JANUARY 6 & ALABAMA SENATOR TOMMY TUBERVILLE

 

"The night before January 6th, newly-elected Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville joined Trump’s sons to help organize the coup planned for the next day. As the Alabama Political Reporter newspaper reported at the time:

“The night before the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol, Alabama Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville and the then-director of the Republican Attorneys General Association met with then-President Donald Trump’s sons and close advisers, according to a social media post by a Nebraska Republican who at the time was a Trump administration appointee.

“Charles W. Herbster, who was then the national chairman of the Agriculture and Rural Advisory Committee in Trump’s administration, in a Facebook post at 8:33 p.m. on Jan. 5 said that he was standing ‘in the private residence of the President at Trump International with the following patriots who are joining me in a battle for justice and truth.’ …

“Among the attendees, according to Herbster’s post, were Tuberville, former RAGA director Adam Piper, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Trump’s former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, adviser Peter Navarro, Trump’s 2016 campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and 2016 deputy campaign manager David Bossie.”

Tuberville is now holding open the top ranks of the US military, presumably so if Trump is reelected he can pack our armed forces with people who won’t defy his orders when he demands they seize voting machines and fire live ammunition at the inevitable protestors."

BE AFRAID AMERICA....BE VERY AFRAID.

The Cost of Not Getting Care: Income Disparities in the Affordability of Health Services Across High-Income Countries

 

THE US IS BEHIND OTHER NATIONS IN HEALTH CARE - IT NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED BY ADULTS - NOT THE MAGA MORONS!

We need to correct it!

The Cost of Not Getting Care: Income Disparities in the Affordability of Health Services Across High-Income Countries

Findings from the Commonwealth Fund 2023 International Health Policy Survey

excerpt:

While all countries in this analysis, except for the United States, have universal health care coverage, the out-of-pocket expenses patients pay for health services can greatly vary based on health needs, geographic location, and income. These expenses can render certain health services unaffordable to many.

Nearly half of adults with lower or average incomes in the U.S., and nearly one of three with higher incomes, reported at least one cost-related problem accessing health care in the past year, meaning they did not receive medical care or follow care instructions as prescribed. These problems include having a medical issue but not visiting a doctor; skipping a medical test, treatment, or follow-up that was recommended by a doctor; not filling a prescription; or skipping medication doses.

https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2023/nov/cost-not-getting-care-affordability-high-income-countries-survey

Shel Silverstein - The Giving Tree, 1964

 

And after a long time, the boy returned as an old man.

"I am sorry, Sir," said the tree, "but I have nothing left to give you - my apples are gone."

"My teeth are too weak for apples," said the old man.

"My branches are gone, so there is nothing left to swing on."

"I am too old to swing on branches," was the reply.

"My trunk is gone", said the tree. "You cannot climb."

"I am too tired to climb," said the old man.

"I am sorry," sighed the tree. "I wish that I could give you something... but I have nothing left. I am an old stump. I'm sorry."

"I don't need very much now," said the elderly man who was now relying on a cane to get about. "Just a quiet place to sit and rest. I am very tired."

"Well," said the tree, straightening herself up as much as she could. "In that case, an old stump is good for sitting and resting. Come and rest your weary bones."

The old man was grateful as he rested on the stump and thought about their bond that survived the test of time.

However, as he reflected upon the long journey that they shared together he suddenly realized that the tree loved that little boy with all its heart, and she continued to show her love throughout the different stages of his life. The old man was saddened at the thought that he had taken the tree for granted.

Shel Silverstein - The Giving Tree, 1964.

Somebody finally fixed the ending of The Giving Tree.

https://lithub.com/somebody-finally-fixed-the-ending-of-the-giving-tree/

The GOP doesn’t want you to know the true number of undocumented immigrants MORE REPUBLICAN LIES!

 

VIDEOS ON LINK BELOW

The GOP doesn’t want you to know the true number of undocumented immigrants

There's what the GOP says about the trend in undocumented migration, and then there's the truth.There's what the GOP says about the trend in undocumented migration, and then there's the truth.

Nov. 16, 2023, 5:15 PM EST

By Julio Ricardo Varela, MSNBC Columnist

Republicans (and to a somewhat lesser extent, Democrats) have given Americans the impression that we’ve been experiencing an “invasion” at our borders. But a new Pew Research Center report released Thursday not only shatters that myth but also reveals that the opposite is true. According to the report, the country’s unauthorized immigrant population peaked at 12.2 million in 2007, that is, when George W. Bush was president, and that population has been steadily decreasing since then. The Pew report found that the unauthorized immigrant population in the United States stood at 10.5 million in 2021, a 14% decrease from what it was in 2007.

If those numbers shock you, then there’s a reason for it. Not a week goes by without somebody in the Republican Party promising mass deportations of unauthorized migrants. They can’t talk about the U.S. border with Mexico without falsely describing it as “open.”

The country’s unauthorized immigrant population peaked at 12.2 million in 2007, that is, when George W. Bush was president.

Once proudly described as a nation of immigrants, the United States has become a nation of immigration enforcers thanks to Republicans making immigration a wedge issue that too many Democrats are afraid to challenge.

Republicans say that they don’t mind immigrants entering the country legally; they want to decrease the number coming in illegally. Well, that’s exactly what’s been happening.

Pew noted that at the same time the United States’ population of unauthorized immigrants dropped 14%, there was a 29% increase in what it calls the lawful immigrant population, and the number of naturalized U.S. citizens grew 49%. Of the 47 million foreign-born individuals living in the United States in 2021, the Pew report found, 23.1 million, slightly less than half, were naturalized citizens.

Those population estimates, according to Pew, “do not reflect changes that have occurred since apprehensions and expulsions of migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border started increasing in March 2021.”

Despite the data showing a steady decrease in the number of unauthorized migrants living in the U.S., Republicans continue to hysterically cast unauthorized migrants as a national security issue and argue that their presence changes the very substance of who and what America is.

But as the numbers from Pew show, to the extent that the demographics in this country are changing because of people coming to the U.S., it’s being driven by people coming here through official channels, not those illegally crossing our southern border. And it should be noted that even the demographics of those in the unauthorized migrant population are misunderstood. “Almost every region in the world had a notable increase in the number of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. from 2007 to 2021,” the Pew report says. Behind Mexico and El Salvador, the report says, the country of origin with the next largest unauthorized immigrant population in the U.S. is India.

Changing demographics are not a reason to panic, but with former President Donald Trump as their leader, Republicans have chosen panic, and they have plenty of voters who support them in their overreaction.

Despite the Republican Party pushing us toward extremism, the U.S. still has mostly favorable views about immigration.

An October American Values Survey by the Public Religion Research Institute in partnership with the Brookings Institution found that 73% of Republicans believe that “American culture and way of life” has “mostly changed for the worse” since the 1950s. Only 34% of Democrats feel the same way. This is the same survey that found a third of Republicans “believe that true American patriots may have to resort to violence to save the country.” Such views align with a 2021 Pew poll showing clear partisan lines between conservative Republicans (38%) who see the decrease in a white majority to be bad for the country and liberal Democrats (32%) who see it as a good thing.

Despite the Republican Party pushing us toward extremism, the U.S. still has mostly favorable views about immigration, with a recent Gallup poll finding that “68% of Americans say immigration is good for the country today.” When asked about levels of immigration, 57% either want it to remain at or above its present levels, while 41% favor a decrease in our immigration levels. Constant news of a so-called “invasion” coming almost exclusively from Republican politicians and their right-wing allies may contribute to the views of that 41%.

Even though that percentage of Americans supporting a decrease in immigration levels is the highest it’s been since 2014, the majority of Americans are far more reasonable on this issue than extremist Republican politicians.

A majority of likely voters (56%) and Latino likely voters (73%) favor the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, according to a new poll from Data for Progress. September battleground state polling from immigrant rights group Fwd.us noted that 66% of likely voters and 72% of Latino voters favor the Temporary Protected Status program, which the Biden administration extended to Venezuelans who’ve lived here since July.

This week, hundreds rallied near the White House in hopes of getting the Biden administration to expand work permits not just for eligible Venezuelans, but also for those who have been here for years. Some of those who attended the rally were unauthorized immigrants who have long lived in this country and wanted their voices heard.

Distorting statistical reality for GOP political expediency is now the standard.

Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García, D-Ill., said at the rally, “We recognize that immigration reform has eluded Congress for 36 years.” He also said, “People want to continue to work in peace. They want to be able to go to work without fear of deportation or being apprehended. Those are the asks that we make of President Biden and this White House.”

The roughly 10.5 million undocumented people in the United States are not faceless, and there is enough political support out there to make sure they are seen as the human beings they are. Republicans might be excoriating them, which is dangerous and terrifying, especially for immigrant communities, but those same immigrants help form the fabric of American society. Distorting statistical reality for GOP political expediency is now the standard. But Thursday’s Pew report gives Democrats the opportunity to radically change the conversation.

https://www.msnbc.com/american-voices/watch/-it-would-be-absolutely-devastating-trump-plans-to-double-down-on-harsh-immigration-policies-if-re-elected-197701189688

November 17, 2023 HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

November 17, 2023 HEATHER COX RICHARDSON NOV 18 In an NPR piece yesterday, Bill Chappell noted that “the war between Israel and Hamas is being fought, in part, through disinformation and competing claims.”  Khalil al-Hayya, a member of Hamas’s leadership team currently in Qatar, told Ben Hubbard and Maria Abi-Habib of the New York Times that Hamas’s goal in their attack of October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists crossed from Gaza into Israel and tortured and killed about 1,200 people, taking another 240 hostage, was to make sure the region did not settle into a status quo that excluded the Palestinians.  In 2020 the Palestinians were excluded from discussions about the Abraham Accords negotiated by then-president Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner that normalized relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain (and later Morocco). More recently, Saudi Arabia and Israel were in talks with the United States about normalizing relations.    Al-Hayya told the reporters that in order to “change the entire equation and not just have a clash,” Hamas leaders intended to commit “a great act” that Israel would respond to with fury. “[W]ithout a doubt, it was known that the reaction to this great act would be big,” al-Hayya said, but “[w]e had to tell people that the Palestinian cause would not die.”  “Hamas’s goal is not to run Gaza and to bring it water and electricity and such,” al-Hayya said. “This battle was not because we wanted fuel or laborers,” he added. “It did not seek to improve the situation in Gaza. This battle is to completely overthrow the situation.” Hamas media adviser Taher El-Nounou told the reporters: “I hope that the state of war with Israel will become permanent on all the borders, and that the Arab world will stand with us.” Hamas could be pretty certain that Israel would retaliate with a heavy hand. The governing coalition that took power at the end of 2022 is a far-right coalition, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs to hold that coalition together to stay in power, not least because he faces charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust.    Once it took power, Netanyahu’s government announced that expanding Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank was a priority, vowing to annex the occupied territory. It also endorsed discrimination against LGBTQ people and called for generous payments to ultra-Orthodox men so they could engage in religious study rather than work. It also tried to push through changes to the judicial system to give far more power to the government.  From January 7 until October 7, 2023, protesters turned out in the streets in huge numbers. With the attack, Israelis have come together until the crisis is resolved. Netanyahu’s ability to stay in power depended in large part on his promises that he would keep Israelis safe. The events of October 7 on his watch—the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust—shattered that guarantee. Polls show that Israelis blame his government, and three quarters of them think he should resign. Sixty-four percent think the country should hold an election immediately after the war.  Immediately after the attack, on October 7, Netanyahu vowed “mighty vengeance” against Hamas, and Israeli airstrikes began to pound Gaza. On October 8, Israel formally declared war. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the country’s retaliation would “change the reality on the ground in Gaza for the next 50 years,” and on October 9 he announced “a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed…. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.” Israel and the U.S. have strong historic and economic ties: as Nicole Narea points out in Vox in a review of their history together, the U.S. has also traditionally seen Israel as an important strategic ally as it stabilizes the Middle East, helping to maintain the supply of Middle Eastern oil that the global economy needs. That strategic importance has only grown as the U.S. seeks to normalize ties around the region to form a united front against Iran. For Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and other envoys, then, it appeared the first priority after the October 7 attack was to keep the conflict from spreading. Biden made it very clear that the U.S. would stand behind Israel should Iran, which backs Hamas, be considering moving in. He warned: “[T]o any country, any organization, anyone thinking of taking advantage of this situation, I have one word: Don’t.” The movement of two U.S. carrier groups to the region appears so far to be helping to achieve that goal. While Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon and Yemen’s Houthis have fired missiles and drones at Israel since October 7, Iran’s leaders have said they will not join Hamas’s fight and are hoping only to use the conflict as leverage against the U.S. Militias have fired at least 55 rocket and drone strikes at U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria since October 7 without killing any U.S. soldiers. In retaliation, the U.S. has launched three airstrikes against militia installations in Syria, killing up to seven men (the military assesses there were not women or children in the vicinity) in the third strike on Sunday. The U.S. keeps roughly 900 troops in Syria and 2,500 troops in Iraq to work with local forces to prevent the resurgence of the Islamic State. At the same time that Biden emphasized Israel’s right to respond to Hamas’s attack and demanded the return of the hostages, he also called for humanitarian aid to Gaza through Egypt and warned Netanyahu to stay within the laws of war. Rounds of diplomacy by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who flew to Israel and Jordan initially on October 11 and has gone back repeatedly, as well as by Biden, who has both visited the region—his second trip to a war zone—and constantly worked the phones, and other envoys, started humanitarian convoys moving into Gaza with a single 20-truck convoy on October 21. By early November, over 100 trucks a day were entering Gaza, the number the United Nations says is the minimum needed. Yesterday the Israeli war cabinet agreed to allow two tankers of fuel a day into Gaza after the U.N. said it couldn’t deliver aid because it had run out of fuel.  The U.S. has insisted from the start that Israel’s military decisions must not go beyond the laws of war. Israeli officials say they are staying within the law, yet an estimated 11,000 civilians and Hamas fighters (the numbers are not separated out) have died. Gaza has been crushed into rubble by airstrikes, and more than a million people are homeless. That carnage has sparked protests around the world along with calls for a cease-fire, which Israel rejects.  It has also sparked extreme Islamophobia and antisemitism exacerbated by social media. In the immediate aftermath of October 7, Islamophobia inspired a Chicago man to stab a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy to death; more recently, antisemitism has jumped more than 900% on X (formerly Twitter). On Wednesday, Elon Musk agreed with a virulently antisemitic post on X. White House spokesperson Andrew Bates responded: “We condemn this abhorrent promotion of Antisemitic and racist hate in the strongest terms, which runs against our core values as Americans.” Advertisers, including IBM and Apple, announced they would no longer advertise on Musk’s platform. While calling for humanitarian pauses in the fighting, the Biden administration has continued to focus on getting the hostages out and has rejected calls for a cease-fire, saying such a break would only allow Hamas to regroup. In The Atlantic on November 14, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who negotiated a 2012 cease-fire between Hamas and Israel only to see Hamas violate that agreement two years later, explained that cease-fires have only kicked the can down the road. “Israel’s policy since 2009 of containing rather than destroying Hamas has failed,” she said.   Clinton called for the destruction of Hamas on the one hand and “a new strategy and new leadership” for Israel on the other. “Instead of the current ultra-right-wing government, it will need a government of national unity that’s rooted in the center of Israeli politics and can make the hard choices ahead,” she wrote.  Central to those choices is the long-neglected two-state solution that would establish a Palestinian state. Biden and Blinken and a number of Arab governments have backed the idea, but to many observers it seems impossible to pull off. Still, at the same time Clinton’s article appeared, King Abdullah II of Jordan published his own op-ed in the Washington Post  titled: “A two-state solution would be a victory for our common humanity.” “[L]et’s start with some basic reality,” he wrote. “The fact is that the thousands of victims across Israel, Gaza and the West Bank have been overwhelmingly civilians…. Leaders everywhere have the responsibility to face the full reality of this crisis, as ugly as it is. Only by anchoring ourselves to the concrete facts that have brought us to this point will we be able to change the increasingly dangerous direction of our world….  “If the status quo continues, the days ahead will be driven by an ongoing war of narratives over who is entitled to hate more and kill more. Sinister political agendas and ideologies will attempt to exploit religion. Extremism, vengeance and persecution will deepen not only in the region but also around the world…. It is up to responsible leaders to deliver results, starting now.” — Notes: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/08/world/middleeast/hamas-israel-gaza-war.html https://www.npr.org/2023/11/16/1212889717/satellite-images-us-israel-gaza https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/irans-axis-resistance-against-israel-faces-trial-by-fire-2023-11-15/ https://www.thedefensepost.com/2023/11/16/us-troops-iraq-syria-attacked/ https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/up-seven-killed-us-air-strikes-syria-us-official-2023-11-14/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/10/10/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-terrorist-attacks-in-israel-2/#:~:text=Let%20me%20say%20again%20%E2%80%94%20to,but%20our%20resolve%20is%20clear. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-puts-israel-deal-ice-amid-war-engages-with-iran-sources-say-2023-10-13/ https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/03/world/middleeast/netanyahu-corruption-charges-israel.html https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/history-its-importance-and-irrelevance-plus-some-books https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/17/three-years-on-how-have-the-abraham-accords-done-for-the-uae https://www.usip.org/publications/2023/09/saudi-israel-normalization-agreement-horizon https://apnews.com/article/west-bank-benjamin-netanyahu-israel-government-e36ed7260e0398406d9a8ba319b0b741 https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/protesters-outside-israeli-pm-netanyahus-house-anger-grows-2023-11-04/ https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israels-netanyahu-vows-mighty-vengeance-against-hamas-2023-10-07/ https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/defense-minister-announces-complete-siege-of-gaza-no-power-food-or-fuel/ https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-tells-gazans-move-south-or-risk-being-seen-terrorist-partner-2023-10-22/ https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/who-takes-over-gaza https://www.vox.com/world-politics/23916266/us-israel-support-ally-gaza-war-aid https://il.usembassy.gov/secretary-blinkens-travel-to-israel-and-jordan/ https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/17/politics/inside-joe-biden-israel-trip-planning/index.html https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/attack-gaza-hospital-unprecedented-scale-who-says-2023-10-17/ https://www.state.gov/humanitarian-assistance-for-gaza/ Diplomatic, by Laura Rozen Israel agrees to fuel for Gaza after US privately warned of humanitarian catastrophe A day after the United Nations said it could no longer deliver aid in Gaza because it had run out of fuel and American officials warned Israeli counterparts… Read more 11 hours ago · 7 likes · Laura Rozen https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2023/gaza-rising-death-toll-civilians/ https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/15/technology/hate-speech-israel-gaza-internet.html https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/white-house-condemns-elon-musk-post-x-supported-antisemitic-claim-rcna125709 https://www.axios.com/2023/11/17/apple-twitter-x-advertising-elon-musk-antisemitism-ads https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/hamas-israel-ceasefire-humanitarian-pause-gaza/675992/ https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/egypt-s-gaza-summit-starts-with-arab-call-for-two-state-solution-1.1987632 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/14/king-abdullah-jordan-two-state-solution/ https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israels-netanyahu-says-no-gaza-ceasefire-until-hostages-returned-2023-11-05/ Twitter (X): Yair_Rosenberg/status/1724883596379349434

TV Pitch: The Real Congresspersons of the GOP

 

We need to discuss two wild and immature things that happened in Congress this week. Example one, the Senate: Oklahoma's Markwayne Mullin got up in a committee hearing, adjusted a ring on his hand, and offered to fight a witness, there and then. He backed down, but is still bragging and raising money over his petty intimidation. Example two, the House: fired former Speaker Kevin McCarthy elbowed a Republican member who voted to oust him after a House GOP meeting. Source: ABC News This is the Republican promise to America: elect them for extremism, chaos, and petty squabbling. And maybe even a few fistfights on the playground after school in committee meetings. And look, their bad behavior amongst themselves is problem enough, sure. And frankly, the unabashed Bravo TV network style approach is just another instance of them saying the quiet parts aloud. But between their behavior and their policies — we cannot allow this to stand. These are the same folks working tirelessly to criminalize abortion, gut Social Security and Medicare, and offer excuses (and even praise) for the January 6 insurrection and Donald Trump's alleged crimes. A country can't function like this. Republicans inability to lead, plus their chaos and extremism, is jeopardizing the health and safety of the American people in every sense imaginable. Thanks for everything you do. We need to win this one, team. Team McGovern     Paid for and authorized by the Re-Elect McGovern Committee.     This email was sent by Jim McGovern Jim McGovern for Congress PO Box 60405 Worcester, MA 01606 United States