Day 195.
I know that headline is a bit harsh. But, with everything going on today it is hard not to say it. We have reached a new low in politics in our country, and it isn’t getting better. As a matter of fact, things are not only getting worse they are being cheered on by trump supporters.
Politics always brings out some of the bad in some of us, but this is really getting out of hand. Things are getting so bad it is almost like my youthful days on the South Side of Chicago watching gangs face off.
Yesterday was full of news, and none of it was good. Yes, we had more information reported about the Russian Hacking probes and how Russian Officials were caught by our spy agencies strategizing how they could use trump staffers to influence trump in a positive way towards Russia. But, as it turns out, that wasn’t the worst of the news. Rather is was expected since this scandal is growing by leaps and bounds every day.
Let’s recap a few of the things that took place just yesterday. It kind of started off somewhat innocuous with testimony by Betsy DeVos trying to show how trump’s budget cuts to the Department of Education were actually good for students in America.
She was asked if there was any case of discrimination that a private school could do where she would step in and say you cannot do that if you receive federal funding. It first came up when it was pointed out that a private school in Indiana said it would not accept LGBTQ students even if they were using vouchers from the Federal Government. DeVos refused to say she would step in and tell the school they couldn’t discriminate like that.
Then she was asked about private schools who were forcing parents of children with disabilities to waive their rights under IDEA. She then praised Florida for their program. Which of course does already allow private schools to force parents with disabled children to sign away their IDEA rights.
According to DeVos we should let states “decide” if they are going to discriminate against any students if that is their choice. After her testimony I came away with the distinct opinion that she really does want to dismantle our entire public school system. I do have a question for Republicans and their “school choice” mantra. When I was young, I went to private schools. My parents had to pay for that private education on their own and got no “vouchers” from the Federal government.
As a matter of fact, when I attended private schools, the vast majority of private schools were Catholic. Republicans were extremely against any idea that people who sent their children to a Catholic school should get any “vouchers” to help pay for it or even consider the idea of a tax break for paying for a private education? What changed that makes “vouchers” so important today?
Maybe it is because that after school desegregation took place a bunch of so-called “Evangelical Christian” schools popped up across the south to keep white students from having to attend school with children of color. That is when the cry for “vouchers” began, and not a day before.
The second thing we learned yesterday is that the biggest threat to our national security is none other than our beloved leader. We already heard about his giving highly classified information to the Russians. We also learned that it was Americans who leaked the name of the attacker in Manchester before the British were ready to release it. They are so mad right now that they care considering not sharing information with us anymore.
Then in a phone call to the Butcher of Manila, Duterte, praising him for his “wonderful war against drugs” in his country, trump just couldn’t help but try to one-up him. He actually told this butcher where two of our nuclear submarines were located. We learned this from a transcript of the call by the Philippines. It was reported by the Philippine press who actually had a copy of the transcript. And, no one in the trump administration has pushed back and said it wasn’t true.
Our beloved leader just can’t help himself giving away our classified information to foreign countries. He seems to think that it shows how smart he is. Actually it shows just how STUPID he is. Furthermore, it shows he cannot be trusted with our classified information.
We also discovered that members of his White House are simple liars. They lied on their forms when trying to get their security clearances. The main culprits are Mike Flynn, Jeff Sessions and Jared Kushner. I don’t remember the exact wording, but there is a question that asks if you have had any contact with a foreign government or foreign government official. All three said no.
Yet, all three did have contact with a foreign government official. In the case of Flynn he was not only an unregistered foreign agent, he talked to the Russian Ambassador more than once during the campaign and during the transition period.
Turns out that Jeff Sessions did have contact with the Russian Ambassador more than once during the transition when he was a member of the trump team. And, of course, Jared Kushner also had contact with the Russian Ambassador and with members of a Russian owned bank during the campaign and the transition.
I don’t know, but maybe the law changed under trump, but when I had to fill out this form, it was a crime to lie on it or to omit any information that was asked by it. At the very least all three, well the two left in the administration, should have their security clearance pulled for lying on an official government form.
The third thing was the CBO score for the Americans Without Health Care Act. The CBO did say one thing in the Republicans favor. They said the act would cut the deficit by 119 Billion Dollars. Wow, I believe that comes to about .002 percent of the deficit. And, it is less than the original bill that never made it to the House floor for a vote.
On the other hand, it estimates that in the first year of its implementation 14 million people will lose their health insurance. It also says that in the next nine years up to 23 million people will lose their health insurance. It even had some bad news for people with pre-existing conditions that Republicans claim the act will “protect”.
According to the CBO score card, older people with pre-existing conditions will see their premiums go up about 850 percent. That is including the so-called protections that states will implement to “out” themselves from the ACA protections now in place. The CBO says the high risk pools won’t work the way Republicans claim it will.
Furthermore, rural hospitals will be severely affected by the bill. Many of our rural hospitals rely on Medicaid to help keep them open since most of their customers are Medicaid patients. With the massive cuts to Medicaid, those funds will dry up and these hospitals will be forced to close.
Additionally, many patients in nursing homes are also Medicaid recipients. They are not just “poor people” they are middle-class people who worked their whole lives. However, they ran out of money and cannot afford most private nursing homes. As a result, they are forced to use Medicaid to pay for their care. When the Republicans cut Medicaid, these patients will also be hurt. What are you going to do if you parent or grandparent is tossed from their nursing home because of this act?
Finally, it is estimated that by the year 2026 50 million people between the ages of 50 and 65 will be without health insurance as a result of this act. As you can see, this bill was really something for Republicans to board their busses and head down to the White House for a celebratory Frat Party after they passed it through the House. As I wrote before, Republicans have decided that one of the biggest problem this country faces is that too damn many people actually have health insurance. This bill will definitely fix it.
The final episode came last night in Montana. There a special election is being held today for the state’s lone House Seat. The Republican Candidate was expected to win big, but the race is much closer than expected. The major factor in this race turns out to be the Americans Without Health Care Act.
The Republican Candidate, Greg Gianforte has declined to answer any questions if he supports the act. But, there is a recording that shows him approving of the bill’s passage to supporters. So, a reporter from the Guardian, Ben Jacobs, wanted Gianforte’s reaction to the CBO report.
Gianforte was getting ready to have an interview with a local TV Station. Jacobs entered the room, saw that Gianforte was just standing around chit-chatting and approached the candidate ask his question. According to Jacobs, instead of getting an answer, Gianforte picked him up and body slammed him to the ground.
Jacobs was taken to the hospital for evaluation. He said he landed on his elbow and x-rays were taken. I don’t know the result of those x-rays at this time. Later Gianforte’s campaign put out a statement about the incident and they said that Jacobs:
…entered the office without permission, aggressively shoved a recorder in Greg’s face, and began asking badgering questions. Jacobs was asked to leave. After asking Jacobs to lower the recorder, Jacobs declined. Greg then attempted to grab the phone that was pushed in his face. Jacobs grabbed Greg’s wrist, and spun away from Greg, pushing them both to the ground. It’s unfortunate that this aggressive behavior from a liberal journalist created this scene at our campaign volunteer BBQ.
So, as usual, a Republican candidate blamed the reporter, especially one he considers a “liberal” reporter for the incident. There are two problems with the statement issued by Gianforte’s campaign. Evidence shows he is lying. Big surprise.
Jacobs was recording the questioning. I heard the tape and there was no “badgering” by Jacobs unless you consider trying to get a straight answer from a politician badgering. At no time did Gianforte ask or demand that Jacobs “lower the recorder”. Jacobs’ voice was calm and polite.
Then there is a second problem with Gianforte’s version of the event. There were witnesses. Particularly the very TV news people who were there to conduct the interview. It was a local Fox Station.
Fox News reporter Alicia Acuna, field producer Faith Mangan and photographer Keith Railey witnessed the incident, according to an account published by foxnews.com. Acuna wrote in her account”
Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him into the ground behind him.
Faith, Keith and I watched in disbelief as Gianforte then began punching the man, as he moved on top the reporter and began yelling something to the effect of ‘I’m sick and tired of this!’ … To be clear, at no point did any of us who witnessed this assault see Jacobs show any form of physical aggression toward Gianforte, who left the area after giving statements to local sheriff’s deputies.
So, it is clear to anyone that Gianforte physically assaulted Jacobs. Both the audio tape and the written statement from Acuna prove Gianforte is nothing but a bully who thinks he can get away with whatever he wants, just like his beloved leader, trump.
Before you start to tell me this is another of those “one-off” isolated incidents, please don’t. You would be lying. This is not a one-off. This is a continuation of incidents that began with trump’s campaign. Remember all of the violence at his rallies while he was egging his supporter on? Remember him telling supporters to “knock the crap out of him. Don’t worry I will defend you”?
Remember he is being sued right now for one of those attacks against protesters at his rally in Louisville? And, remember his main defense in this case is he can’t be sued because he is president.
Then we have the case in West Virginia when a reporter was arrested in the State Capital Building while trying to get Price to answer questions. He was yelling questions to Price and Kellyanne Conway when he was arrested and charged with “interfering with government business”. The “government business” he was interfering with was Price and Conway walking through. And, he did not impede their progress.
We also have a report of a reporter being pinned to the wall in the Capital when trying to ask Paul Ryan questions. According to that report, the reporter was yelling questions when a member of the Capital police stepped in front of the man and backed him up against the wall so he couldn’t get close to Ryan.
All of this begs the question of just where in the hell, and in what time period do we live? We have never seen such behavior in our country before. We have seen it in other countries where dictators live and rule. We saw it big time in Germany in the 30’s. We saw it in Italy during the 20s and 30s. We saw it in Iraq under the regime of Saddam Hussein. We see it in Russia under Vladimir Putin. And we see it in the Philippines under the Butcher of Manila.
We are now seeing it right here in the United States of America under our beloved leader, donald trump. I am not sure if this incident in Montana is going to keep this fascist out of office. With early voting and absentee voting, it is difficult to say a last-minute incident will have any effect on the outcome of the election.
We can only hope that if this fascist does win the election we can have some justice. That justice would be to watch him get sworn into office, and then have the Montana State Police take him immediately to jail. To me, that would be justice, especially if was on national television. It was just reported that Gianforte was charged with assault for this senseless attack.
What is going on? We have a Republican Controlled Congress that believes it is a great thing to throw millions of people off of their health insurance. We have a president who not only agrees with that, he wants to make it worse. His budget includes an additional $650 billion in cuts to Medicaid. It also slashes programs that are intended to help people get by and improve their lot.
His administration is under counter-espionage investigation by the FBI and two different committees in Congress. He openly gives away classified information to foreign countries, even if those countries are considered as adversaries.
We have seen a big uptick in violence at “political rallies” across the country, including now, an incident where a candidate felt “justified” to body slam a reporter to the ground because he doesn’t like the media.
But, if you think back just seven years, you could have predicted this violence at political rallies. It was the Tea Party, not liberals, who were showing up at political rallies openly carrying guns. Fortunately, we haven’t seen gun violence at rallies, yet. But, is that because we are lucky? How long before we do see gun violence at political rallies?
This isn’t about “sour grapes” because trump won the election. This is about civility. It is about ethics. It is about our country. It is about our democracy. I am sure we will see lots of posts on the internet and especially on Facebook about how all of this is just another hoax. I am sure the trolls will crawl out of their sewers to defend everything with ludicrous excuses and fake news.
But the fact is our country is in far more trouble than it was during Watergate. At least during Watergate, the Republican Party placed the country above their party. I am not so certain enough of today’s Republicans have the same patriotism as those Republicans in the 70s had.
I am sure that if any Republican in the House were to actually vote for impeachment, they would face immediate primary challenges from the wacko right. And, being afraid of losing their gig, they won’t dare take this to the natural conclusion IF it goes that far.
All of the incidents taking place inside and outside of Washington are not sideshows. They are what is really happening to our country, and we need to pay attention to them. If we are to survive this calamity, we need the “real Republicans” to wake up and take back their party. We need two viable and working parties to govern our country. Having only one party is called an authoritarian government.
And, the shirts keep marching along.