For those who love piano here are examples of perhaps the best 25 ever written. After listening, and perhaps going so far to listen to them in full, we’d be interested in your take on the best of the best!
On The Heels Of Trump’s Election A Must Watch…
The following two-part series, The People Versus America, is a must watch. As hard as it may be for those who support Trump and his Make America Great Again theme it is those very folks who need to watch the series and come to terms with its honest reality. Link to the video follow the text below.
Aljazeera – The election of Donald Trump in November 2016 exposed a deep vein of distrust across the US, where millions became disillusioned with a political and corporate elite out of touch with the sentiments of ordinary Americans.
The institutions that serve US citizens are increasingly regarded as self-serving while the people are increasingly divided and polarised along racial and economic lines.
In this two-part series, The Big Picture: The People vs America we explore the construction and mythology of the American Dream and uncover the reality of exclusion and denial.
We chart the history of post-Second World War America to uncover how race has dominated the political landscape and continues to shape the America of today.
We also explore just how America became so fractured, and how for many, the American Dream has been lost.
LINK to video.
Is A Government Shutdown On The Horizen?…
Sometimes you just have to do what is ethically and morally right. So, democrats, bring on the shutdown unless the Trump wrecking ball powers down!
Bloomberg – Senate Democrats warned Republicans Monday that attempts to take funding away from Planned Parenthood or pay for President Donald Trump’s border wall in a stopgap spending bill that must pass by late April would result in a government shutdown.
The threat from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democratic leaders sets up a climactic first showdown with the president, particularly with their inclusion of Trump’s signature border wall proposal.
“If Republicans insist on inserting poison pill riders such as defunding Planned Parenthood, building a border wall, or starting a deportation force, they will be shutting down the government and delivering a severe blow to our economy,” Schumer said in a statement.
Up until now, Trump hasn’t needed Democratic votes to stock his cabinet or advance the repeal of Obamacare, but a spending bill keeping the government open is subject to a 60-vote threshold in the Senate. If Congress doesn’t act, a partial government shutdown would begin on April 29.
Democrats also warned against including funding for a “deportation force” as the Trump administration emphasizes ramped up arrests and deportations of immigrants in the country illegally.
A Planned Parenthood funding fight brought Congress to the brink of shutting down the government in March 2011, and immigration has also been a major fight in previous spending bills. {Continue Reading}
CBO Report On The Republican Health Care Plan Is Out. It Ain’t Pretty…
The CBO’s numbers are in. Projected savings through 2016 are 337 billion dollars and the number of insured Americans will decline by 24 million souls.
Premiums are projected to be 15 to 20 percent higher in the first year compared to the ACA. After 2026 premiums are projected to be 10 percent lower on average. The report says older Americans would pay substantially more (whatever that means) and younger Americans would pay less.
Under the republican plan there would be 52 million uninsured Americans in 2026 compared to the 28 million that would be uninsured under the ACA.
As expected the alternative facts administration of Trump spent the weekend trying to undercut the CBO.
The Washington Post – House Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s proposal to revise the Affordable Care Act would lower the number of Americans with health insurance by 24 million while reducing the federal deficit by $337 billion by 2026, congressional budget analysts said Monday.
The report from the Congressional Budget Office underscores the dramatic loss in health insurance coverage that would take place if the GOP health-care plan is enacted, potentially contradicting President Trump’s vow that the plan would provide “insurance for everybody” and threatening support from moderate Republican lawmakers.
Fourteen million people would lose health coverage next year alone, the report stated. Premiums would be 15 to 20 percent higher in the first year compared to the ACA, and 10 percent lower on average after 2026. By and large, older Americans would pay “substantially” more and younger Americans less, the report states.
Proponents of the plan, led by Ryan (R-Wis.), have argued the total number of people covered is the wrong way to measure the law’s impact.
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The White House has spent the last week engaged in a charm offensive aimed at bringing those conservatives on board, as well as an effort to discredit the CBO before it released numbers that might cast the plan in a negative light.
“If you’re looking to the CBO for accuracy, you’re looking in the wrong place,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer said last week.
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The ACA has increased coverage by 20 million to 22 million – almost half of those through the insurance markets the law created for people who cannot get affordable coverage through a job, and the rest through an expansion of Medicaid in 31 states and the District of Columbia.
According to the CBO, an estimated 52 million people would be uninsured in 2026, compared with 28 million who would lack insurance that year under current law.
The Trump administration led a broad effort to undercut the CBO over the weekend, including pointing out flaws in its forecasts for the ACA.
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In January, Trump had promised to replace the ACA with a plan that provided “insurance for everybody.”
“There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can’t pay for it, you don’t get it. That’s not going to happen with us,” Trump said in a Jan. 15 interview with The Washington Post.
“It’s not going to be their plan,” Trump said of people covered under the Affordable Care Act. “It’ll be another plan. But they’ll be beautifully covered. I don’t want single-payer. What I do want is to be able to take care of people.”
A summary and the full text of the 37 page CBO report can be found HERE.
Trump’s Spin Machine At Full Throttle…
As the Trump spin machine (alternative facts) continues in full swing at full throttle.
CNN – The White House on Monday walked back a key point of President Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated allegation that President Barack Obama wiretapped his phones in Trump Tower during the 2016 election.
Namely, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Trump wasn’t referring to wiretapping when he tweeted about wiretapping.“I think there’s no question that the Obama administration, that there were actions about surveillance and other activities that occurred in the 2016 election,” Spicer said. “The President used the word wiretaps in quotes to mean, broadly, surveillance and other activities.”Wiretapping is a narrowly defined surveillance activity that involves tapping into “a telephone or telegram wire in order to get information,” according to Merriam-Webster dictionary.Spicer also said that Trump was referring to the Obama administration broadly — and not accusing Obama of personal involvement — when he tweeted that “Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower” and accused Obama of being a “bad” or “sick guy.”
Exactly why anyone continues to believe Trump or anyone in his administration is a total mystery. Back when America was sane (and GREAT) Trump would be recognized as nothing more than the lying POS that he is.