November 29-30, 2016
Nov 29 03:09 Stein, Clinton, political misfits edition Nov 29 03:14 Militant environmentalists march Nov 29 09:55 Trump picks Price for HHS Nov 30 05:33 Stein suffers major setback Nov 30 08:27 Pelosi's leadership challenge Nov 30 14:58 Pro-Obamacare cheerleading
Prior Months: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct
Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Stein, Clinton, political misfits edition
Jill Stein insists that her petition for a recount in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin is being done for the noblest of reasons. In this article , Stein is quoted as saying "We need peace of mind about our voting system in this election and going forward." She reportedly said this with a straight face. It isn't that we don't "need peace of mind about our voting system in this election and going forward." It's that Stein's requests are based on assumptions, hunches, a little incompetence and tons of litigation.
The tons of litigation comes partly from Dr. Stein's missing Pennsylvania's recount deadline . Part of the litigation comes from the fact that Stein didn't get her way in Wisconsin . The litigation is also partly because of her campaign's incompetence.
Dr. Stein's incompetence is highlighted by the fact that she didn't follow Pennsylvania's recount laws. Whether she thought the laws didn't apply to her or whether they just missed the deadline, the indisputable truth is that Dr. Stein missed Pennsylvania's deadline. That's the least of Dr. Stein's problems.
According to this article , the fundraising is the easy part. Specifically, the article says "when it comes to the Keystone State, it turns out raising the money might have been the easiest step. As Stein points out herself in a video posted on Sunday, initiating a statewide recount of Pennsylvania's vote is 'especially complicated.'"
Speculation increases as to why Mrs. Clinton would join such a haphazard recount operation. Whatever her reasons are for joining, though, they aren't helping her image. She's acting like a spoiled brat who doesn't like losing.
Posted Tuesday, November 29, 2016 3:09 AM
Comment 1 by JerryE9 at 29-Nov-16 10:10 AM
What I find curious is that they admit the purpose is not to change the outcome of the election by finding "errors" in the count, but they seem to suggest that fraud can somehow be "found" in all those perfectly identical ballots. The ballots are not fraudulent; the voters that cast them are and since it is a SECRET ballot there is absolutely no way to know. The only way to stop voter fraud is to prevent it, before the ballot gets into the box, but of course Democrats want absolutely no part of that.
Militant environmentalists march
One thing that can't be disputed is the fact that militant environmentalists don't think through the tactics they'll use to pipelines from getting built. For instance, this Mother Jones article includes a quote from Debbie Sease, the senior lobbying and advocacy director at the Sierra Club about the things they'll do to stop legal, permitted pipelines from getting built. She said that "her organization's strategy lies in playing defense by filing legal challenges, galvanizing the public, and using the marketplace. If a coal field is going to be developed, for example, activists can make it as expensive as possible to comply with existing regulations and force the developer to deal with a public backlash, she says. Additional tools environmentalists can use include citizen lawsuits, grassroots organizing, and ballot measures at the state and local level focusing on everything from renewable energy standards to green transportation initiatives."
It's important to note that that's just part of the Sierra Club's tactics. This article isn't about the Sierra Club. Still, it's another organization working to prevent pipelines from getting built:
PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE, Man. - A Manitoba indigenous chief says there's a desire for action - which could include blockades of Canadian pipelines and railways - in support of a protest against a North Dakota pipeline project.
Grand Chief Terry Nelson of the Southern Chiefs Organization says chiefs and others attended a meeting Saturday at the Dakota Tipi First Nation near Portage la Prairie to discuss how to react if the U.S. government clears demonstrators from a camp occupied by the Dakota Access pipeline protesters.
Nelson says one option includes blocking access to pumping stations along a pipeline operated by Enbridge, which has plans to acquire a stake in the U.S. pipeline project. After the meeting, Dakota Tipi members held a pipe ceremony on the Trans-Canada Highway near Portage la Prairie, Man., temporarily blocking a lane of traffic.
The thing to keep in mind about these protests is that they aren't about stopping global warming or the environment. The DAPL got all of its permits before starting construction. They did what the government required them to do.
These protesters are part anarchist, part fascist, part authoritarian. Their respect for the rule of law is virtually nonexistent. That's clear considering the fact that the company that's building the DAPL has been attacked daily. These anarchists are violent, too.
It's time to tighten up laws, too. Environmentalists convicted of committing violence should be imprisoned for a mandatory 5 years and fined $10,000 if they're caught protesting on pipeline property. Let them know that there's a price they'll have to pay for disrupting legally permitted things.
Posted Tuesday, November 29, 2016 3:14 AM
No comments.
Trump picks Price for HHS
Donald Trump's cabinet keeps getting more impressive. This morning, President-Elect Trump officially announced that he's picked Rep. Tom Price to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services. According to this WSJ article , "Mr. Trump on Tuesday also named Seema Verma, a consultant who helped Vice President-Elect Mike Pence negotiate a groundbreaking Medicaid deal with the Obama administration, as the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services."
Price brings instant credibility to Republicans' efforts to repeal and replace the ACA. "Mr. Price, a 62-year-old former orthopedic surgeon, is one of several GOP physicians who sought to carve out a leading role in shaping the party's health policy and, in particular, the party's alternative vision to Democrats' Affordable Care Act."
This past summer, Price told an interviewer "We think it's important that Washington not be in charge of health care. The problem that I have with Obamacare is that its premise is that Washington knows best."
Price likely will get lots of criticism from Democrats during his confirmation hearing because he's written legislation that would repeal and replace Obamacare. Dr. Price won't have a problem with these criticisms and will likely have some sharp responses to the Democrats' criticism.
It's difficult to see Price not getting confirmed. He's the chairman of the House Budget Committee. He's the former chair of the House Study Committee, too. In announcing the pick, Donald Trump issued this statement :
"Chairman Price, a renowned physician, has earned a reputation for being a tireless problem solver and the go-to expert on healthcare policy, making him the ideal choice to serve in this capacity,' Trump said in making the announcement official early Tuesday. He added that Price "is exceptionally qualified to shepherd our commitment to repeal and replace Obamacare and bring affordable and accessible healthcare to every American."
Posted Tuesday, November 29, 2016 9:55 AM
No comments.
Stein suffers major setback
Dr. Jill Stein's campaign suffered a significant defeat in court Tuesday when a judge ruled that counties didn't need to do a hand recount . Stein suffered that defeat when "Dane County Circuit Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn said the effort to force the hand recount" hadn't met "the state's legal standard for prohibiting the use of machines in the recount, saying that the two campaigns did not show a hand recount, though more thorough, was necessary or show there was a clear and convincing evidence of fraud or other problems."
The lawsuit was destined to fail because it was based virtually entirely on hypothetical possibilities, not verifiable proof. According to the USA Today article, "Stein campaign brought forward a series of experts in statistics and computer science who argued for a hand recount by describing a series of hypothetical ways that computer hackers might reprogram voting machines."
Stein's attorneys tried putting their best spin on the ruling:
Debbie Greenberger, an attorney for the Stein campaign, said she was uncertain whether their side would appeal but said she hoped county clerks would heed the judge's praise for a hand recount.
Fat chance with that. A hand recount would be lengthy. A machine recount would be significantly faster.
The Stein recount 'machine' just broke down.
Posted Wednesday, November 30, 2016 5:33 AM
No comments.
Pelosi's leadership challenge
Rep. Tim Ryan, (D-OH), has run an aggressive campaign against Nancy Pelosi. Whether he wins (odds are against him winning) or not, Rep. Ryan has highlighted what political analysts have known for eight years: that the Democratic Party isn't a healthy, thriving national party.
Thanks to the Democrats' humiliating defeats in 2010, 2014 and 2016, the Democrats' bench is thinner than the Vikings offensive line. Put differently, the list of rising stars in the Democratic Party is virtually non-existent. This WSJ article highlights what's gone wrong with the Democratic Party. It opens by saying "Nancy Pelosi has led Democrats to four straight defeats in elections to control the U.S. House, which explains why Republicans are endorsing her to stay as Minority Leader. She finally has a challenger in Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan in a secret-ballot vote on Wednesday, but the party's weakness in Congress runs deeper than its leadership."
Democrats are making the mistake of thinking their problems are identity-based. They aren't. Their problems started multiplying when they went exotic. First, it was the anti-war protests. Next, it was Occupy Wall Street, aka OWS. After that, they worshipped at the altar of Black Lives Matter. Periodically throughout their demise, Democrats told the American people that climate change was a bigger threat to national security than al-Qa'ida, then ISIS.
It isn't surprising that people in America's heartland took one look at Democrats and determined that Democrats are nuts. Nancy Pelosi is the perfect leader for such a political party.
This patronage system has helped Mrs. Pelosi build support among the Congressional Black and Hispanic caucuses, which will make up an estimated 70 of the 194 Democrats seats next year. Democrats also don't have term limits for committee chairs, which has frozen young members out of influence. All of this has magnified the caucus's insularity and its swing to the political left.
Democrats won the House in 2006 by recruiting moderates to run in competitive districts. Mrs. Pelosi then forced them to walk the plank on the stimulus, cap and trade and ObamaCare. The centrist Blue Dog coalition has lost three-fourths of its Members since 2010.
This morning on CNN's New Day, Rep. Debbie Dingell sang Pelosi's praises, insisting that she's a great listener and that she's helped unify the Democratic Party. The Democrats are unified in the sense that the only ones left are the Black Lives Matter wing of the Democratic Party and wholly-owned subsidiaries of the environmental activist wing of the Democratic Party.
We'll know that the Republicans' winning streak has continued if these are the faces of the Democratic Party:
Posted Wednesday, November 30, 2016 8:27 AM
No comments.
Pro-Obamacare cheerleading
This Miami Herald editorial is a fantastic example of the Agenda Media pretending to be thoughtful journalists and policy experts. I'll be blunt. The Miami Herald is neither. They're a pro-Obamacare cheerleader.
That was obvious when they said "On the one hand, Republicans in Congress want to scrap Obamacare, simple as that. On the other, Mr. Trump now says he wants to keep the part of the law that prohibits insurance companies from discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions. And he also likes the provision that allows parents to keep grown children on their policies until the age of 26." It doesn't require a rocket scientist to figure it out that some parts of the ACA are popular, even worthwhile. Likewise, it doesn't require a rocket scientist to figure out that some provisions in the ACA are counterproductive.
For instance, the provision that provided for annual bailouts of insurance companies should've been a giant red flag that the ACA would bankrupt the insurance companies without that provision. Another provision eliminates risk as a factor for determining premiums. What idiot thinks it's possible for insurance companies to sell health insurance to the 60-year-old guy who's had 3 heart attacks at the same price as the 30-year-old guy whose biggest medical bill came when he scraped his knee on the playground when he was in fifth grade?
Here's additional proof that the Miami Herald is pro-Democrat cheerleading mouthpiece:
Salvaging this and other essential provisions while scrapping Obamacare would be the legislative equivalent of squaring the circle. There is no clear path to "repeal and replace" because Republicans have never bothered to sit down with Democrats to figure out how to improve the law that everyone, including President Obama himself, concedes is far from perfect.
Actually, this isn't that complicated. Here in Minnesota, we had a fantastic system until the ACA shredded that system. To keep premiums low and insured rates high while making sure that people with pre-existing conditions got insurance, Minnesota set up a high-risk pool. People with pre-existing conditions bought insurance that was subsidized on a sliding scale. The less you made, the more the insurance was subsidized.
In 2007, Minnesota's effective insured rate was 96.5%. Because these high-risk people were separated from the healthier people, the healthier people's health insurance premiums were significantly lower than they are today.
Then there's this:
Its essential functions are working as intended. More than 16 million Americans have gained health insurance.
That's true but misleading:
A new study by Jonathan Gruber, one of the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) chief economic architects, suggests that roughly two-thirds of new Medicaid enrollees in 2014 were eligible for the program under previous state eligibility criteria - meaning that they were not made eligible by the ACA. If accurate, then a much smaller share of new Medicaid enrollees were made eligible for the program by the ACA than Washington experts commonly believe.
More people signed up because the application process got streamlined prior to the ACA's passage. That's proof that the Democrats' fearmongering has already started. Republicans just need to do what's right and things will work out fine for them.
Posted Wednesday, November 30, 2016 2:58 PM
No comments.
