From the pen of Robert Reich...

I keep hearing references to a pending "inter-generational war" as boomers seek to hold on to Social Security and Medicare at the "expense" of children and young people who need everything from better nutrition to preschool to more affordable college. Baloney. First, America is rich enough to fulfill the needs of the elderly as well as the young. What we lack is the political will to tax the wealthy, close tax loopholes, and end corporate welfare. Second, Social Security isn't a budget problem (to the contrary, until recently its surpluses financed the rest of the government). And Medicare, rather than being a problem, is really a potential solution to the real problem of rising health costs; because its administrative costs are far lower than those of private insurers, everyone would benefit (including our young) if we had Medicare for all. The inter-generational warfare theme is just another device used by those who want Americans to fight over a small slice of pie whose major portion is going to a few at the top.

Read Mr. Reich on facebook.

No, Obama Didn't Lie to You About Your Health Care Plans

President Obama has been getting a lot of grief in the last few weeks over his pledge that with the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in place, people would be able to keep their insurance if they like it. The media have been filled with stories about people across the country who are having their insurance policies terminated, ostensibly because they did not meet the requirements of the ACA. While this has led many to say that Obama was lying, there is much less here than meets the eye.

First, it is important to note that the ACA grand-fathered all the individual policies that were in place at the time the law was enacted. This means that the plans in effect at the time that President Obama was pushing the bill could still be offered even if they did not meet all the standards laid out in the ACA.

The plans being terminated because they don't meet the minimal standards were all plans that insurers introduced after the passage of the ACA. Insurers introduced these plans knowing that they would not meet the standards that would come into effect in 2014. Insurers may not have informed their clients at the time they sold these plans that they would not be available after 2014 because they had designed a plan that did not comply with the ACA.

Moar HERE.

Is Your Neighborhood Red or Blue? Americans Are Increasingly Segregating Themselves in Ideological Enclaves

Does your next-door neighbor vote the same way you do? How about the couple who live across the street, or your friends on the next block?

The odds you answered “yes” or “probably” to those questions have  increased dramatically in recent decades. Forget red states and blue states: We’re increasingly living in red or blue counties, cities, even neighborhoods.

This phenomenon has been widely cited as one reason behind our current political polarization: It allows strident voices on the right and left to fairly insist they’re fairly representing their constituents. But why exactly are we engaging in this sort of ideological segregation?

Newly published research suggests this double-edged dynamic is driven by a basic psychological pull.

Moar HERE.

The Gospel of Selfishness in American Christianity

Anyone who has worked in the restaurant business will be happy to tell you that waiters always fight each other to avoid working Sunday lunch shift. Not because they want to sleep in, but because it’s a widespread belief that the post-church crowd is loud, demanding and unwilling to tip appropriately. In the food service industry, “Christian” is synonymous with “selfish.”

Unfair stereotype? Probably. Big groups, regardless of affiliation, tend to tip poorly. More to the point, waiters probably remember the bad Christian tippers more because the hypocrisy is so stunning. The image of a man piously preening about what a good Christian he is in church only to turn around and refuse the basic act of decency that is paying someone what you owe them perfectly symbolizes a lurking suspicion in American culture that the harder someone thumps the Bible, the more selfish and downright sadistic a person he is. And that perception—that showy piety generally goes hand in hand with very un-Christ-like behavior—is not an urban myth at all. On the contrary, it’s the daily reality of American culture and politics.

Bill Maher recently had a rant on his show that went viral addressing this very issue[3], bad tippers who leave sermons or notes scolding waiters instead of paying them what they’re owed. His larger point is a much more important one: It’s absolutely disgusting how the politicians who make the biggest show of how much they love Jesus would be the first in line to bash him if he returned with a message of clothing the naked and feeding the poor. The Jesus of the Bible multiplied the loaves and fishes. His loudest followers these day gripe about feeding people, claiming it creates a “culture of dependency.” They may even comb through the Bible to take quotes out of context to justify their selfishness toward the poor, as Rep. Steven Fincher [4] did when he claimed the Bible says, “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.” The fact that those jobs are unavailable didn’t give him a moment’s pause when suggesting this very un-Christ-like plan to his fellow Americans.

Moar HERE.

"This is a bleak moment for Obama, but it's not his Iraq or even his Katrina. Within a few months everything will settle down. Republicans have an obvious political motive for stoking panic, but the rest of us should be a little smarter about buying into it. Okay?" -- Kevin Drum

http://mojo.ly/18AuquC

Let's be clear. Republicans don't give two whits whether Americans lose their health insurance. After all, they're fighting for the FAILED health insurance racket that routinely kicked people off AS A MATTER OF COURSE... as well as a budget that throws millions off Medicaid and Medicare. 

Republicans are fighting for a system that is the most expensive in the industrialized world that killed thousands, bankrupted millions, left millions out and consistently ranked last in all positive measures. 

You won't hear the corporate media rail against THAT failure - but they will let you know about problems with a website.
~ RepublicanDirtyTricks.com

What'tup With Americans And Health Insurance?

Here’s 6 awful stats for your consideration:

1. 2.24 million people were injured in auto accidents in 2010.

2. 32,885 people died in auto accidents in 2010.

3. Half of all men will develop invasive cancer during their lives.

4. Heart disease is the number one killer of men in the USA.

5. 38% of all women will develop invasive cancer during their lives.

6. Heart disease is the number one killer of women in the USA.

Then there’s this:

Top 10 Killers of Men:

• Heart Disease
• Cancer
• Unintentional Injuries
• Stroke
• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (LungDiseases)
• Diabetes
• Influenza and Pneumonia
• Suicide
• Kidney Disease
• Alzheimer’s Disease

http://www.idph.state.il.us/menshealth/healththreats.htm

Top 10 Killers of Women:

• Heart disease
• Cancer
• Stroke
• Chronic lower respiratory diseases
• Alzheimer's disease
• Unintentional injuries
• Diabetes
• Influenza and pneumonia
• Kidney disease
• Septicemia

http://www.cdc.gov/women/lcod/2008/index.htm

Gee, it appears that we are not likely to die simply from old age. Add to the above horror stories the fact that millions of other Americans will have decreased quality of life or outright disability due to illnesses and accidents, and you have to ask yourself two questions:

1. What kind of person would chose to go without health insurance?

2. What kind of political party would fight against Americans having full health insurance?

We’ll discuss these uniquely American perplexing questions in an upcoming posting.

I'll never understand why a political party is so against something that helps people-healthcare for all.

Reinventing The Dwindling Middle Class May Take A Revolution

My parents moved away from Lincoln, Ill., two decades ago, when I was in college. I hardly ever get back there. But my mom still works in Lincoln, and it was to Lincoln I headed to meet her this fall, after returning to the U.S. from the Middle East.

I got off the train from Chicago and immediately saw that the old depot building — where we used to go for fancy dinners before prom — was boarded shut. A little monument commemorating the day Abraham Lincoln named the town in 1853 was faded and peeling. There was a man asleep on a bench at the train stop. He looked like he'd been there for days.

Driving around with my mom, I could not help but be struck by the question: What happened to Lincoln? I know this is a pretty common thought when people go back to their hometowns. But really, what happened?

I decided to find out for myself, to spend a week reporting in Lincoln.

It turns out that what's happening in Lincoln is happening in so many towns and communities across the country: As we recover from the Great Recession, jobs are coming back. But they are not middle-wage jobs — they are either high-wage jobs or low-wage jobs. The middle class is in serious decline. And that has all kinds of repercussions.

Moar here.

5 Things That Show America Is In A Cold Civil War

Opinion pieces presently abound in comparisons of today’s GOP and its tactics to the Confederacy. There is a large element of truth in these. However, at bottom, the sentiment for secession is coupled, among most of its adherents, with a realization that secession is impossible.

What is more possible and more pernicious is the potential success of a sub rosa coup, one that sabotages the rule of law and majority rule; one that renders the election of Democratic Presidents more or less irrelevant; one that succeeds in allowing the GOP to control America from a minority position. That struggle, a Cold Civil War, is very much in progress.

Let’s take five current and major examples:

HERE.