The Trump Presidency (Act V - The One Where Everybody Dies)

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sts60 said:
Yeah, well, Shoeless Joe and the others wouldn’t let him come play ball in the cornfield either.

As someone with a clearance (and who hasn’t had secret meetings with Russian agents, isn’t in hock to the Chinese for hundreds of millions, etc.), it’s just infuriating that this gang of thieves and traitors is getting away with this sort of crap, and the craven GOP Congress’ response is to attack Federal law enforcement and a retired grandmother in New York State. And that Trump cultists’ response is to laugh because it makes the libruls mad. That’s not “deplorable”, that’s contemptible.

And no, I’m not a Democrat. Neither are a lot of other Americans who are similarly infuriated, many of whom are registered Republicans. I’ve never considered voting a straight-party ticket before, but (unless there is some Larouchite nut that snuck in as a Dem. somewhere), I will now, against the Republican Party. It needs to be destroyed, and some party of actual conservatives, not the collection of psychopaths it has become, take its place.
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This is a point that needs to be made often and loudly. Maybe, just maybe, "libruls" are mad because what's being done is something that's a damn good reason to be mad! Global thermonuclear war will also make libruls mad - will Trumpeters also cheer if that happens?

I don't remember the specifics of John Oliver's example of Trump's trolling, but the gist of it was, "If you don't like Dave at work, and you piss in Lisa's Crock Pot of pulled pork at the company pot luck because you know Dave likes Lisa's pulled pork, you're not 'sticking it' to anyone. You're just a dick."
 
Darat said:
I think you'll probably find most of the remaining 80% are used in little corner shops local to the people receiving the food stamps.
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If 20% goes to Wal-Mart, then a significant share goes to other super-market grocers, not convenience stores/corner shops.

These stores will already be charging more than Walmart, not because they are price gouging simply because they don't have the buying power of Walmart. It is very unlikely they will be making 10% markup never mind 10% profit (Amazon profit margins are in the low one figure percentages) The government would only potentially achieve savings if it could bulk purchase for itself, then it would have to find a way to warehouse, distribute and deliver the items. The investment needed would be huge and take years to build up.
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You're not thinking at the margin. Neither, it seems, is anyone else. Let me illustrate with an extreme example.

Suppose my business runs a net profit of less than 1% above revenues. Now the government steps in and says poor people cannot buy my widgets because the prices are way too high. The government will give the poor a voucher that I must honor and the government will only pay 50% of its face-value. Does this destroy my business? Not necessarily. It depends on the marginal cost of a widget. Maybe I produce software. Each additional unit of software has a low cost, so my profits surge.

Convenience stores typically sell high margin items (e.g., cigarettes, bottled water, soda, cereal, candy, cookies, salty snacks). However, they have certain operating costs they must pay regardless of sales: utilities (constant refrigeration), rent/lease/property taxes, theft/robbery/insurance, wages, and so on.

While it's possible a government negotiation to lower prices might be met with stores refusing to honor EBT, the "razor thin" profit margins is not a compelling prima facie argument.
 
Cain said:
If 20% goes to Wal-Mart, then a significant share goes to other super-market grocers, not convenience stores/corner shops.

You're not thinking at the margin. Neither, it seems, is anyone else. Let me illustrate with an extreme example...
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Going only by what you included in this exchange between you and Darat, I don't see what makes the points you both have made to be mutually exclusive?

(Though, from personal experience, I would estimate that Walmart is probably 40-50% of the monthly EBT balance with convenience stores and "99c" stores making up the bulk of the remaining balance. It's just a matter of what is available within walking distance of their residence. When you are poor, keeping a working car on the road is a huge (expensive) problem, and if they are lucky enough to be in an area where public transportation is available, it is still inconvenient for grocery shopping.)
 
Craig4 said:
I see The Hair has declared the cause of the Florida shooting was mental illness. I'm sure the ice queen of the briefing room will tell us this shooting should not be politicized...unless the shooter turns out to be an immigrant.
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Move over, Captain Obviious. You are outranked by President Obvious.
 
As someone tweeted today in a reply to one of Trumps tweets on the shootings.

Lest we forget, “If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks, although the Second Amendment people — maybe there is, I don’t know.”
 
Stories there is tension between Sanders and Kelly because Sanders feels Kelly needs to face the press on this issue and Sanders is tired of defacto taking the heat for him.
 
Stormy: We never had sex. He fell asleep. When he woke up I told him that he had raped me. He actually believed it. Then he paid me a huge amount to keep quiet. I took the money and laughed my ass off.
 
Craig4 said:
I see The Hair has declared the cause of the Florida shooting was mental illness. I'm sure the ice queen of the briefing room will tell us this shooting should not be politicized...unless the shooter turns out to be an immigrant.
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I think we should call their bluff and demand they take action to help treat mental illness. They should expand medicaid/medicare to include mental illness treatment and make health insurance coverage include mental illness as part of basic coverage.

They won't do it, but it is a good way to demonstrate that the mental illness argument is just an excuse to ignore the role of guns.
 
thaiboxerken said:
I think we should call their bluff and demand they take action to help treat mental illness. They should expand medicaid/medicare to include mental illness treatment and make health insurance coverage include mental illness as part of basic coverage.

They won't do it, but it is a good way to demonstrate that the mental illness argument is just an excuse to ignore the role of guns.
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What gave you the idea they need or even want an excuse?

They're just saying crap so they can point back and say they said it.
 
thaiboxerken said:
I think we should call their bluff and demand they take action to help treat mental illness. They should expand medicaid/medicare to include mental illness treatment and make health insurance coverage include mental illness as part of basic coverage.
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I just note that Medicare and Medicaid -- sometimes confused -- are entirely different, unrelated programs. Medicare, for people over 65, and Medicaid, for lower-income people, both include mental health services. (Whether any particular patient can find a suitable provider quickly is a different issue.)
https://www.medicare.gov/coverage/outpatient-mental-health-care.html
https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/benefits/bhs/index.html

The VA covers mental health, too. But if somebody is going off the deep end and doesn't want help or think he needs it, there are very few circumstances under which he can be forced to seek treatment.
 
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Don't forget that the first piece of legislation--about a year ago--passed by Trump, and sponsored by Grassley, was to roll back law which was intended to make it harder for the mentally ill to obtain firearms. Now they're feigning concern and wonderment about how this latest troubled kid could have got a gun. For those bloody two-faced hypocrites the millions they got (and get) from the NRA speaks louder than the grief-stricken parents of slaughtered kids.
 
Lurch said:
Don't forget that the first piece of legislation--about a year ago--passed by Trump, and sponsored by Grassley, was to roll back law which was intended to make it harder for the mentally ill to obtain firearms. Now they're feigning concern and wonderment about how this latest troubled kid could have got a gun. For those bloody two-faced hypocrites the millions they got (and get) from the NRA speaks louder than the grief-stricken parents of slaughtered kids.
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And Trump's first tweet about the shooting essentially blamed the schoolkids and neighbours of the shooter for not reporting him to the police for being mentally ill.
 
Bob001 said:
I just note that Medicare and Medicaid -- sometimes confused -- are entirely different, unrelated programs. Medicare, for people over 65, and Medicaid, for lower-income people, both include mental health services.
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This guy is 19, right? And in Florida? He doesn't qualify for Medicaid. From the Florida Medicaid site:

n order to qualify for this benefit program, you must be a resident of the state of Florida, a U.S. national, citizen, permanent resident, or legal alien, in need of health care/insurance assistance, whose financial situation would be characterized as low income or very low income. You must also be either pregnant, a parent or relative caretaker of a dependent child(ren) under age 19, blind, have a disability or a family member in your household with a disability, or be 65 years of age or older.
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Adults without dependents do not qualify for Medicaid in most states, regardless of how poor they are. That safety net is not open to them.
 
Lurch said:
Don't forget that the first piece of legislation--about a year ago--passed by Trump, and sponsored by Grassley, was to roll back law which was intended to make it harder for the mentally ill to obtain firearms. Now they're feigning concern and wonderment about how this latest troubled kid could have got a gun. For those bloody two-faced hypocrites the millions they got (and get) from the NRA speaks louder than the grief-stricken parents of slaughtered kids.
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To be fair, I don't think that law would've applied here. That doesn't, of course, lessen the apparent hypocrisy.
 
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