Donald Trump

dinyull

Rick Chasey wrote:

TheBigBean wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

There are some very odd republicans who are getting very upset that health insurance means healthy people end up paying the bills of the ill.

I mean, how do they think insurance works?

They look upon it like pensions or self-insurance. It's a blind spot like guns.

If they wanna take that attitude it's fair enough, but why apply it only to health spending?

Why not just be anti-insurance, period?

Are you really trying to rationale Trump supporters and/or backers in congress?

TheBigBean

Rick Chasey wrote:

I can't say I find any of those arguments convincing.

I wasn't trying to convince you, I was expanding on the views of others. As I said originally, it is all a bit of a blind spot.

Your article is trying to make a clever point, but ultimately the purpose of insurance is to manage unmanageable risk by spreading that risk out amongst similar people. A meteorite could land on any house, if it does, it would be nice to collectively pay for the rebuild.

surrey_commuter

Rick Chasey wrote:

TheBigBean wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

There are some very odd republicans who are getting very upset that health insurance means healthy people end up paying the bills of the ill.

I mean, how do they think insurance works?

They look upon it like pensions or self-insurance. It's a blind spot like guns.

If they wanna take that attitude it's fair enough, but why apply it only to health spending?

Why not just be anti-insurance, period?

they are against the compulsory part of it - think extreme purity of markets

kingstongraham

If my health insurance is mandated to include maternity cover for in case I get pregnant, it's not really insurance any more. It's healthcare.

pinno

Rick Chasey wrote:

The proposition here is simple. Soon enough, telematics companies will gather data from all our connected devices, fitbits and cars, scrutinise it intricately, then determine whether we are “good” or “bad” agents. Good behaviours will be rewarded with cheaper insurance policies, bad ones will be penalised. The relative cost of being a bad agent, meanwhile, will incentivise good behaviours, eliminating evil from our world forever. Amen.

There’s only one problem. Personalising insurance contracts to this degree undermines the whole concept of insurance.

Insurance doesn’t really work unless risk is pooled in such a way that good agents pay over the odds to the benefit of the bad ones.

A world where insurance is personally tailored to reflect every individual’s behavioural history is consequently a world wherein unfettered discrimination becomes the celebrated norm, where only the super rich, the super gifted, the super lucky or the genetically well-endowed will ever be allowed to drive fast, eat bad food or to take any risk at all. As a consequence, it’s also a world where the poor or physically under-privileged become uninsurable (unless, of course, they’re prepared to be permanently tracked, controlled and monitored by their data overlords).

Very Big brotherish.

ballysmate

People on here have previously postulated that patients pay a contribution towards their treatment where their lifestyles have contributed towards their ill health.

rick_chasey

Can already get reductions on your health insurance if you show evidence of exercise and buying fruit and veg (Vitality do this for example).

Matthewfalle

Rolf F wrote:

Matthewfalle wrote:

jeremy1 wrote:

Thank god for the NHS and all the workers / staff on the FRONT line

And what makes them so much better than US doctors/nurses/paramedics/techies/etc etc etc? Or those from any other country?

He seems to be expressing appreciation of the NHS and it's staff (and probably glad that this means the dire state of health provision for the poor that America suffers doesn't apply here) - he hasn't actually expressed an opinion that I can see of whether or not our medical staff are better than those of anywhere else.

And only the FRONT line? What about all the others literally working their backsides off?

rick_chasey

It is odd, Bannon's focus on the white working class, ideally doing old fashioned manual labour jobs.

Almost like he wants a type of nationalist labour movement to add a level of equality for those people. National socialism if you will.

mr_goo

Now he's revoked all the emissions/green policies that Obama put in place.!
Bl**dy head case.

Matthewfalle

Mr Goo wrote:

Now he's revoked all the emissions/green policies that Obama put in place.!
Bl**dy head case.

He started that a few weeks when he repealed the clean water act - he thinks that it will get big industry going again.

It'll get him a kick in the testicles I think.

Strange though that the travel ban created such a broo ha ha but no one gives a shite about the planet being destroyed.

rjsterry

Mr Goo wrote:

Now he's revoked all the emissions/green policies that Obama put in place.!
Bl**dy head case.

Surely there's a fair chance that this will blow up in his face just as repealing Obamacare did.

rick_chasey

rjsterry wrote:

Mr Goo wrote:

Now he's revoked all the emissions/green policies that Obama put in place.!
Bl**dy head case.

Surely there's a fair chance that this will blow up in his face just as repealing Obamacare did.

Meh, not so sure.

pinno

He's failed twice on the travel ban and failed to over turn Obama care, so that's Trump 0 - Establishment 3.

Matthewfalle

rjsterry wrote:

Mr Goo wrote:

Now he's revoked all the emissions/green policies that Obama put in place.!
Bl**dy head case.

Surely there's a fair chance that this will blow up in his face just as repealing Obamacare did.

Negatron - the green water act stuff went through no dramas, this will as well.

Planet's fackedd guys.

rjsterry

Matthewfalle wrote:

rjsterry wrote:

Mr Goo wrote:

Now he's revoked all the emissions/green policies that Obama put in place.!
Bl**dy head case.

Surely there's a fair chance that this will blow up in his face just as repealing Obamacare did.

Negatron - the green water act stuff went through no dramas, this will as well.

Planet's fackedd guys.

I'm not that optimistic, but give it time.

Maybe one of his golf courses will get washed away.

pinno

Matthewfalle wrote:

rjsterry wrote:

Mr Goo wrote:

Now he's revoked all the emissions/green policies that Obama put in place.!
Bl**dy head case.

Surely there's a fair chance that this will blow up in his face just as repealing Obamacare did.

Negatron - the green water act stuff went through no dramas, this will as well.

Planet's fackedd guys.

No, we need Donald Trump. Gove et al and the rise of Populism. Without them, there will be no pendulum the other way.

Pross

And today he's blocked proposals to protect online data. At first I assumed this was to allow security services / law enforcement to access data but no, it's so companies advertising on search engines can mine personal details.

milton50

I wonder how long it will take the working class Trump-voters to realise that tax cuts targeted at the very wealthiest and federal spending cuts isn't going to help them very much.

Then again, as long as he's focusing their attention on homeland security and banning Muslims from entry they'll probably be as happy as larry.

bendertherobot

Flynn wants immunity then. It's the issue that wont go away.

Mind, as his lawyer says, anyone in that position, whatever the case, would ask for it.

dinyull

Milton50 wrote:

I wonder how long it will take the working class Trump-voters to realise that tax cuts targeted at the very wealthiest and federal spending cuts isn't going to help them very much.

Same could be said about the working classes here who voted Conservative.

dinyull

bendertherobot wrote:

Flynn wants immunity then. It's the issue that wont go away.

Mind, as his lawyer says, anyone in that position, whatever the case, would ask for it.

Flynn, who last year said you don't accept immunity unless you've committed a crime.

bendertherobot

Lock him up

bompington

Dinyull wrote:

Milton50 wrote:

I wonder how long it will take the working class Trump-voters to realise that tax cuts targeted at the very wealthiest and federal spending cuts isn't going to help them very much.

Same could be said about the working classes here who voted Conservative.

Heard of the Laffer Curve?

briantrumpet

Dinyull wrote:

bendertherobot wrote:

Flynn wants immunity then. It's the issue that wont go away.

Mind, as his lawyer says, anyone in that position, whatever the case, would ask for it.

Flynn, who last year said you don't accept immunity unless you've committed a crime.

Seems like he's not going to be offered anything until the investigation knows how it might be useful.

"The congressional official said investigators were unwilling to broker a deal with Mr. Flynn — who resigned last month for misleading White House officials about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador to the United States — until they are further along in their inquiries and they better understand what information Mr. Flynn might offer as part of a deal."

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/us/p ... ussia.html

bompington

Good article here about the differences, missed by a lot, between different strains of Republican thinking - mainly explaining the difference between the Freedom Caucus, a liberal/libertarian group which is wrongly caricatured as "Hard Right", and Trump's quasi-fascist style.

Trump is obviously not a student of history or political philosophy, but he does embody a strain of thinking with a history that traces back in time ... the tradition of thought he inhabits stands in radical opposition to the liberal tradition. It always has. We just remain rather ignorant of this fact because the fascist tradition of thought has been dormant for many decades, and so is strangely unfamiliar to this generation of political observers.
So let us be clear: this manner of thinking that celebrates the nation-state, believes in great collectives on the move, panics about the demographic genocide of a race, rails against the “other” invading our shores, puts all hope in a powerful executive, and otherwise believes not in freedom but rather in compliance, loyalty, and hero worship – this manner of thinking has always and everywhere included liberals (or libertarians) as part of the enemy to be destroyed.

Overall I'd say that it is a bit scare-mongery to call Trump a fascist, but the bit in italics does highlight the common roots a bit scarily.

briantrumpet

bompington wrote:

Overall I'd say that it is a bit scare-mongery to call Trump a fascist, but the bit in italics does highlight the common roots a bit scarily.

He helps the scare-mongers when he tweets about things such as changing the libel laws in order to tame his press critics, attacks judges and immigrants, and so on: he gives them plenty of ammunition. Whether this is because it's what he (or Bannon) believes in, or is to deflect attention from other things (Republicans pushing through lots of unsavoury stuff, or Trump's Russia problem), time will/might tell. It's certainly uncharted water for America.

dinyull

This is good

https://twitter.com/GazWeetman/status/8 ... 8866657280

pinno

That bit in italics is so well put. I had never thought of it like that. It clarifies a little the reason why America is a young, some what paranoid/over defensive country.

kingstongraham

Dinyull wrote:

This is good

https://twitter.com/GazWeetman/status/8 ... 8866657280

How could that guy get his own name wrong, just after he'd been told not to make any mistakes! Some people.