Ways to take a huge bite out of that cost

1-Increasing tax on cigarettes and alcohol as Canada does and funneling that directly to healthcare (I know people will say 'what about fast food it causes health issues too?' see next bullet)

2-There would have to be some cost to consumers and one way to incorporate healthy eating would be to reduce what people have to pay in by basing premium level for the next calendar year on health screening metrics (which my employer does now) That way people like me who have 116/70 BP, fall within BMI and have a stellar lipid profile are rewarded. If you don't or you don't have a screening every year you pay more.

3-Reschedule and legalize marijuana nationwide. We know enough about it's medicinal values now, I know several physicians that support prescribing it over opioids for pain and there is a shit load of tax money there that can be funneled to healthcare.

There are ways to make it work

Edit - I still think, like Medicare Advantage plans now, administering the plan can be done through existing insurers.

So, who pushed Ginsburg last night?

Probably a drunk Kavanaugh

I've been saying this for the last year. The advancement in tech will allow the only true record to come from people who were actually there. This sort of thing is a major, major threat to our freedom. It may seem like a little thing, but within it lies the seeds of true oppression.

Further analysis: video is absolutely doctored. You can see the edit when the clips are side by side and slowed down to quarter speed. See for yourself: pic.twitter.com/4ZZrzhislg

— Aymann Ismail (@aymanndotcom) November 8, 2018

I'm actually surprised that there's not a report out from the White House saying the intern was hospitalized for her injuries last night.

I should add that the video on the right, that was put out by Sanders from the White House, was reportedly doctored by Infowars. Go figure.

Scrutiny doesn't have to stop. In fact, media organizations could do more if they were less concerned about maintaining access to people that repeatedly lie to them.

Every WH fights with the press until they realize they depend on them to promote their message. Imagine a world where no legitimate news org paid gave the immigrant caravan any airtime. The WH needs the press as much or more than they need the WH.

Yeah, I don't watch many WH press conferences, but that one was on during the local noon news so I watched. That was nothing more than Trump using the media to get out his "it was all about me" message, followed by Trump yelling at reporters for fake news and being unfair.

It would be less damaging to just let him get up there in front of no one and make his statement, then let the media parse his comments after the fact. It seems like the Jim Acosta's of the media world are just playing right into his anti-media playbook.

They paused to regroup and rest.

Good thing Trumps executive order on asylum at ports of entry seems to be working.

Trump to sign directive this week revamping U.S. asylum policy - MarketWatch

Fox News hasn't forgotten...

https://www.foxnews.com/world/migran...at-happens-now

He's in Mexico City and the story says they're within reach of the border. That would be still @650 miles away. At Civil War army pace that's still 45 days away.

But at least they're sticking with it after a pause of a few days. Keep f-ing that chicken Fox.

But they have some migrants travelling with them who are Antetokounmpo long...

Assuming security is accounted for and there is no path to PR/Citizenship, it makes so much sense to expand the guest worker program.

The Senate passed something but the House refused to vote on re: Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013. It may not have been perfect but let's keep on working on it and compromise instead of just letting it die.

Unfortunately, I don't see a champion for holistic immigration reform, just disjointed and targeted bits-and-pieces right now. And I don't see pro-immigration as the winning platform in 2020 (behind Economy & Healthcare).

Schumer and Dems seemed willing to compromise on DACA for the Wall. Maybe try again (and possibly toss in guest workers) as initially baby-steps.

Which is a mistake imo. A wall isn't worth the expense and long term expense. I'd be willing to increase the budget on the border substantially as long as it wasn't spent on the wall. I'd let the R's own DACA and the result of what comes from their efforts, and negotiate more efficient, border control. Extensive use of tech and automation is the path there, not some 4th century answer.

The next step after harassing people at restaurants I guess. I'm all for them getting permits and protesting peacefully but IMO this isn't right.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...=.6369ac499cd5

Yep protest on social media, participate in nationwide protests, but these kind of protests are more harassment than protest and should stop. No one's family should feel threatened because someone in the family works for a news network

Brian Kemp finally resigns as GA Sec of State -he says so he can transition to governor even though Abrams has not conceded yet.



Brian Kemp resigns as Georgia secretary of state as governor's race remains too close to call

I don't think that's true at all. There's tons of coverage about the Sessions firing and his replacement's shady past. There are protests scheduled about this.

It's possible to talk about more than one thing at a time. And the Acosta thing should be talked about. The White House used doctored footage from Infowars to smear a reporter with an assault accusation. In no way should that be ignored.

Again, there's no grand compromise because the far-right has killed several attempts at compromise previously. They don't want a solution, they want restricted immigration(illegal and legal). As long as the GOP is controlled by those folks, there can't be a comprehensive immigration bill.

Morally reprehensible and politically ineffective.

May i add (re: Chop-Gate) that i also find it extremely disturbing that apparently a lowly press-corps intern feels pressured in a way that she goes to physically grab that mic ? Just look at her, she's dying out there having to go into that confrontation ...

Either you have a situation that gets out of hand and let some sort of security (that is a thing at any of these press conferences, i guess ?) take care of it firmly and calmly or you don't. But to have the president angrily go "that's enough" and an intern frantically moving to grab the mic ? What the hell ?

Movement on Predictit for Bill Nelson. He's up to 22 cents now. Was just 6 cents yesterday.

The whole thing with Acosta is just comical.

Both sides are moronic. Give up the mic, but at the same time Trump needs to stop bullying people and saying whatever he wants. Then people won't feel the need to stick up for themselves.

Trump is just a clown. I have all of the power and can do whatever I want and I'll display that power whenever I don't like you.

Both sides? Even if you believe Acosta went too far in trying to ask additional questions, how does that even approach the Press Secretary using doctored footage from an alt-right group to substantiate a bogus "laid his hands on her" claim so they can strip his press pass?

You also had some very fine people on both sides.

I'm not even talking about that. I was just talking about the exchange.

Striping the guy's press pass and trying to say he assaulted her is even more moronic. It's Trump being Trump. He's has the power to do it so he will.

This is a press conference with the President of the US. So, there is some professional decorum that should be followed. He doesn't follow it so, why should anyone else?

Outstanding races from Tuesday....

Arizona Senate, where the difference is about 17000 votes of the 1.73 million cast, or :

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/ele...e-race-n933866

Florida Senate, where the difference is 22,000 of 8.2 million cast:

Nelson, Scott spar as Florida Senate race nears hand recount | TheHill

Georgia Governor's, where the difference is 63,000 of 4 million votes cast:

Kemp Resigns as Georgia Secretary of State, With Governor’s Race Still Disputed :: WRAL.com

And the 12 house races:

The Races That Are Still Too Close To Call | FiveThirtyEight

The Florida governor's race has now entered the automatic recount range as well.

I think we have a much bigger problem with too much deference to our leaders rather than too little. And that's been true for years.

That's too far but I don't have an issue with saying something to someone at a restaurant or in public.

The video was actually snagged from Infowars if there was any question where the WH gets it's news from. We can't be far off from the administration hinting that these mass shootings are just false flags perpetrated by the Jews.


It was treated as one of the big stories of the day. Some reporter for a cable news outlet losing their press pass just seems so minor to me.

The story is just red meat for bootlicking sycophants and an opportunity for the media to play their favorite role as the martyr.

How about some 2020 news? ::ducks the rotten tomatoes:::


I've been wondering if Rep Eric Swalwell was going to run for President based on his frequent appearances on CNN and MSNBC. Looks like I was right:


Source: Eric Swalwell to run for president in 2020 - POLITICO


I've liked his TV appearance for the most part, and I'm intrigued by someone much younger(37) than Biden/Sanders/Hillary that might be running.

Let's throw some both sideisms out there. Jim Acosta gets his press license pulled by a deranged president. And the violent left harasses and tries to intimidate Tucker Carlson at his home.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/08/media...ors/index.html

Poor Tucker.

Kavanaugh Accuser Christine Blasey Ford Continues Receiving Threats, Lawyers Say : NPR

It's a shame that people on both sides can't be civil

It seems like the issue in Nelson's race is a poor ballot design in Broward that put the Senate race in the bottom left corner. That caused about 25,000 undervotes. There were some districts where the Agriculture Commissioner race had more votes than the Senate race. Nelson's claiming that there is a tabulation error, but it seems more likely to be people leaving that race blank because they didn't see it on the ballot.

Nelson's price has dropped back down to .13 on PredictIt after that news broke.

I guess I'd need to see the ballot to understand that argument, but I don't buy it. I can understand "ballot fatigue" or ignoring stuff at the bottom (assuming it's a lesser race or something), but didn't see it?

This is the one I saw...

That photo makes sense of it I think.. It's left to right, and started with federal offices, then statewide offices, then partial state offices.
The rather lengthy set of instructions then shoved the federal races to the bottom of the page.

I pulled up a 2018 and a 2016 sample ballot from Georgia, just to see.

2018 Georgia starts with Governor & other statewide, then goes to federal district'ed (i.e. U.S. House) and continues on.

2016 Georgia started with President, then U.S. Senate, then statewide state office, then district'ed state offices, and continued.

Same exact format as the Florida sample ... except the instructions appeared only once in a single language and were therefore shorter & fit across the top of the full screen.

Just saw on tv that Sinema now has a 2,000 vote lead in Arizona.

TIL Broward County, Florida puts Haitian Creole on their election ballots.

Edit: After googling a bit, nearly 6% of Broward County is Haitian.

Now up to 9,000, big turnaround over the last 24 hours.

Hey there's hope for me yet in the election contest!...or not

I've been looking at pictures of the various Trump is not above the law rallies across the country today-great seeing people rally peacefully.

We walked through the one in Times Square today. Tons of people with signs.

Having spent the last several years in Portland we were a bit nervous, especially since we had the kids, but people could not have been more peaceful.

Awesome Lathum!

Yes, but I think Trump did well to make the "trigger" for these protests as convoluted as possible. It's been planned for months for people to take to the streets as soon as the Mueller investigation was shut down. And I think that would have been a legitimately game-changing protest (and I'm someone who is skeptical of the benefit of protests).

But Trump managed to regain some control over the investigation by a means that technically triggered the protest, but did it by firing an unpopular AG. Which led to a bunch of confusion as to whether this was "the moment" for things to really get serious. And to do it the day after the culmination of a very emotional election cycle that resulted in semi-success for Trump's opponents, and....I think, sadly, he has played this perfectly

So Trump not giving up on election fraud:


Law Enforcement is looking into another big corruption scandal having to do with Election Fraud in #Broward and Palm Beach. Florida voted for Rick Scott!

Wait. Is it corruption scandal or election fraud? So confusing!

If you read the instructions and then keep going down the ballot, it's actually the first race to vote on. What's the argument again?! Whatever it is, it's a huge stretch.

Huh? I'm not making an argument that it's unfair or anything. I'm saying this is more likely the issue than ballots being miscounted, which would work against the Democratic argument. If what I'm saying is true, then Nelson has no chance.

Fair assessment, but at the same time, he's tapped a guy who's been vocal about believing the investigation should be reined in or even shut down; who wasn't confirmed by the Senate to serve in a post that requires Senate confirmation; and without being able to fall back on "recess appointment" because the Senate isn't in recess.

So whether or not you think he's "played this perfectly," he's still set himself up for a court fight that there is a non-zero chance he loses. Not over whether or not firing Sessions (and let's be clear, requesting his resignation is tantamount to the same thing) constitutes obstruction of justice, but whether he's in violation of the Appointments Clause with the selection of Whitaker.

He can defuse all of that by nominating Whitaker to the role on a permanent basis and getting Senate confirmation, and maybe he even will. There'd still be discontent, but I don't know what else really results from that.

Trying to forge ahead as if nothing's wrong risks getting smacked down in court, and having the courts ALSO throw out any action Whitaker takes in the interim as being an invalid order deriving from an unconstitutional action.

This was in your original post and is what I was referring to:


I don't understand that argument at all. It's the first race on the ballot if you simply follow the ballot by column. How does someone not see it? Also, it's one of the two most high profile races in the state. Even if someone missed it, how does one not say to themselves, "Gee, what about that Scott/Nelson race I saw approximately 5800 commercials for?"

Because most people don't read the instructions, and the ones who do will stop once they change language. The first choice most people are going to see is the govenor's race in the middle. Think about people in a crowded room, that have been in line for a long time, and feel rushed. How many are just going to start filling circles as quickly as possible to get done and get out?

I guess I read things differently than most people, then. Maybe it's because I'm left-handed and view things differently. I would (and did, when looking at that ballot) work from top left down the column to the end, then middle column top to bottom, then right column, then flip it over to see if anything was on the back.

I am left handed, and I saw the middle column first. I probably would have eventually noticed there were votes on that bottom left, but I could easily see missing them.

I will add: in 2000, I ran a poll in Alabama using optical ballots just like this. I remember having to point out a race laid out roughly like this to people all day because voters were regularly missing it.

Weird. It's set up in columns, meaning there's a left column, not just a center and right. *shurg*

In any event, I hope Nelson loses, not because of party affiliation but because I used to work for him (indirectly), and he's the biggest empty suit I've ever personally come across.

Most people didn't miss it. It's not like there's a 50% drop off, just more of one in that county than anywhere else. Some people just vote the top of ballot and don't even scan to the bottom. I think that's dumb, but it happens.

This isn't an issue for me here in GA since my counties use electronic balloting and just prompt the races in order.

Saying "I personally didn't have trouble following it (especially after being prompted there was some discord about the layout)" and translating that to "therefore absolutely nobody would (especially without any such prompting)" is quite a leap.

I'm not claiming it's a horrible thing, or a fire-able offense... but could that layout contribute to an undervote of a few percent? Absolutely. You wouldn't have to be an absolute numbskull to look at the first column, dismiss it as "the instructions" and just start with the second.

I didn't make that leap, you did. Our ballot layout was exactly the same kind of 3 column layout here, which I don't think anyone had trouble following.

I'm not even saying it couldn't happen, I'm simply saying it shouldn't happen. How is that race not top of mind for anyone who bothered to vote? It's not like it was your local constable race (which we have - and no one ran for).

Your town could have had Constable Ksyrup running the show? That's an opportunity lost.

I wrote-in the name of a retired Lexington cop who lives in my neighborhood. Although, I'm honestly kinda curious what happens when no one runs. Maybe a local board appoints someone, I don't know.

If I'm the only person to write in a candidate, and he gets the only vote, does he win? Is there some sort of minimum threshold?

Not sure what's worse, lying about the not knowing the guy you just appointed as acting attorney general or actually not knowing the guy you just appointed as acting attorney general.

It might be true, in the sense that he's not Rosenstein.

Why are the instructions even on the ballot? The ballot should be clean of other text and the instructions should be separate and posted in each voting booth.

I double check my ballot to make sure I did not miss anything.

Me too. And the whole paper ballot thing, I am always paranoid about not coloring in the boxes enough, or accidentally going outside the lines, so I usually go over them multiple times very carefully. I think I had 3 old people sit down next to me and finish before I did. I am assuming they just straight R'd it and left.

It's the name the Ouija board spelled. Trump just listened to what the spirits told him.

I am almost OCD over those damn lines LOL

Started back up.

Migrant caravan to leave Mexico City for US border | TheHill

This ballot thing fascinates me.
Ive only ever voted in SC. And as I think we all know, the concepts of South Carolina and technologically advanced civilization are pretty much mutually exclusive.


But since 2000, in SC they have had these electronic ballots that look like a huge glorified tablet.
The idea that places are still using a paper ballot and scantron bubble sheets is mind boggling to me.

In our podunk town, in my specific precinct, we had one electronic machine and 6 desks for manual scantron ballots. You could either wait in the line for 1 machine or the line with 5 more opportunities to (theoretically) get done quicker. I wasn't in there long enough to figure out how much quicker one line was going than the other, I just did the paper ballot.

We had 4 of those iPad looking machines.

We have no such excuse in Phoenix

I live in a town with a population of 589 (obviously not all voting age since my one neighbor has 8 kids under 18 - lol)


We had...I'm viewing the room in my head and seeing 7 ballot machines....but I remember voting "in" machine #8

I think for a lot of those places, they like having a paper copy of the votes.

Varies by state & jurisdiction.

I believe in most cases at least at higher levels, write-in votes for candidates that have not gone through the process to be certified as actual qualified candidates are simply discarded/uncounted.

Otherwise Mickey Mouse could end up with 314 offices in 47 states.

I think paper ballots make a lot of sense from the perspective that they can't be hacked by foreign actors. Plus, it gives you a literal paper trail if things go awry.

I dont' remember seeing a stat like this before. Trending in the right direction but still more needed.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/09/gun-...-defy-nra.html

I'll wait to see the details on the proposals but status quo is not acceptable.

I'm left handed also and I also saw the middle column first.

It probably did cause some confusion for people new/not used to voting paper ballots or possibly older folks.

My county was electronic so no problem here.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/08/bria...ey-abrams.html

Man who orchestrated brilliant voter suppression tactics has resigned.

whee

Many voting machines were just locked up and hand ballots were not authorized.

Gotta love it.

In Washington, we were mailed our ballot along with a magazine of every candidate who pitches themselves in their blurb. It saved so much time. And you just mailed it in without having to stamp it.

Well, he's gonna be the governor now so he's got much bigger suppressions to deal with now.

I wonder what happens to a state when their governor-elect is sent to prison. Asking for a friend.

The NRA was claiming near bankruptcy over the last year, meaning unless they're using Rubles they couldn't buy as many seats.

Probably have to ask Illinois for advice.

Sinema's lead now up to 20,000 in AZ, but still more to count there and she may lose some of that lead. Rouda has been declared the winner against Rohrbacker. Another CA Democrat, Josh Harder has pulled ahead of his opponent after being behind most of the tally.

GOP: Stop counting the ballots in Florida, where we're ahead, but count every last ballot in Arizona, where we're behind.

These posts aging real well.

Christine Blasey Ford is still being harassed, her lawyers say. She's reportedly had to move four times. She's had to pay for a private security detail. And she hasn't been able to return to her job at Palo Alto University. https://t.co/WJRC5uWmy9

— NPR (@NPR) November 8, 2018

"uh oh , Doctor it seems we've traveled back to 2000. There are people protesting and banging on things shouting for them to stop counting ballots of some sort. Why would they want to STOP counting ballots in an election?"

The one thing I do agree with Trump on is that it is an absolute shower that they are not able to count the votes within 24 hours, let alone 4 days.

The rest of his comments are the usual blinkered invective, but something needs to be done to prevent any possible inference of manipulation (either way). With district gerrymandering such as that posted earlier and delayed votes, it does emit echoes of Tammany Hall era politics.

It's been < 2 months. Let's have it really age and come back to revisit in 2-3 years.

There were the RCP and Slate links in the NPR artcle which also provided more context. Admittedly the RCP is something a right-winger would write but it does lay out some "facts". The Slate is more balanced while referencing the RCP article.

(Thanks for including the last sentence in the second quote. I still stand by that)

Anyone know why isn't there electronic voting in FL/Broward?

This happens every election, it's just that the margins are great enough that it doesn't effect the outcome. There's currently no evidence suggesting anything other than a typical election tally in both AZ and FL.

dola

So far today Trump has threatened to pull federal firefighting funds from CA and cancelled a trip to the American WW1 cemetery because it is raining.

Just because it happens in every election doesn’t mean it is acceptable in a developed nation.

According to this article, we do.

Should you request a paper ballot to keep your vote secure from hackers?

However...

No, but it does make it far less likely that it's driven by fraud.