Robert Reich
1 min ·
Unless they want 23 million Americans to lose health insurance, Republican senators have only two real options now: Strengthening the Affordable Care Act, or enacting a single-payer plan. They won't do the latter, so they have to do the former.
Robert Reich
8 mins ·
Today, after signing a bill that lowers the fee licensing a handgun in the state, Texas Governor Greg Abbott went to a gun range to show off his prowess with firearms. Then, as he displayed his target sheet and handgun, he joked in plain view of several reporters and photographers, "I'm gonna carry this around in case I see any reporters."
Not funny. Two days ago, Republican House candidate Greg Gianforte beat up “Guardian” reporter Ben Jacobs at a public event in Bozeman, Montana. Gianforte was elected yesterday.
Under Trump, hatred of the mainstream press has become dogma among some sectors of the Republican Party and the public.
Let me emphasize once more that violence and intimidation directed at America’s free and independent press is a threat to our democracy. Even if it’s supposed to be a joke.
“Reporters Without Borders,” an organization that grades countries on the protections they afford to freedom of the press, now ranks the United States 43rd in the world, just below the small African nation of Burkina Faso.
@edgarblythe,
Quote:Unless they want 23 million Americans to lose health insurance, Republican senators have only two real options now: Strengthening the Affordable Care Act, or enacting a single-payer plan. They won't do the latter, so they have to do the former.
Choosing to not have health insurance is not the same as loosing it. When will the lies stop?
@Baldimo,
Quote:Choosing to not have health insurance is not the same as loosing[sic] it.
losing
Quote:When will the lies stop?
Good question. When will you stop lying, Baldimo?
@edgarblythe,
Try to blame this all on Trump, but here is the glowing review about the US. Notice the amount of blame for the US position they lay at the feet of Obama. In 2015 the US was ranked 49, no Trump and no Bush, all Obama all the time.
Quote:US press freedom, enshrined in the First Amendment to the 1787 constitution, has encountered several major obstacles over the past few years, most recently with the election of President Donald Trump. He has declared the press an “enemy of the American people” in a series of verbal attacks toward journalists, while attempting to block White House access to multiple media outlets in retaliation for critical reporting. Despite the bleak outlook under Trump, it bears repeating that his predecessor left behind a flimsy legacy for press freedom and access to information. Journalists continue to be arrested for covering various protests around the country, with several currently facing criminal charges. The Obama administration waged a war on whistleblowers who leaked information about its activities, leading to the prosecution of more leakers than any previous administration combined. To this day, American journalists are still not protected by a federal “shield law” guaranteeing their right to protect their sources and other confidential work-related information. And over the past few years, there has been an increase in prolonged searches of journalists and their devices at the US border, with some foreign journalists being prevented from any travel to the US after they covered sensitive topics such as Colombia's FARC or Kurdistan.
@Baldimo,
I can understand why you guys rank way down low, Baldimo. That comes from propaganda worn thin. Yet you keep spewing it out on a regular basis.
It's easy to tell that you folks are rank propagandists. Folks who tell the truth have no problem defending themselves. You folks are scared vacuous to do so.
Quote:“Reporters Without Borders,” an organization that grades countries on the protections they afford to freedom of the press, now ranks the United States 43rd in the world, just below the small African nation of Burkina Faso.
43rd is lower than 49th. Can you count?
Robert Reich
2 hrs ·
During a secret meeting in Trump Tower less than 2 weeks after Trump was elected, his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Sergei Kislyak, to discuss setting up a secret and secure communications link between Trump’s transition team and the Kremlin -- in an apparent move to shield their pre-inauguration discussions from monitoring by intelligence agencies, according to U.S. officials briefed on intelligence reports. The link would be through the Russian embassy.
The meeting also was attended by Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser.
Although Russian diplomats have secure means of communicating with Moscow, Kushner’s apparent request for access to such channels was extraordinary, according to current and former intelligence officers.
What could Kushner (or his father-in-law) have wanted to talk to the Kremlin (or Putin himself) about just 10 days after the election and a month and a half before assuming office – without anyone else knowing? What did they have to hide?
Robert Reich
6 mins ·
The typical big-company chief executive raked in $11.5 million last year, an 8.5 percent raise from a year earlier. Since most CEO pay is in company stock, the bump reflects how well the stock market has done.
Over the last 5 years, typical CEO pay has improved twice as fast as the typical weekly paycheck for full-time employees. Meanwhile, hourly wages have barely moved because companies continue to replace full-time workers with contact workers and with software. Why are they doing this? To boost stock prices – which boosts CEO pay.
So most workers continue to get shafted while top executives have never been as rich.
What are Trump and the Republicans doing about this? They’re planning to cut taxes on the wealthy and on corporations, while eviscerating Medicaid, Social Security disability, and food stamps. And they want to take away health insurance for 23 million Americans.
Sounds like a plan.
@Baldimo,
"Choose not to have health insurance?" What alternate reality do you live in?
Do you know why many developed and third world countries provide universal health care?
Robert Reich
21 mins ·
It’s hard to imagine that the messaging of Trump’s first trip could have been more perfect for Vladimir Putin if he’d written the script himself, says David Frum, and I agree.
Trump’s blatant refusal to endorse NATO’s famous Article 5, the guarantee of mutual defense, at the NATO summit, combined with his ominous refusal to join the Paris climate accord, made the trip into a catastrophe.
Polls show German confidence in the United States, already lowered under Obama, has collapsed under Trump to a level barely better than Putin’s Russia.
Facing elections in the fall—and reassured that she has gained a congenial partner in France’s President Macron—Angela Merkel declared yesterday in a speech before 2,000 people that Europe (note she said Europe and not just Germany) cannot at this time rely on the U.S. “The times in which we could completely depend on others are on the way out. I've experienced that in the last few days,” she said. “We Europeans truly have to take our fate into our own hands.”
I’m sure Putin is delighted. He’s getting exactly what he bargained for.
@edgarblythe,
Quote:I’m sure Putin is delighted. He’s getting exactly what he bargained for.
Not what he bargained for, Edgar, what he knew folks would sometime cotton on to.
Notice that you, yourself started a thread that clearly pointed out the US's war crimes, its duplicitous nature, its terrorism, its perfidy.
Of and Beyond Trump's Insanity
https://able2know.org/topic/389334-1
Here's a small sample.
Quote:OPINION: Obama's 'kill list'
Barack Obama's secret "kill list" comes to mind, as do George W Bush's gleeful escapades in Afghanistan and Iraq, Bill Clinton's bombing of the former Yugoslavia, George H W Bush's barbaric invasion of Panama, and every other form of US-backed slaughter and global plunder that have characterised imperial policy from the get-go.
Note too how all the usual suspects avoided that honest thread of yours.
Don't you ever wonder why?
Robert Reich
46 mins ·
On Memorial Day, I remember Robbie Peacock, my friend from college, a half-century ago. He was one of the kindest and thoughtful young men I've ever met. Like most of us at the time, Robbie had deep doubts about the Vietnam War, but he felt duty bound to serve, as his father had in World War II. Robbie was killed October 12, 1972. His remains were never recovered.
Robbie was one of 58,200 Americans who lost their lives in that senseless war, as well as over 3 million Vietnamese.
@edgarblythe,
Why do you think it is, Edgar, that the US always gets top billing when it was the US that committed the ultimate war crime?
Three million Vietnamese is just an afterthought, if it is thought about at all?
Robert Reich
5 mins ·
Today, on the last day of the Texas legislative session, Republican Rep. Matt Rinaldi got into a scuffle with Rep. Cesar Blanco before other lawmakers separated the two. Rinaldi then threatened to shoot Rep. Poncho Nevarez. Subsequently, Rinaldi admitted he'd threatened to shoot Nevarez — but said it was because "Nevarez threatened my life on the House floor after I called ICE on several illegal immigrants who held signs in the gallery which said 'I am illegal and here to stay.'" Rinaldi claimed that “when I told the Democrats I called ICE, Representative Ramon Romero physically assaulted me, and other Democrats were held back by colleagues."
The Texas legislature has enacted a law that allows police to stop people without provocation, to inquire if they're in the United States legally.
Trump is setting a norm in which common decency is disappearing even among legislators.
@edgarblythe,
Quote:Trump is setting a norm in which common decency is disappearing even among legislators.
Trump is hardly the first to cause the US's deeply racist hatred to boil over.
Robert Reich
27 mins ·
This morning, Trump tweeted that the United States hads a “MASSIVE trade deficit with Germany, plus they pay FAR LESS than they should on NATO & military. Very bad for U.S. This will change.”
Rubbish.
Trump is just trying to get even for the negative things Angela Merkel and the German foreign minister had to say about him over the weekend -- which were entirely justifiable. Trump’s refusal to endorse NATO’s famous Article 5, the guarantee of mutual defense, at the NATO summit, combined with his refusal to join the Paris climate accord, made his trip a catastrophe.
As to Trump's morning tweet, he's wrong both on substance and on politics. Substantively, Trump (and his obtuse trade adviser, Peter Navarro) assume Germany wants a weak euro when, in fact, Germany has been critical of the European Central Bank’s quantitative easing policy that’s helping hold down the euro.
Germany also saves a big chunk of what it earns, resulting in more money flowing out of Germany in search of investments around the world (capital outflows) into places like the United States. So the real issue is capital flows, not trade. And it’s not all bad for America.
Politically, Trump’s blast at Germany is just as stupid. Germany is now the most powerful democracy in the world, and our most powerful ally in Europe. Rather than cozy up to dictators, Trump would serve America’s interests better by cozying up to our friends.
@cicerone imposter,
Quote:"Choose not to have health insurance?" What alternate reality do you live in?
I live in the real world where people can choose not to have health insurance if they feel they don't need it.
@Baldimo,
Quote:I live in the real world where people can choose not to have health insurance if they feel they don't need it.
Not a one of you "real" people from your "real" world would turn it down if offered at your place of employment.
You "real" people are greedy people. Insurance doesn't benefit the young and healthy.
@camlok,
Quote:Not a one of you "real" people from your "real" world would turn it down if offered at your place of employment.
That's just it, I have turned it down in relation to a job but I was single, young and healthy. I had no need for insurance so I chose not to carry it at the time.
Quote:You "real" people are greedy people. Insurance doesn't benefit the young and healthy.
That is the reason for real health insurance pools instead of the fake once created under the ACA. Why should a 20 your old pay the same amount in health insurance as I do at 43? His health risk is much lower than mine so he should pay less. The same goes for someone who is the same age as me but is a non-smoker, why should they pay the same insurance rate as me?
I know why, socialism!
