A 15% tariff on EU-branded drugs will make medicine more expensive, sick people sicker, and Big Pharma richer. Trump, doing this illegally, calls that “winning”...
Pulling out the most esoteric loft I can manage here. He's a fucking moron hellbent on destroying the constitutional order, and the Roberts court is letting him.
And Sabrina , are the American public who are groveling at the feet of the stupidity of the greedy crooks. The best kept secret is that propaganda directed at our citizens is meant to keep them stupid. Stupid is a fact! Not an insult. We have a God given (?) right to think. We can take advantage of that right, or we can be taken advantage of As long as we choose stupidity over facts.
MAGAts, and the fools that sat out the election or voted for Trump or a third party are not victims.. we who voted for Kamala are victims. Well I am not, I have Medicare and Tricare for life, which covers Medicare A, B and D.
Grandma and Grandpa are getting priced out of living. They are not going to like the finding out part of this TRump tariff.
The price hike is going to land on a lot of Republican doorsteps. Unfortunately, that seems to be the only way they learn much of anything about consequences. They are too engrossed in watching FOX news to listen to the people warning them.
One can only hope that the BBB also turns into a Big Beautiful Backlash. The RX we really need is a big Blue "pill" at the polls, and I don't mean Viagra. It's made overseas too; there is a joke there about a rise. I'll refrain. See you in the streets.
To your point re: republicans ignoring trump's and Satan Miller's policies that are hurting their constituents that are happening in real time in broad daylight--do they really expect to keep their seats at the midterms? It's as if you went in and robbed a bank and the security guard held the door open for you on your way out...then go into the same bank and apply for a job. As a mental health therapist who understands human behavior, I don't get it....
Here is what is going to happen at the mid terms, big money is going to flood the zone, ramp up the culture war, blame all of the econoomic woes on the Democrats and Biden, and Fox viewers, which dominate the south and rural America will eat it up and pull the R lever just as they always have.
Wasn't there an expected backlash against Dobbs, did that famous backlash change anything. Missouri is still Ruby red. and the anti abortion drive is still full steam ahead, now it's fear the trans and the migrants.
Alis, economics is the basic institution in society. There will be a backlash. The question in my mind is: How will the feckless Democratic Party handle it? Scurrying mouse or leaping tiger?
There will soon be a massive backlash against the U.S. healthcare system's private insurance and pharmaceutical companies. It's inevitable. They have gone too far by squeezing the blood out of employers, employees, the elderly, and the poor and sick for the profits of their shareholders. Now that necessities will become even more expensive and a larger portion of wages, those that have nothing left to lose will risk all, just as during the early 20th century.
I'm afraid of people working in healthcare now who are benefitting from the higher prices. They promote kicking people off and agree with Republican legislators and the orange felon who are being bribed by Big Pharma and other lobbyists in the healthcare economy. Insurance industry is fine with death as an outcome if you can't afford your cost.
Lots of docs feel that way. Refuse to accept Medicaid or any public paitients, i. e. workers' comp. They strategize their practices to concentrate on the most profiitable patients and procedures.
And large numbers of thinking people will go to other countries. When your healthcare resembles a car wash experience you know big insurance mobsters are winning.. and doctors could choose between being healers or being pawns in the mob!
I wish you were correct Gloria, but the public is gullible, easily distracted and too enmeshed in the culture wars, and for that we can thank the churches and the corporate media.
Trump is a creation of the media he claims to hate, and the media, actually loves him, that is the CEO's and Board of Directors.
We are past the tipping point, that happened Jan 20th this year, ah there is another tipping point, the climate,well we passed that one years ago, when we passed 350 ppm.It's all down hill from here on out, the only question is which comes first,the total destruction of a civilized society, or the end of the anthropocene, the last has odds on 2033, 2050 and 2100.
This country, such as it is, will never go for national health care because they’ve been frightened to death by the socialist specter. Pure brainwashing by the oligarchs, as you have explained. I don’t understand how people can be so ignorant. He’s a monster who wants to destroy our government.
Obama had his oportunity, but Nancy and Rahm killed it in favor of "don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good",Bernie and single payor advocates were squeezed out of the conversation and ignored, while the White House visitors book during that period showed a revolving door of health insurance lobbyists and executives.
Really. Hmm I distinctly remember Nancy not allowing the motion to get to the floor and I distinctly remember Rahm Emanuel, saying " fucking retarded progressives"
You have a hard on for Pelosi. I've posted this for you before..
"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned her Senate counterparts Thursday that she intends to fight hard for a government-run health care plan as part of any comprehensive overhaul bill.
"Pelosi's adamant defense of the politically polarizing public option puts her on a potential collision course with the Senate Finance Committee, which dropped the idea from its sweeping $827 billion proposal."
A hard on Daniel means sexual attraction, No I don't have a hard on for Pelosi, but what I do have is resentment, it does appear that she is part of the establishment that slops at the same trough as the Republicans. And despite that article you linked to she did in fact stop Bernies single payor plan from coming to the floor.
The single payor plan was not a government run health care plan. The government wasn't running health care, any more than Medicare and Medicaid run health care. The ACA is more of a government run health care plan than Medicare and Medicaid..
There is a diference between Single payor and government run (socialized) health care.
There is a huge difference between the ACA and Single Payor.
As concerns my opinion of Nancy, she earned it. She threw her weight behind the conservadDem, Rep Joseph Kennedy Jr, when he ran in the pprimary against progressive Sen Markey.
She also backed a homophobe against a homosexual.
Nancy is a conservative Democrat, and like all of them hates progressives.
You may be a Democrat Daniel, but I am not. I am a progressive that votes Democrat,because that is the only alternative in the present environment.
Mr. Solomon, forget about telling Trump, tell the Democratic Party. FDR was re-elected three subsequent times because he gave the public good programs.
Ms. Fenlon, You are correct: pumped up fear of the boogey man, socialism, has been used to kill good programs all my life. But in this case, I think Racism has also played a role. Frances Perkins and others pushed FDR to bring in socialized medicine. But he knew that the White hatred of Black citizens would make it too difficult. So he spent his political capital elsewhere.
You are exactly right! Racism is probably the biggest hurdle this country has for any legislation. It’s the sin and crime that just won’t stop. I don’t say “sin” much, and not in a religious way. If this country could open its hearts, the sky would be the limit.
The poor white will gladly take a hit, if it means that the black man gets hit harder.
LBJ said that "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
Are you referring to the Epstein affair Mr Dobbertin. If so I fear that he will survive it. his base will eventually coalesce around him, guided by Charlie Kirk and Ben Shapiro, and as regards the press and anyone else, he will sue them, threaten them and sic the dept of justice on them
MAGA isn't Trump, MAGA was seething waiting for Trump, while we were locked in our echo chamber and talking to ourselves, Trump was tuned into Rush, Alex jones, Fox,Newsmax.
Liberals don't understand the conservative mentality, and I don't mean the William F. Buckley Jr conservative, though it was he that kick started a movement that has been around since Hobbes, or even older.
Trump is all of their fears, anger, angst wrapped up in an orange package, when he is attacked, they feel that they are attacked. He said he could shoot someone on fifth avenue and not loose his base, and the corporate media snickered at the "blow hard" problem is he is not a blow hard, he will even survive the Epstein thing, they are already making excuses, and Ghislaine will testify that Trump was not dorking the kids, and they will believe her, because that is what they need.
Remember how homophobic the Christian right was? Pat Robertson put blame on regions because of gay tolerance.
Now the Secretary of the Treasury is a queer, so is Peter Thiel, and J D Vance confessed to gay leanings and wears eye liner, and suddenly homophobia disappeared replaced by transphobia, an activity in which mean gays are involved, like that queer Catholic Andrew Sullivan. (Who is a never Trumper)
My point is that I doubt that anything will cost Trump his base.
No Mr. Farrar, I am not referring to the Epstein scandal. I am thinking of the nation's response to the Hoover-Republican depression.
Sex scandals have been traditionally of concern only to the feckless Democrats: John Kerry, Al Franken, etc. I admit Bill ("it depends on the meaning of the word 'the'") Clinton was an exception here.
Ike was an example of a different kind of exception, regarding his long affair with his jeep driver. That brilliant general George Marshall, told Ike to end it. Ike did.
Republicans know better. They seem to have more political savvy.
Trump is a dishonorable exception, in my lifetime. He exceeds even the Ray Gun in dishonor.
He is taking his own base, the poor, the struggling who latched on to him for help and taking away rural hositals, care centers, medicaid, Obama care is being stripped all of it. Makes no sense to me a those are his peeps and he is gutting them. Medicare is already under attack and I have switched pharmacies as the one I used for years is tired of fighting to hold back prices. Ok it isn't a big deal to me but so many people are going to be crushed by this and they still back him - I don't understand that one at all.
Senator Whitehouse told the fable just before the vote on Bove's confirmation about the woman who nursed an injured snake back to health, only to be bitten by the snake. When she asked the snake why, the snake answered that it is the nature of the snake to bite, and that she knew that when she saved it.
A good analogy as Trump IS the snake incarnate. He has turned on his own base and of course ELON. Not all people realize that the hand that gives to you will also take away - that is a huge problem with Trump followers - he is basically considering them fools and grabbing all he can.
Curtis, Nebraska is hard hit, the hospital is struggling and no waiting for the BUB to kick in, they are closing now, and patients, even emergencies, will have to drive 40 miles to a hospital, a reporter visited the senior center in Curtis, interviewed the people, all will be hurt, but they don't blame Trump,they blame the hospital.
Civil servants who voted for Trump because they believed he was going to fire that worthless person in the next cubicle, lost their job, they still support Trump, but think it was a Musk mistake.
Young Hispanics voted overwhelming for Trump as did many older Hispanics, they believed that Trump was going to deport the worst of the worst, Wanna bet that many of them are still Trump humpers, because they are Christians and gobble up the culture war against trans, and women and gays
People aren't really motivated by the price of eggs, until they can''t afford them as in a depression. The popularity of the KKK disappeared once the working man couldn't find a job, when money started flowing and jobs came back, thanks to FDR's recovery plans, there was a rise in fascism, and the American NAZI party.
I dismiss the talk of the economic man, man's motivation is more primal than economics, once he has a full belly, a roof over his head, his concerns go up Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs.
Now is our moment—take action against this harmful government. Covering up a pedophile ring. Ignoring court orders. Blatant corruption. The poor, the needy, and children are being abused—by our government. In the streets we must protest outright crooks and the pedophiles until after their shooting us starts, until we go down or we oust tyrants. I made 54 protest signs, and will make many more to share. You will see something different in these signs! Help yourself to this second batch, and share them as far as you can.
You are the kind of modern-day hero we need -- us ordinary folks, taking what actions we can! Since our leaders aren't leading us anywhere, us chickens are all that's crossing any roads and you are a shining example of doing it in style!
I just picked up my wife’s monthly medication at the local clinic here in Costa Rica. Cost- $0. The same could be said for every other advanced country in the world. Why can’t the richest country in the world do the same?
Yes, I get my SS payment electronically delivered to my CR bank account. Since my house is paid in full SS funds cover most of my expenses. The cost of living is similar to the USA but things like medical care and property taxes are way cheaper. I was treated for lymphoma at the public hospital for no cost and that would have been $300,000 or more in the USA. The public hospitals are great if you have a life threatening situation but for other things the waiting time is long. Insurance for private hospitals is not prohibitive.
To get residency it would be best to do it through a lawyer who can lead you through all the hoops you need to jump through. Mine cost $1,500 and it was money well spent. Mostly you have to show that you can support yourself and you don’t have a criminal record.
So... We have a president who's overseeing the gutting of Medicaid and with it the inevitable closing of several rural hospitals; who has severely cut the funding for the CDC (44%), the NIH, (40%) and the FDA (19%); who has as his secretary of HHS a man as noted for his conspiracy theories and bad science as for his fondness for road kill. In true Trumpian fashion he has promised a significant cut in pharmaceuticals while overseeing their actual increase. Trump could care less about this nation's health than he does about staying away from that sand tramp out by the 7th hole. Were that there was a vaccine for Trumpivitis.
Worse. PAYGO will kick in, gutting Medicare. Statutory Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) Act of 2010, amounting to approximately $500 billion over the period of 2026 to 2034, unless Congress acts to waive these requirements. $45 Billion in 2026.
This "sequestration" of Medicare funds, which could reduce payments to hospitals and other providers, would occur if the bill is enacted and increases the federal deficit without Congressional intervention.
Hard to believe it can get worse, let alone that it will. Unfortunately, he's not done — by the end we'll be slipping through the alleyways to visit our local curandero or to the reservations to see the healers of one of the many indigenous healing traditions. I don't have many issues with allopathic medicine — it has kept me alive through crises as it currently is my wife — but that does not mean there are no other valid pathways to health.
Mr. Hartmann, there are no doubt, people who still believe Trump's tariffs will encourage companies to begin producing products here in the U.S. This is simply a failure to understand how the institution of economics works. Those jobs which left the U.S. at Bill Clinton's encouragement, will NEVER COME BACK. The owners of those huge corporations will always force their boards of directors to build production facilities where the labor is cheapest. This will help to maximize their profits; which is the fiduciary responsibility of the directors.
All of that Mr Dobbertin, and the factories that havebeen abandoned, have become pigeon roosts, forests and cannot be rehabbed. They would have to be taken down, plowed under and new factories built, and the new factories would be manned by robots and AI. The Republicans know this, but the people in the rust belt are clueless.
Grrrrrr. "Now is the moment to fight back. Organize." Easy to say, Thom, but cheap. You are speaking to a body without a head. Everyone in your audience would agree with you, so it's a meaningless gesture to whip us up into agreement when there's no way for us powerless people to organize. Those with attention would have to lead the way. That would be you!!!!!!
Just a FYI: “breakthrough drug” Keytruda was found to have infringed on Opdivo’s patent & had to pay Opdivo manufacturer a percentage of its profits for each Keytruda vial sold for several years as compensation. An example of how big pharma “innovation” works in American capitalism.
Keytruda extended my life, Diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in Oct 2017,I was given 6 months and put on paliative care. I received triweekly infusions of Keytruda (an immunotherapy that boosted my immune system for two years, I am still here, oncologist says I am a miracle. Jimmy Carter had melanomia, which also metastasized to the brain and was placed on Keytruda in 2015, he died at the age of 100 in Dec 2024.
My sister, she never smoked, came down with lung cancer, her Oncologist in NC put her on Opdivo,she did not do to well, she died in April, the cancer had metastisized to her gall bladder.
I implore her to have her oncologist to switch to Keytruda (google efficacy of Keytruda to Opdivo), he would not,probably because he was receiving gifts and pay outs from Bristol Myers Squibb.
Making money in the morally wrong way according to the Bible is now considered the American way. But these social values historically shift and evidence of shifting wildly is on going. Once society shifts to a non predatory work ethic all those billionaires are no longer held in high regard because it takes millions in poverty for the math to work. Very few billionaires are natural but they are built by economic policy. A change in the value system of society is sure in our day as it is ongoing as most people understand. When these unlucky boys get the message that parasites are no long wanted the world will change in a way nobody thought possible. It is already here and only the morans as the tea baggers spell it cannot see it. The day of awakening is coming even to these without vision. Fear not my friends. God's on our side if you have some sense and life. Only parasites not willing to work find out they become visible and they lose what source of stolen energy they had. The energy vampires will starve as they should and the great rebalancing occurs and the billionaires become poverty and the stolen energy comes back to their owners. Rejoice when the day of justice is here. A great future is for all those that have worked and not stolen the life force of others. God bless the innocent.
So when god sends a tornado through a trailer park, and 10% of the people are killed,he is taking his beloved home or did he let his beloved live and send the 10% to hell.
If god is so great and loving then why do we have Trump's, Putins, Hitlers, Such a great future he has carved out for us all.
Here is how I see god, he is a psychic vampire, who spreads his wings over the earth, and feeds on all of the fear, pain and suffering of all creatures not just humans, like the antelope that is being eaten alive by a leopard as I type this, the person dying in agony from cancer, congestive heart failure, measles, AIDS.
Next time I hear of a hurricane, an earthquake, a tornado,a volcanic eruption or kids dying of starvation or bombs, I will remember this loving god.
Pulling out the most esoteric loft I can manage here. He's a fucking moron hellbent on destroying the constitutional order, and the Roberts court is letting him.
And Sabrina , are the American public who are groveling at the feet of the stupidity of the greedy crooks. The best kept secret is that propaganda directed at our citizens is meant to keep them stupid. Stupid is a fact! Not an insult. We have a God given (?) right to think. We can take advantage of that right, or we can be taken advantage of As long as we choose stupidity over facts.
Jean(Muriel), you are blaming the victims. You claim to be a retired teacher. Teach, don't blame.
MAGAts, and the fools that sat out the election or voted for Trump or a third party are not victims.. we who voted for Kamala are victims. Well I am not, I have Medicare and Tricare for life, which covers Medicare A, B and D.
Access to the student/victims is necessary. Citizens United allowed the wealthy to buy ads to use their propaganda against the majority.
I am asking them to think. Nothing else.
FAFO Senior Style
Grandma and Grandpa are getting priced out of living. They are not going to like the finding out part of this TRump tariff.
The price hike is going to land on a lot of Republican doorsteps. Unfortunately, that seems to be the only way they learn much of anything about consequences. They are too engrossed in watching FOX news to listen to the people warning them.
One can only hope that the BBB also turns into a Big Beautiful Backlash. The RX we really need is a big Blue "pill" at the polls, and I don't mean Viagra. It's made overseas too; there is a joke there about a rise. I'll refrain. See you in the streets.
To your point re: republicans ignoring trump's and Satan Miller's policies that are hurting their constituents that are happening in real time in broad daylight--do they really expect to keep their seats at the midterms? It's as if you went in and robbed a bank and the security guard held the door open for you on your way out...then go into the same bank and apply for a job. As a mental health therapist who understands human behavior, I don't get it....
Here is what is going to happen at the mid terms, big money is going to flood the zone, ramp up the culture war, blame all of the econoomic woes on the Democrats and Biden, and Fox viewers, which dominate the south and rural America will eat it up and pull the R lever just as they always have.
Wasn't there an expected backlash against Dobbs, did that famous backlash change anything. Missouri is still Ruby red. and the anti abortion drive is still full steam ahead, now it's fear the trans and the migrants.
Ms. Demas, I can think of two possibilities:
1) The republicans are too dumb to understand this.
2) The republicans are certain the next election cycle is fixed in their favor.
Republicans are not dumb.
Alis, economics is the basic institution in society. There will be a backlash. The question in my mind is: How will the feckless Democratic Party handle it? Scurrying mouse or leaping tiger?
There will soon be a massive backlash against the U.S. healthcare system's private insurance and pharmaceutical companies. It's inevitable. They have gone too far by squeezing the blood out of employers, employees, the elderly, and the poor and sick for the profits of their shareholders. Now that necessities will become even more expensive and a larger portion of wages, those that have nothing left to lose will risk all, just as during the early 20th century.
I'm afraid of people working in healthcare now who are benefitting from the higher prices. They promote kicking people off and agree with Republican legislators and the orange felon who are being bribed by Big Pharma and other lobbyists in the healthcare economy. Insurance industry is fine with death as an outcome if you can't afford your cost.
Lots of docs feel that way. Refuse to accept Medicaid or any public paitients, i. e. workers' comp. They strategize their practices to concentrate on the most profiitable patients and procedures.
And large numbers of thinking people will go to other countries. When your healthcare resembles a car wash experience you know big insurance mobsters are winning.. and doctors could choose between being healers or being pawns in the mob!
Some insurance companies will send patients out of country.
E.G. People sent to Mexico or Canada or even Thailand courtesy of their insurance carriers to obtain a procedure that costs much less.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/travelers-head-to-thailand-for-inexpensive-medical-procedures
https://www.newsweek.com/u-s-mexico-travel-tourists-receive-new-auto-insurance-offer-1484231
I wish you were correct Gloria, but the public is gullible, easily distracted and too enmeshed in the culture wars, and for that we can thank the churches and the corporate media.
Trump is a creation of the media he claims to hate, and the media, actually loves him, that is the CEO's and Board of Directors.
There will soon be a tipping point.
We are past the tipping point, that happened Jan 20th this year, ah there is another tipping point, the climate,well we passed that one years ago, when we passed 350 ppm.It's all down hill from here on out, the only question is which comes first,the total destruction of a civilized society, or the end of the anthropocene, the last has odds on 2033, 2050 and 2100.
This country, such as it is, will never go for national health care because they’ve been frightened to death by the socialist specter. Pure brainwashing by the oligarchs, as you have explained. I don’t understand how people can be so ignorant. He’s a monster who wants to destroy our government.
I don't want to give Trump any ideas, but had HE supported Medicare for all, he could be king for life.
Obama had his oportunity, but Nancy and Rahm killed it in favor of "don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good",Bernie and single payor advocates were squeezed out of the conversation and ignored, while the White House visitors book during that period showed a revolving door of health insurance lobbyists and executives.
It was Baccus.
Go back to sleep.
Really. Hmm I distinctly remember Nancy not allowing the motion to get to the floor and I distinctly remember Rahm Emanuel, saying " fucking retarded progressives"
You have a hard on for Pelosi. I've posted this for you before..
"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned her Senate counterparts Thursday that she intends to fight hard for a government-run health care plan as part of any comprehensive overhaul bill.
"Pelosi's adamant defense of the politically polarizing public option puts her on a potential collision course with the Senate Finance Committee, which dropped the idea from its sweeping $827 billion proposal."
https://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/10/15/health.care/index.html
A hard on Daniel means sexual attraction, No I don't have a hard on for Pelosi, but what I do have is resentment, it does appear that she is part of the establishment that slops at the same trough as the Republicans. And despite that article you linked to she did in fact stop Bernies single payor plan from coming to the floor.
The single payor plan was not a government run health care plan. The government wasn't running health care, any more than Medicare and Medicaid run health care. The ACA is more of a government run health care plan than Medicare and Medicaid..
There is a diference between Single payor and government run (socialized) health care.
There is a huge difference between the ACA and Single Payor.
As concerns my opinion of Nancy, she earned it. She threw her weight behind the conservadDem, Rep Joseph Kennedy Jr, when he ran in the pprimary against progressive Sen Markey.
She also backed a homophobe against a homosexual.
Nancy is a conservative Democrat, and like all of them hates progressives.
You may be a Democrat Daniel, but I am not. I am a progressive that votes Democrat,because that is the only alternative in the present environment.
Mr. Solomon, forget about telling Trump, tell the Democratic Party. FDR was re-elected three subsequent times because he gave the public good programs.
I'M NOT TELLING TRUMP. Reading comprehension.
So true! But empathy is not in his wheelhouse.
Ms. Fenlon, You are correct: pumped up fear of the boogey man, socialism, has been used to kill good programs all my life. But in this case, I think Racism has also played a role. Frances Perkins and others pushed FDR to bring in socialized medicine. But he knew that the White hatred of Black citizens would make it too difficult. So he spent his political capital elsewhere.
You are exactly right! Racism is probably the biggest hurdle this country has for any legislation. It’s the sin and crime that just won’t stop. I don’t say “sin” much, and not in a religious way. If this country could open its hearts, the sky would be the limit.
The poor white will gladly take a hit, if it means that the black man gets hit harder.
LBJ said that "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
Unfortunately, Mr. Farrar, you are correct. But there is a solution. Trump might be providing it, unwittingly.
Are you referring to the Epstein affair Mr Dobbertin. If so I fear that he will survive it. his base will eventually coalesce around him, guided by Charlie Kirk and Ben Shapiro, and as regards the press and anyone else, he will sue them, threaten them and sic the dept of justice on them
MAGA isn't Trump, MAGA was seething waiting for Trump, while we were locked in our echo chamber and talking to ourselves, Trump was tuned into Rush, Alex jones, Fox,Newsmax.
Liberals don't understand the conservative mentality, and I don't mean the William F. Buckley Jr conservative, though it was he that kick started a movement that has been around since Hobbes, or even older.
Trump is all of their fears, anger, angst wrapped up in an orange package, when he is attacked, they feel that they are attacked. He said he could shoot someone on fifth avenue and not loose his base, and the corporate media snickered at the "blow hard" problem is he is not a blow hard, he will even survive the Epstein thing, they are already making excuses, and Ghislaine will testify that Trump was not dorking the kids, and they will believe her, because that is what they need.
Remember how homophobic the Christian right was? Pat Robertson put blame on regions because of gay tolerance.
Now the Secretary of the Treasury is a queer, so is Peter Thiel, and J D Vance confessed to gay leanings and wears eye liner, and suddenly homophobia disappeared replaced by transphobia, an activity in which mean gays are involved, like that queer Catholic Andrew Sullivan. (Who is a never Trumper)
My point is that I doubt that anything will cost Trump his base.
No Mr. Farrar, I am not referring to the Epstein scandal. I am thinking of the nation's response to the Hoover-Republican depression.
Sex scandals have been traditionally of concern only to the feckless Democrats: John Kerry, Al Franken, etc. I admit Bill ("it depends on the meaning of the word 'the'") Clinton was an exception here.
Ike was an example of a different kind of exception, regarding his long affair with his jeep driver. That brilliant general George Marshall, told Ike to end it. Ike did.
Republicans know better. They seem to have more political savvy.
Trump is a dishonorable exception, in my lifetime. He exceeds even the Ray Gun in dishonor.
He is taking his own base, the poor, the struggling who latched on to him for help and taking away rural hositals, care centers, medicaid, Obama care is being stripped all of it. Makes no sense to me a those are his peeps and he is gutting them. Medicare is already under attack and I have switched pharmacies as the one I used for years is tired of fighting to hold back prices. Ok it isn't a big deal to me but so many people are going to be crushed by this and they still back him - I don't understand that one at all.
Senator Whitehouse told the fable just before the vote on Bove's confirmation about the woman who nursed an injured snake back to health, only to be bitten by the snake. When she asked the snake why, the snake answered that it is the nature of the snake to bite, and that she knew that when she saved it.
A good analogy as Trump IS the snake incarnate. He has turned on his own base and of course ELON. Not all people realize that the hand that gives to you will also take away - that is a huge problem with Trump followers - he is basically considering them fools and grabbing all he can.
Curtis, Nebraska is hard hit, the hospital is struggling and no waiting for the BUB to kick in, they are closing now, and patients, even emergencies, will have to drive 40 miles to a hospital, a reporter visited the senior center in Curtis, interviewed the people, all will be hurt, but they don't blame Trump,they blame the hospital.
Civil servants who voted for Trump because they believed he was going to fire that worthless person in the next cubicle, lost their job, they still support Trump, but think it was a Musk mistake.
Young Hispanics voted overwhelming for Trump as did many older Hispanics, they believed that Trump was going to deport the worst of the worst, Wanna bet that many of them are still Trump humpers, because they are Christians and gobble up the culture war against trans, and women and gays
People aren't really motivated by the price of eggs, until they can''t afford them as in a depression. The popularity of the KKK disappeared once the working man couldn't find a job, when money started flowing and jobs came back, thanks to FDR's recovery plans, there was a rise in fascism, and the American NAZI party.
I dismiss the talk of the economic man, man's motivation is more primal than economics, once he has a full belly, a roof over his head, his concerns go up Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs.
Now is our moment—take action against this harmful government. Covering up a pedophile ring. Ignoring court orders. Blatant corruption. The poor, the needy, and children are being abused—by our government. In the streets we must protest outright crooks and the pedophiles until after their shooting us starts, until we go down or we oust tyrants. I made 54 protest signs, and will make many more to share. You will see something different in these signs! Help yourself to this second batch, and share them as far as you can.
https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/more-free-protest-signs?r=3m1bs
You are the kind of modern-day hero we need -- us ordinary folks, taking what actions we can! Since our leaders aren't leading us anywhere, us chickens are all that's crossing any roads and you are a shining example of doing it in style!
Killing Americans off slowly....
I just picked up my wife’s monthly medication at the local clinic here in Costa Rica. Cost- $0. The same could be said for every other advanced country in the world. Why can’t the richest country in the world do the same?
Mr. Brodin, answer: HATRED, CRUELTY, IGNORANCE, SUPERSTITION AND FEAR.
Are you living on a retired income in Costa Rica? Does your social security check go there?
How do you support yourself, What are the requirements for a resident visa.?
Yes, I get my SS payment electronically delivered to my CR bank account. Since my house is paid in full SS funds cover most of my expenses. The cost of living is similar to the USA but things like medical care and property taxes are way cheaper. I was treated for lymphoma at the public hospital for no cost and that would have been $300,000 or more in the USA. The public hospitals are great if you have a life threatening situation but for other things the waiting time is long. Insurance for private hospitals is not prohibitive.
To get residency it would be best to do it through a lawyer who can lead you through all the hoops you need to jump through. Mine cost $1,500 and it was money well spent. Mostly you have to show that you can support yourself and you don’t have a criminal record.
Thanks Chris
So... We have a president who's overseeing the gutting of Medicaid and with it the inevitable closing of several rural hospitals; who has severely cut the funding for the CDC (44%), the NIH, (40%) and the FDA (19%); who has as his secretary of HHS a man as noted for his conspiracy theories and bad science as for his fondness for road kill. In true Trumpian fashion he has promised a significant cut in pharmaceuticals while overseeing their actual increase. Trump could care less about this nation's health than he does about staying away from that sand tramp out by the 7th hole. Were that there was a vaccine for Trumpivitis.
Worse. PAYGO will kick in, gutting Medicare. Statutory Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) Act of 2010, amounting to approximately $500 billion over the period of 2026 to 2034, unless Congress acts to waive these requirements. $45 Billion in 2026.
This "sequestration" of Medicare funds, which could reduce payments to hospitals and other providers, would occur if the bill is enacted and increases the federal deficit without Congressional intervention.
Hard to believe it can get worse, let alone that it will. Unfortunately, he's not done — by the end we'll be slipping through the alleyways to visit our local curandero or to the reservations to see the healers of one of the many indigenous healing traditions. I don't have many issues with allopathic medicine — it has kept me alive through crises as it currently is my wife — but that does not mean there are no other valid pathways to health.
You rock, Hartmann- thank goodness for your "seminars "!
Mr. Hartmann, there are no doubt, people who still believe Trump's tariffs will encourage companies to begin producing products here in the U.S. This is simply a failure to understand how the institution of economics works. Those jobs which left the U.S. at Bill Clinton's encouragement, will NEVER COME BACK. The owners of those huge corporations will always force their boards of directors to build production facilities where the labor is cheapest. This will help to maximize their profits; which is the fiduciary responsibility of the directors.
All of that Mr Dobbertin, and the factories that havebeen abandoned, have become pigeon roosts, forests and cannot be rehabbed. They would have to be taken down, plowed under and new factories built, and the new factories would be manned by robots and AI. The Republicans know this, but the people in the rust belt are clueless.
The songs are truly beautiful ... the music, the words!
Trumpet calls it "winning" - Let's put a sock in it, drown him out, and sing our victories LOUDER!
(Sorry for the mixed similes and metaphors!)
Grrrrrr. "Now is the moment to fight back. Organize." Easy to say, Thom, but cheap. You are speaking to a body without a head. Everyone in your audience would agree with you, so it's a meaningless gesture to whip us up into agreement when there's no way for us powerless people to organize. Those with attention would have to lead the way. That would be you!!!!!!
See my Substack this week, with you in it:
The massive change of understanding we need
Looking for where it can come from
https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/p/the-massive-change-of-understanding
Just a FYI: “breakthrough drug” Keytruda was found to have infringed on Opdivo’s patent & had to pay Opdivo manufacturer a percentage of its profits for each Keytruda vial sold for several years as compensation. An example of how big pharma “innovation” works in American capitalism.
Keytruda extended my life, Diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in Oct 2017,I was given 6 months and put on paliative care. I received triweekly infusions of Keytruda (an immunotherapy that boosted my immune system for two years, I am still here, oncologist says I am a miracle. Jimmy Carter had melanomia, which also metastasized to the brain and was placed on Keytruda in 2015, he died at the age of 100 in Dec 2024.
My sister, she never smoked, came down with lung cancer, her Oncologist in NC put her on Opdivo,she did not do to well, she died in April, the cancer had metastisized to her gall bladder.
I implore her to have her oncologist to switch to Keytruda (google efficacy of Keytruda to Opdivo), he would not,probably because he was receiving gifts and pay outs from Bristol Myers Squibb.
Making money in the morally wrong way according to the Bible is now considered the American way. But these social values historically shift and evidence of shifting wildly is on going. Once society shifts to a non predatory work ethic all those billionaires are no longer held in high regard because it takes millions in poverty for the math to work. Very few billionaires are natural but they are built by economic policy. A change in the value system of society is sure in our day as it is ongoing as most people understand. When these unlucky boys get the message that parasites are no long wanted the world will change in a way nobody thought possible. It is already here and only the morans as the tea baggers spell it cannot see it. The day of awakening is coming even to these without vision. Fear not my friends. God's on our side if you have some sense and life. Only parasites not willing to work find out they become visible and they lose what source of stolen energy they had. The energy vampires will starve as they should and the great rebalancing occurs and the billionaires become poverty and the stolen energy comes back to their owners. Rejoice when the day of justice is here. A great future is for all those that have worked and not stolen the life force of others. God bless the innocent.
So when god sends a tornado through a trailer park, and 10% of the people are killed,he is taking his beloved home or did he let his beloved live and send the 10% to hell.
If god is so great and loving then why do we have Trump's, Putins, Hitlers, Such a great future he has carved out for us all.
Here is how I see god, he is a psychic vampire, who spreads his wings over the earth, and feeds on all of the fear, pain and suffering of all creatures not just humans, like the antelope that is being eaten alive by a leopard as I type this, the person dying in agony from cancer, congestive heart failure, measles, AIDS.
Next time I hear of a hurricane, an earthquake, a tornado,a volcanic eruption or kids dying of starvation or bombs, I will remember this loving god.