"Things that say really stupid stuff publicly. Things that are getting cancelled. Things that are worth way less than they were just a month ago."

Is a $10K ($25K?) Pyramid joke too old?

SI

Hardest game of Marry, Fuck, Kill?

Since the Judiciary is so good at getting things cancelled, we need to suggest other things for them to tweet.

I'll start: Student Loan Debt

Probably not for this board.

FWIW, I like this pic. I like the contrast of POTUS with an ancient temple (?) backdrop.

G20: Biden steps into summit in Indonesia aiming to unite leaders in opposition to Russia's war on Ukraine | CNN Politics

Alright Joe, hope you are ready for the next 2 years. I have more confidence in you beating Trump than anyone else.

So please stay healthy, take some of the gingko stuff, keep on cycling and maybe do some Pilates.

Is it just me, or has all the talk about the price of healthcare in this country just disappeared.

I bring this up because my out-of-pocket costs for my recent hospital stay is going to cost me about as much as a high end cruise.

Hospitals need to give you the price of every billable item before they perform them. I don't need to be charged hundreds of dollars for someone to watch me swallow. Or for a speech therapist to spend 5 minutes making sure my speech is fine.

Looking at my bill was almost enough to give me another mini-stroke.

Join the club.

The out of pocket cost for my 2 kids was reasonable. But wife and I looked through the itemized bill, many of the charges were ridiculous.

I know Obamacare has gotten more people insured. But don't think it necessarily lowered cost of healthcare overall.

As more and more of us spend more time at the doctor's office, I expect that conversation to reappear.

I had bills from three different Heart doctors offices. I only saw one doctor while i eas in the hospital. The other two charged me $500 per to just look at my chart. It is ridiculous.

I like this move and bet there won't be a successful challenge here. Assume Biden wanted to shoot for the moon first with the debt forgiveness and that is probably deader than a doornail. This is Plan B and seems more fair for those that did not benefit, or did not get a loan from the government.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/17/bide...ankruptcy.html

As part of immigration reform (whenever that is), we should identify those professions that we really want to increase, and provide some sort incentive and fast-track process. There may not be a ton of qualified foreign specialists (e.g. heart, neuro, oncologist etc.) up to the US standards, but I'm positive there are a ton that can be GPs.

(That goes for nurses also who I know the US has been complaining about a shortage since the early 90's).

Probably a good move as there's a lot others can sue US Presidents for.

MBS was made Prime Minister in Sep 2022. This probably means Biden admin bided its time by not acting until they could use this excuse.

The practical realities that the Trump and, now, Biden admin have to deal with in our frenemy relationship.

Jamal Khashoggi death: US determines Saudi Crown Prince is immune in case brought by journalist's fiancée | CNN Politics

I'm not sure this would be a fair swap (Olympian & WNBA druggie vs notorious arms merchant) but it's a good sign that there are talks. I think we'll need to assess if Bout will resume his work or his connections have moved on.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63675119

Druggie?

Seriously?

Good thing she wasn't travelling to Singapore.

Sweet, I'm a druggie.

I take 4 drugs every morning.

Count me in as a druggie.

guilty...

Does Delta-8 usage qualify for druggie status?

Amateur. I take more than that in the morning just for blood pressure. I must be a drug king-pen.

Not only do I take 5 a day but I also inject once a week!

Bow to your new King! Long may he reign!

He's not really Prime Minister though. Salmon is since he's King (according to their laws). The Prime Minister name annoited to MBS is just a new thing they made up out of thin air to avoid being sued.

Fully convinced they have compromising information on Biden or he just has a humiliation fetish.

I'm sure the GOP's numerous investigations will get to the bottom of that and won't just be about trying to find Hunter Biden porn

SI

If someone with a NYT sub could share access to this story, that would be great. From what I'm reading, it is pretty clear Alito makes a habit of leaking pro-Evangelical decision to their leaders. How deeply he and Thomas are tied to the very people who become before their court is not a good look.

You are witnessing one of those rare moments when I am speechless. Don’t just read the headline. READ every line of this shocking and deeply troubling piece. https://t.co/QCkzUAPY3C

— Sherrilyn Ifill (@SIfill_) November 19, 2022

Thank you.

Joe, the 2 shotguns you own are (probably) semi-automatic. I'll assume you really mean assault weapons and not all semi-automatic weapons in general.

Yeah, the gun legislation you got passed earlier this year, although better than nothing, seemed watered down.

President Joe Biden rails against access to assault weapons after recent spate of shootings | CNN Politics

I'm sure this would be entertaining for X weeks before he flames out. But I'll buy his Ye 24 t-shirt as a souvenir (and hang it beside my twice-worn Yang 2020 t-shirt ... btw I guess universal basic income is dead?)

Kanye West says he asked Trump to be his 2024 running mate | The Hill

Yang is more interested in permanent political income for himself.

JAUKUS (aka Asian NATO) coming soon to a theatre near you. Great move Biden.

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/polit...rtner-alliance

Good to see that Biden is taking a more practical approach now. Should have done it earlier. This was a trigger he could have pulled earlier to help inflation if he really wanted to.

Biden gives Chevron permit to restart Venezuelan oil sales - POLITICO
I guess below also could be true but do we really believe Maduro is going to give in? He's already survived the worst of it, Venezuela is getting better compared to 2-3 years ago. Our ME frenemy has embarrassed Biden so he's reaching out to Maduro. I really do hope we can buildup our relationship with Venezuela, we still need to import the 5% heavy crude from somewhere for the next 10-15 years; and Venezuela is a lot closer than ME.

I don't know about this specific instance. But just from those snippets, it's almost like this is what real foreign affairs are supposed to look like. You take on risk and exert political pressure to extract concessions with a medium and long term plan instead of just going off on whoever has offended you on Twitter last week.

SI

How much of a ghoul do you have to be to take an amazing moment where a bunch of kids see the president on Nantucket, call to him, and he actually acknowledges them and comes over, and turn it into a narrative of him being a creeper. It is so gross.

Who did that, Fox?

all right wing medai

Joe, don't know all the details but looks like you gave it a good shot, and now you're being a leader, taking the political hit & making the tough calls. This is one step to prevent inflation from getting worse. Good job

‘No path’ forward: Biden calls on Congress to avert rail strike - POLITICO

The rail industry has spent $25 billion in stock buybacks.

Total compensation

Total Compensation - NRLC

We should not ban stock buybacks. But we should give them very unfavorable tax treatment. Make it something that companies do only when it makes financial sense in the face of the tax penalty.

We really want to be encouraging them to increase their value through building, etc.--not through buying back stock.

This holiday season....

Sure, monthly health insurance premiums are astronomical, but how else are the CEOs supposed to afford their sick yachts??? �� pic.twitter.com/QtownMz2VF

— Ady Barkan (@AdyBarkan) November 29, 2022

This was no leadership. This was turning your backs on workers whose back you should have had, whose back you've claim to have had for a long time.

The GOP gets to claim they are pro-business and reap the rewards of that preposterous claim despite the overwhelming evidence that their trickle down economic model destroys the middle class and that deficits explode when they are in office: "Hey, we'll give you a couple hundred bucks and

It's just another cynical move by Democratic leadership where they claim to be with workers but ultimately are owned by the same corporations that own the right, only without the benefits of being "pro business".

I just don't get it from a politics standpoint. Workers will remember you screwed them over for years but the gains from "keeping the economy going" are next to nil, especially 2 years before the next election when lots of other events will change the economy narrative.

I think we all know that this is really a blip in the overall economy - a rail strike for a few days or a couple of weeks isn't going to significantly affect the economy any more than a hurricane or Middle East politics that jack up oil prices. It's a temporary disruption - significant but temporary. And it's a tiny ripple in the structural ocean next to China's supply chain mess, corporate profit taking also really screwing up the supply chain, the feds policies that are rushing us into recession, and the lingering effects of COVID.

So it's hard to not see this as anything but a cynical chance for the Democratic leadership to pay back years of donations. But, hey, vote for us because, while we'll sell you out to the same corporate overlords as the other side (without the political gain), at least we're not going full on Christian nationalist fascism with shades of neo-Nazi.

SI

It's a bad look and not surprising when you see the loss of working class voters for the party over the past few decades.

The biggest issue is the companies knew the government would back them and never allow a strike. So they really had no need to negotiate.

Free market for me, not for thee.

For the same reasons, you'll never see another pilot strike allowed in the US too. It will always be blocked by the government, even if all the rules have been followed. It's nearly impossible for it to get this far down the road (strike),it takes years. So it's not surprising, and it's not good.

I voted in the run-off today. 2:30 on a Wenesday and had to wait an hour to vote. Some places un Georgia the wait is two+ hours. There was areason they shortened the time frame, and reduced the number if early voting days. They tried their hardest to stop Saturday voting as well. Republicans fear allowing people to vote.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

I think Michigan is a good choice. Way more representative of the country than Iowa.

News: It's Michigan.

Mich is poised to replace Iowa as an early nominating state for Democrats in 2024, per senior officials.

Will be formally taken up by DNC this weekend, but the White House has decided.

I first reported Mich was being eyed here:https://t.co/fDPVbwoixc

— Jonathan Martin (@jmart) December 1, 2022

In my opinion, the state with the highest voter turnout (as in votes per total population) the previous presidential election should get to go first in the primaries. Or maybe better they get to choose their position in line.

We should be rewarding states that encourage voter turnout.

Why not all primaries at the same time. We don't have different counties have different primary dates for selecting a governor nominee?

That's what I would like to do. That's the only way for all states to have the same voice.