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Willie W - I sincerely hope that people will recall and remember what you have just stated
Trup certainly and definately made these declarations
A sane argument against single payer absolutely does not exist........which is why the entire argument over the ACA and or repeal of it is insanely just a waste of time.
Thom is the only person in public media that has even mentioned single payer recently, that I've heard anyway.....shame on the Dems for not attacking the Teapublicans armed with the single payer weapon....never been a better time.
The Kochs , Mercers, and all of their Fascist counterparts are on the wrong side of history. When the planet is beyond saving and all hell is breaking loose, citizens will look back on these people as pure evil incarnate.
Depressing to realize that 'Trumpcare' might not pass due to not being conservative enough.
What's the current polling say about the midterm elections?
There are two kinds of people in this world; givers and takers. From all that I've seen so far, it is the conservatives who are the takers and the liberals (not neo liberals) who are the givers. When I see some conservative voter denouncing giving or sharing, I can't help but wonder if they are a text-book sociopath in church clothing. And as for the wealthy conservatives, like the Koch, brothers, I will never understand how people with so much can begrudge others from having the simple basics. You can't tell me these people aren't missing the compassionate gene or that they don't have sociopathic tendencies. Too bad they didn't have a little humility and a good dose of shame. (It also strikes me that these people are English and this type of miserly selfishness is culturally very English.)
#Robertcd: If this is the case, and there are more conservatives than "lib-tards" using social safety nets, then why haven't any high profile liberals pointed this out in a big way? And how can conservatives be registered conservatives and vote for their own abuse by putting conservatives into office be so hypocritical by sneaking off to use social services, Medicare, and Medicaid? Why is such a glaring disconnect going unnoticed by conservatives and liberals alike? (And I agree with you that they want us to just die off. They see us as things, so there is no humanity in them.)
one benefit of the trumpcare rollout is that more and more americans are finally waking up to the reality that we have truly been living in an oligarchy, an oligarchy that owns congress and the media. does america have the will yet to take its country back, or do we need depression, famine and war to do the trick?
Does the Republican voter think they're represented?
The Republicans have a funny way of defining freedom. In fact, the so-called freedom that they are trying to sell us is really bondage for the 90%.
Being thousands of dollars in debt because of outrageous insurance premiums and medical expenses is not freedom.
Living with a disabling, but curable disease, because a person cannot afford to have it treated is not freedom.
Having to choose between buying an obscenely expensive health insurance policy or paying your mortgage or rent is not a real choice.
Freedom is not having to worry about whether or not you will be able to afford medical treatment if you get sick.
I agree with Franklin Roosevelt that freedom is:
I would add three more important rights to this list:
Trump's campaign promise. Repeated many times by him, and still being repeated by Paul Ryan. For some reason, they all keep saying that the promise was to repeal Obama Care. Nope! The promise was to give us better health care. Better than what we had during the Obama years. And, to pay less for it. Repealing Obama Care is just a bump in the road, (not the promise) to that end. Better, and less expensive health care. Much appreciated, President Trump.. Thank you for your service.
I think I correctly believe they just want "us" to die off from lack of health care. They wrongly believe that most using medicare, medicade and any of what they call "entitlement" programs are used mostly by liberals. If they can cause many of us to die that's is fewer of us to get in their way. Ironically from what I know there are far more on their side that use government assistance programs then "liberals" do.
Schummer has just proven the old adage "Stupid can't be fixed", by calling on Democrats to filibuster the Gorsuch nomination. According to pools, a majority of Americans favor the approval of Judge Gorsuch. If necessary, the Republicans will change the Senate rules, to allow Judge Gorsuch to be confirmed with 51 votes (nuclear option). That change would be for this Supreme Court appointment and everyone in the future. Some will bitch and complain about the change, but in the end, Gorsuch will be confirmed and the rule change will be forgotten. The stupid part about this is Gorsuch is a conservative replacing a conservative. The next justice to be replaced, in all probability will be either Justice Kennedy, or Justice Ginsberg. If Republicans are forced to use the "nuclear option", this time, it will be impossible to stop them from using it again and again. The difference being, folks are less likely to oppose it's use. Opposing The Gorsuch nomination, pretty much guarantees the appointment of two more conservative justices. Future decisions won't be 5-4, but 6-3. In the words of Dirty Harry, the Republicans are thinking of Schummer and the Democrats, "Go ahead, make my day".
Online shopping is probably the only reason the US Postal Office still works full time. A note to the washed up lefties, "It's not the 60's anymore".
I'm with Rasa and DHBranski (above).
I live in a very rural area, and Amazon has been a godsend. In my mind, Amazon consists of some very large warehouses and a UPS driver. I know the UPS driver, and he is well paid with good benefits. JC Penney on the other hand, consists of acres of blacktop parking, huge mall buildings contributing to urban sprawl and poorly paid employees with few if any benefits. I like Amazon's reviews and their easy return policy.
Is Amazon so much different than Sears and the other catalog stores of 100 years ago, when they were the only real source of goods for rural America?
Amazon is to brick and mortar as Walmart was to locally owned grocery, department, and hardware stores. As Bezos scoops up the market his model will dramatically raise prices. The enormous amount of landfill waste the packaging creates is a whole other topic.
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GLORIOUS TIMES {a rhyme and a note}
Our nation is heading at last toward glory,
in this Trump-era chapter of history’s story.
He leads us with gorgeous oratory
to blissful days all hunky-dory,
in every way quite laudatory.
Let’s not let this era be transitory,
but forever entrenched in our repertory.
- - - {Note to my agent: - Please lobby the National Endowment for the Arts to include me in their budget.}
===================================
I've never thought of Amazon as a job killer. It's a good research tool for evaluating products I'm considering buying locally. Every thing you buy on line is manufactured, warehoused, shipped, received, warehoused, advertised, sold, and shipped again. But, if I can hold something in my hand before I buy it, that store will get my business. Amazon is my backup.
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MANIACALLY TITANIC - {a rhyme}
Isn’t it time to panic?
The Right is frighteningly manic
under leadership frightening, {insane} insanic, -
- which steers our Ship of State
to a frightening disastrous fate.
Shall we call our nation the “Titanic”?
=============================
Sears was the original Amazon with the Sears Catalog. It just did not see the computer as a way of shopping like Amazon did.
I suppose that's what's called progress. I doubt anything will happen to slow online shopping. It's not just Amazon, there are many other online stores, Where people can get a lower price, that's where they'll shop weather it's at a foreign car dealership or Walmart, where they can get a lower price. People are basically selfish and generally not patriotic when it comes to shopping. Robots and automation are replacing workers too, and that's worldwide. The question is, what are the displaced workers going to do? This is not new. Tractors that disk, plow, plant, fertilize, spray for bugs and blight, and harvest replaced a lot of farm workers. People will have to find other things to do. If all jobs were automated there would be no-one with money to buy what the machines are producing and it may come to something like the crash of 1929 only much worse and worldwide. However there are many jobs that can't be totally automated and someone will have to setup and repair and maintain the machines. I believe it will all work out.
Infrastructure jobs overwhelmingly go to middle class men, those who are already comparatively well-off. Tragically, it is the only idea the US has had for decades, as the overall quality of life in the US went from being rated at #1 when Reagan was first elected, down to #48 by the time Obama was elected.
Anti-trust laws were, shall we say, amended, starting with Reagan's deregulation mania.
No, I believe it's too late. Since the 1980s, we have evolved into a corporate state. As galling as the realization is, we no longer have any power whatsoever over US corporations. They are international entities today, not dependent on US consumers or workers. Because the US has been on a downhill slide since the 1980s, US consumers, while useful, simply aren't as important anymore. Boycotts by US consumers barely make a dent, and corporations know that such boycotts are very limited and short-term. US consumers are not motivated by causes, but by costs and availability.
I called in to discuss Trump & China & trademarks...I wanted to share the link to the article I referenced. I hope you see this: https://qz.com/930896/a-curious-timeline-of-trademarks-granted-to-donald-trump-by-an-increasingly-helpful-china/ AND https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/517458/
I view Amazon differently. Having owned a small publishing firm since the 1980s, I see Amazon as a positive element to retailing. In the good old days, small bookstores treated publishers and customers with great respect. Most of these were displaced by chain stores that served neither serious readers nor publishers well. The chains ordered one copy per store, and if that copy didn't happen to sell in 90 days, back it would be sent, coffee stains and cookie crumbs included, at the publisher's expense, along with an order for a clean copy.
For those true booklovers who hate to see the abuse of books, it has been rather refreshing to see the chains replaced by Amazon, whose retail practices are at least honest and forthright: give the customer as much information as possible to make a wise choice and offer as wide a range a possible. For book purchases (or book sales)--Amazon's original mission--I have absolutely no complaints. I fully believe that at least the same number of jobs are involved with the sale of my books by Amazon as by a major chain, from delivery services to warehouse personnel to Amazon's other employees.