in Syria: how would it affect me, or the residents of Boston, or the residents of any town in the United States? Same thing for North Korea (with a caveat regarding their nukes: if they get a delivery system capable of reaching the US, bets are off). What about Russia's stance in the Crimea? China's stance in the China Sea? <br />In other words, what the Pentagon is doing has almost nothing to do with the physical security of the nation. It has everything to do with the ability to project US power thousands of miles away from the nation.<br /><br />"looks like congress is going to flip next year. hard to see how that doesn't happen in response to this atrocity of a bill."<br /><br />Not really. If you google (it takes perhaps 10 seconds), you will see (on CNN!) that as of December last year, 6 million Americans were on Obamacare. 2%. Or, 98% weren't on Obamacare. Projections at the time suggested 10 million would be on Obamacare in 2017-or, 290 million wouldn't. <br /><br />Obamacare doesn't work it isn't popular, it is a minor player in the insurance game. Objectively, its almost irrelevant to care for Americans. There are a few with pre-existing conditions that benefit, but thats' about it. You could eliminate Obamacare tomorrow, and the vast majority of the 6 million on it could get healthcare elsewhere. The Democratic rhetoric about the situation is objectively absurd.<br /><br />On the other hand, politically, who knows. Democrats are lying about it, the news media is lying about it, and people are lazy and stupid. Maybe it will cost some Republicans some seats.<br /><br />anonAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-73357432567932139952017-05-05T11:53:55.407-04:002017-05-05T11:53:55.407-04:00https://mobile.twitter.com/waltien/status/86021312...https://mobile.twitter.com/waltien/status/860213120316444672Dahlianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-53201593544708336832017-05-04T22:46:16.019-04:002017-05-04T22:46:16.019-04:00Paul Ryan wept.Paul Ryan wept.Dahlianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-71122331380693648812017-05-04T22:44:59.931-04:002017-05-04T22:44:59.931-04:00Yes, it makes sense.
Im so thankful you're up ...Yes, it makes sense.<br />Im so thankful you're up on the healthcare stuff, I know too little about it so that right now it looks like boring sausage making far from final state. Glad we have someone well versed keeping his eye on it.Dahlianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-38050108469222570172017-05-04T20:11:02.709-04:002017-05-04T20:11:02.709-04:00Trump to Australian Turnbull in photo op, remindin...Trump to Australian Turnbull in photo op, reminding everyone he's for single-payer:<br /><br />"You have better healthcare than we do!"agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-3118779757785709732017-05-04T18:35:31.954-04:002017-05-04T18:35:31.954-04:00As Agnostic pointed out, most people are naive abo...As Agnostic pointed out, most people are naive about what it takes to succeed in modern business. Their template is the monocled guy from Monopoly. Whereas, modern business has become complex to the point where only big-brained neotenous farmers can handle it. Curtisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-53843038131433939582017-05-04T16:29:20.722-04:002017-05-04T16:29:20.722-04:00Before Trump signs the healthcare bill, why not sa...Before Trump signs the healthcare bill, why not say, Y'know this is a great bill, but there's one weeeee little, itty bitty clause that should be in here. It's a great bill, phenomenal bill, buh-lieve me. But fellas, can you include one little clause saying our wonderful Secretary of HHS, Tom Price -- a great man, highly respected -- should negotiate the prices of prescription drugs that we buy in wholesale quantities but are not allowed to negotiate bulk discount prices?<br /><br />You guys are the business party, right? And the saving-the-taxpayers party, from like, frivolous and exorbitant government spending, right? OK, well we have a wonderful chance to save the American taxpayers an absolute fortune by getting a bulk discount on those prescription drugs from Medicare Part D.<br /><br />And to the Democrats, remember folks, you already signed onto that clause in 2007 -- but maybe you thought you were just shooting with blanks, with George W. Bush in the White House? (There's another beauty...) But now, President Trump is telling you, I'm not gonna veto it!<br /><br />So, fellas, put that one little bitty clause into this already phenomenal bill, and both parties will be able to come together and save the American taxpayers a fortune, while still getting the same amount of drugs as now. Do what's right for the country, and for the people.<br /><br />...That would be such an awesome last-minute shiv into that pack of jackals. Let's see them vote against that. Now who's walking the plank?agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-14871499906987386712017-05-04T15:34:45.205-04:002017-05-04T15:34:45.205-04:00Trump could re-brand single-payer as "bulk di...Trump could re-brand single-payer as "bulk discount" healthcare. That gets right at the cost efficiency argument.<br /><br />Everyone understands that when you are the main customer by far, you get to dictate terms to the supplier and the prices come way down from what an isolated individual would be charged.<br /><br />From Medicare Part D, the govt is buying in bulk -- but with no discount! Who da hell buys in bulk but doesn't get the bulk discount? Fellas, who da hell are you sending to negotiate these deals?!<br /><br />But then if you don't buy in bulk, you can't even hope to get the discount.<br /><br />So folks, we have to do both -- buy in bulk, and apply that leverage to get the discount.<br /><br />Call it universal, call it single-payer -- I call it "bulk discount healthcare," does that make sense to anybody else?agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-58183793089073523542017-05-04T15:25:10.472-04:002017-05-04T15:25:10.472-04:00I haven't kept up on the series of amendments,...I haven't kept up on the series of amendments, figuring they'll play the same games in the Senate, then play more games batting it back to the House, back to the Senate, etc.<br /><br />The main change that everyone should be able to agree on, for reducing the cost of healthcare at no change to health outcomes, is negotiating the prices of prescription drugs that the government purchases through Medicare Part D.<br /><br />It allows Trump to call out the Republicans who are bought off by Big Pharma, as well as the posturing Democrats who actually voted to do just this in 2007 -- when they did not have a supermajority in Senate and knew Bush would veto anyway. Then they kept it out of Obamacare when they did have the Pres and supermajority.<br /><br />If a healthcare bill doesn't include something that simple, it's a symptom that the fundamentals of the bill are not good. Easy one-item thing to inspect. Neither Republicans (Medicare Part D from 2003, or AHCA now), nor Democrats (Obamacare) will include the negotiating of drug prices, despite the govt being the largest single purchaser by orders of magnitude.<br /><br />Wholesale quantities at retail prices? That's why healthcare is so expensive without delivering any benefits to health -- it's just corporate rape of consumers mediated by the government.<br /><br />Buying wholesale quantities *and* negotiating down the prices, that's the first step toward single-payer. Massive cost savings.<br /><br />But to hear paranoid Republicans, the "first step toward single payer" refused to include that first step toward single payer.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-50634316416476112942017-05-04T15:01:58.687-04:002017-05-04T15:01:58.687-04:00hopefully the senate votes this thing down as expe...hopefully the senate votes this thing down as expected. or if it does pass, significantly guts it. still horrible.lexie88https://www.blogger.com/profile/02193817657084020002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-81083911304989605442017-05-04T14:54:09.142-04:002017-05-04T14:54:09.142-04:00the republican congress couldn't get behind fu...the republican congress couldn't get behind funding the wall. or block more "refugees" coming in from syria. any of that. but they could all get behind this. joke party.lexie88https://www.blogger.com/profile/02193817657084020002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-85827043643224965662017-05-04T14:50:14.555-04:002017-05-04T14:50:14.555-04:00looks like congress is going to flip next year. ha...looks like congress is going to flip next year. hard to see how that doesn't happen in response to this atrocity of a bill. forget the poor, young people on exchanges, etc. this even manages to screw over a lot of the middle class old people that constitutes their base, with the threat of premium increases and lifetime limits coming back. thanks republicans.lexie88https://www.blogger.com/profile/02193817657084020002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-20466100595635715192017-05-03T22:33:40.789-04:002017-05-03T22:33:40.789-04:00If they tried to organize the people who actually ...If they tried to organize the people who actually voted for Bernie, they would suffer moral contamination from moderates and conservatives. They might even hear a non-ironic use of the word "sandnigger"!<br /><br />This gives me an excuse to bring up a phenomenal party device. So, so wrong, but so, so right... My sister and I enjoyed one of the greatest, most purely joyous laughs a few months back and here was the recipe:<br />absolute smashed + being a virgin to "Moon Man"<br />My husband put this on for us which we had never heard before and something about the absolute most racist filth being uttered in a monotone robotic voice while drunk was the funniest thing ever experienced! My sister and I were crying, Ag, tears rolling down our faces, over something we'd be denouncing if we listened to it while sober. She kept uttering, "I can't believe somebody hasn't found and killed this guy!"<br /><br />Okay, now seriously.. Yeah, I get that feeling from the Berniacs as well. At the very same time, I see this worry about taint as truly the achilles heel of liberals at this moment. They're the Silent Gen Dad trying to keep his Gen X son from listening to the Devil's music.Dahlianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-55568772248109208102017-05-03T18:55:21.135-04:002017-05-03T18:55:21.135-04:00After he said SK should pay for THAAD, Pentagon re...After he said SK should pay for THAAD, Pentagon rep McMaster immediately said "No, US is paying for it". That's what I mean, not even informal talks because Pentagon wants to remain an imperial administrator.<br /><br />Trump's doing well on economic nationalism since he and his party don't owe Wall Street anything, and it doesn't have to go through the worthless Congress. That's where that Paul Ryan BS is coming from.<br /><br />That does raise the question about how much leverage he has over "his own" party in Congress, though.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-2739356376612839792017-05-03T18:21:27.841-04:002017-05-03T18:21:27.841-04:00as to economic populism. in general his economic p...as to economic populism. in general his economic policies so far have been pretty typically republican. supporting the latest version of paul ryan’s awful healthcare bill. pressing for more tax cuts and deregulation in various areas (some of which sounds good to me, and in other ways sounds pretty bad... but not at all surprising). from the looks of it, accepting more low-skilled immigrant guest workers via the h2b visa program. it’s good that he rejected the tpp and retaliated against canada. and if he follows through on glass steagall and h1b visa reform i will definitely give him credit for that… but overall this is turning out about as i expected it to. if there is change coming in the republican party, a shift in policies that allows them to appeal more to the lower income voters i think they need… then it's going to be very, very gradual. evolutionary as opposed to revolutionary.lexie88https://www.blogger.com/profile/02193817657084020002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-50761372257289405112017-05-03T18:18:52.613-04:002017-05-03T18:18:52.613-04:00well, to be fair he has suggested south korea pay ...well, to be fair he has suggested south korea pay for thaad and other aspects of defense recently. and there's ongoing talks and negotiations with russia now that wouldn't be taking place with clinton. definitely true that he changed for the worse on crime... and is doing the bidding of saudis, at least for now, in some areas like yemen as acknowledged. but i think the situation is a bit more complicated than complete reversal on everything.lexie88https://www.blogger.com/profile/02193817657084020002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-8614851889773728072017-05-03T18:07:27.154-04:002017-05-03T18:07:27.154-04:00The biggest foreign policy stance of his was "...The biggest foreign policy stance of his was "Why don't we get along with Russia, for example against radical Islamic terrorism?" We have the perfect chance to do that by joining their side in the Syrian War, but we continue to back jihadists against Assad, insist on regime change against Assad, and launch airstrikes against him with Russians on the ground, all while insinuating that maybe Russia played a role in the supposed chemical attack.<br /><br />NATO he said should be "re-jiggered" to focus on radical Islamic terrorism, rather than the phony out-of-date boogeyman of the Soviet Union. So far the mission of NATO continues to be pushing right up against Russia's borders with troops and heavy weaponry.<br /><br />North Korea was never a concern of his, not that he said we should get along with them either. Did a post on that. His main concern in Korea was making SK and Japan pay for our military presence, which is not even under discussion now. He added that we stabilize their defense in order for them to suck manufacturing industries out of our country, which is suicide. That policy continues.<br /><br />He struck out at Saudi Arabia quite a bit on the campaign trail and for years earlier -- they blew us up on 9/11, spread jihadism, charge us rent for our military bases w/o which they would be nothing, and so on and so forth. So far, zero change in direction with them.<br /><br />He's also stopped shouting the term "radical Islamic terrorism" because it would offend "our Muslim allies in the region" AKA the Saudi / Gulf enablers of al-Qaeda, ISIS, etc.<br /><br />Taken together, that is 180 degrees away from where he was pointed during the campaign. You can argue how much distance we're traveling in the wrong direction, and that Trump is trying to keep that distance as short as possible. But in terms of direction or orientation, it's no longer up in the air if it's contrary to what he's always wanted and preached.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-84791814227261784772017-05-03T17:26:49.229-04:002017-05-03T17:26:49.229-04:00on the foreign policy front i think the flip flopp...on the foreign policy front i think the flip flopping is exaggerated to be honest with you. and believe me i'm more than willing to criticize trump for flip flopping on various issues, i've been a reluctant supporter of his. but the fact is trump was always *conditionally* supportive of nato. his position on korea is actually, exactly the same as it's always been. he seems to have settled on accepting the iran deal framework for now… though even there his position (and the american government) is less overtly threatening than it was a decade ago. more diplomatic pressure and threats of renewed sanctions than out right war. i mean, i don't want to downplay the various proxy wars against iranian backed militias in yemen, afghanistan and elsewhere. but it’s a better situation than the bush years. i credit obama with some of that.lexie88https://www.blogger.com/profile/02193817657084020002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-67573292461336007072017-05-03T12:51:36.292-04:002017-05-03T12:51:36.292-04:00"Which kind of candidate will the average Dem..."Which kind of candidate will the average Dem want to open up their wallet for: a striving, affluent district ripe for flipping or a conservative populist district that has actually elected Democrats?"<br /><br />That includes the Bernie people too, for the most part. I mean the high-level organizers, alt media people, etc. They still think that Bernie won mega-metros and non-whites, rather than white people living outside of big metro areas.<br /><br />Whenever the TYT types leave their bubble, they always pick the closest thing to it in flyover country -- Cleveland, Flint, Gary IN (Chicago), etc. Lots of minorities, big city with grinding poverty and affluent suburbs. Or if it's a small town, it has to be transplants from rich cities -- a college town.<br /><br />If they tried to organize the people who actually voted for Bernie, they would suffer moral contamination from moderates and conservatives. They might even hear a non-ironic use of the word "sandnigger"!<br /><br />It's not just the Crooked Hillary people, like the ones trying to flip that rich suburb of Atlanta. The primary challenger to Debbie Wasserman-Schultz was a Bernie person, and it too was a rich white suburb in the Sun Belt.<br /><br />Why aren't the Bernie people trying to organize non-urban Wisconsin and non-urban Michigan? Or trying to reclaim the rural old Frontier, a la William Jennings Bryan?<br /><br />They look down their nose at those people, and wouldn't go near them for fear of racism by osmosis.<br /><br />When the Dems were the Populist party, they were aligned with the Temperance movement -- now they're the #1 promoters of drug addiction and sexual degeneracy.<br /><br />The culture wars have truly neutered the Democrat opposition. At least we won't have to worry about them, only the Republican traitors.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.com