people, places and things that have piqued my interest
How is it that this woman was unaware that Pete is Gay? He has certainly been totally open about it.
https://news.yahoo.com/iowa-woman-tried-retract-her-191000511.html
It also seems a little strange that she was wearing a pin supporting Amy. Perhaps she was intentionally trying to raise a ruckus and thought by doing so she could convince others to change their votes?
Republicans have been trying for years to repeal the Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare), without success. They had their best chance this week, but couldn’t make it happen. Realizing that they didn’t have the votes to pass their alternative plan, President Trump and Speaker Ryan pulled the plug.
Many Democrats/Liberals are rejoicing, and many supporters of a broad public healthcare plan consider it good news.
My guess is that a lot of Republicans are also (privately) rejoicing.
In a way, the failure to pass the Republican bill is a win for just about all factions. Consider:
The Freedom Caucus, which didn’t think the bill went far enough in repealing the ACA, can boast that they stuck to their principles and didn’t cave to pressure from the President.
The moderate Republicans can tell their more conservative constituents that they did all they could to repeal ACA, and at the same time not have to face the wrath of constituents who need the benefits that ACA provides. I’ll bet many of them are breathing a big sigh of relief.
Democrats of all persuasions might feel some vindication for all the roadblocks that the Republicans put up during the Obama administration. They will, however, still have to deal with the shortcomings of the ACA, and continued Republican efforts to replace it.
POTUS himself will of course put a good spin on the whole thing and consider it another win.
What do you think? Is this a win for you?
Of late it seems that the Republican party in the USA is dominated by the rather well-organized “Alt-Right”, and the more moderate conservatives are bending to the will of the ultra conservatives.
Why is it that there doesn’t seem to be an “Alt-Left” or a liberal counterpart to the Tea Party?
A day or two after the news that Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia had died, a Facebook Friend whom I greatly admire posted this on her FB Timeline:
I’ve been seeing a lot of vitriolic gloating diatribes about Scalia’s death. But I don’t think this is a constructive attitude. How we frame our responses to events does matter. To me, the kind of reflection in this link leads more directly to a world where there’s a place for everyone rather than a world where it’s us against “them”.
Here is the link she was referring to, which is a wonderful piece about the fact that the most conservative and the most liberal of the Supreme Court justices were, despite their political differences, quite close friends: http://www.vox.com/2016/2/14/10990156/scalia-ginsburg-friends
I am very grateful to this friend for her message. Let us all strive do just what Ruth and Antonin did. They admired each other, they honored each other, and they didn’t let their political differences get in the way of that.
Waiting at the stoplight, the pickup truck in front of me had a decal in the back window that said:
I’ll keep my MONEY, my GUNS
and my FREEDOM.
You can keep the “Change”.
It’s pretty obvious that this is the truck owner’s thoughts about the change promised by Barack Obama during his first presidential campaign. It’s also obvious that there are huge numbers of Americans that agree with the sentiment expressed on that decal, and who feel threatened by Obama’s leadership.
But let’s look at the facts.
People like the truck owner are adamantly opposed to paying taxes, but the tax cuts, de-regulation and lack of oversight during eight years of Republican rule resulted in a worldwide financial meltdown. The pickup owner more than likely saw his retirement plan suddenly lost more than half of its value, the equity in his house dropped tremendously, and there’s a good chance that if he had a company pension plan, the benefits were cut.
How many of those who don’t want to pay taxes scrambled to get their share of the Cash for Clunkers program? How many had their money invested in financial institutions and automakers that had to be bailed out? How many are now reaping the benefits of economic stimulus programs? How many have jobs that rely on government contracts? How many went to public schools? Quite a few. Wake up folks, it’s tax dollars that fund these programs.
Gun owners in the U.S. seem to be under the impression that Obama is avidly anti-gun. Why is this? Since his election, Obama has not only done nothing to curb the rights of gun owners, he signed a law allowing firearms in National Parks, much to the chagrin of millions of parks users and against the wishes of the National Park Service personnel.
A while back I was in the sporting goods section of a department store and overheard one of the employees tell a customer that they didn’t have the ammunition he wanted for his gun because of Obama’s regulations. I bit my tongue, but have regretted it ever since. The Obama administration has passed no laws limiting the manufacture or sale of guns or ammunition, but the NRA-led faction of gun owners is so convinced that Obama is anti-gun that they have been buying ammunition and firearms faster than the manufacturers can produce them. Shortages on store shelves are due to gun owner stockpiling, not new laws prohibiting their sale or use.
And what about the decal-bearing truck owner’s fear of losing his freedom? Where was his outrage during the years of the Bush-Cheney administration that saw some of our most basic personal freedoms taken away?
Yes, I’ll keep the Change, thank you.