∞ Monkeys

Birthright citizenship is probably not integral to liberal democracy, but it is integral to *American* liberal democracy. Our vision of what we are as a country, as a nation beyond an ethnicity, requires it.

Campus protests got big enough that campus police couldn't deal with them. There's been far less campus protest activity & what there is, has been far more subdued.

Pritzker signs bill allowing Illinois to issue state-specific vaccine guidelines Article Summary Gov. JB Pritzker signed a bill allowing the Illinois Department of Public Health to issue vaccine guidance independent

It would be depicted as a political group. The state health departments in blue states seem to be using their influence & authority to curb the damage.
capitolnewsillinois.com/news/pritzke...

The Gaza protesters were often campus protests. I think the threats of severe academic discipline for "rule breaking" protest activity make normie zoomers far less willing to take part.

The protesters of 2020 were much more young people. My theory is lack of other normal opportunities to go out & socialize played a big part.

I like Delia, but she's very much a product of the surviving incarnation of the Democratic Machine in Chicago.

Polio and measles killed about 700k people annually before vaccines.

Vaccines kill <5

But yeah, polarization.

It's funny that the replies are treating Shapiro as anything other than a long shot candidate who probably drops out by January 2028.

It makes it easier to scratch your ass.

Making flyers with your org's name on it along with genocide deniers is a choice.

You gonna get Diane Sare in on this? How about Angela McArdle?

What, no LaRouchies?

So, I'm guessing the Onion hasn't hired any Black writers since this photo was taken.

I think we agree on how healthcare should work, but I felt like you missed the point on the appeal of tax deductible healthcare schemes for a certain set of people that tend to vote Republican.

My final point in this thread: This is a good example of how our current system encourages people to try to predict their healthcare needs & it's just a really stupid model for healthcare insurance pools.
bsky.app/profile/maga...

I'm firmly convinced healthcare is a human right & willing to accept any system that guarantees it.

I would describe this as Democrats want UHC, but some want to stick to free market principles as the mechanism for delivering it, while Republicans want people to die if they're sick & too poor to afford care.

The one big piece missing from my pre-ACA insurance was any sort of coverage for a pregnancy. It wasn't a major concern for me. As you pointed out, unexpected things happen. In the bigger picture this is another area where making everyone share the costs of the risk pool equally matters.

The idea of paying $10 or even $20 thousand for a $100k-$200k hospital cost was a risk I was willing to take vs paying $300 vs $1200 a month. Iirc, the spending cap was something like $500k in a year. That alarms me in hindsight.

Like you said, it's a gamble. But, afaik no HDHP has an out of pocket cap of $8300 in 2025, which is less than my ACA out of pocket cap.

I've been buying my insurance since 2012. The first couple years before the ACA exchanges rolled out, I had "cheap" insurance with a high deductible.

But, Republicans & some Democrats will keep pretending the Rube Goldberg Machine can somehow be made as efficient as giving everyone the same coverage. Sooner or later, everyone reaches a point where they will incur major costs & letting people try to game around it defeats the purpose.

It's not for the 1% who are willing to pay high premiums for blanket coverage, it's white collar types in the top 10%. I've never liked it because even if it's a good deal for me, the point of insurance is sharing costs so *everyone* is paying a reasonable amount into the pool.

This is (ideally) targeted at someone who has enough savings to cover anything less than a catastrophic incident. Yes, it's a bet that you won't need it, but a healthy person under 65 who doesn't do high risk activities isn't likely to ever use health insurance for more than minor things.

That's exactly the type i hin mind, lol

I'm that guy & if you're relatively young & healthy, a HDHP that lets you stash money in a HSA is very appealing for the tax benefits. This stuff isn't pitched at poor folks:
www.morganstanley.com/articles/hea...

Have you met the wealthy self employed?

Yeah, unless it's a refundable credit, this is mostly benefiting upper middle class & above.

The other question is, what qualifies as health care? This could pay for some expensive yoga retreats.

This sucks, but also why I wish more Europeans here who want to lecture about the failings of US Democrats on unrelated issues, would pay more attention to what's going on in their own countries.

Glad I'm not the only one who immediately assumed state level actors would be very interested in this.

It's funny, but if you can monitor the excretions of important people, there's leverage to be gained & state level actors will put resources into this. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯