[Ibon]

Outcast,

Yes, brain fart re: 19 v 29.

Consider this, my Wife and I have an international health care plan that covers us for up to $1 million in expenses. For this we pay about $4,000/year, or $2,000/person. The only stipulation is that we spend no more than 2 months per year in the USA. Of course In the USA we have Medicarez

So $2,000/year at 68 years old, and I sail, sometimes considered a hazardous sport.

That is very close to the same price range as my wife and I have here in Panama, it is a global health insurance plan that covers us everywhere except the U.S.A. If the procedure required is not available in Panama the plan covers expenses and treatment where available. World Wide Medical.

We don't yet have Medicare because I am only 61 years old and my wife is 58.

[Plantagenet]

I don't normally agree with AOC, but I find myself totally in agreement with her latest statement

aoc-democrats-refusal-to-impeach-trump-a-bigger-national-scandal-than-his-behavior]

The Ds have spent 3 years now saying Trump should be impeached. Their original claims that Trump was a Russian secret agent were debunked by the Mueller Report, but the call for impeaching Trump never wavered.

But taking actual steps to impeach Trump? Not so much.

If the Ds really believe that Trump is colluding with Russia or Ukraine to subvert US elections, then they have a duty to impeach him. If the Ds actually believe that trump should be impeached but then fail to act, then they are failing in their duty to the country. One can only conclude the Ds are political cowards or liars or hypocrites whose word can't be trusted.

CHEERS!

[Revi]

Maybe they are waiting for the election. Why not start impeachment procedures? We should have started them about 3 years ago.

[Newfie]

Revi,

The problem is there are no grounds for impeachment other than some folks hate him.

His September job approval rating is 43%, at this same time Obama’s was 41%.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/203198/pre ... trump.aspx

[Plantagenet]

Now that Biden is going down and Warren is surging into the lead, the Ds are getting desperate. Warren is just the latest incarnation of the John Kerry and Michael Dukakis syndome---i.e. the Ds are on the verge of nomination an extremely liberal D from Massachusetts who is't very popular in the rest of the country and will most likely lost the 2020 election.

So where can those sensible Ds who actually want to win in 2020 find another "middle-of-the-road" candidate to replace Biden? The Ds need someone with good name recognition who can attract all those D voters who don't follow the news and barely know the names of the candidates. The Ds need someone old and white, like Joe. Who can they get to enter the race at this late date????

Don't look now but here comes HILLARY!

hillary-gearing-late-stage-do-over-against-corrupt-human-tornado-trump


ACT TWO: The REVENGE of HILLARY!!!!!

[dohboi]

High Wealth Inequality Linked With Greater Support for Populist Leaders

https://phys.org/news/2019-09-high-weal ... eater.html

People who live or think they live in a more economically unequal society may be more supportive of a strong, even autocratic leader, a large-scale international study shows. Their findings appear in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

"The results suggest that the growth in support for populist leaders who are happy to abandon democratic principles to achieve particular outcomes may partly be due to increasing levels of economic inequality," said Jolanda Jetten, a psychological scientist at the University of Queensland in Australia and an author on the report. Led by Stefanie Sprong of Trinity College Dublin, the collaborators conducted a series of surveys and experiments. In these studies, the researchers examine the effects of economic inequality on people's wish for a strong leader, and investigate whether this link can be explained by perceptions of anomie—the perceived breakdown in social fabric in society.

... In analyzing the data, the researchers found evidence that people in countries with high levels of economic inequality, both real and felt, were more supportive of a strong leader. But only perceived inequality appeared to have any relationship with a sense of societal and governmental corrosion.

... "This strengthens our reasoning that economic inequality perceptions enhance the feeling that society is breaking down ... fueling a desire for a leader who will restore order (by whatever means necessary)," the authors conclude.

Sprong, S; Jetten, J; Wang, Z; et al., "Our Country Needs a Strong Leader Right Now": Economic Inequality Enhances the Wish for a Strong Leader" Psychological Science (2019)

[jedrider]

The perceived solution to inequality is to make the wealthy even wealthier, aka 'trickle down'.
Maybe, the strongman can get the wealthy to give up some of their money, but usually only to him/herself.

[Plantagenet]

High Wealth Inequality Linked With Greater Support for Populist Leaders

Hence the rising support among Ds for populist Elizabeth Warren.


in-elizabeth-warren-america-finally-has-a-real-populist

Cheers!

[mmasters]

Warren is a dork on a power trip. An easy one to beat.

[Pops]

Sorry to interrupt the D bashing thread but just heard that Bern had heart surgery. Seems like a big deal, tho bern was flailing lately.
Joe's cooked.
I like Lizzy's anti-monopoly, pro working people bent. She is a little too free lunch but her trillions go to regular people rather than the top so there's that.
Seems like she's had a good couple of weeks

[Newfie]

Pity about Bernie, he was a fresh voice. I don’t agree with all he was saying, but we need to open the topics of discussion and he did that.

[Pops]

Bern was kind of a one trick pony but he certainly broke Ds loose from the clinton, Third Way, R-Lite box. Not sure where it goes from here but 40 years of increasingly strident right wing / trickle down has been disastrous for working people who received no part of the prosperity aside from cheap underwear and TVs.
Sorry for speaking in the past tense Bern.

[Plantagenet]

I supported Bernie in 2016. He did the US a big favor by exposing just how undemocratic the democratic party is, and the lengths to which they'd go to scheme and subvert their own primary election results in order to predetermine that Hillary and only Hillary would be the nominee of the D party, no matter what the voters wanted.

This time around I thought Bernie seemed old and tired compared to 2016. Maybe he'll rev up again when he recovers from heart surgery. Unfortunately for him by the time he's back ready to go on the campaign trail Elizabeth Warren will have charged into the lead in the D primary race.


Get well soon from heart surgery, Bernie. We'll miss you at the next debate!

Cheers!

[dohboi]

(To be read in conjunction with the study cited above)

Top 1% Gained $21 Trillion in Wealth Since 1989 While Bottom Half Lost $900 Billion

"The top one percent owns nearly $30 trillion of assets while the bottom half owns less than nothing."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/ ... zqCJRcGc_M

[Cog]

Surely we will get socialism right this time.

[Revi]

It looks like it's down to just Warren and Biden. I wonder if we could have a ticket with both of them? If they're smart one of them will pick Castro as a running mate because that would get the Hispanic vote out.

[Pops]

Biden's toast. Trump is toast too, he just called on both china and ukraine to do exactly what the Ds are impeaching him for, but at least he took down joe.

So the question is who'd the R lite candidate? I like Amy tho she's not my ideological match, I'd vote for her. I don't know what Kamala is about, Pete seems smart but he's too young for me, I dislike Beto, I don't really know the others.

[Newfie]

Warren seems the obvious. But the tiny bit I heard of Corey Brooker struck me positive.

Niki Haley for the R’s.

My best guess.

[Pops]

Wall street says they'll vote for trump if Warren is nominated...
Hooray!

We need a clear distinction between the parties, the R-Lite version of clinton/obama politics that embraces the entities whose entire reason for being is to profit and protection. Liz is a too redistribution-y for me but I'll take it in return for standing up to their money.

[Newfie]

Pops,

You use of all these cute topical phrases make sure your posts incomprehensible to me. I’m far to far out of the media loop to follow you.