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BETTER OFF withOUT {a rhyme}
Trump-versus-Muslims and Steve Bannon’s clout
are among Many things ’twould be better without.
May soon even Trump-fans figure it out
that our nation’s being led to defeat in a rout.
=======================================
DHBranski: All of this dismantling of social safety nets is the bad news, but the good news is, if we can regain control of the government, we can reverse out all of this dismantling and go back to whatever worked in the best interests of the country as a whole. I view this corporate take over as temporary. We have a new generation of kids coming up who are not on board with all of the changes the fascist oligarchy have made; and the better news is that many of the lynchpin personalities (like the Koch brothers) are old and will not be around forever to maintain their stranglehold on everything. If the country is united behind a government that truly operates for the best interests of the people, all of this can be gotten rid of on a fast-track basis.
It's not just another "Trump scam" that he has openly promised before and after his election that he would not touch the social safety nets. In recent decades, it has become a well practiced habit of candidates, from both sides of the aisle, to lie to the public about who they are and what they stand for, only to do a 180 once in office and follow a thoroughly corporate and Right-wing agenda. Do we really believe that Clinton would vacate her positions for more Leftist/Bernie Sanders' positions on so many things once she took office? Or would it have been more likely that it would have been business as usual and she would default to her pro-corporate positions once the public had been sufficiently tricked into electing her to office? Have a look at Obama: Did he not run on so many things that he completely reversed out once he got elected? Washington no longer respects We, the People. We are just the cash cow from which they steal and loot to do the bidding of the corporations. We, the People are trying to run a democracy while Washington is absolutely running a fascist oligarchy. It won't be until We, the People get fed up enough, organize, and do whatever it takes to get corporate money and corporate shills out of our government that things even have a glimmer of hope of changing for the better. We, the People are lied to with impunity and this is something that has got to change but that change will never come from inside the Beltway. This country has to wake up, come together over common issues, step up, be vigilant, and insist that anyone who lies to us gets a swift and resounding sacking. I also think that among the changes that need to occur are: (1) No more SCOTUS appointments; going forward we need to have elected positions on the SCOTUS only, (2) Get rid of the Electoral College and return elections to We, the People, (3) An amendment which says that if Congress votes for anything against the wishes of We, the People, such as taking us to war, or voting to bomb innocent countries whose only crime is being rich in some resource or another, that there will be an override option open to We, the People, (4) That in the event a candidate lies his way into office, his presidency can be called to account and he can be summarily dismissed from office with the possibility of the opposition candidate/party taking his/her place, or that the VP will then assume that office. (5) Lobbyists, Citizens United, and all forms of money have to be removed from the political process with limits on campaign funding. We have to begin doing things to protect ourselves from this class of political liars. As long as we tolerate this, they are going to get away with it. WE have to hold them accountable because it is self evident that they are never going to hold themselves accountable; especially when there is so much money in play.
I remember when people began saying that by the late 1980s.
Much of that "social safety net" was already destroyed, with Democrats taking the lead since the 1990s. Bill Clinton ended actual welfare aid, and took the first steps to similarly "reform" Social Security. Social Security provides retirement, disability, and survivors' benefits, and Clinton targeted the disabled. In fact, by 2000, the disabled had become the fastest-growing group of homeless people. Obama was elected, and was able to get disability benefits restored, undoubtedly saving lives. However, Democrats in Congress kicked off 2015 with virtually ending food stamps to the elderly poor and the disabled (cut from roughly $115 per month, down to $10).
Did you know that what came to be called AFDC was actually first included in FDR's Social Security Act, later separated to focus on the specific needs of young families in poverty? Getting rid of that was a critically important step toward dismantling Social Security. Just as welfare was ended one part at a time (first ending General Assistance, then AFDC), we can assume that this is how Social Security will be ended.
Actually, we're on the verge of a great educating of America. And the world is all too willing to help us find our way back to a sane path.
Haha ... sounds like a lot of horse pucky.
Although rather entertaining, your phantasmic hypothetical at the feed store (made me hungry) still misses the point about actual rising mortgage rates in the real world, which Obama's executive order would have helped offset to help working people, and which Predator Trump's countermanding order only comforts the already comfortable.
At this point in the thread, however, we are just beating a dead horse ... or, if you prefer, a jackass. Ow! Stop!
:--((
The Dems also need to fight the Supreme Court nomination...McConnell has set the precedent, it's OK to wait until the next presidential election... eight justices until 2020.
Might as well impeach the lunatic now...no reason left not to.
With all of Trump's manufactured drama as a subterfuge, Ryan as usual has been flying under the radar. Now is the time for the Dems to pounce, screw everything else, and just focus on Ryan and his attack on the social safety net. This is the Fascist's achilles heel, and cuts to Social Security are sure to ignite even the foxmerized. I'm certain of this.
The Republicans will have no place to hide as Ryan pulls the trigger....and as Ryan bleeds, all elected Dems need to turn into sharks. We all need to speak out loud on this bipartisan issue. This is the overreach we've been waiting for... !
First, go to JusticeDemocrats.com and sign up and or donate.
I am ten months away from Medicare, a system I have paid into (for my parents) since I started to work in 1970. Is there going to be a protest march hosted by AARP? Count me in!
My senators are democratic, and I know where they stand. Time to check out my representative--
The Dems need to become the raise the cap/single payer party...and actually explain to all those Foxmerized citizens out there, just what that means. For example, Schumer needs to ignore Chuck Todd's questions and just talk over him, the same way all of the Republicans do...and get the damn message out. Go on all out offense!
Need a fan? Just use the party's moral compass as a fan!
We're on the verge of a fascist dictatorship here and nobody has the will or the wherewithal to stop it. Where have we seen this before?
Trump protect social security, medicare and medicaid? Yeah, right. The only people he is going to "serve" are those in the millionare and billionare classes.
Trump has no compunction to tell the truth. Everything the imposter president says is more often than not a lie.
This man is dangerous and he should not be president. A lot his been said about his narcissism, but not as much about his "grandiosity enhancing paranoia."
I think that this description by Dr. Sam Vaknin of how paranoid narcissists think and behave explains Trump. As Thom often states, "what do you think?"
Here is Dr. Vaknin:
Being the target of relentless, ubiquitous, and unjust persecution proves to the paranoid narcissist how important and feared he is. Being hounded by the mighty and the privileged validates his pivotal role in the scheme of things. Only vital, weighty, crucial, essential principals are thus bullied and intimidated, followed and harassed, stalked and intruded upon - goes his unconscious inner dialog. The narcissist consistently baits authority figures into punishing him and thus into upholding his delusional self-image as worthy of their attention. This provocative behaviour is called Projective Identification.
The paranoid delusions of the narcissist are always grandiose, "cosmic", or "historical". His pursuers are influential and formidable. They are after his unique possessions, out to exploit his expertise and special traits, or to force him to abstain and refrain from certain actions. The narcissist feels that he is at the centre of intrigues and conspiracies of colossal magnitudes.
Alternatively, the narcissist feels victimized by mediocre bureaucrats and intellectual dwarves who consistently fail to appreciate his outstanding - really, unparalleled - talents, skills, and accomplishments. Being haunted by his challenged inferiors substantiates the narcissist's comparative superiority. Driven by pathological envy, these pygmies collude to defraud him, badger him, deny him his due, denigrate, isolate, and ignore him.
The narcissist projects onto this second class of lesser persecutors his own deleterious emotions and transformed aggression: hatred, rage, and seething jealousy.
The narcissist's paranoid streak is likeliest to erupt when he lacks Narcissistic Supply. The regulation of his labile sense of self-worth is dependent upon external stimuli - adoration, adulation, affirmation, applause, notoriety, fame, infamy, and, in general, attention of any kind.
When such attention is deficient, the narcissist compensates by confabulating. He constructs ungrounded narratives in which he is the protagonist and uses them to force his human environment into complicity.
Put simply, he provokes people to pay attention to him by misbehaving or behaving oddly.
We need a shorter more direct route to prove that votes from people on those lists counted. Can these people as a group go to their state department and demand to see if their vote was counted? Are the ballots maintained somewhere? I called to see if my vote was counted on election day and they had a record of having received it by mail. If their votes were not counted we could demand a second election...one with Bernie Sanders in the running.
Yes, it was a scam to get elected. It's shocking, to me, that anyone would continue to believe anything he says or has said in the past. He has no moral compass, no policies, & no agenda other than achieving or remaining in power, getting attention, & making a profit. I hope, in future, our educational system will train young humans to value compassion & recognize predatory cons, just like wolf moms train cubs to recognize & avoid hyenas. After watching his juvenile & sadistic behavior in the first presidential primary debate of 2016, I felt an enormous wave of sorrow; it felt like the end of civilization, of the age of enlightenment, of the democratic experiment. Everything since then has seemed an unfolding fullfilment of that dark premonition. We can only hope the huge resistance movement currently at play will continue & shepherd us into a more enligthened era. My fear, however, is that climate change -- & life on planet earth -- doesn't have time to wait.
I have been buying oats to feed my jackass and paying $50 per bag for years. The store owner was in the process of selling his store to a new owner. While I was in the store for other items the old store owner mentions that he thought the oats should really have a price of $48 per bag and he was going to print new pricing labels just before the store changes hands. The new store owner finds out and says “I’m not going to lower the price on those oats, they will still be priced at $50 per bag.”
Has the cost of my jackasses dinner gone up or has it remained exactly the same as it was?
I suppose I could send the old jackass to the glue factory and buy one that was less stubborn and more reasonable to feed, but any way you look at it, a new jackass in a couple of years is really no different than keeping the old jackass. You can't really do anything with them but they are fun to listen to rant.
@ Dianereynolds #12:
Oh Diane, Diane, Diane ... will you never learn? The more patronizing, condescending, and insulting you are -- making up 90 percent of your trollings (i.e., "replicate Drudge ... outlandish statements ... jackasses ... leftie/socialists") -- the more you'll get a taste of your own medicine, which you can't seem to handle in good humor.
You always sound so angry, hateful, and ... well, wounded. Gee, I'm sorry. If your little feelers are that sensitive, you should ask your therapist to either increase or decrease your meds; clearly, the current dosage is not working.
You're so cute when you're mad, but you'd probably be much happier if you would just lighten up a little and then face up to the lies, half-truths, and hypocrisy emanating from the Cato Institute, the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, or whatever other propaganda arm of the Republican Party dumps stinking piles of garbage onto the little heads of gullible trolls.
When you're seeing so much red, your reading comprehension also seems to suffer.
For example, in the sentence to which you took so much exception, Thom clearly stated, "... executive order that will make it more expensive ..." Obviously, he was speaking to the fact that the Trump cut will make it more expensive to secure a mortgage not only this upcoming buying season but, more significantly, in the future when rising mortgage interest rates will hurt first time and low-income buyers even more.
Your disingenuous obfuscation is a sophomoric attempt to confuse the issue by putting words in Thom's mouth. A Trump cut that would "raise the current existing rate" and "An FHA mortgage does not cost anyone any more now than it did thirty days ago." are your words, which you inserted to pivot to your own (or some right-wing think tanks's) talking points.
Real facts, as opposed to "alternative facts":
The law requires capital reserves of 2%, which was achieved in 2015. After four years of growth, with plenty of reserves on the books, this is a good opportunity to pass along the savings to help people buy, which also helps the economy.
It is not "another bailout ... land mine gift." Using inflammatory, accusatory weasel words does not change statistical realities. A relatively tiny reduction to the annual fee of only 1/4% to make it 0.60%, in order to offset rising mortgage rates, will not at all significantly affect the ability to handle hypothetical spikes in mortgage defaults.
The Trump cut only benfits private mortgage insurers and Wall Street. By making FHA loans more expensive, it makes private banks more competitive in selling their more expensive, traditional loans, thus increasing their profits.
The outgoing administration notified everyone in the friggin world about the reduction in the annual fee! It was announced Jan. 9, effective Jan. 27. How is it Obama's fault that the incoming administration wasn't paying attention to the business of governing the country? Perhaps if the Court Jester had spent less time Twittering insults to celebrities and watching Fox Faux "News," and paying more attention to the transition teams' briefings, his ship of fools wouldn't have been caught so flat-footed.
Don't accuse Democrats of playing politics with an issue that was supposed to help hard-working Americans (as Trump promised to do). If anyone is playing politics, it is these rabid partisans who had no idea what or why they reversed that executive order-- other than hatred of everything Obama. In their own words, they stated that the issue requires "more analysis and research to assess future adjustments."
And finally -- in regards to your snide, throwaway comment pinning "the housing mortgage crisis of years ago" on Democrats and liberal policies, which were initially designed to help low-income and hard-working citizens participate responsibly in the so-called "American Dream," before the Republican Party and their billionaire buddies turned it into a nightmare -- I will leave you with this quote from Sarah Edelman, director of housing policy at the Center for American Progress:
"So-called reckless homeowners didn't cause the housing crisis—but predatory lenders who tricked consumers into mortgages with exploding interest rates and other harmful features did. More than seven million Americans lost their homes during the foreclosure crisis, largely because of predatory mortgages and incompetent servicing practices. As we were reminded yesterday at Steve Mnuchin's Senate confirmation hearing, Trump's own Treasury secretary nominee made millions from the crash, and today's action is all the proof we need to know whose side the Trump administration is on."
Here's what I'd like for Thom to justify: WHY he continually tells us to join our local democratic party when they have proven to us they will not run a candidate that wants what we want--even when he's popular & all polls show will WIN the Presidency! The hacks of the DNC during the campaign proved that the Dems kept Sanders from being the nominee because the elite in the party wanted Clinton instead. What sensible party does not go with their overwhelming best shot at a win, even if they wanted someone else? Thom justifies urging us to join the Dems by pointing out how the Tea party transformed the Repub party--but that was a very different situation, as even Thom will admit. The Koch Bros spent millions starting the tea party up, getting free PR in all the papers, organizing, training leaders & holding rallys, bringing candidates forward in the party. I recall that a gathering of about a dozen Tea party people in our rural county was plastered all over the front page of the various papers here along with several pictures--as if it were some kind of important news. The reason the tea party was able to transform the Repub party was because the Koch money talked. When we join the Dems, we won't have millions. I've tried joining my local Dem party. Their meetings are attended by precinct committee people only & the subject is always money & how to bring in more of it. They tell you how much the Repubs have in their war chest & how hard we must work to catch up. They want you to sell ads in the paper, sell tickets for their dinner, organize their bean supper, work on their float for the parade, etc. After you do all this work & give them the money you brought in, they allow you to come to a chat with their candidate that was chosen by the higher ups in the party--at a bar. We are not going to convince this person to represent the people's interests by chatting with them in a bar for a nminute or two, they get their marching orders from the elite in the party & they are the candidate of choice because they have agreed to follow orders. It's a joke to tell us to join the dem party. WHY should we bother with the Dem party at all anymore? Haven't they proven to us they will not do what we need? Thom talks about the Dems not doing much to stop Trump's horrible appointments, while the repubs did plenty to stop Obama's. Even Elizabeth Warren voted for these boobs. Do you see any Dems going on the TV shows to rally the libs, to talk about how awful Trump & his appointments are, how awful his policies are? NO. The job of the dems has always been to help the Repubs get away with all the awful things they do, mainly by keeping their mouth shut about it. If Thom is a true progressive, why is he telling us to join the dems? HE knows better than anybody, that the dems are not doing much to further progressive policies. A true progressive, lib, or whatever you want to call it--would want us to join a party that ALWAYS has a candidate that wants what we want like the Greens, & make it stronger & more relevant by increasing the numbers. Yet, I've heard Thom bad mouth Stein numerous times, saying she's a "vanity candidate" etc. WHY would he run the Green candidate down at all??!! The greens are on OUR side--the progressive side! Thom should never have run down a candidate that's on the same side as we are--he should be promoting her! It's shocking actually. If he were a true progressive, he would be glad to see any progressive in office, & not be in the bag for only the Dems. I don't see how he can explain his behavior.
Hello, first comment.
As bad as things seem. It is uplifting to see such a strong resistance. But, it also is becoming an excuse to declare martial law, I fear.
John
Bannon's first order of business is to declare the press a threat to national security and begin dismatling it.
This is a question I have for you, Are we a just society, if we have hungry people among us, Are we a just society, if we call America a Christians nation, and we do not heal the sick, Are we a just society, if we do not shelter the homeless, Can we call ourselves liberals if we do not protect the ones who can't protect themselves.
We have to have a set of standards, of behavior or beliefs concerning what is and is not acceptable, this is the way we make America great, by not building walls, walls will only divide us. Pres. Trump is always saying he wants to make America great, but he never says for whom. Pres. Trump, he knows one type of lifestyle, that of the aristocrat class, and not of the working American family.
The American working class they are the ones who actually built this country, the American working class are the ones who put their lives on the line and suffered hardships to make the 1% lives, a lifestyle that is fit for a king like Pres. Trump, to live in his golden palace over New York City.
Pres. Trump will make America great again, for the 1%, taking this country, the American working class back to the gilded age, denying us Thomas Jefferson's famous words that he wrote in the Declaration of Independence, the basic rights to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I leave you with these last words, beware of the East India company, that has just recently gain control of the White House.
Absolutey not.
Progressives and democrats absolutely must begin learning to speak and write based on our values and learn to frame our messages. George Lakoff refers to him as a minority president because he received fewer votes. I refer to him as the current president without saying or writing his name.
Calling him King D***** or King T**** only reinforces him and normalizes him in our brains.
Average $37 per household of middle and lower class. Just one example that could have paid for this. Rex Tillerson tax loopholes. One person.
http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/10/news/tillerson-tax-break/
Dear Mr. Ed: I knew horses wore blinders but apparently so do jackasses. Apparently you and Thom Hartmann, who only publishes his outlandish statements in an attempt to replicate Drudge, are the the last two who do not grasp the fact that President Trump just prevented the Obama administration's last minute land mine gift from becoming effective, not raise the current existing rate.
Try and get this through your large head. An FHA mortgage does not cost anyone any more now than it did thirty days ago. It just eliminated a cut that Obama signed without consulting the incoming administration. President Trumps move was sound and based on the fact none of his people had a chance to evaluate what this does to the budgets of the FHA. Another bailout is not what this country needs and it eliminates the "I told you so" rhetoric from the leftie/socialists. Good job President Trump!
We at this time do not to rehash the housing mortgage crisis of years ago when Barney Frank, Fannie, and Freddie ran amok do we?