You should probably speak for Zeb. Him speaking for himself is a dumpster fire.
Here’s the problem with your comparison - all the Trump enablers agreed Trump was not a good choice for the nomination. But they sat back and wouldn’t offer any efforts to strangle the Trump phenomenon in its crib. His heinous statements and idiocy were met with indifference, and now Cruz, Rubio, and Kasich are sitting on the bench, and the terrible candidate is in fact the candidate. Enabling.
By contrast, in my mind, between Trump and Hillary, as I have said a zillion times, one isn’t better than another. If I say tons of bad stuff about Trump and somehow convince a voter not to vote for Trump, that’s fine - I don’t care, it means less of a chance Trump becomes president. If the same happens with Hillary - the most corrupt candidate in the past 20 years easily who also has no natural talent for to job - and a voter doesn’t vote for Hillary, I don’t care about that either, it means there’s less of a chance of Hillary becoming president.
They’re fungible in my mind.
As I have said before, this isn’t about having an imperfect candidate that I refuse to vote for, therefore I am enabling Hillary her victory - the “you’re making the perfect the enemy of the good argument” made to conservatives who refused to vote for Romney and thus enabled Obama to win in 2012.
That criticism and theory starts with a presumption that the imperfect candidate is at least a better alternative to the other candidate, and you shouldn’t not vote for the imperfect candidate as a result. Let me be absolutely clear, again, on that point - I have no such presumption or belief, as I don’t think the imperfect candidate here (Trump) is actually a better alternative to Hillary.
Trump is not the lesser evil here. You may think so, Zeb may think so, others may think so - I do not.
I think that’s fair to a degree. My only problem is that a) he goes on and on about how he was against the Iraq war in the beginning (which we know isn’t true based on the Stern interview), which is dishonest, imo and more importantly b) History is one of the few and probably best ways we can gauge what a politician will actually do once elected. Otherwise we are just hoping Trump has changed and will do what he says he will do even though it is contrary to what he has done over the course of his life. That’s a pretty big gamble.
This is how I feel as well and as I have said before I believe a Trump presidency ends after 1 term, leads to a liberal more like Bernie than Hillary crushing Trumps re-election bid, and at least one if not both houses of Congress lost to the Dems. Four years of Trump tweeting leads to 8+ years of Democratic control of two and possibly all three branches of government.
Well, to make an informed comparison one would have to have first hand experience with both government run healthcare and US healthcare.
Personally, I’ve seen that every America obsesses about healthcare and corresponding costs, while in Europe no one cares or notices the costs.
I’ll give you some examples of EU government healthcare costs, here in one the poorer EU states. I’ve compared the amounts I’ve personally paid with my monthly net salary.
Fixing a tooth cavity US$ 30 (roughly 1% monthly net income)
Porcelain dental crown US$ 200 (roughly 4 % monthly income)
Antibiotics for an ear infection (including visit to my MD, blood work and subsequent check up) US$ 60 (2%)
Ankle fracture (visit to the MD, cast, removal of cast) US$ 50 + US$ 100 physical therapy sessions
Also, example from my wife - total costs of an Ob-gyn during pregnancy (regular bi-weekly checkups, regular blood and urine work, c-section) US$ 1000. Hospital stay is US$ 20 per day. DNA tests are US $608
So all pregnancy related costs are less than my net monthly salary and our ob-gyn worked in the US for five years.
I’m curious to know what the US numbers would be for these treatments as I know a guy who flew from NYC home to Brazil to get his tooth fixed as it was cheaper, taking into account travel costs.
You should probably speak for Zeb. Him speaking for himself is a dumpster fire.[/quote]
And yet you are still unable to cook up a good answer as to why you are so very anti Trump and give Hillary a free pass page after page. And not only that, you attack many who decides that they want to vote for Trump. And there is no denying it you have no where to go on this one. You suffer from “TDS” Trump derangement syndrome.
I hate Trump posts - 87
I hate Hillary posts - Maybe 4 or 5 lines scattered about when pushed.
Wrong, you have said a zillion times that Trump is a zillion bad things. On the other hand you have knocked Hillary only occasionally. But then I understand there is only so much time in a day and why waste it on anything but attacking Trump. This is part of TDS.
.[quote] If I say tons of bad stuff about Trump and somehow convince a voter not to vote for Trump, that’s fine - I don’t care, it means less of a chance Trump becomes president. If the same happens with Hillary - the most corrupt candidate in the past 20 years easily who also has no natural talent for to job - and a voter doesn’t vote for Hillary, I don’t care about that either, it means there’s less of a chance of Hillary becoming president.[/quote]
But for some reason you can’t muster the time or energy to write those heated posts about Hillary. Nor do you seem to go after Hillary supports with the same fervor …or at all most times.
Oh I think we all understand that pretty clearly. And you should take it maybe one step further and say what you are showing here on T Nation. That is, you would actually prefer Hillary to Trump.
VA healthcare, in my experience, is garbage and their leadership is garbage. Many of the folks I served with feel the same way
Close to half their income gets taken by their respective governments so it doesn’t surprise me that they don’t notice. Out of sight out of mind I guess.
Regarding costs: I’d be interested in seeing a thorough comparison from a third party.
It would of coursed depend on the plan, but my wife and I had a baby last year and we didn’t come out of pocket anywhere close to $1k and we’re on a high deductible plan. We pay something like $3,000 a year in premiums (family of 3), which is maybe 2% of our household income and we get to kept 15%-25% more of our income.
Like I said, I’d like to see a more thorough analysis, though.
Well, to be fair the establishment didn’t bring this on themselves directly. So I’m not sure they will learn any lesson other than “hey, when we run on X and squish, the base gets pissed, and so pissed in fact they will nominate a 90’s era democrat on our ticket.”
Trump is one of two things in my mind, as far as the Republican primary voters are concerned:
a) A protest vote against the same ol’ bullshit (which is a weird possibility considering his stances)
b) Finally someone “with balls” they can actually get behind because he has the same lack of filter the vast majority of people in the country do. Doesn’t even matter what he says at this point, he is someone people can get behind, for whatever reason, rather than accept because “the other person sucks so much”.
I’m far, far from a Trump supporter, and honestly would be utterly shocked if Hillary doesn’t win 42-46 states to his 8-4. But the left keeps rioting every time he speaks, and it won’t matter anymore that he’s a scumbag and says stupid shit. People will flock to him because the dipshits throwing rocks and acting like children will make him look like the GOOD choice.
Can you guess who Bernie’s top donors are? I’ll give you a hint, rhymes with mUnions.
I have noticed a trend with your posts, and I have to ask, what is your concept of Liberty?
Many of the political debates in the U.S. are a direct struggle between freedom and security. You ask why we aren’t so willing to steal more from taxpayers for healthcare or college or a plethora of other social programs. Its comes down to our value of individual liberty and the belief that a man should be able to control his own life.
So do you support massively lowering your defence budget that produces a military so powerful and massive that it could crush any internal uprising? Because that seems like a liberty/security issue more than the horrors of universal healthcare.
This brings up something that continues to perplex me until this day, TB…
How did Jeb fall out of favor so fast and so thoroughly with “the Establishment”?
Granted…this person admits being a friend of the Romney’s…but prior to the “Primary Massacre of 2016”…Jeb was the prohibitive favorite to win the Presidency…and he had a 100 million dollar War Chest behind him…
To me…Jeb and his “Fall from Grace” will be one of the most intriguing stories to come out of the 2016 Presidential Campaign.
Trump is a disaster, utter disaster. He’s going to get his ass kicked by Hilary. Right? That’s a good thing and here’s why:
He makes actual R politicos look infinitely better (outside of the freaks obviously)
Hilary pretty much solidifies more and more congress going red in midterms
we’re likely on the verge of another significant economic downturn, and with her left holding the bag, she’s one term and done.
Basically, the Republicans need to court the moderate Democrats that aren’t communists at heart, like that Jim Webb dude, and bring them into the fold. The Republican party is done in it’s current form, and is going to split. Dems are too apparently, which surprised me, even though conventional wisdom says they should. If the Republicans were smart they would tentatively back NumbNuts and start pushing the wedge in the Democrat party.
A Republican party united under economic issues and infighting over social issues > a democrat party shifting so left they are creating violence in the streets because someone said something that hurts their feelings.
