Thakkar

Mueller, She Wrote Podcast (@MuellerSheWrote)

5/11/19, 7:56 AM

How to stop abortion: Pregnancy can’t happen without sperm, so let’s have all teen boys fill up some vials then get sterilized, and if they want kids, they can get their sperm out of the bank and make it happen. Or are we not allowed to regulate men’s reproductive health? ????

4 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

4 hours ago, Morch said:

Very Star Warsy, that headline.

Like Star Wars, Brexit is a work of fiction.

Please. One is fiction, the other, reality show farce. And if which one is which is immediately obvious to you, then, that just proves me right.

On 5/3/2019 at 9:41 AM, zydeco said:

On 5/2/2019 at 8:45 PM, cbtstorm said:

Bidens Iowa rally! Feel the excitement!

Half that room will be dead by the time the primary takes place.

Dead or alive, some of those people look like they won’t be able to get up from those chairs to go vote.

2 hours ago, Cryingdick said:

He was friends of the Clintons...

You mean the “cretinous, sleazeball, dishonest, traitorous, pedophile ring running” personal email server using Clintons? What does that make *him*?

8 hours ago, OtinPattaya said:

Let's subject the rest of our congress people to the same scrutiny as the left is hellbent on doing with the president and see what we come up with. Better yet, let's do the same with the Clintons. All you sneering blowhards who bash on Trump are a bunch of hypocrites. I could give two sh!ts whether Trump is a good or bad businessman. I only care whether he is leading this country in the right direction. The rest of the West can enjoy a future of doomed socialistic, politically-correct, welfare-mongering mediocrity, which Europe is determined to pursue to its own inevitable demise. I'd rather hitch my wagon to Trump despite all his many warts. 

his many warts

Actually, he’s ALL warts. Unless one considers racism, misogyny, gluttony, extreme narcissism, uncontrollable penchant for lying, treason, greed, adultery, incompetence, vindictiveness, corruption, homophobia, egomaniacleness, pettiness, cruelty, cowardice, impulsiveness, childish nickname-slinging fatuousness, demagoguery, snowflakery, solipsistic imbecility, shamelessness, fickleness, dishonesty and (have I left anything out?) capriciousness to be attractive features. 

the Clintons.

Children Don Jr, Ivanka, and Eric, who went on to run Trump biz under blind trust, were all on the Trump presidential transition team. Ivanka is a high level advisor with a WH office next to Trump’s. Son-in-law Kushner is a high level advisor in charge of Middle East Peace, fixing the Opioid crisis, prison reform, reorganizing the entire government, and ten other major initiatives.

Thankfully those corrupt Clintons, with all their conflicts of interest, are gone from politics. 

9 hours ago, usviphotography said:

What financial con? He was a real estate speculator and developer and like most speculators his career has ups and downs (Warren Buffet has lost over 3.5 billion *in a single day* on more than one occasion). To go from a -900 million to a nearly a billion is actually a lot more impressive than going from 100 million to a billion. Probably why Trump himself wrote a book about this period of his life in which he tooted his own horn about his remarkable comeback. Trump is the Tiger Woods of Real Estate. He's been at the top, went all the way down to the bottom, and back again. 

Tiger has way bigger hands, actual skills that doesn’t involve lying, stiffing (except when it involves Waffle House Hostess), & conning. Also, Tiger has “only” cheated on one wife.

“We rebelled against George III because we didn’t want to pay taxes. Which makes Donald Trump the most patriotic American that ever lived.”

- Colbert

1 hour ago, Puchaiyank said:

We definitely do not run in the same circles...????

It’s for a good cause, man.

16 hours ago, Puchaiyank said:

More liquid for Trump haters who insist on pissing into the wind...

 

Warning them has no affect...they seem to enjoy being all wet!

I don’t know what kinda circles you move in, but my circle lets it all out into a central bucket, which we collect and donate to sperm banks.

17 hours ago, Longcut said:

I just wish I was rich enough to lose a billion dollars and not worry about it. 

Exactly. All these libtards denigrating Trump, have *they* got a billion to lose? I didn’t think so. They *wish* they were as successful at losing money as he is! YOU try losing $321,000 a day, every day, for ten years? Doesn’t seem so easy now, does it, Bubba? I can’t even imagine that amount of money, and to be clear, the amount I can’t imagine is *negative one billion dollars*

*you* try being born on third base and stealing second! It ain’t easy, lemme tell ya!

Warren Buffet, Bill Gates—have they ever lost that kinda dough? Of course not, the failed-ass businessmen that they are!

Please buy my book: “Losing is Winning: Broke ass businessman runs for president as a marketing ploy hoping to not lose too badly, but accidentally wins”

Christopher Hitchins on Falwell when Hannity insisted the Falwells’ legacy would eclipse Hitchins’:

"Oh Sean. As a final note, remember to inform them that if they first remove the BS from the corpse, your pal Falwell can be buried in a matchbox."

37 minutes ago, lannarebirth said:

Tell me again how the Republicans thwarted Universal Healthcare when they were in the minority of both houses and didnt hold the presidency? If every Republican voted against it, it would have still passed, so how is it the Republicans fault we don't now have universal healthcare these past 10 years?

You are over simplifying an argument I made over several paras. But to the point that “If every Republican voted against it, it would have still passed” —I’m not privy to all the behind the scenes horse trading, but I can guess, with Dems traditional meekness, that important dem congresspeople would’ve been against taking such a partisan approach. As it turned out, despite the compromises, they got zero republican votes anyway.

Their meekness is evident even today. With Trump’s blatant upending of norms and the strong allegations of criminality from the Mueller report, they can barely even say the word impeachment. Meanwhile, (if I remember correctly; maybe it was just Fox news—it’s hard to disentangle Fox and GOP) GOP congresspeople were screaming “impeach hillary” even before the election results were in.

11 minutes ago, mogandave said:

 

If you don’t know, just say you don’t know, no point in drawing it out.

So I think it safe to say that your “metrics” line is just a talking point you have regurgitated, yes?
 

 

Look at the data at that link.

look at the outcomes vs expenditure and please explain to us how America, spending more and achieving less has nothing to learn from countries spending less and achieving more.

1 hour ago, lannarebirth said:

 

That is an extremely charitable take on history. The fact is Obama did exactly as he was elected to do, which was virtually nothing

Forgive me, but I don’t know how to have a discussion with such a broad and empty generalization in response to my very specific and historically accurate points.

2 hours ago, mogandave said:

 

Yes, they’re always too many to come up with a few.

 

If you really care about facts, not partisan ideologies, then begin by checking out the health section of “our world in data” to identify the developed countries performing better than America (that would be all of them), then study their systems. Then write a book explaining how America has nothing to learn from any of them. When you’ve done that, send me a link—I’d buy that book, just for laughs.

1 hour ago, lannarebirth said:

 

Here's where our paths diverge. I understand why you think why the ACA was "heroic", because many people with no coverage previously were suddenly "covered". The untold story is that millions of people that were previously covered through their own means were suddenly paying triple thier old premiums for way inferior coverage. It was a horrible piece of legislation that was anything but "heroic"; especially given complete control of the executive and legislative branches. It was failures like this, of Democrats failing to be Democrats , that gave us Trump.

 

I actually agree that Obama & his team screwed up here with a huge missed opportunity. They made the very early decision, despite having majorities in both houses, to bring some Republicans on board with this, hoping, I think, this would lay a solid bipartisan foundation for future improvements. Thus starting on the wrong foot (in my view) with The Heritage Foundation adopted by Romny’s administration in Mas. Republicans (like Snowe and others) led them on, proposing tweaks, amendments, additions and removals. Obama obliged by incorporating many of their proposals. In the end, they didn’t give the plan a single vote. 

I can understand why Obama chose this cooperative path, having campaigned on hope and change and “we are not a red America or a Blue America, but the United States of America (or something like that). 

I unapologetically think (in hindsight) that this is a promise (that is, to be compromising) he should’ve broken. Perhaps that would’ve been more heroic. Though futile as it may not have passed due to uncooperative corporate dems. 

Now let’s try and imagine the first black president who many on the right had already begun calling “a thug” walking into the WHITEhouse in his first months with his big swinging black dick saying, “elections have consequences; I don’t care what the republicans want. I’ll do what I want”

Trump, even with his marginal (and, some might say, questionable) election win can and does get away with this, but would Obama have? And what kind of example would he be this setting for all those minority kids who now, perhaps for the first time, aspire to be president? Would Corey Booker even be running today?

Discarding the benefits of hindsight, I believe Obama did the best he could under the circumstances. I agree however, that “heroic” is probably too strong a descriptor. 

I also agree that Democrats’ collective meekness over many years is ONE reason for Trump. There are many others. Americans have been building towards a know-nothing, faux religious, bombastic, Incompetent, vindictive, corrupt, greedy, mentally unstable, misogynistic, homophobic, racist, traitorous constantly lying egomaniacal twobit grifting car salesman for many years. It was only a matter of time, unless the demographic changes underway reached maturity first. It didn’t, and we have Trump.

1 hour ago, mogandave said:

 

What metrics?

What country do you believe has the current best model to learn from?

 

It would take a book to answer your Q.

Please do your own comparisons, starting with the basic data:

https://ourworldindata.org/health-meta

Every developed country, and many developing ones have variously solved the many healthcare issues the US is grappling with. They continue to tweak their systems, because no system is ever perfect. The US, meanwhile, apart from the heroic but far from adequate attempts made by the ACA, has done virtually nothing for decades to deal with the problems.

1 hour ago, mogandave said:

 

 

It’s sad to think that one side thinks the other does not want to spend tax dollars in a manner that actually benefits our neighbors and ourselves.

The left thinks (or at least claims) the right is evil and wants to starve children.

The right thinks the left are generally well intended fools.

I believe a government takeover of medicine and or secondary education will neither improve quality nor reduce costs. I believe it will increase costs, reduce quality and stifle innovation.

Of course it will only increase costs for tax payers, not for tax recipients. As always, the tax recipients will be the people that actually get it “free”.

 

 

Low income folks don’t pay taxes because they simply don’t earn enough. They do pay sales tax and various other hidden taxes. Their low salaries benefit their bosses, who thus make higher profits, which is what leads to the bosses paying tax on *some* of that extra earning.

Everybody, in one way or another, directly or indirectly, contributes to government revenue and the smooth functioning of societies in which we all swim.

The notion that the poor are “takers” is a fallacy.

There are certainly some scroungers in every society—among the poor, as well as the rich. What the poor take is nothing compared to what the Rich take. A billionaire requires millions to satisfy his greed, while a deadbeat couch potato would be happy to rip the government off for a few hundred bucks.

Anyone working a full time job should be earning enough to feed and house themselves. Walmart employees surviving on food stamps is not a subsidy to the workers, but to the Billionaire Walmart family who can get away with paying less because the government covers the balance so their employees don’t starve and thus have the energy to do the work that allows Walmart to operate. I haven’t studies Walmart’s taxes, but, if everything is taken into account, I wouldn’t be surprised to find that they get back more than they contribute.

The fact that the US has a $22T deficit (maybe $15T, if you take out the cost of wars) WHILE AT THE SAME TIME crumbling infrastructure, low wage teachers, an abysmal healthcare system, run down schools, *no* free college education, terrible public housing, high levels of homelessness and poverty (especially the unforgivable child poverty) compared to other advanced countries, is proof that the rich are takers, while the poor, through their suffering, are the givers.

7 hours ago, mogandave said:

9 hours ago, Thakkar said:

The experience in every other developed country says otherwise.

 

Yes, I hear that on CNN all the time

 

There are sources other than television news. If you are genuinely interested in unbiased facts and data, try “Our World in data” — reliable data, clear cut explanations, interactive charts and links to raw data you can check for yourself. They have a section on health, including country comparisons on expenses vs outcomes. 

https://ourworldindata.org/health-meta

There’s also the non-profit started by former Microsoft CEO, Steve Balmer that collects US government data and publishes a yearly reports laying the info out in clear, easy to understand manner. The report is very skim friendly. https://static.usafacts.org/public/annual-report/2019/USAFacts_2019_Annual_Report.pdf

it’s just been released, so I haven’t had a close look yet. It’s useful to have around when trying to form one’s own opinion about things.

I’m neither Right nor Left. I go where the data, compassion, empathy, reason and logic take me on individual issues. Currently, on many issues, they happen to be taking me left of centre. On the issue of healthcare in America, they are taking me so far left, I can see the guillotine in the distance and can imagine healthcare industry millionaires, their lobbyists and the politicians they’ve bought lined up behind it.