Elephants and Jackasses...

There just isn't the same level of institutional buy in. As I mentioned, it's not like it doesn't happen (see: Maryland), but there's no national program, nor widespread appetite among Democrats for it. California for example has an independent redistricting commission, and so selling Californians on the idea of widespread Gerrymandering is a hard sell when they recently worked hard to get that independent commission.

 

Clutch makes a pretty good point. The democrats are doing it less right now, but they also have a lot less opportunity to do it. California did the right thing, but my guess is when the pendulum swings back the outrage over the practice disappears and the attitutude in most states becomes "Fuck 'em. That's what they did."

Gerrymandering is bullshit of the highest order, and I really wish we would do away with it.

 

https://thehill.com/policy/healthca...are-court-deadline-as-political-ground-shifts

“But just so you understand, ObamaCare is a disaster,” Trump told reporters, “What we want to do is terminate it.”

The ACA is credited with expanding Medicaid for poorer Americans and making private health plans more affordable for lower-income families. Health experts say the law has provided a crucial backstop for those who have lost job-based coverage during the pandemic. As early as March, vulnerable Senate Republicans dodged questions about whether they supported the lawsuit to overturn the ACA. By May, with the twin health and economic crises in full swing, some of the law’s staunchest critics were reversing course to endorse ObamaCare as a safety net. Even Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) — who has cast 20 votes to block, repeal or defund the law and been described as “ObamaCare repeal’s top salesman” — encouraged Americans who have recently lost job-based health care to enroll in the program. “The good news is that if you lose your employer-provided coverage, which covers about 180 million Americans, then that is a significant life event, which makes you then eligible to sign up for the Affordable Care Act — and as you know, it has a sliding scale of subsidies up to 400 percent of poverty,” Cornyn, who is up for reelection this year, told PBS Austin last month in an interview."

The article says that: " unemployment has reached the highest point since the Great Depression and an estimated 27 million have lost job-based health coverage." but it doesn't link to that estimate.

Great timing, fuck face.

 

This hasn't been the case so far down here. I shopped all this year for a pontoon. The toy owners haven't been affected enough yet. I'd expect it to happen around here about the time that extra unemployment runs out.

I offered a man full asking price on Facebook market place on one of the only ones priced appropriately. Full cash offer, if it runs I'd buy it, because the thing had a perfect interior. He had so much interest he raised the price by over half of the original asking price, and sold it in hours.

People are asking $10,000 or more for thoroughly used boats that need all new seats.

The one I bought, I paid full asking price in cash. I was the first offer, minutes after it was posted. The couple got absolutely bombarded with messages about it. I took a huge risk and bought it without a test drive because it had a nearly perfect interior and my preferred drivetrain with a four cylinder GM engine rather than an outboard. It worked out, but I was nervous that first trip out, knowing I had already handed over a bunch of cash.

 

I had the same experience buying my motorcycle a few weeks back. With everyone in lockdown, that's a lot of money you save on vacations you can't take, commuting you don't do, lunches you eat at home, etc. The dealership I talked to said they were moving 30 bikes a day, all cash deals, when their normal was 15.

You won't see people start hurting until August, when the federal unemployment runs out and the moratoriums on student loans, evictions, etc. run out.

If its industrial equipment, especially restaurant stuff.....whoo, boy you will find some bargains.

 

Yeah, I probably should have shown some restraint and waited till then, but I needed something that could sit at the dock and not get beat to shit by wake of passing boats, nothing better for that than a boat sitting on big metal tubes. I don't have a lift and couldn't spend $70k for a dock that could accommodate one. Under normal economic circumstances, I still got the thing at a good price, but there will be some deals in a few months.

 

Same. I could have maybe saved a few hundred bucks, or got a bigger/better bike if I waited, but...I am enjoying putting miles on this thing now.

 

trump doesn’t have very many gun rights supporters at the moment. He oversaw a ban on bump stocks, and it looks like pistol braces are about to see the same fate. Fortunately I just bought an AR pistol, so if he allows that shit through I’ll either have to pay $200 to own something I already own, or I’ll be turned into a criminal overnight.

 

I can't believe we've spent 12 years now fighting over that shitty healthcare bill. It's not some precious thing to protect. Getting rid of isn't going to fix healthcare either.

I guess it's better than not having it, but goddamn it is a trainwreck anyway.

 

I’m starting to think Don Lemmon sucks every bit as much as he does. Whatever it takes to make Mike Wallace spin his his grave like a battleship anchor spool.

 

Carlson is honestly better than any pundit on CNN, save maybe Van Jones. Carlson at least occassionally gets out of the box and makes a little sense. Cnn is all narrative, full retard, all day.

 

Cuomo would like to have a word about that.

I agree with don lemon though, that guy is just a piece of work. I like most everyone else though.

 

Don't you mean Fredo?



Granted the other guy was being a jackass, but he doesn't strike me as the most secure man.

 

Fox is a dumpster filled with skunk shit by the Manson family and set on fire. CNN is a pretentious, hopeless and spineless shell of its former self and does nothing but limp to the barn every night, but no farmer has the decency to shoot it.

The next news network should be run by Snopes.

 

From the NYT Article:


The United States concluded months ago that the Russian unit, which has been linked to assassination attempts and other covert operations in Europe intended to destabilize the West or take revenge on turncoats, had covertly offered rewards for successful attacks last year.

Islamist militants, or armed criminal elements closely associated with them, are believed to have collected some bounty money, the officials said. Twenty Americans were killed in combat in Afghanistan in 2019, but it was not clear which killings were under suspicion.

The intelligence finding was briefed to President Trump, and the White House’s National Security Council discussed the problem at an interagency meeting in late March, the officials said. Officials developed a menu of potential options — starting with making a diplomatic complaint to Moscow and a demand that it stop, along with an escalating series of sanctions and other possible responses, but the White House has yet to authorize any step, the officials said.


https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/us/politics/russia-afghanistan-bounties.html

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/27/politics/russia-us-troops-afghanistan/index.html

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/28/politics/russia-us-troops-afghanistan-trump/index.html

Trump has denied being told, but how does something like this not make it into his briefings?

Or into the Senate or House briefings.

 

So he’s either grossly incompetent and unfit for office. Or he brazenly ignores direct threatens against our military while simultaneously gargling the balls of both Putin and the taliban making him completely unfit for office and possibly treasonous.

Either way, there is no good answer for him here. Playing the “I didn’t know” or “I wasn’t told” card is wholly inadequate and obviously a lie. When are those responses ever okay for an American President?
And top of that, the republicans own this entirely. They had a chance to rid themselves of this mess and regroup, but they are afraid of mean tweets. They always fall in line anyway. So if the voters see their leadership toss him overboard, they would come around.