I have to wonder what a poor guy in a rural area (let’s call him Bob) and a rich business man have in common… they both vote Republican. But why? Why does the poor guy seem to think that voting the same as the business man will benefit him or be in his best self interest?
I think people need to think about which political party really aligns with their beliefs. I can’t see many people like Bob actually having the same interests as the Koch brothers. Think about some of the things the Koch brothers stand for:
- No taxes on the rich
- No government regulations
- No protections for the “commons” like the environment
- No protections for workers
- Unlimited money in our elections
- No free education
- No social safety net
- No guaranteed health care coverage
- Free market that isn’t regulated
- No tariffs
How can any of these views match what a working person like Bob believes?
Sure I guess in some distant universe far, far away Bob could lift himself up by his bootstraps and become rich and have the same ideals. It does happen but probably not to Bob or the millions of low-wage workers…
So why want no taxes on the rich? Why wouldn’t Bob want government to regulate what companies can and cannot do? It’s his planet, too. Doesn’t Bob want to be protected from his boss demanding him to work 70 hours a week with little pay, no benefits; or else get fired? Bob doesn’t have millions of dollars to spend on our political process so why would he want the Koch brothers to be able to do it? Maybe Bob wants to better himself or send his kids to college so why wouldn’t Bob want affordable or free education? If Bob gets sick or if he has to stay home with his sick wife, wouldn’t Bob want some safety net since he most likely doesn’t have savings since his wage is so low anyway? Wouldn’t he want to be sure he has health coverage no matter what? Wouldn’t Bob want regulations on Wall Street so they don’t fuck all of us over again like in 2008? Doesn’t Bob want to make sure his job stays in the United States and not go over seas where someone can do the same thing for pennies on the dollar to what Bob makes?
The only thing I can honestly see Bob and the likes of the Koch brothers having in common is guns. But this issue is negligible since the Democrats haven’t done anything on gun control. They’re too afraid of the NRA to do something as simple as expanded background checks (which could have prevented mass shootings).
I don’t understand how people like Bob would want to vote for the same interests as the Koch brothers. They’re clearly on two sides of the political spectrum.
I am really getting sick of people attacking Planned Parenthood. People seem to think all Planned Parenthood is out to do is destroy fetus’. They’re for family planning. They’re for helping people. Like 3% of what they do is abortions and yet that’s all they get flack for. They never get any good press. Get the facts.
If they do ANYTHING wrong, it’s like open season. They get flack from Congress, the Republicans, and basically anyone who is pro-life.
Planned Parenthood is one of the only places where women can go and get help and not be judged. (Besides by those idiot protesters who stand out front of the Planned Parenthood offices holding up stupid signs of dead babies; cause that’s effective.)
Women who are poor, women who are in college, any woman can go to Planned Parenthood and get their yearly examinations and mammograms for free; without insurance. It’s one of the only places that does this. They can even get birth control for free.
I know; I did it for years. I didn’t have health insurance for ten years of my life (through high school and college). Planned Parenthood was there for me.
I take offense to anyone who wants to smear them and tear them down. They’re doing good things. Why can’t people and the press see that? They’re helping people.
When I was in college my husband (then boyfriend) and I worked this minimum wage job up in western Maryland just so we could be together. We worked 30-40 hours a week so pretty much full time. We earned the minimum wage of $5.15 an hour.
I remember getting my paycheck and it instantly going to food and rent and that was it. I didn’t have any left over. In fact I may have owed money.
Maryland is awesome and liberal so since then the minimum wage in our state has risen to $8.00 an hour (soon to be $8.25 July 1st 2015, $8.75 July 1st 2016, $9.25 July 1st 2017, and $10.10 July 1st 2018). I wrote my congressmen a lot of letters regarding the minimum wage in our state.
Using an inflation calculator, if I were a college student working minimum wage now, I’d be earning around $7 an hour in circa 2005 dollars. That could have afforded me a lot better life. I might have actually gotten by without borrowing money that summer.
Well that’s this blog post’s story. Vote Bernie Sanders and vote for a higher minimum wage!
Everybody thinks the US is a first world country. However some things in this country make it less than great. I think that America isn’t really a first world, but somewhere between second and first. We show a lot of the same behavior or characteristics of a country that isn’t first class. Here are some examples:
Healthcare
We’re way behind a lot of other countries who are not first world; like Cuba. The Affordable Care Act did great things but we’re not there yet. Every citizen isn’t guaranteed healthcare yet. Our life expectancy (#51) and infant mortality rates (#50) are still higher than a lot of other countries. Even some which we consider worse.
Women In Power
According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the US is 80th in the world in women in parliaments. There are only 20 senators who are women and 79 (or 18%) are in the house of representatives. We still haven’t had a female vice president or president. Even the Philippines has had a women president.
Incarceration Rate
We’re number one in prisoners per capita at 716 per 100,000 population; behind Russia at 490 per 100,000 population. We blow Mexico out of the water. They only have 209 per 100,000 population. We’re less than 5% of the population yet we have almost 25% of the prison population of the world. First world countries start around 100 on the list, but we’re number one in incarceration rate.
Birth Rate
We still have a lot of kids in this country which isn’t like a first world country. And it’s really funny too. Other countries have a lot of incentives for their citizens to have kids, but not in the US. We don’t even get paid maternity leave. The only thing guaranteed for us is under Clinton’s FMLA; and that’s unpaid.
Guns
We have the highest number of guns per capita (and the highest gun deaths). We have 88 guns per 100 people and 10 gun deaths per 100,000 population. Switzerland is behind us with less than half our number (45.7 per 100 people).
Income Inequality
We’re not doing well here either. We’re worse than countries like Egypt, Niger, Iraq, Iran. Even India and Ethiopia have better income equality than we do. Our gini coefficient is at 40.8.
Military
The United States is always high when it comes to military expenditures. We’re number one in defense spending. In fact, according to the World Bank, we spend 4.2% of GDP on military. We’re in the company of all third world and below nations. The UK, only 2.4%.
As we prepare to enter or affect yet another region in the middle east, it’s nice to know that after 150+ people died at the hands of an evil dictator the US will be there… Never mind that when thousands upon thousands were being killed by genocide in Darfur we didn’t go in or try to help them but whatever.
I guess we never crossed some “red line” with the number of deaths via gun violence in this country to warrant something to actually be done.
The right likes to use that argument for gun violence “guns don’t kill people, people kill people”. How about for chemical weapons… “chemical weapons don’t kill people, people kill people”?
Maybe is it that chemical weapons don’t give us more freedom but guns do?
Or how about “the only way to stop a bad guy with a chemical weapon is with a good guy with a chemical weapon”?
I’m confounded.
Before I start this post which I’m sure a lot of people would say I’m wrong on… I would like to say how pathetic it is that our Senate couldn’t pass one of the poorest, weakest gun control bills ever. And, no offense, how stupid some people are who believe the lies from the NRA. It’s daft that a bill that could have saved some lives couldn’t get passed in our country.
Anyway, to start my thoughts about what happened in Boston… I understand this was a terrorist attack but I’m shocked that the explosion that happened in Texas didn’t get covered. In Texas, one of their fertilizer plants exploded and killed 14 people and injured 200. Five times the amount of people were killed in Texas than were killed in Boston. And twice as many were injured in Texas than in Boston… Yet the media, all they covered was Boston.
It’s very sad to hear in our country of business’ not being regulated enough that something happens which costs people their lives. The last time the fertilizer plant in Texas was inspected by Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) was in 1985. Almost thirty years ago.
Due to them not being inspected regularly, the plant could get away with having crappy safety standards, or no safety standards at all. This happens a lot in coal mining and oil. They either pay the fine or don’t do anything at all. The fines are less expensive than to actually implement safety standards for their employees. We saw another example of this recently with the pipeline explosion in Arkansas.
I can’t understand anyone being against this kind of regulation. I can’t understand how anyone can argue on the side of the business. We all want clean water, we all want safe cars, police, etc. We all don’t want to see people or animals hurt or killed. It’s just sad.
It makes me angry that these kinds of things can be prevented. It also makes me sad that more people died from a lack of government regulation than from a terrorist attack; however we’ll always remember Boston. Will anyone remember Texas?
My husband, a loving Liberal, does not believe in the glass ceiling for women.
Reflecting on National Women’s Day, I think about how women have changed the work force. Although we have in major ways, I feel like it hasn’t been enough. The statistics simply do not show that women are making that much of an impact in breaking through the glass ceiling.
More women are now going to college and graduating than men. However, women still make less than their male colleagues in the same fields. Only 4% of Fortune 500 Company CEO’s are women. This year women hold only 97 (or 18.1%) of the 535 congressional seats (PDF – 663 KB) according to Center for American Women and Politics.
I think these kinds of barriers can be broken through confidence. I think that if we were to give girls at a young age the strength and confidence they can grow up to be as good (if not better) than their male colleagues. I feel this in my own life, for example, when I was applying for jobs. I wouldn’t dare apply for a job that I did not meet 100% of requirements. However, my husband has applied for jobs of which he’s had little experience.
I feel in order to break through this glass ceiling, women need to be given confidence at a young age. It would also help if we started to elect more women to congress and get more women in top positions, therefore providing more examples that we can do it.
Also to note I did a paper and presentation (PDF – 16 KB) about women in my own field (computer science) in college. The statistics and data haven’t changed much since then.
I find it interesting that very few gun companies are publicly owned. In fact, out of the most popular gun manufacturers only a few are publicly owned and traded.
Most of the companies you’re hard pressed to find information about the actual person(s) who own them. They seem to want to keep their lives very private; especially after tragedies like the one that just happened in Connecticut. Come on, what can they say? Their product was used to kill 20 innocent kids.
I’ve said on my twitter that I’m sick of this gun debate. I’ve said what I had to, quoted statistics about guns, etc. At this point I think no guns for anyone except law enforcement… And even there that may be a stretch considering police used 90 rounds to take down a teenager in Los Angeles.
I hope Obama is true to his word in what he said last night. This debate has been over. The fat lady has sung and is well on her way back home now. The time for action is long overdue.
With this question about “are you better off than you were four years ago”, I thought I’d blog about how I am better off than I was four years ago.
Here’s a few examples of how my family is better off under Obama:
- Obama helped my Aunt Ruth by bailing out the automotive industry. Without that, my Aunt would have lost her health insurance.
- Obama extended unemployment benefits, which helped my mom.
- The Cash For Clunkers program helped Bri’s parents trade in their old van for a Honda Civic.
Note that this is just a list of what Obama has done that effects me personally. He’s also done a lot more that’s good for our country such as federal support for stem cell research, killing Osama bin Laden, overturning Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, bills for veterans, signed START, overturning Bush’s deregulation for endangered species; the list goes on and on. Almost every area that you can think of, Obama has done something about.
I’ll probably blog again a little closer to the election with other stuff that matters.
The story of Titanic has always fascinated me, as it has most of America, I think. After its tragedy we as a people quickly leaped into action demanding answers and requiring regulations from our government so catastrophes like this can’t happen again.
Here are some of the lessons we learned from Titanic and regulations we put in place:
- Have lifeboat drills
- Ensure that there are enough lifeboats for all aboard
- Always have a wireless operator on duty 24/7
- A special patrol was set up to look out for icebergs and report them
- Other safety regulations managed through SOLAS
- Man is fallible
I also think about the Triangle fire that happened a little over a hundred years ago and the lessons we learned from that.
I have to wonder about other incidents that occurred somewhat recently like Virginia Tech and the 2011 Tuscan shootings. What lessons did we learn from them? I’m sure we learned something but the problem is regulations were not put in place to prevent anything like that happening again.
That’s the great thing about what came from Titanic. All those lives were lost but because of their sacrifice, so many more have been saved.
Why can’t we always learn from our mistakes?
This is a new post from an earlier post which I delete to refresh. I sometimes misplace my notes. This updated blog post has even more information (evidence) of how Obama is like Reagan.
Sometimes it astounds me how much Republicans hate Obama. Have they any clue that the left in this country has actually moved to the right? The right have moved so far to the right that the middle (“common ground”, “bipartisanship”) is no longer the middle anymore.
I never considered Obama a progressive. He was always just a liberal to me. I even got into a debate one time about how “liberal” Obama really is. He’s not really, when you look at it. He’s more moderate. In fact, one could even argue that he’s what used to be called a moderate Republican.
Obama and Reagan actually share a lot of the same things. Reflecting on a few we can see:
- Both wanted to disarm nuclear weapons
- Both lowered taxes
- Both increased military spending
- Both increased the national debt (by a lot)
- Both wanted a raise in capital gains tax
- Reagan appointed the first woman to the Supreme Court; Obama appointed two women
- Both tried to find a bipartisan consensus with Congress on simplifying the tax code
- Both ran on hope and optimism
- Both faced economic turmoil and high unemployment
- Both had midterm setbacks
I’ve blogged before on my Politics Notes how Reagan should be considered liberal by today’s standards. In fact, Reagan is further to the left than Obama on a few issues:
- Reagan raised taxes
- Reagan increased the size of government while Obama has decreased it
- Obama has been harder on immigration where as Reagan gave amnesty to millions of undocumented workers
- Reagan helped create Osama bin Laden where as under Obama he was destroyed
Contrary to republican belief, Obama has NOT raised taxes, expanded illegal immigration, nor has he increased the size of government. Their idol, Reagan, did all of these.
It’s just kind of shocking how much Obama is hated by the right, yet their hero and him shared a lot of the same ideology and we could argue, Reagan was to the left of Obama.
Not trying to quote Bill Maher so much but he had another good rant on Overtime this week. The panel was talking about Michelle Duggar and her campaigning with Rick Santorum and how overpopulation is a lie. Bill Maher said it pretty well.
You know what it is? I hear this from people all the time. They say have you ever flown over the country and when you look down, there’s a lot of nothing? That’s true but that’s not the issue. It’s about resources. It’s true we could actually fit on the planet a lot more people but there’s not enough food and water for them. Especially now that China and India are eating meat and getting cars. We just can’t do it. We would need to like triple the population, we’d need like five more earths. Again this comes from scientists, it’s not in the Bible, it’s probably bull s**t.
Is it so bad that I think that the Duggars are sick and selfish? When people have so many kids, it makes me not want to have kids even more to try to decrease the population and make up for them being so selfish and procreating in such abundance. The earth can only handle so much.
I’m not a fan of Rush Limbaugh. (Surprise, surprise.)
I think that Rush should NOT be booted off the air. It’s free speech even though what he said was slander. He could and should be sued for it.
In order for justice to be served in this, his advertisers should pull out and so should his listeners. Giving Rush any more attention from this indecent will only straighten him.
People love to hate and they’ll start listening to Rush and start following Rush on Twitter because they hate him. That only gives him strength.
Americans should stop listening to Rush. The media should stop covering Rush. Sooner or later he will fade away.
That’s the problem with the media. They pay so much attention to these “Sarah Palin’s”, “Rush Limbaugh’s”, “Lindsay Loehan’s”, they get away from the real topics and issues and only give these fake phonies more popularity and power. If they were to stop covering Rush and Sarah, their popularity would plummet and they would go away.
On another note: Sad, sad news that Dennis Kucinich lost his primary. America has lost one of its true progressives and representatives of the poor. Dennis Kucinich is a man of integrity and, I believe, one of the few members of Congress that people could actually trust. I hope he considers running for senator or something else later. We need people like Kucinich who can walk the walk, stand up for his beliefs and do what is right for this country.
I really hope this year is not another 2010.
Why the hell is the so called “liberal media” not talking about this? This bill gives the military the ability to detain and arrest US citizens indefinitely who are suspected of terrorism… on US SOIL and WITHOUT TRIAL.
Obama, veto this bill. This bill is sick. How many more liberties do we have to give away in the name of terrorism? Especially when we’ve killed bin Laden and seem to have the whole “terrorism” thing under control.
If we keep taking away the rights of our citizens, there will be no country to protect. And let us not forget the wise words of Benjamin Franklin: “Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither.”
I’m surprised this story hasn’t gotten more traction in the “liberal media”. A report from Galveston Bay, Texas shows that climate change is the reason why the sea level in the area is changing. However, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and good ol’ Rick Perry didn’t believe the report and said that couldn’t be right, so they edited it.
There is good news, though. More and more scientists who are skeptics are starting to “believe” in climate change. Even ones that were bought off by big oil. It seems they get the same numbers as other scientists that our Earth is warming.
So the left is right. Makes you wonder what else they’re right on? Maybe that tax cuts don’t stimulate the economy nor do they pay for themselves?
Interesting articles this morning. Three years ago, 16% of Chinese said there in the past year that they couldn’t provide food for themselves or their family, compared with Americans at 9%.
Now it’s the complete opposite. 6% of Chinese say they couldn’t feed their family in the past year, where as 19% of Americans said it.
Also the news has it that GAP is closing stores in the US in order to expand to China.
What the hell is going on? Is the United States not a first world country anymore?
I just read an article saying how Republicans refuse to budge on the debt ceiling. Usually this always means a Democratic cave… like we’ve seen with health care, jobs, climate change, wall street reform, unemployment, etc.
However, Obama seems to be staying strong. He’s quoted as saying (not verbatim):
What we’re seeing here confirms what the American people think is the worst about Washington: that everyone is more interested in posturing and political positioning and protecting their base than solving real problems. Eric, I could get well above the numbers the GOP is talking about with revenue increases. I am not afraid to veto this and I will take that message and defend it to the American people. If we default, it will be a tax increase on every American. My responsibility is to the American people. I have reached the point where I say, ‘Enough.’ I have sat here long enough and no other President – Ronald Reagan wouldn’t sit here like this. I’ve reached my limit. We’ve reached the point where something’s got to give. You’ve either got to compromise on your dollar for dollar insistence or you compromise on the big deal, which means raising taxes. Eric, don’t call my bluff. I will go to the American people on this. This may bring my presidency down, but I will not yield on this.
I hate to say this but it is about time. We want Obama to be strong on tough issues like this. I’m glad he’s deciding to do it now.
We’re behind you, President Obama!
The past few weeks have not been good for the Progressive movement, or the Democratic Party for that matter. Besides losing Anthony Weiner (one of the few Progressives in Congress), other severe blows have been happening which further damages this country.
Defeat For Unions
Last Thursday in New Jersey, the Assembly passed legislation which increases the cost union workers have to pay for health insurance and pensions. Just like in Wisconsin, the unions were more than willing to compromise but drastic action was taken by Republicans to shut them down. Another blow for the unions who are responsible for building up the middle class in this country.
Supreme Court Ruling For Walmart
What crap is it when the Supreme Court comes to the aid of big corporations, again? Female workers who feel discriminated in the male dominated corporation known as Walmart have lost their ability to file a class action lawsuit. Employees who want power in numbers to battle abuses in the court system now cannot. Recognizing corporate-wide trends seem to be of no use. Imagine if auto companies didn’t have to recognize trends… there would be no recalls. Oh no, I think I gave the right wing some ideas…
Supreme Court Ruling For EPA
The mighty Supreme Court put a stop to any city or state which dares to be more stricter than the EPA. (A similar ruling happened during the Bush years with California wanting to increase their MPG regulation on vehicles.) The right is so hypocritical with all this “states rights” bull shit when they don’t have the power to supersede federal regulations? I don’t hear the Tea Baggers or the Republicans going after the Supreme Court on these issues (or any issues for that matter since the most important are 5-4 rulings).
No Tax Increases
With Boehner walking out on budget talks there doesn’t seem to be any common ground except where the Republican is standing (yet again). Obama is pretty much being forced to allow the richest of the rich to get away with billions of dollars in taxes that they should have to pay. Taxes haven’t been this low since 1950. Facing the approaching cap on the debt ceiling, Republicans prefer to take money from the middle class through drastic cuts in Social Security and Medicare rather than their real constituents, the rich.
Weak Withdraw
Alright Obama for wanting to almost withdraw the surge he put in place in Afghanistan. By 2013 we will still have more troops in Afghanistan than there were when Obama took office.
- Let’s see how much further to the right these rich white dudes can go. #HowLowCanYouGo #RepublicanDebate 8:00 PM EST
- “Obama Depression”? Hello? It started during Bush. 8:03 PM EST
- I’m just going to be pissed off all night. #RepublicanDebate 8:08 PM EST
- So extending the Bush Tax Cuts for the wealthy wasn’t one thing right with the economy? 8:14 PM EST
- What a great story! Loss of jobs, an economic crisis, the biggest wealth inequality in history… Wow! 8:24 PM EST
- We’re already the lowest corporate tax rate! And the EPA? From job killing to people killing! 8:29 PM EST
- Thousands of blue collar jobs would have been lost, not to mention the US NOT having an auto industry if we didn’t do the auto bailout. 8:40 PM EST
- So the poor states should deal with their own hurricanes and tornadoes. Brilliant! You just alienated most of your base. 8:51 PM EST
- If you “stand for life” how come you don’t want poor people to have health insurance? #CNNDebate 9:27 PM EST
- So whether or not you’re a US citizen should be turned on to the states? Really? #CNNDebate 9:32 PM EST
- I learned that whenever you can’t think of a good answer to a question, blame Obama or say “give power to the states”. #CNNDebate 10:02 PM EST
It goes without saying that I’m pretty upset about this whole situation with Anthony Weiner. He is one of my favorite congressmen. I believe he truly has the best intentions for America and I feel I can trust him (yes, even after all those photos and chats). I believe him to be one of the few good guys.
I think the media has blown this thing way out of proportion. Congressman Weiner didn’t have sex with anyone. Nor did he break any laws (of course pending the 17 year old girl investigation).
His district is smart. His district doesn’t want him to go. They know him to fight. He’s one of the only ones who actually fight for progressive values and what’s right.
I think it’s wise of him to take a leave of absence and get his shit together before continuing representing people. His personal life obviously needs to get in order before he can properly continue the fine job he’s doing.
I’m just really upset this had to happen and very upset at the media for making it a circus. The likes of David Vitter (who actually broke laws) is still in Congress. No high ranking Republican officials asked for his resignation.
Maybe if the media wasn’t so stupid and if American’s weren’t so obsessed with sex they’d actually report on things that matter, like the debt ceiling.