Month: January 2023

A Rigged Election?

It is Sunday and the news is just about as boring as we can get….so why not us this time to learn something about our election process….and yes it is one of my infamous history lessons.

We all remember the drama around the 2020 election….and the spill over continues 2 years later.

But then there are still those that bring up the 2000 election when Gore lost out to GW Bush in a split decision….all that history, right?

Well believe it or not those were not the only two elections with accusations and problems…..

In the 2016 presidential election, one candidate is warning about voter fraud, while another proclaims Russians are interfering. It’s not the first time contenders have alleged some form of a “rigged” election.

In my book, “Tainted by Suspicion: The Secret Deals and Electoral Chaos of Disputed Presidential Elections,” I write about some of the most controversial presidential elections that left large segments of the population believing their president was selected instead of elected. In two elections, the aftermath nearly led to mass violence.

Tuesday in the Rose Garden, President Barack Obama dismissed concerns of fraud this year.

“I have never seen in my lifetime, or in modern political history, any presidential candidate trying to discredit the elections process before votes have even taken place. It’s unprecedented,” Obama said.

“There is no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even rig America’s elections, in part because they are so decentralized and the number of votes that are cast,” the president added. “There is no evidence that has happened in the past, or instances that will happen this year.”

While such complaints have been rare before votes were cast, they were very prominent in certain post-presidential elections, as was evidence that votes weren’t always counted properly.

Here are excerpts from the book.

Rigged Election? Past Presidential Contests Sowed Doubt and Nearly Led to Violence

In a closing note….the GOP has leveled many accusations of vote tampering….but so far most of those arrested for voter fraud have been Republicans…..here is the latest….

The wife of an Iowa Republican who ran for Congress in 2020 was arrested Thursday and accused of casting 23 fraudulent votes for her husband.

In an 11-page indictment, prosecutors say Kim Phuong Taylor “visited numerous households within the Vietnamese community in Woodbury County” where she collected absentee ballots for people who were not present at the time. Taylor, who was born in Vietnam, then filled out and cast those ballots herself, the indictment alleges, “causing the casting of votes in the names of residents who had no knowledge of and had not consented to the casting of their ballots.”

Taylor is also accused of signing voter-registration forms on behalf of residents who were not present. In all, prosecutors charged her with 26 counts of providing false information in registering and voting, three counts of fraudulent registration, and 23 counts of fraudulent voting. Each charge carries a maximum five-year prison sentence.

The goal, prosecutors allege, was to get her husband, the Republican politician Jeremy Taylor, elected to public office.

https://www.businessinsider.com/wife-of-iowa-republican-accused-of-casting-23-fraudulent-votes-2023-1

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That Saturday News

Let’s back away from the hum-drum politics of the day and read some real news…..

It seems every new year there is a new prediction of the collapse of civilization and this year is not different….

People who enjoy our modern lifestyle should perhaps not get used to it, according to Standford scientists. Futurism reports that civilization as we know it may end within a few decades if humanity doesn’t get on top of managing our natural resources. This was the assessment of Stanford biologists Tony Barnosky and Paul Ehrlich when they appeared on 60 Minutes to discuss the effects of mass extinction.

Tony Barnosky discussed this inevitability from the perspective of the fossil record, which shows that mass extinction rates are around 100 times higher now than in any other period in Earth’s history of supporting life. These extinctions not only reduce the amount of food in our ecosystem but also cause other breakdowns in the chain of life that could hasten the demise of civilization by bringing an end to processes we take for granted. Mass extinctions have taken place throughout the geological record, but not at the rate they are happening today.

Scientists Reveal Civilization Is Coming To An End, Here’s When It’s All Over

A new ‘treasure map’ has been found to Nazi treasure…..you know kinda like that Nazi treasure train….

Treasure hunters with shovels and metal detectors descended on a village in the eastern Netherlands following the release of a map showing where Nazi soldiers are believed to have buried a stash of treasure in the final weeks of World War II. The map, with a red X marking where the treasure was supposedly buried in the roots of a poplar tree near the village of Ommeren, was released as part of a research file from the late 1940s when the 75-year period of confidentiality expired, reports Reuters. According to the file, a German soldier identified as Helmut S. said soldiers had buried four ammunition boxes containing diamonds, rubies, gold, silver, and jewelry, worth the equivalent of almost $20 million in today’s money, the Observer reports. According to the file, the treasure was looted from a bank in Arnhem in late 1944.

Annet Waalkens of the Netherlands National Archives tells the Observer that authorities found out about the treasure because Helmut S. was “a bit loose-lipped back in Berlin.” He gave authorities the map and returned to the Netherlands for one of three unsuccesful searches in 1946 and 1947. Authorities suspect that the soldiers may have returned and moved it—or that it was taken by locals who witnessed the Germans burying it as they prepared to retreat. According to the research file, officials also suspected American soldiers. Waalkens says that during the third search, officials encountered two American officers and noted that the soil in the area had been disturbed. According to the file, of the four soldiers involved in burying the treasure, two didn’t survive the war and a third one vanished. It’s not clear whether the fourth, Helmut S., is still alive.

Treasure hunters turned up in the area last week despite the apparently slim chances of finding anything. “Like a lot of people, the news about the treasure made me go look for myself,” a 57-year-old man told Reuters. “The chance of the treasure still being here after 70 years is very small I think, but I want to give it a try.” Days after the map was released, local officials warned against digging for treasure in the area, citing the risk of encountering land mines or unexploded bombs from World War II, reports DutchNews.nl. Treasure hunters were warned to stay off private land and officials said digging or using metal detectors could only be done with a permit, per Omroep Gelderland.

Space is opening up and a ‘gold rush’ is in the planning….the rape of extraterrestrial rape is about to begin…..

A cash flow cascading from the heavens is a provisionary but promising harvest from asteroid mining. It’s already a “claim jumping” enterprise with assertions that billions, trillions, even quadrillions of dollars are looming in deep space, ripe for the picking and up for grabs.

Several space mining groups, eager to dig into extraterrestrial excavation of asteroids, have already come and gone. Left behind are torn, tattered and beleaguered business plans.

The past, however, is prologue. But this time, step-by-step strategies are being fielded. By and large, the prospect of reaping gobs of moolah from off-Earth mining has become a tempered affair.

https://www.space.com/space-mining-grinding-into-reality

There is a call for the banning of gas stoves…..

On the heels of a damning report that gas stoves are responsible for 13% of child asthma cases in the US comes news that a federal agency is considering banning the appliances. “Products that can’t be made safe can be banned,” a commissioner for the Consumer Product Safety Commission tells Bloomberg. He says “any option is on the table” for the “hidden hazard” of gas stoves, found in more than a third of homes in the nation. As CNN reports, the CPSC has been considering making a move on the appliances for months; the same agency commissioner in October recommended the safety agency collect public comments on the matter.

Now, he tells Bloomberg, that public comment period is expected to be opened. If they are not banned, there are other steps that can be taken, including setting standards on the emissions from them. Without proper ventilation, gas stoves can cause levels of nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and fine particulate matter to a concentration declared unsafe by the Environmental Protection Agency, and the appliances have been linked to other respiratory ailments beyond asthma as well. The CPSC says a “lengthy process” will be involved before any regulatory action is taken. Some cities have been taking it upon themselves to ban natural gas hookups in new construction, while in some red states, such bans have been preemptively prohibited from ever taking effect.

I use gas so these twats can kiss my ass.

That is my offering for you, my readers, on this Saturday.

Be well….Be Safe

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–13Jan23

GOP has taken control of the House and they promised to do many things and so far they have done nothing that would indicate they have any concern for this country and its people.

They have removed the metal detectors in and around the House and their most recent ‘improvement’ was to allow smoking…..

There’s a lot of history repeating itself in Congress this year — the House is in GOP hands, Democrats control the White House and Senate and there’s an inescapable stench of tobacco smoke in the Capitol’s hallways.

The smoke evokes memories of the old guard of Republican House leadership. Former House Speaker John Boehner smoked so many cigarettes that new carpets, a fresh coat of paint and an ozone machine were required when Paul Ryan took over his office.

Going further back, David Dreier, a GOP chairman of the House Rules Committee in the late 1990s and early 2000s, was fond of cigars. Today it’s another Rules chairman — Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma — who can often be found smoking in the committee’s space on the third floor of the Capitol.

This makes the US Capitol one of a handful of places in Washington, DC, and among the few remaining office buildings in the country where smoking is still allowed inside. Despite efforts going back more than 150 years to prohibit tobacco from the building, smoking is still allowed in members’ offices.

The Capitol, and the surrounding congressional office buildings, are federal property but operate independently of other government buildings and many rules — including those about smoking and pandemic procedures — are at the discretion of House and Senate leadership.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-11/a-blast-from-the-past-tobacco-smoke-again-wafts-through-capitol

This makes the old image of the ‘fat cat’ lighting his cigar with 100 dollar bills….

I can hardly wait to see what is the next move to improve government the GOP has on tap.

I did not have to wait long…..it seems if they have their way they will get a $34,000 raise.

In one of their final acts in power, House Democrats secretly passed through a rule change that will see lawmakers in the lower chamber get a $34,000 pay raise. 

The new rule, proposed by Democrats on the House Administration Committee, allows House members to be reimbursed for the cost of lodging, food and travel while on official business in Washington DC.

It was tucked into the House’s internal rules, rather than in annual spending bills, and therefore was not debated on the House floor, according to the New York Times. 

Under the new rule, House members could be subsidized about $34,000 for their expenses in DC, where they live for weeks on end. That means that if all 440 current members and delegates requested the maximum amount, the reimbursements would total around $15.1 million. 

Members of the House already earn an annual salary of $174,000, an amount set in 2009, which has not changed since even as the cost of living increased.

Additionally, House members get annual allowances averaging $1.27 million to staff and manage their offices as they see fit, and while members of Congress are required to purchase insurance under the Affordable Care Act, they receive a subsidy amounting to 72 percent of their premiums, according to Axios.

The federal lawmakers are also eligible for lifetime health insurance under the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program.

And depending on the member’s age and length of service, he or she could also receive a lifetime pension of 80 percent of his or her salary — amounting to $139,200 a year.

Not bad salary and benefits for a group that are basically part-time help.

Have a good weekend my friends.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

GOP–I Knew It Was BS

I recently wrote about a proposal from a GOP faithful to drop some of the spending for the Pentagon….I said at the time that it was so much manure……

Should The Pentagon Be Worried?

The 4 most beautiful words in the English language….”I Told you So”….

Republicans who have pledged to use their narrow majority in the House to pursue steep federal spending cuts have sent a clear message in recent days: The bloated Pentagon budget is safe, but Social Security, Medicare, and other key government programs are not.

Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) expressed that sentiment during a Monday interview on Fox Business, saying, “I’m all for a balanced budget, but we’re not going to do it on the backs of our troops and our military.”

“If we really want to talk about the debt and spending, it’s the entitlement programs,” said Waltz, referring to Medicare and Social Security, among other programs. (By law, Social Security cannot add to the federal deficit.)

The office of Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas)—one of the far-right Republicans that initially opposed Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) bid for House speaker—was particularly adamant in a Twitter post on Sunday, declaring that “cuts to defense were NEVER DISCUSSED” in talks with McCarthy.

“In fact, there was broad agreement spending cuts should focus on NON-DEFENSE discretionary spending,” Roy’s office wrote, singling out a broad category that includes federal budgets for healthcare, education, environmental programs, and more.

The Texas Republican’s staff was attempting to dispel reports last week that McCarthy opponents were seeking to cap federal spending across the board at Fiscal Year 2022 levels, a demand that—if fulfilled—would lop tens of billions of dollars off the historically high Pentagon budget in addition to slashing non-military domestic programs.

The reports of potential Pentagon cuts on the horizon contributed to a recent decline in the stock prices of major military contractors such as Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/gop-pentagon-social-security-medicare

A great idea but as usual the lobbyists showed up with buckets of cash and the spineless collapsed into a quivering mess.

Following a week of acrimonious fights in Congress, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) managed to hammer out a deal with the small group of GOP lawmakers who opposed his bid to become speaker of the House. The agreement, which reportedly included a promise to reverse the $75 billion boost in this year’s defense budget, has been variously hailed and scorned as proof that Republicans are entering a new era on a range of issues.

At least when it comes to foreign policy, however, the establishment appears to have held on to its traditional role. On Tuesday, House leadership announced the chamber’s new committee chairs, and the results gave no indication that McCarthy intends to run afoul of GOP mandarins, especially when it comes to defense spending.

“For all the bluster about a new GOP, the people running the show are from the same mold as the ones who have been running it for more than a decade,” tweeted Justin Amash, a libertarian former member of Congress.

Take Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), who will now take over as chair of the powerful Appropriations Committee. The Texas Republican has slowly climbed GOP ranks since entering Congress in 1997, and her efforts culminated in her 2019 appointment as the ranking member of appropriations. 

Granger is a strong proponent of increased defense spending and has praised the controversial F-35 fighter jet as “integral to our national security.” As RS noted last year, the establishment stalwart also hails from Tarrant County, which received over $12 billion in defense spending in 2021.

GOP won’t bird-dog defense budget with these hawks at the helm

As usual it is more important to feed the Pentagon instead of the American people.

Business as usual.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–12Jan23

950 and counting

That is the total so far of people arrested and charged for their participation in the insurrection of 06 January….

And the word is there will be more to come……

In the two years since a violent mob forced its way into the U.S. Capitol, more than 950 people have been charged for their roles in the riot, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation continues to seek hundreds more.

“Our work is far from over,” Attorney General Merrick Garland stated Wednesday, regarding the investigation into the deadly attack on Jan. 6, 2021.

Roughly 350 suspects remain on the FBI’s wanted list of violent offenders at the Capitol that day, Garland’s office stated. More than two-thirds are wanted for violence against the estimated 140 law enforcement officers assaulted that day.

Garland’s office reports more than 950 have been charged. Roughly 230 of those were arrested in 2022, records show. But arrests continue, with at least 17 in December.

More than 3,860 counts of criminal activity had been alleged against 934 of the defendants through mid-December. USA TODAY tracks initial charges as they are announced by the Department of Justice. 

Nearly all the accused rioters were charged with disorderly and disruptive conduct. Most also were charged with entering and/or remaining in a restricted building or grounds. 

More than a quarter, 284, have been charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers, Garland’s office said. Of those, 99 were charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer.

  • Roughly 350 suspects remain on the FBI’s wanted list of violent offenders.
  • Arrests slowed in 2022, with at least 230 charged, compared with roughly 700 in 2021.
  • Of the 192 people who have been sentenced to incarceration, the average incarceration time levied is 16 months.

In the two years since a violent mob forced its way into the U.S. Capitol, more than 950 people have been charged for their roles in the riot, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation continues to seek hundreds more.

“Our work is far from over,” Attorney General Merrick Garland stated Wednesday, regarding the investigation into the deadly attack on Jan. 6, 2021.

Roughly 350 suspects remain on the FBI’s wanted list of violent offenders at the Capitol that day, Garland’s office stated. More than two-thirds are wanted for violence against the estimated 140 law enforcement officers assaulted that day.

Garland’s office reports more than 950 have been charged. Roughly 230 of those were arrested in 2022, records show. But arrests continue, with at least 17 in December.

The FBI has reviewed almost 4 million files, including 30,000 video files and continues to seek tips from the public.

More than 3,860 counts of criminal activity had been alleged against 934 of the defendants through mid-December. USA TODAY tracks initial charges as they are announced by the Department of Justice. 

Nearly all the accused rioters were charged with disorderly and disruptive conduct. Most also were charged with entering and/or remaining in a restricted building or grounds. 

More than a quarter, 284, have been charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers, Garland’s office said. Of those, 99 were charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer. 

More than 295 were charged with “corruptly obstructing, influencing or impeding an official proceeding, or attempting to do so,” the department said.

Among the charges are at least: 

  • 315 counts of violent entry and disorderly conduct. 
  • 222 counts of civil disorder or interfering with law enforcement during civil disorder.
  • 95 counts of conspiracy. 
  • 17 counts of seditious conspiracy.

(usatoday.com)

Still not enough are paying for this affront to our society.

Personally I think that some of these law breakers got off too lightly….

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

McCarthy’s Genital Massages

This is not a post on some political perversion….nope it is about what hoops McCarty had to jump through to secure his Speakership from the GOP hold-outs.

It appears that the negotiations were a bit of a secret….

A private document that only some House Republicans have seen and others refuse to talk about could play an outsized role in the governance of the chamber over the next two years.

Why it matters: The document contains concessions — not included in the rules package passed on Monday night — that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) made to rebellious Freedom Caucus members to secure the speaker’s gavel.

  • Those members have threatened to kill McCarthy’s speakership as swiftly as they acquiesced to it if he reneges on their handshake agreements.

Driving the news: The existence of a “secret three-page addendum” containing “the most controversial concessions” that McCarthy made in order to get elected was first reported by Punchbowl News on Monday and confirmed to Axios by multiple GOP aides and members.

  • One of those concessions is three seats set aside for conservatives on the Rules Committee, as well as representation for them on the powerful Appropriations Committee.
  • Other McCarthy giveaways include votes on congressional term limits and a select committee on the weaponization of the federal government, a debt limit strategy and a more open amendment process on appropriations bills.
  • One thing the document doesn’t contain, according to NRCC Chair Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), who said he’s seen it, is promised committee chairmanships for specific members: “No names, just representation [on panels].”

https://www.axios.com/2023/01/10/republicans-mccarthy-house-rules-addendum

What did McCarthy promise?

Rep. Kevin McCarthy finally seized the House speaker’s gavel in the early hours of Saturday morning, capping off a chaotic week of voting and heated floor confrontations that were nationally televised and closely documented by reporters stationed at the U.S. Capitol.

What remains less clear, though, is how much McCarthy (R-Calif.) conceded to his far-right detractors behind closed doors to win enough support to prevail on the 15th ballot—raising urgent questions and warnings about the havoc the House GOP could wreak in the coming months.

“What did McCarthy promise to get the collaboration of extremists?” Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) asked over the weekend. “The future of Social Security and Medicare? Our nation’s full faith and credit? Keeping our government open?”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/mccarthy-backroom-deals-gop

Why was this a secret that he could not share with the rest of the GOP members?

This is so typical of the ‘backroom deals’….

But for the lazy

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Are House Republicans Idiots?

My first thought is ….yes….but then I have never trusted the GOP.

But I guess I need to quantify my answer.

It appears that the House GOP has zeroed in on the deficit (something they do every time they are in control but never succeed) and in this era they are at it again.

Their answer to the deficit is to close down the IRS and eliminate the income tax….

Republicans in the House of Representatives will vote on a bill that would abolish the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), eliminate the national income tax and replace it with a national consumption tax.

Fox News Digital has learned that the House will be voting on Georgia Republican Rep. Buddy Carter’s reintroduced Fair Tax Act that aims to reel in the IRS and remove the national income tax, as well as other taxes, and replace them with a single consumption tax.

The vote on the bill was made as part of the deal between House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and members of the House Freedom Caucus and was pushed forward in his quest for the gavel last week.

“Cosponsoring this Georgia-made legislation was my first act as a Member of Congress and is, fittingly, the first bill I am introducing in the 118th Congress,” Carter said in a press release exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital.

“Instead of adding 87,000 new agents to weaponize the IRS against small business owners and middle America, this bill will eliminate the need for the department entirely by simplifying the tax code with provisions that work for the American people and encourage growth and innovation,” Carter continued.

“Armed, unelected bureaucrats should not have more power over your paycheck than you do,” he added.

“As a former small business owner, I understand the unnecessary burden our failing income tax system has on Americans,” said Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., in a statement. “The Fair Tax Act eliminates the tax code, replaces the income tax with a sales tax, and abolishes the abusive Internal Revenue Service. If enacted, this will invigorate the American taxpayer and help more Americans achieve the American Dream.”

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/house-republicans-vote-bill-abolishing-irs-eliminating-income-tax

This is not going to work…..the wealthy still get off scott free on taxes…..

I have a few suggestions to fight our deficit…..

1–Reduce defense budget by 1/3

2–Reduce foreign aid by 1/3

3–Design a tax structure that includes all people including corporate income

4–A fee on stock trades over $1 million.

5–A real program that would find and return hidden assets in offshore accounts.

One finally question for Republican voters….

When will Republican voters figure out how badly they’re getting screwed by Republican politicians?

When will Republican voters figure out how badly they’re getting screwed by Republican politicians?

https://www.rawstory.com/gop-voters-2659070034/

Good question that deserves an immediate answer.

House Republicans are set to vote on the Fair Tax Act introduced by Rep. Earl L. “Buddy” Carter (R-GA) which seeks to eliminate all personal and corporate income taxes, the death tax, gift taxes, and the payroll tax while also eliminating the need for the Internal Revenue Service, according to a release.

What Happened: First introduced toCongress in 1999 by former Georgia Congressman John Linder, the Fair Tax would repeal the current tax code and replace it with a single national consumption tax that “is pro-growth and allows Americans to keep every cent of their hard-earned money.”

“Instead of adding 87,000 new agents to weaponize the IRS against small business owners and middle America, this bill will eliminate the need for the department entirely by simplifying the tax code with provisions that work for the American people and encourage growth and innovation,” said Carter. “Armed, unelected bureaucrats should not have more power over your paycheck than you do.”

The Deal: According to Fox News, which first reported the story, the vote on the bill was made as part of the deal between House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), and members of the House Freedom Caucus and was pushed forward in his quest for the position last week.

“As a former small business owner, I understand the unnecessary burden our failing income tax system has on Americans. The Fair Tax Act eliminates the tax code, replaces the income tax with a sales tax, and abolishes the abusive Internal Revenue Service. If enacted, this will invigorate the American taxpayer and help more Americans achieve the American Dream,” said Rep. Jeffrom their mouths is pure horse manuref Duncan, also one of the original co-sponsors of the bill.

Almost every word coming from their mouths is pure horse manure…..and yet there will be cheers for their forward thinking (that is sarcasm in case you missed it)

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Repubs Moves As Predicted

It is a well known fact that Repubs hate the idea of Social Security and Medicare and they attempt to de-fund as soon as they are in control of the House and 2023 is no exception….

House Republicans are making clear that they intend to seek cuts to entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare with their new majority in the 118th Congress.

Their plans to target health care programs follow demands from a group of conservatives that helped elect House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) over the weekend. Those far-right lawmakers have sought across-the-board spending cuts in order to tackle the growing national debt.

But the narrow House GOP majority ― McCarthy can afford to lose just four votes on any bill ― is far more divided on cuts to defense spending than for entitlement programs.

“I’m all for a balanced budget, but we’re not going to do it on the backs of our troops and our military,” Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), a former Army Green Beret, said Monday during an interview on Fox Business. “If we really want to talk about the debt and spending, it’s the entitlements programs.”

As part of his list of concessions to conservatives, McCarthy reportedly agreed to cap spending for the next year at fiscal 2022 levels, which would amount to over $130 billion in cuts from last month’s $1.7 trillion government funding bill.

Republicans don’t plan to alter benefits for current Social Security and Medicare recipients, according to Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas).

“What we have been very clear about is, we’re not going to touch the benefits that are going to people relying on the benefits under Social Security and Medicare,” Roy said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “But we all have to be honest about sitting at the table and figuring out how we’re going to make those work, how we’re going to deal with defense spending and how we’re going to deal with nondefense discretionary spending.”

The Republican Study Committee proposed a budget for fiscal 2023 that would gradually increase the eligibility ages for Social Security and Medicare, and change the Social Security benefit formula for people 54 and younger, while not changing it for people closer to receiving benefits.

Democrats are likely to oppose those changes, as well as any cuts to Social Security and Medicare, and an ensuing standoff could result in another government shutdown. The 2018-2019 lapse in federal funding lasted 35 days after a fight over former President Donald Trump’s border policies and immigration.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/social-security-medicare-cuts-republicans_n_63bc41fbe4b0b2e15069b0ae

Seniors really should pay attention before they throw away their votes for those that will do them the most damage.

But will they?

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Labor And Medicare

It is just not the GOP that works to undermine the Medicare debate…..labor is not a friend of our seniors either.

I have a long history of defending the labor movement….but that does not extend to union leadership.

I have long been a critic of our so-called labor movement….as a past labor organizer I see the biggest problem as the US labor is more concerned with monetary issues when they should be focused on the political.

I recently saw some disturbing news about the labor issues on Medicare….

“Medicare is a pillar of the healthcare system”

– AFL-CIO June 13, 2022

Such a statement from the AFL-CIO would suggest that labor is determined to protect Medicare and even support improving and expanding it to all Americans. Additionally, President Biden and Democrats regularly criticize Republican threats to reauthorize and voucherize Medicare. Meanwhile, what’s left out of both the Democrat talking points and the AFL-CIO’s 2022 national resolution on healthcare is any acknowledgment that the real threat to Medicare and healthcare today is the decades-long tax-subsidized privatization supported by both major parties.

With major support from organized labor, including AFL-CIO President George Meany at the signing, Medicare was signed into law in 1965. Before Medicare, only 60% of those over 65 had insurance since it was unavailable or unaffordable via private insurance (seniors were charged 3x the rate of younger people). Not only economically beneficial to the working class, the passage of Medicare was a huge civil rights victory as payments to physicians, hospitals, and health care providers were conditional on desegregation.

While a big victory, Medicare did not provide full coverage for all services, and from its inception, there has been a drive to privatize and hand it over to profiteers. In fact, 2022 marks the 50th anniversary (1972) of Medicare permitting private insurance companies (HMOs) to participate in Medicare.

President Clinton finalized HMO participation with Congress in 1997, and in 2003, the Medicare Modernization Act, under President Bush, further boosted privatization. The year 2003 marks the beginning of Medicare Advantage plans: insurance companies essentially masquerading as Medicare.

HMOs and all the other private insurance companies introduced into Medicare after 1997 have not saved the government money, but instead, raised the cost to taxpayers much more than traditional Medicare beneficiaries. In 2005 the Government Accounting Office reported that “It is largely . . . excess payments, not managed care efficiencies, that enable plans to attract beneficiaries by offering a benefits package that is more comprehensive than the one available to FFS beneficiaries, while charging modest or no premiums. Nearly all of the 210 plans in our study received payments in 1998 that exceeded expected FFS costs….”

Labor Leaders Provide Cover for Privatization of Medicare

If the Dems/GOP and Labor have their way then Americans will get screwed (as usual) by those we trust the most.

Just to let my readers know…..

Biden campaigned to expand Medicaid. Now he’s signed a bill to sharply curtail it, ending coverage for millions of people in the middle of a pandemic he pretends is over…

The Social Security administration continues to deny thousands of disability claims a year, in part because it continues to rely on a 45-year-old list of outdated job titles. We live in a System that is eager to help the people who least need it and quick to ignore, chastise and punish the weakest, sickest and poorest among us.

More broken promises that our ‘trusted’ leaders throw out the window once elected.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

SCOTUS Vs Labor

This post may not be interesting to anyone but those that believe unions are a vital part of our country for without them America would not be the strong economy that it enjoys today.

Workers could lose the right to strike if SCOTUS plays their role….

The Supreme Court hears a labor dispute on Tuesday involving striking truck drivers who walked off the job to try to secure a better contract from their employer, a company that provides premixed concrete for construction projects. Yet, while Glacier Northwest v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters is a fairly unremarkable case, the stakes for unionized workers could be enormous.

Glacier Northwest, the employer behind this case, seeks to upend a more than 60-year-old rule protecting unions from lawsuits when workers exercise their federally protected right to strike.

It’s an audacious ask, and the case could potentially be decided more narrowly. But the two-thirds of the Court that was appointed by Republicans has shown extraordinary hostility toward unions in the past. So we can’t dismiss the risk that the Court hands down a maximalist decision that upends the balance of power between employers and labor unions.

The case hinges on a rule protecting workers’ right to strike, and laying out how companies can claim that this rule does not apply to a particular strike.

The Teamsters, the union in this case, allegedly timed a 2017 strike so that it would begin after some of Glacier Northwest’s mixing trucks were already filled with concrete, forcing the company’s non-union employees to race to dispose of this material before it hardened in the trucks. But the company was able to remove this wet concrete from the trucks before they were damaged, and there are a wealth of cases establishing that workers may strike even if doing so will cause some of their employer’s product to spoil.

In one case, for example, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) — a kind of quasi-court that hears disputes between unions and employers — sided with milk truck drivers who struck, even though their strike risked spoiling the milk before it was delivered to customers. Another case, handed down by a federal appeals court, reached a similar conclusion regarding striking cheese workers.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2023/1/9/23541349/supreme-court-glacier-northwest-teamsters-unions-strike-concrete-garmon

Just another attempt to prevent workers from earning the wages they deserve.

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