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haha, Trump's team (and all the meme warriors) supply endless laughs, this one, this time at Plug's expense
https://www.donaldjtrump.com/error -
@Wairau said in US Politics:
haha, Trump's team (and all the meme warriors) supply endless laughs, this one, this time at Plug's expense
https://www.donaldjtrump.com/errorReminds me of the golden days of "Google Bombing"
You did a Google search for "idiot" and the top result was "Gordon Brown, UK Prime MInister"
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@Siam said in US Politics:
Not being able to poll better than the idiot is the real story of Trumps presidency
I think the real story of trump's presidency is the massive global damage to usa's reputation, the internal damage and increased polarisation of their political system, and the treatment of facts/expert knowledge as just opinions on an equal footing with any random fool's opinion.
China really could not have hoped for a better outcome in terms of their aim for increased global influence, the US is a laughing stock. -
@reprobate said in US Politics:
@Siam said in US Politics:
Not being able to poll better than the idiot is the real story of Trumps presidency
I think the real story of trump's presidency is the massive global damage to usa's reputation, the internal damage and increased polarisation of their political system, and the treatment of facts/expert knowledge as just opinions on an equal footing with any random fool's opinion.
China really could not have hoped for a better outcome in terms of their aim for increased global influence, the US is a laughing stock.TBF, that was going on long before Trump. And Obama is equally to blame - his weakness and withdrawal from the world gave Putin & China a nice warm power vacuum to fill.
Agree with you on Trump's "fool's opinions" but just think Obama's platitudes, virtue-signalling and excuses for inaction were equally as bad,
How the US got itself into a situation where likes of Trump, Pelosi, Biden etc are the heavyweight politicians is beyond me..
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Obama has been piping a bit recently when he is customarily very quiet.
He had a comment "accidentally leaked" on the Flynn matter and yesterday he ripped into Trump over Covid-19.
I think his motivation is he is worried about Biden, who is coming across as so ineffectual and confused. Obama wants to try and defend himself and by extension Biden because Trump is pursuing the strategy of tying Biden to Obama and then attacking Obama over the spying allegations. Biden doesn't seem to know what to say.
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@Victor-Meldrew said in US Politics:
@reprobate said in US Politics:
@Siam said in US Politics:
Not being able to poll better than the idiot is the real story of Trumps presidency
I think the real story of trump's presidency is the massive global damage to usa's reputation, the internal damage and increased polarisation of their political system, and the treatment of facts/expert knowledge as just opinions on an equal footing with any random fool's opinion.
China really could not have hoped for a better outcome in terms of their aim for increased global influence, the US is a laughing stock.TBF, that was going on long before Trump. And Obama is equally to blame - his weakness and withdrawal from the world gave Putin & China a nice warm power vacuum to fill.
Agree with you on Trump's "fool's opinions" but just think Obama's platitudes, virtue-signalling and excuses for inaction were equally as bad,
How the US got itself into a situation where likes of Trump, Pelosi, Biden etc are the heavyweight politicians is beyond me..
After the clusterfuck that was the Bush years, one can hardly blame Obama (and indeed Trump) for a reluctance to get aggressively involved in international affairs, particularly any armed conflict.
The mistake was probably to encourage resolution around the globe (mainly the ME), but then not provide military support. That being said, when they did get involved, they caught absolute hell for it.
In short, the US President simply can't win.
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@junior said in US Politics:
After the clusterfuck that was the Bush years, one can hardly blame Obama (and indeed Trump) for a reluctance to get aggressively involved in international affairs, particularly any armed conflict.
Less a reluctance, more a continual re-definition of red-lines & political objectives to avoid taking action. Made the US look weak. One of the few things Trump did right was sending a strong military message to Assad & Putin early on.
In short, the US President simply can't win.
Not if they come from the recent presidential gene pool, they can't...
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Just finished Malcolm Turnbull’s memoirs this weekend. Much like Obama you get the feeling they both (rightfully) have big tickets on themselves and are having massive issues reconciling that their life’s crowning achievement was achieved by someone they consider so inferior - Abbott and Trump respectively.
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@canefan said in Coronavirus - Overall:
being the only developed country without a national health system beggars belief also
Other countries have insurance based systems. Obamacare was a poorly implemented copy of the Swiss system for instance
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@Duluth said in Coronavirus - Overall:
@canefan said in Coronavirus - Overall:
being the only developed country without a national health system beggars belief also
Other countries have insurance based systems. Obamacare was a poorly implemented copy of the Swiss system for instance
Poorly implemented or not, it seemed that most people in the US are philosophically opposed to government subsidised healthcare.
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@canefan said in Coronavirus - Overall:
@dogmeat being the only developed country without a national health system beggars belief also
Especially when you consider they spend nearly twice the public funds per capita than any other nation.
A good article on it is in the NYTIMes (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/upshot/the-real-reason-the-us-has-employer-sponsored-health-insurance.html) but what it doesn't spell out is how complicit organised labour was in driving this series of events by joining the medical profession and insurance industry in preventing state based systems. Instead they opted to make it based on collective bargaining agreements.
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@canefan said in Coronavirus - Overall:
@Duluth said in Coronavirus - Overall:
@canefan said in Coronavirus - Overall:
being the only developed country without a national health system beggars belief also
Other countries have insurance based systems. Obamacare was a poorly implemented copy of the Swiss system for instance
Poorly implemented or not, it seemed that most people in the US are philosophically opposed to government subsidised healthcare.
Some Republicans are philosophically opposed to it - Obamacare was quite similar to Mitt Romney's system in Massachusetts, so it's not even all Republicans.
I believe polls show strong support for some sort of public health care, but it's harder to get majority support for specific proposals, and even harder if you don't have both parties on board to some extent because the opposition will be higher if it's not bipartisan.
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@Godder said in US Politics:
I believe polls show strong support for some sort of public health care, but it's harder to get majority support for specific proposals, and even harder if you don't have both parties on board to some extent because the opposition will be higher if it's not bipartisan.
It wasn't smart politics from the Dems back in at the beginning of the Obama term. I think Obama thought if he based a plan around a Republican-ish plan everyone would fall into line.
The reality is bigger trade offs were need (interstate competition etc). The Dems went to a position of "we don't need your votes" too quicklyThat meant a handful of Dem holdouts became very important. The way the last handful of votes were purchased resulted in some terrible additions to the law. That's one of the reasons Obamacare does not look much like Romneycare (or the Swiss system)
Without partisan cover there was no ability to set the penalties at the correct level (making a death spiral inevitable).
There was also no courage to stand by the costs. Various taxes were delayed and then dropped. A classic politicians position - for the benefit but not the cost.But one of the biggest obstacles is that a Swiss plan probably requires a constitutional amendment. Try that without making concessions to the other party.
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@Duluth with the filibuster, I don't think the Dems ever thought they could pass it without some Republicans being on board, but having to get to 60 instead of 50 made it harder and forced more concessions than would have been needed in a parliamentary democracy, or even in some of the states where it's less controversial.
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@antipodean said in US Politics:
@canefan said in Coronavirus - Overall:
@dogmeat being the only developed country without a national health system beggars belief also
Especially when you consider they spend nearly twice the public funds per capita than any other nation.
A good article on it is in the NYTIMes (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/upshot/the-real-reason-the-us-has-employer-sponsored-health-insurance.html) but what it doesn't spell out is how complicit organised labour was in driving this series of events by joining the medical profession and insurance industry in preventing state based systems. Instead they opted to make it based on collective bargaining agreements.
An example of free enterprise making things more expensive?
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@canefan said in US Politics:
@antipodean said in US Politics:
@canefan said in Coronavirus - Overall:
@dogmeat being the only developed country without a national health system beggars belief also
Especially when you consider they spend nearly twice the public funds per capita than any other nation.
A good article on it is in the NYTIMes (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/upshot/the-real-reason-the-us-has-employer-sponsored-health-insurance.html) but what it doesn't spell out is how complicit organised labour was in driving this series of events by joining the medical profession and insurance industry in preventing state based systems. Instead they opted to make it based on collective bargaining agreements.
An example of free enterprise making things more expensive?
An example of the corruption of democratic process and interference with free market principles.
US Politics