#like that dropping unemployment rate has got to be a lie because the economy is literally collapsing in on itself and we're at record high

[fuzziemutt]

How are we having "lowest in a decade" unemployment rates yet literally over half of who I know, and even myself, for a very long time literally have been unable to find jobs.

Like. How are these equating because last I checked no motherfucker is hiring out here despite the signs

[patriotsnet]

Why Do Republicans Lie About Everything

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/why-do-republicans-lie-about-everything/

Why Do Republicans Lie About Everything

Which Came First: Republican Hate Or Gop Misinformation

Do Honest Republicans Still Exist?

Hate is a great motivator. All political parties have used it to get out the vote. Generally, those who seek elected office shape information in a way that helps a certain voting block hate their opponent. Thats how we elect people in America. That is a sad reality we just have to accept in order to fix it. Hope doesnt fix it.

Whats unique and new about negative politics in the post-Obama era is that we have this thing called the Internet and dare I acknowledge itSocial Media. ;Social media has completely isolated the Republican Party base. The Internet and social media have created hard-edged, isolated buckets of information where facts dont matteragreement;and emotion matter. For republicans, agreement with their own bias is considered fact, whereas disagreement is a lie they literally transform reality to support their own opinion: the Post-Truth Era. In order to maintain that alternate reality, they have to hate those who dont agree, otherwise their reality bubble starts to break apart.

This is the case on both sides of the aisle, but the hardliners have taken it to a new level, which is why they seem to hate everything. Theyre even taught to hate things that help them like the ACA, unions, and public education.

Social media and 1000 cable channels dont increase the information we receive they focus the information and repeat it 1000 times more often. Anything can become the truth when its repeated enough times.

The Big Lie Is Gop Gospel

Cheney is not alone in suffering consequences for challenging Trumps allegations.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who defended the states counting process against Trumps attempts to interfere with it, was stripped of his voting power on the State Election Board as part of Georgias new voting restrictions law.

In a special House election in Texas held on in early May, the Trump-critical Republican in the race Michael Wood got 3 percent of the vote.

In January, Michigan Republicans removed Aaron van Langevelde, a GOP attorney who broke with the party to certify Bidens victory in Michigan, from his post on the states Board of State Canvassers.

At the Utah Republican Partys convention this weekend, Sen. Mitt Romney perhaps the GOPs leading Trump critic was booed and called a traitor.

At the same time, Republicans who have embraced falsehoods about the election have been elevated.

Rep. Elise Stefanik , who appears likely to replace Cheney in the No. 3 spot, backed Trumps anti-election efforts to the hilt. Most egregiously, she falsely asserted that there were 140,000 illegal votes in Georgias Fulton County alone which would amount to more than 25 percent of all the votes in the entire Democratic-leaning county. The breakout Republican stars in the House of Representatives, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert , both egged on the January Stop the Steal rally that culminated in the attack on Capitol Hill.

Why Do Conservatives Soak Up Lies

The evidence that conservatives crave lies is abundant.

Conservatives loved George W. Bush’s and Dick Cheney’s lies about “Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction” — loved them so much, that the researchers who wrote “‘There Must Be a Reason’: Osama, Saddam, and Inferred Justification” surveyed 49 conservative Republicans, during October 2004, who admitted that they still believed Saddam Hussein had caused the 9/11 attacks, and these researchers found that 48 of those 49 extreme conservatives were entirely impervious to the overwhelming factual evidence that was provided to them by the presenters contradicting this false belief they held. Then, a showed that when Republicans were offered the official 2004 Duelfer report that had concluded Iraq hadn’t possessed any weapons of mass destruction for years before the United States invaded it in 2003, the percentage of Republicans who believed that Iraq did have WMD immediately prior to the invasion shot up, instead of going down . Even all of the exposés that had already been published about Bush’s faked WMD “proofs” didn’t persuade Republican voters that they’d simply been deceived by the people they trusted and supported. They didn’t resent it at all; they just asked for more, from those same discredited liars.

So: why do conservatives sop up lies, on topic after topic?

They do it because, if they didn’t, they couldn’t be themselves; they couldn’t be conservatives. Lie-lovers is whom they are. It’s their identity.

———-

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The Gop Elite Gave Us This Party

This dire outcome was not inevitable: The best evidence we have suggests that the rise of the Big Lie is the direct result of strategic choices by Republican leaders.

A new paper by Dan Hopkins, a political scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, analyzes data from a panel survey, which looks at roughly the same group of people over time, running between 2007 and 2020. The survey asked people to rate the fairness of the US electoral system on a scale of 1 to 5, and tracked the changes over time.

What they found was a striking consistency: Support for the American system is both high and reasonably stable when assessed via this measure, Hopkins writes. Though there are some fluctuations, with partisans evaluating the system as somewhat less fair when the other party is in power, generally theyre small.

Hopkinss last survey wave was in October 2020 which means the results dont reflect the false allegations lobbed in the aftermath of Bidens victory. The stability documented here was very likely shattered by Trumps post-election actions, Hopkins concludes.

Other data confirm this supposition. A report from the Voter Study Group analyzed Pew surveys, conducted after every presidential election since 2004, on whether voters thought their vote was counted fairly. You see the same general stability documented in Hopkinss paper, with a majority of voters in both parties saying they were very confident their vote was counted accurately in every year except 2020:

Republicans Have A Good Reason Not To Want To Investigate Jan 6: Theyre To Blame

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Our nations preeminent bipartisanship fetishistsJoe Manchin, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowskiare deeply disappointed that they cant get Republicans to back an investigation into the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill. Indeed, they seem outright baffled that their efforts at compromise have fallen short on plans for a bipartisan panel. There is no excuse for any Republican to vote against this commission since Democrats have agreed to everything they asked for, Manchin said in an angry statement on Twitter. It would be so much better if we had an independent outside commission, Collins, a moderate Republican, told reporters Thursday. Is that really what this is about, one election cycle after another? added Murkowski, blasting Mitch McConnells anticipated filibuster. Or are we going to acknowledge that as a country that is based on these principles of democracy that we hold so dear, and one of those is that we have free and fair elections.

I kind of want that to endure beyond just one election cycle, the Alaska moderate Republican told reporters.

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More Great Stories FromVanity Fair

Recommended Reading: Did Trump Really Say Republicans Are Stupid

In 2009 Republicans Predicted That The Economic Stimulus Package Would Only Make The Recession Worse And Cause More Unemployment

The results show they couldn’t have been more wrong. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 ended the recession after only a few months. Although 750,000 people were losing their jobs each month when Obama took office, after the Recovery Act was passed the rate of job loss immediately decreased each month and within a year the economy showed positive job growth.

Considering the severity of the 2008 economic collapse and the total opposition by Republicans to do anything at all to stimulate the economy, it is remarkable that the US economy recovered as quickly as it did.

Looking at the rate of job loss and job creation, its easy to see that the stimulus of 2009 was highly successful in stopping the job losses and turning the economy around.

Republicans Predicted That We Would Find Iraqs Weapons Of Mass Destruction Even Though Un Weapons Inspectors Said That Those Weapons Didn’t Exist

The Bush administration continued to insist that WMDs would be found, even when the CIA said some of the evidence was questionable. As we all know, the WMDs predicted by the Bush administration did not exist, and Saddam Hussein had not resumed his nuclear weapons program as they claimed. Ultimately, both President Bush and Vice President Cheney had to admit that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Don’t Miss: Who Is Behind Republicans For The Rule Of Law

Republicans Said President Obama Would Raise Taxes Sky High

It never happened. Income taxes for over 95% of Americans remained the same or lower than they were before Obama was elected. The only people whose income taxes increased were those who make more than $400,000 per year, and their taxes rose only 3%. For most Americans, taxes are still lower now than they were under Reagan.

In 1993 When The Brady Law And The Assault Weapons Ban Were Passed Republicans Predicted Increasing Rates Of Crime And Murder

Republicans Are Lying To Themselves About Trump’s Toxicity

Thankfully, just the opposite happened. While the rate of violent crime had increased steadily from the 1970s into the 1990s, it suddenly began to drop after 1993 and continued to decline for more than ten years. What could have happened in 1993 to precipitate such a sudden and prolonged drop in crime? Thats the year Congress passed the Assault Weapons Ban and the Brady Law, which mandated background checks and a waiting period to buy a gun.

Despite Republican predictions to the contrary, the Brady Law and the Assault Weapons Ban were followed by the most dramatic reduction in violent crime since the FBI started keeping statistics. The graphs below, based on the actual numbers from the FBI Uniform Crime Reports website, show how the rates of murder and violent crime in the US dropped suddenly after the 1993 Brady Law and Assault Weapons Ban were passed.

These charts show the rate of murder and violent crime over 35 years based on numbers from the FBI Uniform Crime reports.

Recommended Reading: How Many Republicans Voted For Obamacare In The Senate

Here Are A Few More Things Republicans Have Been Wrong About:

Republicans said that Obamacare would have death panels to decide who would live and who would die. Wrong. No such death panels were ever proposed and nothing of the kind ever happened.

They said the 2009 laws to improve automobile fuel efficiency standards would kill the US auto industry. Wrong. The new standards were followed by a resurgence of the US auto industry enabling them to hire back tens of thousands of workers.

They said environmental protection laws requiring companies to clean up their pollution would create an undue burden and kill businesses. Nope, it never happened.

They said Ebola would spread across the country because President Obama allowed American Ebola patients to be treated in the US. The outbreak never happened. Only three people contracted Ebola in the US and all three survived.

They said President Obama would open our borders to illegal immigrants. Wow, were they wrong about that. Under Obama, we set new records for most illegal immigrants stopped at the border and sent home.

They said Obama would drive up the Federal budget deficit. That didn’t happen. Obama cut the $1.4 trillion deficit he inherited by two-thirds.

While someone could no doubt find instances where Democrats engage in over-the-top rhetoric, nothing compares to the consistently false and erroneous claims made by the GOP in recent years. When a political party has been so dismally wrong about nearly everything over the past 30 years, that party should lose all credibility.

‘nothing There’: More Republicans Are Calling Out Trump’s Election Lies

WASHINGTON The more we learn about Donald Trumps baseless, false and discredited claims about the 2020 election, the more baseless, false and discredited those claims have become.

Just consider the revelations over the past week from Republicans:

In Michigan, a GOP-led investigation by its state Senate concluded that it found no evidence of widespread or systematic fraud in Michigans prosecution of the 2020 election.

Regarding Arizona, a report co-authored by former Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson criticized the so-called audit of the election results in that state, saying it does not meet the standards of a proper election recount or audit, and that its being conducted by an inexperienced, unqualified contractor.

And over the weekend, ABCs Jon Karl writing for the Atlantic had former Trump Attorney General Bill Barr debunking Trumps claims about the 2020 election results. If there was evidence of fraud, I had no motive to suppress it. But my suspicion all the way along was that there was nothing there, Barr said. It was all bullsh!#.

Predictably, Trump lashed out at those GOP findings.

Michigan State Senators Mike Shirkey and Ed McBroom are doing everything possible to stop Voter Audits in order to hide the truth about November 3rd, the former president said in a statement, which even included those state senators phone numbers.

Even Bill Barr doesnt buy them.

Read Also: Who Won The House Republicans Or Democrats

Get Ready For Another Possible Crisis Like 2020

This is not the first time that Republicans have declared a Democratic president somehow illegitimate. They impeached Bill Clinton on flimsy grounds, after previously accusing him of crimes ranging up to murder; there was a widespread campaign to label Barack Obama an unlawful foreign-born president . These campaigns were effective: A 2019 poll found that 56 percent of Republicans still believed that Obama was born in Kenya.

Nor is this the first time Republican elites have ginned up suspicion of voter fraud for political purposes. After Republicans won a series of statehouse elections in 2010, they spent the next few years falsely claiming that voter fraud was a serious threat in order to pass voter ID laws that were nakedly designed to suppress the vote among Democratic-leaning minority groups. Research has found that, even prior to Trump, this convinced Republicans that voter fraud was a real problem when its exceptionally rare.

These earlier campaigns laid the intellectual groundwork for 2020. Republicans were already primed to believe elected Democrats were somehow illegitimate and to believe in widespread fraud in the American electoral system. Trumps innovation claiming that an entire presidential election result was fraudulent was pushing on an open door.

Paying Lower Taxes Hurts Taxpayers

Less revenue means fewer handouts. Thats bad news for Democrats who lie obsessively year after year about how tax revenue never gets the job done in distressed communities because we still arent spending enough.

Why is it that even when the party is in power, when Democrats call the shots every single year like they do in Illinois, the poor stay right where they are most valuable in poverty?

Recommended Reading: How Many Democrats And Republicans Are In The House

Times Republicans Were Wrong

It’s no secret that politicians tend to use exaggerated political rhetoric to get people to vote for them. In recent decades, Republicans have repeatedly made very ominous predictions about the horrors that will result from Democratic policies while painting a rosy picture of what will result from Republican policies. Now we have the luxury of looking back over the years to examine those predictions and policies. Below, you will find twenty-one examples of times Republicans were blatantly wrong.

Most Republicans Said That President Obama Should Be Impeached Because Of The 2012 Attack On The Us Consulate In Benghazi

Their own investigations, however, proved them wrong. Every Congressional inquiry, including those by the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee, concluded that the Obama administration did nothing wrong regarding Benghazi, that there was no stand down order given, and that neither the President nor anyone in his administration lied about it. Each and every Republican investigation has reached this same conclusion, but Republicans continue to exploit this tragedy for political gain.

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Truth Matters Which Is Why I’m Telling It

I take comfort in knowing that I am doing the moral thing by telling the truth to my constituents.;I also;happen to believe;telling the truth;about;the 2020 election;is good politically.

If Republicans;become the party of the Big;Lie if we encourage this madness much longer we;will lose credibility with;the majority of;Americans on issues where I believe we have better ideas.;We will do;lasting damage to our republic.

True Republicans would never dream of wasting taxpayer money to hire an unknown cybersecurity firm with no elections auditing experience to audit an election that has;already been audited.;This is what the Arizona Senate is doing with their Cyber Ninja audit.

True Republicans would not;stand idly by while auditors paid with taxpayer dollars;chased;insane rumors that ballots were flown in from South Korea to change the outcome of the presidential race, or;that;secret watermarks;on the ballots;revealed by UV lights;would;expose fraud;once and for all.

This is what the Arizona Senate is doing with their Cyber Ninja audit.

Lies Damned Lies And The Truth About Joe Biden

Saagar Enjeti: Media Lets Biden SHAMELESSLY LIE About Hunter Bidens Business Dealings

Joe BidenKentucky state lawmakers vote to scrap school mask mandate Arkansas governor pushes back against Biden’s vaccine mandate RNC vows to sue over Biden vaccine, testing mandate MORE. I know him, said the House Speaker authoritatively, and that was that.

Does Bidens record warrant such confidence? Not really. In fact, Biden has a long history of lying about himself, about his past and about events that never took place.

Democrats want the 2020 campaign to be a referendum on President Trump. Fine, but if this is to be a contest of characters, it is only appropriate that Joe Bidens history of fabrication and deceit often intended to bolster his intellectual credentials also be fair game.

Over the past year, Biden thundered that the Obama administration didnt lock people up in cages. He also claimed that, Immediately, the moment started, I came out against it. And I was always labeled one of the most liberal members of Congress. Politicos rating of all three assertions? False.

No one should be surprised. Lest we forget

A video is making the rounds in which Biden boasts at a 1987 rally, “I went to law school on a full academic scholarship ended up in the top half of my class.”

Biden also maintained that he “graduated with three degrees from undergraduate school” and was the outstanding student in the political science department.

That commentary holds up well, as today more than ever Biden blunders into conversational crevasses, with no way out.

Also Check: Who Created Social Security Democrats Or Republicans

[reading-writing-revolution]

Heather Cox Richardson

May 7, 2020 (Thursday)

There were three big stories today, and they added up to a fourth.

First, the Department of Justice, overseen by Attorney General William Barr, filed documents today to drop its case against Trump’s former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. This reverses years of work on the Flynn case, and has shocked experienced prosecutors, who say it reveals that Barr is now simply working for Trump. The filing was signed by Timothy Shea alone, Barr’s hand-picked US Attorney for the District of Columbia. No career prosecutors signed on.

Flynn was a lobbyist for the Turkish government and had spent time at a state dinner with Russian President Vladimir Putin when the FBI opened a case on him on August 16, 2016, out of concern he might be working with Russia even as he was campaigning for Trump (with his famous “Lock Her Up” chants). On November 10, after Trump was elected, President Barack Obama warned Trump not to hire Flynn for a national security post, but on November 18, Trump named Flynn his National Security Advisor. On December 29, the same day the Obama administration announced retaliatory measures for Russian interference in the 2016 election, Flynn caught the attention of the FBI by making five phone calls to the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak. FBI officials and Obama officials thought the conversations sounded like he and Moscow had made a secret deal.

The FBI interviewed Flynn on January 24; he lied about those calls, saying they did not talk about lifting Russian sanctions after Trump was elected. After the interview, acting attorney Sally Yates made an urgent visit to White House Counsel Don McGahn warning him that Flynn was “compromised” and vulnerable to blackmail by the Russians. On February 8, Flynn publicly denied he had spoken to Kislyak about sanctions, but when news broke the next day that he had, his spokesman said he could not “be certain that the topic never came up.” He resigned on February 13. (The next day, Trump met with FBI Director James Comey and asked him to let the Flynn case go. When Comey continued to investigate Russian connections to the Trump campaign, Trump fired him, and the outcry led to the appointment of Robert Mueller as Special Counsel to take over the investigation.)

Flynn offered to testify about the campaign’s connections to Russia in exchange for immunity from criminal prosecution, but was turned down. In November, after news broke that Mueller had enough evidence for criminal charges against Flynn and his son, he began to cooperate with the investigation.

In December 2017, Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, but was not sentenced because he had not yet finished cooperating with the special counsel’s office. Then, after the Mueller investigation ended, in June 2019, he fired his lawyers and hired Sidney Powell, who had criticized the Mueller investigation. Soon, Flynn backed away from his guilty plea, his lawyer claiming that he had been “ambush[ed]” by FBI agents trying to “trap… him into making statements they could allege as false.” In January 2020, Powell accused the government of “egregious government misconduct” and moved to withdraw Flynn’s guilty plea.

And now the Department of Justice is moving to withdraw the case. It is highly unusual to try to undo a guilty plea, and the switch signals a dramatic shift in the DOJ. The career prosecutor on the case formally withdrew from it just before the Justice Department stopped the prosecution, just as career prosecutors stepped aside when Barr interfered in Trump confidante Roger Stone’s sentencing. The filing claims that FBI agents unlawfully pursued Flynn—that there was no just cause for an intelligence investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, and that therefore his confession is immaterial.

Did you get that? The Justice Department is saying that any investigation into Russian interference into the 2016 election was illegitimate, despite the report of the inspector general saying the opposite. And now, with a Trump crony at Director of National Intelligence there is little hope we will hear more about Russian interference. Both acting DNI Richard Grenell and the man Trump has nominated to replace him, Representative John Ratcliffe (R-Tx), neither of whom have experience in the intelligence community, have been vocal in their disbelief that Russia threatens our elections.

Still, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan will decide whether to accept the dismissal of the case. Sullivan ripped into Flynn in his 2018 hearing, telling him “I want to be frank with you, this crime is very serious…. Not only did you lie to the FBI, you lied to senior officials in the incoming administration…. I am not hiding my disgust, my disdain for your criminal offense.”

Trump said today that the Justice Department’s decision just adds more evidence to the idea there was “no collusion” between his campaign and Russia (which was, remember, not what the Mueller report said). All the Pulitzer Prizes people won for those stories should be given back, he said, because they were fake news. Trump is talking about reinstating Flynn into the administration.

And that, sadly, is not the end of the day’s news.

The next big story is the coronavirus. We are up to 76,000 deaths, and the cases show no sign of slackening. Projections for the summer are grim, with most models estimating we will well surpass 100,000 deaths.

On Tuesday, Trump justified opening businesses because he said “We can’t keep our country closed for the next five years.” But that’s not what’s on the table. What we are trying to do by holding down deaths now is to buy time before a vaccine is available, which experts said about six months ago would take at least 12 to 18 months. Trump, of course, has an interest in trying to reopen the country quickly because he sees the economy as the key to his reelection and wants it recovering by the fall. But he has admitted this will costs lives, a sacrifice he is more ready for others to make than for himself. Today, he got “lava level mad” when he learned one of his personal valets had tested positive for Covid-19, accusing his staff of not taking sufficient precautions to keep the virus away from him (despite frequent testing of everyone in his orbit).

And certainly, the economy is in free fall. Tomorrow, we get the jobs report for April. It is expected to show that the US economy lost about 21.5 million jobs last month. If that is correct, it indicates we have wiped out all of the job gains in the U.S. since mid-1999. It also puts the unemployment rate at 16%, the highest since 1939. There are answers other than sending people back to work without testing or contact tracing, however. We could, for example, provide a wage guarantee until infections recede enough to enable people to go back into the workforce with some sense of security.

The third big story is that the Republican National Committee and the Trump reelection campaign have budgeted $20 million to fight Democratic attempts to make remote voting easier during the pandemic. Although there is no evidence that mail-in voting causes fraud, and although some states already do it with no ill effects, RNC chief of staff Richard Walters fell back on the idea that easing restrictions to make it easier to vote would contaminate elections. “Democrats may be using the coronavirus as an excuse to strip away important election safeguards, but the American people continue to support commonsense protections that defend the integrity of our democratic processes,” he said, and Republicans were willing to sue Democrats “into oblivion and spend whatever is necessary.”

These three stories seem to add up to a fourth. Trump and his people are grasping power, but he knows he must resurrect the economy to win reelection. That will not be enough if the carnage of the pandemic grows, so he is determined to suppress the vote.

At least that’s what it looks like to me.

[shirlleycoyle]

Alec Baldwin Just Did an Hour-Long Instagram Chat with an Anti-Vaccine Activist

In a public health development that one can safely characterize as “not great,” actor Alec Baldwin appeared on Instagram Live on Thursday with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a formerly respected environmentalist who’s been best known in recent years for promoting severe vaccine misinformation. As Baldwin listened obligingly, Kennedy promoted a variety of wildly false claims about vaccine safety, and speculative concerns about the quarantine measures being taken to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Baldwin’s Instagram account has 1.8 million followers, and the video, in less than two hours, garnered more than 43,000 views. This is not precisely what we need right now.  

At the outset of their talk, Baldwin told Kennedy that he’s been watching Kennedy’s videos on vaccines for “years,” which is also, on its face, not great. Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and the son of assassinated U.S. senator Bobby Kennedy, spent years doing important work advocating for issues like water safety with the Waterkeeper Alliance and  with the organization Riverkeeper.  He and Baldwin have previously discussed fracking on WNYC. 

Beginning in 2005, however, with the publication of a now-infamous story called “Deadly Immunity,” Kennedy began promoting “egregious” misinformation about vaccines, as science writer Seth Mnookin put it in one story outlining his long history of misleading claims. 

During the conversation with Baldwin, Kennedy repeated several of his greatest hits, including claiming that vaccines historically contained unsafe levels of mercury, and that the flu shot is still full of mercury. (The respected physician and vaccine researcher Paul Offitt is one of dozens of people who have outlined that Kennedy is conflating two kinds of mercury. Ethylmercury is what the body produces when it metabolizes thimerosal, a preservative used in some vaccines, and leaves the body quickly. It is quite, quite different from methylmercury, which can be toxic to human beings at high levels of exposure.) Kennedy rejects the difference between the different kinds of mercury, and told Baldwin, “There’s no good kind of mercury.” 

“Why is it there in the first place?” Baldwin asked, apparently horrified. (The real answer is that thimerosal is only used today in multi-dose flu vaccines, and was removed from all childhood vaccines out of an abundance of caution in 2001.) 

Kennedy went on to claim that vaccines are “unavoidably unsafe,” a common canard in the anti-vax movement. (The law professor and vaccine policy expert Dorit Reiss has written about how vaccine skeptics frequently misconstrue what that term means; “Unavoidably unsafe” products are products that are so valuable—that have so many benefits—that the risk associated with their use is justified.”) He also claimed that vaccines “are the only medical product that aren’t safety tested,” which is an outrageous lie. Vaccines are among the most tested medical products on the planet, and are tested in thousands of volunteers before being licensed.

“All these COVID vaccines that are coming, I’ve heard of three now, none of them placebo-tested?” Baldwin inquired. 

Kennedy didn’t exactly respond directly, instead saying that vaccines aren’t tested “against a placebo” prior to licensing. That’s not the same thing as “not being safety tested;” there are, in fact, a host of serious ethical concerns that preclude a placebo versus vaccine study in human subjects. 

Baldwin also gave Kennedy a chance to talk about his organization Children Health Defense’s lawsuit against the manufacturers of Gardasil, a suit that Kennedy has used to promote unproven claims that Gardasil causes autoimmune diseases and a host of other issues. (The American Cancer Society recommends the Gardasil vaccine for pre-teens for preventing HPV, but the uptake rate remains worryingly low compared to other childhood vaccines.) 

Kennedy also used some of his time with Baldwin to attack the workings of the federal vaccine court, a subject that several vaccine opponents are focused on right now. “The threshold for getting into the court," he said, "is so high that fewer than one percent of vaccine injuries make it into the court, and in those cases, fewer than 34 percent prevail.”

In fact, data from the vaccine injury program show that it’s exceedingly rare for someone to claim they were injured by a vaccine, and when there is a provable injury, it’s quite common for the government to concede the case and make a payment. According to HRSA, a federal agency:  “Since 1988, over 20,629 petitions have been filed with the [Vaccine Injury Compensation Program]. Over that 30-year time period, 17,875 petitions have been adjudicated, with 6,551 of those determined to be compensable, while 11,324 were dismissed. Total compensation paid over the life of the program is approximately $4.1 billion.” 

Finally, and most worryingly, Baldwin and Kennedy turned to COVID-19, which Kennedy used as an opportunity to promote dubious claims about quarantine measures and even mask-wearing. “One thing I think we’re not thinking about is what is the death toll from the quarantine,” Kennedy said. He claimed that previous studies from the 1980s have shown that unemployment leads to suicide and “additional admissions to mental institutions.”  

“The death toll from quarantine could far exceed the death toll from COVID,” Kennedy proclaimed. (The coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 700,000 people worldwide and quarantine measures have been used in virtually every country that’s gotten the pandemic under control.) He also claimed that hydroxychloroquine, a drug frequently promoted by President Trump, had been discredited by studies that weren’t using it “correctly.” (A growing number of studies suggest hydroxychloroquine isn’t an effective treatment for coronavirus.) 

“I took hydrochloroquine all the time when I was a kid,” Kennedy said. (This is not what hydroxychloroquine is called; he likely meant chloroquine, another anti-malarial drug.) “It wasn’t given a chance.” He also claimed that Sweden, which used voluntary social distancing guidelines instead of more stringent restrictions, might serve as a good model. “They didn’t shut down businesses. They had a death rate that was slightly higher than their neighbors … but it's much lower than they had in Britain and many other countries. And now coronavirus has disappeared in Sweden, and they didn’t shut down their businesses. They didn’t shut down their economy.” The coronavirus case rate has dropped in Sweden, as in many other countries, but it hasn’t disappeared. Sweden’s economy was less affected than other European countries with stricter lockdowns, but it still saw the largest economy slump in 40 years, in addition to a death rate, as Kennedy correctly pointed out, far higher than neighboring Denmark and Norway.

Kennedy claimed that the kind of “debate” he’d like to see around COVID-19 and vaccines isn’t happening “on CNN” and in other mainstream news outlets. “It’s all about the pharmaceutical paradigm—‘Do what you’re told, Believe what we tell you.’ I think it polarizes people.  It makes them angry. It makes them say, I’m not going to do what you tell me because you’re not explaining to me the truth, you’re not allowing this debate to happen, you’re not persuading me.” 

Another thing, of course, that “polarizes” people and poisons the public debate is injecting easily disproved lies and misinformation into the discussion. During the conversation, Baldwin didn’t quite endorse Kennedy’s viewpoints, but nor did he push back on them, or even seem to fully understand the claims being made. Instead, at their close of their talk, he told Kennedy only, “I'm glad to see that your passion for public policy is undiminished."

In response, Kennedy congratulated Baldwin for speaking with him.

 "I hope you don't take too much crap for letting me speak,” he told him. “You've got a lot of courage."

Representatives for Baldwin didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from VICE News.

Alec Baldwin Just Did an Hour-Long Instagram Chat with an Anti-Vaccine Activist syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[sublimedeal]

Gary Halbert – How To Write Sales Letter That Will Make You Rich

Gary Halbert – How To Write Sales Letter That Will Make You Rich

Are you already rich? If not, you need to be 100% certain you make an enormous amount of money in the Year 2005… which… of course… is right around the corner.

Here is why: We are now living in the most uncertain time in the entire history of our country. By this time next year, there may be peace and democracy in Iraq. Or, it could be such an awful mess, it is draining our country of several hundred billion dollars per month.

Or maybe the situation in Iraq will be something in between I just don’t know. Neither do you. And nobody else knows either. what about the price of gasoline?

Maybe it will be ten dollars or more per gallon. (It already is in some countries.) Or maybe it will drop to $1.25 (or less) per gallon. Again, I don’t know and neither do you nor anyone else.

Same thing with the economy in general. A year from now, things may be rosy. Maybe everybody will have jobs and plenty of money. Maybe not. Maybe there will be a 30% unemployment rate and most people will be struggling just to survive. Maybe it will turn out to be something in the middle.

Terrorism! Maybe they’ll blow up the Statue of Liberty, the stock exchange and the two nuclear power plants just south of Los Angeles. Maybe nothing will happen. The point is…

Nobody In The World

Can Now Predict The Future

With Any Degree Of Certainty Whatsoever!

But, I’ll tell you what I CAN do: I can show you (if you act right now) how to make a ton of money in 2005… no matter what happens!

Look, about 30 years ago, I decided I wanted to become the best copywriter who ever lived. I’ve achieved that goal. At least I’ve achieved it in my own mind (the only place that really counts) and, to my own satisfaction. Now, I want something different. Now I want…

To Be The Best

Copywriting Teacher In The World!

And, by God, I think maybe I am. Listen up: I have a friend who is, arguably, the deadliest man on earth when it comes to hand-to-hand fighting. What he likes, after he trains someone is, to have that person go hang out in biker bars. He doesn’t tell them to pick fights… because… he knows the bikers will take care of that part.

Anyway, just to stay “tuned-up” my friend goes out to a biker bar every once in a while, all by himself. He just sits there until one or more bikers (the more the merrier) starts to pick a fight with him… and then…

He Beats The Living Shit Out

Of Everybody In The Bar!

He’s been doing this for years. Now, let me ask you something: If you HAD to learn how to fight (like maybe you knew you were going to have to defend your wife, your kids or one of your closest friends) who would you want to teach you how to fight? Some movie star, kick-boxing, karate guy like Chuck Norris (who literally has never been in a fight in his life)?

I don’t think you’d chose him to teach you. Not if your life depended on it.

I think you’d rather be trained by someone like my friend who has… in real life … been putting his ass on the line for years… and… who is always ready to do it again.

Anytime. Anywhere. Anyplace.

The choice is obvious. Unless you are a complete moron, you always bet on a guy who “walks-the-walk” instead of some lame dipshit who just “talks-the-talk”. And, when it comes to copywriting… I’m the one who “walks-the-walk”… and… walks it best! I’m the only teacher in the world who has been hanging out in the “biker bars of marketing” for more than 30 years… and… who is always ready and willing to prove he is the best copywriter who ever lived.

Anytime. Anywhere. Anyplace.

Do you have the guts to go into the baddest “biker bars of marketing” with me? I’m NOT going to lie and tell you it’s going to be easy. I’m NOT going to lie and tell you it’s not going to be scary.

It is NOT easy. It IS scary. It’ll jolt the hell out of you. But if you have the “heart” for it…

You Can Achieve Total Financial Freedom

For The Rest Of Your Life!

You can get everything you need in the way of “equipment” from your local drug store for $1.39. (I actually went out and priced it.) You can, if you choose, work at home from your kitchen table. You can live anywhere you want. You can make huge amounts of money in a remote “Unabomber-type” cabin, a motor home, a boat… or… a mansion (you’ll be able to afford one)… or… a more conventional type “normal” office. It just doesn’t matter.

Best of all, you will never have to kiss anybody’s ass for money… ever again!

Listen up: A long time ago, I met a man I thought I despised. I was in the Army in Fort Knox, Kentucky in basic training. He was a little Puerto Rican guy and he was my platoon sergeant. He was very unfair to me. Once, we were going through tear gas training and my mask slipped off and I got sick. During the march back to camp, I felt so bad, I fell down. I figured my sergeant would tell some of the other guys to hold me up and help me make it back.

However, he didn’t “exactly” do that. No, instead he yelled to the other guys… “Don’t stop for him! Walk right over him! Kick him as you go by! KICK HIM!”

I got up and made it all by myself.

He hardly ever let me get any sleep either. Maybe an average of three hours per night. He made me the “goat” of the platoon. I got all the shitty assignments. No matter how bad I felt, how little sleep I got, he just kept pushing… pushing… and pushing me. I can still remember him yelling at me right after I’d field-stripped my M1 rifle ( that dates me, doesn’t it?) and was having trouble putting it back together.

This guy just didn’t care. Like I said, it didn’t matter if I was sick, exhausted from lack of sleep, nauseous from tear gas or whatever. He just kept pushing, yelling and forcing me to perform.

I hated him. I mean, I REALLY hated him.

Or, so I thought. You see, when basic training was over (finally, thank God), he had a private conversation with me. He told me not to have a bad opinion of myself. That he didn’t. He said that during every basic training bootcamp, there is always one guy who gets picked to be the “goat”… and… how that guy always gets pushed harder than the others. How the “goat” sort of sets the standard (in basic training) for what a soldier can endure. He told me he really cared about me. How much he wanted me to make it. How important that was to him.

He was telling the truth.

You know, since that time, I’ve had to (as I’m sure you have also) walk down many mean streets. For three years I was an MP in Europe operating under extremely stressful conditions. I was selected to go through some very special training at a certain U.S. government “facility” in Oberammergau, Germany… the existence of which… is not even dreamed about by any civilians and, very few commanding officers. Even in the highest echelons of the military. I think maybe I shouldn’t write much about that but, I can tell you, the violent types I was introduced to there are far worse than any nightmare you’ve ever had. I’ve been a prison guard and a prison inmate. I’ve gone up against guys with guns, guys with knives… and once… I had to cripple a guy twice my size who just simply gave me no other choice.

The problem with all this is, I’m not an especially tough person and this kind of stuff really frightens me. What has been even more scary is standing up to the U.S. government and all the steel-edged, stone-cold, ethically devoid, soulless assholes you encounter when trying to do business in America these days. But so far (thank God and cross my fingers) I’ve survived it all… and even prospered BIG TIME… and… I do believe part of my survival and part of my successes (business, personal and military) can be credited to the “mindset training” I got from that little Puerto Rican drill sergeant.

See, he knew something I didn’t. He knew, in real life, you don’t get to yell, “Time out” when you are sick, tired and scared… and then… have the enemy cut you some slack. NO! As real life teaches us all…

The Enemy Will Rejoice In

And Exploit Your Misery!

So it is in the battlefields of war. And, so it is in the battlefields of business.

Listen: Some time ago, I gave a seminar most of my readers don’t know about. It was a brutal seminar. At the end of that seminar, one man was sobbing. He’d become so emotional, he couldn’t speak any more. Was he angry with me? No, not all. He was grateful. What I did was, I attacked and demolished a project he was working on which didn’t have a prayer of succeeding. I made him “GET IT” right then and there… before… he wasted any more of his time and money. I wrote out on my easel and made him scream the following instructions…

“Abandon This Stupid,

Bullshit Project!”

It wasn’t an act of cruelty. It was an act of kindness. And, I’m proud to say he and everyone else in that seminar room perceived it as such.

Ever hear of Jeff Paul? In those days he was so broke, he couldn’t afford to eat in the restaurant where the seminar was being held. What he was doing (unbeknownst to me) was hiding out in his hotel room with his wife and they were eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

At that time, Jeff was trying to sell a $700 golf putter… and… I wrote a sales letter for him at the seminar right there in front of him and all the other attendees.

Jeff and his wife don’t eat many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches anymore. He’s a multi, multi-millionaire with TV infomercials, and Internet and direct mail promotions that provide him with all the time and money to buy or do… anything he wants!

And what about Joe Polish? Ever hear of him? The top guru of carpet cleaners? He was there too. Ask him how many millions he has made because of me.

Another attendee was Ross Jeffries, a guy who teaches “Speed Seduction.” Now he “suffers” trying to figure out what to do with all the money and women he’s got. Ask him what that seminar did for him.

Look, I can’t take credit for the success of Jeff Paul, Joe Polish, Ross Jeffries and all the others who became rich because of what they learned at my seminar. They made their successes themselves. And, I believe they have so much drive and ambition, they all would have made it with or without me.

But, I do think I can take a little credit for being the “ass-kicker” that got them all “jump started”.

You know, at that seminar, there were a number of people who had been reading my newsletters and going to my seminars for more than ten years. Every so often, one of them would stand up and say something like this:

“Listen to Gary, damnit! I had a hard time myself accepting something he had told me to do six years ago… but… he was right. And now, well now I make over $1,000,000 per year!”

By the way, that particular remark was made by Dr. Gerald McCarthy of Omaha, Nebraska. Who said… as near as he can figure… he has made about 9-¾ million dollars from doing everything I taught him.

I’ve never had testimonial letters like the ones that poured in from the attendees of that seminar. I’m thinking about having them all bound together and literally making a book out of them. Can you imagine…

Having An Entire Book Of

Nothing But Rave Testimonials?!

Enough. Blowing your own horn is fine but, there should be a limit… even for me. So, let’s get to the important stuff. Just what was it I taught these people which seems to have literally turned around so many of their lives? Well, first and foremost, I revealed to them what I promised to reveal. Here’s a summary of just a small part of the important data I delivered:

This time, I truly spilled my guts! For the first time in my career, I revealed everything I know about how to write “killer” sales letters. Including, all my special “dirty tricks” that don’t give other copywriters even a chance… when… they’re up against me! I taught them… what to write about… and… how to write it. I taught them the exact words to use!

I taught them how to write brilliant copy… even on those days… when their minds are frozen !

I taught them exactly what “theme” they should take with different kinds of sales letters!

I gave them a “masterpiece collection” of 57 sales letters… already written and tested … that have already been mailed and have already pulled in millions of dollars!

Do you have any idea what a collection of “masterpiece letters” like this is worth? A real, no-bullshit collection of “killer” letters that have made copywriters rich? You won’t ever get a collection of letters like this from anyone else. These are letters anybody can “modify” to work for any mailing campaign in the entire world!

I taught the attendees how to write a sales letter to get themselves a woman. A new job. A new client. To jump-start a new business. To sell their house. To “steal” a valuable employee from another company. In short, I taught all of them how to write a sales letter… that… would get them anything they wanted !

I explained how to get hundreds of glowing (and true) testimonials from all of their customers for free… and exactly… what to do with them to generate bigger profits!

I taught them how to write copy so it “talks-the-talk” of any group of people to whom they write a sales message. This secret weapon will make even the most skeptical of prospects… stand in line and beg the person who wrote the letter to take their money!

A weird (but effective) way to find the mailing lists that are perfect for your campaigns… and… how to test those lists… without mailing a single letter!

A truly “no brainer” (yet almost always overlooked) way to “bump up” the size of your average order by 112% or more… automatically !

The exact words you should use to write a money-back guarantee that… increases sales … and… reduces refunds!

A “can’t miss” way to get cash-rich investors to bankroll your projects… at zero interest !

How to immediately find and qualify that special “core group” of people who will be the best customers you will ever have! (It seems nobody but me knows it… but… there is always what I call the “list-hidden-in-the-list” which is made up of people who are… starving to buy what you are selling!)

A simple way to identify those special mailing lists that almost can’t fail to make a profit! (This is so simple, even someone “braindead” could do it.)

What kind of music you should always have playing when you are working… and… what exact volume it should be. NOTE: This will improve the quality of your writing by 9%!

What exact temperature the room where you are writing must be. This will give you another edge ! (A 7% edge to be exact.)

Exactly what you must eat (on days when you are writing)… and… exactly when you should eat it! (Another 4% edge.)

The amazing secret of how to make compiled lists work. These are the biggest lists of all (some of them have 160 million names)… and… when you learn this , your profit potential will expand almost beyond belief!

How to create your very own super hot mailing list for spare change… and why… this could turn into your hottest profit center ever!

Listen up: I taught the attendees each one of those secrets… and… MUCH MORE! You can ask anybody who was there. But, I went beyond (way beyond) what I promised to deliver. What I actually delivered (in addition to what I promised) was something… far more valuable!

And, it is this “something” that got everybody frothing at the mouth. Here’s part of it: One of the attendees, Larry Lee, a really neat little Oriental guy, asked me the following question:

“Gary, what is the one best thing each of us could do to make $1,000,000 in the next 12 months?”

I paused to think for a moment… and then… I spilled out a step-by-step, high-speed method of EXACTLY what I would do… if I were starting from zero… and.. I HAD to make a million dollars in the next 12 months.

You know, I did not anticipate that question. And, to come up with the answer, I had to go into my “gun-to-the-head” mode of thinking. This is where I put myself (on an emotional basis) where it feels like someone… for real … will murder my children if I don’t write a winner… or… as, in this case, come up with a winning plan.

And guess what else? I didn’t even know I knew what I knew… until… I was put on the spot by that question. There was a sense of tension, anticipation and wonderment… but… when I finished giving a BRILLIANT answer to that question…

The Entire Room Burst

Into Simultaneous

Applause!

There were a lot of surprises at that seminar. Even for me. The room was crackling with electricity. Nothing compares to the excitement of working with a group of world-class minds and people supercharged with excitement and totally… “tuned in” and “turned on” by what all of us were focusing on!

And listen to this: This is the very best seminar on copywriting I have ever given. Or, for that matter, anyone else has ever given. This seminar occurred shortly before the new millennium. And mostly, it was about how to profit using what is now called “off-line” methods of doing business. But you know what? Everything I taught these people is now… because of the viability of the world wide web and the Internet…

1,000% Times MORE Valuable!

All of this seminar was captured on audio tape. But those tapes were stolen and after they were recovered, they were lost. (It’s a long story and I’ll probably write about it some day in one of my newsletters.) But guess what? Because of all the recent hurricanes in Florida, I had to go to my storage facility and check on the condition of all the supplies and products we keep there for safe keeping. And guess what? In the course of doing this inventory…

I Found The Tapes

Of That Copywriting Seminar!

If you are serious about making money, you need to have these tapes. And… you should probably listen to them at least three or four times… every year… for the rest of your life.

When you listen to these tapes, it’s going to be like you were sitting right there next to me at the seminar in person. You see, I was “mic’d up” with a Shure pro-quality cordless lavaliere… so… YOU can hear every whisper I uttered. (Something most of the attendees often missed.) There were constant distractions at the seminar too. The attendees couldn’t hit the “pause” button and go to the bathroom, or get a drink of water, or listen to whatever insanity their neighbor was discharging into their ear while I was talking. The attendees were constantly swamped with stimuli, which was exciting and good for on-the-spot learning… but… they often missed things too. However…

YOU Won’t Miss

A Single Second!

There were surprises for me too in these tapes! Because, you see, there were four “ambient” microphones spread around the room. Therefore, there isn’t a question, comment or rude muttering that gets lost. Listening to these audio tapes, you are not just a “fly on the wall”… it’s more like… you are God … with the nearly omnipotent power to hear everything… and… know everything from an insider’s viewpoint. And if you miss anything, all you have to do is rewind and hear it again!

By the way, I advertised for “Speed Demon Typists” in the Miami Herald , got 199 replies, and hired a “virtual platoon” of the best typists in Miami to transcribe every word spoken at the seminar.

So, if you purchase these seminar tapes, you will ALSO get a complete set of what I call the “57 Masterpiece Letters”… AND… a written transcript of the seminar.

Are you starting to get the idea that maybe I took this seminar more seriously than any other seminar I’ve ever given? If so… YOU ARE RIGHT!

One day, while I was driving in my car listening to some audio tapes, I had an epiphany. I realized this was the first seminar I’d ever given where… I held nothing back … and instead of trying to please the audience and tell them what they “thought” they needed to know…

I Taught Them What They

Really NEEDED To Know!

What I did for that audience of attendees is much like what that brutal little Puerto Rican drill sergeant did for me. He “got” to me. In ways that have benefitted me all the rest of my life. And I have come to realize that, what I have to teach, if I do NOT hold back… can literally…

Transform People’s Lives!

And now, I have, I believe, found my “mission” in life. It may sound corny but, I really LOVE making a difference. In all honesty, I believe what I have to share with people is totally unique, extremely valuable… and… available nowhere else on earth!

Can you imagine what it would be like to never again have to kiss anybody’s ass… or… do anything… you don’t want to do, in order to get money? Can you imagine having a business that brings in thousands of orders every day… and… running it from your kitchen table, your bedroom, or even your back yard… with zero employees? You CAN have it!

Do It! Get This Material!

STOP MESSING AROUND WITH YOUR LIFE RIGHT NOW! This is the real , no-bullshit way to financial independence. My attendees raved about this seminar even though…

They had to pay round-trip airfare to come! They had to take time off from their own businesses or jobs! They had to pay hotel and other travel expenses! Plus, of course, they had to pay the $2,700.00 tuition fee to attend the seminar! Some of those attendees forked over (when you consider their expenses) nearly $8,000 to attend this 3-day event. But, all you have to pay to get all the audios (there are 18 tapes recorded on both sides)… the written transcript of the seminar… and… the “57 Masterpiece Letters”… is the tuition fee. That’s right. You only have to pay the $2,700 tuition fee which was just a small portion of what the attendees had to sacrifice for the same information.

What this package is, is a culmination of my life’s work … and…

YOUR Key To

Financial Independence!

You can order this material by check or credit card. I’ll even let you make payments if necessary. But, there is a “catch”. You have to talk with me personally before you can order… and… there’s a reason for this. You see, I’ve discovered a secret anybody can use to make a lot of money… if… they use it…

Between Now And

The First Of The New Year!

It’s a secret that will work because of the conflict of the Middle East. And, it will work like crazy! If you can’t make money with this secret, you are beyond all hope. And listen: Making money by using this secret will not make you unpatriotic. Just the opposite. You will be making money because of the situation in the Middle East… and… by using this secret, you will be helping solve the problems over there.

You are NOT going to learn this secret over the Internet. And, I am NOT going to reveal it to you in a letter. You can ONLY learn it from me personally by talking to me on the phone AFTER you have decided to buy the seminar tapes I have described in this letter.

So, if you want to get the tapes and materials described in this letter (and the very time-sensitive money-making secret), you must talk with me personally.

Are you interested in any of this? If so, you need to e-mail me your name and telephone number and tell me what time zone you are in and a couple of different times for me to call you.

But, we’ve got to do this quick like a bunny. You see, I know this secret will work until the first of the year. And, I think it will work after that. But, I can’t be sure because the situation in the Middle East changes quite rapidly.

Gary Halbert – How To Write Sales Letter That Will Make You Rich published first on http://ift.tt/2qxBbOD

[fisayotower]

THE OBAMA YEARS: A REVIEW

Wow, wow, wow, 8 years gone quickly! As they say in Africa…President come…president go..only God remains on the throne! The Obama presidency is wrapping up soon!

So let’s get straight to it. We review his administration on the following major areas.

(1)    Healthcare: The passing of the Affordable Care Act ACA (Obamacare) was a huge achievement for the Obama Administration. It’s amazing that the richest country like the USA did not have a comprehensive health care plan. Despite the initial challenges, millions of people have signed up- great!  For people with pre-existing medical conditions and the very poor this was a major win. I mean- look at this video of a life-long republican thanking Obama for saving his life. However, for most ordinary/ middle class people with no pre-existing condition: not soo good!  This year, premiums are set to rise by 25% for many people! Why this this happened? Simply because the ACA was written by healthcare lobbysists. And these days when corporations and lobbyists make laws, guess who get screwed- oh yes, the average joe.  I would have thought a county like the USA will have Universal healthcare like their counterparts in Europe (Here is Donnie Trump talking about Scotland’s healthcare)- arhh the lobbyists  and health insurance firms do not want that and Obama was too weak to implement a radical change in the healthcare system.

 (2)    Economy: When Obama took office 20 January 2009, the global economy was in chaos. Thanks to Brother George Bush and our blessed friends from Wall Street. Unemployment rate was 7.8% and a lot of people with failed mortgages were getting thrown out of their houses.  Now the unemployment rate is 4.8%.  11.3millions jobs under President Obama- Jobs added for 75 straight months super! Credit to Obama for bailing out the auto industry However, on a closer look , one observes that the policies taken in the wake of the recession were almost similar to what was done by right wing Governments  in Europe (e.g UK).- bail out the banks, auto industries in the hope that they turn around and stimulate the economy. Guess who got richer- the top 1%! Obama even made 82% of the George bush tax cuts for the right permanent in 2012 – what! These guys are just one big club looking out for the interest of the elite. Please see the chart below of income growth in the USA (the source is Robert Reich former Labour secretary under Bill Clinton; a Democratic lending Professor). Despite the jobs added, it’s the top 1-5% in the 95th percentile (see the graph below), who have seen their wages grow under 

Obama. The rest are working more with little wage growth or at worse earning less! (P.S: Obama said he was s surprised trump won- completely out of touch! Ask Bill Clinton campaign manager James Carville : it’s the economy!!!!)

 Even the democrats know this but they pretend and lie in public. Here is the current chairwoman of the Democratic National Party- Aunt Donna in public (Twitter)

 Under President Obama, the economy has experienced a record 70 straight months of private-sector job growth. Over 14 million jobs!

 But in private, the same Aunty Donna (John Podesta emails)

 I think people are more in despair about how things are — yes new jobs but they are low wage jobs. HOUSING is a huge issue. Most people pay half of what they make to rent,”

 So how do we analyse the economy under Obama- it depends on where you are on the income ladder! And what verdict do we give Obama for the economy- well, we got trump!

(3)    Foreign Policy: How do I describe this- The take down of Osama, The Iran deal and the Cuba deal were great.  Unfortunately for the rest- fail! Fail! Fail! Pants on fire!!!!! For many Americans, this may come as a shock to you because your mainstream media does not tell you- the whole Middle East is boiling! Your handsome looking president who you think can never hurt a fly dropped 26,171 bombs in the middle east last year.

His number one mistake was appointing Clinton as his Secretary of State. In 2007, he ridiculed her experience. Then all of a sudden he tells us she is the most qualified person ever. In a moment of humility, Obama mentioned that Libya was his greatest regret- and who was responsible for it- Hillary Clinton!.

 Apart from Libya- Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia- arming “moderate rebels”who then decamp to terror groups. Spending $500m to train 4-5 rebel fighters was just epic! I can go on and on. John McCain warned us (by the way, not even sure John McCain would have been better) but we were swayed by the smooth talking politician and were ignoring most of his foreign policy disaster as it unveiled in real time.

 Oh and the Russia Russia Russia rants. These guys want war with a nuclear power. Are you gadamn insane!

 Hold on- but Obama as awarded the Nobel peace prize- wow!

 (4)    Civil rights, Human Liberties and Race relations: Let’s divide this into two parts- If you are LGBTQ or transgender- fantastic you had a wonderful president.  My reasoning for this is that corporations and lobbyists do not really have any issue with them. If they had, Obama will have balked under their pressure.

For other minorities- sorry! Despite the barrage of killings, Obama was too weak to enact legislation that could help curtail the unnecessary deaths- Speech after speech but no action.  You will think a black president will look out for African American and minority folks. Unfortunately the sad state of inner cities in places like Chicago remains in place.

Finally many of the insane laws that give the government unauthorized ability to snoop into your “business”. He used them; he did not prosecute any of the perpetuators of the 2003-date war in Iraq. He is handing over all these to Donnie Trump- wow!

(5)    Freedom of the Press and Freedom of information:  Obama kept talking about “protecting democracy” and freedom of press in beautiful speeches. However, his actions did not match his words. His administration denied more Freedom of Information acts than any other administration (even that of George bush). His administration has gone after journalists who try to expose the corruption in the administration big time! And in October came the biggest surprise- the media colludes with Democratic Party and politicians to edit articles before posting. I thought only republicans will do such a thing- turns out the democrats are worse. SO much for free speech sir!

(6)    Political tactics and strategy: we were all told that Obama was the master political tactician, a master in strategy, understands the pulse of the people, had a fantastic data operation and was a 3Dimensional political Ludo player.  However, we saw that  the republicans took him for  wild ride in almost every aspect. He did not understand how to use the “bully pulpit”  (as Theodore Roosevelt will say) to finish them off by taking his message directly to the people .  In fact, my research shows that the Obamacare law was a refined version of the health care law passed by republican Mitt Romney in Massachusetts. Yet the republicans still bashed Obamacare and he let them win on that point! What kind of 3D politics was he playingSo what are his actual results? He came to power (won the Whitehouse) and had a democratic majority in the senate, congress. He now leaves the top job with democrats having lost control of the senate, congress and with democrats in general holding less elected offices at any time since the 1920s! (source: npr.org).  I’ll stop here

 CONCLUSION:

I think credit is due to Mr Obama and his team for Healthcare reform and rescuing the economy from the depth of recession. But that’s it really. Maybe we expected too much from him.

We have been talking about changing the system (please see older Donvuz Masterclass posts on this blog to understand this) and we expected a president who would change the system got a president who kept the system just the way it is. Apparently, Americans were tired themselves and we have Donnie Trump. Weep not for Mr Obama though, he will go about making speeches and do very financially for himself.

Please note if Trump is able to initiate the kind of Universal Healthcare in Europe and improves the financial conditions of the working middle class, the credit I gave Obama above will be finished and his presidency will be forgotten in a jiffy!

[reading-writing-revolution]

Listening to America?

i love being on the RNC fundraising/survey list! today i got another skewed poll, which i will publish below with my answers in the few areas you could actually type something in. keep sending them, RNC; i appreciate the chance to tell you that you are stupid. :)

Listening to America:

Which state do you live in?

How would you rate the current direction of our economy?

Do you feel your elected representative fights for the issues you care about?

(Optional) Which issue do you want to see prioritized more?

Are your taxes too high?

Is saving enough for your retirement a big concern for you?

Is being able to get a job a struggle for you or your community?

Do you feel your job is threatened by unfair trade deals?

Do you think legal immigration should be reduced until unemployment drops?

Have excessive government regulations, rules, and red tape burdened you personally?

Would you like to be able to use what you pay for childcare, eldercare, and other similar programs as a tax credit?

If applicable, are you satisfied with the education your child is receiving?

Do you support Common Core?

Do you want to see more technical education programs as alternatives to costly four-year universities?

Do you think universities today indoctrinate rather than teach students?

How would you rate the infrastructure in your neighborhood?

Do you trust the media?

Do you find the news to be generally too negative/hateful?

Do you think our country is too divided?

Do you agree with President Trump’s messaging?

Do you hold more socially conservative views?

Do you feel that you cannot publicly admit that you support Trump?

Do you think stopping taxpayer-funding of abortion remains a priority?

Do you believe that the Second Amendment is unfairly targeted as the reason for increased gun violence?

Do you want to see more done to stop radical Islamic terrorists from coming to our shores?

Do you support President Trump’s temporary restriction on immigration from terrorism-compromised countries?

Are you concerned by the potential spread of Sharia Law?

Is Russia a concern to you?

Has illegal immigration had a negative impact on your community?

Is the drug epidemic especially big in your community?

English is currently not recognized as the official language of the United States. Do you think it should be?

What else do you think the President needs to know about the real America? We’re listening.

Paid for by the Republican National Committee. Not Authorized By Any Candidate Or Candidate's Committee.

My answers:

I'd like to see healthcare prioritized. We continue to say that we can't have single-payer healthcare for all, but as a retired veteran I know that single-payer is a good and possible option. I have enjoyed it for the last 30 years. My kids have enjoyed it. We have great doctors, and getting to see a doctor has never been a problem. We could do that for ALL Americans. Why don't we?

And taxes. Why aren't the hardest working Americans getting the biggest tax breaks based on their income? Why do people making $50k per year have the same effective tax rate as people making $500k per year, or $5 million per year? Crumbling roads and bridges, a national railroad system that is based on technology from 150 years ago, etc. It's like America isn't interested in moving into the 21st century because we lie to ourselves and claim we can't pay for it. We all know that's a lie. Why do we keeping playing this game?

I'll answer question #5 here - the answer is "it depends". I'm going to answer "no" below because I think my taxes are reasonable, but do I think people who make 10 times what I make should be paying roughly the same adjusted tax rate as me? No. No one does. Everyone knows the system is rigged in favor of rich people because rich people make the rules. We're not stupid. We know. When is someone going to start treating the rest of us fairly?

For questions #9 below, we all know that we are essentially at maximum employment. Immigration is not an employment issue. That is a terrible question.

As for question #29, I'm fairly certain there are a lot of illegal immigrants in Baltimore, but it's poor white and black people that are going around robbing everyone, stealing stuff, and holding people up at gunpoint. The Latinos here are Christians, family-oriented, and generally have jobs or own businesses. I've lived here for 13 years, and that's how it is. I don't care if they are illegal; it's the legal residents who are the problem.

Question #27, anyone who is concerned about Sharia Law is the most uninformed person I've ever met. I work with literally dozens of people from the Middle East, most of whom are Christians, well-educated and have great jobs. People in Middle Eastern countries don't even want Sharia Law, except for the zealots and the people who have nothing else to do but try and exercise some power over others. It's not much different than the Catholic Church was in the Middle Ages. Is it a problem in 21st century America? No, and it never will be.

Question 24, about guns. Is anyone EVER going to do anything useful to handle this problem? Ever? Or are we just going to argue and take sides all the time? Are we going to continue to pretend that everyone having a gun so they can threaten everyone around them is a solution? Is there anyone in this debate who actually has a brain, or is everyone just getting paid well enough to do nothing. How many people have to get murdered to make this a priority? 100? 1000?

No one is going to read any of this anyway, so I'll stop here. These questions are worded really carefully to try and generate a specific way of thinking. This survey is really skewed. Do better next time. If you need help writing better questions so that you can get some honest answers, let me know. I'll totally help. Seriously. Call me.