Day: February 13, 2020

Closing Thought–13Feb20

Does anyone remember Jim Bakker and the Praise The Lord (PTL) club……if not then a quick update for you…..

Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker were among the most famous televangelists in America, living a life of luxury with multiple houses, expensive cars and more money than God, when their empire all came crashing down amid sex and financial scandals.

By the mid-’70s, the Bakkers were becoming household names through their TV show, “The PTL Club” — PTL stood for “Praise the Lord” or “People That Love.” Initially it aired on a small North Carolina station owned by media mogul Ted Turner.

“What [Bakker] really wanted to do… was create a Christian version of ‘The Tonight Show’,” said John Wigger, author of “PTL: The Rise and Fall of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s Evangelical Empire.” “Which was really the first of Bakker’s big innovations, the Christian talk show.”

https://abcnews.go.com/US/scandals-brought-bakkers-uss-famous-televangelists/story

Prison and financial ruin could not stop Bakker….and thanx to the new virus he is back…..

Right Wing Watch reported that televangelist Jim Bakker is urging his followers to drink a solution of colloidal silver to protect themselves from coronavirus — and a guest who was selling it promised that a dose will cure them and strengthen their immune system within 12 hours.

“Well, let’s say it hasn’t been tested on this strain of the coronavirus,” said his guest. “But it’s been tested on other strains of the coronavirus and has been able to eliminate it within 12 hours. Totally eliminate it, kills it, deactivates it. And then it boosts your immune system, so then you can support the recovery, because when you kill the virus, then the immune system comes into action to clear it out. So you want a vibrant immune system as well as an ability to deactivate these viruses.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/02/televangelist-urges-people-to-drink-liquid-silver-to-stave-off-coronavirus/

Drink silver to fight the virus….kinda like the days when drinking mercury was suppose to cure syphilis….

Anything for a buck huh Jim?

Please do not let this snake oil salesman sell you anything especially a cure for this virus or your trip to Heaven….he is LYING!

Do not waste your money Because according to our Imperial majesty the virus will be gone by April.  (another lie no doubt)

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Update on the 2020 Trump Budget.

I gave my readers a look at the preliminary budget being offered by Trump for 2021……https://lobotero.com/2020/02/10/new-trump-budget/ and a few thoughts before we look into the budget……https://www.crfb.org/blogs/what-will-budget-look-2021

According to Trump Social Security and Medicare will be saved from cuts….and the real report has come out……either Trump does not know what is in his budget or he was lying……(I believe the later applies here)……

President Donald Trump posted a tweet on Saturday vowing, “We will not be touching your Social Security and Medicare in Fiscal 2021 Budget.” One day later, the Wall Street Journal published a report indicating that Trump is doing exactly that with his budget proposal.

The Journal’s report, which came a day ahead of the administration officially releasing its budget on Monday, indicates that Trump’s $4.8 trillion budget includes “steep reductions in social-safety-net programs,” including cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security disability programs:

The White House proposes to cut spending by $4.4 trillion over a decade. Of that, it targets $2 trillion in savings from mandatory spending programs, including $130 billion from changes to Medicare prescription-drug pricing, $292 billion from safety-net cuts—such as work requirements for Medicaid and food stamps—and $70 billion from tightening eligibility access to disability benefits.

https://www.vox.com/2020/2/10/21131316/trump-2021-budget-entitlement-cuts

There is stuff that ALL seniors need to know about the new budget proposal……

Seniors should think of the proposed budget as President Trump’s “wish list”: not all of his proposals will take effect. Most, but not all, of his proposals would require the cooperation of the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives and the Republican-controlled Senate.

Here are the line items from Trump’s 2021 budget that would have the greatest impact on seniors.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/elenabotella/2020/02/10/what-seniors-need-to-know-about-trumps-2021-federal-budget/#514a3cf53842

This budget will take some dickering to get passed…..but will it?

Another problem I see with this budget…..

Budget proposals for fiscal 2021 released Monday afternoon call for $4.5 billion for the European Deterrence Initiative, a fund started by the Obama administration in the aftermath of Russia’s 2014 invasion of parts of eastern Ukraine and annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, which sparked a conflict that continues to inflict casualties on both sides. The latest proposal represents a precipitous drop from the $6 billion enacted for the current fiscal year and $6.5 billion the year before. Congress approved funding in line with administration requests for those years.

https://www.usnews.com/news/world-report/articles/2020-02-10/trump-seeks-steep-cut-to-fund-designed-to-deter-russia-from-threats-to-europe

But not to worry the Imperial President now has his sycophants in place to rubber stamp his every move…..

President Trump released his 2021 budget on Monday to great fanfare, but don’t expect to hear much about it in terms of Senate debate. The chair of the Senate Budget Committee says he won’t even schedule a hearing on it because the document is essentially meaningless, reports the Hill. That isn’t an anti-Trump slam: Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming gave the same treatment to former President Obama. His rationale is that any related hearing is a waste of time and turns into a “diatribe against the president,” reports Politico.

“I want to encourage people … not to waste any time searching out the president’s budget cuts,” Enzi told his fellow senators in a floor speech. “Congress doesn’t pay any attention to the president’s budget exercise. It’s all it is—an exercise. Congress holds the purse strings, according to the Constitution, and Congress is very protective of that constitutional authority.” Among other things, Trump’s $4.8 trillion blueprint calls for a big outlay in military spending, including the creation of a new submarine-launched nuclear warhead, reports the New York Times

Not to worry the economy is great…that is according to Trump….and yet this…..

In public, President Donald Trump likes to boast about—and usually inflate—the performance of the American economy on his watch. He picks through the numbers to take credit for everything good and sorts out everything not-so-good for dumping on his predecessors. The result: lots of exclamation points!

If you lived in a bubble where Twitter Trump was your sole news source, you’d be pretty fired up, which makes it odd that on Monday the very same Trump White House said it intends to slash a scheduled pay raise for civilian federal employees. Cutting the 2.5 percent raise set for 2021 to 1 percent for millions of federal workers seems a bit austere in the face of such self-proclaimed boom times. Even more absurdly, Trump is justifying ordering the cut on the grounds that the country is in the midst of a “national emergency or serious economic conditions affecting the general welfare,” which the White House says authorizes the president to “implement alternative plans for pay adjustments.”

So which is it? The best economy in the history of economies or a national economic emergency? Either way, somebody’s lying.

(slate.com)

And that is how you pull the wool over the eyes of the voter……

It pains me to see how our government is going into the toilet and I hope that the next president has more oversight than this Imperial one….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Bernie—Can He?

#2 in a series

The College of Political Knowledge

My second look at the Dem candidates as the 2020 season gets kicked off….this time it is Bernie Sanders…..the candidate that has the media running in circles trying to trash him for the voter.

Bernie still has a lot of energy around his campaign…..more so than in 2016….the money is rolling in…..and the crowds are very large with each visit he makes.  And this is confounding the media at every turn.

Of course Trump and the GOP noise machine both professional and social media dolts are zeroing in onto the socialist thing…..trying to make Bernie not look so inviting.

Will Bernie’s beliefs make him not electable?

Sen. Bernie Sanders is a self-described socialist in a country where socialism is unpopular, and many observers are convinced that Sanders’s lead over President Donald Trump in head-to-head polling would vanish in the face of a red-scare campaign from Republicans.

It is difficult to know whether that’s true or not, but a recent message-testing experiment run by the progressive group Data for Progress at least calls that theory into question.

In their experiment, tagging Sanders as a socialist did not seem to undermine his campaign — something we’ve also seen over the years in Vermont. Sanders consistently does a bit better in elections for his Senate seat than you would expect from the state’s baseline party lean.

https://www.vox.com/2020/1/31/21113780/bernie-sanders-socialism-electability-primaries

No matter what the results of surveys show….the GOP disinformation masters will use all avenues to paint a terrible picture of Bernie…..most will not be true….most will be just Trump and his minions bullying anyone that has better ideas.

This is any interesting look at socialism…..if anyone is interested or you can keep spouting crap with no knowledge behind your words…..your choice…..https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/31/21st-century-socialism/

Most Americans do not realize that Democratic Socialism is not the run of the mill socialism…..it has no problem with markets, profits or wealth……that is a far cry from socialism.

But a closer look at Dems and socialism……

A new Gallup survey showing most Americans would not be willing to vote for a socialist also revealed that an overwhelming majority of Democratic voters said they would back a candidate like Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is leading in national polls.

More than three-quarters of Democratic voters surveyed—76%—told Gallup they would support a presidential candidate who identified as a socialist.

A large chunk of independent voters said they would back such a candidate, with 45% saying so, while only 17% of Republicans reported the same. Overall, 45% of 1,033 respondents said they would back a socialist in the poll, which had a margin of error of four percentage points.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/11/more-75-democrats-would-support-socialist-president-gallup

Above info is contrary to what the MSM is saying…..but then they will be pushing any “corporatist” candidate that will help their owners keep the status quo.

Now that ought give the Right lunatics all the info they need to bash Bernie…..and the Dems….as if they needed facts to carry that out…….

Learn Stuff!

VOTE!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

2020 Dem–Another One Bites The Dust–#16

Yet another Dem candidate has decided to end his bid and return to making cash……this time it is Deval Patrick…..he quit about as soon as he entered…..that leaves 8 candidates left in the field….

Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, the last remaining black candidate in a Democratic presidential field once defined by its diversity, ended his 2020 campaign Wednesday after his late bid failed to catch fire, the AP reports. Patrick focused his campaign entirely on the New Hampshire primary, hoping the familiarity of a neighboring state would help boost his chances in the race—but he ended up lagging near the bottom of the Democratic field. Patrick offered what aides felt was a unique message in a field that ultimately boiled down largely to career politicians with little executive or private sector experience: that he had the track record as governor and through years of business experience to deliver on Democratic priorities like fighting climate change and reforming health care.

Patrick launched his bid for president in mid-November but failed to register in polling and fundraising and never made it onto a presidential debate stage. Patrick raised just $2.2 million in the final six weeks of last year, and while a super PAC created to support his bid committed nearly that much to advertising in the early primary states last month, Patrick still barely registered in New Hampshire. It’s a disappointing finish for someone who, in part because of his rhetorical skills, has long drawn comparisons to former President Obama. The two men are personally close and Patrick counts some of Obama’s aides and donors as part of his own inner circle. Patrick’s exit leaves just one other candidate of color in the Democratic race, which now numbers eight candidates: Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a Samoan American.

He will not be missed by too many…..my choice is still hanging in there plugging away for donors and votes…..Tulsi.

Let me show Patrick the exit door to the political stage with the tune of Queen…..

8 candidates left and the race for the nomination has just begun….

Pick a candidate and….VOTE!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Do We Have An Afghan Deal?

We have just posted on 2 more American deaths in Afghanistan and the next day there is word coming out that there is conditional peace deal with the Taleban….

US insists Taliban must reduce violence levels this month

The Taliban has publicly requested that the US provide clarification on their stance on the peace process. A deal which by all accounts was finished months ago, the Taliban are interested in where the US is going on the final deal.

It’s reasonable to ask, as since backing out of the last deal, President Trump has tried to add new conditions. Concerningly, Trump is now approving the deal, but only conditionally, and wants the Taliban to unilaterally cut violence in February first.

The US is planning troop cuts either way, but a concrete peace deal would oblige the US to actually leave Afghanistan, and almost certainly will establish a timetable for that. It would put an end to the US changing its mind on the war, as it has time and again over the last 19 years.

For the Taliban, the question is likely not so much about if they can cut violence, but if this time, meeting a Trump condition will net them anything. Trump had previously conditioned the deal on a ceasefire, and when the Taliban agreed he just added more demands.

(antiwar.com)

How close are we to a deal?

We have heard that it has been close before to fall apart only days later….so again how close are we?

If Trump and his bunch can find peace deal for Afghanistan war then they will have my undying thanks….any time we can find an end to a war then the props should go to those that find a way out.

And then there is the coming election…..and Afghanistan…..

Negotiation between the US and the Taliban is picking up pace. A partial ceasefire is expected to be agreed upon soon, and there is substantial hope that an outright peace deal could be reached shortly thereafter, if the US wants it.

US officials seem to be keen to emphasize the ceasefire, as opposed to the peace deal.That’s because President Trump is determined to carry out troop cuts ahead of the November election, and that’s the case whether or not the peace deal is reached.

Of course, the peace deal is already there to be had, and Trump has rejected it and added additional demands. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani noted “notable progress” on the peace deal front, saying the Taliban had made a proposal to deliver on President Trump’s demand for a violence reduction.

There is a growing risk that, as President Trump demands more from the Taliban, he may overreach and derail the peace process. This is possible, and it’s also possible Trump will just keep dragging on the war, even if troop cuts are in line before the election.

(antiwar.com)

One point….the Taleban protected the barbaric al-Qaeda and they attacked the US on 9/11 and now we are making nice with the Taleban….but will not talk with Iran….why is that?  (I know but do you?)

Let’s do the right thing and end this war once and for all.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”