This may come as a shock to you, but Betsy DeVos does not believe that public school teachers should strike.
Why? Because she cares about poor kids.
HAH! Sorry, I was going to stick to sarcasm, but I couldn't keep it up.

As usual Jimmy Dore and company give such a well-rounded look at what's really going on with a situation:

Most of the time on C99P we spend on the left side of the political spectrum, but we don't spend much time trying to understand Trump supporters.
What is most difficult to understand is why evangelicals love an unchristian man like Donald Trump.

Prisoners, Hostages, Tradewars,
and Weapons of Mass Distraction

Another week speeds by as spring (or fall in the really deep south) unfolds. This week it strikes me how easily we are distracted from understanding our world and situation. Some things seem so obvious. The oligarchs no longer make a secret of their domination. Just a glance at Brazil should make us aware (not to mention Venezuela nor Honduras....or even our own territory of Puerto Rico). The rush to create Russia as an enemy is obscenely obvious as diplomats are expelled across the globe without a shred of evidence. Truthsayers are silenced... Assange blocked from the internet in the embassy and Snowden is exiled to Russia. But like emerging seeds teachers are rising up across our country, students are speaking out, and movements are growing. It is time to escape the bonds of commercial corporate media and help people understand our common condition.

The reality of perception is an important component in maintaining relations in our society.

This can range from individuals all the way up to government/corporate entities.

Any actions that these entities commit can have a negative or positive effect on their standing in the world. At times, those actions might be so deleterious that it can cause an organization to crumble and blow away in the wind.

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. At least so its says in some document under glass in the Smithsonian. First item on the list = life. A good life is synonymous with good health. This essay is not about Medicare for All/Single Payer (MFA/SP) but deals with today's nightmare, surveillance state scenarios.

First we have the mollifying "explanations" for certain actions, and then analysis of what all this really means.

Midnight Special question:

-What would make progressives less likely to vote for a democratic party congressional representative:

-opposition to Medicare for All and support for Social Security privatization, or

-support for U.S. imperialism and Israeli apartheid?