Ryan learned everything he knows about economics from an adolescent Ayn Rand bookIt looks likely that Paul Ryan will announce his retirement from Congress close to Wisconsin’s June 1 filing deadline. There are rumors circulating that he’s selected Tom Hillman, his former aide and now an investment banker in Madison, as the sacrificial lamb.
Cognitive dissonance in Psychology
The psychological tension that occurs when one holds mutually exclusive beliefs or attitudes and that often motivates people to modify their thoughts or behaviors in order to reduce the tension.
Anxiety that results from simultaneously holding contradictory or incompatible attitudes, beliefs, or the like, as when one likes a person but disapproves of one of his or her habits.
Motivated Ignorance in Politics
For thousands of years physicians took oaths to always act in the patient’s best interest when providing care. At the heart of medical ethics, this moral code was passed down through the centuries and reaffirmed by The World Medical Association (WMA) in 1949 and again in 2006. Additionally the WMA specified: “A physician shall not allow his/her judgment to be influenced by personal profit or unfair discrimination,” and “shall not receive any financial benefits or other incentives solely for referring patients or prescribing specific products”.
The Republicans seem to have gotten away with passing Paul Ryan's egregiously class warfare tax scam-- even if the newest polls show most American voters hate it. A Gallup poll released this week shows that a majority of independent voters (56%) oppose the tax bill, as do 87% of Democrats. Only 16% of Republicans disapprove of it.
I know, I know... everyone hates Nancy Pelosi these days... and there are lots of reasons to disparage her (especially as relates to the way she's run the DCCC into the ground since taking it over and appointing one disaster after another to run it for her). But, honestly, she has been quite masterful in her main job as House Minority Leader and it boggles the mind at how she's smoothly managed to hold the entire usually fractious caucus together on the spate of recent tough votes-- like the GOP Tax Scam.
Though sold as a pain-free tax cut for most Americans, the Republican plans favor the rich and carry hidden dangers for Social Security, Medicare and other key social programs, as Dennis J Bernstein describes. By Dennis J Bernstein The…Read more →
For decades billionaire Foundations and conservative politicians have been spreading the big lie that Social Security is broke. Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels wrote: “When one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it”.
A top policy expert isn’t buying reports of a private-sector retirement “crisis.” In an article, Andrew Biggs not only rejected the gloom but offered a striking counter-narrative.
If you missed Bernie on CNN with Jake Tapper yesterday, the interview is above. Bernie's plans are the polar opposite of what Paul Ryan (plus Mike Pence, Mitch McConnell and the rest of the Republicans) are trying to do. He explained to Tapper how he's working to perfect a Medicare-For-All bill that can-- eventually-- pass Congress. Meanwhile the Republicans are not just trying to defund Medicaid in their "healthcare" bill but are also using their budget plan to weaken and start defunding Medicare and Social Security.
The Republican Party prepares to violate the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution: Social Security — the 14th amendment and “odious debt”.
