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Lonestarblue

Lonestarblue's Journal
Lonestarblue's Journal
November 10, 2024

None of the conventional explanations for Trump's victory stand up to scrutiny

Source: The Guardian

“I propose a different explanation than inflation qua inflation: the Covid welfare state and its collapse. The massive, almost overnight expansion of the social safety net and its rapid, almost overnight rollback are materially one of the biggest policy changes in American history. For a brief period, and for the first time in history, Americans had a robust safety net: strong protections for workers and tenants, extremely generous unemployment benefits, rent control and direct cash transfers from the American government.

Despite the trauma and death of Covid and the isolation of lockdowns, from late 2020 to early 2021, Americans briefly experienced the freedom of social democracy. They had enough liquid money to plan long term and make spending decisions for their own pleasure rather than just to survive. They had the labor protections to look for the jobs they wanted rather than feel stuck in the jobs they had. At the end of Trump’s term, the American standard of living and the amount of economic security and freedom Americans had was higher than when it started, and, with the loss of this expanded welfare state, it was worse when Biden left office, despite his real policy wins for workers and unions. This is why voters view Trump as a better shepherd of the economy.“

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/09/trump-victory-explanation-scrutiny



Interesting article and the first explanation I’ve seen that makes some sense for why voters think Trump will be better for the economy.
November 3, 2024

How the Christian right is twisting the legacy of an anti-Nazi hero

Source: The Guardian

“In the long run, experts worry that the push to liken American liberal democracy to Nazi Germany could spur political violence, citing past examples of Christian extremists who invoked Bonhoeffer to justify bombing and shooting up abortion clinics.

“We’re worried about post-election political violence, and this is a way of inspiring that,” said Victoria Barnett, a theologian and eminent scholar of Bonhoeffer and the Holocaust who has advocated for a nuanced understanding of Bonhoeffer and has cautioned against depicting Bonhoeffer as a kind of evangelical “Lone Ranger”.

According to documents obtained by the Guardian and Documented, the production and distribution of the movie, called Letter to the American Church, was coordinated by the rightwing group Turning Point USA and American Letter Productions – the film division of Metaxas Media, an entertainment business founded by Eric Metaxas.”

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/03/eric-metaxas-christian-right-dietrich-bonhoeffer



I have never heard of Metaxas and his effort to paint liberals as Nazis. I wish US media would report on groups like this and include facts instead of misleading claims because it’s really difficult to stay informed about all the right-wing groups trying to undo democracy.
October 26, 2024

Republicans' healthcare proposal if Trump wins? More private Medicare

Source: The Guardian

“Medicare Advantage plans can be enticing because they often include food or transportation cards, $0 monthly premiums and hearing, vision and dental benefits – none of which are included in traditional Medicare.

Kinsell notes that the problems usually start when people get sick.

“Patients have been unable to get into rehab, or stay,” she said. Others were charged $50 a day for rehab when the service is normally free for a short period in traditional Medicare.

“We’ve spent a lot of time in our district office with seniors who got hoodwinked by these corporate insurance plans,” said Democratic US representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington state. Jayapal has called for “urgent reforms” and consumer protections to be added to Medicare Advantage.”

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/26/trump-republican-healthcare-plan-medicare



Good article on how Medicare Advantage takes advantage of seniors. Republicans pushed Advantage plans as a way to save money, but they actually cost more. Such plans are estimated to cost the government $83 billion more just this year than traditional Medicare. As usual, insurers have learned to game the system to inflate their charges and earn more profit while denying or reducing care.
October 17, 2024

'Unlimited dollars': how an Indiana hospital chain took over a region and jacked up prices

This article is long, but it’s an important look at how for-profit healthcare organizations are gaining power and raising prices while also denying care. We need to stop giving tax advantages to these organizations in return for care for the poor and just tax them as the actual profit-making corporations they are. This Indiana company called Parkview is just detestable in its business practices. They are an argument for universal healthcare and big changes in how we tax such groups.

“Not-for-profit healthcare has been good business for Parkview as it has been for hundreds of other ostensible charities across the US which operate nearly half of the nation’s hospitals. In exchange for generous tax breaks, these institutions are required to provide free and discounted care to poor patients, but many have faced criticism for skimping on charity care, demanding high prices and giving executives exorbitant salaries.

Since 2019, Parkview has raked in more than $2bn in revenue annually, enabling the system to give dozens of its executives and top doctors six and seven figure annual compensation packages. Before his retirement at the end of 2022, Parkview’s longtime CEO, an avowed Christian who publicly styled himself as a “servant” leader, took home nearly $3m from the not-for-profit, according to the system’s last publicly available IRS disclosure.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/17/indiana-medical-debt-parkview-hospital

August 29, 2024

The path to destroy American democracy runs through Georgia

Good article by Lawrence Tribe and Dennis Aftergut. What Georgia is doing is likely to be copied by other red states. This is the nonviolent coup Republicans are planning.

“Trump and his Maga allies seek to permanently dismantle the architecture of government established by our founders 235 years ago. The route there this November runs through Georgia, a key battleground state where undoing any electoral victory by Kamala Harris would be vital to Trump’s return to power. Trump and his acolytes will do whatever it takes to win. That includes not certifying the people’s actual vote.

They are trying to turn a system of automatic certification, per our constitution’s design and as it has always been, into one where power turns on the people they have in place – in other words, a government not of law, but of men. If they can refuse to certify elections, they don’t have to worry about them in the future.

That is the path to power unconstrained by the people. To achieve it Trump and his Project 2025 architects need to strip institutional constraints set by the constitution and state law on a future president’s readiness to govern by force. Trumpism’s route to the White House is paved with bricks of election theft.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/28/the-path-to-destroy-american-democracy-runs-through-georgia


July 6, 2024

Sunak axed, the cast eviscerated: at last, it's the Tories' season finale

I love the British way with words. Haven’t we gone past fatigability with Trump?

Our media should be drawing comparisons between what the Tories did to run the UK into the ground and what Republicans and the Project 2025 leaders plan to do to run the US into the ground. Burning the country to the ground and starting all over sounds good to their MAGA voters. Unfortunately, all we’ll be left with is a lot of ashes and no functioning government.

“Speaking of absolute weapons, hat twat George Galloway wimped out of his own count in Rochdale, presumably out of fatigability. He lost to Labour. There was jubilation for the Lib Dems, who finished not a million miles behind “the natural party of government”, and for the Greens, who won all four of their target seats. The SNP can now squeeze its MPs round the flip-down dining table of a motorhome. Referendum arguments may move to Northern Ireland, with Sinn Féin now that nation’s largest Westminster party.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/05/rishi-sunak-tories-truss-rees-mogg-shapps-liam-fox#comment-168466049

June 21, 2024

Rightwing cases built on made-up stories keep making it to the US supreme court

The fact that these cases are making it to the Supreme Court says that some circuit courts are so corrupted with right-wing judges that they are ignoring the law—and standing—to push the Republican agenda. Their purpose is to gain special privileges for only some people in the US—the extremist religious, the white, and the wealthy. We need a serious overhaul of the circuit courts. Expand them enough to balance the right-wing nuts Trump appointed.

“The 2017 provision, then, was a mere pretext: the case that came before the court was a much broader project, one that, by some estimates, would have unraveled as much as a third of the federal tax code.

Ultimately, the court ruled 7-2 to uphold the tax, thereby preserving both the theoretical possibility of a future wealth tax and also much of the federal government’s funding structure. The majority opinion was authored by Brett Kavanaugh. Clarence Thomas, joined by Neil Gorsuch, dissented, and would have thrown out the tax, narrowing congressional taxation power only to “realized income”. That interpretation has not carried the day – not yet.

But the fact that the case came before the supreme court at all reflects a troubling trend in the conservative legal movement, aided by Republican-controlled lower courts: the advancement of cases that promise to promote rightwing policy priorities even when the alleged facts are demonstrably untrue. Because Moore v United States was based on another lie, too: the lie that the Moores have not received income from their investment in the Indian company. They have.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jun/21/us-supreme-court-conservative-lies


June 8, 2024

Trump loyalist pushes 'post-constitutional' vision for second term

Source: Washington Post

“A battle-tested D.C. bureaucrat and self-described Christian nationalist is drawing up detailed plans for a sweeping expansion of presidential power in a second Trump administration. Russ Vought, who served as the former president’s budget chief, calls his political strategy for razing long-standing guardrails “radical constitutionalism.”
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He has helped craft proposals for Donald Trump to deploy the military to quash civil unrest, seize more control over the Justice Department and assert the power to withhold congressional appropriations — and that’s just on Trump’s first day back in office.”

Snip

“Some of Vought’s recommendations, such as bucking the Justice Department’s tradition of political independence, have long percolated in the conservative movement. But he is taking a harder line — and seeking to empower a presidential nominee who has openly vowed “retribution,” alarming some fellow conservatives who recall fighting against big government alongside Vought long before Trump’s election.

“I am concerned that he is willing to embrace an ends-justify-the-means mentality,” said Marc Short, formerly chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, who has said he won’t endorse Trump. Vought, Short added, is embracing “tactics of growing government and using the levers of power in the federal bureaucracy to fight our political opponents.”

Read more: https://wapo.st/3VyftdG



Finally at least one the news publication is paying attention to the threat of Project 2025 and its leaders to our democracy and rights. I hope the coverage spreads to other media outlets.
May 23, 2024

Revealed: the extremist Maga lobbying group driving far-right Republican policies

We are up against well-funded, powerful groups trying to turn democracy into autocracy and theocracy. I don’t know whether Democrats are doing anything to counter these groups, but whatever it is doesn’t seem to be working.

“A powerful, rightwing lobbying group is promoting a hard-right policy agenda and cementing ties between the Republican party and the far right at at least 21 events involving senators, members of Congress, and both junior and senior political aides, documents obtained by the Guardian show.

The documents offer previously unreported details of Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI) trainings and “bootcamps” for congressional staff at CPI’s sprawling Maryland ranch, and lavish, star-studded retreats for members of Congress – mostly members of the far-right Freedom caucus – at a string of Florida resorts.

They also show how CPI, widely described as the “nerve center of the Maga movement”, enlisted its own network of affiliated organizations along with like-minded far-right organizations – some classified as hate groups by experts – as well as individual extremists to promote anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-vaccine policies, along with others premised on the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump.“

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/23/conservative-partnership-institute-republican-laws

May 18, 2024

The View Within Israel Turns Bleak

The NYT has recently published a couple of articles about the right-wing takeover of Israel, essentially by the equivalent of our MAGA crowd. For a long time, I believed that the right-wing settlers were the minority in Israel. I was wrong. They and their philosophy of genocide for all Palestinians are now the majority. I know my views matter little to anyone but me, and I have no say in what happens in Israel or the US other than my vote, yet I find this change in Israel so very disturbing. It is as if the Proud Boys were now ruling the United States. How do we reckon with support of Israel as a state when that support funds the type of right-wing government that most of us abhor? A government and a population determined to exact death and destruction for another people?

“America’s romantic mythology and wishful thinking about Israel encourage a tendency to see Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the main cause of the ruthlessness in Gaza, where Israel has killed more than 35,000 people. The unpopular, scandal-ridden premier makes a convincing ogre in an oversimplified story.

But Israel’s slaughter in Gaza, the creeping famine, the wholesale destruction of neighborhoods — this, polling suggests, is the war the Israeli public wanted. A January survey found that 94 percent of Jewish Israelis said the force being used against Gaza was appropriate or even insufficient. In February, a poll found that most Jewish Israelis opposed food and medicine getting into Gaza. It was not Mr. Netanyahu alone but also his war cabinet members (including Benny Gantz, often invoked as the moderate alternative to Mr. Netanyahu) who unanimously rejected a Hamas deal to free Israeli hostages and, instead, began an assault on the city of Rafah, overflowing with displaced civilians.”

Snip

“Israel has hardened, and the signs of it are in plain view. Dehumanizing language and promises of annihilation from military and political leaders. Polls that found wide support for the policies that have wreaked devastation and starvation in Gaza. Selfies of Israeli soldiers preening proudly in bomb-crushed Palestinian neighborhoods. A crackdown on even mild forms of dissent among Israelis. The Israeli left — the factions that criticize the occupation of Palestinian lands and favor negotiations and peace instead — is now a withered stump of a once-vigorous movement. In recent years, the attitudes of many Israelis toward the “Palestinian problem” have ranged largely from detached fatigue to the hard-line belief that driving Palestinians off their land and into submission is God’s work.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/16/opinion/israeli-palestine-psyche.html?unlocked_article_code=1.s00.g2Ab.d14WvLvkSNHK&smid=url-share

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