When will Hillary Clinton give up her candidacy ?

@snood,

Not a single one of them right now. But it sure looks like a trend, doesn't it

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@Blickers,

Well, you are partially correct (however, you car insurance analogy is a poor one). Think about SS Disability. Many of the recipients have not paid into the system long enough to reach a level of "equity" you think is found is OASDI.

So in many ways the SS Program program has been "A FORM OF' a social welfare benefit system.

You can argue these points if you like, but I ask, what is the other solution is raising the retirement age and some means testing out not to your liking.

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@woiyo,

Social Security Disability is a different thing from basic Social Security. Social Security Disability is a welfare plan and is looked upon as such. For sure, most of the people do in fact need the money, but it is a welfare program that is administered by the Social Security Administration. It is not nearly the same as the retirement program, where the people pay into the program for a number of years and then get it when they retire. Essentially, you are saying that since disabled people get welfare administered through the Social Security Administration, let's regard everybody who is receiving their Social Security and Medicare they paid for each week during their working years as being on welfare and commence "means testing" so they won't receive their Social Security or Medicare benefits if they aren't broke.

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@woiyo,

Actually, I've already received more in benefits than I've paid into it.

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Now, just watch Fox and right wing media go absolutely stark raving madder-even.

Quote:

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A grand jury investigating Planned Parenthood has indicted two anti-abortion activists who covertly shot videos of the organization.

Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson announced Monday that Center for Medical Progress founder David Daleiden was indicted on a felony charge of tampering with a governmental record and a misdemeanor count of related to purchasing human organs. Another activist was also indicted on a charge of tampering with a governmental record.

A news release announcing the indictment doesn't say what the record was.

Anderson said the grand jury cleared Planned Parenthood of any wrongdoing.

The Center for Medical Progress is the anti-abortion group that released covertly shot videos of Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of aborted fetuses for research.

http://bit.ly/1KAJATM

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Knowing right wing media as I do, I can assure you that this story is going to get the play given to Anthony Weiner, without any doubt at all.

Quote:

Tennessee state Rep. Jeremy Durham (R) resigned from his position as majority whip on Sunday hours after a report in The Tennessean revealed that he had sent "inappropriate" text messages to numerous women who worked in the statehouse.

Three women, at least two of whom were in their 20s, said that the 32-year-old married lawmaker had sent them text messages asking for photos and asking to meet up at bars.

http://bit.ly/1KAL6W1
And heck, that's not even to mention mainstream media. There'll be days and weeks and months on it. Absolutely guaranteed.

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@Blickers,

Whether we label the Social security program as welfare or an insurance scheme, is an abstract (and I think meaningless) exercise that doesn't have any effect on how we pay for it and make the system work. Some level of means testing is already in the social security/ Medicare program by way of the Obamacare HealthCare law. It comes in the form of the decucted cost for Medicare part B. If you report an income over $250K/year the cost of that deduction triples, reducing the SS payment by that amount.

I don't think your insurance company analogy fits the problem. Insurance companies are required to meet actuarial and accepted accounting standards with respect to the reserve funds they hold to meet their potential obligations under the policies in force. This applies to all forms of insurance, though in some areas the standards involved vary from state to state.

Federal Social Security "insurance" doesn't involve any reserve funds. In theory there is indeed a Federally operated Social Security Trust, but it is simply filled with IOUs from the U.S. Treasury.

So far we have operated within the Trust limits, but that won't last much longer. The reasons are several (1) life expectancy has increased by 20+ years since the program was enacted in the late 1930s, and the time while benefits will be paid increased accordingly. Only very slight changes have been made to the eligibility age, so in general people are paying in to the system for about the original duration, but drawing benefits for two to three times as long as originaly envisioned. (2) the demographics of the country have changed significantly since the late 1930s. Birthrates are down, the population is older and the ratio of people paying in to the system to those drawing benefits is now much lower.

In short the system simply cannot be sustained indefinately in its present form. The obvious options are to delay the age at which one is eligible for benefits, making it more like the original program; to raise the taxes for those paying in or reduce the benefits being paid out. None of these is likely to be very popular. The alternative then is to change the system in more fundamental ways. None of them will be very popular either.

Alternatively we could keep on issuing Treasury Bonds as long as the market will take them. Our reserve currency status is already weakening in a much more multipolar economic world today, so the future of that course doesn't look good. Indeed it can end badly, as the Greeks discovered last year.

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Holy commonly. Ladies and Gentlemennnnnn. This is it. This is what you've been waiting forrrrr. Our feature fight of the evningggggg. National Review in the really red trunks and Fox in the even more redder trunksssss.

http://bit.ly/1SHppeO

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@blatham,

I should add, I'm sure everyone follows Rupert Murdoch on twitter. So you'll already know that Rupe has been evolving on the subject of Trump.

What about Ailes? I actually don't know. He usually stays pretty much out of the spotlight (if he opens his mouth, that "fair and balanced" thing gets all teetery). His agenda is evidenced by what the people on Fox say. But he, like other conservative propagandists, is in a dilemma here. The internecine battle can't be ignored as Trump (and Cruz) continue to dominate the polls.

This is damned interesting to watch.

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Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
I will make our Military so big, powerful & strong that no one will mess with us. #Trump2016

What is so tragically ironic here is that if Trump were to become the GOP nominee, the entire rest of the world would simply find further validation of their perception that the US has gone insane.

1 Reply

@blatham,

blatham wrote:

Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
I will make our Military so big, powerful & strong that no one will mess with us. #Trump2016

What is so tragically ironic here is that if Trump were to become the GOP nominee, the entire rest of the world would simply find further validation of their perception that the US has gone insane.

Didn't they think that about W? I don't seem to recall caring then either.

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@McGentrix,

What has Trump have to do with any past president. None have ever talked about building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

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@woiyo,

Bush did it when he added the drug program to social security without figureing a way to pay for it. He and his boys are hoping the drug program will break the system. The same thing Bernie is going to do.

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@McGentrix,

Quote:

Didn't they think that about W? I don't seem to recall caring then either.

As a Canadian who talks about US politics to Canadians on a pretty much daily basis, let me assure you that though sentiments here (and in Europe or Britain) strongly disfavored W, Trump as candidate makes people laugh out loud at the absolute ridiculousness of it. I do not exaggerate. That is the most common response.

That you don't care about such responses by non-Americans could be, I suppose,
something like a suit of armor, but I doubt it is prudent. Unless the US enjoys the good will and respect of other nations, it can proceed with difficult multi-national goals and initiatives only via bullying. And that just makes things worse.

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Trump is saying he's not sure he'll do the next debate because Megyn Kelley will be participating. Two key things in this NYT piece: http://nyti.ms/1SgF1o9

Quote:

“I’ll see. If I think I’m going to be treated unfairly, I’d do something else."

So, there's that threat again. But this is the thing that kills me...

Quote:

A Fox News spokeswoman issued a response on Monday: “Sooner or later Donald Trump, even if he’s president, is going to have to learn that he doesn’t get to pick the journalists

Picking which journalists to talk to and avoiding situations where unpicked journalists might confront a Republican candidate has been a staple message-control tactic of the GOP leadership and GOP candidates themselves for several election cycles now. And Fox has been happily, eagerly complicit in this game.

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@blatham,

Actually, I think the president does get to select who is part of the White House Press Corps. They even have a seating chart with names and publication.

You don't think they let just anybody in, do you?

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As I've noted before, I like Michael Gerson. Usually. He seems to be from planet Earth. But sometimes he buys into and spreads the bullshit.

The classic example was when the right, very early on, began their "Obama/teleprompter" black PR gambit. It was pervasive for years in right wing world and you still see it now and again. Of course, it was ludicrous on its face because every modern president has standardly used this presentation device (the obvious goal here was to demean Obama's gifts as an orator). And at the time when this gambit was first being pushed out in a big way, Gerson wrote a WP column where he joined in.

What was so ridicule-worthy in Gerson's complicity here was that the high point of Gerson's career was writing speeches for Bush - designed to be read from a teleprompter. So, a classic of Gerson doing propaganda.

Here's another (though he may just be guilty of a sort of blind rage that distorts)...

Quote:

But this support [of evangelicals for Trump] comes at a price. Most obviously, it represents the final triumph of Clintonism — Bill Clintonism — which is the belief that personal character, particularly on sexual and family matters, has no serious public implications.

http://bit.ly/1Nxi2i2
Presidents who've had affairs while married and while in office (that we know of or where there's compelling evidence to conclude it as most likely)
Eisenhower
Harding
W. Wilson
GHW Bush
FDR
Jefferson
Jack Kennedy

But Gerson goes with "Clintonism". This rather convenient myopia probably has something to do with conservative rage at the sixties and particular rage at Clinton himself (his 8 years stuck a large cleaver in conservative hopes for WH domination post Reagan and a hoped-for conservative remake of America). But one might suspect that Gerson knows very well that a current GOP strategy is to tar Hillary with this redo of "Bill Clinton is a crude, lusting animal, like a cloven-hoofed billy goat" meme.

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@roger,

Understood. Obviously, that pool has to be limited and thus selected. But it includes a wide range of press entities. Fox is always represented, for example.

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The good news. Your back yard is now seafront property. The bad news, your front yard and your house are underwater.

Quote:

The amount of sea level rise that comes from the oceans warming and expanding has been underestimated, and could be about twice as much as previously calculated, German researchers have said.

The findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed US journal, suggest that increasingly severe storm surges could be anticipated as a result.

http://bit.ly/1NxjAst
But I'm not worried. Exxon is working on a patch.

Scene opens on a country farmers' market. A tall and ruggedly handsome man of about fifty in overalls puts two large, lush cabbages in a bag and smiles as he hands them to a female shopper. Turns to camera...
"You know, I used to worry about what some folks call 'global warming' so I studied up on literature (he straightens a pile of delicious cucumbers). I want what a good, safe future for my grandkids. I looked online and found just the information I really needed - "The Green and Clean Future For Everyone". We can do it. All of us working together with Exxon to keep this wonderful land a garden of eden. Check it out. You owe it to your grandkids"
Turns away, smiling, glowing white teeth, as another female customer, with two delightful curly-haired blonde children point to a box of bursting-with-goodness strawberries. Fade out.

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YEEEHAWWW!

Quote:

Trump’s fans tend to express little regard for political norms. They cheer at his most outlandish statements. O’Reilly asked Trump if he meant it when he said that he would "take out" the family members of terrorists. He didn’t believe that Trump would "put out hits on women and children" if he were elected. Trump replied, "I would do pretty severe stuff." The Mesa crowd erupted in applause. "Yeah, baby!" a man near me yelled. I had never previously been to a political event at which people cheered for the murder of women and children.

http://bit.ly/1S8oowv
So refreshing to finally have a candidate who refuses to be oppressed by the whole politically correct thing. That's the way to build a great nation. That's the way to liberty.

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When will Hillary Clinton give up her candidacy ?

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