To wonder why no one is mentioning Bernie Sanders' great showing in Iowa?

[PitilessYank]

I have seen some threads recently about the US presidential election, in particular expressing horror at the popularity of Donald Trump, whom many Americans in fact loathe. It makes me wonder if MN users only enjoy posting negative things about US politics, and prefer to ignore the positive, like the tremendous showing of Bernie Sanders yesterday in Iowa.

Do MN users enjoy a bit of Schadenfreude when it comes to US politics? Where is the praise for the good judgement of Iowans in rejecting Trump (relatively speaking) and showing support for the best presidential candidate in many years, Bernie Sanders??

Math We have had issues with those jumped up nurses (who are normally the ones who left practice because they couldn't handle it) and the paediatrician ripped them to shreds. They really are awful. It is one of the many reasons why we are looking to do a self managed healthcare plan instead of using the insurance. It looks like it will be cheaper for us and we can write our own policy. The only reason we are keeping the insurance company on is for their discount and confidentiality. As an employee I would be very skeptical of a self managed care system run by my employer and them learning about any medical conditions. The issue I have run into is in writing the policy. I would like to be informed when we have a big bill coming for cash flow reasons (ie heart attack would be a $200k bill and I would delay paying some of my AP if they pulled that much cash) but they tell me it isn't allowed because I would know who the employee is. I kinda already know who the employee is most of the time. I just want to know if I can expect a big bill.

Lions I wish I could get my prenatals outside of the US. Sadly I am stuck paying $75 a month or taking 4 different tablets instead of two.

So driving home tonight and on the news it came up that Trump is a bad loser because he has publicized Ted Cruz campaign member distributing material saying Ben Carson had dropped out. Quote from Trump was along the lines that Cruz needs to stand down and he supported Sanders questioning the numbers between him and HC. Said something about the numbers just being too close too many times.

I have heard it all now.

'Mitzi, the anti Americanism wrt Halloween/Santa is not only small minded and malicious, it's ignorant. Halloween comes from the Celtic fringe of the island of Britain and form Ireland. Santa is what 'he' has always been called in Ireland.'

I know Math. I'm from Dublin!

Me too
And I can't type 'from', or proofread.

It seems Marco Rubio has picked up a few endorsements since the alleged Cruz win in Iowa. There are some Republican pockets that don't want a Tea Party win, or don't think Cruz could (or should) win.

Other than healthcare what are sanders policies?

His main policy is nothing to do with healthcare, it's to do with finance. His plan is to break up the big banks, and any that fail will be allowed to fail, thus redistributing risk from us to them. He will also reinstate Glass Steagall, thus recreating the gap between retail and investment banking.

Doctor Trump has also previously said he wants to do the same with the banks. Trump has also said he wants to change the tax rules for hedge funds and banks where carried interest isn't taxed. This would be an absolute huge shift in tax policy and I think its a good move. We currently have billon dollar hedge funds paying minimal amounts of tax on their gains at both the group and individual level. Trump said, the change in policy would enable the US to start paying down the deficit even if there was no change in government spending. I don't know how true that is...

Either way Trump and Sanders are actually quite close on a few areas, mainly their stance on financial regulation and foreign policy. Both are anti-war.

Interesting that Trump and Sanders seem quite close on policies to do with banks and financial markets.

The root cause of the recent divergence in wealth gap between rich and poor is largely to do with the way that financial markets work in the US. Banks instead of funding new businesses and supporting the entrepreneurial 'American Dream' are engaged in financial engineering, lending to big multinationals who hide their profits in offshore locations and tax inversions and funding politicians who support those policies.

The unholy alliance between Washington politicians, big business and Wall Street is something that Sanders has is criticising Hilary for. Trump likewise. despite being in business is no friend of Wall Street.

Trump and Wall Street do not get along. Guess who got hosed when he declared bankruptcy?!? He also hated Eliot spritzer who I overheard Trump refer to him as an inferior version of Napolean.

One big difference between Trump and Sanders is that Sanders does not engage in racist and sexist rhetoric.