Trump

[shockmonster]

I'm very open minded to other viewpoints. That doesn't mean I can't identify specific people who have proven they aren't worth listening to.

Tucker is a Trump sycophant.

I don't regularly listen to him, don't visit the Daily Caller, and I think you have Carlson pegged wrong. He is anti-establishment. The viewpoints I've heard him say about immigrants are well thought out. The mainstream liberal thought about illegal immigrants is that they always add to the economy, and he calls out people who say that. Most of our illegal immigrants are poor and uneducated, and are more likely to take welfare as their families become legal in the next generation than legal immigrants. Illegal immigration is hurting our economy, not helping it.

He's also called out LGBT people who encourage the laws where anyone can choose which bathroom they prefer to use and call themselves male or female. There are grants where females are entitled to the money for their businesses, etc. and some people think that one should be able to designate themselves male or female that Carlson called out. I've heard him say that Science should determine who is male and who is female. He had a person who argued for not labeling a baby male or female when they are born. Carlson called them out. While I would not agree with him on everything, he is solid in these areas imo. But you are welcome to think he is wrong on everything if you choose.

[Play Angry]

Carlson has very much figured out that it is much more profitable at the moment to pander to the nationalist wing of the party versus the role he occupied on MSNBC for years as a very, very (then) establishment brand of host. He also has had kind words recently in support of tariffs and trade barriers. Similarly, Rush used to be beholden to evangelicals in the early 90s, whereas in the most recent cycle he stopped just short of calling the religious right weak imbeciles when they were still supporting Cruz and Rubio in greater numbers than Trump during the primary's early stages.

Whatever gets the most clicks, viewers and listeners right here, right now.

I would, however, question the use of the term "anti-establishment" when the views espoused are actually lock-step with the current administration and agency heads. What was anti-establishment 10 months ago is now the party line.

[shockmonster]

Carlson has very much figured out that it is much more profitable at the moment to pander to the nationalist wing of the party versus the role he occupied on MSNBC for years as a very, very (then) establishment brand of host. He also has had kind words recently in support of tariffs and trade barriers. Similarly, Rush used to be beholden to evangelicals in the early 90s, whereas in the most recent cycle he stopped just short of calling the religious right weak imbeciles when they were still supporting Cruz and Rubio in greater numbers than Trump during the primary's early stages.

Whatever gets the most clicks, viewers and listeners right here, right now.

I would, however, question the use of the term "anti-establishment" when the views espoused are actually lock-step with the current administration and agency heads. What was anti-establishment 10 months ago is now the party line.

I'm not sure where the party is going and anyone who says or acts like they know are idiots. I just know that some things he says are logical, and deserve another look, and some things he says are not and do not. We're going through crazy times when in the military a girl can be forced to shower with a boy with boy parts, who says he's a girl, and that is where our military is going.

[SHOCKvalue]

Sessions says he wants to see more police seizures: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.1cf7e63c5297

@SHOCKvalue:, isn't this one of the issues you talk about regularly, or am I misremembering? I would bet a significant, bipartisan majority would be opposed to an increase in this type of thing.

I don't know about regularly, but yes I am in favor of less police presence in our culture overall. Smaller government means overactive and invasive police activities are curtailed. BS such as these seizures are a primary illustration, and yes they are something that gets me going.

Not a fan of Sessions, but it's not as if reining in the corrupt and overwhelming legal system is a thing to either party. It is one of the indications to me at least that our enemy is the political class and their machine, not necessarily democrats or republicans. They both want to control lives at an individual level.

Anyways...

[CBB_Fan]

He's also called out LGBT people who encourage the laws where anyone can choose which bathroom they prefer to use and call themselves male or female. ... While I would not agree with him on everything, he is solid in these areas imo.

On "bathroom bills" I had a few comments, which may not at first seem to relate.

There is a mental disorder known as body integrity identity disorder, which is more often known as amputee identity disorder. Essentially, it involves healthy people that want to be amputees and are willing to perform elective surgery or worse to achieve that status. There are several sources and types of BIID, and one type feels an extreme discomfort with the offending body part, feeling as if someone attached a alien tentacle to their body without their permission. This discomfort, this paranoia can even lead to self-amputation of the limb for relief.

Do you know what the most common medical treatment for BIID is? Voluntary amputation.

Are these people right in the head? No. We know they are crazy, sometimes even they know they are crazy. But modern science isn't to a point where we can flip a switch to turn the crazy off, and for sufferers of the disorder amputation usually is successful at ending their discomfort. More to the point, it can be the only way to end that discomfort, when therapy and medication fail. There is even a simple explanation for why these people have such odds beliefs: a portion of the right parietal lobe is responsible for creating our internal map of our bodies. If it failed to map an arm, then perhaps you wouldn't recognize that arm because it isn't on the map, so to speak.

We treat transgender people in the same way. We know they aren't right, but therapy and medicine can't always stop someone with that mental disorder. And in this case, studies of transgender people both before and after surgery/hormones have shown that their brains match their desired gender more than their birth gender (to speak nothing of those born inter-sex and "assigned" the wrong gender). It is tremendously difficult to treat issues in the brain, and the best thing we can do with our current technology is to match the body to the brain, not the other way around, just as with BIID.

Neither case is ideal, and both create a pretty disturbing view to outsiders. But in the medical profession, the needs of the patient come first. Everyone involved understands it would be better if we could simply fix the issue in the brain, but failing that the only real solution in many cases is to perform the surgery and make the body match the brain.

As far as bathroom laws go, I tend to lean on the side that humoring transgender people does little provable harm and provides little provable benefit. And yet, what statistically insignificant evidence we do have says that transgendered individuals are more likely to be attacked in a restroom (correct or incorrect) than the other way around. The worry seems to be that non-transgendered men could abuse the law to attack women and girls, but I don't see the rationality in that worry. If these people aren't acceptable to be around girls, why would it be okay for them to be around boys? It seems to me these are much like gun control laws; only law abiding people would obey them to begin with. If a person is going to commit a rape, they are going to it regardless of the sign outside their victims door. If a person is going to commit a crime with a gun, they aren't going to care about restrictions on ammo or "assault weapons" (which doesn't even mean anything, but that's beside the point).

Well anyway, that's my spiel.

[WuDrWu]

On "bathroom bills" I had a few comments, which may not at first seem to relate.

There is a mental disorder known as body integrity identity disorder, which is more often known as amputee identity disorder. Essentially, it involves healthy people that want to be amputees and are willing to perform elective surgery or worse to achieve that status. There are several sources and types of BIID, and one type feels an extreme discomfort with the offending body part, feeling as if someone attached a alien tentacle to their body without their permission. This discomfort, this paranoia can even lead to self-amputation of the limb for relief.

Do you know what the most common medical treatment for BIID is? Voluntary amputation.

Are these people right in the head? No. We know they are crazy, sometimes even they know they are crazy. But modern science isn't to a point where we can flip a switch to turn the crazy off, and for sufferers of the disorder amputation usually is successful at ending their discomfort. More to the point, it can be the only way to end that discomfort, when therapy and medication fail. There is even a simple explanation for why these people have such odds beliefs: a portion of the right parietal lobe is responsible for creating our internal map of our bodies. If it failed to map an arm, then perhaps you wouldn't recognize that arm because it isn't on the map, so to speak.

We treat transgender people in the same way. We know they aren't right, but therapy and medicine can't always stop someone with that mental disorder. And in this case, studies of transgender people both before and after surgery/hormones have shown that their brains match their desired gender more than their birth gender (to speak nothing of those born inter-sex and "assigned" the wrong gender). It is tremendously difficult to treat issues in the brain, and the best thing we can do with our current technology is to match the body to the brain, not the other way around, just as with BIID.

Neither case is ideal, and both create a pretty disturbing view to outsiders. But in the medical profession, the needs of the patient come first. Everyone involved understands it would be better if we could simply fix the issue in the brain, but failing that the only real solution in many cases is to perform the surgery and make the body match the brain.

As far as bathroom laws go, I tend to lean on the side that humoring transgender people does little provable harm and provides little provable benefit. And yet, what statistically insignificant evidence we do have says that transgendered individuals are more likely to be attacked in a restroom (correct or incorrect) than the other way around. The worry seems to be that non-transgendered men could abuse the law to attack women and girls, but I don't see the rationality in that worry. If these people aren't acceptable to be around girls, why would it be okay for them to be around boys? It seems to me these are much like gun control laws; only law abiding people would obey them to begin with. If a person is going to commit a rape, they are going to it regardless of the sign outside their victims door. If a person is going to commit a crime with a gun, they aren't going to care about restrictions on ammo or "assault weapons" (which doesn't even mean anything, but that's beside the point).

Well anyway, that's my spiel.

Oh geez. Must we? I don't even know why I searched in the first place, or am replying in the 2nd case, but seriously? This article says there have been 300 "documented" cases of BIID. Is that even a "thing" at 300? You go on to say that "healthy" people (clearly they aren't mentally healthy at all) are most commonly treated with voluntary amputation. Is there as much as ONE still practicing MD in this country that's done this?

I'm really not interested in debating the absurdity of this, but I just want to point out how hard society is trying to explain away defects, evil and in some cases, blatant stupidity. Why we spend $1 or 1 minute discussing this chaos is beyond me.

I do tend to agree with you on the bathroom law thing. If only schools and other public places didn't dislocate their common sense and ethical backbone creating safe crapping spaces for every misguided and undisciplined 14 year old that wants their 15 minutes, maybe we wouldn't even have to talk about "bathroom laws".

I could be wrong.

But I'm not.

[Aargh]

[wufan]

On "bathroom bills" I had a few comments, which may not at first seem to relate.

There is a mental disorder known as body integrity identity disorder, which is more often known as amputee identity disorder. Essentially, it involves healthy people that want to be amputees and are willing to perform elective surgery or worse to achieve that status. There are several sources and types of BIID, and one type feels an extreme discomfort with the offending body part, feeling as if someone attached a alien tentacle to their body without their permission. This discomfort, this paranoia can even lead to self-amputation of the limb for relief.

Do you know what the most common medical treatment for BIID is? Voluntary amputation.

Are these people right in the head? No. We know they are crazy, sometimes even they know they are crazy. But modern science isn't to a point where we can flip a switch to turn the crazy off, and for sufferers of the disorder amputation usually is successful at ending their discomfort. More to the point, it can be the only way to end that discomfort, when therapy and medication fail. There is even a simple explanation for why these people have such odds beliefs: a portion of the right parietal lobe is responsible for creating our internal map of our bodies. If it failed to map an arm, then perhaps you wouldn't recognize that arm because it isn't on the map, so to speak.

We treat transgender people in the same way. We know they aren't right, but therapy and medicine can't always stop someone with that mental disorder. And in this case, studies of transgender people both before and after surgery/hormones have shown that their brains match their desired gender more than their birth gender (to speak nothing of those born inter-sex and "assigned" the wrong gender). It is tremendously difficult to treat issues in the brain, and the best thing we can do with our current technology is to match the body to the brain, not the other way around, just as with BIID.

Neither case is ideal, and both create a pretty disturbing view to outsiders. But in the medical profession, the needs of the patient come first. Everyone involved understands it would be better if we could simply fix the issue in the brain, but failing that the only real solution in many cases is to perform the surgery and make the body match the brain.

As far as bathroom laws go, I tend to lean on the side that humoring transgender people does little provable harm and provides little provable benefit. And yet, what statistically insignificant evidence we do have says that transgendered individuals are more likely to be attacked in a restroom (correct or incorrect) than the other way around. The worry seems to be that non-transgendered men could abuse the law to attack women and girls, but I don't see the rationality in that worry. If these people aren't acceptable to be around girls, why would it be okay for them to be around boys? It seems to me these are much like gun control laws; only law abiding people would obey them to begin with. If a person is going to commit a rape, they are going to it regardless of the sign outside their victims door. If a person is going to commit a crime with a gun, they aren't going to care about restrictions on ammo or "assault weapons" (which doesn't even mean anything, but that's beside the point).

Well anyway, that's my spiel.

Transgender identity was, 15 years ago, a mental illness. Transgender people were an extremely rare phenomena. The actual most common treatment is the treatment for depression. I'm not sure if they were treated for depression because that helps the illness (not sure it does) or because the rate of suicide in transgender is the highest among any group of people.

Gender identity is most often no longer a disorder as it has become a counter-culture competition as to who can be the most oppressed. The bathroom issue is an extension of the fight against "oppression". Let's be real! If you are a man dressed as a woman, go into the damn women's room and do your business. If you are a man that thinks he's a woman, but is currently dressed as a man, use the men's room. No law is required for this, and mostly people wouldn't notice.

Gender identity is a biological trait with ~ 99.9% correlation to birth sex. We need to stop pretending that other identities are normal while maintaining a non-discriminatory disposition towards the 0.1%. Bathroom laws accomplish nothing.

[shockfan89_]

http://money.cnn.com/2017/07/18/news/economy/obamacare-trump-fail/index.html

"More than eight in 10 Obamacare enrollees are shielded from insurers' rate hikes because they receive federal subsidies that cover at least 90% of the monthly cost. More than half also qualify for cost-sharing subsidies that lower their deductibles and out-of-pocket costs."

So basically Obamacare is just another form of welfare paid for by taxing the very few of us that still actually pay taxes. Why don't we just send people that don't have health insurance and can't pay for their own medical bills to the VA facilities? The VA is already a taxpayer-funded healthcare supplier, why do we need the federal government involved in insurance?

[Jamar Howard 4 President]

Let's put an end to "Tucker Carlson is a decent guy"

He's scum.

https://www.mediamatters.org/video/2014/04/28/outnumbereds-tucker-carlson-sees-nothing-wrong/199052

(and yes, media matters is scum as well, but their site is hosting the video. That's all)

[Play Angry]

I don't think it's news that the exchange enrollees are almost entirely subsidized folks (most), small business owners (few) and small business employees making wages above subsidy levels (fewer). Everyone else is on an employer-sponsored plan, Medicare or Medicaid.

[pinstripers]

Let's put an end to "Tucker Carlson is a decent guy"

He's scum.

One might even say deplorable.

[shockfan89_]

I don't think it's news that the exchange enrollees are almost entirely subsidized folks (most), small business owners (few) and small business employees making wages above subsidy levels (fewer). Everyone else is on an employer-sponsored plan, Medicare or Medicaid.

I didn't realize taxpayers paid at least 90% of the premiums. Might as well just send them to the VA and spend some of that $1.76 Trillion upgrading facilities and hiring more staff. Seems like that would be a much better and cheaper solution.

[CBB_Fan]

Transgender identity was, 15 years ago, a mental illness. Transgender people were an extremely rare phenomena. The actual most common treatment is the treatment for depression. I'm not sure if they were treated for depression because that helps the illness (not sure it does) or because the rate of suicide in transgender is the highest among any group of people.

Gender identity is most often no longer a disorder as it has become a counter-culture competition as to who can be the most oppressed. The bathroom issue is an extension of the fight against "oppression". Let's be real! If you are a man dressed as a woman, go into the damn women's room and do your business. If you are a man that thinks he's a woman, but is currently dressed as a man, use the men's room. No law is required for this, and mostly people wouldn't notice.

Gender identity is a biological trait with ~ 99.9% correlation to birth sex. We need to stop pretending that other identities are normal while maintaining a non-discriminatory disposition towards the 0.1%. Bathroom laws accomplish nothing.

Transgenderism is still a mental disorder. The root disorder being the same as BIID; Body dysmorphic disorder. The specific disorder is gender dysphoria in the DSM-5, though the American Psychiatric Association, publisher of the DSM-5, states that "gender nonconformity is not in itself a mental disorder. The critical element of gender dysphoria is the presence of clinically significant distress associated with the condition."

On my earlier BIID comments, a certain Robert Smith has amputated limbs for people in Germany, Scotland, and America.

And again, I repeatedly mentioned that surgery is used after therapy and other medication. So yes, depression medication and other treatments usually happen first. And as far as physical proof, there are a couple studies showing differences:

Is There Something Unique about the Transgender Brain?
Transexual differences caught on brain scan.

[Play Angry]

I didn't realize taxpayers paid at least 90% of the premiums. Might as well just send them to the VA and spend some of that $1.76 Trillion upgrading facilities and hiring more staff. Seems like that would be a much better and cheaper solution.

Yea, it is pretty big check to those receiving the subsidy (90% of the premiums are covered for the 80% of enrollees who are subsidized) paid for, partially because my understanding there is a funding gap, by the 3.8% cap gains surtax for upper bracket earners and 0.9% Medicare surtax for those making $200k+. The artificially low cap on premiums for old folks under Obamacare (letting this float dramatically this would have been one of the most immediately felt changes of the Republican bill) is also a much larger subsidy (sounds kinder than welfare I suppose but the net effect is identical) paid for by the younger age brackets through escalated premiums.

It was a stinker of a law which focused on enlarging the coverage tent without sufficient focus on mitigating the rise in premiums, or heaven forbid, actually lowering them.