Tuesday, February 26th, 2019
Stephan: In my opinion, there is something evil about Trump and the people with whom he surrounds himself, something morally dead within them, a nastiness of spirit. Why do I think that? Consider this story about the Trump child concentration camps, as well as the next story.
Trump child concentration camp
The Trump administration has drawn up plans for another tent city for migrant children in Texas that would hold up to 7,500 children in a camp built on or next to a former dump and not far from Superfund sites.
The 70-acre camp at Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo in West Texas would be similar to the infamous camp in the border town of Tornillo that closed in January. Gregg Gnipp, a commander in the U.S. Public Health Service, is overseeing this for our nation’s health agency, according to planning documents.
“Public records show the migrant children’s housing site proposed for Goodfellow will be built atop a former landfill, in an area riddled with lead, benzene, and other chemicals particularly hazardous to children,” said Lisa Evans, an attorney for Earthjustice.
A health department spokesman said the Goodfellow site and other proposed sites in Arkansas and Texas are not under active consideration at this time.
Our nation’s
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Tuesday, February 26th, 2019
Matthew Brown, - Associated Press/ctv
Stephan: The mining industry is a classic example of how money in the United States, and the interests of the rich, trump (literally) the wellbeing and interests of citizens. A negative proof of the Theorem of Wellbeing for which our children and grandchildren will still be paying when they are as old as you are.
Picher, Okla., nestled among huge lead-laced piles of rock.
Credit: AP/ Charlie Riedel
RIMINI, Mont. — Every day many millions of gallons of water loaded with arsenic, lead and other toxic metals flow from some of the most contaminated mining sites in the U.S. and into surrounding streams and ponds without being treated, The Associated Press has found.
That torrent is poisoning aquatic life and tainting water supplies in Montana, California, Colorado, Oklahoma and at least five other states.
The pollution is a legacy of how the mining industry was allowed to operate in the U.S. for more than a century. Companies that built mines for silver, lead, gold and other “hardrock” minerals could move on once they were no longer profitable, leaving behind tainted water that still leaks out of the mines or is cleaned up at taxpayer expense.
Using data from public records requests and independent researchers, the AP examined 43 mining sites under federal oversight, some containing dozens or even hundreds of individual mines.
The records show that at average flows, more than 50 million gallons […]
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Monday, February 25th, 2019
JUSTIN MCCARTHY AND JEFFREY M. JONES, - The Gallup Organization
Stephan: The Gallup Organization provides us with some hard data on how Americans view their government. This is not good news for the health of U.S. democracy.
35% say government/leadership is top problem facing the country- Mentions of government jumped during the shutdown, and increased since
- Views of government as the top problem have gained since 2001
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Thirty-five percent of Americans name the government, poor leadership or politicians as the greatest problem facing the U.S. This is the highest percentage Gallup has recorded for this concern, edging out the previous high of 33% during the 2013 federal government shutdown.
The latest update is from a Feb. 1-10 Gallup Poll. Full results from this month can be found at the end of the article.
Gallup has asked Americans what they felt was the most important problem facing the country since 1939 and has regularly compiled mentions of the government since 1964. Prior to 2001, the highest percentage mentioning government was 26% during the Watergate scandal. Thus, the current measure is the highest in at least 55 years.
The current percentage of Americans naming government as the most important problem is nearly twice as high as the 18% recorded in November. That increase likely reflects public frustration with the […]
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Monday, February 25th, 2019
Michael Collins, - USA TODAY
Stephan: It is a measure of what has happened to the Republican Party, that the political entity that once made the national debt a major political issue, demanding that it be reduced, is now as quiet as a coop of sleeping chicks, even as the debt reaches levels never before seen in history. And the Democrats, except for Sanders and Warren, aren't much better.
At first glance could you even give $22,000,000,000,000 a name? Try $22 trillion. It is a number so big it is really inconceivable, and I think that debt, combined with Trump's trade madness, is one of several signs that we are headed for a major economic meltdown.
Donald Trump
Credit: Brendan Smialowski, AFP/Getty
WASHINGTON – The national debt surpassed $22 trillion for the first time on Tuesday, a milestone that experts warned is further proof the country is on an unsustainable financial path that could jeopardize the economic security of every American.
The Treasury Department reported the debt hit $22.012 trillion, a jump of more than $30 billion in just this month.
The national debt has been rising at a faster rate following the passage of President Donald Trump’s $1.5 trillion tax-cut package a little more than a year ago and as the result of congressional efforts to increase spending on domestic and military programs. The nation has added more than $1 trillion in debt in the last 11 months alone.
“Reaching this unfortunate milestone so rapidly is the latest sign that our fiscal situation is not only unsustainable but accelerating,” said Michael A. Peterson, chief executive officer of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a nonpartisan organization working to address the country’s long-term fiscal challenges.
For Americans, the growing […]
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Monday, February 25th, 2019
Robert Pear, - The New York Times
Stephan: The Illness Profit Industry is not going to go quietly as America attempts to create universal healthcare, and given the power of this industry, and the corruption of American politics, success in creating universal healthcare is far from a sure thing. The only thing that is going to make it happen is citizen pressure, and I'm not sure Americans are smart enough to resist the propaganda and disinformation of the Illness Profit Industry.
Senator Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan, said there was “a knee-jerk reaction to anything that expands Medicare.”
Credit: Sarah Silbiger/The New York Times
WASHINGTON — Even before Democrats finish drafting bills to create a single-payer health care system, the health care and insurance industries have assembled a small army of lobbyists to kill “Medicare for all,” an idea that is mocked publicly but is being greeted privately with increasing seriousness.
Doctors, hospitals, drug companies and insurers are intent on strangling Medicare for all before it advances from an aspirational slogan to a legislative agenda item. They have hired a top lieutenant in Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign to spearhead the effort. And their tactics will show Democrats what they are up against as the party drifts to the left on health care.
They also demonstrate how entrenched the Democrats’ last big health care victory, the Affordable Care Act, has become in the nation’s health care system.
The lobbyists’ message is simple: The Affordable Care Act is working […]
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