You have consistently misrepresented my positions for literally 6 months now, all while Trump has gone from 0% to 3 to 1 and I have made heaps of equity, but cool story bro keep talking about how I'm some racist Hitler apologist authoritarian lover who thinks the State's have the right to decide over slavery.


From August:

I'm definitely Bernie>>>>> Trump

Everyone else just seems pretty terrible.

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of Bernie supporters go toward Trump.

Shillary just seems like the most untrustworthy candidate of all time.

Is Trump really 3 to 1? Im a buyer at 2.5

I'm really starting to believe Trump is actually gonna win this damn thing. If he runs vs. Hillary in the general the only thing that he has to worry about is the conservative voters seeing through his charades and Hillary's track record and recognizing that she is more conservative than he is.

My 250 to your 100 on winning the general. Quote to book.

Jeb? gets kicked off stage by his hosts.

Booked (death = no bet)

Jeb didn't get kicked off, he had a hard stop, as soon as he finished eating his pudding

These quotes from Sanders' appearance on Colbert last night seem appropriate here:

"When we have more people living in poverty today than almost any time in the history of this country"

This is not only false but the exact opposite of what he is claiming, right?

its quite possibly accurate on raw numbers, but obviously incorrect on a percentage basis.

The exact opposite of what who is claiming? Sanders? I'm not sure how.

It is probably true in terms of raw numbers, given the growth of the population, if not necessarily percentage. (Of course, saying "almost" means it could be true given any number of conditions.)

Something else I learned recently is that unemployment numbers don't figure in incarcerated people. I wonder if that's also true for poverty numbers.

Anyway, my point was just that there might be a good reason why LL would prefer Sanders/Trump to anyone else, and I think the point about their messages both speaking to the same problems people are having is a big part of that reason.

yeah I'm talking about percentages. If Bernie is referring to raw numbers than lol.

its raw numbers

The first google result I got was this NPR article from 2013, citing a census report:

I know the percentage has been higher in the past, but the absolute number probably hasn't very often, if at all. (The U.S. population was about 120 million during the Great Depression, which would have required a poverty rate of over 40% to surpass this total-- which may have well been, but I can't find any poverty statistics from before 1959.)

And then of course there's questions about how accurate the official measures of poverty are, etc. (Like how unemployment rates don't factor in people who have stopped looking for work altogether.)

Could you elaborate beyond "false" and "lol"?

Here is what Wikipedia (fwiw) is showing. Unable to go back to 1776 to verify Bernie's claim.

Poverty is still calculated using a 1963 formula based on 1963 food budgets. I am not aware of any substantial changes or improvements to the original formula. This is the legacy of a civil servant named Mollie Orshansky.

(That tidbit was the only useful bit of information in Gruber's health economics text.)

There are no adjustments for regional cost of living and non-cash subsidies (like housing or food stamps). It's worthless. You could make a poverty formula to say whatever you want.

Not quite as worthless as a politician citing "jobs created" but it's close.

Coincidentally, I went through my old tax returns today. I had some really good times the eight years I was living in "poverty."

So... the highest number on the chart is the most recent one, or very nearly it (2009?), and it hasn't dipped much.

This chart seems like strong evidence that "We have more people living in poverty today than almost any time in the history of this country" is true.

Aside snark about how weird it is that poverty started rising again in 1980 and has trended upward ever since.

If you're using raw numbers to make an argument like that you're being intentionally deceitful.

meh, I don't think so. These raw numbers are really all that matter given each one is a person.

Haiti has a smaller poverty than we do!

More people today have access to free healthcare and fresh water than ever in the history of the world

Wait so you mean that deregulating businesses and slashing taxes on rich people didn't work out great for everybody????!