caucus99percent

free-range politics, organic community

Someone asked me the other day why I disliked the Democratic Party so much, well I'll tell you.

Well:

If you ignore the steaming piles of bullshit they have spewed all my lifetime.

If you ignore the political cowardice they have shown throughout that time.

If you ignore their neo-liberal agenda at the behest of the oligarchy.

If you ignore their warmongering and pardoning of war crimes. [re: The AUMF and zero prosecutions]

We have an article at Stat about the shortage of medical personnel at the 30-plus gender clinics scattered across the country...pointing out the 4 month waiting list at Chicago's Lurie Children's hospital and pediatrician Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, who is treating 500 trans youth patients by herself.

I pose this question as a result of all these TRUMPmania End of the World articles and comments on the more "liberal" news and information sites.

To me, it seems there is a real push for R vs D and not .01% vs 99%. For example, many blue dog Democrats are on record as privatizing and or cutting Social Security benefits, but OH NO, it only counts when the Republicans want to do it. When you point this out, you get comments stating that you are a troll at best.

The Legacy Media decries "Fake News" because they long for their lost status as "Gatekeepers", not because they have any scruples about propagating falsehoods and propaganda even of the most Goebbels/Völkischer Beobachter sort (see Part 1).

What is a "Gatekeeper"? Well, another word for it would be "Middleman", someone who inserts themselves into a transaction to profit from it, taking money from both sides for their supposed services as a "facilitator" while in fact contributing nothing. A non-Media exemplar would be Health Insurance, which is not at all the same thing as Health Care. The putative "service" they provide is mediating between you and the catastrophic cost of serious illness. They do this by charging you exorbitant fees, excluding large portions of minimal preventive care (high deductibles), and "sharing the risk" with a larger population which is not actively sick.

Under the Affordable Care Act (an oxymoron commonly known as Obamacare) they are granted a lucrative Government Monopoly codifying many of their worst practices. True they are no longer allowed to exclude people because of prior conditions, but they are still able to deny people needed care on the whims of an actuary and are guaranteed a 20% profit and delivered a captive clientele by the police power of the State.

Why do we need them?

The Winter Solstice this year is more meaningful than any of the 0ther 79 I have experienced. Having been a Roman Catholic until 21 and then a Born Again Evangelical for many years after that I slowly discovered that it was all fake. Now I see the Pagan influence in every aspect of this season's sham celebration of the birth of Christ.

Josh Vallum, a highly placed member of the Latin Kings street gang, pleaded guilty yesterday in the first ever federal hate crime charge filed against the killer of a transgender person.

Vallum, 29, admitted he stabbed and beat to death Mercedes Williamson, 17, because she was transgender. Until now, Vallum had consistently denied killing her because of gender identity.

Some background

Since Barack Obama entered the White House in 2009, his government has waged a war against whistleblowers and official leakers. On his watch, there have been eight prosecutions under the 1917 Espionage Act – more than double those under all previous presidents combined.

“As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring in ?"(Alexis de Tocqueville)

Vanessa Beeley. 20th December 2016/ 1 hours ago

"This video is in honour of all those who have suffered in East Aleppo under the Nusra Front regime funded by the NATO and Gulf states and imposed upon Syria and its people in order to bring about “regime change” and to achieve the US alliance geopolitical aims in the region and to strengthen Israel in the Middle East."