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NEW CONTENT MOVED TO MIDDLEBORO REVIEW 2

Toyota

Since the Dilly, Dally, Delay & Stall Law Firms are adding their billable hours, the Toyota U.S.A. and Route 44 Toyota posts have been separated here:

Route 44 Toyota Sold Me A Lemon



Showing posts with label US poverty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US poverty. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

DAN RATHER





Does Baltimore have problems? Of course. And so does Appalachia, and Beverly Hills and every part of this nation. We have struggles with disease, and addiction, and poverty, loneliness and job insecurity, education, health care, child abuse and natural disasters. And so much more. Some of the problems are concentrated and some are more diffused. Some are new challenges and some are the result of systematic abuses, like white supremacy, with deep roots in our national fabric. But the very notion of our nation, the very ideal enshrined in that beautiful phrase e pluribus unum (out of many, one), is that we are one nation and the struggles of our citizens are the struggles for all of us.
There are many reasons why President Trump’s attacks on Congressman Cummings were bigoted and thus un-American. Why are the struggles of some Americans in the president’s eyes to be blamed on forces such as immigrants or unfair government practices while others (and mostly those of minority districts) are to be blamed on the diverse politicians who represent those districts? The answer obviously speaks for itself.
President Trump does not view himself as the President of the United States, or at least the United States of 2019. He views himself as the president of his base. He sees his path to reelection as stoking the indignant outrage of enough Americans to overwhelm those (at least in the right battleground states) who believe in a pluralistic and more just America. For someone who sanctimoniously lectures on not hating America, to love to or leave it, the president spends a lot of time saying how horrible this country is. His is of course a grossly distorted view but it will be on center stage in the upcoming campaign.
The great sadness is that we do have challenges, we do have problems, we do have needs. From climate change to income inequality to health care, we face forces that we will have to face together if we have the courage to move beyond the dangerous rhetoric meant to divide us, shame us, and diminish us for short-sighted political gain.










Monday, May 29, 2017

Trump budget: Wealthy Welfare...the rest? cruel & heartless





MOST HATED FAMILY IN AMERICA
9.4Kshares President Trump’s tax plans, which includes repealing 
the Estate Tax would be a major windfall for the Trump children. 
They could get a tax benefit of up to…
PROGRESSTRIBUNE.COM


President Trump’s tax plans, which includes repealing the Estate Tax would be a major windfall for the Trump children.  They could get a tax benefit of up to $4 billion!  This while at least 24 million American citizens face losing their basic health insurance coverage.
Since Trump’s tax plan, as one might expect, heavily biased toward the wealthy, it stands to reason that it would benefit the family of Donald Trump.  Bernie Sanders says...“At a time when Trump wants to make major cuts in education, health care, senior programs, nutrition and affordable housing, it is especially outrageous that he would propose the elimination of the Estate Tax and provide a $353 billion dollar tax giveaway to the wealthiest 0.2 percent – including a tax break of up to $4 billion to the Trump family.”
Putting Trump’s plan into proper perspective, you must consider that Trump is proposing that his ‘richy’ rich family benefits billions of dollars while necessary funding is zeroed out  for Meals On Wheels, nutritional help for children, low cost housing programs, and health care.  This will affect at least 24 million Americans that depend on these programs.
Of all of the benefits in Trump’s tax plan, 51% are going to the top one percent of earners.  One can easily see that the middle class or the poor will not do well with this plan.  The Trump plan can safely be called a tax cut by the rich and for the rich.
Since millions of working citizens are facing the horror of possibly losing their healthcare insurance, President Trump is planning on providing his children with a $4 billion tax cut.

This is what how Trump ‘makes America great again’…NOT!










Thursday, March 30, 2017

Mike Pence gleefully breaks tie for Republicans, takes away women's health care



Poverty and Abortion are linked. 

During the presidencies of Clinton/Gore and Obama/Biden, abortions declined. 

So...you don't want abortions, but refuse to provide contraceptives or family planning services? 

How enlightened!  




 link.
It’s bad news for Planned Parenthood and women’s health as 
Mike Pence got to…

DAILYKOS.COM

EXCERPT:

The National Women’s Law Center offers some background on just what Republicans were voting for. This was a vote to repeal an Obama administration regulation that “put states on notice that arbitrarily denying Title X family planning funds to providers, like Planned Parenthood clinics, for reasons unrelated to the quality of care provided is a violation of federal law.” The Senate voted—with Pence as tie-breaker—to let states deny Title X funds to providers for reasons having nothing to do with the quality of care they provide. Gosh, what ever could they be planning with this? Here are some of the services being threatened:
  • Breast exams—which were provided to over 1 million women nationally at Title X sites in 2015;
  • Other important confidential preventive care, including screenings for sexually transmitted infections (STIs)/HIV, and health education; and
  • Contraceptive care and counseling that helped women avoid 904,000 unintended pregnancies, which would have resulted in 439,000 unplanned births in 2014.
In theory other organizations could step in to replace the care Planned Parenthood provides in areas this vote will hit, but in practice a Planned Parenthood location closing often means that care for low-income people just disappears from an area.
Bringing Pence in was not a good look, as Senate Democrats pointed out:
But Republicans don’t care about bringing in an extra man to vote to take quality health care away from women any more than they care about women having access to quality health care to begin with. This is who they are.



http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/3/30/1648707/-Mike-Pence-gleefully-breaks-tie-for-Republicans-takes-away-women-s-health-care?detail=facebook








Sunday, March 12, 2017

This Scathing Rebuke Of Political Illiterates Is Beautiful...et al




 link.
Donald Trump is a dangerous, egomaniacal idiot, and his appointees range from…

AMERICANNEWSX.COM


This epistle is by Kit Thornton:
Let’s get rid of a few bits of dreck, for the sake of mental hygiene:
1) Women don’t answer to you, or to the government for having sex, and being forced to have a child is not a fit punishment for what you perceive as promiscuity. Leave other people’s genitals alone.
2) If you are using phrases like “Confronting the culture to advance God’s kingdom,” you’re the American Taliban, a threat to the Republic, and a disgrace to Christianity. I am not only disinterested in your blather, I consider you a serious threat to a well-ordered, peaceful society. If you are pushing this nonsense onto children, you are a moral leper.
3) At this point in the “debate,” if you can’t cite SEVERAL peer-reviewed articles in legitimate scientific journals I’m not interested in your “contrarian” opinion about climate change. The science is as in as science ever is – catastrophic climate change is happening, we’re causing it, and it’s going to be a very serious problem, even if we do something about it. What we’re talking about now is whether it’s going to be catastrophic or apocalyptic. Go flatten your Earth or something.
4) Donald Trump is a dangerous, egomaniacal idiot, and his appointees range from incompetent to terrifying. If you are still supporting him at this point, you are no friend of the Republic.
5) It simply isn’t possible to cut taxes, increase spending and decrease the debt or restrain the deficit. This should be obvious to anyone who can handle simple addition and subtraction, but somehow the idea that slashing government revenues will lead to explosive economic growth WILL. NOT. DIE. Mostly because it casts a vaguely intellectual veneer over what is actually sheer selfishness.
6) Private charities are not sufficient to help the poor. If you think they are, look at any place on this planet that does not provide sufficient public assistance. There was a time when we believed that the proper way of helping the poor was private charity and religious works – read Dickens for a tour of that golden age.
7) Censorship is the refuge of the intellectually and culturally inferior. Only the weak fear being exposed to material they disapprove of. And claiming your prudishness and fragility is for the sake of the children is contemptible. Hiding behind kids because you can’t cope with modern life is despicable.
8) Again, and finally, leave other people’s genitals alone. Other people’s sex lives are none of your concern, and you don’t get to treat them like second-class citizens because you are “uncomfortable.” News flash – other people aren’t in the world to see to your comfort. If you can’t cope, if you can’t deal with people who are different from you, don’t blame others for your inability to adult.
9) The only reason we don’t have a functioning health-care system is that unlike every other advanced nation we believe in the “right” of rich douchebags to charge as much as, and more than, the market will bear. We believe in allowing insurance companies to build huge, bloated empires at the expense of the sick and desperate. And we believe that some people (namely, rich people) are more “deserving” of health care than others. It’s just plain, unvarnished, smells-like-what-it-is greed.
If you’d like to see more from Kit Thornton, you can visit his blog here.



link.
There is no grand strategy, there is no plan. There is just chaos.

THEDAILYBANTER.COM

Bannon knows exactly what he's doing.


 link.
I feel the need to drop a little truth on y'all. So buckle up... 
I'm about to be politically…

HUFFINGTONPOST.COM

Read This Before You Say Anything Else About ‘Taking Back America’


I feel the need to drop a little truth on y’all. So buckle up... I’m about to be politically incorrect.
We don’t need to take America back. No one stole it. It’s right here... you’re sitting in it. Chillax.
Mexico isn’t going to pay for the wall, and we’re not going to deport millions of people and break up families. If you think either one is a good idea, you’re not smart and probably not a person I want to hang out with.
We don’t live in a democracy. Technically we are a Federal Republic. But in reality, we are ruled by an oligarchy. If you don’t know what that is, look it up. Reading will do you good. You probably need to do more of it.
FoxNews, CNN and MSNBC have an agenda and are not “fair and balanced” or in any way unbiased. I’ll reiterate... read more. Read newspapers (even online ones). Read lots of opinions and sources and then (stay with me here), THINK! Form your own opinion based on as many facts as your can brain can tolerate.

Speaking of facts... there actually is a difference between facts, opinions and propaganda.
 You should learn the difference. (Another opportunity to show off your mad reading skills.)
Science is real. We know things because of science. Don’t be afraid of it. You have an iPhone and Facebook because of science. It’s your friend.
Global warming or “climate change” as the cool kids call it IS REAL. Anyone who tells you it’s not real is not a smart person and probably should not be dressing themselves or caring for children.
Racism exists. And you are probably a little racist and should work on that. Seriously.
“American Christians are not under attack. ... No one is trying to take your bible away from you.”
American Christians are not under attack. We are not being persecuted. We wield so much power in this country that politicians pretend to be Christian just so we will vote for them. No one is trying to take your bible away from you. The gay people are not destroying our families — we don’t need any help from them, thank you. We do a fine job of that by ourselves. So stop saying we are persecuted. You sound stupid.
Poor people need help. If you’re not helping them but complaining about how the government helps them with your money you are not a nice person.
Be nice to the people who teach your children. Don’t send them nasty emails or yell at them. Their job is 10,000 times harder than your stupid job. You are not a professional educator so just shut your mouth and be thankful someone is willing to teach your offspring.
You don’t know what Common Core is. You think you do, but you don’t unless you’re a teacher. So stop complaining about math problem memes on Facebook. You can’t do the math anyway.
ISIS is not an existential threat to the United States. We do not need to rebuild our military. Our military is the strongest, scariest, most badass killing machine the world has ever seen. So stop being afraid and stop letting politicians and pundits scare you.
Guns do in fact kill people. That’s what they are designed to do. If you feel you need a gun to protect yourself in America, you are probably living in the wrong neighborhood and should move before you go out and buy a gun. There are like a billion places to live where you won’t need a gun, or even need to lock your front door.
If you do own a gun, then make sure you know how to use it really, really, really well. Seriously... get some training because you still don’t know how to record stuff with your DVR. Go to the gun range and shoot the thing a lot. Learn how to clean it properly and be able to disassemble it and reassemble it with your eyes closed. It’s a freaking gun and it deserves that level of care, proficiency and respect. And for God’s sake, keep it locked up and away from your kids.
If you are even a little bit unhinged or pissed off... you shouldn’t have a gun. And the Founding Fathers would totally agree with me.
Stop being suspicious of American Muslims. The guy sitting next to you in the cubicle at work is probably more of a threat to you than any Muslim since he has to listen to your uninformed ranting day after day.
Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and all the rest are ENTERTAINERS! Stop getting your opinions from them. (Here’s where that reading thing can really be an advantage.)
Stop sharing Facebook memes that tell me to share or else Jesus won’t bless me with a laundry basket full of cash. That’s not how prayer works. And I don’t want money delivered (even from God) in a laundry basket. Nobody ever washes those things out and they just keep putting nasty dirty clothes in them. Yuck!
We are the United States of America, and we can afford to... house every homeless veteran, feed every child, and take in every refugee and still have money left over for Starbucks and a bucket of KFC.
Unless you can trace your family line back to someone who made deerskin pants look stylish and could field dress a buffalo, you are a descendent of an immigrant. Please stop saying that immigrants are ruining our country. Such comments are like a giant verbal burrito stuffed with historical ignorance, latent racism and xenophobia, all wrapped in a fascist tortilla.
That’s all for now. I feel better.
—
LaMonte is an author, missionary, and business consultant who lives Chicago, Illinois. When he is not writing science fiction novels or helping his clients, you can find him serving the people along the Amazon River in Brazil. You can learn more about his work at www.lamontemfowler.com.
A version of this post originally appeared on LamonteMFowler.com.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lamonte-m-fowler/read-this-before-you-taking-back-america_b_9348420.html


TRUMPCARE! TRUMPCARE! TRUMPCARE!
Presented by Dirty Energy Koch Sock Puppet Paul Ryan!

 link.
What were Republicans thinking? Were they even thinking?

NYTIMES.COM







Saturday, October 8, 2016

RSN: 'America Divided': New TV Series Explores Inequality From Water to Housing to Mass Incarceration, We Have Money to Fight Climate Change. It's Just That We're Spending It on Defense, 'America Divided': New TV Series Explores Inequality From Water to Housing to Mass Incarceration,






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The Presidential Election Is Over, Donald Trump Will Never Be President 
Donald Trump. (photo: AP) 
David A. Fahrenthold, The Washington Post 
Fahrenthold writes: "Donald Trump bragged in vulgar terms about kissing, groping and trying to have sex with women during a 2005 conversation caught on a hot microphone, saying that 'when you're a star, they let you do it,' according to a video obtained by The Washington Post." 
READ MORE
Excerpts of Hillary Clinton's Paid Speeches to Goldman Sachs Finally Leaked 
Lee Fang, Zaid Jilani, Alex Emmons and Naomi LaChance, Guardian UK 
Excerpt: "Excerpts of Hillary Clinton's remarks during paid speeches to Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, and other groups were leaked online Friday afternoon by WikiLeaks." 
READ MORE
'America Divided': New TV Series Explores Inequality From Water to Housing to Mass Incarceration 
Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! 
Excerpt: "Actress Rosario Dawson travels to Flint, Michigan, to investigate the man-made disaster behind the city's water crisis. And legendary TV producer Norman Lear investigates gentrification and displacement in New York City and goes undercover to expose racial discrimination in housing." 
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The Dangers of 'Humanitarian' Wars 
Conn Hallinan, Consortium News 
Excerpt: "The West is rushing toward another major war in the Middle East, in Syria, behind the 'responsibility to protect' banner, which may justify endless U.S. military interventions, says Conn Hallinan at Foreign Policy in Focus." 
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Hurricane Matthew Devastates Haiti, Nearly 900 Killed 
Al Jazeera 
Excerpt: "The full scale of the devastation in rural parts of storm-hit Haiti became clear as the death toll soared to nearly 900 three days after Hurricane Matthew leveled huge swaths of the country's south." 
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Protesting Colombians Not Impressed as President Juan Manuel Santos Wins Nobel Prize 
teleSUR 
Excerpt: "Thousands of Colombians continued to protest in major cities to demand peace after Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos won the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC-EP, being completely ignored at the award ceremony." 
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We Have Money to Fight Climate Change. It's Just That We're Spending It on Defense 
Kenneth Pennington, Guardian UK 
Pennington writes: "One year ago this week, I was sitting in a cramped hotel room with 15 other staffers in Las Vegas for Bernie Sanders' first debate for the presidential nomination. The question came from CNN: 'What is the greatest national security threat?' Pundits criticized and mocked him for weeks after he answered 'climate change.' But he was right." 
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