The 538 political podcast have been putting out a special gerrymandering episodes for listeners. Gerrymandering is in my opinion one of the bigger political issues of that may need to be “solved” in order to minimize the partisan political bickering that seems to dominate the news.
I highly suggest listening to these podcasts because it dives into the intricacies of trying to establish “fair” political districts for communities to send their representatives to Congress. And it’s more complicated than I had previously imagined.
By now, those who follow the news (here, here, here) should be aware that there is a new best selling book about Trump called Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff. It’s apparently an inside look into Trump’s first year of Presidency taken from the author who managed to finagle his way into the White House. The Trump and the White House are trying to prevent the book from printing and at the same time, Trump is defending the stories that are being told in the book.
It seems like the more the White House is trying to suppress this book, the more popularity this book will gain and the more believable these stories about Trump will be. Whether or not all the stories should be believed is one issue. Trying to suppress a book is also another issue.
But what I find most amusing about this tale is eloquently summed up by Trevor Noah at 4 min:
“Bizarre, unverified, fraudulent claims. This is the world Donald Trump promotes. Millions of illegal votes. Barack Obama born in Kenya. Ted Cruz’s dad killed JFK. Suggesting Joe Scarborough killed an intern. Someone who tweeted: “check out sex tape” can’t complain about tabloid gossip. The truth is Mr. President, you made your bed.”
So I read on the BBC today there’s a new app that “applauds” China’s Xi Jinping. It’s purely a communist political tool for China. But the concept of this app is ingenious. It brings the whole country to participate in such rousing patriotic spirit by applauding the President Xi.
Come to think of it… This would be a great app for Trump. I need to learn how to program apps.
Is there absolutely any point in confronting Trump on his many remarks… the latest being his “too late for that” Monday statement and then back-pedaling from it today. Nothing Trump says (or doesn’t say) surprises me anymore. His initial statement on Saturday wasn’t enough… but I saw it more of Trump riding the fence trying to find that perfect balance where he doesn’t alienate his core supporters and the everyone else who has some common sense and human decency.
Trump should just go all in and be the racist/sexist/isolationist/egotistical President that he campaigned on. Screw the fake media.
With the recent failure of the Republican Senate to repeal the ACA, I hope Obama’s legacy will remain intact until a newer better plan comes along. Specifically, I think our current healthcare woes won’t go away until a government sponsored healthcare is enacted. What would it look like? I have no idea.
Even Bernie has no idea…. but he sent a message via the PAC asking about healthcare.
And one of the questions, I gave my idea of what I think might work.
With the Senate’s healthcare bill’s demise these past few days, I got wondering about the differences between the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and the “Republicare.” I found this nice comparison from the BBC.
The one thing that struck me is the tax breaks on the wealthy the “Republicare” is going to implement in the first version got taken out from the second version. More importantly, do people really believe that cutting the revenue gained from taxing the wealthy is *REALLY* going to allow a maintenance of healthcare support? And more broadly, is taxing the rich really going to be a viable model for years to come?
I think ultimately, both Democrats and Republicans have to get behind a single universal government healthcare provider. The government will also need to establish what they consider as “mandatory” healthcare services and benefits, and determine a reasonable cost of service price point(s) for the mandatory services and benefits. These services and benefits need to be adjusted as the citizen grows old as well. For all other non-mandatory items, the healthcare market can take up the slack and charge premiums to cover those types of services. I think this is great win for both private and public sectors.
The Senate’s Healthcare Bill has come out. And almost immediately, the opposition from within the Republican ranks is forcing a delay in the vote. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? The CBO scores it even worse than the House version. egads…
I wonder who else will be in the room when the Republican’s gather enough votes to make it happen.
One thing that’s a bit interesting that I heard from the political podcasts are that most of the items don’t take into effect until after 2020. Sounds very political doesn’t it? How true is this? Not sure.
Let’s face it. The current US politics is a fucking mess. Whenever one political party is in power, the other party seeks to put down and belittle the party in power. The term “bipartisan support” might as well be considered the Holy Grail. The latest incident deals with the secretive process this new AHCA/TrumpCare that’s being formulated by the Senate Republicans.
Back when ACA/Obamacare was being formulated, Republicans were not in power and were subsequently denouncing the Democratic led efforts for healthcare. This Washington Post article does a good job summing up the hypocrisy in politics.
When will the average citizens become tired of this bullshit?
Why can’t the average citizen hold the politicians for BOTH parties accountable for their actions and words?
A Guy and His Thoughts... 