Day: March 10, 2016

Trump On Health Care

I try to give my readers as much information as I can….but of course with my commentary on the issue……and I will do this to the candidates that I would not support…..

Health care is a big deal for the voters….especially the Seniors who must survive on a limited income…..but I have heard all the slogans the Donald has on the subject….but what about some substance……

And just like that…out of the blue…….BAM!….here it is……

Up until now, Donald Trump has mainly said his health care plan would be “something much better” than the Affordable Care Act, CNN reports. On Wednesday, Trump released some specifics about how he would “repeal and replace” ObamaCare in the form of a seven-point plan, which he calls “simply a place to start.” CNN notes Trump has previously taken heat for saying “everybody’s got to be covered” and “the government’s gonna pay for it.” His plan, however, “rests more on conservative ideals” and, as NBC News points out, backpedals on his previous support for requiring people to buy insurance. Under point No. 1 (“Completely repeal Obamacare”), he writes, “No person should be required to buy insurance.” Further, “if we were to simply enforce the current immigration laws,” the US would save $11 billion annually, which he says is the cost of providing health care to people in the country illegally.

Trump calls for “much-needed free market reforms to the healthcare industry,” including allowing the sale of insurance across state lines, making insurance premiums tax-deductible for individuals, importing cheaper drugs, and “price transparency” that would allow consumers to shop around for the best price for medical care. Trump also calls for reforming “our mental health programs and institutions.” Trump supporters on Twitter praise the plan as an “awesome breakthrough” and “beautiful in its simplicity.” But the net effect: “These proposals, including repeal of the [Affordable Care Act], would lead to a significant increase in the number of people uninsured,” an exec with a nonpartisan group tells the Hill.

Sorry Donald fans….to me he has just done what all politicians do…..kick the can down the road…..(maybe he is a politician after all)…….

I end my day of posting by saying……Thanx for stopping by and reading my stuff……I appreciate all the comments and all the interest……

News From The Battle Front

Since a war is not as popular as it once was…..any news seems to drift from the front page to be buried somewhere between the Kardashians and other such common bullsh*t…….

So I will give my reader a synopsis of the news that is glazed over….at best……

The US has made an acquisition recently….the chem war chief for ISIS……

Reports surfaced last week that US special forces had captured a prominent but unidentified player in the Islamic State, and it turns out those reports weren’t exaggerated. The detainee in Iraq has been identified as the head of the group’s burgeoning chemical weapons unit, reports the AP. Sleiman Daoud al-Afari, thought to be about 50, previously worked in Saddam Hussein’s military with the same specialty. He’s been in US custody for a month now and has given up information about how ISIS converts mustard gas into powder for use in artillery shells, reports the New York Times. Evidence of such weapons has turned up in Syria and Iraq.

A defense official tells the Times that these ISIS shells are potent enough to maim but not kill. What remains unclear is how the group got its hands on the sulfur mustard needed for the weaponry. Also not clear is exactly what kind of information al-Afari has given up, though the AP reports that the US-led coalition has conducted airstrikes on suspected chemical facilities in Iraq within the last week. The US says it plans to turn over the prisoner to Iraqi or Kurdish authorities eventually, and a representative from the International Committee of the Red Cross has visited him in custody.

The US recently attacked an al Shabaab site and killed 150 people…..not much as been said on the identity of these people just that it was a terrorist “training” camp…….but now there seems to be a bit more to the story…….

Pentagon officials have confirmed that US ground troops were involved in a raid against an al-Shabaab-held town in Somalia, arriving by helicopter in a raid which also involved Somali forces, and which they say killed “more than 10″ fighters.

The US rarely discusses its troops in Somalia, which are nominally “advisers,” Officials suggested today that the troops were again in an “advisory” role and that they didn’t go “all the way” in the raid. They were involved enough that al-Shabaab confirmed their presence.

Shabaab reported that the attack only killed one of their fighters, and only attacked a single checkpoint, as opposed to an entire town. Somali officials suggested the attack was aimed at an “illegal taxation checkpoint.”

This disputed death toll comes after a massive US drone strike against Somalia, which US officials claim killed over 150, Somali officials claim killed over 200, and which al-Shabaab insisted killed far less, maintaining they never have that many of their fighters together in a single place.

Back in 2005 the US was up to its butt in bad guys…..seemed everybody wanted our blood….but the biggest mouth was that of a Shia cleric with an army, al-Sadr….but not much has been heard from him for some time now…..and this could be the reason……

Shia cleric Muqtada Sadr led a rally in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, pressing Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to deliver reforms he promised in response to anti-government protests that erupted in August 2015.

Sadr’s ability to mobilise a crowd of close to 100,000 demonstrates his ability to reinvent himself, once again, in Iraq’s post-2003 political landscape. In Sadr’s latest political incarnation, he has embraced the politics of protest to become both an anti-politician and king-maker. His latest rally is symbolic of his political movement’s evolution over a decade, a reflection of the vicissitudes of Iraq’s politics since 2003.

Source: Iraq: The reinvention of Muqtada al-Sadr – Al Jazeera English

Finally, the Syrian conflict has been anything but clear….the confusion about who is who and what is what has made this situation the point of much discussion and debate…..

Maybe this article would help those who would like to understand……

Source: Trying to understand the Syrian Puzzle from three different dimensions | Eyes on Europe & Middle East News

You now have more information than most people who read the news…..most people re afraid of knowledge……I do not believe that my readers will fall into that category….

 

COINTELPRO: The Ghosts Of Protests Past

Time for a history lesson…….

The term will have little meaning to those lily white school boys of the 60’s and 70’s……but if you were what the “bully boys” called a “pinko” then you are well  aware of the term and its uses…..

A term from my past…..back in the days of my protests I was under scrutiny by the government for my associations and my work…..you see there is nothing new about the Patriot Act or other such invasions of an individual’s privacy…..I bring this up because 45 years ago this week the program became common knowledge….thanx to the work of some brave people…..

Source: Common Dreams

Forty-five years ago on Tuesday, peace activists broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania and unearthed documents exposing the government’s expansive COINTELPRO operations, which aimed to surveil, disrupt, and “neutralize” lawful activist groups, including war protesters, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the American Indian Movement, and the National Lawyers Guild.

Though the COINTELPRO revelations stirred widespread outrage and led to the eventual passage of reform legislation, such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, such abuse of activists’ First Amendment rights continues to this day.

More than 60 national and local groups on Tuesday sent a letter (pdf) to the leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees expressing concern over the FBI’s and Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s “abuse of counterterrorism resources to monitor Americans’ First Amendment protected activity.”

The groups, which include Center for Constitutional Rights, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Government Accountability Project, Greenpeace USA, National Lawyers Guild, School of the Americas Watch (SOAW), and Veterans for Peace, among others, are urging the Committees to conduct a full investigation, not unlike the Church Committee, “to determine the extent of FBI and DHS spying in the past decade.”

“The FBI in particular has a well-documented history of abuse of First Amendment rights,” the letter states—referring specifically to the COINTELPRO operations—and such activities have continued, including “sending undercover agents and informants to infiltrate peaceful social justice groups, as well as surveillance of, documenting, and reporting on lawful political activity.”

Groups recently targeted by the FBI include SOAW, Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, and anti-Keystone XL Pipeline activists. Meanwhile DHS and local fusion centers, which operate as local sources of “counter-terrorism” intelligence gathering and sharing, monitored the Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter movements as well.

What’s more, the groups note, “documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that the FBI continuously invokes counterterrorism authorities to monitor groups it admits are peaceful and nonviolent.”

“Labeling activism as terrorism criminalizes political dissent,” the letter states. “Given the current  political climate and draconian laws concerning terrorism, individuals may be deterred  from participating in completely lawful speech, such as a protest march, by this stigma.”

“That the FBI cannot discern between activism and terrorism shows us that they think dissent is still the enemy,” said Chip Gibbons, legal fellow with Bill of Rights Defense Committee and Defending Dissent Foundation, which organized the letter. “There have been multiple attempts at reform but after each and every one we see the same thing happening again. The FBI claims to no longer investigate groups for their political beliefs, but look at who the FBI investigates under its counterterrorism authority—peace groups, racial justice groups, economic justice groups—the very same types of organizations that were targeted during the heyday of J. Edgar Hoover.”

You see there is nothing new about the government’s attempts to neutralize such protests groups like #Black Lives Matter or the Keystone protests or the Occupy movement……the government has always found protests groups as some sort of enemy of the state….

To think that the government is moving into new territory is just wrong…..if you are a protester then you are considered an enemy.

I rather enjoyed being a “loose” cannon back in the day….and I enjoy my agitator status……

Do you feel safer today than you did yesterday?

Live long and prosper!  They are watching!

Is Hillary’s Nomination ‘Political Suicide’ for Dems?

The news is that Clinton has a large lead in delegates…..but that lead is from those cowards that are called “Super Delegates”…….without those people then the race for the Dem nomination is close……

With Bernie’s popularity could the nomination of Hillary Clinton be a suicidal act on the part of the Dems?

I read an interesting take on the possibility of a Clinton/Trump mash-up that appears to be in the winds of the election……

In a well-reasoned feature article, and again during the Feb. 29 airing of the BradCast,* Nathan J. Robinson, editor of Current Affairs, forcefully argues that a Hillary Clinton vs. Donald Trump “matchup is highly likely to be an unmitigated disaster.”

Every one of Clinton’s (considerable) weaknesses plays to every one of Trump’s strengths, whereas every one of Trump’s (few) weaknesses plays to every one of Sanders’s strengths. From a purely pragmatic standpoint, running Clinton against Trump is a disastrous, suicidal proposition.

Source: Is Hillary’s Nomination ‘Political Suicide’ for Dems? – LA Progressive

Personally, I cannot think of a worse match-up for the American people……can you?

Bernie Sanders, Foreign Policy Realist

I know I write a lot about Bernie and almost as much about Trump…..with good reason….these two candidates are the “outsiders” to this corrupt bankrupted system…..one I will support the other not so much……

I harp about the candidates and their foreign policy issues…..again for good reason…..you see the more we intervene overseas the less cash there will be for the much needed programs in this country……I am concerned about Bernie’s bona fides when it comes to foreign policy……I am always looking for clarification on the issues…..that is where I ran across this article in the Nation about Bernie and foreign policy…..

Now first off the title……”Bernie Sanders, Foreign policy Realist”

My first thought is what is meant by “realist”?

Is this realist in the international relations theory sort of way or is it the more “political correct” version of the word?

In international relations Realist theory makes 10 assumptions…….

The core of classical realist theory is best summarized in the form of 10 assumptions:

      1. People are by nature narrowly selfish and ethically flawed
      2. Of all people’s evil ways, none are more prevalent or dangerous than their instinctive lust for power and their desire to dominate others
      3. The possibility of eradicating these instincts is a utopian “pipedream”
      4. International politics is a struggle for power, “a war of all against all”
      5. The primary objective of every state–the goal to which all other objectives should be subordinated to–is to promote its NATIONAL INTERESTS
      6. The anarchical nature of the international system dictates that states acquire sufficient military capabilities to deter attack by potential enemies and to exercise influence over others
      7. Economics is less relevant to national security than is military might
      8. Allies might increase a state’s ability to defend itself, but their loyalty and reliability should never be assumed
      9. States should NEVER entrust the task of self-protection to international security organizations or international law
      10. If all states seek to maximize power, stability will result by maintaining a balance of power

After careful thought I have decided that the “realist” that is mentioned in this article is the more mundane and less academic definition…..that is…… Realists have a firm grip on reality and can see things for what they are, not what they are told they are. Realists have their own views and do not fall victim to propaganda, misconception, or titles.

Sorry about that….but there are times when my mind needs a good work-out session……a word turns it on and I cannot shut it down until I get the answer I was looking for…….

So Bernie is a realist on foreign policy and we go from there about his foreign policy “realism”…….

Without restraint abroad, we will never be able to focus on rebuilding our country at home.

Source: Bernie Sanders, Foreign Policy Realist | The Nation

Bernie is NO war hawk……but then Washington has a way of changing a person and not for the better…..so does the White House…..

Let Hil Speak

There was another Dem debate last night…..(thinking)…..never mind!

Her, Clinton, tone is that she will work for all Americans…..she promises a better day and a better country…….

Just a few of her past quotes…..

She will say whatever it takes to win the vote…..she will promise the sky to win the presidency……she will be just another Bill in the White House…..

Is that what you want?

Israel and American Politics: The Big Breakthrough

In the past couple of debates I have been impressed by the tone of one of the GOP candidates….bet you never thought you would hear me utter such praise…..right?

Normally the candidates are nothing but springboards for war hawk rhetoric…..but I did hear something about the whole debacle around the Israel-Palestine conflict thing that was a bit impressive….

It may all be just political posturing but it was a bit logical and rational thought……

You are just dying to know what the Hell I am talking about…..right?

Let’s do a little experiment. Now I realize that what people most remember about the recent Republican presidential debates is the vulgarity, the inanity, and the name-calling, but there have been a few moments of lucidity when history has been made, precedents have been set, and – yes – even reasons for optimism have been […]

Source: Israel and American Politics: The Big Breakthrough – Antiwar.com Original by — Antiwar.com

Yeah…I know……Trump had something rational and logical to say?  I am as dumb-founded as you…..it is getting scary that I have agreed with him on several levels…..

Maybe a good night’s sleep will help…….