All purpose news and politics thread part v: The quickening

[Theleviathan]

Even though I was in the military (Navy: 1976-1996), I’m all for a cut in that budget as the U.S. outspends the next five or six nations combined. Problem is, that’s the third rail that’s guaranteed to kill political careers because they’d be seen as not supporting the troops, and Republicans make sure to hammer that false flag home.
//.

The military can absolutely afford a cut to the budget. However, total spending is around the 600 billion mark. Most estimates of Bernie's plan (while a cost savings overall for public and private) have it around a 3 trillion dollar increase in government spending. Cutting the military budget is more a measure of morality than it is of actual financial consequence. When people say "we'll pay for this by...." and then cite the military, it sorta shows they don't know what they're talking about.

The only way to pay for medicare for all is to tax everyone. People will have to accept transferring their private payments to premiums, co-pays, doctor's bills, etc. into taxes that the government then reallocates (at a cheaper cost) to the medical industry. It's really that simple. But it comes with a difficult sell....give your money to the government to spend it better in the form of taxes.

You don't have to tell me that resisting this is irrational and counterproductive, nevertheless that sentiment is real. And a real impediment in this country to passing that legislation.

[PaulBullion]

Anybody disagree with this?

[InformationGeek]

Pompeo finally responds and is acting like a baby.


And speaking of babies, here's a load of crying!

Our case against lyin’, cheatin’, liddle’ Adam “Shifty” Schiff, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, Nervous Nancy Pelosi, their leader, dumb as a rock AOC, & the entire Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrat Party, starts today at 10:00 A.M. on @FoxNews, @OANN or Fake News @CNN or Fake News MSDNC!

[Theleviathan]

Anybody disagree with this?

[aja_christopher]

How are Warren and Sanders going to pay for their health care plans? Two words: wealth tax.

We've established that just as we've established that the majority of people here will vote "against" Trump.

What is being asked is how Sanders/Warren are going to sell these programs to the public when said public has shown no appetite for them in the past.

If we don't address it in the primaries then rest assured it will be addressed in the general election.

[PaulBullion]

Even the worst Democrat of the past 50 years or so, Joe Manchin, is trolling the Trump defense team:

Sen. Joe Manchin told me Trump’s team did a “good job” and are “making me think about things.” He added: “One thing that stuck in my mind is they said there isn’t a witness they have had so far that had direct contact with the president. I’d love to hear from Mulvaney and Bolton”

[Tami]

Meanwhile, Devin Nunes is busy launching lawsuits against a whole new group of Twitter Accounts.

Welp. I just received a letter from Twitter's legal team notifying me that Devin Nunes' attorney Steven S. Biss has subpoenaed Twitter for my DMs.

If any attorneys out there want to help me file a motion to quash I'll buy you a vegan doughnut.

How's your Friday going?

Twitter Thread Link

Cool, @DevinNunes
is trying to subpoena my Twitter data for no apparent reason. Glad to see our tax dollars funding a congressman’s harassment campaign against journalists, activists, and other citizens.

Twitter Link

[Billy Batson]

Feel the Bern:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/25/u...l-sanders.html

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Feel the Bern:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/25/u...l-sanders.html

Interesting. RCP has it as a tight race with Biden in a slight lead but this has Biden low here. Going to be interesting to see if all the recent polls for Sanders are more predicative.

Anywys I feel terrible for Warren. I wanted her to win and I think she's dead in the water. Pete took so much steam away from her and he has absoluetly no shot. And lol at Klobuchar

[PaulBullion]

And lol at Klobuchar

Ms. Klobuchar is ahead of Sanders in Missouri, though, as by a new poll out today.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Ms. Klobuchar is ahead of Sanders in Missouri, though, as by a new poll out today.

After the first few primaries the field dramatically shifts. She’s going to eat loss after loss and then be viewed as unviable and her supporters there will move on.

A primary is a different beast than a general. It’s about the long game. You play to either build momentum earlier or build a fire wall and depress everyone else from overcoming it. That’s the bane of the game. Half this field will be gone within 3 weeks.

[Tami]

Who Will Win The 2020 Democratic Primary?

FiveThirtyEight’s model simulates the primary season thousands of times to find the most likely outcome for each candidate. The chart shows how many delegates, on average, each candidate is projected to have pledged to them at each point in the primary season, along with a range of possible delegate counts. We’re also showing the distribution of simulated final pledged delegate counts in the table, where taller bars mean a more likely outcome. Right now, many candidates, even the front-runners, wind up with tall bars close to zero — generally, those are simulations where the candidate dropped out before having a chance to accumulate many delegates.

Biden is the odds on favorite.

[SquirrelMan]

Ms. Klobuchar is ahead of Sanders in Missouri, though, as by a new poll out today.

Ouch. I'm predicting we'll be a lot more states with Sanders in 5th place after the Rogan missteps.

Or, as Squire of the Puddle would say: LOL at Sanders.

[Michael Watkins]

Anybody disagree with this?

Tell it to the drone strike victims.

[InformationGeek]

Tell it to the drone strike victims.

What does that have to do with the transgender community?