The Republican Agenda 2021 and Forward

Bret Stephens is such an unimpressive opinionist my eyes start hurting the moment I see his name on an OpEd:
The subject was health care. Greece has a public health care system that, in theory, guarantees its citizens access to necessary medical care.
Practice, however, is another matter. Patients in Greek public hospitals, Tsipras explained, would first have to slip a doctor “an envelope with a certain amount of money” before they could expect to get treatment. The government, he added, underpaid its doctors and then looked the other way as they topped up their income with bribes.
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Take a close look at any country or locality in which the government offers allegedly free or highly subsidized goods and you’ll usually discover that there’s a catch.
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France’s subsidized day care is, by all accounts, fantastic for working parents who get their children into it. Except there’s a perpetual shortage of slots. In Sweden, a raft of laws protects tenants from excessively high rent. Except wait times for apartments can be as long as 20 years. In Britain, the National Health Service is a source of pride. Except that, even before the pandemic, one in six patients faced wait times of more than 18 weeks for routine treatment.
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These are just really really unimpressive and weak points as in everything I've read thus far from this guy.

www.nytimes.com

Opinion | Biden’s Plan Promises Permanent Decline (Published 2021)

There’s always a catch when the government gives things “free.”
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
 
P_X said:
Bret Stephens is such an unimpressive opinionist my eyes start hurting the moment I see his name on an OpEd:





These are just really really unimpressive and weak points as in everything I've read thus far from this guy.

www.nytimes.com

Opinion | Biden’s Plan Promises Permanent Decline (Published 2021)

There’s always a catch when the government gives things “free.”
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
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Hilarious that he fails to acknowledge the possibility that Greece’s massive corruption and tax avoidance are part of (come on we know they are MOST of) the problem and not the social service itself. He’s found minor nits to pick in certain countries focusing on certain services with systems that are otherwise doing quite well for their citizens.

Like you said, worthless “points” that are misleading and lazy.
 
SuperMatt said:
Hilarious that he fails to acknowledge the possibility that Greece’s massive corruption and tax avoidance are part of (come on we know they are MOST of) the problem and not the social service itself. He’s found minor nits to pick in certain countries focusing on certain services with systems that are otherwise doing quite well for their citizens.

Like you said, worthless “points” that are misleading and lazy.
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Provider fees are responsible for like 5% of healthcare expenditure, so claiming that socialized medicine will drive down physician salaries leading to corruption is - as you said - simply really really lazy. These very people always fail to mention that we pay 2-4x on administrative stuff compared to Canada (and actually compared to ANY nation in the world):
Results: U.S. insurers and providers spent $812 billion on administration, amounting to $2497 per capita (34.2% of national health expenditures) versus $551 per capita (17.0%) in Canada: $844 versus $146 on insurers' overhead; $933 versus $196 for hospital administration; $255 versus $123 for nursing home, home care, and hospice administration; and $465 versus $87 for physicians' insurance-related costs. Of the 3.2-percentage point increase in administration's share of U.S. health expenditures since 1999, 2.4 percentage points was due to growth in private insurers' overhead, mostly because of high overhead in their Medicare and Medicaid managed-care plans.
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pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Health Care Administrative Costs in the United States and Canada, 2017 - PubMed

None.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

(My father's friend is an OBGYN in Canada who used to practice in the USA. He told me that he's much better off financially in Canada given the much much much lower malpractice insurance fees.)

Or his point about people waiting 18 months for elective procedures in 2020 during the pandemic, when those wait times have been also much longer in the USA. It's intellectually lazy to plain dishonest. And when I look at his schooling (BA from UChicago, MSc from the London School of Economics), i think it's the latter.
 
P_X said:
Bret Stephens is such an unimpressive opinionist my eyes start hurting the moment I see his name on an OpEd:

These are just really really unimpressive and weak points as in everything I've read thus far from this guy.
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No kidding!

In Sweden, a raft of laws protects tenants from excessively high rent. Except wait times for apartments can be as long as 20 years.
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lol. Two decades in the queue is not for getting an apartment to rent, it is for getting something very specific to rent.

Sure, the housing situation here sucks. Demand far exceeds supply yet people keep moving to the cities anyways. We’re building apartments like crazy but nowhere enough to keep up with the demand. If you are a newcomer you pretty much have to either buy something or get an apartment with higher rent than people are accustomed to. Given the current ridiculously low interest rates, the monthly expenses for “owning” an apartment are lower than for renting a high rent apartment…

Attaching the 2020 stats from the official Stockholm Housing Agency. Y axis is number of contracts, X axis number of years in the queue the lucky renter had. Hopefully a good illustration of how ridiculously disingenuous the “as long as 20 years” wait time is, as well as of that not everything is perfect.

DF2BBFE0-31A9-4CCF-A2F8-124FDA5076B0.jpeg
 
Pumbaa said:
No kidding!


lol. Two decades in the queue is not for getting an apartment to rent, it is for getting something very specific to rent.

Sure, the housing situation here sucks. Demand far exceeds supply yet people keep moving to the cities anyways. We’re building apartments like crazy but nowhere enough to keep up with the demand. If you are a newcomer you pretty much have to either buy something or get an apartment with higher rent than people are accustomed to. Given the current ridiculously low interest rates, the monthly expenses for “owning” an apartment are lower than for renting a high rent apartment…

Attaching the 2020 stats from the official Stockholm Housing Agency. Y axis is number of contracts, X axis number of years in the queue the lucky renter had. Hopefully a good illustration of how ridiculously disingenuous the “as long as 20 years” wait time is, as well as of that not everything is perfect.

View attachment 4897
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I know... Or the french being unhappy...:D Just imagine how pissed the Yellow Vests would be if they lived in America...:D

All of these examples are to claim that Biden's infrastructure plan will toss America into pERmANeNt DEcLInE!!!!111!!!!!
 
P_X said:
I know... Or the french being unhappy...:D Just imagine how pissed the Yellow Vests would be if they lived in America...:D

All of these examples are to claim that Biden's infrastructure plan will toss America into pERmANeNt DEcLInE!!!!111!!!!!
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The french are just being french. ;)

In any case, it sure looks like the US already is in pERmANeNt DEcLInE!!!!111!!!!!, at least for as long as GQP, the party of No, got power to wield.
 
Pumbaa said:
The french are just being french. ;)

In any case, it sure looks like the US already is in pERmANeNt DEcLInE!!!!111!!!!!, at least for as long as GQP, the party of No, got power to wield.
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The thing is, as a European who was born in one of those countries labeled as shit holes by Trump, these racists don't understand that "white immigration" doesn't happen because the social insecurity in the USA lacks the appeal from a European perspective.
 
P_X said:
The thing is, as a European who was born in one of those countries labeled as shit holes by Trump, these racists don't understand that "white immigration" doesn't happen because the social insecurity in the USA lacks the appeal from a European perspective.
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Amen.

The frequent mass shootings and the 2A wackos aren’t really helping either.
 
JayMysteri0 said:
Yup, nothing "sus" here, all completely bipartisan and for the good of ALL those in the state of Florida

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1390268388493103104/

:rolleyes:

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1390321531457314817/
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That's probably his most Trumpy move to date. Not sure if it's enough to advance to the front of the queue of presidential hopefuls though. I think he's going to need to do more than that if he's hoping to beat sexually assaulting minors.
 
JayMysteri0 said:
What the real agenda is, while the clowns dance in front of the cameras hoping to "trigger the libs"....

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1391531131904970755/
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I’ve been harping about this for a while, the end of democracy in the US... :mad: Congressional Democrats need to be on this NOW. It’s a fight for the soul of the Nation. The next major election, when this happens what will Democrats do, say “oh well, it was nice while it lasted“ or hit the streets with more than a peaceful protest? We have to rouse the corporatists out of their ivory towers.
 
Huntn said:
I’ve been harping about this for a while, the end of democracy in the US... :mad: Congressional Democrats need to be on this NOW. It’s a fight for the soul of the Nation. The next major election, when this happens what will Democrats do, say “oh well, it was nice while it lasted“ or hit the streets with more than a peaceful protest? We have to rouse the corporatists out of their ivory towers.
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Actually a "peaceful protest" will probably be illegal, or like in Portland just walking too fast will make a "peaceful protest" into a riot then heavy hand & citizen patrols in their cars will come in to take over.
 
JayMysteri0 said:
Yup, nothing "sus" here, all completely bipartisan and for the good of ALL those in the state of Florida

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1390268388493103104/

:rolleyes:

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1390321531457314817/
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Another PIECE OF SHIT Trumpette. I want to hear him address the people of his state as to why it should be illegal to provide water to people standing in a long line doing their Constitutional duty. Or even why there is an issue with Mail in ballots, other than it does not benefit the GOP Turds running for office?

Does this bill include the ability of the Legislature to throw out the results of any election result they don’t like?? 🤬
 
Huntn said:
Another PIECE OF SHIT Trumpette. I want to hear him address the people of his state as to why it should be illegal to provide water to people standing in a long line doing their Constitutional duty. Or even why there is an issue with Mail in ballots, other than it does not benefit the GOP Turds running for office?

Does this bill include the ability of the Legislature to throw out the results of any election result they don’t like?? 🤬
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These people are idiots. Some of these rules will definitely harm minority voters (in precincts with many voters and not enough polling places/machines). But the mail-in restrictions will most likely hurt Republicans. They trend older and are heavy users of mail ballots. What’s the saying? Cutting off your nose to spite your face?
 
JayMysteri0 said:
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1388886456492494853/

You know at Black cookouts they just show up with spicier potato salad.
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Improved that T Shirt list:
  • God Damned I’m angry about something and everything!
  • White Privileged, but too stupid to know what that is Exactly.
  • Proud Racist.
  • Don’t Like Sharing.
  • Only like democracy when I get my way.
  • Who needs compromise when I have my AK-cock to flash for the cameras?
  • Real Stupid or so biased and insensed, it makes me stupid.
  • Patriotic just for my advantage.
  • I like pretending I’m superior and am a fountain of half assed, self serving wisdom.
  • Don’t like level playing fields, prefer them slanted away from me.
  • Straight LGBT-phobic.
  • Proud Sexist. Women belong in the kitchen and in my bed, with a cold beer ready after a hard day of digging ditches. They better be grateful!
  • I get really pissed off when feriners work/study their asses off, get ahead of me, and try to steal America from the native Americans Whites. It’s just not right!
  • Did I mention 🔥🔥🔥 racist?
  • Proud Republican Trumpette doing a great job of acting as sociopathic and self serving narcissistic as the Head POS.
  • Too stupid to realize I’m a pawn and that fascism may not be good for me.
  • But I’m a huge fan of corruption when my pea brain perceives advantage for myself.
  • Did I mention My Precious!?
  • Male too stupid to realize I’m giving the gender a bad rap.
How else can I piss you off today?

Fucking racist crackers. The confederate flag is a nice touch that cements the vibe. These are the perfect sheep to bend over and offer their fealty asses to The Head POS. And that shirt says it all from a perspective standpoint, oh, the insecurity. But I admit I have always been pissed by the thought of white straight males walking among us... at least the real stupid ones. 👀 :rolleyes:
 
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