Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Zan15]

damn welfare queens!! Welfare fraud, buying all those lobsters when are they going to kick people off welfare??
Wait...you mean it wasn't, ummm….someone on welfare??

https://www.yahoo.com/news/mississip...200732359.html

Money meant to help poor residents was used to buy luxury cars, sponsor a college baseball tournament and hire family members of a top state official, according to a report from State Auditor Shad White.

The 104-page audit of the Mississippi Department of Human Services released Monday shows how federal welfare grant funds flowed from DHS into two nonprofit groups, which allegedly spent the cash in inappropriate or questionable ways.



Oh and the irony of it all, so worried about fraud

Mississippi Republican lawmakers concerned about the misuse of federal funds have enacted safeguards to prevent fraud by potential welfare recipients. A ThinkProgress article found that in 2016, only 167 of the 11,700 Mississippi families who applied for a TANF payment were approved.


More than $94 million in welfare money spending was "questioned" by auditors, according to the report – alleging either outright misspending or lack of documentation showing it was spent properly.

In a statement, White said the report "shows the most egregious misspending my staff have seen in their careers at the Office of the State Auditor." He said, "If there was a way to misspend money, it seems DHS leadership or their grantees thought of it and tried it."

- - - Updated - - -

I shouldn't even comment on this cause it is the dumbest stuff ever. So yeah blue states in the "boom economy" were running a surplus. Illinois was in not doing well I believe, but guess what? They had a previous Republican Governor. Back to this dumb crap, which states with the bigger/biggest economies and population are yes suddenly the hardest hit on the bottom line.

California is the best example that Republicans frothed at the mouth when in reality every state and country was hit hard by 2008 economic crisis. California reboundedand by no shock gained its status as 5th largest in the world and I know they had a surplus. My state of Minnesota is another example. $1.2 billion dollar surplus just this year, we were talking about what to do with it and just yesterday it is now a $2.1 billion deficit.

The worse is him attacking states in this crisis. Same as Bush attacking New York for during 9/11 for having the World Trade Center or any coastal southern state for a hurricane. For the guy who promised non-partisanship he is the most hack partisan, divider we have ever had.

Good old Moscow Mitch is also doing a bang up job

https://finance.yahoo.com/m/1a7cbf7b...-—-have.html
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/he...of2&yptr=yahoo

Hey, Mitch McConnell — Have you seen your state’s pension fund lately?
Published: May 6, 2020 at 11:19 a.m. ET
\
And why are subsidizing Kentucky so much anyway?


Guess which state in America has the worst funded state pension plan? Guess which state has a state pension plan in such a crisis that according to its executive director, it has to stay heavily invested in bonds because it simply cannot handle a major market downturn?

Illinois? New York?

Nope. Kentucky. McConnell’s own state.

Eager confirms that the state pension systems are in crisis. “There’s no question that we are very poorly funded,” he says. “The actual number of the unfunded liabilities was…$25.8 billion,” he says. “And we also have a retirement insurance fund, and it has another $3.2 billion in unfunded [liabilities].”

As of the last fiscal year, he says, the funding level was 32.8%. In other words, they have about 33 cents in the plan for every dollar of liabilities. To put that in context, a study by Pew said the average was about 69%.

One of the five individual plans is “13.4% funded


The underfunding, he says, is no sudden crisis. It’s been developing “for the better part of two decades,” he says. The state government just put too little into the pension every year. “We were ‘negative cash flow’ for 17 years,”


The Rockefeller Institute recently ranked the 50 states by how much they were mooching off Uncle Sam.

The biggest donor states were in the high-cost, high-income, high-productivity economic engines of the northeast: Residents of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts all pay way more in federal taxes than they get back in federal spending.

And who’s the biggest taker? If you said Kentucky, you’d be wrong.

Virginia and Maryland are numbers one and two. Obvious, when you think about it: The suburbs of Washington, D.C.

Kentucky…is number three.

According to the Rockefeller Institute, Kentuckians are getting about $10,000 more per person from the federal government than they’re paying in taxes.

[Rasulis]

Just a small correction here for a lot of Illinois' issues. They owe a lot of people a lot of pensions. Unfortunately we seem to have this problem here where only the City of Chicago and the outlying Cook County are being taxed to pay for the those and the operation of the entire state. We're really two states combined into 1. A very blue Cook County and a very Red everything south of Interstate 80.

From what I remember of Illinois, there is not much to tax outside of the big cities like Chicago. Well, maybe Champaign-Urbana because of University of Illinois. To me ninety percent of Illinois is corn and soy bean fields. At least it felt that way.

[Captain N]

From what I remember of Illinois, there is not much to tax outside of the big cities like Chicago. Well, maybe Champaign-Urbana because of University of Illinois. To me ninety percent of Illinois is corn and soy bean fields. At least it felt that way.

Will County which literally is across the intersection of Harlem and 183rd St and just a little north of I-80 from Cook County doesn't pay taxes on cigarettes, liquor, sweetened beverages, ethanol fuel taxes, and has a 3ish% lower sales tax. It's a lot of the little stuff that gets to be quite irritating. Especially since those people in cornville are the loudest voices of suffering "oppressive taxation"

[Paranoid Android]

<snip>

Nope. Kentucky. McConnell’s own state.

Eager confirms that the state pension systems are in crisis. “There’s no question that we are very poorly funded,” he says. “The actual number of the unfunded liabilities was…$25.8 billion,” he says. “And we also have a retirement insurance fund, and it has another $3.2 billion in unfunded [liabilities].”

As of the last fiscal year, he says, the funding level was 32.8%. In other words, they have about 33 cents in the plan for every dollar of liabilities. To put that in context, a study by Pew said the average was about 69%.

One of the five individual plans is “13.4% funded


The underfunding, he says, is no sudden crisis. It’s been developing “for the better part of two decades,” he says. The state government just put too little into the pension every year. “We were ‘negative cash flow’ for 17 years,”


The Rockefeller Institute recently ranked the 50 states by how much they were mooching off Uncle Sam.

The biggest donor states were in the high-cost, high-income, high-productivity economic engines of the northeast: Residents of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts all pay way more in federal taxes than they get back in federal spending.

And who’s the biggest taker? If you said Kentucky, you’d be wrong.

Virginia and Maryland are numbers one and two. Obvious, when you think about it: The suburbs of Washington, D.C.

Kentucky…is number three.

According to the Rockefeller Institute, Kentuckians are getting about $10,000 more per person from the federal government than they’re paying in taxes.

Well if you go by the article I link its all to gain power for the Republicans and of course for the rich to benefit.

A federal bankruptcy process for state finances could thus enable wealthy individuals and interest groups in rich states to leverage their clout in the anti-majoritarian federal system to reverse political defeats in the more majoritarian political systems of big, rich states like California, New York, and Illinois.


McConnell is the most evil person ever alive. Trump is incompetent and a moron and people of his ilk are dangerous especially in power. McConnell think everyday how he can eff American citizens. This is not even partisan, since he will eff people who vote Republican if he can. Pretty much this is taking a flamethrower to the place and burn it all down.

As the last paragraph of this article states:

But McConnell seems to be following the rule “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”

.

[Edge-]

Unfortunate wording as he stumbles there.

Would also suggest a quick scroll down Aaron's main feed.

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1258098928903389191

Man, some people will just never be happy. HE IS SIGNING A BILL! SO WHAT IF HE IS SURROUNDED BY NURSES NOT SOCIAL DISTANCING OR WEARING MASKS! WHAT MORE DO YOU FUCKING WANT FROM HIM!?

[Twdft]

Unfortunate wording as he stumbles there.

Would also suggest a quick scroll down Aaron's main feed.

Second half of that sentence is "we are replacing it with a great healthcare at far less money that includes pre-existing conditions". It would be nice if that actually turns out true, anyone seen an actual plan for that? Been talking about it for years.

[Edge-]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...s-say-n1201146

There's been some apparently growth in cases in Walla Walla County in Washington that's contributed to the increase in cases.

And officials are learning why: Because people there are holding "coronavirus parties". Yes, like the old "chickenpox parties".

You'll never guess who they voted for by around a 20 point margin in 2016.

[Nellise]

Second half of that sentence is "we are replacing it with a great healthcare at far less money that includes pre-existing conditions". It would be nice if that actually turns out true, anyone seen an actual plan for that? Been talking about it for years.

There have been zero proposals other than their vague talking points about insurance across state lines and other stuff that doesn't help at all.

[draynay]

Second half of that sentence is "we are replacing it with a great healthcare at far less money that includes pre-existing conditions".

and everybody gets a pony

[Edge-]

and everybody gets a pony

Are you voting for Vermin Supreme too? I'm pretty hype about his pony-based economy.

[Captain N]

And to further the news - Looks like Dotard is going to ask the SCOTUS to strike down Obamacare in the midst of a pandemic.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/0...amacare-240366

[Rasulis]

And to further the news - Looks like Dotard is going to ask the SCOTUS to strike down Obamacare in the midst of a pandemic.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/0...amacare-240366

Stupid and maliciously evil are bad combination.

A lot of people are finding out now that their employers health insurance is not better than ACA health insurance. Turns out while ACA health insurance policies will automatically cover all COVID-19 testing and treatment plus waive the copay requirement, the same is not true for those much touted employers health insurance policies. Many are finding this out the hard way.

By extension, it makes ACA a better option for the unemployed than COBRA. First COBRA is way more expensive than ACA. Second, COBRA extends the employers insurance coverage which in all likelihood does not cover COVID-19 related items in the first place.

ACA is right now the best lifeline for the millions of newly unemployed Americans.

The current administration want to eliminate ACA.

The current administration is either stupid or evil beyond belief.

[Captain N]

The current administration is either stupid or evil beyond belief.

Between him trying to pull this off and Mitch McConnell trying to make it so employers cannot be sued if their employees or customers get sick or worse from the virus should be all there needs to be said about the Republican Party. This is beyond evil. We're at the point of protecting corporations so strongly that we're going to either sicken, kill, or bankrupt a whole lot of people.

[jonnysensible]

That boogaloo boi who was making pipe bombs is defo going to get off.

Judge: "Without the pipe bombs, lots of people believe what he believes."

"Unlike most people, instead of sticking to guns and lots of ammunition, he's gone to a lot of effort to remodel his home."

big yikes

[Rasulis]

Between him trying to pull this off and Mitch McConnell trying to make it so employers cannot be sued if their employees or customers get sick or worse from the virus should be all there needs to be said about the Republican Party. This is beyond evil. We're at the point of protecting corporations so strongly that we're going to either sicken, kill, or bankrupt a whole lot of people.

I am actually not opposed to some type of Safe Harbor Act for businesses. Something to the effect that if a business follows all of OSHA COVID-19 mitigation measures, and one of their employee or customer ended up infected by COVID-19, the business should not be held liable.

The biggest problem is that OSHA currently does not have a unified COVID-19 workplace policy. All they have are suggestions. On top of that, OSHA enforcement of labor laws under the current administration has been lackluster.

[Captain N]

I am actually not opposed to some type of Safe Harbor Act for businesses. Something to the effect that if a business follows all of OSHA COVID-19 mitigation measures, and one of their employee or customer ended up infected by COVID-19, the business should not be held liable.

The biggest problem is that OSHA under the current administration does not have a unified COVID-19 workplace policy. All they have are suggestions. On top of that, OSHA enforcement of labor laws under the current administration has been lackluster.

Which is the issue I take it the whole thing. OSHA under the current administration can simply say yeah everything is up to par when it isn't. Then we'll see protections expanded to any other forms of injury/death in the workplace. It sets a precedent where we no longer hold employers accountable for the safety of their work places.

[Poopymonster]

Which is the issue I take it the whole thing. OSHA under the current administration can simply say yeah everything is up to par when it isn't. Then we'll see protections expanded to any other forms of injury/death in the workplace. It sets a precedent where we no longer hold employers accountable for the safety of their work places.

What do you mean it's not safe. We gave the kids canaries when they went into the mines. What more do you want?

[Edge-]

That boogaloo boi who was making pipe bombs is defo going to get off.

Judge: "Without the pipe bombs, lots of people believe what he believes."

"Unlike most people, instead of sticking to guns and lots of ammunition, he's gone to a lot of effort to remodel his home."

big yikes

https://twitter.com/jjmacnab/status/1258150122237464576

The judge never put in a order for a psych evaluation, and said that because the defendants told the agents that he wanted to kill cops, he was actually cooperating and therefore wasn't a threat.

What. The. Fuck.

[Polyxo]

https://twitter.com/jjmacnab/status/1258150122237464576



What. The. Fuck.

Can we just drone strike that guy?

[Rasulis]

Which is the issue I take it the whole thing. OSHA under the current administration can simply say yeah everything is up to par when it isn't. Then we'll see protections expanded to any other forms of injury/death in the workplace. It sets a precedent where we no longer hold employers accountable for the safety of their work places.

That's the underlying issue. We have had so many lies coming out of this administration, nobody trust what it said anymore. I am definitely against any type of blanket immunity.