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Reports of protests are overblown. A few incidents around the country, but nothing major.

5 (45.5%)

A few major incidents in capitals, but nothing much in DC.

5 (45.5%)

A major incident in DC, but nothing much around the country.

0 (0%)

More than 10 capitals have major upheavals, but nothing much in DC.

0 (0%)

A major incident in DC plus more than 10 capitals with significant upheavals.

1 (9.1%)

More than half the capitals around the country have problems with protesters, but DC is quiet.

0 (0%)

DC has major problems, while more than half the capitals around the country also have considerable trouble with protesters.

0 (0%)

Huge disruption to the day.

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 9

Voting closed: January 19, 2021, 10:49:21 PM

[NeedsAdjustments]

Again - was anything on "his yearbook page" written by Kavanaugh?

Again, yes, it all was.

The Georgetown Prep yearbook’s personal pages were designed and written by the individual students, according to alumni. A faculty adviser reviewed the pages.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/24/business/brett-kavanaugh-yearbook-renate.html

pay site

You lost all credibility on that issue with your WaPo post, Kiid.

That, and I cut and pasted the relevant portion of the piece in the post.

And watch, later on today he will ask again "how do we know Kavanaugh wrote the yearbook pate?"  kiidcarter8's posts are the forum equivalent of sticking his fingers in his ears.

[NeedsAdjustments]

This is a Constitional procedure to fill a vacancy in a Branch of our Government with specific Constitutional rules to follow. The bottom line is the investigative role in the procedure falls to the Senate.  Certainly not to the FBI unless you are ignorant of the principle of separation of powers.

The Senate tasks the FBI to run background checks on potential SCOTUS nominees, REDSTATEWARD, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (for example) has endorsed the use of the bureau here, though maybe the Senator is ignorant of the principles of separation of powers. 

But, as usual, you either miss or skirt past the main point here.  If this were a normal nominating process held under a normal administration and not the current party over country fervor that has gripped the GOP, granting a lifetime appointment to a Supreme Court Justice who may be an attempted rapist would be unconscionable.  So in normal times, it would be on the Republicans to investigate the allegations and clear Kavanaugh of that possibility.  If they could not do that, they would move on to a different candidate.

Instead, we have a party that is rushing to put a potential attempted rapist on the court before November elections, that isn't investigating these allegations seriously because they are afraid they may prove to be true.

The fact that this is all distinctly not normal is why you are so dedicated to the argument that this is all business as usual.  It isn't, REDSTATEWARD.  Not even close.

[kiidcarter8]

Thanks, Morning Joe - for including plenty of Trump quotes from yesterday on your show today

"They KNOW (Kavanaugh) is high quality!"

Yes.  That one line says it all.

[kiidcarter8]

Circus tomorrow.

Vote Friday.

[kiidcarter8]

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/drug-prices-climb-despite-trump-promise-investigation-finds-n913011?cid=sm_npd_nn_fb_ma

Speaking of liars.

President Trump fails on another of his promises.

Good to see positive work being done on an issue Obama had little time for.

I think you have been led by the nose again.

heh

[NeedsAdjustments]

News Item:

The Bonus Mirage:

Shortly after the passage of Trump's tax cuts in December 2017, major companies, eager to demonstrate that a $1 trillion corporate tax cut benefited the American worker, made a series of splashy announcements about bonuses...

So was this true? After all, bonuses were not invented in December 2017. The key question is not whether companies gave bonuses after the tax cuts. It's whether companies gave more bonuses than they had previously because of the tax cuts.

Earlier this month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released data about bonuses in the first two quarters of 2018. The Economic Policy Institute ran the numbers, and there is absolutely no evidence that the tax cut spurred any significant increase in the number or size of bonuses going to workers...

You read that right. The increase in bonuses after the Trump tax cuts amounted to a grand total of 3 cents per hour.

Moreover, there is no evidence that this 3 cent increase had anything to do with the tax cuts. As the Wall Street Journal notes, "bonuses started taking off four years ago." There was a larger increase in worker bonuses under the Obama administration which did not pass any corporate tax cuts.



https://popular.info/p/the-bonus-mirage

[NeedsAdjustments]

Now, to be clear, bonus size is not an indicator of a thriving economy leading to greater worker salaries.  It can be the opposite.  Bonuses are actually a way for a business to retain workers in a tighter labor market by moderately increasing compensation without committing to those higher compensation levels long term.

But it was Republicans who were touting those bonuses as proof that the tax cut is working, and it turns out the data (right now) proves what some of us were saying at the time.  It was pure propaganda.

[kiidcarter8]

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900033590/qanda-why-abby-huntsman-doesnt-like-to-be-labelled-conservative.html

Good read.

[NeedsAdjustments]

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900033590/qanda-why-abby-huntsman-doesnt-like-to-be-labelled-conservative.html

Good read.

I liked the part where she defines Republicanism as the opposite of accepting people for who they are, and wanting those who are different from you to be happy:

I don’t like to define myself as necessarily conservative. What is it to be a conservative? What is it to be a Republican, even? You’ve got Trump in the White House, so you could say there’s the Trump party, and then traditionally there’s the Republican Party. But for me, it just depends on what the issue is. I’m probably more fiscally a Republican. But socially, I’m just accepting of everything. I want everyone to be happy; I want everyone to live a life that they’re proud of. So I’m not going to sit there and judge them and speak for them. That’s just who I am.

Also like the "Trump party" part.  Always fascinating, people who live in denial that Trump is a Conservative Republican, with a capital C and R.

[barton]

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/drug-prices-climb-despite-trump-promise-investigation-finds-n913011?cid=sm_npd_nn_fb_ma

Speaking of liars.

President Trump fails on another of his promises.

Good to see positive work being done on an issue Obama had little time for.

I think you have been led by the nose again.

heh

Asking drug companies to just be nice and lower prices on older drugs (i.e. been on the market long enough that the R&D has been paid for) is about as effective as any other "voluntary" approach to capitalism.  Trump surely knows that.  It's all hot air and handwaving.  Unfortunately, for libertarians and free market capitalists generally, the only measure that works is government price controls.  Socialism.  Europe has taken such measures, having many democratic socialist governments.  If we could, as a nation, ever assert that some matters of the public good are more important than pleasing shareholders, then we could fix this problem.  Medicine and medical care is one area where socialized solutions help ensure that anyone who is sick can get the treatment they need.  A healthy population is really really good for the economy, so it kind of "pays for itself" in terms of overall social benefit. 

[kiidcarter8]

Asshole Senator from CT flat out calls Judge Kavanaugh a rapist.

[REDSTATEWARD]

A healthy population is really really good for the economy, so it kind of "pays for itself" in terms of overall social benefit.

Not with price controls or socialism.
Nearly 80 per cent of the drugs never fully recover their cost of research and production.
Without the promise of high profits on the remaining 20 per cent very few drug firms could sustain the multi-billion dollar cost of (an average) ten tears in Research and development.
An average of 20 new drugs are ok’d by the FDA each year at a cost to drug company of $5-10 Billion dollars. When statins came on the market in the mid-90’s the average monthly cost of prescriptions went from $ 35 to $ 70, while death from hypertension -related illnesses decreased by nearly 50% in the next decade.

[NeedsAdjustments]

A healthy population is really really good for the economy, so it kind of "pays for itself" in terms of overall social benefit.

Not with price controls or socialism.
Nearly 80 per cent of the drugs never fully recover their cost of research and production.
Without the promise of high profits on the remaining 20 per cent very few drug firms could sustain the multi-billion dollar cost of (an average) ten tears in Research and development.
An average of 20 new drugs are ok’d by the FDA each year at a cost to drug company of $5-10 Billion dollars. When statins came on the market in the mid-90’s the average monthly cost of prescriptions went from $ 35 to $ 70, while death from hypertension -related illnesses decreased by nearly 50% in the next decade.

Sorry, but getting through all these cut-and-pasted sentences strung together, what is your argument?  That "socialist" countries like Canada are less healthy?  That they don't have the same drugs, or that US drugs are better?  Because this is false.

Or are you arguing that the high price of drugs in the US is subsidizing their R&D for the rest of the world?  If so, that doesn't have anything to do with "socialism" and just makes us suckers.

[NeedsAdjustments]

Not sure what to make of the latest allegations against Kavanaugh, except to say that her description of the atmosphere in these parties and Kavanaugh's drinking are consistent with what we have heard from others so far, and that in and of itself is disturbing.

I would also say that now, any Senate committee that does not subpoena the testimony of Mark Judge has no real interest in getting to the truth.

[NeedsAdjustments]

Say what you want about the need of Republicans to bring in outside help to avoid the spectacle of an alleged sexual assault victim being questioned by eleven old men, but from this breakdown I would say (surprisingly) that their choice was someone sincerely and professionally involved in the issue, who has experience with and is sensitive to the needs of those victims.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/26/us/rachel-mitchell-bio-facts.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage