"The most concerning quote is the "I really believe" line. After all, if Putin can convince Trump of the exact opposite of what Trump's own intelligence community is telling him, he can probably convince Trump of anything."
Maybe, just maybe, this is why Pres. Trump does not want Russia as an enemy!!!! These problems cannot be solved without Russia.
Now I understand that some want to find an "enemy of America" under every rock, but such thinking does not serve this country's interests. Nor will more enemies help to "solve North Korea, Syria, Ukraine, terrorism and etc." However, more enemies do serve the interests of the rich and the military industrial complex.
Clearly, our elections are our responsibility. Not to mention that the countries that screw with our elections the most are Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Remember, your elections have not been sacred since "Citizens United." That court action caused America to trade elections by vote for elections by dollars. Your democracy is gone, and it was not Russia that did it.
Russia and/or any other country's actions are not the real problem with our elections. Russia is a great big distraction. It is a distraction from the other forces controlling America's elections, and you have fallen for it - hook, line, and sinker!
PS: In the end, some posters are blaming Russia and Wikileaks for telling America the truth during the election. Some must prefer ignorance to knowing!
"CIA Director Mike Pompeo, in his first speech since taking over the agency, lambasted WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange -- calling the group a "non-state hostile intelligence service" that is often abetted by "state actors like Russia."
Enter Roy Moore,...See More"You may have thought that Republicans had sunk as low as they could possibly go last year when they nominated for the presidency a man who was singularly unfit, morally and mentally, for that post. But, no, once you start racing to the bottom you never quite stop. There is always another level of degeneracy to be plumbed.
Enter Roy Moore, the Republican Senate candidate in Alabama. He believes that "homosexual conduct should be illegal" and that Muslims should not be permitted to serve in Congress. Now the Washington Post reports that this fearless crusader for "traditional values" had a habit of propositioning underage girls.
In one case in 1979, when he was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney, the Post reports, Moore allegedly offered to watch a "little girl" outside a courthouse for her mother. He subsequently took advantage of this entree to kiss and fondle this 14-year-old after undressing both of them down to their underwear. The statute of limitations has expired on this sordid episode, but under Alabama law it would constitute sexual abuse in the second degree and be punishable by up to a year in prison...."
This limit is essential, not only because extreme wealth will rot a person's character, but it also damages your economy. Here is what Professor Hudson had to say about our current form of Neoliberal Capitalism. Interesting that "the ancients knew" and we don't!
(Quote)
Neoclassical price theory is based on the assumption of diminishing marginal utility: The more food, clothes, or other consumption goods one has, the less pleasure each additional unit gives. But as the ancients knew, this principle is not true of wealth, especially of money. The more property one has, the more one wants. Wealth is addictive, sucking its possessors into a compulsive drive to accumulate.
Yet, the attitude of the people described in the article is exactly what you should expect. In the richest country in the history of mankind, they have seen "massive population loss, shrinking tax rolls, communal hopelessness and ultimately a raging opioid epidemic."
The people should hate both the system that did this to them and the government that allowed it to happen. This brings us to my view of Pres. Trump's election. Trump is the hand grenade that these angry people wanted to through into the system that did this to them.
With this in mind, it is easy to see why they still support Trump. He is still the outsider who is being attacked by the Democrats, the Republicans, and the Main Stream Media. Or more simply, everyone in the current system is promising "more of the same!" They are offering more of the same lack of health care, lack of schools, lack of jobs, and more of the attitude, "Your problems are none of my fracking business. So, don't tell me about them!"
Certainly, the Republican tax plan demonstrated its allegiance to the rich, and it is clear from the DNC debacle that the Democrats still support Wall Street. Despite changing his positions on some issues, Trump is still the outsider.
Or as the article says, "Trump is simply and unceasingly angry on their behalf, battling the people who vex them the worst—"obstructionist" Democrats, uncooperative establishment Republicans, the media, Black Lives Matter protesters, and NFL players."
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In a different vein, I had to laugh! First this "But it's hard to find people - people with the requisite skills." Then this "If they are employable, and have a skill set, basically they already moved out of the area."
And now the hilarious part, "JARI, a nonprofit economic development agency in Johnstown that provides precisely the kind of retraining, supported by a combination of private, state and federal funding, that could prepare somebody for a job."
Like duh! The people with skills left because there is no money in this town to pay decent wages. If you train someone, they will see the same economic situation and the vast majority will do as the others did - that is, leave!
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Yet, let me give an example of a dying small town that was saved. A town of 2000 near where I grew up is getting a meat packing plant. The value of property will soar, which means the poorly paid workers will crowd together with 10 or more in a house. Crime will increase. The schools will be overcrowded. Yet, the plant is not inside the city limits, so it will pay no taxes for solving these problems.
It would have been better for all of the humans - but bad for the corporation - if several smaller plants were built in several locations. However, with Neoliberal Capitalism, people have no say in their quality of life. It is all about corporate profits, and, beyond that, citizens are to keep their mouth shut or the corporation will punish them!
PS: If we do not overthrow this corporate-dominated economic system, Kathleen is right - "we are certainly doomed." We will "owe our soul to the company store." However, the problem is not the people in the article. They are doing nothing but acting like any human in their position would.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced yesterday that more than 600,000 people selected plans from Nov. 1 through 4. Those figures appear quite a bit higher than last year, when just over a million people selected plans in the first dozen days (the best comparison available at this point). More than one in five of those people — 137,322 — were new enrollees....