Wealthy

Democrats Need To Go On The Offensive, Play Hardball, If They Are To Keep Control In Congress In 2022!

The Democratic Party has a history of staying cordial, pleasant, and being unwilling to go on the offensive and play hardball.

The Republican Party, historically, and conservatives in general, are always on the offensive, play nasty and dirty, and love to stir emotions of fear and scare as regular tactics.

This was true even before the age of Donald Trump, using the words “Socialism”, “Communism”, “Liberalism”, and “Progressivism” as code words to keep uneducated and ill informed voters to support a party that only truly cares about corporations and the wealthy, and is excellent as “pulling the wool over one’s eyes”, about what is truth, facts, and reality.

From the age of Joseph McCarthy, through Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and on to Donald Trump, their strategy and tactics have been to manipulate and deceive Americans to think they are the true party of the average Americans, which is furthest from reality.

So Democrats must become more aggressive, and go on the attack, not just against Donald Trump, but the Republican Party as a whole, as a threat to American democracy and the rule of law.

And they must emphasize the details of what they are doing with their “Build Back Better” agenda, the most advanced programs since the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson.

The “Build Back Better” programs will have a dramatic effect on everyday life for tens of millions of Americans, long overdue to make the lives of average Americans along the lines of other Western democracies in Europe, Canada, and Australia!

A Reverse War On Poverty: Senior Citizen Communities, Working Class In Factories, Urban Concentrations, Prisons, And Health Care Workers–“Dispensable” Populations In Trump’s America

It is now clear that those who are suffering the most in this CoronaVirus Pandemic are the powerless:

Senior Citizens in Assisted Living Facilities and Nursing Homes

Working class people, many of them immigrants, working in meat plants or others working in assembly line type jobs

Poor people living in urban concentrations of housing

People in prisons, both staff and prisoners

Those directly engaged in health care

These groups are the front line of the assault by the CoronaVirus Pandemic, in Trump’s America!

He and his governing class, and the wealthy and upper middle class are, to a great extent, unaffected by this health crisis.

And Trump has the nerve to wish to cut taxes on the elite, while wanting to deny assistance to state and local governments, particularly in the major concentration of population states, many but not all so called “Blue States”.

This must be fought bitterly, as it is a declaration of war by Donald Trump on the American people, for the benefit of the aristocracy that has grown by leaps and bounds, and has no issue with Donald Trump’s lack of humanity and concern for his fellow Americans!

Health Care IS The Issue That Will Determine The Future Of Congress And State Governorships, Above All Other Issues

With five days to go until the Midterm Elections of 2018, it is more clear than ever that HEALTH CARE is the issue that will determine the future of Congress, as well as many state governorships, next week.

Other issues matter, but first and above all, every person is concerned about their own health and that of their loved ones and friends and neighbors, and it is clear that the Republican Party is running scared, as it lies and tries to convince gullible voters that they are NOT against health care and protection for preexisting conditions, when the record is clear that they have opposed exactly that for the past ten years since Barack Obama was elected in 2008.

A total of 70 times, the Republicans in Congress have tried to kill the Affordable Care Act, but now they are running commercials and ads denying what is fact, and looking in the cameras and stating bare faced lies.

The facts are that the Republican Party claims to be pro life, but are anything but that, including wanting fetuses born, but if they are disabled in any way, deny such children health care.

A party so mean spirited and lacking in compassion and empathy, just as Donald Trump exhibits every day, deserves a smashing defeat on Election Day next week.

And do not forget, the Republican Party is determined to strip Medicare and Medicaid as well, which makes them willing to see people die, while the wealthy get major tax cuts.

This is selfishness and greed and lack of morality and ethics which needs a total repudiation next Tuesday!

State Of the Union: Lowest Watched In A Generation, Teleprompter Speech Soon To Be Forgotten, Except For Anti Immigration Pitch, And Exaggeration Of Trump Economic Accomplishments

Donald Trump’s State of the Union Address was the lowest watched in a generation, a teleprompter speech soon to be forgotten, except for his anti immigration pitch.

He said he would grant Dreamers under DACA the allowance to remain and a path toward citizenship, which will infuriate nativists.

But in exchange, family of all immigrants beyond immediate family would be barred from migration, ending what Trump called chain migration or family reunification. Immediate family is only spouses and minor children, and parents, siblings, and adult children of immigrants would be barred, as he calls them “distant” relatives. This has nothing to do with if any have committed criminal acts. This statement of Trump led to a noticeable reaction of boos by Democrats, and rightfully so.

How heartless and uncaring Trump displays himself to be about family members! This is clearly the work of racist and nativist aide Stephen Miller.

What native born American would feel that this is proper, to deny family the right of migration?

This is the true Donald Trump, a nativist, racist, who has no compassion or conscience, such as the case of the Detroit, Michigan 40 year old immigrant, brought to America when he was ten years old, having committed no crimes while here, and now deported away from his wife and children, and sent back to Mexico, a nation he has not seen since thirty years ago, and having no connections or friends in that nation. What kind of person with any principles does not have humanitarian, and compassionate exceptions to any rule, when it destroys families?

Trump’s attack on MS-13, an international gang formed in Los Angeles that commits murders and other crimes, was a vast exaggeration of that group, and Senator Kamala Harris, who prosecuted gang members as California Attorney General, appropriately attacked Trump for scapegoating and fear mongering to justify the hard line proposal on immigration and family.

Additionally, Trump exaggerated the economic revival, which was NOT due to him, but to the steadily improving economic situation under Barack Obama, who came in with a massive economic collapse on his door, occurring during the George W. Bush Presidency. Obama created the greatest economic revival since Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, and did it without a major war.

So Trump inherited a great economy, and the job growth, unemployment rate and stock market improvements did not match what Obama had done in previous years, but Trump continues to lie and deceive about how the wealthy gained most of the tax cut that the Republican Party forced through without any input or bipartisan attempt by Trump.

Mitch McConnell Defies Decency: Merrick Garland, And Now Doug Jones

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) is once again engaged in outrageous and despicable behavior.

In 2009, he declared that the Republican Party would do everything to block all legislation and other actions by Barack Obama, so he would be a one term President.

That move failed, but McConnell and his Republican Party did everything possible to block circuit and district court nominations by Obama, and now they are rushing through incompetent appointments by Donald Trump, people who have no or horrible credentials to have lifetime jobs on the circuit and district courts.

McConnell also would not allow Obama’s Supreme Court appointment of Merrick Garland to have a hearing, let alone a vote in 2016, because Obama was in his last year in the White House, even though historically, there have been a number of appointments in the last year of a Presidential term or a Presidency.

So we ended up with right winger Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court, who was overruled by the rest of the Supreme Court on a case when he still was a Circuit Court judge.

And now, with Doug Jones having won the Alabama Senate race, and ready to be sworn in, McConnell will not allow that to happen before the vote on the tax legislation which will redistribute the wealth to the wealthy and corporations, at the expense of the middle class, struggling working class, and the poor, elderly, and disabled. So instead, defeated Senator Luther Strange will be able to cast his vote, when he should no longer have that right.

There is a special place in hell for people like Mitch McConnell!

The 4th Of July In The Trump Era: America Has Lost Its Way!

Today is the 241st anniversary of Independence Day, declared in 1776.

America was a great experiment in being a republic, and over the nearly two and a half centuries since, America ended slavery; opened its arms to scores of immigrants from all over the world; expanded the right to vote to all citizens over time, no matter what race, religion, nationality, or gender they were; promoted a social safety net; and expanded public education to all.

The Constitution was expanded to face modern realities; and both major political parties, the Democrats and the Republicans, contributed to the advancement of tolerance and justice and equal opportunity; and the Supreme Court became a body that dealt with expansion of civil liberties and civil rights.

There were many detours along the road to today, but overall, progress was made, and a sense of optimism reigned.

And then, September 11 occurred, and the nation’s politics veered from one viewpoint to another and then to what is now present, a dark view of our nation, its people, and the world.

We live in the Trump era, which is in process of delaying, deleting, and destroying so much progress that has been accomplished in the 20th and early 21st centuries.

We are seeing race, religion, ethnicity and gender being used in an abusive manner to take away basic civil liberties, civil rights, common decency, and a sense of civility.

We are seeing the wealthy becoming the most stratified group in American history, and the middle class, created in the 20th century, destroyed, and the poor being treated in a shabby fashion.

One political party, the Republicans, has become the party of negativism, hatred, prejudice, and pure nastiness, and we have seen the shift of the Supreme Court toward a hard right conservatism that brings back memories of the Gilded Age Supreme Court.

It is as if we are in a time warp, and have reverted to 140 years ago!

So while we celebrate our national holiday, we have a lot to mourn, and it MUST make all of us determined to fight and resist with all our abilities combined, to resolve this crisis in a constitutional manner, with the removal of Donald Trump from the Presidency, as a tyrant and authoritarian figure who has met his match with our Constitutional remedy!

Republican Philosophy: Every Fetus Must Be Born, But No Right To Care For Preexisting Conditions, And No Basic Right To Health Care Itself!

The Republican Party is a total disgrace in 2017.

It has allowed itself to become the party of death, not the party of life.

While adopting the extreme right wing position of being totally anti abortion, and subjecting women to the whims of religious extremists, that every fetus must be born, now the GOP has fully adopted the concept that once a fetus is born, that there is no right to care for preexisting conditions, which nearly half of Americans have in their lifetime, and no basic right to health care itself.

The party that freed the slaves, promoted racial equality, and advocated protection of the environment, now has become the party of Christian extremists and hard line Southern Confederate views, repudiating the principles of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt and many decent, principled office holders who were proud of the Republican traditions of the past 150 plus years.

Now, if you are not wealthy, to hell with your health, and if you die, such is life, and it most showed up when former one term Congressman Joe Walsh of Illinois, said he was not interested in having to pay more taxes to support the health care of an infant who had a need for heart surgery to survive.

What has happened to the concept of human decency, compassion, empathy, and concern for others?

What has happened to the idea that we all pay in through our taxes for the betterment of society, and if we do not end up getting back as much as we pay in, it means we have been fortunate enough not to need help from the government on the same scale as others?

What happened to the concept of religious values, whether Christian or Jewish or Muslim or Hindu or whatever, that we are our brother’s keeper?

The Republican Party will be condemned in history for the passage in the House of Representatives yesterday of this reprehensible “tax care for the wealthy” bill, and it will NOT make it through the US Senate.

It was disgusting to see the House Republicans, led by despicable Speaker Paul Ryan, rushing to the Trump White House to celebrate the loss of health care for 24 million Americans, which, were it to become law, would insure tens of thousands of Americans, at the least, will die because they are not wealthy!

The wealthy have more than enough advantages, and do NOT need another tax cut, as it was those under Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush which have obliterated much of the middle class, and accelerated the fall of millions into poverty since 1981.

The odds are heavy now that the Democrats will win at least the minimum number of seats, 24, to regain the House of Representatives majority, and even if the US Senate is not regained, it will change the playing field in 2019-2020, including the likelihood of the impeachment of demagogue Donald Trump!

For any decent human being to be a Republican in 2017, shame on you, and one can believe in karma, that you will be repaid appropriately in the next stage of your existence after your death on earth!

Jeff Sessions,Tom Price, Nick Mulvaney: Former Members Of Congress Working Against Civil Rights, Health Care, And Common Decency Toward The Poor!

Three former members of Congress have become leading figures in the Trump Administration, as it works against Civil Rights, Health Care, and common decency toward the poor, and one has to wonder how these three men can look in the mirror and feel they are doing what is proper in any society.

Jeff Sessions, former Alabama Senator, is doing everything he can as Attorney General to undermine the rights of all racial minorities, women, gays and lesbians, and transgender Americans, trying to take us back to the way things were in the era before the Civil Rights Movement began in the 1950s, and trying to deny the role of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation in American society. Jeff Sessions has a hardened look on his face, and anyone can see what a nasty racist, nativist, and misogynist Sessions is.

Tom Price, former Georgia Congressman and a medical doctor, is Secretary of Health and Human Services, and has engaged in corrupt conflicts of interest regarding stock profits given to him by companies that the department must deal with. And now, Price is so eager to knock 24 million Americans off health care completely. What kind of doctor, and basically any human being, would be so hardhearted and cold and distant about the basic life and health of people who are elderly, disabled, poor? The man has such an evil look on his face.

And then we have former South Carolina Congressman Nick Mulvaney, who is head of the Office of Management and Budget, who is out to promote extreme tax cuts to the wealthy by cutting all programs that help the poor to survive just barely, including Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, as well as health care, education, food stamps, used by poor women and their children, as well as disabled and elderly. Mulvaney sees the poor as a group to exploit and make their miserable lives ever more downtrodden. Mulvaney is Robin Hood in reverse, and is a despicable, uncaring man, who has no conscience.

The thing that unites all three is that they are all “religious”, “good Christians”, in all the hypocrisy of such terminology!

If this is religiosity, to oppose the message of their savior Jesus Christ, who happened to be Jewish, then no wonder so many people are so cynical about religion!

Republican Destruction Of Obama Care Will Cause 25,000-50,000 Deaths Per Year, A True Crime Against Humanity!

The Republican Party assault on Obama Care is a heartless attack on life itself, as estimates are that destruction of our health care system will cause 25,000 to 50,000 deaths per year of people who have survived and thrived precisely because they had health care insurance and coverage for the first time in their lives. This is 137 people per day, about 6 per hour, and when one looks at those numbers, it is sobering that we have such lack of concern about the unnecessary loss of life.

Millions of people, many of them children and adults with serious diseases and health conditions, have been able to wake up daily knowing they had the ability to gain health care, without having to choose between that and eating.

And the argument that the wealthy are being taxed for this, the answer is that so what, they have such tremendous advantages, and it is part of their social responsibility to contribute without anger to the well being of their fellow Americans.

The obsession with hatred of taxes is a communicable disease which has, and will continue to have, a deleterious effect on America’s future, as those who are wealthy do not need more money, but rather compassion and empathy.

Also, one cannot claim to be “religious”, no matter what faith, and claim that the goal of life is to enrich himself or herself at the expense of others, but rather follow the teachings of the prophets and be willing to support the needs of those less fortunate.

Republican Replacement For ObamaCare: Young, Wealthy, Insurance And Drug Companies Benefit–But Disabled, Elderly, Poor, And Sick Are Victims!

“Availability” and “Access” are the Republican code words for Health Care, but does not solve the problem of how millions of people are to keep or gain health care.

The most vulnerable people,those on Medicaid and on ObamaCare (which is now being destroyed), including disabled, elderly, poor, and sick will become victims with the so called Ryan Plan, named after the Speaker of the House.

The young, wealthy, and drug and insurance companies will benefit, without a care as to how it affects everyone else.

This is shocking, the Republican Party saying it cares about life, but only interested when one is born to a wealthy family, but not caring about the everyday life of children, women, men, who are not economically well off.

The Republican Party says it believes in promotion of Christian values, but then it turns its back on those who are not from the elite wealthy, more concerned about promoting greater concentration of wealth, while further destroying the middle class and victimizing the poor.

The Republican Party has abandoned the principles of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Dwight D. Eisenhower, who are rated numbers 1, 4, and 5 among all our Presidents, in the 2017 C Span Poll of Presidential Scholars.

The GOP of 2017 is a total disgrace–mean spirited, nasty, uncaring excuses for human beings, and one wonders how they can sleep at night! Somehow, in the next world, these despicable politicians will get true justice for what harm they are doing to Americans in 2017 and beyond!