John B. Alexander, Contributing Writer - Daily Kos
Stephan:
I think John Alexander raises the central issue in our culture, and I am not sure how this is going to turn out and, apparently, neither is he. This is Alabama writ large. As he says, how can a woman vote for a man who is a convicted rapist, who was cheating on his wife with a porn actress as his wife lay at home with a just born baby? How can anyone, man or woman, vote for a convicted anti-choice Putin-loving criminal with more outstanding felony indictments than I have ever seen one man have? And yet millions worship the ground he walks on. The only thing that will change this is you and me, and everyone we know. There must be more votes for democracy than against. This is our last chance to sustain the country we have grown up in.
Political poll after poll reveals that most the of American public does not want a rematch of the 2020 presidential election. This has been known for at least two years, probably longer. Yet, despite public sentiment, both the Republican and Democratic Party frontrunners are exactly that: Biden vs Trump. In so doing, the respective parties unnecessarily have placed themselves, and the nation, at great risk. To the public, both are seen as too old to return to office. The reasons for that threat vary significantly but are just as real.
There is no doubt that the spineless Republican Party has abrogated all sense of responsibility or loyalty to the country and entirely pledged allegiance to their cult leader, Donald Trump. A proven narcissistic egomaniac, Trump lives for and worships one thing-himself. What is supremely disconcerting is his ability to gain fealty from both the majority of the GOP politicians, and tens of millions of troglodytes, many of whom […]
Fewer and fewer people are owning more and more of our economy while 1.6 million people work for minimum wage, and 48 million workers (34%) are paid less than $20 per hour. Wealth inequality in the United States is a national obscenity and another indication of our corrupt Congress.
According to Capital One the deal to acquire Discover is expected to close in late 2024 or early 2025
NEW YORK, NEW YORK — U.S. banking giant Capital One announced Monday it will acquire financial services company Discover in a $35.3 billion all-stock deal combining two of America’s major credit card firms.
Under the deal, Discover shareholders will receive 1.0192 Capital One shares for each Discover share, a premium of 26.6 percent over Discover’s closing price on Friday.
Acquisition of Discover will help “build a payments network that can compete with the largest payments networks and payments companies,” said Capital One founder and CEO Richard Fairbank in a statement.
Once the deal goes through, Capital One shareholders will own approximately 60 percent of the combined company, and Discover shareholders will own approximately 40 percent.
Discover is among the United States’ major credit card networks, but is smaller than the top three: Visa, Mastercard and American Express.
The company’s acquisition will “accelerate growth and maximizes value for our shareholders, enabling them to participate in the tremendous upside of the combined company,” Discover […]
David E. Sanger and Julian E. Barnes, Reporters - The New York Times
Stephan:
I am following this Russian space program because I see real danger in this scheme. This represents a major geopolitical threat to the world. I think Putin is frightened and I think he thinks this is his backup move. It won’t kill people, so the U.S. won’t be able to physically attack Russia; it will just disrupt the world’s communications, and cause enormous damage to the U.S. and NATO economies. The Chinese are the wild card here because they will also be affected.
When Russia conducted a series of secret military satellite launches around the time of its invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, American intelligence officials began delving into the mystery of what, exactly, the Russians were doing.
Later, spy agencies discovered Russia was working on a new kind of space-based weapon that could threaten the thousands of satellites that keep the world connected.
In recent weeks, a new warning has circulated from America’s spy agencies: Another launch may be in the works, and the question is whether Russia plans to use it to put a real nuclear weapon into space — a violation of a half-century-old treaty. The agencies are divided on the likelihood that President Vladimir V. Putin would go so far, but nonetheless the intelligence is an urgent concern to the Biden administration.
Even if Russia does place a nuclear weapon in orbit, U.S. officials are in agreement in their assessment that the weapon would not be detonated. Instead, it would lurk as a time bomb in low orbit, a reminder from Mr. Putin that if he was pressed too hard with sanctions, or military opposition to his ambitions in Ukraine or beyond, he could destroy economies without targeting humans on earth.
I am increasingly concerned about health care for women in the U.S.. Three things are going on. First, the United States is the only developed democracy that lacks universal birthright healthcare, and doesn’t have a healthcare system instead an illness-profit system. Second, even that inferior system is further constrained by Republican-controlled states that only offer limited OB/GYN medical care. Third, even in Democrat-controlled states a large percentage of hospitals are controlled by Catholics. The result is American women and girls are not getting health care as good as they would get in almost any country in Europe.
Catholics run one-third of Wisconsin hospitals, putting many reproductive procedures off-limits. Credit: Wisconsin Watch
Nurse midwife Beverly Maldonado recalls a pregnant woman arriving at Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital in Maryland after her water broke. It was weeks before the baby would have any chance of survival, and the patient’s wishes were clear, she recalled: “Why am I staying pregnant then? What’s the point?” the patient pleaded.
But the doctors couldn’t intervene, she said. The fetus still had a heartbeat and it was a Catholic hospital, subject to the “Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services” that prohibit or limit procedures like abortion that the church deems “immoral” or “intrinsically evil,” according to its interpretation of the Bible.
“I remember asking the doctors. And they were like, ‘Well, the baby still has a heartbeat. We can’t do anything,’” said Maldonado, now working as a nurse midwife in California, who asked them: “What do you mean we can’t do anything? This baby’s not going to survive.”
The woman was hospitalized for days before going into […]
Here is the latest on the dying newspaper trend and the evaporation of the ethical code that once governed journalism. I think this is a big deal because if you don’t have a local ethical press how do you learn about what is going right and wrong in your local government and community? Social Media? How do you know it is not misinformation?
Iillustration / Photos by iStock
The great American newspaper ain’t what it used to be. At practically every newspaper in the country except for a fortunate few, hard times have reduced page count, eliminated news beats and resulted in the layoffs of thousands of journalists.
The hardest hit, Margot Susca reports in her new book, Hedged: How Private Investment Funds Helped Destroy American Newspapers and Undermine Democracy, have been the chain newspapers — Gannett, GateHouse, Lee Enterprises, et al. — purchased and squeezed by private equity firms like Alden Global Capital. Nationwide, the percentage of newspapers owned by private equity rose from 5 percent in 2001 to 23 percent in 2019; they include such storied titles as the Chicago Tribune, the Orange County Register and USA Today, as well as scores of smaller papers. Some papers have been reduced to zombie versions of their former selves as the new owners have shaved them down to minimize costs, depriving readers of the comprehensive coverage they enjoyed in the golden age of newspapers.
