Pass D.C. Statehood
Republicans will openly, unashamedly say that 712,000 D.C. residents can’t have representation in Congress because it would endanger their power. That’s it. Nothing else to say.
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Guns and Butter: Things We Do Not Like Or Want
In the wake of a bipartisan agreement to establish new spending levels through fiscal year 2019, the Republican Administration sent out an official White House statement: …we were forced to increase spending on things we do not like or want in order to finally, after many years of depletion, take care of our Military… Discretionary…
Promises made, Promises broken
Uncertainty damages business … and people too. Too bad about the student loan forgiveness plan. I remember (in 2012) when the Bush tax cuts of 2003 were scheduled to expire. Republicans raised a hue and cry about the “uncertainty” that this cast upon our economy. Businesses didn’t know how to plan – should they expect…
The Primacy of the People
We trust in the institution of government, a government that is, in the end, made up of all of us, all of the people, a government that creates the law by which we agree to be governed.
Wings and Mainstreams
Another press report on the growing number of House Democrats who say “Impeach now”. That number is up to 63 now. Surely, the pressure is mounting on the House leadership and they will have to give in – if not now, soon!
‘Freedom’s Fray’: Democracy at Work
Our democracy doesn’t just permit you to speak freely, but it requires it. It’s through the freedoms of speech and press that our democracy defends itself, strengthens itself, and grows itself.
A Teaching Moment, Squandered
Give 30 minutes to walk out and return, then give an hour to study of these basic tenets of being a citizen in the US, their history, the difficulties of conflicts between rights and safety, how bills become law, and how protests change (or don’t change) law, how courts decide conflicts.
Basic civics education.
Es gilt viele Mauern abzubauen
Were they walling people in? Or out? Both, it seems. As much as they tried to keep people in, they also tried very hard to keep western influences out. Jeans, rock’n’roll, Coca-cola, all the symbols of decadence that Americans thrust at them. The Berlin Wall sent a message. Like a giant billboard, it shouted out to us. We heard fear. We heard weakness.
TWOFER: Tax and Health Care Cuts
Trump has two top legislative priorities: “Tax Reform” and “Repeal the ACA”. Today, they intersected: his “Tax Reform” plan cuts exactly one tax from the ACA – the 3.8% Medicare tax on Net Investment Income for high-income taxpayers. It has long been a badly-kept secret that the driving force behind “repeal the ACA” has been…
Death Threats – Not Rhetoric – Words Matter
I’m watching the most anti-Trump of mainstream networks and, without exception, they are sane-washing Trump’s threats as “violent rhetoric”. Even Harris is shying away from the word “threat”. But there is no question about it. He threatened Cheney.