Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/01/12/in-one-day-trump-and-republic.html
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I get that the Republicans are ideologically committed to unraveling the safety net and the rest of the social contract. It pisses me off, but I understand that that’s their position. What I don’t get is how they were able to convince millions and millions of Americans to despise Obamacare. “I hate that I have access to health insurance! I hate that I can’t be denied coverage for my preexisting condition! This is the greatest injustice our nation has ever endured!”
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And they weren’t even well-adhered to to begin with, but they found a way to disappoint well beyond the existing precedent.
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Dear Finji: I have no problem at all with you, as a business, expressing opinions about politics. I would much rather have a business express where they stand on an issue right out in the open, than have them express their opinion by way of millions of dollars, behind closed doors. Lol, just brace yourselves for the late-night puerile tantrum via Twitter.
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Adam Saltsman’s been very vocal on twitter about his opinion of Trump, so this is not surprising. Good on him!
I should go take a look at how Overland is progressing.
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Thanks to Fark.com for the link.
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From PZ Myers’ Pharyngula:
The money quote:
I’m not on Obamacare. My health insurance is through the ACA (Affordable Care Act).
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Well, exactly. But can it really be that easy to manipulate people by the millions, or are Republicans such nasty shitbags that they just make it look easy?
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It’s not obvious exactly what that incompletely labeled graph is of.
I see the US has a very large number comparatively.
But I can think of a bigger number, so I win.
Could we get a source or something?
Thanks for the ninja edit.
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Wouldn’t this graph bear out that anyone with some common sense would want to transition to something cheaper, like universal healthcare? It’s more cost-effective for literally everyone, and it’s been proven time and again by all the other first world countries having that except us.
It’s like people just don’t know what’s good for them, and would rather listen to demagogues.
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Bwahahahahahah!!!
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Oh hell yes! 
Yeah, well, the last few decades of eroding the educational system just keep giving! 
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I know right? It really does feel like Americans today are stupider than they were just ten years ago.
You see it in the anti-vax movement. Conspiracy theorists. Alternative “medicine” (you know what they’d call it if it actually could be shown to work? Medicine.) Global warming denialists. People who are unwilling to give children sex ed, condoms and birth control and also want to make abortion illegal. As if getting rid of all the things that prevent unwanted pregnancy will somehow make abortions happen less often.
I get into that argument with my dad sometimes. He’s willing to concede that while it’s a proven fact that sex ed and access to birth control reduce abortions, he can’t bring himself to support government spending on women’s reproductive health at all.
Wants to have his puritanical cake, and to eat it too. I’m sure that’s a sin as well.
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It does. Dunno if the data back it up, but there does seem to be a lot of ideologically driven “Lalalalalalalala!!! I can’t hear you!!!” going on. And now it’s going on at the very top of the US government, POTUS.
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Heh, I offhandedly mentioned “the stupids got their way this election” to my dad. He abstained from voting. He got all offended, saying that the tRump voters “weren’t all morons”. To which I replied, “everything tRump promised was either stupid or evil, or simply a lie. I’d rather believe people were tricked because they were stupid, rather than intentionally knew what they were doing because they were evil.” You know, the standard line you say to lose friends and not influence people.
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That doesn’t appear to be the original source. There are note markers in the axis labels (“Australia2”, for example) which aren’t explained in the text.
This graph actually comes straight from the 2015 “Health at a Glance” OECD report, available for free from here. (This particular chart is on page 165 of this particularly comprehensive report).
The Department for Professional Employees (the site linked by the poster) modified the graph by changing its color scheme, presumably to better match their website, but otherwise appears to have made no modifications to it at all.
According to the OECD, the numbers in the chart are generally taken from 2015 numbers, except for the countries marked as ‘2’, in which case they come from 2012 numbers. The numbers exclude investments, except for countries marked as ‘1’, which include investments.
From the notes on the report:
Expenditure on health measures the final consumption of health goods and services (i.e. current health expenditure). This includes spending by both public and private sources on medical services and goods, public health and prevention programmes and administration, but excludes spending on capital formation (investments).
To compare spending levels between countries, per capita health expenditures are converted to a common currency (US dollar) and adjusted to take account of the different purchasing power of the national currencies. Economy-wide (GDP) PPPs are used as the most available and reliable conversion rates.
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I have to agree with that assessment, but the question is why did people vote for him? There seem to be a lot of issues occurring, one of which is that humans are at their core irrational pack animals who choose leaders based on emotional reactions.
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Voting on emotional and gut feelings is stupid. Especially for this particular office.
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I’d say its how humans are built, and even educated people fall for it in droves. What is perhaps even dumber that electing Trump is the rush by GOP congress to give him unfettered power…
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