All-purpose news and politics thread: Two Steps Beyond!

[dupont2005]

Or, at the very least, demand that wealth be taxed. Work, not wealth, is what drives our economy. Hoarded wealth becomes an anchor.

I generally dislike sales taxes because they're pretty regressive.

I agree, but sales tax is often what funds local stuff like parks, isn't it? That and property tax.

[Tendrin]

I agree, but sales tax is often what funds local stuff like parks, isn't it? That and property tax.

State taxes are often very regressive. Part of that is due to limitations placed on the way states are allowed to tax. The rest is just bad tax policy and race to the bottom style crap.

[the4thpip]

Voting is too passive. It's just like writing a check IMO.

That's the kind of thinking that leads to silly "Send socks to Tsunami victims" campaigns instead of just writing a check to the Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders who know what they are doing.

[the4thpip]

Florida's Health Choices is "Obamacare done rigth" the way that Countdown was "52 done right."

Six months after the launch of a $900,000 alternative to the Affordable Care Act, Florida’s Health Choices program has only signed up 30 subscribers and administrators say they are considering offering pet insurance if it will help draw more customers.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, the program was created in lieu of expanding Medicaid or working with the federal government to offer subsidized insurance plans.

Unlike the federally backed programs, Florida Health Choices doesn’t offer health insurance plans designed to shield consumers from big-ticket expenses like hospitalization, instead offering limited benefits and discount plans for items like dental visits, prescription drugs, and eye-care.

After six months Florida Health Choices only has 30 enrollees, not counting seven plans which were canceled either because the subscribers changed their minds or they failed to pay their premiums.

During that same period, nearly 984,000 Floridians have enrolled in private coverage under Obamacare, leaving nearly 764,000 Floridians who are too poor to afford subsidized plans and unable to qualify for Medicaid due to Florida’s strict standards which the GOP-controlled legislature and Republican governor refuse to alter despite offers of federal assistance.

More to read here: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/3...pet-insurance/

[worstblogever]

Florida's Health Choices is "Obamacare done rigth" the way that Countdown was "52 done right."



More to read here: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/3...pet-insurance/

Rick Scott continues to be full of bright ideas (and that's especially embarrassing for a guy whose background is in healthcare).

[worstblogever]

It's our latest reminder of what a crock the statement "Nuh uh. Both parties are just as bad," actually is...

It’s Your Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day!

(And please, for those who those who really felt the "Both Parties are Just as Bad" statement is defensible, remember, I'm still challenging you to write your own essays each day, to keep pace with me, if it's actually "just as bad". Keep in mind, you have to pick someone from politics who has either ran for, held office within the past 5 years, and have multiple verifiable news sources to any quotes/beliefs they might have to build a solid, established track record of stupid that clearly isn't a fluke. Hell, we'll even accept people who help write party platforms within that time frame. Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 45-0, since this was established on 7-18-14)



Louis Gohmert
I maintain that I believe, in my honest medical opinion, that Louis Gohmert has tertiary syphilis. The hair’s already gone, and he’s clearly gibbering along, with spirochetes eating away at whatever’s left of his brain tissue. I’m sorry, there’s no nice way for me to put that. Here’s what I had, with very little research, on Rep. Gohmert:

• Took the victims of the Aurora, CO mass shooting to task for not packing heat and shooting back.
• Invented the ludicrous "terror babies" conspiracy.
• Tried linking the overthrow of the Libyan government to Obamacare.
• Joined Michelle Bachmann in their Islamophobic attacks on the State Dept.'s Huma Abedin, even going as far as to call John McCain "numbnuts" for defending her from their attacks.
• Claimed that while slavery was a blot on our nation's history, we were even worse off in the present day for straying from teaching the Bible.
• Stated his opinion that Obama's Jobs plan was to funnel jobs to gays at the cost of traditional marriage.
• Compared homosexuality to beastiality and Hitler on the floor of the House
• The Libyan intervention stance the Obama Administration took was linked to the Affordable Care Act, and Obama’s desire to send doctors forth to do his bidding there.
• Claimed President Obama has willfully started up a new Ottoman Empire.
• He wants to eliminate the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office because the CBO reported that extending the Bush tax cuts would increase the federal deficit.
• Blamed the Aurora, CO shootings on people not believing in God enough.
• President Obama is aiding al Qaeda and working in league with the Muslim Brotherhood.
• He nominated Allen West to be Speaker of the House. AFTER he had already been voted out of office, and was no longer a Congressman.
• During one of his many hostile exchanges with Attorney General Eric Holder, Gohmert demanded that the "Not cast aspersions on my asparagus."
• I only barely touched on the “terror babies” claim. I neglected to expand on his appearance on Anderson Cooper:360 where he had a complete meltdown when interviewed about his theory, and was informed it had been debunked by every homeland security agency, and source in the intelligence community, pretty easily.

And that’s my thing with Louis Gohmert. Most of the people on this list have, at most, three crazy or stupid ideas, and applied them accordingly. But Louis Gohmert can comment on any political issue, and say the mind-numbingly most unintelligent, painfully stupid thing you’d think would be impossible for an elected official to utter. The only person I deem fit worthy of moderating a debate in which he’s featured, I’m afraid, is the principal of the high school from the movie, Billy Madison. The moments I just shared are just the tip of the iceberg. Seriously, there's a ton more homophobic, bigoted, "if it ain't white Christian, it's evil" sort of rhetoric from the guy.

Let me put it this way… one of the articles I found while researching Gohmert reported that he notified the TSA about a possible terror threat of Muslim women disguising explosives with lit fuses as tampons. It wasn’t the Onion, but it still was, as near as I can tell, a parody. But the fact that compared to all the other s*** that he said above meant I actually had to double-check that it was a joke for like ten minutes, and not just realize it was a joke up front.

He’s clearly a Top 5 candidate for craziest Republican out there, a quintet of elite deranged morons that form a mentally-challenged, conservative Voltron. He might flat out be the most insane politician in America. And watch… he’s going to get re-elected in November.

[the4thpip]

Rick Scott continues to be full of bright ideas (and that's especially embarrassing for a guy whose background is in healthcare).

Well, in Scott's defense:

Florida Health Choices is the brainchild of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R) who proposed a low income insurance program while serving the Florida legislature.

In December of last year, Rubio enrolled his family in a federal health care exchange created by the Affordable Care Act.

[worstblogever]

Well, in Scott's defense:

So one stooge thought of it, and the other signed it into law. And meanwhile, Rubio seems to even acknowledge the ACA is better than his own idea, because he enrolled in it?

Heh. I'd love to see him try and win the GOP Primary for 2016. Good lord, he'd get clubbed like a baby seal with that in "the battle to prove who's the avatar of all that is conservative".

[Mikekerr3]

Rick Scott continues to be full of bright ideas (and that's especially embarrassing for a guy whose background is in healthcare).

His background is ripping of the govement for fraudent Healthcare bills, that is something completely different.

[Tendrin]

His background is ripping of the govement for fraudent Healthcare bills, that is something completely different.

You beat me to it.

[Tendrin]

a quintet of elite deranged morons that form a mentally-challenged, conservative Voltron. He might flat out be the most insane politician in America. And watch… he’s going to get re-elected in November.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

That was a lovely line.

Also, yeah. If you /actually/ did a full work up on Gohmert's insane utterances, you'd probably be busy all month and would be unable to get to anyone else. Every day it's like a new bit of idiocy from him. He has truly earned his title as America's Dumbest Congressman.

[emac1790]

"Terror babies"? Is that like Muppet babies but evil? You know what? I really don't want to know.

The more time I spend on this Earth, the more I'm convinced that humans ain't ****.

[worstblogever]

"Terror babies"? Is that like Muppet babies but evil? You know what? I really don't want to know.

The more time I spend on this Earth, the more I'm convinced that humans ain't ****.

It's an insane, paranoid, anti-immigrant conspiracy that takes the vitriol directed at "anchor babies" and tries to justify it further by claiming that those babies are actually indoctrinated from the minute the umbilical cord is cut to be Jihadists. Thus, terror babies.

It's f***ing crazy, but hey, that's Louis Gohmert.

[JCAll]

"Terror babies"? Is that like Muppet babies but evil?

Baby Freddy, Baby Jason, Baby Chucky.

[emac1790]

It's an insane, paranoid, anti-immigrant conspiracy that takes the vitriol directed at "anchor babies" and tries to justify it further by claiming that those babies are actually indoctrinated from the minute the umbilical cord is cut to be Jihadists. Thus, terror babies.

It's f***ing crazy, but hey, that's Louis Gohmert.

Thanks. I just watched this http://crooksandliars.com/cltv/2010/...lts-down-ac360 and this bigot (that's what he is) just yelled a bunch of bullshit.

I don't know who's worse. The stupid, crazy politicians, the people that vote for them or the people that won't vote at all to get these (expletive) people out of office or better yet, vote to make sure they don't get in office in the first place.