Who are these fellow Americans of ours who still support Trump? Are they really all addicted to prescription drugs? Are they all racists? Are they all just terminally stupid? I don't know many personally-- I admit it-- and the ones I do know are indeed incredibly stupid and willfully ignorant, racist and addicted to prescription drugs.
The last time we looked at Ted Lieu's infrastructure legislation there were 33 co-sponsors. That was back at the end of May when he introduced it-- HCR 63-- "Supporting efforts to enact a bold jobs and infrastructure package that benefits all Americans, not just billionaires." Now there are 85 co-sponsors-- including, not just the progressives who backed Lieu's plan originally, but even some of the most reactionary Democrats in Congress.
Thursday morning's tweet from Ro Khanna (D-CA)-- above-- is a good example of how someone can promote genuine economic populism. The program he, Bernie and virtually all progressives back to make state colleges free again is incredibly popular-- far more popular than Schumer's and Pelosi's recycled Papa John's Pizza slogan.
So now Trump is agreeing with far right extremists, like Rand Paul (R-KY) and Ben Sasse (R-NE), that the way forward is to just repeal the Affordable Care Act with no replacement, which the CBO says will mean 32 million Americans will lose their healthcare immediately. These are really horrible, horrible people.
Tom Toles/Washington Post (source)by Gaius PubliusJust one more note on the Senate "health care" bill, to add to the information you're already reading.
Robert Reich explains the theft plan buried within Trump's so-called "infrastructure" plan (h/t Jennifer Nix on Facebook)by Gaius PubliusAll you need to know about Donald Trump's theft of your dollars under the guise of an "infrastructure" plan is explained neatly in the video above. I call it "theft" because as Reich points out, it steals from the public twice — once with a massive tax giveaway and once more with a bunch of extracted tolls ("usage fees").
House Republicans had a tough choice Thursday when Ryan and Trump forced a vote on the phenomenally unpopular and destructive TrumpCare legislation. If members voted NO, they could be in trouble with the hardcore Republicans back home who have been brainwashed by Hate Talk Radio and Fox News and who insisted on a repeal no matter the consequences. That kind of trouble could lead to a primary from the right.
Yesterday, after reading the Trump Regime's blueprint for for what they're calling "tax reform," Caifornia Congressman Ro Khanna issued a statement to his constituents explaining that "Trump’s plan takes money out of the pockets of working families to pay for a tax cut for the wealthiest individuals and corporations. Any tax reform plan must focus on closing loopholes that allow companies to avoid paying taxes. This one does the opposite. The United States could collect billions of dollars in new revenue and discourage companies from going offshore.
Anxiety, commotion, dread... a maelstrom. Are you hearing about this from your friends and relatives? I sure am! So far anecdotal, there is evidence accumulating that psychiatrists' and psychologists' businesses are booming. People across the country are stressed! Behavior patterns are changing. Trump is have an effect already, a profoundly dreadful one.As Reich explained on his blog on Thursday, the unifying theme underlying Trumpism is unnecessary, gratuitous cruelty:
Robert Reich's video about the 7 signs of tyranny appears to be tailor-made to explain the first six months of Trumpism. Newsweek ran an OpEd by Reich putting it into some kind of context this week:
