The reality is that the fiction of America being a “Christian Nation” is frequently shown in how mean America has become. Abusing the poor and profiting from their weakness has become a “profit center” for many communities and corporations. Punishing those who break the law is a reasonable function of society but America has gone beyond the good of society and added the profit motive to the process. One profit center is the “private probation” services. Companies sell their “free”... Read more
The formula was simple, it was genius, and it built the “American Dream.” Employers and employees in America had an economic agreement. As employee productivity went up and added value to the company then wages would also increase in proportion. This worked well, this worked astoundingly well, and the middle class in America prospered as did the nation itself. As Henry Blodget writes: “Back in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, income gains were more evenly distributed. The top earners did... Read more
As we watch the Republican Party engage in an orgy of greed in Washington it is important to understand where their moral compass points if we are to engage them effectively. Ultimately they will pay lip-service to Christianity but the reality is, knowingly or unknowingly, that the objectivist libertarian Ayn Rand is the lodestar for their worldview. Their Jesus-scented rhetoric is merely a religious cover for the dark, selfish philosophy that motivates them. Rand promoted an unoriginal dog-eat-dog, survival-of-the-fittest philosophy... Read more
“Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.” – Ezekiel 16:49 I like watching people. I look for unique, something different, something maybe a bit “off.” In the grocery store I saw an elderly couple pushing a cart and discussing every potential purchase in what seemed to be great detail. I noticed that few items actually made it into... Read more
In a Forbes article that makes some questionable assertions about the mythical “free market,” Republican Chris Ladd explains why there really is never a free market, even from a conservative perspective, when it comes to health care. In a statement that echoes what progressives have been saying for generations Ladd says, “Health care is not a market. It lacks any of the vital features of a market. Treating health care like a market means living and dying without modern medicine.”... Read more
Much is being said about President Trump’s budget proposal that literally slashes the funding to life-saving programs in the United States. The initial budget is quite shocking, especially considering that the deep cuts are being made in part to give more tax give-aways to the rich, and to fund dramatic increases to the military. Some of the cuts seem unnecessary, such as ending the National Endowment for the Arts, but some of these cuts will literally kill people. One such... Read more
In response to the claim from Trump lackey and Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney’s claim that “Meals On Wheels” did not produce “results” (like people not dying from hunger is not a result), and that cutting its funding was “compassionate,” health services researcher Aaron E. Carroll launched an epic Tweetstorm. The following are his tweets and the links to the research which shows, quite impressively, that Meals On Wheels is a very worthwhile way to spend American... Read more
Trump has been backtracking on his “wiretapping” claim both personally and through surrogates almost since he sent his now infamous tweet. The seemingly baseless claim that President Obama had him wiretapped prior to the election is explosive and got lots of attention. But, like many things Trump and his supporters claim, it has no factual support. So they are doing damage control by minimizing the magnitude of the charge, by playing word-games, and by simply assuming Americans are very stupid.... Read more
The Congressional Budget Office, headed by a Republican appointee, has determined that millions of Americans will go without healthcare insuring that thousands die much like they did during the pre-Obamacare days. They estimate that 14 Million Americans will lose insurance in the next year and “an estimated 52 million people would be uninsured” within a decade. They also estimate that the U. S. Government will save about less than one percent of our annual budget. “Proponents of the plan, led... Read more
With Republican control of the White House and legislature, it seems the unthinkable might actually happen– the repeal of Obamacare. While Trump promised healthcare for “everyone,” a new report from the Congressional Budge Office actually shows that 24 million people in the United States are about to lose healthcare. Let that sink in a minute: 24 million people who have access to doctors and life-saving medicine, are about to be shut off– the door to access healthcare will close to... Read more
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