Trump
gregladen | June 29, 2017This is from Parents magazine:
When you talk about “preexisting conditions,” you probably think of things like diabetes, heart disease and cancer. But the reality is that healthcare companies consider a whole slew of common health concerns preexisting conditions. Odds are, if you’re a mom, you probably already have one of them. And now that the American Healthcare Act passed the House of Representatives today—if it becomes law, your health insurer could charge you thousands more for your coverage or reduce your insurance coverage because of these "preexisting conditions."
"Things that are…
gregladen | June 28, 2017The press has had enough of being called liars by the liars. I'm not a big fan of MJ, but the very fact that MJ has quotable conversation about this is a change in how the world works.
Here's another thing dictators do: Make up accolades. Trump created a fake TIME magazine cover and hung it in several of his golf clubs. It has him on the cover. That issue of TIME never happened. It is not just fake news, it is an entire fake news magazine. Details here.
Here it is. Interesting set of headlines:
kkrisberg | June 6, 2017When you ask public health advocates about President Trump’s recent budget proposal, you typically get a bewildered pause. Public health people don’t like to exaggerate — they follow the science, they stay calm, they face off against dangerous threats on a regular basis. Exaggerating doesn’t help contain diseases, it only makes it harder. So it’s concerning when you hear words like this about Trump’s budget: “devastating,” “not serious,” “ludicrous,” “unfathomable.”
Released in late May, Trump’s fiscal year 2018 federal budget proposal calls for cutting the budget at the Centers for Disease…
gregladen | June 4, 2017I wonder if the original old fashioned operas were like this, about events of their times, and thus engaging and compelling like this one is. Plus, ROFLMAO.
Check it out:
gregladen | June 2, 2017I got a letter from a Minnesota-based teacher who is getting inundated by students asking questions about Paris. Many of those questions are dogwhistles (the students do not realize that) indicating that they've been getting their information from Trump supporters, or so I can confidently guess. (The school is in an area where many voted for Trump.)
Here's my response. Short version: he lied about everything.
Most people in Minnesota who have asthma have it because of coal plant generated pollution. Shutting down the coal plants is a primary step in reducing climate change. So, even…
gregladen | June 2, 2017If you are upset about Trump and upset about Trump pulling the US out of the Paris agreement, please let me help you get through the day.
Trump announcing that the US is pulling out of Paris does not mean the end of Paris, the end of action on climate change, or much else about global warming. I'll explain why in a moment. The US pulling out of Paris could even be interpreted as better than the US staying in. I'll explain that too.
I'm not saying that Trump should have pulled out, I'm just saying that at the moment, if you are deeply concerned about the climate and the future, which you…
cmonforton | June 1, 2017Add this to the list of absurdities from the Trump Administration: the Justice Department (DOJ) is arguing that the AFL-CIO and the United Steelworkers (USW) should rely on DOJ attorneys to defend an Obama-era OSHA regulation. Seriously?
The rule that DOJ says it will defend on the unions' behalf was adopted by OSHA in May 2016 and concerns the reporting of injuries by employers. It is being threatened by a frivolous lawsuit brought the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Home Builders, and the National Chicken Council. The business associations filed their lawsuit in the U.S.…
gregladen | May 12, 2017Its like this.
Only with Trump instead of Josh, and it is real life. Yet, less like real life.
Trump, remembering something about watergate, tweets:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/863007411132649473
and the Washington Post reports:
Trump suggests there may be ‘tapes’ of his private conversations with former FBI director
Trump experiences verbal diarrhea and says, "In fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should…
gregladen | May 10, 2017As you know, President Trump sacked FBI Director James Comey yesterday. The firing involved a letter written by Rod Rosenstein, deputy attorney general, complaining about Comey, to Jeff Sessons. (The three relevant letters by Rosenstein, Sessons, and Trump are here.)
Jeff Sessons had recused himself of matters related to the Russia-Trump Scandal, so it was necessary for the DOJ and White House to make up a reason Comey was being fired, apparently, and that letter from Rosenstein included the excuse.
In the letter, Rosenstein said, "The Director was wrong to usurp the Attorney General's…
gregladen | May 9, 2017Imma just put these here, and you can tell me what you think they mean.
Click here to get a PDF, and to see the entire Rosenstein letter.
gregladen | April 29, 2017The EPA has removed climate science from its site in order that the site contents better reflect Donald Trump's perspective.
From Chris Mooney and Juliet Eilperin at the Washington Post:
The Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday evening that its website would be “undergoing changes” to better represent the new direction the agency is taking, triggering the removal of several agency websites containing detailed climate data and scientific information.
One of the websites that appeared to be gone had been cited to challenge statements made by the EPA’s new administrator, Scott Pruitt…
kkrisberg | April 21, 2017There was always an assumption that the Affordable Care Act would need time to find its sea legs. That’s why it included measures to shield insurers from the potential profit losses that inherently come with offering millions more people better health coverage at more reasonable prices. Insurers operate on profit margins and the ACA took that into account, for better or for worse.
But it’s still been a rocky road for insurers. (Insert argument here for single-payer health care, but that’s a different story.) On the patient side, with 20 million more Americans insured and growing accounts of…
gregladen | April 20, 2017This is alarming and sobering. I was already alarmed and sober, but in case you were not, take heed.
gregladen | April 20, 2017On September 11th, 1640, a Dutch armada preparing to attack the New World Spanish settlements was lost to a storm, thus changing the course of Dutch, Spanish, and New World history.
On January 2nd, 1678, an entire fleet of French naval ships was lost off the Venezuelan coat, changing forever the history of France. And Venezuela. *
On or about April 19th, 2017, the United States lost the battle group running with the USS Carl Vinson, somewhere in the Pacific. This altered forever the credibility of the American Military around the world.
gregladen | April 7, 2017For my friends who are thinking that military action like we just saw in Syria is OK.
No it isn't, even if it is.
Gather together the three smartest people you know. Then recruit the top five experts on Middle Eastern diplomacy, and the top five experts on military solutions in the region. Call in the joint chiefs. Make a military plan, the best plan ever.
Now put 100% of the responsibility for final decisions, go-orders, choice making between alternatives, etc, in the hands of an ignorant clownish six year old who is allowed to make up his own alt-plans at any time, and who, as a habitual…
gregladen | April 5, 2017In case you were wondering, Trump is telling you lies.
Syria is run by a horrible dictator. He is the kind of dictator that makes you want to bring back assassination of foreign leaders. The idea of putting him down is hardly an extreme one, once you know what he does and has done.
There was a moment in time, in 2013, when Obama tried to stand up to Assad, but failed to push back when Assad pushed him. Assad read the US system better than most foreign dictators do, it seems. You see, in the United States, a president can't just go to war. Congress authorizes war. Once that authorization…
gregladen | March 29, 2017A few items that I think you should see:
Trump’s executive order puts the world on the road to climate catastrophe
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump issued a sweeping executive order that effectively guts national efforts to address climate change. If he isn’t stopped, the endpoint of this approach is the ruination of our livable climate and the needless suffering of billions of people for decades to come.
The order starts the process of undoing President Obama’s Clean Power Plan standards for power plants. It also spurs fossil fuel consumption and blocks federal efforts to even prepare for…
kkrisberg | March 25, 2017Yesterday, House Republicans failed to find enough votes to pass their Affordable Care Act replacement. It was a very good day for the millions of Americans projected to lose their coverage under the GOP plan. But let’s be clear: Obamacare is not safe.
In a last-ditch effort to round up more votes, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., proposed an amendment that would have, beginning in 2018, allowed states to determine the kinds of essential health benefits required in insurance plans purchased with tax credits. Under Obama’s health care law, insurance plans sold via the federal health care…
gregladen | March 24, 2017In real estate.
I'm not an expert on this but I've seen the sausage being made a few times. Individuals with investment money, commercial businesses that might use new space, other possible tenants, maybe or maybe not some designers or builders, municipal or other government stakeholders, community stakeholders such as neighborhood associations, etc. consider a real estate deal. Perhaps there is a bit of condemned land the county wants to sell cheap if only you clean up the brownfield and develop something nice. Maybe the investors include a person who owns an underexploited business…