2018 Roundup

Well, 2018 has come to an end. And with the government shutdown, Democrats taking the House, and much more, I say this year has been . . . something.

The government shutdown has been going on for 10 days. Luckily, Donald's government shutdown is so unpopular, he has to blame everyone but himself. A recent poll found that only half of all Americans surveyed blamed the man who was given a spending bill that could have stopped the shutdown and didn't sign it. Or, only half of all Americans blamed the person who caused the shutdown.

Of course, the shutdown was over Donald Trump wanting taxpayers to fund his wall. I would give Trump credit for following through on his campaign promises if he didn't also promise us that Mexico would pay for the wall. What happened to that? Oh, and if the promise wasn't really stupid. 

Going into 2020, things are only getting worse for Democrats. Elizebeth Warren announced her run unofficially today. I think she would be a positive influence on the race, even if she's only one-half correct that's still better than who else I'm seeing.

CNN did a segment today on how Bernie can't win because he's an old white man. Despite the fact that our current president is an old white man (the spray tan makes it hard to tell, I know). They also tried to call him a pervert, although when he's running against the grouper in chief, I don't really think that matters all that much. 

Seriously though, let's just all take a minute and be happy Beto O'Rourke won't be president. All the polls seem to say it will either be Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders. I like Biden, I think he was a very good Vice President under Obama and a pretty decent Senator, even if he came in just at the time when Democrats couldn't figure out how they should feel about race. Rather either of them will run is still up in the air, but important news is where the polls line up.

Of course, CNN is trying to make Kamla Harris 2020 a thing. It's not going to be a thing, but CNN really doesn't seem to care. They've put her as there most likely to be the nomination for two months in a row, despite no poll done by anyone that isn't CNN saying this. 

Of course, the only candidate who has has a snowball's chance in hell is Richard Ojeda. He's a good center-left candidate, but he's not bad. He believes in healthcare for all, universal education, and increased taxes on the rich.

So what will happen in 2019? Let's find out together.

3 Simple Ways To Pay For Universal Healthcare

This is something that we've heard over and over again. Whenever anyone announces they support Medicare for all, no matter who they are, the question that is imminently asked for is "how are you going to pay for it?". Mind you, these people often ignore how single payer would save most people money, but that's beside the point. 
Mind you, I'm not saying it shouldn't be asked. Of course it should. Have you seen our debt? However, the vast majority of the time it's not by someone who is curious or unfamiliar with the concept, it's by someone who already knows the answer and is asking so they can look like they came out on top. 
So, if they can have a copy paste response I think it's fair that we have one back. So here are 3 ways to pay for a universal healthcare system. 
#1-The Good Old Fashion Way
Yeah, it's the most obvious one, that's why it's the first. Figured we should get "raise taxes" out of the way early. 
Of course, this scares people who own Don't Tread On Me bumper stickers, but here are the facts. First off, these people typically don't understand how taxes work. Taxes are a fee that you pay for to the government. It's only fair that you, the person who pays the taxes, get something in return.
However, how high are the taxes? After all, taxes being too high can cause negative economic effects (which these people seem to think never happens the other way around, but that's beside the point). I mean Bernie Sanders, the man who made the idea popular, said he wanted a top tax rate of over 90%. Wait, no that Republican president Dwight D. Eisenhower and Bernie just pointed it out. 
Here's the tax plan he actually proposed while running for president: 
 
Now, here's how many percentage points your taxes would increase:
$1-250,000: 0% (Your taxes stay the same)
$250,001- 411,500: 4%
$411,501-464,850: 2%
$464,851-499,999: -2.6%
$500,000-2,000,000: 3.4%
$2,000,001-10,000,000: 8.4%
More than $10,000,0001: 12.4%
So you would need to make over $10,000,000 to have your taxes raised over 10%, over $2,000,000 to have them raised more than 5%, and more than $250,000 to have them raised at all. 
#2-Enforce The Tax Laws We Already Have/Make Taxes The Same For Everyone 
We have lost AT LEAST $70 billion to tax havens in one year. How is that not illegal? We all know they do it, and if you did it you'd be convicted of tax avoidance. How is this not a crime?
How about for the fact that (except for a brief point in the '80's) the capital gains rate is smaller than the individual rate. So someone making $80,000 a year through work could be paying more in taxes than someone making $500,000 a year through investments.
How about ban those non-sense "economic development" programs that actively don't work. Remember Amazon, the company that paid no taxes last year. Meanwhile, Jeff is still one of the richest men in the world.
And don't think I'm not going to mention the inequality in payroll taxes. Social Security taxes, for instance, only taxes up to $128,400. And people wonder why it's going bankrupt. 
#3-Cut The Military
It previously seemed to be impossible make it more clear how cartoonish our military spending can be. Then Trump tried to create a space force.
As pointed out before, by the end of the Obama administration the United States had a military budget larger than the next 7 nations combined. We have over 800 military bases, including around Iran which the White House calls a giant threat. Bet John Bolton will never tell you that. 
Then, without any debate, we increased the military budget by enough to pay for public college. Because if we don't the communists will take over or something, seriously this is ridiculous. Yet, no one ever asks how we're going to pay for the billions we spend with the Pentagon.
And these are just 3 of the millions of way progressives have given over the years to pay for a program that every other country in the modern world has.    
              
     

Throwback: David Koch Runs For President

Note: This is more or less an updated text version of a video I made in January 2018. You can watch it here if you so choose. This post have been overall improved since the original version and as such is the definitive version.  
You ever heard of a libertarian. I don't blame you if you haven't, after all they typically aren't considered a big threat in our political sphere. However, despite what libertarians would have you believe, there is one group of people that love them, big business. David Koch ran as vice-president on the Libertarian ticket in 1980, it's as bad as you think. Those who watch The Thom Hartmann Program may know about this (watch it here), but Bernie also posted it on his website (read it here).
So what does it say? Well let's find out together.

We urge the repeal of federal campaign finance laws, and the immediate abolition of the despotic Federal Election Commission

So right of the bat we see where the Koch brothers lie of issues. They're spending $400 million and the midterms by the way. So of course this is going to be on the list. 

We favor the abolition of Medicare and Medicaid programs

I guess 45,000 people every year isn't enough for the Koch brothers. To be fair I don't think they don't want people to die, I just think they really don't care. Also I'm going to be skipping some of these to keep from repeating myself.

 We favor the repeal of the fraudulent, virtually bankrupt, and increasingly oppressive Social Security system. Pending that repeal, participation in Social Security should be made voluntary

Senior poverty only went down because of Social Security, yet they seem to ignore that. But even then, Social Security would work if they stopped spending the money (notice how no other country has to deal with it going bankrupt). 

We support the eventual repeal of all taxation 

Tfw you try to make Reagan look moderate on taxes. Of course this would lead to a boom-bust cycle, of course these people don't care. 
Also remember people, low taxes are good for everyone and not just the rich. Trust David Koch to tell you that. 

We advocate the complete separation of education and State. Government schools lead to the indoctrination of children and interfere with the free choice of individuals. Government ownership, operation, regulation, and subsidy of schools and colleges should be ended.

Because private schools never lead to indoctrination.

We support the abolition of the Environmental Protection Agency

Would you like some Koch brand smoke with that air? Also here's there opensecrets.org page if you're curious. Notice how many of them deny climate change.  

We demand the return of America's railroad system to private ownership. We call for the privatization of the public roads and national highway system

Anyone who knows how the toll road system worked during the industrial revolution knows how this will end up. Mainly, a large amount of toll roads. Hope you have quarters with you. 

We advocate the abolition of the Food and Drug Administration

Go to the supplement industry for your medicine if you really think that's a good idea. 
I think you get the idea at this point. Just be happy these nuts have basically no influence when it comes to actual policy. 


  
  

Top 5 Republican FAILS Throughout History!

I'm sure many of you have seen the recent video in which Steven Crowder lists times liberals have been wrong throughout history. So that gave me an idea, why not go through his video and not only debunk the list he came up with, but also make my own list to compete with his. 
So here we are with the Top 5 Republican FAILS Throughout History (with 5 Crowder fails)! 
Crowder "Myth" #1-Peak Oil
I mean where would people get an idea that a non-renewable resource is something that we can run out of. The fact is that at some point oil production rates are going to have to decline because there is only so much oil in existence. Unless you are really going to argue that we have unlimited oil, in which case I would like to laugh at you. 
Also, I think it should be pointed out that peakoil.com, you know the website about peak oil, says we will reach it around 2020. Just figured that needed to be mentioned. This is the first graph on the article from a website called Peakoil.com. 
Myth #1-Paris Climate Agreement  
You remember this, claims that by the way, Crowder himself has made. A deal that is non-binding anyway so even if it would hurt the economy, you don't have to pull out of the deal in order to not have those disadvantages. 
But that's even giving them more credit then they deserve. The truth is the Paris Climate Agreement would help the economy But that's all bad because of globalism and Agenda 21.
But even if all of that weren't true, even if it didn't help the economy and was binding it would still be worth it to help stop the effects of Climate Change.  
Crowder "Myth" #2-AIDS
Yeah, of course, he mentioned this one. Even though his views on AIDS have been debunked he's still spewing the same thing. 
The only thing I feel like I need to point out is Crowder is still making the argument that getting AIDS is your fault and we should fund diseases that people can't control if they get like cancer and diabetes. But, by his own logic wouldn't it be there fault? I mean according to him the only way to get AIDS is to have gay sex with random people or shove dirty needles in you. But can you really get throat cancer without chain smoking 20 packs of cigarettes in a day? Of course, you can but he doesn't know that. 
Myth #2-GRID
Yeah, remember this one. You know Gay-related immune deficiency or what we used to call AIDS, you know Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. You see, we used to think that the only way you could get it is if you were gay, turns out that's not true. 
To be fair, it is believed that most straight people only started getting it because of bisexuals (their boyfriends had boyfriends) but if only gays could, how would that matter?
Crowder "Myth" #3-Reagan's Star Wars Program
Crowder just sort of complains that people didn't like the fact that Reagan used this program to get welfare (during record high military spending and a record high deficit). Also, he goes into this weird rant about how the British people turned there back on Winston Churchill after the war. Ignoring that time he compared Labour to Nazi's just before the election and that he wanted to invade Russia. 
Myth #3-Reagan's tax cuts
As I mentioned in the last article, saying Reagan cut taxes is a very misleading statement. Once payroll taxes are taken into account the bottom 20% had their taxes increased by 15%. The 2nd poorest 20% (21%-40%) also had their taxes increased by 0.6%.   
Now, none of that would be a problem if the economy did well under Reagan, the problem is it didn't. The economy reached its worse point since the Great Depression under President Reagan, doesn't sound like a good one to me. 
Crowder "Myth" #4-Model Cities Program (More Or Less Just An Attack On The War On Poverty) 
Let's get one thing out of the way, the war on poverty HAS worked greatly. Despite two economic collapses, poverty has both stayed the same and remained LOWER than it was before the war on poverty started. 
As for his claims about Chicago ignores that it was free trade deals that caused Chicago's economy to be ruined. I'm not even making a statement about free trade as a whole (in fact I'm usually for it) I'm just stating facts.   
Myth #4-New Deal
Let's just keep this to Social Security for the sake of ease. Republicans have been talking about how it doesn't work and how it's unsustainable when none of that is true. 
Bill Clinton got social security up until the 2070's, yet it will go bankrupt in the 2030's. That's because they spent the money so it will go bankrupt, so they could try to privatize it. 
Crowder "Myth" #5-Venezuela
Okay, he has us there. 
Myth #5-Iraq  
Let's go down the list
-Sadam did not have any involvement in 9/11
-Iraq did not have WMD's
-The people in Iraq hated us after we invaded them
And that's just off the top of my head 
I could spend a whole post going into all the myths Republicans spread during the Iraq war, but this post is already getting long and I don't have the time. 

If You're Going To Take A Challenge, Make Sure It Doesn't Involve Ann Coulter

So I figured it's time to talk about someone who I've wanted to address for a very long time. 
Recently on twitter, I decided to have a little fun and take a shot at Ann Coulter fans. Apparently, that is an act of wrong think as within hours my twitter notification was filled with people who hate thin-skinned like me and just scream nonsense whenever someone they love is criticized like a normal person does.  
I was then informed that I just don't understand the genius of Ann. You see, it takes a true intellectual to repeat Republican talking points while sounding a little mean. Then I chose to have a little more fun and asked an Ann Coulter fan which of her work he would recommend to someone like me. I asked which one, to which he told me this:

Any of them. Amazed that one could be so bold as to wager a default dismissal of her prodigious talent. Read and learn. In fact, perhaps a beatitude is in order...Blessed are the meek for they shall....

So here's the deal. I'm going to go through the first chapter of one of her books, in this case, her 2013 work Never Trust a Liberal Over 3-Especially a Republican, and we're going to see her "prodigious talent" together. Luckily for me, all of that is available in the Amazon preview so I don't have to give her any money to read it. 
The first thing I would like to point out is that Ann really needs to get her talking points figured out. For instance, look at this line from page 2 of her book:

[The left] act like [Reagan] was a good partener with liberals in winning the Cold War

Okay, no one does, but okay. What makes this odd is that on page 3, the very next page, she says this:

[L]iberals claim that Ronald Reagan didn't win the Cold War, it just ended.

So liberals act like Reagan was with them during the Cold War, which they also claim he didn't win. Again, this is literally one page apart. 
She then goes on to complain about how liberals use the courts to bully conservatives. You know, for a lawyer she does have an awful understanding of how the law works. 
The whole point of the Supreme Court is to not have the constitution change due to the majority rule. This is also why they are appointed and not elected. 
Also, I have no idea where she got the idea that the only unpopular opinions of the courts are liberal. The majority of Americans are against money in politics and yet since the 1970's more and more cases have allowed more and more money in politics. Do I really need to remind Ann how unpopular Bush V. Gore was? 
Now let's see her ignorance of history:

Reagan's tax cuts gave a huge boost to the US economy-as did tax cuts under . . . Calivin Coolidge. 

Yes Ann, let's go back to the economic policies of the 1920's. What could go wrong? As for the claim about Reagan's tax cuts, I have no idea what she's talking about. Once you take payroll taxes into account the bottom 20% had a tax increase of 15% under Reagan. On a side note, the top 1% did get a tax cut of 15%, funny how that works.
Okay, what else, what else? Oh here's her making a bad prediction:

[W]hy are any . . . bussinessmen showing up in [the Republican] presidental primiaries? They're never going to get the nomiattion

If only. Look it may seem like I'm cutting a lot out, and that's because I am. This is because of what bothers me most about Ann Coulter, she's boring as tar. Take out all the insults and times she fakes being edgy and all you get is Republican party talking points. 
I mean I guess every now and then you'll get something crazy (soccer is what's wrong with America, D-Day is a communist plot, her weird hatred of the family members of 9/11 victims) but that's few and far between.
What I'm getting at is, I'm not her biggest fan if you catch my drift. 
I would like to end with this. The original plan for this article was that I would look through many of the columns Ann put in this book and talk and about the ones that seem interesting. That fell apart when I realized, none of them were interesting. But I'll just give you some of the titles to these pieces and let you decide if they're worth your time:
-On This Aborted Fetus, the Democrats Plant Their Flag
-Only His Hairdresser Knows For Sure
-Obama Birth Certificate Spotted in Bogus Moon Landing Footage
-Negroes with Guns
-Freeze! I Just Had My Nails Done!
-Guantanamo Loses Five-Star Rating
-America Needs El Tipping Pointo
-Watching MSNBC Is Torture (To be fair, she isn't wrong in this case)  
-Media: Halliburton Paid Dick Cheney to Commit Rape in Iraq
Oh yeah I forgot to mention, she isn't funny either. 
Now if any of you need me I'm going to be someplace else, hopefully someplace where I'm not thinking about Ann Coulter.