U.S. Politics

[bickster]

Just now, villakram said:

It's tough to have any sympathy with a Bazillionaire who was sending around dic pics... oh what a world 

You appear to have spectacularly missed the point

[NurembergVillan]

Meanwhile, here's Ocasio-Cortez blowing the lid off things...

 

[Straggler]

24 minutes ago, NurembergVillan said:

Meanwhile, here's Ocasio-Cortez blowing the lid off things...

 

So simply put, but utterly devastating in the implication.

[MickeyC_UTV]

1 hour ago, NurembergVillan said:

Meanwhile, here's Ocasio-Cortez blowing the lid off things...

 

only 6 post ago too.... okay it was a James Corden Tweet that @maqroll posted but I hadn't noticed that before clicking on the video, maybe if I had I would have ignored it too...

 

Is VT slowly turning into reddit??

 

[villakram]

2 hours ago, bickster said:

You appear to have spectacularly missed the point

errr... just trying to add to your point, not fighting, jeez!

[bickster]

39 minutes ago, villakram said:

errr... just trying to add to your point, not fighting, jeez!

But my point wasn't about Bezos, he may have been the catalyst but that's it. So your post added nothing to my point because it wasn't about any point I was making.

[NurembergVillan]

3 hours ago, MickeyC_UTV said:

only 6 post ago too.... okay it was a James Corden Tweet that @maqroll posted but I hadn't noticed that before clicking on the video, maybe if I had I would have ignored it too...

 

Is VT slowly turning into reddit??

 

I went to the trouble to find the original source, rather than allow Corden to take the plaudits.

[maqroll]

Edited February 9, 2019 by maqroll

[ml1dch]

On 08/02/2019 at 10:44, sne said:

Be interesting to see where this National Enquirer/AMI vs Jeff Bezos/Washington Post blackmail story is going to pan out.

https://www.tmz.com/2019/02/07/jeff-bezos-national-enquirer-extortion-threatening-publish-nudes/

 

 

[Keyblade]

Pretty shameful smear of congresswoman Ilhan Omar happening right now.

[El Zen]

46 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

Pretty shameful smear of congresswoman Ilhan Omar happening right now.

A hijab wearing, black muslim woman being critical of Israel. 

I’m sure any condemnation and uproar is based on nothing but unbiased consideration and factual analysis.

[HanoiVillan]

Remember these fun shenanigans?

On 05/12/2018 at 22:57, HanoiVillan said:

What are the Republicans in Michigan and Wisconsin up to?

[. . .]

Meanwhile, in Michigan, there was a ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage, which passed, because minimum wage rises are very popular. However, the Michigan Republican party forestalled the ballot initiative by voting to raise the minimum wage before the election, but - and this is a real degree of cunning - delaying implementation until the middle of next year, and then using this 'lame duck' session to modify the bill that they passed so that workers won't get the wage rise they thought they were voting for until 2030. 

This is why I will never understand conservatives. Look and marvel at the sheer effort - the norms they are prepared to break! - just to stop companies from having to pay the lowest paid workers a couple more dollars and to prevent the poorest and most desperate people in society from accessing needed social safety net programs. 

Well, you'll never guess what Republicans in Utah are up to!

Utah Republicans have officially blocked their state’s voter-approved Medicaid expansion

'Utah voters decided to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act in November. But the Republican legislature is scaling back the voter-approved plan.

The Republican legislature has passed legislation that would, in effect, replace the voter-approved Medicaid expansion with a more limited version that would actually cover fewer people while spending more money in the first few years. The bill passed both chambers with a two-thirds majority. It now heads to Republican Gov. Gary Herbert, who is expected to sign it.

GOP lawmakers are making a big bet: that they will be the first state to receive approval from the Trump administration for a partial Medicaid expansion. Originally, the Senate-passed legislation stipulated the entire expansion would have been repealed if the feds rejected Utah’s plan, reversing the will of the voters completely. But the state House, facing intense pressure, changed the bill at the last minute so if the Trump administration does reject partial expansion, the full Medicaid expansion as originally approved by voters would take effect instead.

Expansion supporters have still condemned Republicans for needlessly interceding to institute a scaled-back version of expansion, one will come at a higher initial cost to the state, after Utahns voted decisively just three months ago to expand Medicaid and extend health coverage to tens of thousands of vulnerable people.

“The legislature is trampling on the clear will of voters,” Jonathan Schleifer, executive director of the Fairness Project, which helped push the ballot referendum, said in a statement.

The ballot measure approved by the voters by a 53-47 margin was unambiguous: The state would expand Medicaid to 138 percent of the federal poverty level — about $16,800 for an individual or $29,700 for a family of three — as prescribed in the health care law. It would cover 150,000 of Utah’s poorest people. The state’s share of Medicaid expansion spending (about 10 percent, with the feds picking up the other 90) was to be paid for by an increase in the sales tax.

The legislation approved by Republicans would repeal the ballot referendum and replace it with new provisions to extend Medicaid eligibility up to only 100 percent of the poverty level and the state would have to initially pick up 30 percent of the cost. About 60,000 fewer people would be covered, and Utah would spend $72 million over the next two years.'

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/2/11/18220721/utah-medicaid-expansion-prop-3-sb96

[bickster]

2 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

Remember these fun shenanigans?

Well, you'll never guess what Republicans in Utah are up to!

Utah Republicans have officially blocked their state’s voter-approved Medicaid expansion

'Utah voters decided to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act in November. But the Republican legislature is scaling back the voter-approved plan.

The Republican legislature has passed legislation that would, in effect, replace the voter-approved Medicaid expansion with a more limited version that would actually cover fewer people while spending more money in the first few years. The bill passed both chambers with a two-thirds majority. It now heads to Republican Gov. Gary Herbert, who is expected to sign it.

GOP lawmakers are making a big bet: that they will be the first state to receive approval from the Trump administration for a partial Medicaid expansion. Originally, the Senate-passed legislation stipulated the entire expansion would have been repealed if the feds rejected Utah’s plan, reversing the will of the voters completely. But the state House, facing intense pressure, changed the bill at the last minute so if the Trump administration does reject partial expansion, the full Medicaid expansion as originally approved by voters would take effect instead.

Expansion supporters have still condemned Republicans for needlessly interceding to institute a scaled-back version of expansion, one will come at a higher initial cost to the state, after Utahns voted decisively just three months ago to expand Medicaid and extend health coverage to tens of thousands of vulnerable people.

“The legislature is trampling on the clear will of voters,” Jonathan Schleifer, executive director of the Fairness Project, which helped push the ballot referendum, said in a statement.

The ballot measure approved by the voters by a 53-47 margin was unambiguous: The state would expand Medicaid to 138 percent of the federal poverty level — about $16,800 for an individual or $29,700 for a family of three — as prescribed in the health care law. It would cover 150,000 of Utah’s poorest people. The state’s share of Medicaid expansion spending (about 10 percent, with the feds picking up the other 90) was to be paid for by an increase in the sales tax.

The legislation approved by Republicans would repeal the ballot referendum and replace it with new provisions to extend Medicaid eligibility up to only 100 percent of the poverty level and the state would have to initially pick up 30 percent of the cost. About 60,000 fewer people would be covered, and Utah would spend $72 million over the next two years.'

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/2/11/18220721/utah-medicaid-expansion-prop-3-sb96

What a bunch of Mormons!

[OutByEaster?]

Every four years the people of America get together and democratically elect one of the two representatives put forward by their corporate community to prevent them putting their own interests before profit.

It's shameful how obvious it is that profit for companies is running US politics and society, and chilling the degree to which Americans can't see it from within a media bubble that they don't know exists - it makes you worry about your own media bubble and the creeping invasion of US corporate influence on society here - thank heaven we're protected as a member of a huge trade organisation with the ability to resist that influence...ah.

I'm increasingly convinced that the desires of the US corporate community are a huge factor in Brexit.

 

 

 

[bickster]

11 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

I'm increasingly convinced that the desires of the US corporate community are a huge factor in Brexit.

I'm not sure why you need convincing, it's been obvious from the start (US Business wants more money)

Of course, it also suits the agenda of a certain Russian President (Russian interests want the break up of a huge trading block & NATO allies fighting against each other)

[OutByEaster?]

7 hours ago, bickster said:

I'm not sure why you need convincing, it's been obvious from the start (US Business wants more money)

Of course, it also suits the agenda of a certain Russian President (Russian interests want the break up of a huge trading block & NATO allies fighting against each other)

I think Russia is the distraction here - I think it's the US that want's the break up of a huge trading block as part of its economic world war. It's US interest that was working with Farage and co. not Russian.

[HanoiVillan]

 

[bickster]

15 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

I think Russia is the distraction here - I think it's the US that want's the break up of a huge trading block as part of its economic world war. It's US interest that was working with Farage and co. not Russian.

It's both, it's in both their interests

[blandy]

30 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

I think Russia is the distraction here - I think it's the US that want's the break up of a huge trading block as part of its economic world war. It's US interest that was working with Farage and co. not Russian.

Russia was absolutely working with them. Have you not seen all the stuff about Aaron Banks, Scott?

[HanoiVillan]

When you feel like running a victory lap . . .