The 14 Characteristics of Fascism

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
4. Supremacy of the Military
5. Rampant Sexism
6. Controlled Mass Media
7. Obsession with National Security
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined
9. Corporate Power is Protected
10. Labor Power is Suppressed 
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
14. Fraudulent Elections

For the complete explanation, go to
The 14 Characteristics of Fascism by Lawrence Britt

Equality?

It is not time to eliminate meritocracy. It is time to stop deliberately suppressing those who are for one reason or another lower on the merit scales. Fairness does not equal elimination of income differences or incentives.

But what is unfair is shifting the burden of taxes from corporations and the wealthy onto the middle class, paying poverty wages, and making too many things for-profit such as healthcare, education, justice, and politics.

Take the rich man's hand out of the poor man's pocket. Stop putting the interests of corporations and religion ahead of people. Class warfare is not envy, it is the suppression of the rights and opportunities of the poor, the disabled, elderly, minority, non-Christian, by those with economic clout.

Fairness is not socialist or communist. Fairness is having compassion and a sense of morality and justice. It is recognizing that those who contribute to one's success should not be treated as unworthy or inhuman or undeserving or as obstacles to greater profits at the top.

Unregulated free markets are not fair markets. This is not Ayn Rand's world of laziness, greed, indifference, and 100% transparency in business transactions. Pure capitalism ignores social responsibility. The awareness that air, water, and soil need protection. That workers, consumers, voters, the disabled and elderly, children, students, Native Americans and racial minorities, the poor, LGBT, and people who don't want lead poisoning deserve to be treated fairly and to be protected from those who would harm them.

Equality does not mean eliminating differences. Equality is having the same rights and responsibilities.

Conservative? Hardly.

Conservatives? I never call them conservatives, because they are not. I prefer to call them radical conservatives. 

They think government should not regulate unless it's about regulating people. Then its regulate our sexuality, our religion, our minds, and our bodies.

They judge people by the color of their skin, the size of their breasts, their looks, their age, their gender, their disabilities, and the amount of money they have. Their concept of sexuality is binary and genetic; anything else on the sexual spectrum is ungodly and an anathema.

These radical conservatives have no sense of social responsibility, integrity, compassion, honesty, fairness. They are not even fiscally conservative. They are radicals in every sense.

Celibacy and the Church

"Be celibate or leave the priesthood, pope tells gay priests." ¹

"Men whom God has not gifted or called to be celibate (1 Corinthians 7:7) are being required to be celibate, and the result is tremendous failures in the areas of adultery, fornication, and the sexual abuse of children." ²

Who made up the celibate rule and who made up the staying single rule for Church officials?

Celibacy is not a requirement in the Bible. The celibacy rule is from three "pontifical decretals" in AD 385 and a canon of the Council of Carthage of AD 390. Notably, they did not forbid marriage, they only decreed that church officials be celibate within the marriage. Church officials were often married with children.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1579) regarding celibacy only quotes two passages from the New Testament. The first is in Matthew 19:22, where Jesus mentions some men who, 'for the Kingdom of God', became eunuchs. The second is 1 Corinthians 7:32-35,

"the Pauline text . . .where the Apostle speaks of those who are called to consecrate themselves with undivided heart to the Lord and 'his affairs'; and adds by way of conclusion that 'embraced with a joyful heart, it (the celibate life) radiantly proclaims the kingdom of God'." ³

 Celibacy may have been recommended, but it was not required in the Bible.

Today, the Catholic Church has married celibacy and being single for Church officials. The idea was that "the Church is the bride and Christ is the bridegroom." (How that was translated to priests being married to the Church instead of just Jesus being married to the Church is beyond me.) But any actual references to "purity" in the New Testament are not restricted to preachers or to priests. And the reference in Matthew 19:12 about eunuchs, even if it was more broadly interpreted to mean celibacy, is not a requirement.

New Testament passages do not even forbid marriage, they only encouraged remaining single. "In 1 Timothy 3:1-13 and Titus 1:6-9, the Apostle Paul seems to assume that elders, bishops, overseers, and deacons will be married. Notice the phrases “the husband of one wife” (1 Timothy 3:2, 12; Titus 1:6), “he must manage his own family well” (1 Timothy 3:4,12), and “his children obey him with proper respect” (1 Timothy 3:4; Titus 1:6)." ²

In the Catholic Church, a requirement to stay single was added because of problems with nepotism. Unqualified children were being given positions in the church and sometimes were given Church property. ² Most other Christian religions do not have that prohibition. For the Catholic Church, the consequences of that requirement have become obvious.

Today, celibacy for priests is too often interpreted to be a ban on marriage, but they are two different issues, with two different origins, neither of which was required in the Bible.

¹ Be celibate or leave the priesthood, pope tells gay priests

² Does the Bible teach the celibacy of priests?

³ The biblical foundation of priestly celibacy

God, capitalism, guns, Republicans

Commenter: Thank God for capitalism, guns and the Republican party.

Response: Guns? Ever hear the full Second Amendment? Why do 2nd Amendment people think that one untrained person is a well regulated militia? Ever hear of a State National Guard? Now that's a militia.

As for God, I didn't realize that after Jesus came on the scene that he/she required followers to insult, humiliate, physically harm and discriminate against LGBT, Mexicans, women, Democratic Socialists (capitalism plus socialism), disabled, elderly, sick people, non-Christians, etc. And if you are going to go Old Testament, then you have most certainly been sinning.

As for Republicans, everything we have seen from them is just lies, excuses, gerrymandering, voter suppression, discrimination, condescension, and biasing of laws to favor the rich and large corporations at the expense of small business and the 99%.

How's that big pay raise after the huge corporate tax cut doing for you? Able to afford a one-year membership at Costco, yet?

Finally, do you really want a nanny state regulating our bedrooms, our bodies, and our individual freedoms, which for some reason Republicans like along with their "inherently moral" free markets?

Thoughts on a $15 Minimum Wage

Corporations earn enough profits to skew laws in their favor while screwing small business (skew & screw). A worker making so little that they need government assistance is a company benefiting from paying so little. I call that corporate welfare.

Companies should not be in the business of paying for health insurance for employees, especially if they have to compete with foreign companies. Health insurance becomes another place to cut benefits, so employees end up with unaffordable premiums, deductibles, co-pays, etc. Part-time workers become especially profitable because companies (with 20 or more employees) don't have to pay health insurance for them; workers end up needed two or more part time jobs while not having health insurance.

A minimum wage of $15 an hour would raise prices an average of 4%. If a startup cannot afford to pay $15/hr, they need to rework their business model. A higher minimum wage increases consumer spending and tax revenues, decreases government assistance costs, and contributes to job satisfaction.

Wage increases are no longer tied to increases in productivity. The people who do the actual work no longer benefit from productivity increases, raising the gap between the rich and the not-rich, and disincentivising employees from doing their best at a job. Like communism, if it doesn't matter how hard you work, there is no incentive to work hard.

This has been a public service message from a poster with verbosity set to maximum.

My 2018 Wish List

These are a few of my favorite things:

====General====  * True separation of church and state. Take the religion label off of churches, organizations, and people. Base tax-exempt status on being a charitable organization. Base laws on non-religious grounds (no more religious exemptions). Allowing religious exclusions is making laws regarding religion.
 * Universal healthcare. The right to decent medical care should not be dependent on what state a person lives in.
 * Gun safety and sane gun laws. No more BS about one untrained person being a militia (state national guards are militias).
 * Adjustment of payroll taxes and salary caps to fully fund Social Security (used to be routine) with no more raising retirement ages and cutting benefits. It should be illegal to claim that fixing federal deficits and National Debt requires Social Security reform.
 * Fair taxation (stop shifting the burden of taxation onto the middle class and the poor).

====Government====
 * 60 vote minimum for confirmations (with at least 1 vote from the other party?) and with the right to bring nomination confirmations to a floor vote (no more McConnellisms).
 * Free (or affordable) education. Part-time work used to be sufficient to secure higher education at most colleges.
 * No more for-profit prisons.
 * No more for-profit courts and modern debtors' prisons.
 * No voter suppression, especially suppression under the guise of election integrity.
 * No gerrymandering.
 * No Electoral College (which is winner-take-all in some states and votes in some states worth more).
 * Required standards for implementation of any election integrity laws, secure (tamperproof?) election machines and mandatory counting with time limitations of absentee ballots, military ballots, and provisional verified ballots.
 * Reimplementation and updating of the Voting Rights Act.
 * An implementation of truth in advertising laws for elections.
 * Campaign finance reform.
 * No undisclosed or "delayed" revelations of names of donors to campaign funding.

====Economic====
 * An end to corporations as people except for economic purposes.
 * Simplified contracts and agreements, no arbitration clauses, no unfair hidden clauses.
 * No hiding profits off-shore. If a company makes a profit in this country, that profit should be taxable, and it should not matter what country a company is headquartered in. What happens in the U.S. should be taxable in the U.S.
 * An end to corporate subsidies and corporate welfare.
 * An end to corporations relying on public assistance for underpaid employees (a form of corporate welfare). In other words, livable wages.
 * CEO's and governing boards to be civilly and criminally liable for corporate misbehavior (shared responsibility - not immunity).
 * An end to vulture capitalism (or much greater regulatory control and oversight) with its theft of company assets and pawning off of pensions to underfunded government agencies.

====FDR Version====
Implementation of FDR's second bill of rights or a modern version of it:
 * The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
 * The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
 * The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
 * The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
 * The right of every family to a decent home;
 * The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
 * The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
 * The right to a good education.

Article I, Section 8, United States Constitution:
"The Congress shall have power to...provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States."
Combine the two and we have the progressive view.

The Undoing of the Separation of Church and State

The radical conservatives in the court's majority are destroying the wall between religion and state. Since the 19th century, the Supreme Court has ruled that corporations, defined in the U.S. Code in its very first sentence as people, are entitled to a wide range of constitutional protections.

Our modern Supreme Court has extended those rights beyond economic functions. Thus we have Citizen's United giving not just to corporations, but to advocacy groups as well, free speech rights wherein money equals speech. We have Hobby Lobby with its "religious freedom" to act on its beliefs, impacting its employees.

Unlimited corporate money gives rise to corporate political power with the ability to influence legislation and elections. That this country was founded as a Christian nation is delusional. But with companies as "people" being given expanded protections and rights by the Supreme Court, how many of us will find ourselves as employees and consumers being subjected to religious restrictions? Hobby Lobby sprung leaks in the dike, and Citizen's United is turning that leak into a deluge.

What the Hobby Lobby Ruling Means for America

Can the Wall Between Church and State Survive Brett Kavanaugh?

Failure of AHCA replacing ACA blamed for Dem House takeover?

So, if Republicans had succeeded in the repeal-and-replace efforts, then Democrats could not harp on that issue?  I would say McCain saved some House seats.

The GOP wanted to replace ObamaCare with Ryan's AHCA. His plan would have had coverage for only 5% of the costs of pre-existing conditions. The AHCA would have also included the eventual removal of insurance expense subsidies and Medicaid federal subsidies, shrinking federal financial aid to help people get coverage, and premiums 3 to 5 times higher for coverage of older people and people with pre-existing conditions. The CBO estimate was that 24 million more would become uninsured by 2026. The more radical conservatives called it ObamaCare Lite and said the AHCA did not go far enough.

The same person who claimed that the ACHA absolutely does not eliminate coverage of pre-existing conditions also said that people who want better health insurance could move to a different state.

If the AHCA had replaced the ACA, the House and the Senate would likely have become more blue, not less.

Link to Politico story: Defeated GOP congressman blames McCain's Obamacare vote for Democrats' House takeover 

Chest-thumping And Religious Posturing

In the 50's, politicians were falling all over themselves trying to prove that they were not "godless" commies. In 1956 a joint resolution passed by congress and signed by Eisenhower adopted "In God We Trust" to replace "e Pluribus Unum," which had been the de facto motto since 1782, on our currency.

In 1954 "under God" was added to the Pledge of Allegiance. As this violated the separation of church and state, the Pledge eventually could no longer be used in public schools.

The sermon that convinced Eisenhower to modify the Pledge also had "An atheistic American is a contradiction in terms.” There was also the wonderful view that “If you deny the Christian ethic, you fall short of the American ideal of life.”

And now we have the wearing of flag pins by politicians to prove their patriotism. In the 70's, politicians used it as a symbol of patriotic solidarity against anti-Vietnam protesters. It again became popular after 9/11. Not wearing the flag shows that you are unpatriotic and that you don't love your country; that you must be a socialist or communist. It doesn't matter if wearing the flag pin doesn't do anything, doesn't protect workers or consumers or the environment or the poor or the sick and disabled or the elderly or children or vets.

Symbolism is valued more than actions. Anything done to help people is said to be just coddling them, making them dependent, is touchy-feely, is socialism, is the spending of tax dollars on welfare queens and the lazy. Regulations are anti-jobs, stifling American innovation, just part of a nanny state.

Wear the flag pin and prove your patriotism and love of country. To not wear the pin shows that you hate your country and soldiers and vets and police and success and religion and traditional marriage and unborn babies. Not wearing the pin shows that you are not a true American. Whatever that is.

Wear the flag pin and show that you have ethics and values and morals and biblical righteousness and fiscal sanity and are not a cheater and not a greedy person. And then go to church and be absolved of your sins; go out and lie and cheat and steal some more because Jesus loves you. And atheists and worshipers of other religions are not what the founding fathers approved of, so take off those flag pins because you are not part of our Christian America.

So sayeth the hypocrites.

Primed for Obstruction

Let's see if I have this right. If Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein gets fired or resigns:

1. Oversight of the Mueller investigation would fall to the next available person in the Justice Department's hierarchy, Noel Francisco. 
2. Noel Francisco is a partner in the law firm that represents Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in the Russia probe.
3. Noel Francisco was a lawyer on Trump’s transition team (which also has been pulled into the Mueller investigation).
4. The White House in April granted an Ethics Waiver for Noel Francisco.
5. That waiver gives Francisco immunity from having to recuse himself from supervising Mueller's investigation.
6. Francisco would become the person signing off on the special counsel’s budget.
7. Francisco would become the person making decisions on subpoenas and indictments for that investigation.
8. Francisco would become the person who determines whether or not the final report is publicly disclosed.
9. Francisco would become the person overseeing the investigation of himself.
10. That ethics waiver was never listed with the 28 other ethics waivers granted by the White House, giving that waiver the secrecy it should not have had. 
11. That waiver is signed by then-White House Counsel Don McGahn, who is also a partner with Francisco at the same law firm that represents Trump's presidential campaign in the Russia probe.

Can you say, "conflict of interest"? Can you say, "obstruction of justice"? Can you say, "cover-up"? I knew you could.

Link: Secret waiver clears possible Trump Russia Rosenstein replacement

Equal Protection Under The Constitution

Equal protection under The Constitution is spelled out in the 14th Amendment, Section one. No State shall make or enforce any law which denies to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. Any law would include federal laws. Any "person," no matter what their gender or sex status, is entitled to equal protection under both state and federal laws. Any law which discriminates against male, female or other cannot be made or enforced. Any law, including Title IX civil rights law, cannot exclude transsexuals and asexuals. Restrictions on someone on the basis of their DNA whether by federal law or State law cannot be enforced or allowed by any State; to do otherwise is to abridge privileges and deny equal protection of the laws for citizens.

Amendment 14 of The Constitution, Section 1: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

From Jacobinmag.com and linked to on Facebook by Sen. Bernie Sanders:
Socialists Must Defend Trans Life

Bernie Sanders Facebook post:
Transgender Rights

Addendum:
Quick, let's whip out our DNA testing kits! If a woman tries to enter the woman's room but her DNA says male, we must enforce our binary beliefs and send her to the men's room! We must protect other women from lesbian transsexuals. She must go into the other bathroom where the men there can get their probes out and test her DNA. No, I don't know what to do if a person has XXY instead of XX or XY; we must take her to catholic priests for exorcism of that extra X or take her to the Supreme Court for a ruling. But don't let an XXY into either bathroom! Test everyone! Protect everyone from everybody!

Pure Capitalism

It's not capitalism vs. socialism or communism. It's capitalism plus socialism. That is what distinguishes Republicans and Democrats. Nobody wants to nationalize industries. We like capitalism, but not without social responsibilities. Not everything should be for profit.

 I don't like having a for-profit insurance company between me and my doctor. I don't like not being able to afford healthcare with its 20% plus co-pays and premiums and caps and coverage holes and coverage denials for undisclosed acne treatments 40 years prior when my medical care becomes expensive and unprofitable. I don't want my retirement stolen. We don't like corporations that pay their workers poverty wages so that they need taxpayer assistance. That is corporate welfare, the reliance of companies on taxpayer assistance for their underpaid employees.

Do you really want privatized prisons, privatized pollution prevention and clean-up, for-profit courts, privatized borders, payday lenders charging 585% interest (see Wisconsin), for-profit schools without regulations or oversight but still with public funding, privatized police and fire protection, unregulated construction and unfunded infrastructure maintenance, for-profit roads and utilities, privatized coast guard and military, unchecked monopolies, unregulated health insurance that is more like a coupon, and companies and hospitals and doctors operating with no regulations or requirements or oversight? Privatized for-profit elections (you think voter suppression and gerrymandering is bad now?). Do you approve of massive student debt? Medical bankruptcies? Bernie Madoff?

That is what pure capitalism is. A free market that is supposedly inherently moral. Companies operating without regulations because supposedly the free market will weed out unscrupulous practices. It's a theoretical fantasy because a pure free market assumes 100% knowledge by consumers. Nope, no need for consumer protection bureaus with your totally unregulated free market.

Republicans are ideologically opposed to government programs because they think private enterprise, not government, is the way to go. Their beliefs can be summed up with one word. Profits. That is what their notion of freedom boils down to.
Privatized Social Security with retirements subject to stock market crashes, thefts, bankruptcies, high admin fees and churning, and major benefit reductions because of the selling off of pension obligations when taking over a company.

I don't want a nanny state regulating our bedrooms, our bodies, and our individual freedoms, which for some reason Republicans like along with their free markets.

 I don't want freedom from pollution protections, worker safety, gun safety, union protections, consumer protections, discrimination protections. I don't believe in freedom from accountability and ethics. I want clean air and water and soil. I want religious freedom in my life and in my workplace.

BTW, the for-profit courts? We have that in some areas. Collection agencies suing people that can't pay all of their court and incarceration fees, and a judge finding the debtors to be in "contempt of court" and thrown in jail (rendering them unemployed and subject to more fees). That used to be called debtor's prison.

Our New Supreme Court and The Constitution

Malfeasance by our Supreme Court. Denying the people's right to "promotion of the general welfare," i.e., the concern of the government for the health, peace, morality, and safety of its citizens. The part in the preamble of The Constitution which is anti-Republican.

Health is not just health care, it is also things such as pollution prevention and mitigating the effects of Climate Change.

Peace and safety does not mean building a huge military and encouraging adventurism.

Safety as in sane gun laws, especially for all those people who are not members of a "well regulated Militia" such as the National Guard.

Morality means not cheating, fleecing, lying, stealing. It does not mean imposing religious edicts on citizens.

From Vox.com: The Supreme Court stepped in to stall a climate lawsuit. That’s really weird.

Transgender Politics

It's one thing when the brain is not aligned with the genitalia. What do the binary advocates say about people who are born with both sets? Check the DNA?

Are people only smart or only dumb, with no cognitive abilities higher than others? Are they only left-handed or right-handed, no ambidexterity allowed? Skinny or obese? Only black or white, no brown allowed? Eidetic memory or unable to remember anything longer than 30 seconds (no long-term memory)?

These authoritarians are not biologists or neurologists, yet they happily peddle their ignorance to their base for their own agendas. Dick Chaney only believed that gays had rights because a daughter of his was lesbian. Will it take changing the color and apparent sex of every politician?

How about if we just do it on posters or ads against binary politicians? I would love to see Mitch McConnell with a wig and lipstick on a campaign ad. Or see him being shoved into the transgender bathroom between male and female marked doors.

Authoritarians like Trump target trans people for a reason

Fire Me For Religious Reasons?

Trump Is Planning A New Rule To Let Federal Contractors Fire Employees For Religious Reasons

If someone is going to fire me for religious reasons, I want to be sure that their religious beliefs are not just an excuse. I want to know if they really subscribe to their professed religion's beliefs or if they just pick and choose precepts which are convenient. If they are Christians, then I expect them to follow all the laws of their religion, including those in the Old Testament. Matthew 5:17-18  "17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."

These are a few of the things forbidden: Divorces, horoscopes, tattoos, illegitimate births, praying aloud or in public, braided hair, jewelry, expensive clothes, damaged genitals (vasectomies or cancer?), shaving.

So if my employer fires me for religious reasons, but wears jewelry or does not have a beard, then I know that they are not really Christian and so cannot use it to fire me.

The same principle applies to those who would deny me services because of a professed religious reason. They must follow all the laws of that religion, and they must deny services to others who do not follow every law. Otherwise, they are hypocrites and liars who are just using a religion that they don't believe in.

So sayeth me.

This Modern Utopia

I don't want a Republican between me and my lover, just like I don't want a for-profit insurance company between me and my doctor. But hey, with regulations and oversight and accountability and ethics disappearing, I won't have time to worry about that while I am worried about having a living income, having affordable health care, being safe, having clean water and air and soil, a safe retirement income, and lead-free schools.

But I will be a model citizen. In this modern radical conservative utopia, in order to fulfill my societal obligations, I will give up my religion, disown people of color, agree to for-profit justice, for-profit prisons, wild west gun laws, unregulated for-profit schools, unregulated markets, and let corporations write the laws for their own benefit.

I will listen to people judge me for not being rich and will let them explain to me that my stagnant income and lousy or non-existent benefits are not because the wealthy don't pay enough, but because it is their money and I should not try to take it out of their pockets like they are taking it out of mine. I will listen as the elitists tell me I have health problems and an inability to treat them because I have made immoral or idiotic lifestyle choices including having a pre-existing condition or being the wrong gender.

I will stand by and wave while the White Nationalists and Nazi-wannabes march. I will stand meekly while there is gerrymandering, purging of voter rolls, requirements for photo ID's to correct a problem that doesn't exist, limited numbers of voting booths and voting hours in less privileged areas, unlimited money for elections and the ability of the wealthy and large corporations to buy politicians and elections both nationally and state-by-state.

I will not complain if my company has been bought and the new owners sold off the pensions, thus cutting drastically my retirement income. I will give up my blood for testing for drugs while politicians on the public dime are exempt. I will just stand by as we return to the era of back-door abortions and dead women, robber barons, sawdust in hot dogs, rivers catching fire, and being fired because I can't do my job without the limb I lost while working on that job.

Cigarettes are good for me, lead and arsenic are both natural substances, pot is a severely addictive narcotic, and great will be the return of poorhouses where the destitute elderly beg for medicine and food and heat and are kept away from the public eye.

I will be part of the nanny state that regulates and limits consensual behaviors and the sanctity of my body. I will give up my home so a company can build on that great location and be good generators of taxes 20 years from now when their agreement with the city expires. And I will understand that companies, for our own good and for the advancement of capitalism, place their enlightened interests above the interests of consumers, neighbors, voters, indigenous people, workers, women, children, people of color, and the elderly and the poor and the disabled.

I will not laugh as our lawmakers spout nonsense and disproven theories, explaining to us how victims of rape cannot get pregnant, climate change is a Chinese hoax, being gay is a choice, trickle-down works, cutting Social Security will help balance the budget, and universal healthcare that most western industrialized nations have had for years and decades won't work. Just because we are the wealthiest nation on Earth doesn't mean we can afford more than a third-world health care system.

And now, a tear threatens to fall from my eye as I listen to those sacred words, "We The Corporations hereby establish this plutocratic system of government of the Corporations, by the Corporations, and for the Corporations in order to insure the peace and comfort and segregation of the wealthy from the grubby little people."

Presidential Fault Lines

A list of just a few of Trump's accomplishments, goals, and

ideas for the first 18 months of his four-year presidency.

• Healthcare that covers everyone with sheets.
• Throwing out the Iran deal without a better one.
• Picking anti-department heads to run departments.
• Withdrawing the U.S from the Paris Climate Accord, joining Syria and Nicaragua as the only countries not signatories to it.
• Claiming that other countries don't pay their share for membership in NATO, confusing NATO required payments with voluntary defense spending by other countries as compared to our massive military defense spending.
• 50% tax breaks for corporations while saying we don't have enough money for social programs.
• Denying Russian interference and denigrating all of our intelligence agencies.
• Claiming the Russia investigation is a Witch Hunt and that there is nothing to find, ignoring that at least 30 people have been charged with crimes.
• Firing FBI Director Comey for not stopping the Russia investigation.
• Nominating unqualified people for seats on SCOTUS, and filling federal judicial offices with unqualified conservative radicals.
• Moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem.
• Not knowing and understanding the Constitution and the National Anthem and how to spell, while telling us he has the greatest memory and is the smartest person ever.
• Admiring racists and Nazis and despots.
• Threatening to start a war with Venezuela and to nuke North Korea into oblivion.
• Making friends with Kim Jong-un, North Korea's leader.
• Asking for a build-up of our nuclear weapons.
• Advocating a Space Force.
• Asking for military parades with tanks and missiles.
• Initiating a policy to forcefully separate children from parents at the border, often without information and tracking so that families could be reunited, and sometimes deporting parents without returning their children to them first.
• Starting a trade war with Canada and others, with negative impacts on workers, companies, farmers, consumers.
• On the phone insulting and yelling at other heads-of-state.
• Not understanding the Executive Orders that he signs (when he remembers to sign them).
• Giving intelligence information (boasting) to the Russians visiting the White House (unplanned declassifications of secrets).
• Giving himself a 10 for his non-response to Puerto Rico's hurricane catastrophe.
• Nepotism.
• Profiting from his Presidency.
• Campaign rallies up to five days a week and golfing on weekends while telling people he's working hard.
• Calling journalists Enemies of the People and calling any criticism Fake News, except for the state propaganda machine that is Fox News.
• Calling kneeling before the flag treason rather than peaceful protests.
• Calling his opponents crooks and liars and puppets and advocating locking them up.
• Public displays of rudeness and bullying and hostility and indifference, even to Gold Star families.
• Spreading conspiracy theories and fake news on Twitter, with his Twitter rants to be considered as official White House correspondence.
• Thinking that Frederick Douglass is alive.
• Thinking that health insurance works like life insurance; by the time you reach age 70, you have a great plan (for $12 a year).
• Denying events and quotes that are taped or recorded.
• Making up facts and figures.

This is just off the top of my head. I'm sorry it is not more comprehensive.

Capitalism vs. Socialism?

Ever hear of Democratic Socialism? Democrats are not about to support Socialism. Only a combination of capitalism and socialism works. Do you think privatization of Social Security (it's already self-funded, not part of the federal budget, and has a Trust Fund of $2.8 trillion in interest-bearing U.S. Treasury Bonds - those pesky paper IOUs) is feasible? How many people lost their retirements to the crash in 2008? I don't want my retirement subject to stock market crashes, thefts, bankruptcies, high admin fees and churning, and major benefit reductions (selling off pension obligations when taking over a company).

Do you like or want privatized prisons, privatized pollution prevention and clean-up, for-profit courts, privatized borders, for-profit schools without regulations or oversight but still with public funding, privatized police and fire protection, unregulated construction and unfunded infrastructure maintenance, for-profit roads and utilities, privatized coast guard and military, unchecked monopolies, unregulated insurance that is more like a coupon, and companies and hospitals and doctors operating with no regulations or requirements or oversight?

Do you really believe in pure capitalism such as that espoused by Trump and Ryan and McConnell? Are you that naive? BTW, how are those pay raises after the massive tax cuts? What, didn't you know workers are making less?

It's not capitalism vs. socialism or communism. It's capitalism plus socialism.

The GOP and Their Walk With Jesus

 

Oh, yes, the radical republicans have chosen to walk with Jesus, helping the sick, the lame, elderly, children, the poor, the stranger, and the hungry. They are the party of peace, behaving without anger or violence. They...Oh, who am I kidding. The GOP is the party of greed, lies, hypocrisy, religious and behavioral intolerance, and injustice.

They are the nanny state party, regulating our bedrooms, our bodies, and our individual freedoms. We are jailed for indebtedness (debtor's prison), with judges issuing criminal contempt of court sentences for our inability to satisfy payment of court costs and jail costs and collection agency demands.

The GOP is the party of freedom. Freedom to go without health care, the freedom for medical bankruptcies, freedom from dental, vision and hearing care, the freedom to die.

Whenever I hear freedom and flexibility by radical conservatives, I hear the subtext of freedom from accountability, oversight, safety standards, wage minimums, competency, integrity, and legality.

The freedom to do without, as in freedom for us to be without living wages, without health care, without discrimination protections, without a safe retirement income, without clean air and water and soil, without justice and legal rights and legal protections, without protection from disenfranchisement and gerrymandering, without the freedom to join a union or to unionize, without freedom from religious intolerance and religion-based discrimination.

Republicans label us as lazy or undeserving or unworthy or morally corrupt just because of low income or wealth. If people are not paid well enough to go without government assistance, then that is not a person on welfare, it is corporate welfare. It is the reliance of companies on public (taxpayer) assistance for their underpaid workers. Have these radical conservatives heard of the concept of the wealthy paying their fair share? Have they heard of Social Responsibility? Not everyone wants to be or can be a CEO or manager or owner of a business. Some people just want fair wages.

Republicans are the party of laws written by corporations and industries for their own benefit, on both the state and federal level. The GOP is the party of free trade rather than fair trade. They worship profit, striving for returns on investments of at least 15% annually while giving people who do the actual work little or no increase in wages or benefits.

These radicals worship health care for profit, letting health insurance companies cut benefits and raise premiums and deductibles. US companies with more than 20 employees are saddled with health insurance costs (an expense to be minimized, impacting workers) while foreign companies benefit from their government's universal health care. If a worker is part-time or works for a smaller company, there is no insurance benefit.

The GOP cut in half taxes on companies and the wealthy, and now insist on cutting any social programs because of revenue shortfalls, debt and deficits. They lie, cheat, steal, administer draconian and unfair justice. They allow killings with impunity with Stand Your Ground laws, impunity for "peace" officers' slaughter of people of color, and they refuse to enact common-sense restrictions on weapons used in massacres.

The GOP perpetrates lies about Social Security, claiming that it is the biggest federal expense, that it is in the red, and that they must raise retirement ages and cut benefits to save our retirement. No mention is made of raising the cap on payroll taxes (currently $128,400, income over that is not subject to these taxes) so that the wealthy would pay more than a minuscule percentage of their income.

There is no talk about making simple adjustments to the payroll tax rates. No mention is made that Social Security is not even part of the federal budget, that it is separate by law with its own revenue stream. Nothing is said about it being fully funded until 2034 (after which it is 80% funded through 2092) and has a $2.8 trillion Trust Fund consisting of U.S. Treasury Bonds.

Those bonds are the pesky paper IOUs which give rise to arguments that Congress stole our retirement. Bonds earn interest and are how our government funds the $20-plus trillion National Debt; they are not instruments of theft. Social Security benefit cuts or raises in retirement ages do not change the federal budget or the National Debt by one penny.

We are subject to theft of cash and property seized for "evidence" which is rarely returned even if charges are dropped or no charges are filed. We are arrested, jailed, and incarcerated because a "specially trained" police officer determined we were intoxicated even without any physical evidence.

We are denied the ability and the right to institute or join class action lawsuits because of forced inequitable arbitration clauses. We are forced to pay a non-refundable 10% of bail if we cannot afford to come up with the whole amount. If we cannot pay that 10%, we are given pre-trial incarceration. We are then housed in jail or in tent cities with convicted offenders. We are treated the same as those already convicted, and we are treated with little concern for medical needs.

These radical conservatives have a funny idea of what Jesus stood for.

Those wonderful pre-ACA days

Wasn't it wonderful in the pre-ACA days when you were healthy? You could get plans with big deductibles, co-pays, coverage limits, yearly and lifetime caps, along with routine coverage denials for people with those plans, and applications denied for not-so-healthy people. Pre-existing condition? Sorry. Don't work for a company with more than 20 employees? Sorry. Oh, that treatment is "experimental" so we don't cover it. Sorry. Oh, you didn't tell us you had acne as a teenager long before the history period we asked for on your application. That is a preexisting condition you didn't tell us about and we are canceling your policy. Sorry.

The number one cause of bankruptcy was medical bills. Too many people got sick and found out their coverage was basically only a coupon. Remember how many raffles and fish-fries and other fund-raisers and collection jars there were for someone who got sick? What you had was insurance for healthy people and companies that routinely denied insurance claims when things got pricey. Sure, the ACA sucks, but at least a lot of people finally got coverage.

So until we can finally get universal single-payer coverage that Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Brunei, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom have had since at least 1995, we are stuck with a Republican plan (RomneyCare) that is for-profit. We're sorry your premiums went up when insurers had to cover sick people. Complain to other healthy people, because the rest of us don't buy it.

America - Land of Peons

Welcome to America. Land of the Wild West, unaffordable healthcare, unequal justice, bigotry, discrimination, high-cost secondary education, for-profit primary education. Land of laws written by corporations and the wealthy, a country where the main job of politicians is chasing mega-rich donors and corporate dollars. Welcome to unabashed greed, hypocrisy, corruption, religious intolerance and crumbling separation of church and state, attacks on retirements and constant lies about its cost, and asinine juvenile dangerous foreign diplomacy. Add in a narcissistic, delusional idiot president with cynical enablers.

Chanting that America is Number One does not make it so.

America - Land of Peons (pronounced PEE-ons).

Social Security Misinformation

Social Security is running out of money? Seriously? Would you be broke if you had $2.8 trillion in the bank? Or are you somehow under the delusion that the United States is going to default on its debts? Tell that to the Chinese and all the others who hold trillions in U.S. Treasury Bonds. You know, those interest-bearing bonds backed by the full faith and credit of the United States? The U.S. is not going to default even if the National Debt were $100 trillion; that would make the costs of borrowing skyrocket.

Calling Social Security the biggest federal expense or a liability is a damned bald-faced lie. It has its own revenue stream and is off-budget. In case you don't know what that means, it is that Social Security is not part of the federal budget. By law. Changes in benefits do not affect by even one thin dime the federal budget or the National Debt. The only change is the date that the $2.8 trillion Social Security Trust Fund zeroes out, at which point only 80% of benefits could be paid out for the next 75 years. Simple adjustments (which used to be routine) to the payroll tax or the salary cap would fully fund Social Security through the year 2093. Or don't you want to raise the salary cap to let the wealthy pay more payroll taxes than a minuscule percentage of their incomes of millions of dollars?

If you cut Social Security benefits today, there would be zero effects through 2034 except to the folks who rely on those benefits. Nada. Zilch, zip, zero, null point void. Saving Social Security by cutting benefits? That is a fucking con job by radical conservatives who are ideologically opposed to government-run programs, especially to Social Security. Can't have wildly successful government programs, 'cause that would put a damper on their anti-government anti-regulation anti-responsibility efforts.

The financial sector would love to get their hands on administrative fees (think 20% overhead instead of less than 2%) for all the Social Security retirement accounts, and they would like the $2.8 trillion Trust Fund to be in their pockets. Privatization. Profits. The almighty dollar. The free market, which is supposedly inherently moral (Ayn Rand is their God and Paul Ryan is their disciple). They have theirs, and they want ours, too.

Are you of the opinion that Congress somehow stole our retirements because the Trust Fund consists of U.S. Treasury Bonds? "Hey, Congress, pay back the money you stole from our Social Security!" Treasury Bonds are just the method that our government uses to finance the nation's debt (see Chinese buyers of Treasury Bonds above). And do you think that Social Security is a savings program rather than retirement insurance, and that we are somehow being screwed? Do you also believe that Social Security is currently running deficits?

Look up interest-bearing Treasury Bonds (which are what is in the Trust Fund); Social Security is still racking up surpluses. Politicians love to include those surpluses in their budget figures even if Social Security is not part of the federal budget. But what will happen when there are deficits, or more benefits being paid out than revenues? Are baby boomers screwed? Look up Social SecurityTrust Fund. Look up the meaning of trillions in assets. Look up why the Trust Fund was built up (hint: baby boomers). Those deficits were planned for.

But what about the $50 trillion in future liabilities? That figure is for the next 75 years, and that's why payroll taxes and salary caps need slight adjustments. Or should we run around like Chicken Little crying, "This guy is falling!" as radical conservatives try to get us to do.

Maybe the wealthy should have payroll taxes on all of their income, rather than just on $127,000 of their income, which amounts to about $14,000 (or $28,000 if they are self-employed) of their millions in income. The higher your income, the less of a percentage of that income goes to payroll taxes. And your income is not subject to payroll taxes if it is from capital gains, which is the increase in the value of your assets, or the money you make from stock dividends (from all those investments you can afford).

Social Security is not a savings account. It is retirement insurance. Part of it is also disability insurance. If you want to risk your own money in the stock market, go ahead. The Great Recession wiped out many people's savings. Bernie Madoff stole (made off with) billions of dollars of people's savings. Brokers would "invest" with Madoff and present their clients with Madoff's fabricated list of stocks and earnings that clients were supposedly holding, then took no responsibility when the Ponzi scheme collapsed.

Retirement accounts are stolen in other ways, too. Brokers can decimate accounts just by churning (buying and selling stocks) to earn commissions for themselves. Bookkeepers, accountants, financial advisors can and have stolen or lost client's money. Look up why Leonard Cohen had to go back to work in his 70's (hint: stolen retirement).

And what about all the poor workers who struggle to pay the bills and can only dream about putting money aside for retirement? Shall we let poverty rates for seniors rise back up from less than 10% to 50% as it had been before Social Security? Shall we force them to work until they die?

You think Social Security is the problem? You've been conned.

Vote against ADA - HR 620

😠 The following opinion has been submitted by me to my House "representative" in D.C.
To: Collin Peterson (D-MN7):
Message Subject: Vote against ADA - HR 620
Message Text:
Is there some reason that you want to gut the ADA? Do you think that businesses are going to provide access to the handicapped (employees or customers) out of the goodness of their hearts? Are you that naive? The rationale behind HR 620 is that it protects against frivolous lawsuits. That is stupid; the ADA only provides for legal fees and injunctive (corrective) relief.

I assume you are not stupid. So why in the world would you make it harder for people to get relief under the ADA? Are you really a Republican member of the GOP (Greed Over People)? Do you think the disabled should just roll over and die so they don't inconvenience anyone? Is this part of the effort to discriminate against women, blacks, LGBT, and non-Christians and to make it legal for companies to impose their "convenient" cherry-picked religious beliefs on people?

How long are you going to deny the voters in your district from having a choice at the polls? A vote between a Democrat In Name Only and a Republican is no choice at all. I am consistently disgusted by your actions. The GOP is all about "individual responsibility" and zero belief in "social responsibility" and for you to constantly align yourself with the party of selfishness, greed, and immorality astounds me. Grow up!

The GOP Wants To Gut The Americans With Disabilities Act