Jump to content

The Politics Thread


Toups

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 45.8k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Vee

    6817

  • DRW50

    5990

  • DramatistDreamer

    5521

  • Khan

    3462

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

  • Members

The thing is, Iraq was a country we would 100% win a war against with. War against Russia is different. We could beat them, but it would be costlier and bloodier and not limited to just Crimea. Plus, Russia has nukes.

Mutually Assured Destruction has kept the U.S. and Russia out of war since the 50s. Putin knows which countries are sacred cows and which he is not allowed to attack. Now it's time for the U.S. to afford him the similar respect and stop expanding NATO east. tbh NATO should not even exist anymore.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

True and that's what the Democrats ought to be doing more of. The War on Women is a real thing in the GOP. As is the war on the poor and the war on voting. I was happy to see the Democrats finally grow a pair. That's one thing I'm looking forward to with a Hilary Clinton campaign. The Clintons are street fighters. Obama has always tried to play too nice for my taste.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Agreed. Women are the biggest vote in this country, and the way republicans nationwide have treated them in the last 5 years has been quite horrible. Democrats need to run campaigns based in truth, because Lord knows Republicans only care about lying outright and running the sleaziest campaigns, going after someone personally and not their policies.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Watching the Republican reaction to the ACA signups has been the highlight of my day. It reminds me of the way I felt when they called Ohio for Obama in 2012.

I'll never understand the political mindset that simply refuses to accept bad news. Nobody wins all the time yet the GOP can never admit when it's lost. They lost this battle. They lost it everywhere and in every way. They lost in the legislature when they tried to stop it. They lost in the courts when SCOTUS upheld it. They lost at the ballot box when the guy who promised to repeal it on day one got his ass handed to him by voters. They lost when they shut down the government to defund it. They lost when 7.1 million people signed up and every time somebody signs up they lose again.

It's not like there haven't been losses on the other side: the employer mandate, the contraception mandate, etc… so the GOP needs to take the victories it got and accept reality.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

They have to realize that there is no end-game that looks favorable to them when it comes to Obamacare. I mean what happens if they win the presidency in 2016? There will be more than the 7 million people currently enrolled by then. If they repeal, all those people will be cut off from their insurance, and they acted like it was a federal crime when 4.7 million lost their policies last year. At this point, they really can't repeal it anymore. They ran out of time to do it. I wouldn't be surprised if their talking points start to change now to maybe making changes in the law. Which is where Obama has been all along, but because their stance was either repeal or nothing, they actually ensured that they would be stuck with the law.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Very happy that the ACA hit over 7 million! The best part though is now that the deadline has come and passed there will be 5 minutes of basically pure silence in terms of negative ACA news/headlines. The only thing that might dampen the good news is if rates for next year happen to be significantly higher but I have to think the White House will do everything possible to work with insurers to keep rates/costs down.

Its up to Democrats and the groups that support Democrats to put out ads fighting back against the Koch brothers and their misleading "Obamacare" ads...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Because of the big headline, today is a good day for Democrats (in terms of perception) and a Republican shouldn't act otherwise. I am very skeptical about just how "good" this 7 million number is--such as whether all of these people have paid their premiums or whether that number includes some people who were previously insured but were kicked off their insurance due to the ACA--but we won't know the answers to these matters for some time.

I certainly don't see how the GOP lost every ObamaCare battle "everywhere and in every way." As you alluded to, the GOP scores a victory every time Obama caves and delays the employer mandate. Also, the Republicans weren't the ones who lost when the disastrous rollout occurred, or when many became very upset over the president's broken promise that if you like your insurance, you can keep it. And yes, while not the only factor, the ACA did play an important role in the defeat of the Democratic candidate in a congressional district twice won by Obama.

The issue of ObamaCare (and how drastically it will change) is an issue that I don't see getting resolved until the outcome of the 2016 election. (Today's news did not put an end to the debate, nor will the likely GOP takeover of the Senate later this year.) A GOP president will make major changes to ObamaCare (although full repeal probably won't happen), while a Democratic president will pretty much leave it alone. In my opinion, the desire to maintain the ACA goes a long way towards explaining why nobody from the far left is protesting the nomination of Hillary (because most know that she is the only Democrat who can win).

Edited by Max
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I see what you are saying, but the fact that it cannot be repealed is a victory for Obamacare. It was never intended to be endgame.

Also, I don't think Hillary can win. I want her to, and I wanted her to last time, but it's not going to happen. America is not ready for a woman president.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I think that to many voters, the ACA will always be seen as a failure. The media and the GOP did a good job of setting that idea in stone. And the Democrats certainly did their best to help.

If the GOP had sense they'd just quietly and backhandedly praise the numbers. Instead they are being hysterical idiots, but it doesn't matter, because they will win anyway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

The GOP is winning the Senate, that is for sure.

The next Presidency? They have a shot. At which point the ACA becomes their baby, and we probably get a lot of reforms to it that Democrats wanted anyway. They only care about spending when they don't have the White House. I would not be surprised to see more spending, even if disguised as tax credits, to fix the law.

Edited by juppiter
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

The republicans currently have no one to compete with Hillary. Chris Christie will never be elected president because America doesn't cae for angry politicians and he is perpetually pissed. That and he is obese, which makes his candidacy DOA.

About Obamacare, numbers can be made to say whatever the person counting them wants so we will have to see who these 7 million are and how many of them come from the uninsured he was seeking to help. I have never been a fan of Obamacare because to me it just seems wrong to say "we know our system sucks and the insurance companies are crooks. Just because you young people are too smart to willingly give them your money doesn't mean you don't have to." It doesn't even make sense: "The insurance companies overcharge and rob every single american who has insurance, so lets make it a law that they get even more customers." The idea should have been to go for socialized medicine and put these insurance crooks out of business, not enhance their portfolios.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Bobby Jindal??

Jindal is a false hope for the GOP. They tried with him once before touting him as a star politician, so they immediately trotted him out for some TV state of the union response and he revealed he has no charisma, no TV presence, a poor ability to give a speech, and a deer in headlights aura.

A democrat can only hope Jindal runs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.



  • Recent Posts

    • Download isn't working for me either.  With that said, thank you for all the work you have done!
    • @P.J. Well, it wasn't her first award. I am sure she has written books, and spoken at colleges, and gotten some notoriety from it. Most importantly, she is fulfilled. Something Dani is not.  @Paul Raven Exactly, it does not ring true to me. Dani has that big personality because she is masking pain. And she probably clung to Bill because he made her feel smart and important (at one point). There are ways to add more layers to her.
    • Absolutely. And IIRC Rose Alaio has mentioned production having it out for her.
    • That goes back to Chance/Abby-there was way more to explore with their marriage but the first problem that pops up that's pretty much it-moving on. And Kyle/Lola, years worth of story dropped so he can fall back in love with Summer. Sharon/Rey married off with no plans for their future so they kill him off. And so on...
    • All of that would be interesting. Why would JG ever do that?
    • GH 1976 Pt 2 Medical student Bobby Chandler’s bone-marrow test results are in, and Steve Hardy has the difficult task of telling him he has Malenkov’s Disease, a rare and fatal blood disease. Bobby, newly married Samantha, hears his one-year-maximum prognosis and insists that Steve not tell anyone, as he has to have time to work out his own feelings. To cover up the treatments he’ll be starting immediately, Bobby, with Steve, decides to tell his family he has mononucleosis. His wife and his mother, Caroline, accept this story, but attorney Lee Baldwin senses it’s much more and presses Bobby for the truth, then promising to keep Bobby’s secret. Even though Bobby moves into a state of remission, Lee realizes the gravity of the problem and moves his wedding to Caroline forward, assuring Bobby that he will always be there for both Caroline and Sammi. But Bobby’s remission is short-lived, and his symptoms are now more severe, requiring frequent whole-blood transfusions. And a new experimental drug he is taking holds the threat of serious side effects. Sammi learns that Bobby’s attempt to buy life insurance was turned down and, herself a nurse, realizes that his symptoms are more severe than mono. She tries to press Leslie for the truth, but Leslie can’t violate a patient’s confidence. She does, however, pressure Bobby to let Sammi share is with him. Bobby insists that he can’t; he won’t send her into mourning while he’s still there to watch. But Sammi, angry at being treated like a child, presses the issue and manages to find out the truth. She then asks Lee to convince Bobby that his mother must be told so they can all show him the love they have for him before it’s too late and they have only  regrets for what went unsaid. Lee agrees, and after the wedding he protectively tells Caroline the truth. Sammi then tells Bobby that she is pregnant, news that he receives with very mixed emotions. Steve hits an optimistic note when he tells Bobby that a new breakthrough in leukemia chemotherapy may help him in his fight for life. This new treatment calls for more extensive testing, and Steve is overjoyed to find that there has been a variation in Bobby’s condition which indicates that he -doesn’t have Malenkov’s Disease after all. His condition, while serious, can be successfully treated  extensive drug therapy in New York, and Lee quickly arranges for all of them to move there so they can support Bobby during the extensive treatment and long recovery.  Dr. Jim Hobart and his wife, Audrey, are continuing their therapy sessions, trying to decide if they have a future together. Audrey admits she has stayed with Jim only because he needed her while he was drinking, and he in turn admits that he knows Audrey married him not out of love but out of gratitude for saving her son Tommy’s life in surgery. When Jim finally tells Audrey that he created his own alcoholic abyss and blamed her only because she was conveniently close, she wonders what will happen to: her when he recovers. If he doesn’t need her, can she go on? Does she need so much to be needed? When Jim, improving, starts teaching at the local college, he finds his self-image improving. But Audrey, worn out from therapy, suggests that she take a short vacation alone. Jim sees this as a way of undermining his recent strides and is angry. He relates this situation to his recent impotence, caused by his emotional problems. Jim reacts to his own feelings of inadequacy by withdrawing from Audrey, treating her impersonally and coldly. She takes this as an indication of her own failure. But when Jim reacts enthusiastically to one of his students, lovely young Sally Grimes, Audrey questions her own responsibility for the situation and accepts a dinner invitation with Steve Hardy, her first husband. Steve’s reassurance that she’s been a paragon of tolerance is negated when Jim walks in late and showing signs of drinking. When she asks how he could do it, he bitterly replies, “It’s a way to help me escape from you,” and turns and leaves. He goes to Sally’s, where they make love. When Sally later expresses regret at interfering in his marriage, Jim assures her there was nothing left to spoil—his wife is frigid but has blamed their sexual failure on him; thanks to Sally, he now knows he’s not inadequate. Since Sally won’t have an affair with a married man, Jim decides to make the break with Audrey. He bit- _ terly tells her Sally proved to him that he never had a problem—all he needed was a real woman, not one who was all burned out. He scathingly says that she takes men and castrates them; cases in point, her three husbands: Steve Hardy, Tom Baldwin, and himself. Shocked and horribly hurt by his accusations, Audrey swallows sleeping pills but immediately realizes the folly of her actions and tries to get help. Steve, meanwhile, senses something wrong and on a hunch goes to her apartment, where he finds her unconscious. He rushes her to the hospital for treatment, and after sixteen hours she begins to come around. She tearfully repeats Jim’s accusations while still groggy, and Steve reassures her that nothing Jim said was in any way true. As she dozes in the security of his presence, he whispers to her, “There’s a lot of woman in you, there was and there is, my sweet, lovely Audrey.”  Nurse Beth Maynard, despite her frequent pronouncements that she’s immune to emotional involvement, has fallen in love with resident Kyle Bradley. Beth’s sister, Nurse Diana Taylor, feels that Kyle treats Beth as if she were a casual conquest, however, rather than a woman he loves. Kyle’s life is now complicated by the arrival of Nurse Kate Marshall in town. She is staying with her godmother, Jessie Brewer, R.N., while. she recovers from a painful divorce. She and Kyle had an affair a few years ago, and she knows he’s married but keeps his wife “under wraps.” Kyle, in turn, knows that the discovery of Kate’s affair with Dr. John McAllister drove his wife to suicide. Kyle and Kate resume their affair. Despite the fact that Kyle is now living with Beth, Diana has seen enough to convince her that Kyle is deceiving her sister. But Beth won’t believe this, until she sees them embracing herself. When she confronts Kate, Kate bitterly tells Beth everything past and present about herself and Kyle, including the interesting fact that he’s married. Beth, shocked and hurt, throws Kyle out, and Jessie, who overheard Kate’s vindictive diatribe to Beth, arranges her transfer to another hospital.     
    • This is so true - the instant love is annoying. Adam/Sally/Billy/Chelsea are the best evidence of why this rings hollow. While I can see Adam/Chelsea reuniting based on a long history and Connor, there's no way Sally would instantly declare love. While Billy is just a desperate soul, Sally would be far more cautious after what happened with Adam. The *real* Sally would not only scheme to get Adam back, but make Chelsea's life difficult. She just got over it and gave up. Please. Instead of insta-love why can't some of these characters more casual? I hope Claire flings with Holden after Kyle falls into Audra's trap. Abby turns to Nate when Devon obsesses over Amanda - even if she's not in town. Lauren turns to Jack during this Michael stress, who in turn lands in Diane's web. We need messy triangles/quads and more.
    • Literally looks like a damn VFA or bingo hall. But we’re supposed to believe high rollers go there.
    • More 1976 LOL Carrie is very afraid that Ian’s paying her bills will force Arlene into a relationship with him she doesn’t want. She asks Joe if there’s some way to give Ian  back the money. Joe tells Arlene that her mother’s afraid of the situation, but Arlene assures him that the only thing she fears is that Tom will find out and think she’s more than a friend to Ian. Betsy, understandably resentful of Arlene, can’t see what her brother sees in her and is upset to see Arlene with Ian, as she’s sure Tom will be hurt. Tom is initially quite angry when he happens to learn that Ian paid Carrie’s hospital bills in full but believes Arlene when she assures him Ian’s just a friend. Ian, meanwhile, after Arlene admits she has strong feelings for a young doctor and can therefore regard Ian only as a friend, puts the pieces together and makes an appointment to see Tom for a cardiac examination. Tom realizes why Ian has chosen him and refuses a considerable fee to become Ian’s personal physician. . Betsy has suggested that Tom not ask Arlene to Meg’s formal New Year’s Eve party for the sake of all concerned. Meg, while having Carrie alter her party dress, mentions she’s being escorted by a wealthy man but doesn’t mention Ian by name. Ian had asked  Arlene to fly to Mexico with him for the New Year, but she declined, explaining she had another date. Tom, seeing how left out she feels, tells Arlene they are going to Meg’s party after all, and she begins looking for a dress, unable to afford the type of smashing creation she really wants. Ian, learning that Arlene’s  looking for a dress suitable for Meg’s party, arranges to have a designer creation sent in place of the off the rack dress she selected. When it arrives, Arlene and Carrie immediately plan to return it, but, on second thought, Arlene decides it wouldn’t hurt if she wore it just this once.  Ben Harper is released from prison, and Betsy tries - to show him they have nothing left between them by dating Jamie. However, her feelings for Ben get in the way of her enjoying Jamie’s company. Jamie has decided to accept an out-of-town law firm’s offer and, before leaving, helps Diana arrange the passport requirements for her newly arranged missionary trainee post in Peru. Diana tells Jamie she’s finally found peace except for her sadness at having to leave Johnny  behind. Beaver Ridge has continued to deteriorate since Rick left Meg in control, and Jamie warns Rick that since he owns fifty-one percent of the club, he’ll have to come up with fifty-one percent of the money needed to put the place back on its feet. Cal has mentioned to Rick that she would rather have a smaller, more informal home than his imposing house, and when she learns he’s put the house on the market she assumes he’s considering her desire for an easier home to run. Rick is determined that Cal not know the full extent of his financial problems. Since she wants it so badly, Rick promises Cal he’ll buy the mill house as their home, but he refuses adamantly to accept money from her trust fund toward the purchase, recalling the trouble resulting from the last time he borrowed  money from a woman—her mother, Meg.  Ian informs Ray that he'll get his cut of Beaver Ridge only when he, Ian, has the controlling interest.  When Rick can’t raise his share of the Beaver Ridge capital, he approaches Ray for help. Ray sends him to Ian, who refusés to make a loan, explaining it’s his firm policy, but suggests he pay one hundred thousand ~ dollars for two percent of Rick’s holdings in Beaver Ridge, thus transferring majority ownership to himself. Rick thinks it over and realizes he has no choice but to accept. He hates losing control of Beaver Ridge but  feels his first responsibility is Cal and he must protect her from his financial worries. Ben has moved in with Van and Bruce, explaining to Meg that he wants no help and no coddling, he has to make it on his own. He manages to find a job as a salesman in a sporting-goods shop, despite his parole. Betsy hires Carrie as Suzanne’s baby sitter in order to be absent when Ben visits his daughter. Ben finally tells Betsy he’d hoped there was still a chance for them despite everything but her dating Jamie and avoiding him seems to mean he was mistaken. Betsy admits she’s no longer seeing Jamie and agrees to be home when Ben visits. They then call a truce and decide to attend Meg’s party together.  
    • A few years after my grandfather and great aunt passed away, my grandmother married her widowed brother-in-law. You could have knocked us all over with a feather when they told us. My point is: it happens in RL, a lot more often than people think. In the Jack/Siobhan case, it would have been super messy, which is exactly what you want on a soap. Putting Siobhan with Joe forced them to write her as very naive and gullible, which seemed totally wrong for the character they initially introduced. I liked Rose, too, but that story also got derailed by the stupid mob stuff.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy