The Intent Of Fake News Claims

It's important to understand why Trump and friends keep hammering away about fake news. Here are a few advantages to this tactic:

1. These claims undermine media credibility, especially among Trump supporters and low-information, low-education citizens. I suppose I'm being redundant there.
2. As the media reports on the impact of Trump policy, Trump can continue his prodigious lying campaigns to create an alternate reality for his supporters. According to the WaPo Fact Checker, Trump lied 493 times in his first 100 days - this is an average of nearly 5 times per day.
3. His lies target the fears and anxieties of vulnerable citizens. The lies then enter the echo chamber of the far-right media machine where they are reinforced and taken as gospel. His supporters are worked up into a fever pitch, and nothing Trump does will impact their support of him. Thus you get candidate Trump saying he could stand on 5th Ave in NY and shoot people and not lose a single vote.

Trump has an uncanny ability to repeat outrageous conspiracy theories from illegitimate sources and then, when he's called on his lies, simply shift to a new lie. The rate at which he lies makes it impossible for fact checkers to keep up.

He is a dangerous demagogue. His lies must always be met with truth, even if we have difficulty keeping up.

Some Humans Ain't Human

So goes the title of a John Prine song that seems somehow fitting to me tonight. The passage of the ACHA, the replacement bill for the ACA, in the US House is haunting me. Republicans don't give a shit about people.

Prior to passage of the Affordable Care Act, 45,000 people died each year as a result of limited access to health care. These were people who were uninsured or perhaps not insurable under previous regulations that allowed insurers to charge exorbitant rates for pre-existing conditions. The ACA has now provided insurance to approximately 25% of those who were previously uninsured or uninsurable. The ACA is costing less than expected and is also effectively lowering health care costs.

Republicans passed this bill in less than a week. It had no public hearing. Debate was limited to 3 hours. The one amendment they allowed did nothing for pre-existing conditions except provide talking points for Reps who will be ducking for cover during recess town hall meetings. According to the Congressional Budget Office, this bill will remove 24 million Americans from health insurance and put millions more with pre-existing conditions in peril. It's a shameful catastrophe.

Almost unimaginably, the bill slashes Medicaid to the tune of $800 billion and stuffs those Benjamins into the pockets of the 1% through related tax breaks.

In a healthy democracy, there would be outrage from elected officials from both parties. The media would be reporting on the devastating impact on poor families, women and children. Instead, we have the game-show president tweeting about fake news and CNN hand-wringing about Democrats jeering Republicans for passing the bill.

In a healthy democracy, any elected official who voted for such a monstrosity would face certain defeat at the ballot box. Instead, congressional districts are so gerrymandered to make elections a mere formality. Democrats won 47% of votes cast in congressional districts and won only 44% of the seats.

What the electorate has taught the Republicans is, politically, there are no repercussions. Don't hold a vote for Obama's Supreme Court nominee. No problem - we'll send you back. Grab women by the genitals. No problem, Mr. President. Pull health insurance away from 24 million Americans - we'll see but I'm not hopeful.

These are dark days.

Abi Will Know

My daughter called me today. She wanted some feedback on a challenge her family faced. Her son, who is 3, does not enjoy the one afternoon he spends each week with a babysitter. In fact, he cries, complains and causes general mayhem on the days when he is supposed to go.

Digging deeper, he has shared with my daughter that the four year-old son of the sitter is mean to him. Takes toys away, pushes and plays a little rough. This is all normal behavior, I'm sure, and my grandson is no angel - I've seen him in action with my granddaughter, his older sister. But it's real to him and is causing him serious distress. When your vessel is full, your vessel is full.

He and my daughter were talking about it this morning, and my daughter told him, "I just don't know what to do, Pop." using his nickname. He looked up at her and said, "Abi will know." Thus the call from my daughter.

Using my best coaching skills ("What's your heart telling you?"), I listened as my daughter worked herself through the challenge. She solved it.

Then, Pop and I had a great conversation about toy trucks.

Abi does know.

In Spite of Ourselves

The Affordable Care Act was not my preference for health insurance in the US. I support universal health insurance as delivered by every other first-world country on the planet. When I realized that universal health was not going to happen in 2009, I supported a robust public option as part of the exchanges on the ACA. When that was taken off the table, I supported lowering the qualifying age for Medicare to 55. Thanks to Joe Lieberman, that crashed too.

When all was said and done, and as a realist, I became a full supporter of the ACA. I worked to implement it in NH and became a Certified Application Counselor, providing application assistance to those who needed it. Through my employer, we funded and staffed enrollment fairs when NH Republicans effectively blocked early fed dollars designed to implement the health plan.

I did this understanding it was not what I wanted. It was the right thing to do and I'm so very proud of all the work and take great joy in the lives we helped. We brought access to health care to 24 million Americans who had not had it.

These were not just anonymous lives, either. I have a very close family member who has greatly benefited from the ACA. He now has access to quality medical care and has the treatment he needs for several issues. The ACA has saved lives - I know this from first-hand experience.

Through a series of unfortunate electoral events, we are now facing a Republican majority in the US Congress and a Republican president dedicated to repealing the ACA. The primary reason for the repeal is to create a bundle of money to give tax breaks to the 1%.

I don't know what's going to happen. Honestly. I know that my family member will be at risk without a public policy supporting affordable health care. He's just one of 24 million.

The survival of democracy is not preordained.

Both Sides, etc

I'm not a 'pox upon both houses' person. In my mind, there is clearly one party better than the other for working class families. The degree of how much better remains an open question that deserves scrutiny - none of which you'll read here.

Suffice to say Democrats have cooled to labor beginning 50 some odd years ago - perhaps even further if you count the Dixie-Dems who voted with Republicans to override Truman's veto of Taft-Hartley. As has been well documented elsewhere, Democrats have been feeding at the corporate cash trough since the 80s, and moving center-right as a party. Center-right doesn't produce public policy in support of working people.

The result of which is we have a country full of angry citizens not making it. Debt-ridden and lining up to fill out job apps at Walmart and food stamp apps at HHS. Our elections are no longer about policy choices - no one believes the bs anymore. More and more, our elections are being decided by which party more effectively taps into the frustrations and resentments of the working class. For now, the distinction belongs solely to Republicans and what amounts to a state-run propaganda wing, Fox News.

I don't blame the Republicans. They saw a market inefficiency and exploited it. The inefficiency has been created by the party of FDR by moving so far to the right that many have lost faith in the system. Corporate capitalism (the worst brand of capitalism) has taken over our democracy by purchasing public policy from both sides all the while manufacturing consent from the people through brilliant PR strategies.

Both sides may not be equal in their disdain for working people, but neither party is truly working for us either.

It Was 50 Years Ago Today

Or pretty close to it, when Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play.

Hard to believe that the Lonely Hearts Club Band album is half a century old. To commemorate, the music is being remixed and re-released with 34 previously unreleased recordings. Sounds like a long weekend or two to me.

My sister was more of a fan at the time than I was. She was older and of the age that made her susceptible to the Beatles magic. Whatever it was that made the girls go crazy. The Beatles began to make an impression on me after the breakup - I was a huge fan of McCartney and Wings and each of the Beatles' 'solo' music in their own rights. I always felt a bit jobbed because I was too young to appreciate their music when they were together (I was 8 or 9 when they split) and, like almost every inhabitant of the world not named McCartney, Lennon, Harrison or Starr, I daydreamed of a reunion that never happened.

Maybe this is as close as we get. Remix an iconic classic, add some nostalgic conversation and unreleased studio tape and trip out.

The Union Burying Ground

So it looks like union busting will be on the agenda at the NLRB in the near future. Even as I write this it makes no sense, but there you have it. There are two open seats on the board and a union busting attorney is on the short list. According to the Politico article, it would be a first.

The candidate will need a leave of absence from his full time job of de-certifying 27,000 unionized home health care workers in Minnesota to move into the NLRB job. Or maybe not. Conflicts of interest don't exist for this administration.

Tom Perez is right. Republicans don't give a shit about workers.