Douglas Caddy Posted October 31, 2020 Share Posted October 31, 2020 The Unseen Agenda Behind Trump: Destroy the Public Realm to Free the Rich https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/10/30/the-unseen-agenda-behind-trump-destroy-the-public-realm-to-free-the-rich/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douglas Caddy Posted October 31, 2020 Share Posted October 31, 2020 WALL STREET JOURNAL: MILLIONS OF MAIL-IN BALLOT AT RISK IN BATTLEGROUND STATES https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/elections-2020/millions-of-mail-in-ballots-at-risk-in-battleground-states/ar-BB1azk5n?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=UE07DHP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W. Niederhut Posted November 1, 2020 Share Posted November 1, 2020 4 hours ago, Douglas Caddy said: WALL STREET JOURNAL: MILLIONS OF MAIL-IN BALLOT AT RISK IN BATTLEGROUND STATES https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/elections-2020/millions-of-mail-in-ballots-at-risk-in-battleground-states/ar-BB1azk5n?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=UE07DHP This is very, very creepy, especially considering that, in 2016, Trump won the Electoral College votes of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin by a combined total of just 80,000 popular votes-- about 0.053% of the total U.S. votes cast in Hillary's 3,000,000 popular vote victory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Bauer Posted November 1, 2020 Share Posted November 1, 2020 (edited) 6 hours ago, Douglas Caddy said: The Unseen Agenda Behind Trump: Destroy the Public Realm to Free the Rich ht ans. OCTOBER 30, 2020 The Unseen Agenda Behind Trump: Destroy the Public Realm to Free the Rich BY JOHN MCMURTRY “America is the only society that has gone from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between” – Oscar Wilde “Government is not the solution to our problem. Government IS the problem” –Ronald Reagan Inaugural Address 1980. “Biden will turn America into a socialist hell like Venezuela” – Donald Trump, 2020 Re-Election Campaign The world’s near-richest man, Warren Buffet, has netted tens of billions from over 50 years of betting on stock-market rises, but unlike Trump Warren Buffet can speak the truth: “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” American Freedom = Enriching the Rich In the first campaign of “making America Great Again”, the 40-year-old slogan Trump has brought back from the dead, Reagan defined US freedom as “the freedom to get rich”. What is not said is that this freedom “from government on our backs” has transferred $50 trillion from the bottom 90%of the population to the top 1%. In the words of Time, the US chose every step. “We chose to cut taxes on billionaires and to deregulate the financial industry. We chose to allow CEOs to manipulate share prices through stock buybacks, and to lavishly reward themselves with the proceeds. We chose to permit giant corporations, through mergers and acquisitions, to accumulate the vast monopoly power necessary to dictate both prices charged and wages paid. We chose to erode the minimum wage and the overtime threshold and the bargaining power of labor. For four decades, we chose to elect political leaders who put the material interests of the rich and powerful above those of the American people. – – – If wealth distribution since 1975 had continued in the same manner as between 1945 and 1975, today’s $35,000 salary would be over $60,000. It’s little wonder that so many Americans are lashing out at the broken system”. The Trickle Down Myth “Trickle-down” never worked, but the delusion still reigns. So does the big lie Trump tells yet again with his $1.2 trillion of public money hemorrhaged out in 2017 tax cuts. Here too there were assurances that money would be freed up for waiting corporate investment in jobs and R&D. But in the very following year “S&P 500 companies set a new record for buying their own stock to artificially boost stock prices for management and investors — a practice that was illegal until the Reagan years. – – – They have depleted so much of their funds that they have turned to the pandemic-inspired CARES Act for relief to ‘distressed industries. – – [Meanwhile] ‘essential’ workers are experiencing high child mortality rates, declining life expectancies and premature deaths from preventable illnesses.” This is an epitome of the unspoken agenda of destroying public power to govern in the common life interest while enriching the already rich instead. Yet in perhaps the greatest irony of US history, the very dispossessed and under-educated white workers who have been most broken by this greatest-ever seizure of American wealth have jumped onto the bandwagon of a demagogue New York developer now presiding over a de-regulated social and ecological chaos. tps://www.counterpunch.org/2020/10/30/the-unseen-agenda-behind-trump-destroy-the-public-realm-to-free-the-rich/ Forget the link. Read the piece itself. Edited November 1, 2020 by Joe Bauer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Thomas Posted November 1, 2020 Share Posted November 1, 2020 (edited) 10 hours ago, Joe Bauer said: Forget the link. Read the piece itself. Joe, What this has done is also to concentrate wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer hands. From the article you cited: “We chose to allow CEOs to manipulate share prices through stock buybacks, and to lavishly reward themselves with the proceeds.” “But in the very following year “S&P 500 companies set a new record for buying their own stock to artificially boost stock prices for management and investors.” I don't know if you caught this story in the news over the last couple of days: Arby’s and Buffalo Wild Wings owner buying Dunkin’ Brands https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-new-york-massachusetts-canton-669094d02f0131d59d492bb3d108938a NEW YORK (AP) — Dunkin’ doughnuts and coffee is being combined with Buffalo Wild Wings and Arby’s sandwiches. Inspire Brands Inc. said Friday that it is acquiring Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc. for $11.3 billion, including the Dunkin’ Brands’ debt that Inspire will be taking on. The private-equity firm will pay $106.50 in cash for all of Dunkin’ Brands’ shares, which closed Friday at $99.71. Dunkin’ Brands’ stock surged to an all-time high earlier this week after the company confirmed the two were in merger talks. Dunkin’, based in Canton, Massachusetts, also owns the Baskin-Robbins ice cream chain. There are 12,500 Dunkin’ stores and 8,000 Baskin-Robbins outlets worldwide. Dunkin’ was founded in 1950 in Quincy, Massachusetts. Baskin-Robbins — known for its promise of 31 flavors — was founded in 1945 in Glendale, California. Atlanta’s Inspire Brands, which was founded in 2018, is rapidly joining the largest restaurant groups in the U.S. In addition to Buffalo Wild Wings and Arby’s, it owns the Sonic burger chain, Jimmy John’s restaurants and Rusty Taco. It has annual sales of more than $14 billion. Inspire is part of the private equity company Roark Capital Group, also based in Atlanta. Roark also backs Focus Brands — the owner of Auntie Anne’s Pretzels and Cinnabon — and CKE Restaurants, which owns the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s burger chains. I had no idea that so many of our fast food places were in the hands of so few people. BBQ flavored doughnuts, hmmmm... Steve Thomas Edited November 1, 2020 by Steve Thomas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Bauer Posted November 1, 2020 Share Posted November 1, 2020 5 minutes ago, Steve Thomas said: Joe, What this has done is also to concentrate wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer hands. From the article you cited: “We chose to allow CEOs to manipulate share prices through stock buybacks, and to lavishly reward themselves with the proceeds.” “But in the very following year “S&P 500 companies set a new record for buying their own stock to artificially boost stock prices for management and investors.” I don't know if you caught this story in the news over the last couple of days: Arby’s and Buffalo Wild Wings owner buying Dunkin’ Brands https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-new-york-massachusetts-canton-669094d02f0131d59d492bb3d108938a NEW YORK (AP) — Dunkin’ doughnuts and coffee is being combined with Buffalo Wild Wings and Arby’s sandwiches. Inspire Brands Inc. said Friday that it is acquiring Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc. for $11.3 billion, including the Dunkin’ Brands’ debt that Inspire will be taking on. The private-equity firm will pay $106.50 in cash for all of Dunkin’ Brands’ shares, which closed Friday at $99.71. Dunkin’ Brands’ stock surged to an all-time high earlier this week after the company confirmed the two were in merger talks. Dunkin’, based in Canton, Massachusetts, also owns the Baskin-Robbins ice cream chain. There are 12,500 Dunkin’ stores and 8,000 Baskin-Robbins outlets worldwide. Dunkin’ was founded in 1950 in Quincy, Massachusetts. Baskin-Robbins — known for its promise of 31 flavors — was founded in 1945 in Glendale, California. Atlanta’s Inspire Brands, which was founded in 2018, is rapidly joining the largest restaurant groups in the U.S. In addition to Buffalo Wild Wings and Arby’s, it owns the Sonic burger chain, Jimmy John’s restaurants and Rusty Taco. It has annual sales of more than $14 billion. Inspire is part of the private equity company Roark Capital Group, also based in Atlanta. Roark also backs Focus Brands — the owner of Auntie Anne’s Pretzels and Cinnabon — and CKE Restaurants, which owns the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s burger chains. I had no idea that so many of our fast food places were in the hands of so few people. BBQ flavored donoughts, hmmmm... Steve Thomas This is America. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W. Niederhut Posted November 1, 2020 Share Posted November 1, 2020 2 hours ago, Joe Bauer said: This is America. I always thought, even in 2016, that Trump was a fake "populist"-- a Trojan Horse for the Koch plutocracy. Remember when Trump ridiculed his Republican primary rivals in 2016 for pandering to the Kochs, and declared that he, alone, would not be serving wealthy special interest groups, because he was funding his own campaign? What a joke. Every major policy decision Trump has made as POTUS has been predicated chiefly on pay-to-play and self-aggrandizement-- kick backs and bribes. The 2017 "trickle down" tax cut scam is one example among hundreds. He's far and away the most corrupt POTUS in history. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douglas Caddy Posted November 1, 2020 Share Posted November 1, 2020 [This is a scary article. It appears the virus is airborne and there is no escaping it. Another article today reports persons living the the most remote area of Alaska have gotten the virus.] How Are Americans Catching the Virus? Increasingly, ‘They Have No Idea’ http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/how-are-americans-catching-the-virus-increasingly-they-have-no-idea/ar-BB1azq1G?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=UE07DHP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Thomas Posted November 1, 2020 Share Posted November 1, 2020 Assholes: A Theory How America Became a Country Full of Assholes By Nick Schager Updated Oct. 31, 2020 https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-america-became-a-country-full-of-assholes “To grasp that argument, one need only listen to Assholes: A Theory’s basic description of an asshole. As James states, “The asshole, as I define it, is the guy who allows himself special advantages in cooperative life out of an entrenched sense of entitlement that immunizes him against the complaints of other people.” In other words, he’s the individual—generally male, although as John Cleese candidly admits, his mother probably was one too—who thinks the general rules don’t apply to them because they’re somehow smarter, better, or more special than their fellow citizens. James’ example is a surfer who violates the right-of-way customs in the ocean. Yet the type is universal, whether in line at the grocery store, on the road in traffic, or at work. They’re the arrogant creeps convinced they’re fundamentally superior, and thus free to conduct themselves in whatever way they see fit.” Steve Thomas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Thomas Posted November 1, 2020 Share Posted November 1, 2020 ‘Get the Hell Out Of Here and Get Something To Shoot With’ “The political machine in McMinn County, Tennessee, had spent Election Day intimidating voters, encouraging fraud and holding poll watchers at gunpoint. That’s when the GIs decided to rebel.” By CHRIS DEROSE 11/01/2020 https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/11/01/world-war-ii-veterans-rigged-election-433773 August 1, 1946 — Election Day "Ed had spent 34 months as a combat engineer in the Pacific and returned with two purple hearts. He was not about to let some machine flunkie like Carl Neil disrespect his mother. Shy Scott, a former bomber pilot and GI poll worker, physically held him back, as both of their lives depended on it. There were six armed deputies and only two of them. Barely an hour earlier one of those deputies, Windy Wise, had shot a man for trying to vote." - more - Steve Thomas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Thomas Posted November 1, 2020 Share Posted November 1, 2020 Shane A Swank @swank_shane ‘I have seen this disappear from a few posts so I downloaded Jr inciting MAGAs to violence in TX against the Biden bus.” https://twitter.com/swank_shane/status/1322786131713413120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw "It would be nice if you could all get together and head on down to McAllen, TX and give Kamala Harris a nice Trump Train welcome." Steve Thomas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Thomas Posted November 1, 2020 Share Posted November 1, 2020 Steve Thomas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douglas Caddy Posted November 1, 2020 Share Posted November 1, 2020 Trump admin. funds plasma company based in owner's condo RICHARD LARDNER and JASON DEAREN Nov 1st 2020 10:00AM WASHINGTON (AP) — An obscure South Carolina company may be in line for millions of dollars in U.S. government funding to produce a coronavirus treatment after a former Republican senator with a financial stake in the business lobbied senior U.S. government officials. Plasma Technologies LLC, has received seed money to test a possible COVID-19-fighting blood plasma technology. But as much as $65 million more could be on the way, a windfall for the company that operates out of the founder's luxury condo, according to internal government records and other documents obtained by The Associated Press. The story of how a tiny business, which exists only on paper, has managed to snare so much top-level attention is emblematic of the Trump administration’s frenetic response to the coronavirus pandemic. And it’s another in a series of contracts awarded despite concerns over their proposals voiced by government scientists. The others include an $21 million study of the heartburn drug Pepcid as a COVID therapy, and more than a half-billion dollars to ApiJect Systems America, a startup with an unapproved medicine injection technology and no factory to manufacture the devices. In addition a government whistleblower claimed that a $1.6 billion vaccine contract to Novavax Inc. was made over objections of scientific staff. At the center of these deals is Dr. Robert Kadlec, a senior Trump appointee at the Department of the Health and Human Services, who backed the Pepcid, Novavax and ApiJect projects. Records obtained by the AP also describe Kadlec as a key supporter of Plasma Tech, owned by Eugene Zurlo, a former pharmaceutical industry executive and well-connected Republican donor. Three years ago, Zurlo brought Rick Santorum, who spent 12 years as a GOP senator from Pennsylvania, aboard as a part-owner. Kadlec has come under pressure from the White House to act with more urgency and not be bound by lower-level science officials whom Trump has castigated as the “deep state” and accused of politically motivated delays in fielding COVID-19 vaccines and remedies. The AP reached out to more than a dozen blood plasma industry leaders and medical experts. Few had heard of Zurlo’s company or its technology for turning human plasma into protein-rich antibody therapies, and would not comment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Bulman Posted November 1, 2020 Share Posted November 1, 2020 (edited) 3 hours ago, Steve Thomas said: Shane A Swank @swank_shane ‘I have seen this disappear from a few posts so I downloaded Jr inciting MAGAs to violence in TX against the Biden bus.” https://twitter.com/swank_shane/status/1322786131713413120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw "It would be nice if you could all get together and head on down to McAllen, TX and give Kamala Harris a nice Trump Train welcome." Steve Thomas I ran through the main msn headlines yesterday and this morning and didn't notice anything about this. I went looking after your post Steve. Why isn't this national news? https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2020/10/31/biden-harris-stops-canceled-texas-pro-trump-convoy-threats/ https://twitter.com/KatieNaranjo/status/1322311181168758784/photo/2 This is from a right wing site but read the comments/see the pictures by Cervini. https://townhall.com/tipsheet/bethbaumann/2020/10/31/dems-become-unhinged-because-trump-supporters-give-the-biden-bus-tour-a-big-welc-n2579166 Edited November 1, 2020 by Ron Bulman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ty Carpenter Posted November 1, 2020 Share Posted November 1, 2020 24 minutes ago, Robert Wheeler said: “I was very happy to have the moniker of being PA's third senator. I married a Philly girl, by the way. And I’ve got my Eagles jacket on." Said the old man in the Delaware Blue Hens Jacket a few minutes ago. Good thing he goes away in two or so days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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