POLITICAL THREAD

[BernieSadori]

How is the Internet a right? Do bums and heroine heads need to communicate when they have achieved their goal of funding their next fix?

Do teenagers have a right to text, Instagram, and give hourly updates of their daily activities?

I really cannot think of a single instance where the Internet should be considered a right over a luxury. It's a form of entertainment, which we pay for, or a CODB.

 

[BernieSadori]

What should people have to pay for?

Food
Water
Electricity
Inter-webs
Cell phones
Cars
TV/cable

Which of the above are rights vs. Luxuries?

 

[AustinTXCat]

This is a political forum and that being said, I would never vote for Joe Biden, but my thoughts and condolences to he and his family. Losing a child must be terrible, but he lost his wife and a daughter in a car wreck shortly after winning his Senate seat.

Terrible, I don't care who you are.

+1. I crack jokes about old Joe sometimes (i.e. "The Great Gaffesby"), but the death of his son, Beau, is tragic. Beau was a reserve Army JAG officer, who served a year in Iraq. Well-educated. As I recall, he also suffered a stroke in 2010. It appeared he had a promising political career ahead of him. Just sad.

 

[Catfan in Tn.]

How much interest can O'Malley generate in his battle with Hillary for the 2016 nomination?

 

[Deeeefense]

The internet is absolutely a luxury. Cut it off, and people survive. The end.

This is a good illustration of the obama liberals. Always trying to recategorize luxuries as necessities, ie internet, cell phone, etc; just so they can get votes. Noone can actually say the internet is a luxury with a straight face, unless youre looking for a handout, or pandering for votes, or both.

How about ass wipes? If you stop in a government rest area along the interstate highway to take a dump,do you expect that the government to provide ass wipes for you? Hey I could argue that you could survive without them so does that make them a luxury? Should you be required to bring you own? That's the criteria you have set forth. BTW ass wipes are a luxury in Mexico - if you ever travel there put a roll in your handbag - you'll need it.

 

[P19978]

I love the revisionists' take on how GWB squandered the projected surplus from Clinton. Just a cowboy doin' his thang.

Never mind the dot com bubble/recession started under BC, oh yeah the 9/11 happened (despite Clinton having several cracks at OBL), most Dems couldn't trip on their dicks fast enough to call for Saddam's ouster, and the roots of the Great Recession took hold years before he touched Laura's bosom in the White House via lax housing and mortgage practices.

AND I THOUGHT HE WAS A BAD PRECEDENT LOL (seriously)

Yikes at some folks on here. Wouldn't know questioning their own leaders if they took a dump in their grande vanilla latte.

Obama is a terrible potus, btw. Can I get a LIKE, Modeeeeeerate? Weird times.

You can show people the truth but you can't make them believe it.

 

[Deeeefense]

+1. I crack jokes about old Joe sometimes (i.e. "The Great Gaffesby"), but the death of his son, Beau, is tragic. Beau was a reserve Army JAG officer, who served a year in Iraq. Well-educated. As I recall, he also suffered a stroke in 2010. It appeared he had a promising political career ahead of him. Just sad.

Beau also did extensive work with with Darkness to Light Foundation's “Stewards of Children” a program to stop sexual abuse of children. He also won a Bronze Star while on active duty and still served in the Reserves. He was one of the few politicians that epitomized the public service ethic. A tragic loss

 

[Deeeefense]

You can show people the truth but you can't make them believe it.

Unfortunately that's not the truth, the recession did not start under Clinton, it didn't start until the financial crisis of late 2008, the last year of Bush's term. The dot com industry represented less than 10% of the economy, The steep rise in the deficit and national debt under Bush was primarily due to increases in spending - as I pointed out early in this thread $9000/person to $12,422 person, and the tax cuts which decreased revenue.

 

[warrior-cat]

You must be blind to the hypocrisy of one side preaching morals and ethics yet in turn are just as morally corrupt themselves.
Much like your hypocrisy of "you look for someone to blame", yet you stump your toe I bet you blame Obama.
You may have politicians that are your hero's but I don't. The term "Hero" has been diminished today and no longer about a person that does something truly heroic.
People like you have cheapened the words like "Hero" and "Patriotic" into political catch phases,

Continue to be the blinded troll.

No, you have cheapened it by your hero worship of morally corrupt and evil people such as Obama and Hillary.

 

[warrior-cat]

So Dee thinks the poor can find their way to a public building (library) to access "free" internet, but they can't find a way to a public building to get a "free" photo ID card to vote with? Interesting.

If they did that, the Dems would never win another presidential election. Illegals are one of their biggest voting blocks.

 

[Willy4UK]

Back from hunting this morning. Killed some internet. Prolly have too much on my hands to eat for myself. Ya'll want any? I can email it. Got a gamey taste, but if you let it soak awhile in some milk, it should be good.

 

[warrior-cat]

Went fishing myself this morning and caught a few sucker fish. A couple had names on them. DEEE, Free-Salato-Blue, and FTS were some of the names. They said they had gone down with a sinking ship. They looked pretty pathetic so, I threw them back.

 

[jamo0001]

Looks like the phone metadata collection is here to stay.

 

[qwesley]

Bush!!!


Experts see big price hikes for Obamacare
Premiums could rise more sharply in 2016.

By PAUL DEMKO


5/30/15 7:04 AM EDT

The cost of Obamacare could rise for millions of Americans next year, with one insurer proposing a 50 percent hike in premiums, fueling the controversy about just how “affordable” the Affordable Care Act really is.

The eye-popping 50 percent hike by New Mexico insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield is an outlier, and state officials may not allow it to go through. But health insurance experts are predicting that premiums will rise more significantly in 2016 than in the first two years of Obamacare exchange coverage. In 2015, for example, premiums increased by an average of 5.4 percent, according to PwC’s Health Research Institute.

The premium increases come at a tenuous time for Obamacare, which remains under fire from a Republican Congress that wants to repeal the law, while a Supreme Court ruling on federal subsidies for the health insurance looms in June as well.

“Insurers seem to be reporting higher trend, which means they are seeing bigger increases in health care costs,” said Larry Levitt, senior vice president for special initiatives at the Kaiser Family Foundation. “But really what’s going on here is they now have data showing what the risk pool looks like. Initially in 2014 they were completely guessing about who was going to enroll and how much health care they were going to use.”

Many plans haven’t yet made public their proposed rates; Monday is the deadline for publishing and providing an explanation for rate hikes of at least 10 percent. None announced so far is as dramatic as the New Mexico plan, although a few others are also quite sharp. The Blues in Maryland and Tennessee, both with the largest market share on the exchanges in their states, are seeking increases of more than 30 percent. In Oregon, Moda Health Plan — which attracted more than 40 percent of exchange customers in 2015, despite competing against a dozen other health plans — is seeking average rate increases of 25 percent.
.........
Seth Chandler, an expert in insurance law at the University of Houston and author of the “ACA Death Spiral” blog, sees another market force at play. “Insurers played this strategy of getting customers in the door by experimenting with lower premiums than really were appropriate, and then hoped that those customers would stick,” Chandler said. “If they did stick, they could raise the rates.” In the health insurance industry, customers do tend to “stick” to a health plan, rather than choosing a new plan, new network, and new doctors.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/...affordable-care-act-118428.html#ixzz3bjlR9000

 

[qwesley]

Almost no coverage of this issue, like it isn't real money. And note this study is from a group wanting single payer.

Five years after the passage of ObamaCare, there is one expense that’s still causing sticker shock across the healthcare industry: overhead costs.

The administrative costs for healthcare plans are expected to explode by more than a quarter of a trillion dollars over the next decade, according to a new study published by the Health Affairs blog.

The $270 billion in new costs, for both private insurance companies and government programs, will be “over and above what would have been expected had the law not been enacted,” one of the authors, David Himmelstein, wrote Wednesday.
Those costs will be particularly high this year, when overhead is expected to make up 45 percent of all federal spending related to the Affordable Care Act. By 2022, that ratio will decrease to about 20 percent of federal spending related to the law.


The study is based on data from both the government’s National Health Expenditure Projections and the Congressional Budget Office. Both authors are members of Physicians for a National Health Program, which advocates for a single-payer system.

"This number – 22.5 percent of all new spending going into overheard – is shocking even to me, to be honest. It’s almost one out of every four dollars is just going to bureaucracy," the study's other author, Steffie Woolhandler, said Wednesday.

She said private insurers have been expanding their administrative overhead despite some regulations from the Obama administration to control those costs, such as the medical loss ratio, which requires a certain amount of premium dollars to be spent directly on healthcare. She argues that a better approach would be a type of Medicare-for-all system.

The extra administrative costs amount to the equivalent of $1,375 per newly insured person per year, the authors write.

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/243188-overhead-costs-exploding-under-obamacare

 

[bigblueinsanity]

How about ass wipes? If you stop in a government rest area along the interstate highway to take a dump,do you expect that the government to provide ass wipes for you? Hey I could argue that you could survive without them so does that make them a luxury? Should you be required to bring you own? That's the criteria you have set forth. BTW ass wipes are a luxury in Mexico - if you ever travel there put a roll in your handbag - you'll need it.

Absolutely a luxury. Would it suck without them? Yes. But you could survive.

It isnt our governments responsibility to provide luxury, be it ass wipes or otherwise. Its their job to ensure each person has the opportunity to provide a way to buy their own ass wipes. Cant find a job, but want one? Student loans, grants, programs, etc give everyone an opportunity to improve their standing. To encourage the individual to improve on their own merits; with occasional help.

Instead, liberals sell out their supporters and the financial future of our nation by giving loads of handouts. This ensures the individual will rarely be motivated to improve themselves, effectively being a slave to the system. At the same time, it ensures the nations fiscal solubility will continue to increasingly be in danger. But this also ensures they will always vote dem - so its all worth it; if you ask them.

 

[Deeeefense]

Absolutely a luxury (toilet paper). Would it suck without them? Yes. But you could survive.

It isn't our governments responsibility to provide luxury, be it ass wipes or otherwise..

Well there you have it folks, according to our friend bigblueinsanity state governments should no longer be spending your tax dollars on toilet paper for rest areas, because it's a luxury.

 

[P19978]

Almost no coverage of this issue, like it isn't real money.

It isn't real money to them, because it isn't their money they're spending.

 

[jamo0001]

And note this study is from a group wanting single payer.

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/243188-overhead-costs-exploding-under-obamacare

Why should that be surprising?

 

[Rex Kwon Do]

Awesome! Hope our government health overlords will treat us benevolently!

Hopefully nothing will go wr.........ahhhhhh, nothing could go wrong.

 

[AustinTXCat]

Well there you have it folks, according to our friend bigblueinsanity state governments should no longer be spending your tax dollars on toilet paper for rest areas, because it's a luxury.

Between 2007-2013, Texas, the evil, largely Republican-voting state, actually offered free Wifi to travelers at rest areas located on the major interstate arteries. I dunno, but perhaps cellular proliferation had some effect on its demise. Damn you, Rick Perry!

EDIT: 12 Texas Travel Information Centers still offer free WiFi. May not have sh*tpaper, but you can get your intraweb fix. Damn you, Rick Perry!

 

[qwesley]

Why should that be surprising?

No surprising but pointing out it was done by a liberal group.

 

[Bill Derington]

Defense, I'm not trying to pile on you, but there most definitely a recession that started at the end of Clintons second term.
Bush gets the blame for it, but the negative growth started under Clinton. It was also more than just dotcoms. I was working at a steel mill at that time, and they had their first layoff ever in the autumn of 2000, it's burnt in my mind as I was newly married and it missed me by one person.

 

[Catfan in Tn.]

Patriot Act set to expire at midnight.

 

[Deeeefense]

Between 2007-2013, Texas, the evil, largely Republican-voting state, actually offered free Wifi to travelers at rest areas located on the major interstate arteries. I dunno, but perhaps cellular proliferation had some effect on its demise. Damn you, Rick Perry!

EDIT: 12 Texas Travel Information Centers still offer free WiFi. May not have sh*tpaper, but you can get your intraweb fix. Damn you, Rick Perry!

Liberals

Seriously, I was recently in Dallas, Huntsville and Houston, and found it all quite enjoyable. Haven't been to Austin but have always heard great things about it.

 

[ukalumni00]

I do not agree with most of Biden's politics, but very sad the tragedies he has had to endure during his lifetime and now he loses his son. By all accounts his son was a great man and died too young. Condolences to his entire family.

 

[Deeeefense]

Defense, I'm not trying to pile on you, but there most definitely a recession that started at the end of Clintons second term.
Bush gets the blame for it, but the negative growth started under Clinton. It was also more than just dotcoms. I was working at a steel mill at that time, and they had their first layoff ever in the autumn of 2000, it's burnt in my mind as I was newly married and it missed me by one person.

Bill, by definition a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative growth. During W. Bush's first 7 years in office there was only negative growth twice - the first and third quarters of 2001, and in both cases it was only about negative 1%. That does not meet the definition and on balance 1% negative growth is a very mild setback and not really unusual. The Great Recession began in 2008, 3 of the 4 quarters were very negative, topped by the 4th quarter which was a negative 8%.

 

[Bill Derington]

The recession start d in March 2001 and lasted until November of that year. Now playing t wasn't nearly as bad as 2008, but it was still a recession. The economy started shrinking in Clintons final year that lead up to the recession in 2001.

 

[AustinTXCat]

Liberals

Seriously, I was recently in Dallas, Huntsville and Houston, and found it all quite enjoyable. Haven't been to Austin but have always heard great things about it.

Honestly, I experience much greater innovative out-of-the-box thinking here than previously witnessed in KY or TN. We catch it all, not only from Mexico (strong Hispanic influences) , but also California and much of the left-coast. Of course property values have risen lockstep with these perceptions. Hey, ya can't have it all.

 

[bigblueinsanity]

Well there you have it folks, according to our friend bigblueinsanity state governments should no longer be spending your tax dollars on toilet paper for rest areas, because it's a luxury.

Pathetic attempt at a strawman, even for you; which is really saying something.

 

[Deeeefense]

The recession start d in March 2001 and lasted until November of that year. Now playing t wasn't nearly as bad as 2008, but it was still a recession. The economy started shrinking in Clintons final year that lead up to the recession in 2001.

I'm not sure where you are getting you're info but it's wrong. See the link below. The GDP in 2001 was:

1st qtr: -1.1%
2nd qtr: +2.1%
3rd qtr: - 1.3%
4th qtr: - +1.1%

actually a net positive for the FY. That's a very sluggish economy but it's not a recession.
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/gdp-growth
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/gdp-growth

 

[Deeeefense]

Pathetic attempt at a strawman, even for you; which is really saying something.

It's not a strawman, it's exactly what you said, and it's a classic example of letting ideology trump common sense. I get your point and Willy's about not wanting the government to buy things and redistribute them, that could and should be purchased by individuals. No problem there. But it's much more practicable and economical for a government entity to pool resources and provide things for the common good - like roads and toilet paper rather than having people build their own roads, and carry around their own rolls. I think even the most ardent Libertarian/Conservatives would agree with that.

 

[Willy4UK]

But it's much more practicable and economical for a government entity to pool resources and provide things for the common good - like roads and toilet paper rather than having people build their own roads, and carry around their own rolls. I think even the most ardent Libertarian/Conservatives would agree with that.

But wouldn't that fall on state taxes? Most rest areas and their toilet paper are state sponsored, no?

I wouldn't want people in Delaware paying for my toilet if I'm living in Florida and I need to pull over on Exit 46 on I-4 in Florida on one of those mornings where I almost shit my pants. Would that be fair for Delaware residents to pay for my toilet paper? What if it's one of those 7 wipers? Delaware and the other states would be on the hook for that.

 

[From-the-stands]

But wouldn't that fall on state taxes? Most rest areas and their toilet paper are state sponsored, no?

I wouldn't want people in Delaware paying for my toilet if I'm living in Florida and I need to pull over on Exit 46 on I-4 in Florida on one of those mornings where I almost shit my pants. Would that be fair for Delaware residents to pay for my toilet paper? What if it's one of those 7 wipers? Delaware and the other states would be on the hook for that.

If we're playing what if, if you bought gas and cigs while driving though wouldn't the state taxes levied on those products even things out?

 

[Willy4UK]

If we're playing what if, if you bought gas and cigs while driving though wouldn't the state taxes levied on those products even things out?

What does that have to do with me being a Florida resident and having the shits from hot chickens the night before and using Florida rest area toilet paper to cure my dilemma? Do I expect Delaware to help fund that recovery? No.

 

[From-the-stands]

What does that have to do with me being a Florida resident and having the shits from hot chickens the night before and using Florida rest area toilet paper to cure my dilemma? Do I expect Delaware to help fund that recovery? No.

I didn't read your original post carefully. Yeah, Delaware wouldn't buy your TP, Florida would.

 

[From-the-stands]

But are rest areas state held or are they federal?

 

[Willy4UK]

But are rest areas state held or are they federal?

State. Pretty sure.

 

[AustinTXCat]

Well there you have it folks, according to our friend bigblueinsanity state governments should no longer be spending your tax dollars on toilet paper for rest areas, because it's a luxury.

Back to wireless. Even though municipal WiFi targets 10-25% of the population, only a 1-2% signup rate has been achieved. Reason? It merely supplements already existing household connections. Considering implementation costs plus wide-spread coverage by Big TELCO, I believe we're better off leaving access for US users on this side of the pond to MCD, Starbucks and, most recently Subway, in private hands for time being.

 

[From-the-stands]

State. Pretty sure.

Then I think you make a good point. Free internet and page printing service should be doled out by by the states in libraries and other public places. There's no denying the internet is essential to getting your work done in high school and college, applying for jobs to certain company's, etc., but if you're not motivated enough to get to the library or starbucks for some free wifi, then you probably were never meant to get that job or that education anyway.