Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ed Markey to unveil 'Green New Deal' bill

[Cow Poke]

I think you're confusing him with firstfloor (or perhaps JimL). He might be in the fan club too, but I don't recall him saying that.

It's quite possible - they all tend to run together. Lemme do some quick checking. Certainly not JimL - I'm fully aware he adores Rachel - but maybe I'm confusing Star and ff.


ETA: Yeah, I bet I was thinking of ff. Sorry, Star!

[Cow Poke]

You guys are so silly. I find it hilarious you've somehow managed to convince yourselves she's not intelligent.

I could show you a whole bunch of clips of her saying really goofy things, and batting those big eyes, and... Even CNN's Jake Tapper seemed perplexed he couldn't get a straight answer out of her on her Medicare For All that would cost (according to left leaning sources (according to Tapper)) $40 Trillion, but she can only come up with $2 Trillion in taxes....

The child is absolutely clueless!!!

No, I think you might be confusing me with FirstFloor on that one.

Yes, sir, you are correct. My bad.

[Starlight]

I think you're confusing him with firstfloor (or perhaps JimL). He might be in the fan club too, but I don't recall him saying that.

I think I once watched an episode of Rachael's show... found it a bit boring and slow-paced. From what I know of her show 3rd-hand she seems to have dived into Russia conspiracies with both feet and be a bit in danger of becoming the Glenn-Beck / Alex Jones of the left.

The only TV-based news shows I tend to watch much these days is the Late Show With Stephen Colbert, and Last Week Tonight With John Oliver. I generally prefer youtube-based news channels such as The Majority Report With Sam Seder, Secular Talk, TYT, The Michael Brooks Show all of which tend to draw from a miscellany of TV and newspaper sources showing video clips and referencing articles, and I also enjoy Richard Wolff youtube channel with regard to economic issues. For newspaper articles I tend to find /r/politics does generally the best job of aggregating relevant articles from dozens of newspaper sources likely to be of interest to me.

[Mountain Man]

I could show you a whole bunch of clips of her saying really goofy things, and batting those big eyes, and... Even CNN's Jake Tapper seemed perplexed he couldn't get a straight answer out of her on her Medicare For All that would cost (according to left leaning sources (according to Tapper)) $40 Trillion, but she can only come up with $2 Trillion in taxes....

The child is absolutely clueless!!!

I think Dimbulb is just trolling us.

[Cow Poke]

I think Dimbulb is just trolling us.

One would hope so.

[Mountain Man]

I think I once watched an episode of Rachael's show... found it a bit boring and slow-paced. From what I know of her show 3rd-hand she seems to have dived into Russia conspiracies with both feet and be a bit in danger of becoming the Glenn-Beck / Alex Jones of the left.

The only TV-based news shows I tend to watch much these days is the Late Show With Stephen Colbert, and Last Week Tonight With John Oliver. I generally prefer youtube-based news channels such as The Majority Report With Sam Seder, Secular Talk, TYT, The Michael Brooks Show all of which tend to draw from a miscellany of TV and newspaper sources showing video clips and referencing articles, and I also enjoy Richard Wolff youtube channel with regard to economic issues. For newspaper articles I tend to find /r/politics does generally the best job of aggregating relevant articles from dozens of newspaper sources likely to be of interest to me.

That's the kind of liberal trash you watch? I take back what I said to Cow Poke. Maybe you're not trolling. Maybe you really are as uninformed and indoctrinated as you seem.

[Cow Poke]

That's the kind of liberal trash you watch? I take back what I said to Cow Poke. Maybe you're not trolling. Maybe you really are as uninformed and indoctrinated as you seem.

I really get a kick out of how some of the liberals are claiming AOC is "terrifying" the GOP, or Fox News, or white men... She's hilarious, and the Dems need more spokespeople like her!

[Starlight]

CNN's Jake Tapper seemed perplexed he couldn't get a straight answer out of her on her Medicare For All

Jake Tapper seems to have some sort of bizarre personal hang-up about Medicare for All. He did some sort of supposed 'fact-check' segment on the issue that was full of errors and got roundly debunked and slammed, but even after he back-tracked and corrected it he still tried to pretend he had some sort of serious point. I am not sure what is wrong with him on the issue.

As a result it does not surprise me in the least to hear that a discussion with him on the topic did not go well. I am not sure whether his ignorance is willful ignorance, personal political views, him simply not getting it, or him trying to be 'tough' on the left to try to appeal to right-wingers.

that would cost (according to left leaning sources (according to Tapper)) $40 Trillion,

Currently Americans pay private insurance companies premiums for insurance policies. The idea is that instead of paying that money to private insurance companies, the same people would pay slightly less money as a special Medicare payroll tax, and get Medicare coverage. They don't need to pay as much money because the existing Medicare system is significantly more efficient and has significantly less overheads and medical costs than the equivalent existing private insurance coverage. Thus people would net save money.

Any question of 'how are you going to pay for this' is beside the point because it costs less than the current system. Every projection ranks it as cheaper than the current system, even the Libertarian think tank research that was trumpeted by the media about how expensive Medicare for All would be, admitted in its own report that it would be cheaper than the current system.

Jake Tapper somehow doesn't seem to be able to get his head around the fact that it costs less than the current system. And so instead of him talking about it as a policy that saves trillions of dollars, he instead asks confused questions about paying for it, apparently unaware that people in the US currently already pay for healthcare that is more expensive than the system being proposed.

[Starlight]

That's the kind of liberal trash you watch? I take back what I said to Cow Poke. Maybe you're not trolling. Maybe you really are as uninformed and indoctrinated as you seem.

I can't decide whether you're trolling or whether you're actually dumb enough to think any of that.

[Cow Poke]

Jake Tapper seems to have some sort of bizarre personal hang-up about Medicare for All....

OK, so let's agree that Tapper is a boob -- you watched the video? You think OAC's babbling answers actually made sense?

[Starlight]

I really get a kick out of how some of the liberals are claiming AOC is "terrifying" the GOP, or Fox News, or white men...

Well the conservatives seem to be all-out throwing their toys out of the cot when it comes to AOC, so there's clearly something about her that panics them. They seem really, really, desperate to try and pretend that she's stupid or that she doesn't know what she's talking about.

I have never, in all the countries I follow politics in, ever seen so many illegitimate attacks so suddenly against a new politician.

[Cow Poke]

Well the conservatives seem to be all-out throwing their toys out of the cot when it comes to AOC, so there's clearly something about her that panics them. They seem really, really, desperate to try and pretend that she's stupid or that she doesn't know what she's talking about.

Give me some actual examples of conservatives in a panic, please.

I have never, in all the countries I follow politics in, ever seen so many illegitimate attacks so suddenly against a new politician.

OK, MM, maybe he IS trolling.

[Starlight]

OK, so let's agree that Tapper is a boob -- you watched the video? You think OAC's babbling answers actually made sense?

I saw it at the time and I've just rewatched it. I think there was scope for improvement on both sides, because they were talking past each other. Basically it went:

Tapper: These policies sound really expensive, how would you pay for it?
AOC: They're cheaper than what we currently do and spend, so we'd save money.

Tapper: Um, sure, whatever, but how would you pay for it? They sound expensive. I've heard math is a thing and numbers should add or subtract or something.
AOC: Cheaper. Than. What. We. Currently. Do. That's why other countries in the world all do it and can afford it.

Tapper: Well I guess I'm not going to get an answer.

AOC's answers were fine. Although I think there's some scope for her to have been slightly clearer because apparently Tapper didn't understand it and neither did you. Obviously its hard on-the-fly if the interviewer is asking nonsensical questions to switch gears and try to work out what exactly it is that he doesn't understand about the issue, but the target audience is really the viewers not the interviewer so any politician is better to repeat their own talking points to the viewers than try and diagnose what exactly the particular interviewer doesn't understand about their policy, and then afterwards get their PR people to brief the interviewer's team so next time the interviewer doesn't bumble it so much.

Obviously the core concept that Tapper doesn't seem to understand is the US people already pay money for healthcare. There is a current expenditure of money that is higher than $40 trillion. Thus if AOC proposes a plan to reduce current healthcare expenditure to $40 trillion, then the correct question is not "how will you find the additional money?" or "how can you afford something that costs less than you're currently paying?" like he was effectively asking, the correct question is "what will you do with all the money you've saved after you've migrated to this cheaper system?"

[rogue06]

Well the conservatives seem to be all-out throwing their toys out of the cot when it comes to AOC, so there's clearly something about her that panics them. They seem really, really, desperate to try and pretend that she's stupid or that she doesn't know what she's talking about.

I have never, in all the countries I follow politics in, ever seen so many illegitimate attacks so suddenly against a new politician.

Meanwhile in the real world everyone I've seen is hoping that she keeps doing exactly what it is she's doing.

[Mountain Man]

OK, MM, maybe he IS trolling.

I'm not certain any more. I think he's just another typical low-information liberal.