Category: News and Politics
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Trumpgate: the huge problem on our hands
This is an excerpt from from Robert Reich’s explanation of “Trumpgate”. We are now 8 days into this bizarre event in history sparked by a meltdown by the president and no evidence that there is anything real outside the president’s imagination. I can’t think of any explanation other than these three. If #2 is now ruled…
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When fascism comes: blame public hopes and popular opinion
“When fascism comes it will not be in the form of an anti-American movement or pro-Hitler bund, practicing disloyalty. Nor will it come in the form of a crusade against war. It will appear rather in the luminous robes of flaming patriotism; it will take some genuinely indigenous shape and color, and it will spread…
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$100,000,000,000,000 (Wealth Inequity in America)
One hundred trillion dollars. That’s the total net worth of all Americans in 2017*. It’s a staggering number. For practical discussion purposes, we might say that figure is the net worth of rich Americans. The top 160,000 households (one tenth of one percent) control a quarter of this wealth. About half of all this U.S. wealth…
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Our plans to widen the US wealth gap
The United States is an amazingly rich nation. Our net worth of about one hundred trillion dollars works out to about $300,000 for every person across the country. Of course we know that wealth is not distributed evenly like this. Most of that wealth is held by a few people. Half of our nation’s wealth is controlled…
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America first is still a dumb idea
This cartoon by Chad Crowe ran in The Wall Street Journal this week with an editorial that said that business leaders know that “America first” is the wrong approach but that they are being politely silent for fear of upsetting the administration. It’s been an obvious economic truth to me, and I do not have any…
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Missing the Meaning of Trump (WSJ editorial)
This editorial published Tuesday titled “Missing the Meaning of Trump” is the most persuasive piece I’ve read in a long while. The author, Holman W. Jenkins Jr. (57) is a member of the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board who grew up in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania (near me). Notable excerpts: “the Donald Trump show is likely to remain,…
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The push for release of the president’s tax returns
New Jersey Congressman Bill Pascrell has taken a lead role in pushing Congress to legally obtain a copy of Trump’s tax returns as permitted under Internal Revenue Code section 6103(f). The initiative is likely to ultimately be successful since apparently a strong majority of Americans support the initiative and the Republicans blocking the disclosure are weakening in…
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The Attack on Truth
“Harvard’s motto is simple. It is just a single word: Veritas. Truth. We have seen disturbing signs that the Administration will suppress open thought and debate, silencing scientists and withdrawing their funding, attacking journalists and declaring them the “opposition party,” repeating falsehoods big and small. Truth. It is the guiding value of your alma mater;…
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Terrorist vs. muslim refugee
Republicans: The first photo is a real domestic terrorist. The second photo is a muslim refugee who desperately needs our assistance right now. The nation demands that you take off your political blindfold, use common sense, and learn to recognize the basic factual differences between the two. A logical person can easily apply analysis of…
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Why are these 23 Congressmen hiding Trump’s tax return?
Today’s news of the Republican campaign team’s many contacts with Russian government during the hacking of the presidential election combined with the news of a Russian spy ship spotted collecting intelligence off the coast of New Jersey today obviously raises many national security concerns. Congress promises to investigate. A simple starting point would be an…