Yes!
29%
No!
71%
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Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
Images of Thom
Thom & Louise at a "private audience" with His Holiness Pope John Paul II at his summer palace, Castle Gandolfo, Italy
From Cracking the Code:
"No one communicates more thoughtfully or effectively on the radio airwaves than Thom Hartmann. He gets inside the arguments and helps people to think them through—to understand how to respond when they’re talking about public issues with coworkers, neighbors, and friends. This book explores some of the key perspectives behind his approach, teaching us not just how to find the facts, but to talk about what they mean in a way that people will hear."
From The Thom Hartmann Reader:
"In an age rife with media-inspired confusion and political cowardice, we yearn for a decent, caring, deeply human soul whose grasp of the problems confronting us provides a light by which we can make our way through the quagmire of lies, distortions, pandering, and hollow self-puffery that strips the American Dream of its promise. How lucky we are, then, to have access to the wit, wisdom, and willingness of Thom Hartmann, who shares with us here that very light, grown out of his own life experience."
From Unequal Protection, 2nd Edition:
"Beneath the success and rise of American enterprise is an untold history that is antithetical to every value Americans hold dear. This is a seminal work, a godsend really, a clear message to every citizen about the need to reform our country, laws, and companies."
The Clinton administration took the first steps. After ending actual welfare aid, they began similarly "reforming" Social Security. Social Security provides returement, disbaility, and survivors' benefits. Democrats targeted the disabled, causing a public response (liberals included) of a yawn of indifference.
Our former welfare aid system was ended one cut,. one part, at a time. First, general assistance was targeted. Next came AFDC. The same strategy is being used to end Social Security. When Social Security Disability is ended, retirement will soon go follow.
The Clinton administration took the first steps. After ending actual welfare aid, they began similarly "reforming" Social Security. Social Security provides returement, disbaility, and survivors' benefits. Democrats targeted the disabled, causing a public response (liberals included) of a yawn of indifference.
Our former welfare aid system was ended one cut,. one part, at a time. First, general assistance was targeted. Next came AFDC. The same strategy is being used to end Social Security. When Social Security Disability is ended, retirement will soon go follow.
This is only "wild-assed-speculation", but I really think Trump will accomplish that if and only if he wants to completely torpedo the GOP. They are in serious trouble =already= for a lot of reasons, including but not limited to health care, but screwing with SocSec will be the 'final nail' .. .. IMNSHO.
Considering who rules this country, I would say Yes. I do know the GOP would LOVE to get their hands on the SS fund AND the PO retirement fund to pay for The Wall, the deportation of immigrants, and the military's toys. I consider Trump to be our Kim Jong Un....both impulsive, unpredictable, and contempt for their citezenry.
While growing up today's young adults heard (from media, I think) Social Security would not be there for them. They don't value it. They know so little about the SS. Since I went on Medicare and received my first SS check, I have tried to educate my 30+ year old offspring. I tell them how little their grandmother gets each month, but she could not survive without it. Still I think those under 62 need to know more--and perhaps once they know more about SS, they will fight to keep and improve both SS and Medicare. Preservation of SS starts with education.
With congress and the white house trying to run different grifts on the same group of marks, and at the same time keep the marks convinced that the people who actually want to HELP them are the "enemy", it's a real mess. I think this time the two teams of grifters have arrived at a solution that will eliminate health care for sick people and increase the cost for everyone else and split the profits between the two teams of grifters, so this week we will finally see the Trump gang get something passed by the GOP gang. GOP voters will be robbed of the most money, of course, as they are the primary marks in the grift. If you have a mark that hands you his wallet every time you ask, why NOT keep running the grift? The big gridlock so far is that the GOP gang was resentful of the Trump gang trying to run a grift on THEIR marks, but now they are realizing it's not just the Trump gang, it's the Trump gang and the Russian mafia, and this isn't their first national level grift, just the first national level grift they've run in the USA..
The GOP gang and the Trump/Russian Mafia gang simple CANNOT ignore the chance to run a grift on this much money. Much like my wife could never ignore a turtle halfway across the road, they basically HAVE to at least try. The issue will be if the relatively few Americans who understand what is going on outnumber the willing marks and the sports-deluded. Remember, 100 days may be a popular measure for presidents, but the American attention span is only 90 days. Most Americans have already turned off politics and turned on whatever sport is popular right now. I positivelfy LOVED watching Bill Clinton time after time after time do absolutely nothing until 89 days before the deadline. Check history and you will find that Hitler and Reagan and Churchhill and Stalin and MANY effective leaders clearly understood that humans (not just Americans) have a 90 days attention span. We the people and the DNC could reverse the police state and create a free country if we were smart enough to spend our resources in a bell curve that has 75% of the bell in the last 90 days.
The real question: How strong is the Trumpster's death wish?
Thom the idea that WW2 ended the great depression is wrong. The GI bill that fueled the post-war boom ended the depression. If GI's, like my father, had returned to a Republican run country that demanded austarity to payoff the war debit the nation would've went back into a depression. Why this matters now is there is a false preception that war is good for the economy.
The country has reached a tipping point. The inequality that was predicted to destroy democracy that Kevin Phillip's (Wealth and Democracy) wrote about and the same prediction from the late Chalmers Johnson's writings in the Empire project can no longer be ignored !