Why?..

"A popular Government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy, or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives." ~ James Madison, 4th President of the United States [1822] I'm an American who hates what is going on in my country: A fascist oligarchy that uses fear and intimidation to silence reasoned opposition and religious memes and hate speech to control and blind an uneducated, xenophobic electorate.

[yayfeminism]

“In mature capitalist society all time must be consumed, marketed, put to use; it is offensive for the labour force merely to ‘pass the time’.”

— EP Thompson in his seminal study Time, Work-Discipline and Industrial Capitalism

[liberalsarecool]

Your job owns your time, not just your output. Any additional value your labor provides through efficiencies are funneled away from your wages and kept as profits.

Look how America treats vacation time and maternity/family leave versus socialized countries. It’s embarrassing.

[mediamattersforamerica]

A reporter asked Santa Fe student Paige Curry if she was surprised by the shooting at her school. Everyone should listen to her response.

[azspot]

Matt Bors

[lagonegirl]

#Facts our government wants more black people in prison for longer time  

[lagonegirl]

this tread

Racism is feeling entitled to keep privilege instead of working to dismantle the system!

[phroyd]

That Is Our President!

Phroyd

[saywhat-politics]

Support for Trump's impeachment is now higher than his approval rating

Trump is dealing with two historic data sets greatly impacting his young presidency.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Massive win: Supreme Court strikes down North Carolina's GOP-drawn maps for racial gerrymandering

In a major victory for voting rights on Monday, the Supreme Court affirmed a lower court ruling issued last year that had struck down 28 of North Carolina’s 170 state legislative districts on the grounds that Republicans had unconstitutionally used race in drawing these maps in the first place. These lines will now have to be redrawn, and new elections will be held under them, most likely next year or possibly even later this year. When that happens, Democrats could finally break the GOP’s years-long veto-proof supermajorities in the legislature, which Republicans have used to run roughshod over democratic norms and impose a radical conservative agenda on an evenly divided swing state.

Stephen Wolf at Daily Kos:

In a major victory for voting rights on Monday, the Supreme Court affirmed a lower court ruling issued last year that had struck down 28 of North Carolina’s 170 state legislative districts on the grounds that Republicans had unconstitutionally used race in drawing these maps in the first place. These lines will now have to be redrawn, and new elections will be held under them, most likely next year or possibly even later this year. When that happens, Democrats could finally break the GOP’s years-long veto-proof supermajorities in the legislature, which Republicans have used to run roughshod over democratic norms and impose a radical conservative agenda on an evenly divided swing state.

So why did the courts determine these lines were invalid? Republicans had taken seats like the 21st State Senate District in Fayetteville—the tentacular monstrosity you see at the top of this post—that had a plurality of African-American voters and made them majority black. Republicans claimed that they were required to do so under the Voting Rights Act so that black voters could elect their candidates of choice, but that argument was entirely pretextual.

That’s because black voters, even in plurality-black districts, were already able to elect their preferred candidates—typically, black Democrats. Republicans merely sought to pack as many black voters into as few seats as possible in order to make surrounding seats whiter. In the South in particular, blacks tend to vote overwhelmingly Democratic while whites vote heavily for Republicans, so reducing the black population in these neighboring seats quite simply made it easier for the GOP to win them.

[liberalsarecool]

Trump runs his administration like TrumpU. Its a fraud, and it will hurt and disgrace everyone involved.

[occupywatchdog]

[politico]

The GOP's risky premium pledge

Republicans promise their Obamacare repeal bill will bring down insurance premiums. Now, they have to figure out how to do it. By JENNIFER HABERKORN

Senate Republicans may be all over the map on an Obamacare repeal plan, but on one fundamental point — reducing insurance premiums — they are in danger of overpromising and underdelivering.

The reality is they have only a few ways to reduce Americans’ premiums: Offer consumers bigger subsidies. Allow insurers to offer skimpier coverage. Or permit insurers to charge more — usually much more — to those with pre-existing illnesses and who are older and tend to rack up the biggest bills.

Since there’s no appetite within the GOP for throwing more taxpayer money at the problem, Republicans will need to make some hard decisions to hit their goal. But the effort to drive down premium prices will inevitably create a new set of winners and losers and complicate leadership’s path to the 50 votes they need to fulfill their seven-year promise to repeal Obamacare.

“Anyone can figure out how to reduce premiums,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). “You can reduce premiums by kicking everybody that has a pre-existing condition off insurance or dramatically reducing benefits.”

Republicans say that Obamacare’s insurance regulations are responsible for making coverage prohibitively expensive and contend that premiums would fall if those rules are rolled back. They say they have multiple ideas about how to roll those back while also insulating the most vulnerable but have yet to weave those together into actual legislation.

Read more here

[ncpssm]

In general, the older and poorer you are, the higher your premiums would be under the American Health Care Act compared with current law.

via VOX.

Related Reading:

CBO Confirms: GOP Healthcare Bill is a Huge Setback for Older Americans.

Seniors who rely on Medicaid will suffer under the American Health Care Act. The CBO report calculates that the AHCA slashes Medicaid spending by $834 billion. Medicaid currently helps pay for long term care for millions of seniors nationwide. The CBO estimates that some 14 million Medicaid recipients would lose coverage under the AHCA – or not be able to attain it in the first place – within the next 10 years.

(via ncpssm)

[ncpssm]

Trump Budget Cuts Medicaid Even More Than House Health Bill, Showing Danger of Per Capita Cap:

President Trump’s budget not only assumes the huge Medicaid cuts in the House Republican bill to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act (ACA) but dramatically enlarges them. That House bill — the American Health Care Act (AHCA) — would cut federal Medicaid spending by $839 billion over ten years, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates, by effectively ending the ACA’s Medicaid expansion and converting virtually all of Medicaid to a per capita cap or block grant. 

That would mean 14 million fewer low-income people enrolled in Medicaid by 2026. The Trump budget would go further, cutting Medicaid by as much as $1.3 trillion over the next decade, we estimate. 

via CBPP.

Related Reading:

CBO Confirms: GOP Healthcare Bill is a Huge Setback for Older Americans.

Seniors who rely on Medicaid will suffer under the American Health Care Act. The CBO report calculates that the AHCA slashes Medicaid spending by $834 billion. Medicaid currently helps pay for long term care for millions of seniors nationwide. The CBO estimates that some 14 million Medicaid recipients would lose coverage under the AHCA – or not be able to attain it in the first place – within the next 10 years. In fact, more than half of the increase in uninsured Americans under the AHCA would come from this vulnerable population.

[ncpssm]

Although the budget may not propose cuts to Medicare, the Trump-endorsed House health bill threatens its benefits by weakening its financing. The bill would repeal a payroll tax increase on high earners that helps fund Medicare and would increase certain Medicare payments to hospitals.

via CBPP.

Related Reading:

Paul Ryan’s Medicare Privatization Scheme Edging Closer to Reality.

To justify his Scrooge-like assault on Medicare, Ryan continues to perpetuate the myth that Medicare is an “entitlement.” In fact, it is a remarkably efficient social insurance program. Having paid into it their entire working lives, Americans are counting on having affordable health care coverage to protect them upon retirement.

(via ncpssm)

[ncpssm]

In general, the older and poorer you are, the higher your premiums would be under the American Health Care Act compared with current law.

via VOX.

Related Reading:

CBO Confirms: GOP Healthcare Bill is a Huge Setback for Older Americans.

Seniors who rely on Medicaid will suffer under the American Health Care Act. The CBO report calculates that the AHCA slashes Medicaid spending by $834 billion. Medicaid currently helps pay for long term care for millions of seniors nationwide. The CBO estimates that some 14 million Medicaid recipients would lose coverage under the AHCA – or not be able to attain it in the first place – within the next 10 years.

(via ncpssm)

[liberalsarecool]

Republicans destroy everything they touch.

[azspot]

Dangerous Discourse: When Progressives Sound like Demagogues

The Trump administration has already done enormous harm to the United States and the planet. Along the way, Trump has also caused many prominent progressives to degrade their own political discourse. It’s up to us to challenge the corrosive effects of routine hyperbole and outright demagoguery.

During a recent appearance on CNN, former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner offered a badly needed perspective on the subject of Russia’s alleged intrusion into the U.S. election. People in Flint, Michigan “wouldn’t ask you about Russia and Jared Kushner,” she said. “They want to know how they’re gonna get some clean water and why 8,000 people are about to lose their homes.”

Turner noted that “we definitely have to deal with” allegations of Russian interference in the election, “it’s on the minds of American people, but if you want to know what people in Ohio—they want to know about jobs, they want to know about their children.” As for Russia, she said, “We are preoccupied with this, it’s not that this is not important, but every day Americans are being left behind because it’s Russia, Russia, Russia.”

Like corporate CEOs whose vision extends only to the next quarter or two, many Democratic politicians have been willing to inject their toxic discourse into the body politic on the theory that it will be politically profitable in the next election or two. But even on its own terms, the approach is apt to fail. Most Americans are far more worried about their economic futures than about the Kremlin. A party that makes itself more known as anti-Russian than pro-working-people has a problematic future.