The continuous republican attack on programs that help people

[b.c.]

Trump’s reckless [AND POLITICALLY MOTIVATED] attack on Ford, Honda, Volkswagen, and BMW.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/09/trump-doj-antitrust-ford-honda-volkswagen-bmw.html

"On Monday, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee announced a probe into the Trump administration’s latest apparent abuse of power: The Department of Justice’s antitrust investigation into four automakers that agreed to adhere to California’s emissions standards.

The committee’s pledge to hold hearings into the issue as part of a widening impeachment inquiry is urgently welcome news. The Trump administration must be made to answer for this wild, reckless, and seemingly lawless decision.

It’s important to know how we got to a place where the federal government is investigating automakers for trying to make cleaner cars and threatening to punish California for protecting the state’s air quality.

This isn’t the first time the Trump administration has used the threat of antitrust enforcement as a tool of political retribution against commercial enterprises [the chosen Individual 1] views as antagonists.

Trump has threatened antitrust enforcement against Amazon because the company is owned by Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post—a constant thorn in Trump’s side.

He’s also suggested antitrust enforcement as a means of either extorting money or more favorable media treatment from Google, one of the platforms Trump contends “discriminates against me.”

​

 

[b.c.]

While the nation's attention has been largely focused on Trump's impeachment, Trump and the GOP have been still going about the business of FUCKING the American people, many of whom are among THEIR supporters via malevolent policies and litigation aimed at taking food and health care from children, women, and families:

Court Rules Obamacare Mandate Unconstitutional, Puts Entire Law At Risk | HuffPost

"A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that the Affordable Care Act’s “individual mandate” is unconstitutional, putting insurance for 20 million Americans in jeopardy and threatening to throw the health care system into chaos.

The ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans upheld key elements of a controversial, widely criticized decision that a district court handed down last year.

The lower court had held that a GOP-controlled Congress rendered the entire statute unconstitutional in 2017 when it eliminated the Affordable Care Act’s tax penalty for people who violated the law’s individual mandate to have health coverage."​

The fkng 5th strikes again. Also:

Trump’s Food Stamp Cuts Will Be Devastating to Trump Country – Mother Jones

"Under the new rule, which goes into effect in April 2020, work requirements for the 700,000 SNAP users who are labeled as “able-bodied” adults without any dependents (ABAWD) will be tightened, potentially leaving them without access to the program and pushed deeper into poverty.

But an unintended consequence of this measure is the damage that it will do to rural communities and the grocery stores they rely on."​

And in other news, an example of the effects of the GOP's attack upon the reproductive rights of women:

Woman Forced to Drive to Three Pharmacies to Obtain Birth-Control Prescription...In A Snow Storm

"In a lawsuit filed earlier this week, a rural Minnesota woman details how she was forced to drive to three different pharmacies for a birth-control prescription after being denied by a pharmacist based on their “beliefs”. The St. Paul-based non-profit advocacy group, Gender Justice, filed the suit on behalf of Andrea Anderson, a resident of McGregor, Minnesota.

All Anderson wanted to do was to have her doctor-issued prescription for Ella (an emergency contraceptive) filled at her local Thrifty White pharmacy in January 2019. What she got instead was a multi-hour ordeal that included her having to drive to two additional communities. All of this as a winter storm began to blanket that part of the state in snow and wind." ​

 

[keenobserver]

In leaked audio, a top Trump adviser said the Republican party has 'traditionally' relied on voter suppression

 

[Klingsor]

All Anderson wanted to do was to have her doctor-issued prescription for Ella (an emergency contraceptive) filled at her local Thrifty White pharmacy in January 2019. What she got instead was a multi-hour ordeal that included her having to drive to two additional communities. All of this as a winter storm began to blanket that part of the state in snow and wind."

Yeah, well. "Thrifty White" . . . that should have been the giveaway right there.

 

[b.c.]

Yeah, well. "Thrifty White" . . . that should have been the giveaway right there.

I had never heard of 'em until now. Their name (according to Wikipedia) is apparently a derivative of a merger between Thrifty Drugs and White Drugs (the latter named for the owners, Mr. and Mrs. White). They supposedly have operations in six states under several accreditations that one would THINK should be in jeopardy because of the actions of their employee.

Same goes for CVS, who ALSO refused to fill her prescription. Hope her lawyer sues the F------ out of 'em.

 

[Klingsor]

. . . White Drugs (. . . named for the owners, Mr. and Mrs. White).

I'd definitely check what the signs on the door say at *that* place.

 

[spaj8987]

So much of what conservatives in general do is tied directly to the same actions of abusers. Here's a bit more on this. Don't really know how to post this in the format of the sub so i'll just post a link.

 

[b.c.]

The Gop - party of EVIL

'Inequality in a nutshell': Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says the Dow's record high is meaningless for many Americans | Markets Insider

"Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez argued in a tweet on Saturday that a record high for the Dow Jones industrial average, a benchmark index of 30 blue-chip stocks including Apple, Nike, and Disney, underlined the problem of stagnant US wages and the wealth gap between investors and salaried workers.

"The Dow soars, wages don't," the New York congresswoman commented on an NBC News tweet about the index passing the 29,000 mark for the first time on Friday. "Inequality in a nutshell."

Ocasio-Cortez was likely referring to the widening gap between US stock-market gains and wage growth in recent years."​

Work requirements for food assistance led to more hunger, no additional jobs in West Virginia

"While the Trump administration continues to hack away at the safety net, one Trump state provides a preview of what the effects will be. Four years ago, West Virginia started imposing work requirements on food assistance in areas that it said were no longer experiencing economic distress. The result: a lot more hunger, no more jobs."​

Tennessee's Republican governor says he will sign law allowing discrimination against LGBTQ parents | Patriots and Progressives

"Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee released a statement on Tuesday saying he will be signing a new measure into law that allows faith-based foster care and adoption agencies to exclude LGBTQ families, and whoever else they want to discriminate against based on their religious beliefs.

NBC News says that the state’s Republican-controlled legislature passed the two-page bill during its first 2020 day in session.

The Tennessean reports that the bill’s proponents championed the legislation for its religious “freedom,” while its detractors argued that it is simply bad policy that will lead to further discrimination against LGBTQ Americans."​

. . .​

And the party working to STOP THEM:

House Democrats overturn Betsy DeVos' rule on student loan forgiveness

"The Democrat-controlled House voted Thursday to overturn regulations introduced by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos that critics said make it more difficult to get student loan forgiveness if a college suddenly closes."​

Democrat-Led States Sue To Block Trump Food Benefit Cut | HuffPost

"A coalition of Democratic-led states filed a major lawsuit Thursday to stop a food benefit cut the Trump administration has scheduled for April.

The cuts target unemployed adults who don’t have children or disabilities, who would be eligible for only three months of benefits unless they prove to the government they’re working or training at least part-time."​

speaking of EVIL:

Matt Bevin's Commutation of Rapist Dayton Jones Sentence Just Keeps Getting Worse. - Daily Kos.

 

[b.c.]

Trump Isn’t Waging a War on Poverty. He’s Waging a War on Poor People. – Mother Jones

​

"This week, ... Donald Trump released a $4.8 trillion budget proposal that would further decimate the already weakened social safety net. Trump’s plan would make steep cuts to food stamps, Medicaid, housing assistance, and other welfare programs that millions of Americans rely on.


But the budget is merely a wish list with no chance of passing the Democratic-controlled House.

More quietly, Trump has already rolled out a series of bureaucratic changes that have begun to take a tangible toll on the country’s most vulnerable populations and will only inflict more damage in the coming years.

 

[spaj8987]

Trump’s reckless [AND POLITICALLY MOTIVATED] attack on Ford, Honda, Volkswagen, and BMW.

"On Monday, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee announced a probe into the Trump administration’s latest apparent abuse of power: The Department of Justice’s antitrust investigation into four automakers that agreed to adhere to California’s emissions standards.

The committee’s pledge to hold hearings into the issue as part of a widening impeachment inquiry is urgently welcome news. The Trump administration must be made to answer for this wild, reckless, and seemingly lawless decision.

It’s important to know how we got to a place where the federal government is investigating automakers for trying to make cleaner cars and threatening to punish California for protecting the state’s air quality.

This isn’t the first time the Trump administration has used the threat of antitrust enforcement as a tool of political retribution against commercial enterprises [the chosen Individual 1] views as antagonists.

Trump has threatened antitrust enforcement against Amazon because the company is owned by Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post—a constant thorn in Trump’s side.

He’s also suggested antitrust enforcement as a means of either extorting money or more favorable media treatment from Google, one of the platforms Trump contends “discriminates against me.”

​

Wonder if elon musk got wind of this one yet.

 

[b.c.]

Wonder if elon musk got wind of this one yet.

Who knows? The bigger question is why the fuck would the Trump administration be fighting automakers (like Musk, and those cited in the article) who WANT to cut back polluting emissions??

The answer to which can be found in this paragraph from the cited article:

"This isn’t the first time the Trump administration has used the threat of antitrust enforcement as a tool of political retribution against commercial enterprises [Trump] views as antagonists.

Trump has threatened antitrust enforcement against Amazon because the company is owned by Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post—a constant thorn in Trump’s side.

He’s also suggested antitrust enforcement as a means of either extorting money or more favorable media treatment from Google, one of the platforms Trump contends “discriminates against me.”

Although DOJ’s unsuccessful challenge to AT&T’s merger with Time Warner had a firm grounding in antitrust law, Trump’s repeatedly linking of the enforcement action to his personal animus towards CNN undermined the integrity of the prosecution."​

 

[spaj8987]

Who knows? The bigger question is why the fuck would the Trump administration be fighting automakers (like Musk, and those cited in the article) who WANT to cut back polluting emissions??

The answer to which can be found in this paragraph from the cited article:

"This isn’t the first time the Trump administration has used the threat of antitrust enforcement as a tool of political retribution against commercial enterprises [Trump] views as antagonists.

Trump has threatened antitrust enforcement against Amazon because the company is owned by Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post—a constant thorn in Trump’s side.

He’s also suggested antitrust enforcement as a means of either extorting money or more favorable media treatment from Google, one of the platforms Trump contends “discriminates against me.”

Although DOJ’s unsuccessful challenge to AT&T’s merger with Time Warner had a firm grounding in antitrust law, Trump’s repeatedly linking of the enforcement action to his personal animus towards CNN undermined the integrity of the prosecution."​

Gotta love how much more influential greed and ego is over humanity itself. A smarter person would pick money tomorrow over money today. Though let others tell the tale and influences have zero effect on how people make decisions.

 

[b.c.]

Statistics show that most of America's POOREST states are RED STATES.

But don't bother trying to tell THEM how their own "chosen one" and the GOP is selling them down the river, "saving money" (they say) while they put billions into the wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for and pass massive tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.https://news.yahoo.com/think-people-starve-experts-worried-215356230.html

No problem. Cause all Trump will need do is what he does BEST. LIE to their faces and get them focused on some demon "other" who he'll blame for all their misfortunes.

‘I Think People Will Starve.’ Experts Are Worried About the Hundreds of Thousands Who Could Lose Food Stamps Come April

"The tightening of the food stamp program is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to reduce government spending on social safety net programs.

Critics say the cuts are putting people at risk.”While many of [Trump's] proposals will not be considered by Congress, his stances on low-income communities, families and children reflect a disturbing theme of leaving America’s most vulnerable behind,” FoodCorps, a nonprofit that helps connect kids to healthy food in school, said in a statement on Tuesday."

https://news.yahoo.com/think-people-starve-experts-worried-215356230.html

 

[spaj8987]

Statistics show that most of America's POOREST states are RED STATES.

But don't bother trying to tell THEM how their own "chosen one" and the GOP is selling them down the river, "saving money" (they say) while they put billions into the wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for and pass massive tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.

No problem. Cause all Trump will need do is what he does BEST. LIE to their faces and get them focused on some demon "other" who he'll blame for all their misfortunes.

‘I Think People Will Starve.’ Experts Are Worried About the Hundreds of Thousands Who Could Lose Food Stamps Come April

"The tightening of the food stamp program is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to reduce government spending on social safety net programs.

Critics say the cuts are putting people at risk.”While many of [Trump's] proposals will not be considered by Congress, his stances on low-income communities, families and children reflect a disturbing theme of leaving America’s most vulnerable behind,” FoodCorps, a nonprofit that helps connect kids to healthy food in school, said in a statement on Tuesday."

Exactly. White racists hurt themselves more than anyone else.

 

[b.c.]

Exactly. White racists hurt themselves more than anyone else.

Well, the racists, supremacists, and those who use hate based ideology to empower themselves certainly have ulterior motives for portraying assistance programs like SNAP as something benefiting mostly minorities.

But what they also do is put their own hateful agenda ahead of the welfare of those poorer people among Trump's constituency who are NOT racists, but nevertheless, may have bought into bigoted notions and hate based sentiment, all wrapped up nice and pretty like by right winged spin doctors and propagandists, in ways that allowed them to be misinformed as to certain realities,

i.e. what I usually refer to as Trump's BAMBOOZLED constituency.

And worse still, part of the CON, is Trump's and the GOP's campaign to make the media (that's is, any TRUTHS contrary to Trump and Co.) out to be "fake news" and those who deliver it, "the enemy of the people."

Which is precisely why MANY of them (see how I use quantifiers) can't be told a FKNG THING contrary to what they've essentially been BRAINWASHED into believing.

 

[spaj8987]

Well, the racists, supremacists, and those who use hate based ideology to empower themselves certainly have ulterior motives for portraying assistance programs like SNAP as something benefiting mostly minorities.

But what they also do is put their own hateful agenda ahead of the welfare of those poorer people among Trump's constituency who are NOT racists, but nevertheless, may have bought into bigoted notions and hate based sentiment, all wrapped up nice and pretty like by right winged spin doctors and propagandists, in ways that allowed them to be misinformed as to certain realities,

i.e. what I usually refer to as Trump's BAMBOOZLED constituency.

And worse still, part of the CON, is Trump's and the GOP's campaign to make the media (that's is, any TRUTHS contrary to Trump and Co.) out to be "fake news" and those who deliver it, "the enemy of the people."

Which is precisely why MANY of them (see how I use quantifiers) can't be told a FKNG THING contrary to what they've essentially been BRAINWASHED into believing.

Oh i totally agree. Somehow even talking about events as they happen is now considered fake news. Tantamount to people sticking their fingers in their ears and repeating..i'm not listening..i'm not listening. And somehow that is considered not only mature but an argument against logical people.

To me it's kind of like when guys joke about girl inches. Ignoring the fact that most dudes lie about their penis size to most women.

They literally create the problem they end up suffering from.

 

[b.c.]

As Trump, the GOP, and their wealthy enablers continue their war on the POOR instead of a war on poverty, via clandestine and NOT-so clandestine rule changes, rollbacks, and other underhanded manipulations designed to deprive PEOPLE of care and sustenance

IA-Sen: Ernst (R) Caught On Tape Pushing Massive Cuts To Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid

Some courts (not yet totally perverted, undermined, and twisted to TRUMP'S malicious will) are still fighting back:

Federal court strikes down Trump administration's Medicaid work requirements

MEANWHILE, a study released by Yale, no less, has made some interesting findings:

Yale Study: Medicare for All saves $450 Billion and 68,000 Lives Annually

“This study confirms that Medicare for All will save the American people $450 billion on health care costs and will prevent 68,000 unnecessary deaths – each and every year,” Bernie Sanders said.

“In other words, guaranteeing health care as a human right by creating a Medicare for All system will cost substantially less than our current dysfunctional health care system. It will save working class families thousands of dollars and it will prevent tens of thousands of Americans from dying each year."

 

[deleted464787]

I can hardly imagine a policy from either party that doesnt help someone, while hindering another.

 

[BillDodson]

Report: America's most progressive cities — like San Francisco and Seattle — have the largest racial gaps in student achievement

Found this interesting, it looks like progressive areas tend to have problems with racial gaps in education

The study, "The Secret Shame: How America's Most Progressive Cities Betray Their Commitment to Educational Opportunity for All," was conducted by Brightbeam, a nonprofit network of education activists. It set out to analyze the conundrum experienced in many of America's cities; which is that despite economic prosperity, the problem gaps in educational outcomes come along racial lines.

What researchers found was that "students in America's most progressive cities face greater racial inequity in achievement and graduation rates than students living in the nation's most conservative cities." The study even says that they "tried to explain [the findings] away, but [they] couldn't."


Progressive cities, on average, have achievement gaps in math and reading that are 15 and 13 percentage points higher than in conservative cities, respectively.

In San Francisco, for example, 70% of white students are proficient in math, compared to only 12% of black students reaching proficiency — a 58-point gap.

In Washington, D.C., 83% of white students scored proficient in reading compared to 23 percent of black students — a 60-point gap.

In contrast, three of the 12 most conservative cities — Virginia Beach, Anaheim and Fort Worth — have effectively closed or even erased the gap in at least one of the academic categories we examined.

In order to come to these data points, researchers relied on criteria developed independently by political scientists to rank America's biggest cities in terms of conservatism. Then they selected the 12 most progressive and the 12 most conservative cities from the list, and analyzed each city's publicly available achievement and graduation data.

Speaking with NBC News, Brightbeam CEO Chris Stewart said the results are hard to believe.

"In the cities that have the most resources, and frankly the most places where the kids really need help, we have done outstandingly bad. Not just bad results, but results that defy the imagination of what you'd expect for a place like San Francisco, where they have so many resources it boggles the mind," Stewart said.

"Places like San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis — which boast a very strong economy and very strong levels of education for white kids — are doing so poorly for kids at the bottom of the well," he added.

"D.C. shocked me," he said, noting that the U.S. capital has a 62-point gap between black and white students in math proficiency rates, the highest disparity among the cities analyzed.

 

[b.c.]

Lawsuit: Department of Education is making it 'nearly impossible' for defrauded students to cancel their student loans | Morningstar

"A lawsuit filed Wednesday alleges that new Department of Education rules, set to take effect in July, will make it more difficult for scammed students to write off their student loans.

The lawsuit relates to the so-called borrower defense law, enacted in the 1990s. The provision allows defrauded students -- often from closed for-profit schools -- to cancel their student loans. But turning the rules' pledged benefits into reality has fallen short, advocates for the borrowers say. (link)

In September 2019, the Trump-era Department of Education unveiled its version of the regulations to enforce the borrower defense rule. At that time, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said her department's rules cleaned up a "mess" the department "inherited from the previous administration."

However, the lawsuit filed Wednesday alleges the department's new rules will make it "nearly impossible" for short-changed students to show they deserve loan cancellation."