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“I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.” (Title 10, US Code; Act of 5 May 1960 replacing the wording first adopted in 1789, with amendment effective 5 October 1962).
And interesting story which could be true or not. For it is believable. Myself, I believe it to be true because it fits with my preconceived ideas, but in today’s world, even I could be punked; its veracity is based only on my personal feelings, my trust in the people who shared it with me, and it has no bearing to anyone else but me. But I offer it just in case any of you have sworn off a certain brash candidate but are also having reservations about supporting everyone else. I decided to fill in with this because I think it shows a huge difference between one particular candidate and all three of the others, both major parties and minor.
(And in this age of campaign rhetoric and baloney on fb from everyone you know who suddenly has come out of the closet to post memes….. reading this story from start to finish is a nice break from the madness surrounding us every four years.) Check for something to dry your eyes…
Here is the main stream media’s version if you would like to peruse it there…
“I thought for a time that Bernie Sanders might be our best option for President. I liked his radical ideas, and I believed, and still believe, that things need to be changed. But then I was reminded that some people speak well and inspire, and others actually show up and get things done. It may not be as inspirational; it may not lead to a slogan or button, but the showing up–consistently and firmly–changes lives.In February of 2007, when I was working part-time in the bookstore of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I was diagnosed with bladder cancer. I did not have insurance, and I did not have savings. The urologist who diagnosed me sent me to Planned Parenthood, where a female physician mapped out the treatment options for me. I was treated for a time by Planned Parenthood physicians, not the cartoon abortionists or criminals they are often said to be. The doctor at Planned Parenthood put me in touch with an oncologist who, when told of my lack of insurance or funds, treated me as a family member, telling me to remind the billing department and other personnel that I was her family member. Being labeled as such entitled me to discounts on my treatment.It takes a woman. Or women.I attempted to pay, as well as I could, the fees for the treatment, but the hospital chose to report me to a collection agency, which began legal action. My physician was startled, and suggested that I contact both the billing department and my senator.The billing department told me I earned too much money to qualify for Medicaid, but I could apply for financial aid offered by the hospital. However, I was told, the collection process would continue.I contacted the office of my senator, Hillary Clinton, and within two weeks I was speaking to someone in her office, who, at one point, handed the phone to the senator herself. “You did not enter a credit agreement with that hospital,” she told me, “so I cannot fathom why they are pursuing you as if you did. In addition, that hospital is aided by the state of New York and the federal government, so they are way out of line. You need to fight this cancer and get well: You don’t have time for this nonsense. Let me look into it.”Within a week, the collection calls ceased, and within a month, Hillary Clinton put me in touch with two organizations offering financial aid to people undergoing cancer treatment. These organizations eliminated half of my debt, and within eighteen months, I had paid the remaining amount, without any collection activity or annoying calls.I just re-read the letter that Hillary Clinton sent to the hospital (It was Roosevelt, if you must know), and in her indignation, she refers to me as her friend. Not a constituent, but a friend. She prevailed upon the proud history of the hospital and the medical profession to do the right thing, and adjudged the collection activity to have been an “unfortunate mistake or oversight.”On two occasions I received letters from her, and once a phone call. The doctor from Planned Parenthood and the oncologist recommended by that organization continued to treat me at discounted rates. My friends–again female–at the Museum kept my cancer a secret, and probably saved my job.I am now receiving treatment through insurance made available through the Affordable Care Act, and while I am cancer-free, there are still follow-up procedures that are necessary.And yet–Hillary Clinton and Planned Parenthood are villainous, despicable, ready for defunding or defeat. I don’t understand that, and I don’t understand how we have difficulty in choosing our next President or where our donations should go. But that’s me.That’s my time with HIllary Clinton.”
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Wasn’t that awesome? I know that every Delaware legislator has a story just like that one. I know many appointed public servants have likewise. We all know it is part of the job. We vote legislators in… we vote them out based on things other than their care or concern for other people.. Things like policy. Things like political parties. Things like religious endorsements… Silly huh?
But as I read this… I got the distinct impression that the humanity. the empathy, the motherhood here was completely missing in the GOP, was invisible at the GOP convention. And post DNC convention, all we hear from Republicans is double down toughness, hate, and an overwhelming amount of flubbering. In fact, the Republicans have no empathy for anything that is weak. Appropriately they opened the convention with a WWF personality! Got to be tough, resilient, got to smash, bash, hurt, demoralize, and destroy our “opposition”….
But their “opposition” is people. People like you. People who when born, changed their mom and dad’s lives forever. People who as children, gave their grandparents hope that better days would one day come. People who became college educated, who sought out and were given good jobs, who help make America work on a daily basis doing what ever their alloted task is to do.
These are not our enemies. Our enemies are people arrayed against us who are tough, resilient, who intend to smash, hurt, demoralize, and destroy us; our enemies have exactly the same traits as the Republican convention showed they want us to think they have…. I don’t want to be ruled by terrorists; people who act no different from ISIS.
I want to be ruled by a good king. A kind king. A wise king. A king who will call up a hospital that has overstepped its authority, and can put them in line.. I want someone who will care…. Not an asshole who says: you’re weak; toughen up…
So, who are we? Flaming assholes? Or real human beings… We support the guy who throws a baby out of his rally? Or someone who stops harassing collectors from incessantly calling?
To me, as an American. There IS only one choice. I’ll leave you in suspense until November as to who that is…
🙂
The income imbalance is gigantic. You may have see this before. It is our income imbalance as seen in three perspectives… What it is… versus what we think it is,… versus what we would like it to be.
So what would it take to make it like we would like it to be?
Obviously we would take the top 20% down from 85% ownership to around 30%… a drop by 55% of the nation’s wealth. That would be divvied up though not equally, among the other four 20%….
So what if we used those numerical principles to tackle income inequality? Then instead of wealth, simply use the same alignment picked by most Americans to figure out a theoretical income distribution?
In 2007 prior to the Recession American families brought in $7..723 trillion dollars…. one half of that went to the two 20% with incomes over $100,000..
If our aim were to move the slider from 50% down to 35%… then this is how much a percent of national income, the top 10% would take… From 50% to 35% is 15% and fifteen percent of $7.7 trillion is $1.1 trillion dollars each year…
So basically to get the middle class back to where it was in the past, we need to take $1 trillion a year from the top 10% and give it back to everyone else…
America is roughly at 315 million people. and they live in 123 million households… If we lop off the top 20%, we have 80% left which is 252 million people or 98.4 million households…
Giving us 25 million households giving up their $1 trillion to be split up with 98.4 million households.
The average given would be $40,000 given up by 25 million households per year. And if spread across America’s other 80%, it would average………………..$10,204……
The economic value of that total gets reflected by the memory that the wealthy don’t spend the $40,000 into the economy; they lock it away in stocks. But an yearly extra $10,000 in the hands of the stressed 80%, gives a big boost to economic demand.
And this does not get us to equal. It is just where Americans think the levels inequality SHOULD be.
In fiscal 2014, the federal government collected nearly $1.4 trillion from individual income taxes, making it the national government’s single-biggest revenue source. (Along with corporate income taxes and payroll taxes, other sources of federal revenue include gasoline and cigarette taxes, estate taxes, customs duties and payments from the Federal Reserve.)
WE are saying this now needs to be raised to $2.4 trillion with ALL that average increase borne by the top quintile… As a rough estimate (since they are actually paying near a 25% real tax rate now), because we need double the intake of income, doubling their rates up to the 50% level for the highest margins, would bring us close to parity. Exactly to the level to which Ronald Reagan cut taxes in his first term.
THAT, should give you an indication of where we were at one time, and how bad things have been allowed to slip away from the middle class.
I should add, there is only ONE candidate who is addressing this issue…All other candidates are pandering to those who already “have”…..
I hate myself for getting involved in presidential politics 15 months before an election. But seeds were sown in several conversations over the weekend and the Monday morning newsfeed almost cries out for this post. So I shall succumb, but will hate myself for it. It is too damned early to be taking Presidential Politics seriously… We are just being played……
The great aggregator for the conversations was the Republican debates. Apparently unlike any other first debate in my memory, they did their job in putting the race for the President on everyone’s mind.
The multiple conversations always went like this….
What do you think of Donald Trump? Answer: he serves a purpose.
Were any of the Republican Candidates any good? Yes, two of the females (too lazy to look up their names) were very surprising.
Should Biden run? Yes, Democrats NEED a race to keep from imploding before the convention.
Can Hillary win? Yes, but that is not the real question. The real question is can she give us the huge voter turnout we need to regain super majorities in both Congressional Houses? If anything, the last ten years have shown us that whomever is president has little play in steering the country. Whoever controls Congress, controls the fate of this nation… Lack of one single vote, stymied this president of his right to lead. Having Hillary in charge of a Republican Congress is like putting brakes on a car… She can stop it with vetoes from going into a wall, but she can’t make it go anywhere on her own. Obama when he first ran as the first black president, brought many new voters into the process for the first time. They also voted his party in at the Congressional level. As the first woman, Hillary has that capacity as well. Woman should vote for her, just to make a point to all the men they know that no, women are not inferior…..
Can Bernie Sanders win? Is supporting him a waste of vote? Were Bernie to win the nomination he would rapidly be pushed into the “crazy old man” box by our corporate media and would constantly be on the defensive clawing his way out. Vast numbers of the ill-informed would take portraying him that way as the truth. Little about American Presidential politics is based on ideas or policies… For a majority of Americans it is about electing your favorite Superhero. AS in do your like Flash better than Wolverine? If Bernie was the candidate then large numbers of voters would compare him with the Republican who would be cloned like Romney and say,” Romney-clone is the more normal and with whom I am more comfortable with… I like what Sanders says but I’m more at home with a Romney clone on my TV than someone like Sanders”…. and a Republican then takes the White House…. Hillary despite her faults, as of now, is probably going to be the Democrat’s candidate simply because she has potential to steal voters away from the Republicans…. and bring voters into the fold who have never voted before but want to be part of putting a woman as the most power person on this planet.
That is too bad; Bernie Sanders is the only one making sense… Which is why you should send him money; right now. Many fooled by our media think the personal attribute of a president are what make our country. “Who has better character” as our media puts it… They are wrong. What governs our country is our ideals and our ideas. If everyone thinks we should cut taxes, those who want to be president follow that line of thought and support cutting taxes. This has happened across the past 30 years… Likewise if everyone thinks we should RAISE taxes, then the best candidates all flock to that position and all say they want to RAISE taxes.. Following trends is necessary in their support to jockey for financial consideration… Which is why you see no candidate running around arguing for legal prostitution for example. There is not enough support… But get support, and you will get the candidates….
Right now, we are in the process of sounding out the electorate. Imagine if you can, a sea of minute particles spread evenly across a universe. Each particle suspended individually… gravity starts to interfere and particles attract. Some aggregates grow bigger than others and they pull the others into them growing even bigger. As they collect and form into planets they attract and merge with moons and other large bodies and eventually become a planet with lots of empty space void of matter between themselves and the next planet… That is what is happening now in the political world. That is what Trump is doing, Wading through the electorate plastering himself with more and more attracted particles making himself bigger and bigger and in doing so, making him the prime candidate.
If Bernie’s ideas resonate with you, then you need to help him aggregate as well. Send him money. Political campaigns are starved for money, Your money going to Sanders and not Hillary completely nullifies the media’s attempt to portray him as a doddy old fool. They can say it all they want, but his campaign is swelling and the other Democratic challengers are faltering. Fact at some point always wins out over fiction. The question for fiction writers, is does it do it in time? Can they get past the vote before the truth comes out.
What’s more, you give credence to Bernie’s message. Though you may not think he can win, at this point your concern should be over what message do you want the party to take, not who should take it to the American people… For example, do you want a Carperesque Party? A Carneyesque Party? A party of Coons? A Wall Street Party? Or….. do you want a party that “holds these truths to be self evident“…….
INCOME AND WEALTH INEQUALITY
CREATING DECENT PAYING JOBS
RACIAL JUSTICE
A LIVING WAGE
REAL FAMILY VALUES
CLIMATE CHANGE & ENVIRONMENT
REFORMING WALL STREET
GETTING BIG MONEY OUT OF POLITICS
If any of these thing matter you need to send Bernie $8 dollars today… One day’s lunch… It may not seem like much but it is $8 dollars not going to the Republicans and not going to Hillary… The point is: if anyone running needs that $8 dollars they will have to either absorb Bernie’s fans or lose to him. And if someone who is able to win nationally by bringing in a lot more votes, finds it necessary to mimic Bernie because that is what We The People want, then We The People do get the type of government we wanted in the first place.
That is how politics work. So though it is early in the season, those who want a bombastic loudmouthed crazy old geezer running this country, are right now, throwing money at Donald Trump… That money is funding a bombastic loudmouth campaign which is picking up steam causing others to be starved of money in the process. That campaign in the early stages even if it does not win the Republican nomination for President next August, will dominate the policies of the Republican Party for the next 5 years… The Republican Party will always have to cater to that irresponsible wing because of Donald Trump became the first to bring in the money.
On the other hand if you want responsible government which is responsible to real human beings and not money, then you need to support Bernie Sanders right now… Don’t worry about the man. It is the ideas of his you are supporting. That huge idea that people need a voice and that millions of people who vote are willing to give credence to that voice, is why you need to send your money now…
It is just $8 dollars and it may or may not be enough to save your vision of what this nation can be. But like every patriot in our past history who sacrificed for an idea that sounded crazy but came to fruition, you will know as you looked back over your life that you did all you could do to fight for your vision of this country……
It all distills down to a battle between corporations and people…. Right now, all the candidates except one, support and are supported by the corporations… If you are fine with that, so be it… But if you are not, then right now in the early stages you need to act to make sure the one candidate who has just as equal chance as any other particle in the universe to become a planet, gets the jump on aggregation over all others… The others will attract to it, if it gets bigger first… and the only way to do that now, is send in $8 Dollars…. As a favor to you, here is a link to where you can do the absolute utmost to fight back against corporations….. DONATE HERE…
So if you ask me who is the biggest surprise? It is Bernie Sanders. He attracted 20,000 people to Portland to hear him speak yesterday. Obama at his height barely attracted 20,000. If your money can immediately follow those numbers then we luckily have a real fight on our hands… And that is good for every single one of us, …. (as long as we are earning less then $40 million a year/ if we aren’t then it is bad for us) Thank goodness. 🙂
If you support Hillary but want her to steer away from Wall Street, send money to Bernie. She will follow….
(And man…. do I hate myself for talking presidential politics this early in the season… )
This headline explains a lot.
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Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to Acquire Scholastic Ed-Tech Businesses for $575M
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So what does that mean.
- It means with consolidation that many (almost half) high paying jobs will be lost.
- It means that whereas two independent entities were previously competing on innovative educational techniques, now there will be only one, meaning less innovation.
- It means that $545 million (5 Delaware Race To The Top Grants) will not now be spent on education because it was just spent on this.
- And it means that from society’s overall point of view, that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt was overpaid $575 million. We could have gotten our goods cheaper….
But whenever a larger company buys up a smaller company, all of society loses. Any efficiency you gain, is sucked up right out of daily economic activity. it goes straight into a vault of the profiteers, never to be used in active economic activity again. And educational companies like everything else have simply gotten too big….
You can regulate companies, but that is a nightmare of arguing and documentation… There is an easier way… Tax them Tax away the money they are wasting on petty purchases… Tax them fairly, and thoroughly. IF HMH’s money had been taxed fairly and thoroughly prior to this company’s purchase, or if much of that had been put toward research, capital investment, or raising employees salaries just to avoid taxes, all would be better off…
As it is now, there was no benefit to anyone other then those purchasing. If we were talking about quarters for gumball gum, we could probably live with it… But we are not… We are talking about 5 Delaware Race To The Top Grants, now completely wasted for 99.999999999% of the population…..
This big money is why you are never heard… If you want your country back, you have better vote on those who promise to raise tax rates on the top 1%…. In truth, we really don’t need more taxes. We need more real investment and every chart the US Treasury and Federal Reserve can procure, show that real investment was a lot higher when any money leftover was taxed before going to the shareholders. I hope you too can through this one example exactly how the Bush Tax Cuts have changed our country from the land of bustling opportunity we had up to 2000…. to today….
The object lesson is that we should have no deficit by always paying our bills and those with most of the money, should be the ones paying them….
kavips 