guillaumeb
guillaumeb's JournalI was listening to Hal Sparks today as I canvassed for Marie Newman.
He played numerous clips of Trump....speaking, I suppose it should be called, in the sense that words were coming out of his lying mouth.
But it sounded as if someone threw some words in a pile and picked them out in random order.
When I read comments from the red hatted sheep about how smart Trump is, and how well he speaks, I can only wonder if the speaker/write is joking, or high, or engaging in "owning the liberals" performance art.
And 71 million voted for him.
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State....."
How exactly does the NRA/GOP/SCOTUS decide that this means that anyone can become a vigilante patrolling the streets and becoming judge, jury, and executioner?
Scalia, and the GOP segment of the SCOTUS, essentially dismissed half of the actual Amendment as "merely prefatory" so that Mr. Originalist, Antonin Scalia, could "discover" a right that gives every (white) person the right to carry a firearm.
Ed Dept. Opens Inquiry on District That Wanted "Opposing" Lessons on Holocaust
From the article:
On Wednesday, the OCR acknowledged that an inquiry had been opened in the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, Texas. The district faces three separate allegations of discrimination based on race and gender filed by students, and claims to be “fully cooperating” with the agency’s work.
To read more:
https://truthout.org/articles/ed-dept-opens-inquiry-on-district-that-wanted-opposing-lessons-on-holocaust/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=3a9c222a-6fc3-4921-9acf-f88de50ae8dc
Threatened by Blackness: Rev. Barber condemns attorney's 'Black pastors' remarks
From the article:
To see/hear more:
https://news.yahoo.com/threatened-blackness-rev-barber-condemns-062741137.html
How can we change the media narrative, and stop the constant "austerity economics" message?
Can we speak frankly about the “P” word?
Yes, speaking about the “P” word makes some people uncomfortable, but having a strong, robust P gives a person confidence.
Not having a P makes a person weaker, uncertain about the future
.
I am speaking, of course, about pensions, and how they went from being relatively common, to being something that only a fraction of people now have in the US.
In 1970, 45% of private sector employees were covered by a defined benefit pension plan. Federal and State Government employees were also covered by Civil Service and State Civil Service plans. These plans, covering approximately 62% of workers, provided a set benefit that the employee could count on in retirement, and Social Security was seen as a supplement.
But in 1978, Congress passed the Revenue Act, which was the foundation for what are called “defined contribution” plans. Under these plans, benefits depended entirely on how much the employee contributed, how much the employer contributed, and critically, how the contributions were invested.
These plans were touted by the rich as a way for everyone to become a millionaire by investing in the stock market. And thanks to Ronald Reagan, and a compliant Congress, companies were allowed to essentially steal the money from many company-run pension plans, and pensions magically disappeared.
Today, unlike 62% of workers in 1970, only 24% of workers are covered by a defined benefit pension plan. And how has that “freedom to invest” worked out for us all?
In 2020, the median IRA account was $21,000 dollars. So ½ of all workers have less than $21,000 saved. The average is approximately $106,000, but that number is skewed sharply upward by the small fraction who are worth millions.
Like “trickle down economics”, the myth that average workers can become millionaires by investing in the stock market is a lie. Yes, the media promotes the lie by over publicizing the very rare success story, but financial insecurity for most workers was the only long lasting result from laws that allowed pensions to be stolen from American workers.
Godless grifters: How the New Atheists merged with the far right
From the article:
Fast-forward to the present: What a grift that was! Many of the most prominent New Atheists turned out to be nothing more than self-aggrandizing, dogmatic, irascible, censorious, morally compromised people who, at every opportunity, have propped up the powerful over the powerless, the privileged over the marginalized......
https://www.salon.com/2021/06/05/how-the-new-atheists-merged-with-the-far-right-a-story-of-intellectual-grift-and-abject-surrender/
Some people are looking to get rich. Some love power. Some, as the article illustrates, are misogynists or racists.
I judge people by their actions, not their professed positions.
The GOP has one massive ally.
Stupidity.
Never underestimate the ability of stupid and uninformed voters to repeatedly make poor decisions.
There is a current thread about the GOP, and the infrastructure Bills.
It is here:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216042681
https://politicalwire.com/2021/11/11/gop-wrestles-with-infrastructure-vote/
It could just as easily be titled "GOP leadership struggles to contain an outbreak of sanity".
It is obvious to any sane observer that the GOP has no plans that do not revolve around cutting taxes for the billionaire class.
There is no GOP healthcare plan, no GOP economic plan, no GOP infrastructure plan.
Only fear based slogans and appeals to racism.
My congratulations to any Democrats who must negotiate with these people.
Redistricting in Illinois.
The following represents my own personal opinion.The media has covered the remapping process in Illinois, and the fact that, as part of that process, two Democratic Representatives were placed in the same District.
Those Representatives are Marie Newman, currently representing the IL 3rd District, and Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, currently representing the IL 4th District.
Because the IL 6th District was extensively changed, and because most of the proposed IL 6th District is currently the IL 3rd District, Newman decided to run in the IL 6th District against Sean Casten.
First, in the interest of transparency, I must say that I have volunteered on the Newman campaign, among others, and during the remapping process, I submitted witness slips and gave direct testimony to the Illinois House and Illinois Senate Committees that handled the redistricting process.
Second, I am a member of a coalition in the IL 3rd District. That coalition is comprised of actual voters, not paid lobbyists. And to be quite frank, we were disgusted with our former, long time Representative, and disgusted with his refusal to listen to, or meet with, his actual constituents, so we gathered and vowed to work for change.
To give testimony, and to submit witness slips is an unnecessarily complicated process. It is one designed to limit input from average voters, while giving the illusion of transparency. And Illinois Senate President Don Harmon said that both Committees solicited input from voters, and politicians.
And many of us gave our input, and many of those giving input were from the Illinois 3rd District. So much so that one Committee member noted that it seemed like all the criticism came from the Illinois 3rd District.
But in spite of all of the criticism, in spite of the fact that members of our coalition submitted maps to the Committees, the massively changed map was passed during a late-night Senate vote after that last day of testimony. Interestingly enough, during the public hearing, Senate President Don Harmon assured everyone that the final map would be what we had commented on, except, perhaps, for some very minor editing.
That final “very minor editing” process resulted in one border of the IL 4th District being slightly moved, with the result that Marie Newman’s residence was removed from the proposed IL 6th District, and placed in the IL 4th District.
Was this move political payback for Newman defeating the long-time incumbent of the IL 3rd District? Remember that the previous Representative was essentially gifted his seat by his father, who was an integral part of the Madigan political machine, and was himself the Representative in the IL 3rd District for many years.
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