| This country is not broke
taking care of the poor - it's from
Increased
Federal Debt of $1.5 trillion with a 2017 Republican Tax Scam Bill
where earners below $40,000 pay MORE tax in 2023 ! And Corporations pay 21%
instead of 35% ! And 56.7
million Taxpayers will be paying higher taxes by 2027
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/11/10/paul-ryans-repeated-claim-that-everyone-will-get-a-tax-cut/
read the SOURCE FACT CHECK here
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/11/10/paul-ryans-repeated-claim-that-everyone-will-get-a-tax-cut/
---- their sources are the Joint Committee on Taxation. , Tax Policy Center
and Open Source Policy Center tax model that was created by the American
Enterprise Institute and a former economist at the Treasury Department
Some 84% of the 100 economists reported that in the year since the tax cuts
passage, it “has not caused
their firms to change hiring or investment plans.”
So where is all that money going? Where else? Share buybacks, which hit a
record $1.1 trillion in 2018. Companies actually spent more on buybacks than
on capital investments in 2018’s first half.
It didn’t boost economic growth that much, didn’t start a capital spending
boom or U.S. manufacturing renaissance, didn’t bring overseas profits back
home, and might have led to modest job growth but little discernible wage
increases. And we’ll all be stuck with the bill for a long, long time.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/its-official-the-trump-tax-cuts-were-a-bust-2019-01-30
From December 2016 to September 2019: WAGES, ( plus
health insurance, retirement and bonuses) AFTER Inflation decreased 4.33% in
MANUFACTURING and decreased 0.22% Overall !
source:
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/data-shows-trump%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98blue-collar-boom%E2%80%99-bust-121836
Europeans are receiving Healthcare, affordable childcare, a decent
retirement pension, free or inexpensive university education, job
retraining, paid sick leave, paid parental leave, ample vacations,
affordable housing, senior care, more...
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/apr/15/tax-day-us-europe
For The First Time In History, U.S. Billionaires paid
a Lower Tax Rate than the Working Class:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2019/10/11/for-the-first-time-in-history-us-billionaires-paid-a-lower-tax-rates-than-the-working-class-what-we-should-do-about-it
ECONOMY --------------------------------------
Over the past
50 years, lots of things have changed in the United States. Here are a few
examples.
1) A child’s chance of earning more than his or her parents has plummeted
from 90 to 50 percent.
2) Earnings by the top 1 percent of Americans nearly tripled, while
middle-class wages have been basically frozen for four decades.
3.)
68,000
drug overdose deaths occurred in
the United
States in 2018. (72k in 2017, 63k in 2016, 52k in 2015)
4) Nearly one in five children in the US are now at risk of going hungry.
5) Among the 35 richest countries in the world, the US now has the highest
infant mortality rate and the lowest life expectancy.
https://www.vox.com/2018/6/28/17469080/american-dream-steven-brill-inequality-poverty-tailspin
Its a straight line growth in wages from the Obama
era. No change from Trump.
https://www.npr.org/2018/09/12/646708799/fact-check-who-gets-credit-for-the-booming-u-s-economy
Unemployment is a straight line decrease from 2009 -- started by Obama !
https://www.bls.gov/charts/employment-situation/civilian-unemployment-rate.htm
Sep 2019: Two decades with no progress for the middle
class': New census data shows household income is the same as in 1999 !
The share of Americans without health insurance rose for the first time in a
decade last year and U.S. household income hardly budged.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-census/u-s-median-household-income-was-63179-in-2018-census-idUSKCN1VV1U3
Denmark McDonald's Workers Get Paid $20/HOUR ! And the Big Mac costs just 80
cents more . Thanks to unionization, they also get paid sick leave and
overtime pay. Every worker gets 4 weeks Paid Vacation.
The U.K. brought in a national
minimum wage
in 1999, AND unemployment actually fell between 1999 and 2007 despite
regular increases in the wage.
.https://www.businessinsider.com/denmark-mcdonalds-pays-20-hourly-wages-2014-10
Trump Is Falling Almost 1 Million Jobs Short Vs.
Obama
https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2019/07/05/trump-is-falling-almost-1-million-jobs-short-vs-obama/#3365bd0e8caa
All the things that really elevate American’s quality
of life — healthcare, finance, education, transport, housing, and so on —
have come to consume such a large share of the average household’s income
that they have little left to save, invest, or spend on anything else.
And what’s worse, while the basics of life have seen
massive inflation, wages and incomes (not to mention savings and benefits
and safety nets and opportunities) for most have stagnated. The result is an
economy — and a society — that’s collapsing.
https://eand.co/why-america-is-the-worlds-first-poor-rich-country-17f5a80e444a
Most claims about job gains or losses from trade deals aren't credible
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/08/26/will-revised-nafta-deal-add-jobs-every-year
Trump consistently inflates the U.S.
Trade Deficit with China. It was:
- $380 billion in 2018,
- $337 billion in 2017 and
- $309 billion in 2016,
according to the Commerce Department. Notice that it has continued to grow under Trump.
Countries do not make or lose money on trade deficits. A trade
deficit simply means that people in one country are buying more goods from
another country than people in the second country are buying from the first
country. (Not as Trump says "“China
has been taking out of this country $500-plus billion a year for many, many
years — many, many years.” )
History shows us that government can create
jobs and grow the economy https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/reports/2011/09/08/10257/government-spending-can-create-jobs-and-it-has/
PEW RESEARCH:- 89
percent of Americans (including 77 percent of Republicans) believe
regulations on food production and packaging should be maintained or
strengthened.
On car safety and efficiency, 87 percent of Americans (and 82 percent of
Republicans) say the same.
On workplace safety, 86 percent of Americans (and 77 percent of Republicans)
want to maintain or enhance regulations.
The only real skepticism is over environmental regulations, but even here 79
percent of all Americans (and 59 percent of Republicans) are in favor of
regulation.
https://www.people-press.org/2012/02/23/section-2-views-of-government-regulation
GUNS
--------------------------------------
Enough Gun Violence ! Is mental illness causing
America’s mass shootings? No, --- research shows. And there is no
statistical link between playing violent video games and shooting people.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/08/05/is-mental-illness-causing-americas-mass-shootings-no-research-shows/
The semi-automatic assault weapons ban (and the limit of a
magazine to 10 rounds) from 1994 to 2004 was riddled with loopholes, such as
allowing copycat weapons to be sold, and exemptions that limited its
effectiveness.
Nevertheless studies show that fewer people in the U.S. were killed as a
result of mass shootings during the ban period.
During the semi-automatic assault weapons ban (and the limit of a magazine
to 10 rounds) from 1994 to 2004 -- fewer people were killed as a
result of mass shootings . ( you'll like this - Bill Clinton got 2
pinocchios )
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/08/08/bill-clintons-claim-that-assault-weapons-ban-led-big-drop-mass-shooting-deaths/
(Note that it was Republicans in power in 2004 that
allowed the ban to expire)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/resizer/qsJB0mDQ9LaDueNtmN11v1ETTnI=/1484x0/arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/DLFOI5GSCNDB3HRC6W73D6NH2I.png
Scroll down the article and read that its the conclusion from a database on
mass shootings by Grant Duwe, director of research and evaluation for the
Minnesota Department of Corrections.
That's an old study (2018) that did not use enough
detailed data. The Washington Post on the latest study ( you'll like this -
Bill Clinton got 2 pinocchios )
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/08/08/bill-clintons-claim-that-assault-weapons-ban-led-big-drop-mass-shooting-deaths/
Mass-shooting deaths were 70% less likely to occur during the 1994-2004
Federal ban period
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30188421
Yearly sales of Semiautomatic rifles averaged about 200,000 during the years
of the 1994-2004 ban. In the eight years after the ban ended, sales averaged
about 700,000 a year.
https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2019/aug/07/bill-clinton/did-mass-shooting-deaths-fall-under-1994-assault-w/
The GOP’s favorite gun ‘academic’ is a fraud
https://thinkprogress.org/debunking-john-lott-5456e83cf326/
Jimmy Kimmel responds to the mass shootings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=323&v=sB0wWEFIr50
Stephen Colbert on the shootings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dMgEwQYdog
Do 98 percent of mass public shootings happen in gun-free zones?
Trump lunged for a dramatic statistic without including necessary context.
He earns Two Pinocchios.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2018/05/10/do-98-percent-of-mass-public-shootings-happen-in-gun-free-zones/
"Odessa shooter bought gun via private sale without background check" ----
Federal law barred Jody Lee Hunt from ever owning a
gun. But when he wanted to buy one, it wasn’t hard: He found a seller
online.
He was a felon who had spent time in prison for abducting a girlfriend. But
he used the gun to kill his ex-girlfriend, a rival business owner, and two
others.
He was supposed to be blocked by a federal instant background check
database that licensed firearms dealers are required to query before handing
weapons over to a buyer. But federal gun laws contain a major loophole:
Transactions between private sellers and buyers do not require a
background check.
Background checks are more effective when they work in tandem with
additional requirements for fingerprinting and handgun safety
training. The combination, experts say, has
reduced firearm homicides, suicides and shootings of law enforcement
officers, as well as illegal gun trafficking.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/13/us/guns-background-checks.html
The El Paso shooter had an AK47 .
Nobody needs
a high-capacity rifle with 100-round drum magazines other than to kill
a lot of people in a very short time period.
To "protect yourself" by carrying an AK47 high-capacity rifle with 100-round
drum magazines ( as did the El Paso shooter) ? Do you need this much
fire-power to save somebody? Can you carry that rifle and magazines around
with you all the time?
No, No and No !
Florida
gets a C- .......Texas gets an F https://lawcenter.giffords.org/gun-laws/state-law/Texas/
ENVIRONMENT
--------------------------------------
In 2015, reducing environmental risks could have prevented more than a
quarter of the 5.9 million deaths of children under 5 years.
https://www.who.int/features/factfiles/children_environmental_health/en/
Scientific
consensus: Climate is warming from man-made change.
I wish it weren't true but I'd be very silly not to believe 99% of
scientists.
Seven Answers to Climate Contrarian Nonsense
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/seven-answers-to-climate-contrarian-nonsense/
http://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/
https://www.skepticalscience.com/argument.php
I think I'll go with the 12,000 academic papers
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jul/24/scientific-consensus-on-humans-causing-global-warming-passes-99
And NASA
https://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/
After a study of
12,000 papers from here
https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/1748-9326
“There was 99% scientific consensus in 2011 that humans are causing global
warming.”
2019 STUDY:
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin,
Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia, New Jersey, Maryland, and
Delaware could see $4.7 billion in health benefits in 2030 if they
stick with current renewable energy standards, according to a new study from
MIT. That’s about a 34% return on the $3.5 billion price tag associated with
actually building out that infrastructure of renewable energy sources such
as wind or solar farms.
THIS RESEARCH SHOWS THAT RENEWABLES PAY FOR THEMSELVES through health
benefits alone.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/15/20807800/renewable-energy-health-benefits-research-mit-study-rust-belt
- the study was done by no less than the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology !
No, 31,000
scientists have not said climate change is a hoax
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/30000-scientists-reject-climate-change/
The cost of
doing nothing – or falling short of the ambitious goals – is greater than
whatever sticker shock the Green New Deal might cause voters.
“Economists estimate that if we do not take action, we will lose $34.5
trillion in economic activity by the end of the century,” Sanders said.
“And the benefits are enormous: by taking bold and decisive action, we will
save:-
--- $2.9 trillion over 10 years,
--- $21 trillion over 30 years, and
--- $70.4 trillion over 80 years.”
The trees and
plants of the Amazon forest pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere as
part of photosynthesis. Destruction of the forest releases carbon stored in
the trees and reduces the amount of carbon dioxide used by them.
“The Amazon forest holds something like 90 billion tons of carbon, and if
that ends up in the atmosphere it’s not a good thing,”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-amazon-rainforest-fires/2019/08/27/ac82b21e-c815-11e9-a4f3-c081a126de70_story.html
NOAA: The warmest month overall in the 140-year NOAA
global temperature dataset record.
The year-to-date temperature for 2019 tied with 2017 as the second warmest
January–July on record.
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/global-climate-201907
The cost of renewable energy has tumbled even further over the past year, to
the point where almost every source of green energy can now compete on cost
with oil, coal and gas-fired power plants.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/dominicdudley/2019/05/29/renewable-energy-costs-tumble/#1d0e389ae8ce
The only thing stopping it is POLITICAL WILL the technology already exists (
electrical storage will improve , hydrogen fuel cells , pumped hydro and
batteries, )
The estimated cost of measures to limit Earth-warming greenhouse gas
emissions can be more than offset by reductions in deaths and disease from
air pollution,
https://phys.org/news/2018-03-health-outweigh-limiting-global.html#jCp
The average cost of developing new power plants based on onshore wind, solar
photovoltaic (PV), biomass or geothermal energy is now usually below
$0.10/kWh. Wind costs $0.13/kWh. Power plants based on fossil fuels such as
oil and gas, range from $0.05/kWh to over $0.15/kWh.
Dorian’s appearance made 2019 the fourth straight year in which a Category 5
hurricane formed in the Atlantic — the longest such streak on record, Heat
in the ocean is a hurricane’s primary source of fuel, and the world’s oceans
have absorbed more than 90 percent of the warming of the past 50 years.
https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-ocean-heat-content
Heat in the ocean is a storm’s primary source of fuel, and the world’s
oceans have absorbed more than 90 percent of the warming of the past 50
years.
https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-ocean-heat-content
Health savings outweigh costs of limiting global warming:
study
https://phys.org/news/2018-03-health-outweigh-limiting-global.html#jCp
Wind turbines kill far fewer
birds in North America than do cats or collisions with cell towers. Wind
turbines kill between 214,000 and 368,000 birds annually — a small
fraction compared with the estimated annual:-
6.8 million from communication towers ,
57 million power lines ,
214 million vehicles,
624 million from glass windows, and the
1.4 billion to 3.7 billion deaths from cats,
Since that flawed 2015 Study, the bulk of scientific research suggests that
Antarctica is losing more ice than it's gaining. A 2018
study that used the GRACE satellites to show that ice gains in East
Antarctica haven't kept up with ice losses in the west, and that melting ice
has added nearly 3
trillion gallons of water to the oceans over the course of 25 years.
https://bigthink.com/politics-current-affairs/2015-nasa-study-antarctic-ice-climate-change-skeptic?rebelltitem=5#rebelltitem5
A
2016 Union
of Concerned Scientists study(pdf)
found that the manufacture and operation of electric vehicles produced less
than half the carbon emissions of comparable petrol and diesel-powered
vehicles. But this calculation assumes energy used in manufacture does not
itself come from renewables.
https://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/11/Cleaner-Cars-from-Cradle-to-Grave-full-report.pdf#page=13
This was debunked years ago ! On the one hand we have a bunch of
49 former administrators, astronauts, and engineers
who between them have zero climate expertise and zero climate science
publications.
On the other hand we have the climate scientists at NASA GISS who between
them have decades, perhaps even centuries of combined professional climate
research experience, and hundreds, perhaps even thousands of peer-reviewed
climate science publications.
https://skepticalscience.com/NASA-climate-denialist-letter.html
ESTATE TAX
--------------------------------------
THIS IS A LIE! All property left to a surviving
spouse passes free of estate tax.
Only estates worth more $5.49 million, pay Estate Tax (at 40 percent).
However, family-owned farms and closely-held businesses may be able to pay
less or pay in low-interest installments.
The people who pay it are among the country’s richest families. "Over
two-thirds of these estates come from the top 10 percent of income earners
and close to one-fourth from the top One Percent."
Only about 80 small farms and businesses paid estate tax in 2017, that's 1%.
TRUMP
--------------------------------------
Trump said he
was going to drain the swamp but all he did was fill his cabinet with big
business lobbyists!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/07/17/trumps-swamp-corporate-lobbyists-are-charge/
Trump laughs after audience member suggests shooting
migrants – video. But he also gets the audience to laugh.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2019/may/09/trump-laughs-after-audience-member-suggests-shooting-migrants-video
Poverty rates among African-Americans and Hispanics are above 20 percent,
far outpacing the poverty rate of 9.8 percent for the white, non-Hispanic
population.
40 million Americans are living below the federal poverty level. ($24,858
for a family of four)
Families living on half that income, have
nearly doubled since 1975.
A low unemployment rate hasn’t solved the problem.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/13/us/politics/poverty-rate-census-bureau.html
Under
Trump the gap in wages between races has grown.
Trump has sabotaged a law that guaranteed health insurance for many
African Americans.
He has undermined protections for voting rights.
His Justice Department has stopped going after police departments that
discriminated against African Americans.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/what-did-african-americans-have-lose/594994/
"Factual Reporting: HIGH" https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-atlantic/
Trump's voters have been unnerved by all of the racial
conflict during his presidency, from the white-supremacist march in
Charlottesville, Virginia, to the El Paso, Texas, mass shooting.
--- Trump stoked weeks of racial animus beginning July 14
with his tweet that four congresswomen of color should “go back and help fix
the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” Three of
the congresswomen were born in the United States and all four members are
U.S. citizens.
--- On July 27, he attacked Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, one of the
highest-ranking black Democrats in Congress, and called his Baltimore
district “a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.”
--- The first weekend of August, two mass shootings in less than 24 hours —
one in El Paso, the other in Dayton — provided another test for the
president. In El Paso, 22 people were killed in and near a Walmart close to
the U.S.-Mexico border after police believe the alleged gunman posted a
statement online warning of a “Hispanic invasion” and mimicking some of
Trump’s incendiary rhetoric about immigrants.
Putting our troops in harms way in Saudi Arabia, who's citizens killed
3,000 of us on Sep 11th ? When one Iranian accident killing a US Soldier
could put us at war again ?
Unfortunately QuidProQuo Mulvaney didn't help
change this analysis ---
Trump and Giuliani blackmailing Ukraine, leaving it vulnerable to Putin’s
aggression, in order to strong-arm their President into helping the Trump
campaign defeat Joe Biden.
As the Washington Post said, “Mr. Trump is not just soliciting Ukraine’s
help with his presidential campaign; he is using U.S. Military Aid, (the
country desperately needs), to extort it.”
https://www.salon.com/2019/09/10/trump-keeps-trying-to-find-a-biden-scandal-in-ukraine-but-he-cant-even-get-that-right/
Biden’s actions as vice president, in demanding the firing of the Ukraine’s
top prosecutor, did
more to hurt his son’s company than
anything else.
https://theintercept.com/2019/05/10/rumors-joe-biden-scandal-ukraine-absolute-nonsense-reformer-says/
Trump has made 13,435 false or misleading claims over 993 days
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/10/14/president-trump-has-made-false-or-misleading-claims-over-days/
BRITISH --------------------------------------
James Graham, who wrote "Brexit: The Uncivil War":-
Where actor Dominic Cummings plays the role and meets and hires Canadian
Zack Massingham, co-founder of AggregateIQ, who offers to build a database
using social media tools of voters who are not on the UK electoral register
but are inclined to vote to leave. In a separate sequence, Arron Banks meets
Robert Mercer, who discusses the potential of social media database tools.
AggregateIQ
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AggregateIQ
AIQ created Ripon, Cambridge Analytica's campaign software platform, which
was largely funded by the Cruz campaign.[1]
On 6 April 2018, Facebook suspended AggregateIQ from using its platform due
to concerns of a possible affiliation with SCL Group, the parent company of
Cambridge Analytica. Facebook stated, "In light of recent reports that
AggregateIQ may be affiliated with SCL and may, as a result, have improperly
received FB user data, we have added them to the list of entities we have
suspended from our platform while we investigate."
On 20 September 2018, AggregateIQ became the first firm to be served a
formal notice by the UK's Information Commissioner's Office for breaching
the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation. T
A documentary in 2019 alleged that AIQ's business concept consists of
collecting and analysing people's data in order to personalize political
fake slogans.....
AggregateIQ was deeply involved in Britain's Brexit vote, thus manipulating
the vote and persuading people to vote in favor of Brexit by posting lies to
users, according to Nigel Farage's wishes. The company collaborated with
Farage and with Steve Bannon.
Believe it or not the same guy's Computer Analytics
that got Trump elected also got the LEAVE vote in BREXIT !
http://FactualNews.org/politics/robert_mercer_Trump_Puppeteer.htm#brexit
Talking of 2nd Amendment - checkout how Cambridge
Analytica used the FB Personality Test data to Psychologically Target
http://FactualNews.org/politics/robert_mercer_Trump_Puppeteer.htm#election
|
- |
SOCIALISM -- BIG
GOVERNMENT
-------------------------------------- What
are we missing as this propaganda from the rich, blinds us ?
Like most of
Europe -- All of Bernie's Action Plan
is clearly achievable within a capitalist system:-
Universal healthcare
Free/affordable public college
Transform our energy system
Overturn Citizens United so that politicians are no longer bought
Raise the minimum wage to $15
End the war on drugs
Rebuild our crumbling infrastructure
Raise taxes on the 1%
Stop endless military spending
Expand Social Security
End police brutality
Demilitarized the police
-- Yep - -That's Bernies Action Plan
follow-up
--- Most
every Capitalist Developed Country in the world can afford Universal
healthcare
--- Most Developed Counties in the world offer free College
---
Almost every source of green energy can now compete on cost with oil, coal
and gas-fired power plants.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/dominicdudley/2019/05/29/renewable-energy-costs-tumble/#1d0e389ae8ce
.
--- Citizens United: Before, After, What’s Next?
https://sunlightfoundation.com/2010/10/19/citizens-united-before-after-what%E2%80%99s-next/
--- A study of
137 minimum-wage increases, --
On average, minimum-wage increases
eliminated jobs paying below the new minimum, but added jobs paying at or
above the new minimum. The two changes effectively cancel each other out.
https://beta.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/02/05/raising-the-minimum-wage-doesnt-cost-jobs-multiple-studies-suggest/
--- US infrastructure is falling apart
https://www.businessinsider.com/asce-gives-us-infrastructure-a-d-2017-3
--- U.S. military expenditures are
roughly the size of the next seven largest military budgets around the
world, combined.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/06/19/u-s-military-budget-inches-closer-to-1-trillion-mark-as-concerns-over-federal-deficit-grow/
--- Social Security is looking like a pretty good investment these days.
... A young worker today with average career earnings will receive Social
Security retirement benefits equivalent to total employer and employee
retirement contributions plus a 5.7 percent annual rate of return
https://www.epi.org/blog/social-security-is-looking-like-a-pretty-good-investment-these-days/
Five myths about socialism
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/five-myths/five-myths-about-socialism/2019/03/01/692e1d84-3b73-11e9-b786-d6abcbcd212a_story.html
According to the World Bank, 769 million people lived on less than $1.90 a
day in 2013; they are the world’s very poorest. Of these, 3.2 million live
in the United States
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/24/opinion/poverty-united-states.html
I think the
middle-class
has already gone -- under 30 years of Republican rule:
https://inequality.org/facts/income-inequality/
You can vote on immigration, abortion and Gays -- but I'll vote on what's
directly beneficial to me. Healthcare, Free College, a $15 Minimum Wage,
More Social Security and my city's crumbling infrastructure getting fixed.
WHAT SHOULD
WE DO ABOUT MEN NOT WORKING?
Government policy can make a difference, Furman argues. Improving education
and access to college could help by making workers more attractive to
employers. So would spending more on helping people find jobs, as other
countries do. Providing child-care subsidies and paid leave could draw more
men – and women — into the workforce. Expanding the tax subsidies offered to
low-wage workers so jobs are more attractive would be a plus, too.
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2016/08/15/men-not-at-work-why-so-many-men-ages-of-25-to-54-are-not-working/
You mean the happiest country in the world ?
The United States came in 19th place.
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/worlds-happiest-countries-united-nations-2019/index.html
They are not paying Health Insurance companies huge skim-offs nor paying Big
Pharmaceutical Corps. exorbitant prices. Nor are they paying $693 billion
per year for the Military. And nothing to pay for education including top
Universities .
Having just listened to a Republican pontificate about "BIG GOVERNMENT
taking away our freedom" -- at the behest of the Heritage Foundation.
Does BIG GOVERNMENT come at the cost of reduced freedom, weakened civil
society, and diminished happiness? For the world’s affluent democratic
countries the answer is no. Many Americans don’t have access to
high-quality, affordable health insurance, child care, housing, free
college, 4 weeks Paid Vacation, Minimum Wage and senior care. This
diminishes not only Americans’ security but also their freedom:
https://lanekenworthy.net/is-big-government-bad-for-freedom-civil-society-and-happiness/
MINIMUM WAGE
--------------------------------------
Debunking the
myth that higher wages lead to major job losses -- The conclusion is that
low-wage workers received a 7 percent pay bump after a minimum wage law went
into effect, but there was little or no change in employment. The study also
showed that it would not cost jobs, even in states with large shares of
minimum-wage workers.
https://www.vox.com/2019/7/2/20678821/15-federal-minimum-wage-increase-study
by economists at the University of California Berkeley
Not just CNN -- but Economists !! What CNN found was
that higher minimum wages do not have adverse effects on employment, or the
weeks or hours worked among minimum wage workers — even four years after
minimum wages are increased. We didn't find adverse employment effects among
women and minority groups, either. As a result, we determined that the
United States can raise pay to $15 an hour by 2024 without hurting jobs,
even in low-wage states.
A study of
137 minimum-wage increases, --
On average, minimum-wage increases
eliminated jobs paying below the new minimum, but added jobs paying at or
above the new minimum. The two changes effectively cancel each other out.
https://beta.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/02/05/raising-the-minimum-wage-doesnt-cost-jobs-multiple-studies-suggest/
findings suggest that employers may have preferred
to hire or keep more-experienced workers when the minimum wage went up. That
could theoretically disadvantage new workers entering the workforce for the
first time. But Seattle’s current economic boom and labor shortage more than
offset any such effect, he noted. The UW team also studied impacts on
consumer prices, and found little to no effect in an array of areas, from
groceries to retail goods to gas prices.
https://www.idahopress.com/news/local/seattle-s-minimum-wage-a-case-study/article_582c5c9d-f1f3-51a3-b1f0-eaed3159aef1.html
The $15 pay increase for restaurant
workers in New York City represented the largest hike for a big group of
low-wage workers since the 1960s, according to a new study.
During the years it raised wages from $7.25 to $15, the restaurant industry
out-performed the rest of the country in job growth and expansion.
The study suggests that increasing pay for restaurant workers — who make up
the bulk of low-wage earners — might not harm businesses.
https://www.greenwichtime.com/technology/businessinsider/article/NYC-s-15-minimum-wage-hasn-t-brought-the-14292931.php
NYC's $15 minimum wage hasn't brought the restaurant apocalypse —
it's helped them thrive
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/nyc-restaurant-industry-thriving-after-15-dollar-minimum-wage-2019-8
Milton Friedman (Hoover Institute) admitted
that pure Libertarianism is a sham .He at some point was in support of a
guaranteed minimum income - to be clear …a guaranteed gov’t paid
ANNUAL WAGE independent of employment . He called it The Negative Income Tax
.
The FULL story NOT reported by the Heritage
Foundation. Raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025
would increase the pay of at least 17 million people, but also put 1.3
million Americans out of work, according to a
study by the Congressional Budget Office . And it could also raise
the wages of another 10 million workers and lift 1.3 million Americans out
of poverty.
https://www.npr.org/2019/07/08/739607964/-15-minimum-wage-would-boost-17-million-workers-cut-1-3-million-jobs-cbo-says
The U.K. brought in a national minimum wage in 1999, AND unemployment
actually fell between 1999 and 2007 despite regular increases in the wage.
The federal minimum wage would have been $24.18 in 2020 if
it rose in step with productivity.
IMMIGRATION --------------------------------------
This analysis found that crime went down at similar rates regardless of
whether the undocumented population rose or fell. Areas with more
unauthorized migration appeared to have larger drops in crime.
The data suggests that when it comes to crime, the difference between
someone who is called a legal immigrant and an illegal one doesn’t seem to
matter.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/13/upshot/illegal-immigration-crime-rates-research.html
--------------------------------
Read the article to find studies by:
Pew Research
Marshall Project
Uniform Crime Reporting program,
Cato Institute,
Governing magazine
University at Buffalo, SUNY,
The Upshot
------------------------
Unless of course they GERRYMANDER your State, use DARK MONEY to fund
Candidates that are paid for by the rich, -- and cut your voting rights .
the
Department of Agriculture estimates that about half (53%) of the nation's
farmworkers are unauthorized.
In 2017 research conducted by the Cornell Farmworker Program, 30 New York
dairy farmers told us they turned to undocumented workers because they were
unable to find and keep reliable U.S. citizens to do the jobs.
A study commissioned by the dairy industry suggested that if federal labor
and immigration policies reduced the number of foreign-born workers by 50
percent, more than 3,500 dairy farms would close, leading to a big drop in
milk production and a spike in prices of about 30 percent. Total elimination
of immigrant labor would increase milk prices by 90 percent.
The U.S. fruit, vegetable and meat industries are similarly at risk, and
without the help of unauthorized workers, production would drop and
consumers would likely see higher prices.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/illegal-immigrants-us-jobs-economy-farm-workers-taxes/
These people are so impressive -- thankyou for your
bravery in sharing this.
EVERYBODY should listen to this -- so important to understanding why some
kids might turn violent
But more than that -- how they may be turned !
https://www.kalw.org/post/conversation-two-former-white-supremacists-and-man-who-almost-shot-his-school
The Guy ( calling himself the "Crime
Prevention Research Center") Behind the Bogus Immigration
Report Has A Long History of Terrible And Misleading Research
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/02/the-guy-behind-the-bogus-immigration-report-has-a-long-history-of-terrible-and-misleading-research/
The GOP’s favorite gun ‘academic’ is a fraud
https://thinkprogress.org/debunking-john-lott-5456e83cf326/
It was no less than Bill Clinton who instigated "Families who receive TANF
must get a job within two years."
https://www.thebalance.com/welfare-programs-definition-and-list-3305759
HEALTHCARE
--------------------------------------
2022 Aug: Here’s how Democrats are bringing down costs for people on
Medicare—and here’s what every Republican in Congress voted against:
✅ Capping insulin costs at $35/month
✅ Limiting drug expenses to $2,000/year
✅ Finally allowing Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices
It is paid for in the same way that every other
developed country in the world does -- they all have it ! So should we!
Every other developed country in the world has Universal Healthcare! So
should we! We already have it (to some extent) -- its called Medicare!
Our system has Insurance policies with limited coverage where people still
go bankrupt, or have huge deductibles.
The uninsured went from 44 million before Obamacare to 22 million!
The Medicaid Coverage Gap
Thanks to 18 Republican States -- 4.9 Million Poor, Uninsured, Non-elderly
Adults -- Go without Health Insurance
Obamacare (Affordable Care Act, ACA) expands Medicaid to all low-income
individuals with incomes at or below 138% of Poverty ($27,724 for a family
of three )
http://FactualNews.org/politics/Medicaid_Gap.htm
Nationalized health is not failing -- Go to page 9 to see how US Life
Expectancy is trailing behind 9 countries -- yet spending is triple
https://www.oecd.org/health/health-systems/Universal-Health-Coverage-and-Health-Outcomes-OECD-G7-Health-Ministerial-2016.pdf
800,000 to 1 million Americans
are crossing the border into Mexico each year for Healthcare
https://www.newsweek.com/thousands-americans-cross-border-mexico-affordable-medical-treatment-each-1426943
The
main advantage Medicare has over commercial insurance is its Cost Structure.
Medicare pays physicians on average about 40% less than commercial plans.
Hospitals receive half to two-thirds from Medicare what they do from the
private insurers.
And the US spends 3 times more on drugs than Europe.
Trump would kill this.
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-10-04/hiltzik-trump-medicare
It also is Backdoor Privatization of Medicare
https://socialsecurityworks.org/2019/10/03/trumps-executive-order-is-backdoor-privatization-of-medicare/
ELECTIONS
--------------------------------------
Mitch
McConnell could be purposely ignoring Election security.
Hear a security expert accuse McConnell of letting the Russians help
Republicans win the election!
Our election technology is woefully inadequate and Republicans are doing
nothing about it. But Russians are!
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4811684/mitch-mcconnell-purposely-ignoring-election-security&editTime=1564946137
How a McConnell-backed effort to lift Russian
sanctions boosted a Kentucky project
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-a-mcconnell-backed-effort-to-lift-russian-sanctions-boosted-a-kentucky-project/2019/08/13/72b26e00-b97c-11e9-b3b4-2bb69e8c4e39_story.html
Many
Americans do not have one of the forms of identification states accept for
voting. These voters are disproportionately low-income, racial and ethnic
minorities, the elderly, and people with disabilities. Such voters more
frequently have difficulty obtaining ID, because they cannot afford
or cannot obtain the underlying documents that are a prerequisite to
obtaining a government-issued photo ID card.
https://www.aclu.org/other/oppose-voter-id-legislation-fact-sheet
Republican politicians consistently conjure the specter of voter fraud as
pretext to suppress legitimate votes.
https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/debunking-voter-fraud-myth
Pillar of Law was set up to fight restrictions on
campaign financing in the name of “free speech.”
https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2018/03/22/donors-trust-doled-out-66-7-million-to-controversial-groups-in-2016/
https://www.exposedbycmd.org/category/spn/
https://www.exposedbycmd.org/spn/
For only 12 of the 37 years since 1982 Democrats have had a majority in
both the House & Senate and out of that twelve there was a Republican
President for 8.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Combined--Control_of_the_U.S._House_of_Representatives_-_Control_of_the_U.S._Senate.png
The Democrats have tried to fix Healthcare and protect workers’ rights and
keep the air and water clean. They’re trying to make college more affordable
and end predatory lending practices. They’ve fought to make our financial
systems safer and to improve public education.
The Republicans have fought it all. !
Its all clear from the voting record: http://factualnews.atwebpages.com/politics/rep_dem_Differences.htm
MILITARY SPENDING
--------------------------------------
I guess then we should stop spending so much on the Military .
World military spending totaled more than $1.6 trillion in 2015. The U.S.
accounted for 37 percent of the total.
U.S. military expenditures are roughly the size of the next seven largest
military budgets around the world, combined.
U.S. military spending dwarfs the budget of the #2 country – China.
THE ELDERLY --------------------------------------
Senate Republicans Set Sights On Cutting Social Security
https://www.forbes.com/sites/teresaghilarducci/2018/10/16/senate-republicans-set-sights-on-cutting-social-security/#31db52ee5da1
ABORTION --------------------------------------
Infants are very rarely born alive after abortion
procedures, and if they are, doctors do not kill them. OF COURSE !
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/26/health/abortion-bill-trump.html
All this pales into insignificance compared to the far more deaths of
pregnant women when complications arise and they can't get a life-saving
abortion.
Can
you see how abortion is used to divert our attention away from issues that
financially impoverish us - so that the rich can continue to control
the country aided and abetted by us voting Republican?
EVERY MINUTE 146 women become pregnant who did not
plan or wish it !
The Global Gag Rule on international family planning prohibits any U.S.
family planning aid from going to groups that provide abortions or speak out
about the issue of abortion (even using their own private, non-U.S. funds).
It will only lead to MORE, illegal, abortions !
RELIGION
--------------------------------------
6 reasons religion may do more harm than good
https://www.salon.com/2014/11/17/6_reasons_why_religion_does_more_harm_than_good_partner/
Through
consensus voting, the Jesus Seminar has concluded that only about 18% of the
words attributed to Jesus in the Gospels can accurately be assumed to be his
own. Other votes rejected:- the virgin birth, biblical statements that have
Jesus proclaim himself the Son of God or the Jewish Messiah, and—the
cornerstone of the Christian faith—Jesus’ physical resurrection from the
dead.
The Seminar has also concluded that Jesus apparently had four brothers and
may also have had sisters but no father named Joseph.
The story of Jesus’ arrest, trial, and execution as recounted in the New
Testament was suggested by prophecies in the Hebrew Bible "that early
Christian storytellers arranged to have fulfilled as they told and retold
the story."
What the Seminar has shown is a Jesus who was a social critic and sage. He
was a rebel who led a revolution against repression but who harbored no
divine pretensions.
They arrive at their conclusions by scrutinizing the social, literary,
linguistic, political, and religious environment in which Jesus lived, as
well as that of the 75 years after his death, before the Gospels were
written. Most scholars know that Jesus' disciples did not write the four
gospels; --- much later advocates composed these gospels. They worked
from oral traditions and lists of sayings or miracles.
They maintain that an early compilation of Jesus’ sayings existed, as well
as some of those of John the Baptist, which the writers of Matthew and Luke
independently drew upon 75+ years later. They explain the resurrection as
"the internal experience of Jesus’ disciples" that was later misunderstood
to be historical truth.
https://www.westarinstitute.org/projects/the-jesus-seminar/
The Forged Origins of the New
Testament
https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/biblianazar/esp_biblianazar_40.htm
I know you want to ignore SCIENCE but you can't ignore HISTORY !
-----------------------------
I just saw "The Family" on Netflix.
The Fellowship
Every February since 1935 there has been a "National Prayer Breakfast".
Every President since Eisenhower has attended.
What most folks probably don't know is that it originated in 1935 when 19
businessmen, in Seattle, got together to figure out how to stop workers from
Unionising.
They are now a network of prayer cells 20,000-strong, "a veritable
underground of Christ's men all through government."
https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/tv/secretive-christian-group-heart-d-c-politics-ready-its-close-n1040011
OPIODS
--------------------------------------
The root cause of this Opioid Epidemic is the FDA's
illegal approval of Opioids , -- bribed by the Drug Cos..
And Republican's Bill to curb the DEA
http://factualnews.atwebpages.com/politics/Opiod_Crisis_History.htm
ENDANGERED SPECIES
--------------------------------------
Unable to kill or neuter the act legislatively because of strong support for
the law even in the Republican-held Congress of the first two years of his
presidency, Mr. Trump now is eviscerating it by gutting regulations that
made it effective. Perhaps most crucially, the rule diminishes “critical
habitat” protections, like those for areas formerly occupied by
now-endangered species, though such habitat is the only hope many depleted
species have for eventual recovery.
The tragedy of this situation is that the Endangered Species Act has been
such an enormous success in the United States that it is the model for other
countries around the world.
The Endangered Species Act is our legal recognition of the stewardship
responsibilities of our dominion. To take it apart is to contribute to the
thanklessness — one might say contempt — for what has made our nation great.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/13/opinion/endangered-species-act-trump.html
BALTIMORE --------------------------------------
In 2014, Maryland elected Larry Hogan, a Republican suburban real estate
developer, as governor. Hogan put less pressure on state offices to
work closely with the Baltimore’s police.
"The police vented about the impossibility of doing their job in a
department in meltdown. They were bitter about being constantly “drafted”
into mandatory overtime — departures and anemic recruiting had left the
department with only 2,500 sworn officers, down 500 from five years
earlier."
The city initiated the process after the arrest and death of Freddie Gray,
and it calls for major changes in the way officers interact with citizens.
The court has done its job and reviewed the decree and determined that it’s
fair, adequate, and in the public interest.
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