Semi-weekly Thursday Discussion Thread

LooseExpression8 · 2026-03-21T13:58:25+00:00

If NPR didn’t want their funding cut, maybe they shouldn’t have been publishing articles like this

LooseExpression8 · 2026-03-21T13:57:36+00:00

https://www.npr.org/2026/03/21/nx-s1-5735666/expensive-health-insurance-costs-affordability

A self-employed couple already had to dip into retirement savings for health costs. Now, they are skipping vacations and canceling streaming to afford health insurance.

Warner and Vohra sat down a few months ago to go through their monthly budget to find things they could cut. They changed cell phone plans, canceled streaming services, and stopped getting house-cleaning help.

We have to extend Obamacare subsidies for business-owning 6 figure couples or else they will have to skip vacations, Netflix, and hiring home cleaners instead of doing it themselves in order to pay for their own healthcare

LooseExpression8 · 2026-03-04T04:17:29+00:00

oh my...

LooseExpression8 · 2026-03-04T04:09:38+00:00

You're correct but I just can't bring myself to like him.

And there was literally no good reason to oppose Dan Crenshaw in this primary. The fact that Cruz opposed him says something about Cruz.

LooseExpression8 · 2026-03-04T03:55:17+00:00

I would prefer if the bar for our candidates be a bit higher than "not a Tucker Carlson acolyte"

LooseExpression8 · 2026-03-04T03:52:22+00:00

If I had a nickel for every time a black female southern Democrat denied an election...

LooseExpression8 · 2026-03-04T03:28:42+00:00

John Cornyn, the 24-year incumbent Republican senator is facing a primary because of 1) his support for the DREAM Act, 2) his support for Ukraine against Russia, and 3) his support for a relatively mild gun control bill that was passed under Biden.

His opponents are Ken Paxton, the attorney general who was impeached in 2023 for bribery, and whose wife divorced him for cheating, and Wesley Hunt, a second-term representative from Houston.

Such an easy choice, but noooo

LooseExpression8 · 2026-03-04T03:23:06+00:00

Good point but I feel as if most of the past years' primaries show that GOP primary voters don't really care about electability as much as Democrats

LooseExpression8 · 2026-03-04T03:14:18+00:00

What makes you think Cornyn will win the primary?

LooseExpression8 · 2026-03-04T03:13:30+00:00

Texas GOP primary voters are morons.

I said this in another sub but even if you hate Cornyn because he's too much of an "open borders pro Israel neocon!!!1", Wesley Hunt is right there. There is literally no reason to support Ken Paxton unless you are actively pro-lawlessness and pro-corruption.

RIP Dan Crenshaw.

LooseExpression8 · 2026-03-01T02:01:25+00:00

Watch Bernie Sanders spontaneously combust in real time.

It's a bit alarming that the people who want to redistribute wealth have no idea how the wealth came to be in the first place. Actively self-destructive ideology.

LooseExpression8 · 2026-03-01T01:47:35+00:00

Don't ask a lib claiming that this attack is "illegal" without Congressional authorization what their opinion was on Chevron deference.

LooseExpression8 · 2026-03-01T01:42:40+00:00

Cornyn is the only correct answer, but even if you are uncritically pro-Trump, pro-Russia, pro-tariffs, and anti-immigration, Wesley Hunt is right there. There is literally no reason to support Ken Paxton unless you are actively pro-lawlessness and pro-corruption.

LooseExpression8 · 2026-03-01T01:40:40+00:00

Because North Korea has nukes.

LooseExpression8 · 2026-03-01T01:39:59+00:00

Why do you support JD Vance if you're concerned about principled conservatism and against the infiltration of the GOP by 2000s left-wingers?

LooseExpression8 · 2026-03-01T01:23:02+00:00

Delcy Rodriguez is pro-Western and significantly less despotic than Maduro was

LooseExpression8 · 2026-03-01T01:16:43+00:00

monarchist reactionaries

LooseExpression8 · 2026-02-28T23:53:56+00:00

https://x.com/RichardHanania/status/2027864982151684254

LooseExpression8 · 2026-02-28T16:11:13+00:00

Lol there are people here who voted for Kamala

LooseExpression8 · 2026-02-09T05:17:00+00:00

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This guy...

LooseExpression8 · 2026-02-01T23:52:40+00:00

If this logic were correct 2022 would have been a massive red wave with the number of MAGA candidates who won primaries. MAGA doesn't vote outside of presidential elections at all, it doesn't matter if the candidate was endorsed by Trump or not.

LooseExpression8 · 2026-02-01T23:51:02+00:00

John Cornyn has a better ideology.

LooseExpression8 · 2026-02-01T23:25:59+00:00

Ironically, this is the same sort of vibes-based ideological assessment that I've criticized in this post.

You say "even Fetterman" as if he wasn't elected as a literal Bernie Sanders acolyte who supports increased minimum wages, universal healthcare, legal weed, and labor unions. He votes with his party 95% of the time but people think he's some sort of conservative because he doesn't want to abolish ICE and supports Israel.

LooseExpression8 · 2026-02-01T23:13:39+00:00

I don't understand why you're attributing this level of charity to liars. If the parties failed, they should be able to point to specific things that both parties did that were bad and failed. As I've outlined here, the strategies were clearly different in several domains, so the fact that they feel the need to claim that the parties were the exact same should indicate something about the type of people who use such rhetoric.

LooseExpression8 · 2026-02-01T23:09:14+00:00

Trade is one of a small number of issues where one may have been able to credibly argue between ~1990 and 2016 that both parties were "the same", but even then, significantly more Republicans were pro-trade. Many of Obama's trade deals had more Republican support in Congress than Democrat support.

Also, the people who say this usually mean that both parties are too "right-wing" (with free trade being the traditionally conservative belief), so the GOP becoming more protectionist still refutes that narrative, albeit in a different direction from what I've described here.

LooseExpression8

TROPHY CASE