The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) doesn't provide for everyone to get healthcare and often hurts the poor. It does let people with pre-existing health issues get care at a better rate and that is good; but, it does nothing to bring down the cost of pharmaceuticals. The insurance companies love it because they make lots of money and basically have monopolies within states. No, I do not like Obamacare.
The GOP plan and the Paul Ryan plan are even worse for most people and don't fix any of the problems of Obamacare. These plans do however provide tax breaks for the wealthy. I don't like either of those plans. We don't yet know what Trump is going to propose, so I can't talk about it yet.
The real question is not which of the bad plans above is the best; but, how should healthcare work in the United States. Should everyone have healthcare? What is the purpose of healthcare insurance? Should we regulate the cost of healthcare? How should we pay for healthcare as a nation or is it everyone for themselves?
I am for universal healthcare even if you cannot afford it yourself. There are a number of ways we can achieve this while bringing down costs. How do I know this? Because other countries do this. Medicaid and Medicare could be expanded so everyone could use it. That wouldn't be hard to do and everyone gets social security. We could create true socialized medicine as is done in Europe and Canada. We could also stop giving pharmaceutical companies patents and the government could produce the drugs that people use, that would bring down drug costs immensely. There are lots of things we could do. Congress is not exploring any alternatives to Obamacare that would bring down drug costs or provide universal coverage because the wealthy would have to pay more.
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
Monday, March 13, 2017
Why Are You Paying Your Local Government to Track Your Movement?
Los Angeles is big, it is real big. There are 88 distinct cities in Los Angeles County, the City of Los Angeles is just one. Burbank, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, West Hollywood, San Fernando, Lancaster are just some of the better known ones. The County of Los Angeles also includes areas that are not cities, we call them unincorporated areas. The County has about 11 million residents and encompasses about 4,750 square miles. That is more land mass than some states. It is in fact twice the size of Maryland.
Do you understand that your taxes are paying for a future where you are monitored all day by the government and private industry? Do you know that your taxes are paying to eliminate your jobs if you are in the transportation industry.
Let me explain. Right now towns throughout the United States are paying ten times as much to stripe their crosswalks so that self driving cars will know where the lanes are. There has been NO media reporting on how we are all spending more to paint the streets rather than pave them. Now you are about to take your sales tax and use it to pay to monitor your movements.
Soofa Bench Yes, a bench that allows you to charge your phone while tracking every phone around it and tracking the users.
Soofa Bench Information. Here is a page from their website where they talk about data mining. If you think this is garbage, read how the City of Boston, of Los Angeles and New York are using these benches right now and you taxes are being used to pay for them.
Watch the video, it is 3 minutes long. It has the mayor of Boston talking to someone from Soofa on a bench installed in Boston and ends with the people of Boston being asked where they want their benches installed without once discussing price or how your tax dollars are going to pay for them.
There are other companies building these.
YouTube - EcoUnix - Smart solar powered Bench.
This is all being done to create "Smart Cities.
YouTube - What is a Smart City?
A smart city knows when you leave your house, where you are going, when you get there and adjusts to give preference to some over others. It exists to make personal transportation, cars, harder to use for everyone but those who pay extra.
Here is some news for you, cities live off of sales taxes and parking fines along with fees for permits. Counties live off of property taxes, fees and fines. States live off of income tax, sales tax, fees and fines. The federal government lives off of income tax. The wealthy pay no more sales, fees of fines than the rest of us. You can only buy so many cars per year. Sales taxes fall more on the poor and middle class than on the wealthy. Income tax falls on them. They have to pay as they benefit. They don't like that which is why they are against income tax. It is also why 95% of all deductions only apply to the wealthy.
The people in charge want to monitor you and they want you to pay for it. That is why municipalities are using sales tax to pay for it when at the same time they are claiming they cannot pay for teachers or roads to be repaired. The working and middle class are paying to eliminate the 3.2 million jobs in transportation, your local taxes are paying to build the infrastructure to monitor and control you.
Do you understand that your taxes are paying for a future where you are monitored all day by the government and private industry? Do you know that your taxes are paying to eliminate your jobs if you are in the transportation industry.
Let me explain. Right now towns throughout the United States are paying ten times as much to stripe their crosswalks so that self driving cars will know where the lanes are. There has been NO media reporting on how we are all spending more to paint the streets rather than pave them. Now you are about to take your sales tax and use it to pay to monitor your movements.
Soofa Bench Yes, a bench that allows you to charge your phone while tracking every phone around it and tracking the users.
Soofa Bench Information. Here is a page from their website where they talk about data mining. If you think this is garbage, read how the City of Boston, of Los Angeles and New York are using these benches right now and you taxes are being used to pay for them.
Watch the video, it is 3 minutes long. It has the mayor of Boston talking to someone from Soofa on a bench installed in Boston and ends with the people of Boston being asked where they want their benches installed without once discussing price or how your tax dollars are going to pay for them.
There are other companies building these.
YouTube - EcoUnix - Smart solar powered Bench.
This is all being done to create "Smart Cities.
YouTube - What is a Smart City?
A smart city knows when you leave your house, where you are going, when you get there and adjusts to give preference to some over others. It exists to make personal transportation, cars, harder to use for everyone but those who pay extra.
Here is some news for you, cities live off of sales taxes and parking fines along with fees for permits. Counties live off of property taxes, fees and fines. States live off of income tax, sales tax, fees and fines. The federal government lives off of income tax. The wealthy pay no more sales, fees of fines than the rest of us. You can only buy so many cars per year. Sales taxes fall more on the poor and middle class than on the wealthy. Income tax falls on them. They have to pay as they benefit. They don't like that which is why they are against income tax. It is also why 95% of all deductions only apply to the wealthy.
The people in charge want to monitor you and they want you to pay for it. That is why municipalities are using sales tax to pay for it when at the same time they are claiming they cannot pay for teachers or roads to be repaired. The working and middle class are paying to eliminate the 3.2 million jobs in transportation, your local taxes are paying to build the infrastructure to monitor and control you.
Friday, March 10, 2017
3/10/2017 More Stuff
Los Angeles Daily News - Driverless trucks may put human drivers out of work sooner than later.
World Economic Forum - Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better. This is the people who control the world saying how the expect the world will be for the rest of us in their own words. They don't expect you to read their publications or believe people who do, that is why I provide you links to their own words. They expect you to own nothing, share in the few things that do exist and be complacent and happy.
Rolling Stone - Matt Taibbi - Why the Russia Story Is a Minefield for Democrats and the Media. One of the few real journalists left, Mr. Taibbi, puts aside his hatred for Trump and talks the truth. The truth is that as the media is destroying the little faith people have in them by spewing speculation and nonsense for political and corporate reasons against everything Trump does. Mr. Taibbi correctly points out that they are akin to the little boy who cried wolf and will be ignored when they should attack Trump's actions in the future.
World Economic Forum - Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better. This is the people who control the world saying how the expect the world will be for the rest of us in their own words. They don't expect you to read their publications or believe people who do, that is why I provide you links to their own words. They expect you to own nothing, share in the few things that do exist and be complacent and happy.
Rolling Stone - Matt Taibbi - Why the Russia Story Is a Minefield for Democrats and the Media. One of the few real journalists left, Mr. Taibbi, puts aside his hatred for Trump and talks the truth. The truth is that as the media is destroying the little faith people have in them by spewing speculation and nonsense for political and corporate reasons against everything Trump does. Mr. Taibbi correctly points out that they are akin to the little boy who cried wolf and will be ignored when they should attack Trump's actions in the future.
Wednesday, March 8, 2017
Paying Off the National Debt and Fully Funding Government Services is Easy
It really is; but, it will be hard for you to understand and we can pay off the debt without raises taxes at all. What if it was as simple as getting rid of all tax deductions for everyone and every company over $100,000? Think about that. What if we limited tax deductions to $100,000 a year for any filer?
We would let companies and people take any deductions they wanted; but, the total deduction could exceed $100,000 a year. Do you know how much more taxes would be collected and only from the rich? Enough to pay for universal health care, universal education and universal retirements. What if we limited the wealthy to the same tax deductions available to the middle class or working class? Why do people get more tax breaks the more they make? Oh, yeah, because the wealthy write the laws and have decided they should have more tax breaks than the rest of us.
We would let companies and people take any deductions they wanted; but, the total deduction could exceed $100,000 a year. Do you know how much more taxes would be collected and only from the rich? Enough to pay for universal health care, universal education and universal retirements. What if we limited the wealthy to the same tax deductions available to the middle class or working class? Why do people get more tax breaks the more they make? Oh, yeah, because the wealthy write the laws and have decided they should have more tax breaks than the rest of us.
Tuesday, March 7, 2017
Why WikiLeaks Vault 7 is Important
Wikileaks has just published information on how the CIA hacks all electronic communications. By using their software they can watch you and listen to you through your smartphone, smart tv and even control your car. This has all been rumored for years; but, now it has been proven and documented. As the corporate media downplays this, it really should be the headline on all news sources, they cannot stop the information from coming out because other countries papers will discuss it.
WikiLeaks - Vault 7: CIA Hacking Tools Revealed.
International Business Times - Edward Snowden Reacts To WikiLeaks' Vault 7 Dump, Calls CIA Documents 'Authentic'.
The Independent - WikiLeaks publishes massive trove of CIA spying files in 'Vault 7' release.
WikiLeaks - Vault 7: CIA Hacking Tools Revealed.
International Business Times - Edward Snowden Reacts To WikiLeaks' Vault 7 Dump, Calls CIA Documents 'Authentic'.
Monday, March 6, 2017
Obama, Wiretaps and Stories
Well President Trump announced that the Obama administration had bugged Trump tower and his people. The liberal corporate media claims this is silly while the conservative corporate media claims it may have happened. Obama claims he never ordered such a thing; but, that is not quite true.
Lets go back in time to when Trump got elected, that is when the Russia nonsense really began. About a month prior to the election the media and Hillary still believed she would win; but, a month before the election she must have known she was losing because she returned the fireworks that she had planned for her celebration.
After the election results the establishment democrats and corporate media began to look for someone to blame while actively seeking to have electoral delegates violate their duty and change the election outcome. Lets also remember that during the election the media was actively working for Hillary going so far as to feed her debate questions in violation of the media's agreements with the parties and candidates, sending articles to Hillary prior to their being published and using falsely weighed surveys to con the public. I wrote about all of these things at the time and they are not in dispute. The Clinton people even got Stephen Colbert to do a couple of positive pieces on the Clinton Global Initiative.
So, after all that and after Trump becomes President elect, Obama called for called for a review of Russian interference into the election while his people began to say that Trump was tied to the Russians and that WikiLeaks was too. Here is a CNN post from December 9, 2016.
Let's talk about who hacked the Democratic National Committee's email. It is believed by many that it wasn't "hacked"; but, that someone within the party copied the files. WikiLeaks says that it was not Russian's but won't say who their source was. Having said that, they offered a reward in the suspicious murder of Seth Rich which happened after the release of records by WikiLeaks. We should also remember that the person who actually hacked Clinton's email was a person named Guccifer, a famous hacker.
Bottom line, we don't who hacked the DNC and the totality of US intelligence has yet to prove who did nor shown any proof whatsoever, regardless of how the corporate media chooses to spin it. While the media is laughing at the idea that Obama was behind tapping Trump and his incoming administration, they are also claiming that he does not have the authority to order communications to be tapped. While technically true, it is not quite sincere. Do you really believe a president cannot choose who to investigate? Wait go back and watch that first video where he told the intelligence to investigate the Russians as related to the election. We know that the same people attempted on at least two occasions to get the FISA tribunal to allow the tapping of the phones and that request would have gone through the Obama Justice department. It would have been their attorneys that wrote up the documents.
Let me ask another question. Did Obama order an investigation into who released the peegate rumors to the media? Did he investigate the leak over the briefing he and Trump was given? Nope. The nature of his Presidential briefing was released to the public for the first time and he didn't even comment on it. He wanted the investigation over Russian involvement in the election before he left office and it showed nothing. The media never even bothered asking him what the results were.
So what happens if it turns out that Obama's request to investigate Russian involvement in the election was included in the FISA justification for tapping Trump tower and his people? What happens if the head of the Justice department Lynch approved the FISA request?
I didn't immediately feel this story was going to go anywhere; but, I feel different now. We may see an ex-President tried to high crimes unless he gets a pardon from the person he allowed to be bugged.
Lets go back in time to when Trump got elected, that is when the Russia nonsense really began. About a month prior to the election the media and Hillary still believed she would win; but, a month before the election she must have known she was losing because she returned the fireworks that she had planned for her celebration.
After the election results the establishment democrats and corporate media began to look for someone to blame while actively seeking to have electoral delegates violate their duty and change the election outcome. Lets also remember that during the election the media was actively working for Hillary going so far as to feed her debate questions in violation of the media's agreements with the parties and candidates, sending articles to Hillary prior to their being published and using falsely weighed surveys to con the public. I wrote about all of these things at the time and they are not in dispute. The Clinton people even got Stephen Colbert to do a couple of positive pieces on the Clinton Global Initiative.
So, after all that and after Trump becomes President elect, Obama called for called for a review of Russian interference into the election while his people began to say that Trump was tied to the Russians and that WikiLeaks was too. Here is a CNN post from December 9, 2016.
Let's talk about who hacked the Democratic National Committee's email. It is believed by many that it wasn't "hacked"; but, that someone within the party copied the files. WikiLeaks says that it was not Russian's but won't say who their source was. Having said that, they offered a reward in the suspicious murder of Seth Rich which happened after the release of records by WikiLeaks. We should also remember that the person who actually hacked Clinton's email was a person named Guccifer, a famous hacker.
Bottom line, we don't who hacked the DNC and the totality of US intelligence has yet to prove who did nor shown any proof whatsoever, regardless of how the corporate media chooses to spin it. While the media is laughing at the idea that Obama was behind tapping Trump and his incoming administration, they are also claiming that he does not have the authority to order communications to be tapped. While technically true, it is not quite sincere. Do you really believe a president cannot choose who to investigate? Wait go back and watch that first video where he told the intelligence to investigate the Russians as related to the election. We know that the same people attempted on at least two occasions to get the FISA tribunal to allow the tapping of the phones and that request would have gone through the Obama Justice department. It would have been their attorneys that wrote up the documents.
Let me ask another question. Did Obama order an investigation into who released the peegate rumors to the media? Did he investigate the leak over the briefing he and Trump was given? Nope. The nature of his Presidential briefing was released to the public for the first time and he didn't even comment on it. He wanted the investigation over Russian involvement in the election before he left office and it showed nothing. The media never even bothered asking him what the results were.
So what happens if it turns out that Obama's request to investigate Russian involvement in the election was included in the FISA justification for tapping Trump tower and his people? What happens if the head of the Justice department Lynch approved the FISA request?
I didn't immediately feel this story was going to go anywhere; but, I feel different now. We may see an ex-President tried to high crimes unless he gets a pardon from the person he allowed to be bugged.
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