Improve Obamacare

Barack Obama Offers Blistering Takedown Of GOP Obstructionism In Pitch For Health Care Law 

First is for the 19 states that have refused to take up Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion to do so, in the process covering millions more poor adults. Second is to beef up the subsidies provided to people who get their coverage from the law’s health insurance exchanges. And third is to set up a government-run public option program ― which Obama called a “public plan fallback” ― in geographic areas with the highest prices and least competition.

If Hillary Can't Confront Donald Trump

If Hillary Clinton can't confront Donald Trump she can't confront the dictators around the world, plain and simple. Trump is a fascist, a sociopath with enormous bad manners.

But we saw in the third debate Hillary absolutely can confront Donald Trump. This was my favorite of the three debates. I saw Hillary go for the kill.

My definition of success is Hillary taking the House. And the way to take the House is to go on the attack. And she did.

You can not shy from the evil and the ugly. You have to take it head on. Hillary did. She took Trump head on.

I also thought she looked great. Of all the colors she wears, and she wears many colors, I think white looks best on her.

Men are much less imaginative in the colors they wear. Red tie? Trump probably wears one in bed. The guy is monotonous.

I think this debate worked much better than the second one because Donald Trump was not allowed to walk around the stage. That is the prescription. Cage Donald Trump and you will have a decent country. Build a wall around the guy.

On issues, I think everyone with a coal job today can be shifted to solar installation jobs and there would be a shortage of workers. And these jobs would be all over the country instead of just near the coal mines.

What has been most confounding to me in this election is on climate change Trump has basically been saying let's turn the entire planet into one big gas chamber. Where is the outrage? Hitler has nothing on this guy. Hitler is a hand grenade to this guy's atom bomb.

This guy wants to jail opponents, silence the press and build gas chambers. Such thoughts used to be limited to extreme fringes. What has become of America? Where is the sanity?

Bill Clinton gave the longest economic expansion on record and record surpluses because of NAFTA. But the mistake that was made was half that surplus should have been ploughed into investing in human capital, namely education and health, to prepare Americans for the next generation of higher paying jobs. That was not done. Don't blame that on NAFTA.

The precise people who voted for the party that absolutely got in the way of a $3 trillion stimulus in 2009 (which was every literate economist's prescription) and thus prevented a quicker recovery are now complaining there was not a quick recovery. And are threatening to vote for the same party all over again.

Trump is a pickpocket who came out of nowhere to capitalize on the situation. Look fire, he is saying, so you look the other way, so he can pick your pocket, give himself and his super rich golf buddies a massive tax cut. And the people whose pockets will get picked are rooting for him in large numbers. Whatever happened to common sense?

This guy might hate Mexicans but he absolutely intends harm on poor white folks.

Trump is a disaster train nobody should have to ride on. America's enemies would wish Trump on America.

Good thing this thing will be over in a few weeks. If this guy is allowed to run for president for just three additional months the stock market would crash. Never before has America been in a situation where some dude could start wars simply by running for president.

Who is this guy? Really.

Trump's recorded sexist talks that have been revealed is what the glass ceiling is, folks. The glass ceiling is sexist bonding around sexist words. That is precisely what it is. What do you think the glass ceiling is? You think it is gorilla glass like on the iPhone? No, the glass ceiling is chimpanzee glass, it is Donald Trump saying sexist things and getting away with it.

In hindsight now Hillary's tanking numbers in August now look like a blessing. And by tanking I mean it was down to a dead heat.

Now she is in double digits and can take 100% of the credit. This is the way it should be. Her rising confidence levels show she is feeling the love.

Democracy works after all. The American democracy is resilient enough to process a fascist and spit him out. American democracy will emerge stronger after all has been said and done.

As they say in soccer, this has been a hattrick. Hillary has won three debates in a row.

Third Debate Video
Stephen

Hillary Clinton, Mocking and Taunting in Debate, Turns the Tormentor

Republicans despondent that Trump threw away final debate - POLITICO

Steve Schmidt, who guided John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, said Trump’s refusal to commit to accepting election results would overshadow any strong moments he had.

“It’s the one and only headline that matters coming out of the debate,” said Schmidt. “It’s absolutely unprecedented for any presidential candidate in the history of the country.”

Trump tweets at 3 a.m. that he won debate - POLITICO

Hillary Clinton’s 3 debate performances left the Trump campaign in ruins - Vox

And it’s not just the presidential race. Betting markets now predict Democrats will win the Senate. Polls have started showing Democrats in striking distance of the House. The GOP has collapsed into a mid-election civil war, with the party’s presidential nominee openly battling the speaker of the House.

Trump’s meltdown wasn’t an accident. The Clinton campaign coolly analyzed his weaknesses and then sprung trap after trap to take advantage of them.

Clinton’s successful execution of this strategy has been, fittingly, the product of traits that she’s often criticized for: her caution, her overpreparation, her blandness. And her particular ability to goad Trump and blunt the effectiveness of his political style has been inextricable from her gender. The result has been a political achievement of awesome dimensions, but one that Clinton gets scarce credit for because it looks like something Trump is doing, rather than something she is doing — which is, of course, the point.

It began in the first debate. "Donald," she kept saying. No one quite knows why Trump so loathes the sound of his first name, but he does. 

Each debate has followed the same pattern. Trump begins calm, but as Clinton needles him, he falls apart, gets angrier, launches bizarre personal attacks, offers rambling justifications for his own behavior, and loses the thread of whatever question was actually asked of him.

 her assault on Trump flummoxed his usual mode of defense, which is to dominate and insult the other men on the stage. By the end of the final debate, Trump was reduce to spitting that Clinton was "such a nasty woman," a line that spoke to both his horror at being challenged by a woman and his complete inability to control what came out of his mouth after 80 minutes on a stage with Clinton.

Trump has been, at every turn, underprepared, undisciplined, and operating completely without a strategy. In one of the third debate’s most unintentionally revealing moments, Trump said, "I sat in my apartment today ... watching ad after false ad, all paid for by your friends on Wall Street," an inadvertent admission that he was inhaling cable news when he should have been prepping for the debate.

Clinton has been, at every turn, prepared, disciplined, and coldly strategic. She triggered Trump’s epic meltdown purposely, and kept Trump off balance over multiple weeks that probably represented his last chance to turn the election around. She was ready for every question, prepared for every attack, and managed to goad Trump into making mistakes that became the main story the day after every single debate.

We aren’t used to this kind of victory. We aren’t used to candidates winning not so much because of how they performed but because of how they pushed their opponent into performing. But the fact that we aren’t used to this kind of victory doesn’t make it any less impressive. Hillary Clinton has humbled Donald Trump, and she did it her way.

With 19 days to go, Clinton’s lead is bigger than ever | Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball

there are some surprising conservative places where he is registering very thin, soft support.

He’s barely ahead in some polls of Alaska, Indiana, Missouri, South Carolina, and Texas 

Seriously, did you ever even for a second think Utah would be a Toss-up in late October? 

The Trump campaign’s Arizona crisis reminds us in some ways of how John McCain’s 2008 campaign ended up losing Indiana. Because McCain was at a resource disadvantage against Obama — just like Trump is now outmanned against Clinton — the 2008 nominee could hardly spare any resources to protect Indiana, a typically red state where Obama vastly out-organized and out-spent him. Obama was able to very narrowly flip the state.

Today’s changes push Clinton to 352 electoral votes, the highest we’ve had her in the whole election cycle

BuzzFeed CEO: I Heard Ivanka Trump Talk About "Mulatto Cocks"

Ivanka Trump distances herself from father’s campaign: ‘I’m not a surrogate, I’m a daughter’

“Perhaps due to her beauty, serene composure, and ability to translate her father’s half-literate ramblings into semi-coherent policy proposals, Ivanka Trump has remained unscathed by her father’s 16-month effort to ruin the family name,” Kirchick wrote this week. “Which is inexplicable, because all that Ivanka’s involvement in this campaign has revealed is that she’s the pretty face of a white nationalist political movement, a truly bizarre place for a University of Pennsylvania-educated, Upper East Side doyenne to wind up.”

War And Peace: Trump Book Report
Crime And Punishment: Trump Book Report
The Old Man And The Sea: Trump Book Report
Bible: Trump Book Report
One Hundred Years Of Solitude: Trump Book Report
My Life by Bill Clinton: Trump Book Report
The Audacity Of Hope by Barack Obama: Trump Book Report
It Takes A Village by Hillary Rodham Clinton: Trump Book Report
Earth In The Balance by Al Gore: Trump Book Report
Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama: Trump Book Report

The Daily Show

Hilarious hashtag on how Trump interprets classic literature

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran: Trump Book Report

Clinton Probably Finished Off Trump Last Night | FiveThirtyEight

प्रियंका चोपड़ा और बिकीनी

क्वान्टिको अभी तक देख नहीं पाया। लेकिन हिट शो है। तभी तो सीजन दो तक आ गई। मेरे पास टीवी नहीं। गरीब आदमी।

हॉलीवुड बिजनेस है। पैसे छापते हैं। प्रियंका चोपड़ा के मार्फत भारत का मार्केट ताक रहे हैं।

अब एक मुवी बना रहे हैं। बेवाच।

सलमान का एक मुवी आया। सुल्तान। पहलवान। मैंने अभी देखा नहीं। लेकिन ट्रेलर देखा है। लन्गोटी पहने  सलमान चक्कर लगा रहे हैं।

अभी तक किसी ने एक कमेंट नहीं मारा। कि देखो। सलमान ने भारतीय पुरूष की तौहीन कर दी। सारी की सारी बॉडी दिखा दी। लन्गोटी मैचिंग कलर का है। लगता है जनाब नंगे घुम रहे हैं। भारतीय परम्परा सन्सक्रिती सब सत्यानाश।

अभी तक किसी ने एक कमेंट नहीं मारा।

बिकीनी और लन्गोटी में क्या फर्क है? कोई फर्क नहीं।

बेवाच में जो बन्दा हीरो है वो अभी हॉलीवुड में टप पेड ऐक्टर है। नम्बर वन। काला आदमी। एक काला आदमी वाशिंग्टन में रिटायर हुआ नहीं दुसरा हॉलीवुड पर छा गया।

प्रियंका चोपड़ा ने तो I came I saw I conquered वाली बात कर दी। सत्य नादेला, सुन्दर पिचाइ और प्रियंका चोपड़ा, तीनों बराबर। लेकिन रफ्तार के हिसाब से तीनों में नम्बर वन प्रियंका।

This is a geopolitical shift.  

Donald Alec Baldwin Trump

These days when I think of Donald Trump the face that shows up on my mindscreen is that of Alec Baldwin.

What just happened?

Is the man really that unsmiling and ugly? And fat?  

And devoid of ideas?

The guy is so lacking in anything that can even remotely be called public policy it looks like he is a cardboard cutout.

I can't tell the difference.

Will Alec Baldwin please show up for the third debate? He is equally ugly, what with all the makeup, but he is not sickening.   

Priyanka Chopra's Crossover Is A Geopolitical Event

Priyanka Chopra on Nightline

This is the first time a top Bollywood star has eased into being a top Hollywood star. This is big.

America and India now are what America and Britain used to be. The oldest modern democracy and the largest democracy are natural allies.

Priyanka Chopra is like Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai. She is a role model.

And she stays Indian.

Jailing Opponent, Snuffing Out The Media

Donald Trump has threatened to jail his opponent. And before that he has threatened to silence the media.

That is all Idi Amin.

Idi Amin has come to America.

Donald Trump One Person Alone Is 1,000 Reasons For The Death Tax

Entrepreneurs who do well should get excited about a 65% death tax after the 2016 race. You don't want your kids to end up like Donald Trump. Donald Trump is exhibit A for what a child should not end up like. This guy is an unrepentant sinner. He has no character, "no reputation to save," as the New York Times put it. Every sin in the book and Donald Trump is unrepentantly guilty of it. He is a fast food glutton, for example. The guy lies like nobody who has run for any office in this country. He has stiffed thousands of vendors who have done work for him. That is cheat and steal in spades. This guy is a "bozo," like Robert De Niro said.

Paying a 65% Death Tax is a small price to pay to make sure your kids don't end up in hell.

Donald Trump: No Heart, No Soul, No Brain, Fat Body

There, I just fat shamed The Donald.

Devastating

when it comes to Christian men still supporting Trump, “Disappointed seems like too soft a word. It’s devastating.”

A Really Really Bad Student

Donald Trump is like a really, really, really bad student on his way to sitting for a final exam, a seventh grader with zero preparation sitting for a SAT, and potty mouthed, extremely, completely, shamelessly bad mannered, so bad mannered the parents have taken a cue from Elvis and left the building instead of owning up to as to whose child this might be.

Russia, America And Global Stability

The ideological tussle lasted almost seven full decades. The capitalism communism tussle defined the 20th century. It is said only the Bible has been circulated more than Lenin's works. The decades after World War II were stark, primarily due to the nuclear angle.

The dog eat dog capitalism that Lenin theorized against was much tempered by FDR who responded primarily to the Great Depression. Stalinism was basically authoritarianism. The basic human rights, the basic freedoms, freedom of religion are the bedrock. The economic part of it did not work either. Ends up free enterprise is fundamental. Property rights are basic.

But Russia has always loomed large in Europe even during the era of Tsars. By geographic size it is still the biggest country in the world. The Russians would like to believe they are a major power in the world. They would like their geopolitical pull to be felt. Between them America and Russia continue to have most of the nuclear weapons in the world. And Russia has a defense industry that looks for buyers all over the world. Saber rattling is good for business.

The ideological tussle is not final, it never is. American democracy is not a finished product but a work in progress. And the economic paradigms it has been functioning in will soon prove inadequate. The world is about to enter an unprecedented era of major productivity gains largely driven by technology. The capitalism communism tussle was liquid water physics. The era of steam physics is right round the corner. New political and economic paradigms will be needed. And such theoretical work should never be tied to nationalism of any culture or country. Was Einstein's theory of relativity Jewish? Nope.

Is Russia a democracy? Is Russia a market economy? Is Putin a new Tsar? Russia is not a democracy like the ones in Western Europe, obviously. And Russia does not seem to have a hard nosed focus on economic growth like China. At some level Russia would like a status of equals relationship with the United States that it thought it had during the Cold War, based primarily on the fact of its large nuclear arsenal and a still impressive military.

Saudi Arabia is no democracy by any stretch of imagination but America seems to do business with it just fine.

There is a fissure. Russia, Pakistan, China and North Korea form one ideological belt, America, Europe, India and Japan form another belt. Democracies and non democracies have a tendency to needle each other. But it is not clear cut. Russia and India have a friendship that is unique.  That is a good thing. That perhaps is a safety valve lest things go a little out of hand between Russia and the West.

China is not a Saddam dictatorship. It can be argued China has campaign finance reform that American progressives wish they had.

America has campaign finance reform to do. Race relations in America are in a sorry state. So it is not like America has a perfect political system. The gender churn of the 2016 race is a global spectacle.

Jobs are being lost in all countries to automation but there are demagogues in many countries who are busy channeling the resultant anger in the direction of other countries.

The technological innovation is about to speed up so much it will not only ask for new political and economic theory it will also upend the geopolitical map of the world. Understood well it can be for the collective good of all humanity. Russia and America cooperating with the end goal of a nuclear weapon free world is what is best for the general welfare of the ordinary citizens in both those countries.  

Nuclear technology is decades old. Showing off nuclear is like someone bragging about an early mobile phone in this era of smartphones. Nuclear is not the next big thing. It is old technology. The next is nano and bio.

Syria and Yemen make both America and Russia look bad, as if it is okay for a large number of innocent people to die while the big powers of the world play their geopolitical chess games.

Syria is top of the list. The world is failing Syria. Who violated the ceasefire? America? And if the American military action was a mistake, were the Syrians and Russians invited for detailed briefings and verifications?

The Arab world is in turmoil. It is a world primarily struggling with itself. It is a culture asking for validation. There is an aspiration for freedom and democracy where you can kick the can down the road but not forever.

I read Tolstoy's War And Peace cover to cover during what would be the freshman year in the American high school system, Class 9. That is all I did an entire vacation. The mind was blown, to say the least. Compared to it novels of western literature started looking like little short stories. Then I read Dostoyevsky's Crime And Punishment and the mind was blown all over again. The mind was blown a third time with Gabriel Garcia Marquez' One Hundred Years Of Solitude.

The GDP is not the only measure of greatness. The rat race of chasing the dollar is not the only meaningful life. In fact if the rat race is your only life it is not much of a life in the first place. Life has to have a higher meaning.

And if it is about wealth if humanity can conquer global warming it can take itself to an Age Of Abundance, an era that will make the America of today look like a Third World country. And it will be global. All world will have become one country long before 2050 anyways.

Both Russia and America should approach the present from that future. There is much common ground possible. There is much for the two powers to do together.

Russia is the country that gave political asylum to Snowden, the whistleblower who has ignited debate on privacy in the era of mass surveillance. Ends up the American state is as knee deep as the Chinese state when it comes to surveillance.

This debate concludes with a netizen bill of rights. The debate has not even started yet.

The Russian political system is itself an unsettled debate. The right system will give Russia good economic growth.

Putin has a modest background. Yeltsin basically handed over Russia to Putin impressed by his ability to execute, to get things done. In the years after the collapse of the Soviet Union Russia was in free fall. There were bread lines, for example. Putin stabilized the country. But in the process became a new Tsar. One hopes for the sake of Russia that is not the final reality.

Democracy is good.