What do you think about with current News and Opinions?

[guest1163268]

Something to understand what nurses think about re the Current News and their opinions!

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

I've been reading some of the churches are starting to pay back their loans now that tithes are back up.

Sometimes we forget much of the pandemic spending was in the form of loans and not handouts.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/09/16/fact-check-usps-and-religious-organizations-received-covid-19-loans/5625995002/

Also yes, while America's sympathies seemed to lie with the small business owner and the unemployed.  Big business was affected by the pandemic as well.  Some retailers like Lord and Taylor, and many other big businesses went bankrupt.  While you can claim stimulus went to "private jet owners" when these businesses went bankrupt it laid off working people.

 

6 hours ago, Beerman said:

First,  I don't know how much did go to megachurches, Tesla, and private jet owners.  Do you?  Educate me.

And, how many single parents are making minimum wage?

How much should each tax payer be obligated to spend on each single parents childcare?

 

We should spend less than we spend on insuring that all Americans can access healthcare or public education.  We should invest in our American children, regardless of how poor their parents are...or maybe because we know that so many parents are poor in this capitalist society.

https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2021/demo/p60-273.html

https://www.prb.org/usdata/

 

[chare]

Quote

First, Wisconsin Republicans ordered an audit of the 2020 election. Then they passed a raft of new restrictions on voting. And in June, they authorized the nation’s only special counsel investigation into 2020.

Now, more than 15 months after former President Donald J. Trump lost the state by 20,682 votes, an increasingly vocal segment of the Republican Party is getting behind a new scheme: decertifying the results of the 2020 presidential election in hopes of reinstalling Mr. Trump in the White House.

Wisconsin is closer to the next federal election than the last, but the Republican effort to overturn the election results here is picking up steam rather than fading away — and spiraling further from reality as it goes. The latest turn, which has been fueled by Mr. Trump, bogus legal theories and a new candidate for governor, is creating chaos in the Republican Party and threatening to undermine its push to win the contests this year for governor and the Senate.

[...]

Fringe Scheme to Reverse 2020 Election Splits Wisconsin G.O.P.

1 hour ago, chare said:

Fringe Scheme to Reverse 2020 Election Splits Wisconsin G.O.P.

You didn't say what you thought about this current trajectory of republican political leadership and objectives. Do you think it's a "fringe" element or is it reflective of GOP politics in general? I think that it's dangerous and may be evidence that the USA has already experienced is last free and fair national election. 

https://www.splcenter.org/news/2022/01/07/democracy-under-siege-extremist-insurgency-continues-year-after-jan-6-attack

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The signs of peril are everywhere.

Even today, with no evidence whatsoever, more than two-thirds of Republicans continue to believe the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump – despite the courts’ rejection of Trump’s arguments as completely unfounded. Perhaps more troubling, according to the same poll released in November by the Public Religion Research Institute, 18% of all Americans agree with the statement that “true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.”

In a poll released this week by USA Today and Suffolk University, 83% of voters were “very” or “somewhat” worried about the future of the nation’s democracy. But they were starkly polarized about the reasons for their concern. While 85% of Democrats called the Jan. 6 rioters “criminals,” two-thirds of Republicans agreed with the statement: “They went too far, but they had a point.” A poll released by Morning Consult/Politico in October found that just 48% of voters – and a mere 18% of Republicans – approve of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Quote

Public opinion is not the only sign of trouble.

After record turnouts that tilted the balance of power in Washington, D.C., to Democrats, Republican-controlled legislatures in some states moved quickly to enact onerous, new anti-voter laws to restrict ballot access for people of color, people with disabilities and others who are more likely to vote for their opposition. In some states, they’re also stripping powers from local election officials who stood up to the false claims of election fraud. At the same time, the partisan gerrymandering of Congress, state legislatures and local government bodies continues unabated as a way to thwart the will of voters.

In many ways, the insurrection against American democracy didn’t begin or end on Jan. 6. It is, in effect, a broad, ongoing white nationalist assault on the nation’s multicultural democracy, an insurgency that has been years in the making and was propelled into the mainstream by Trump’s campaign and election.

Quote

“I think the important thing to understand is the insurrection didn’t end on Jan. 6,” said Eric K. Ward, a nationally recognized expert on the relationship between authoritarian movements, hate violence and inclusive democracy. “Across the country in small communities and towns, the insurrection is still a daily reality for many Americans. The targets are health workers, educators, local government officials, civil right activists who are facing intimidation, sometimes physical violence, acts of domestic terrorism from those who were supportive of the insurrection and possibly those who took part in the insurrection.”

This Guardian article examines how the fascist tendencies and attitudes of the far right are endangering our republic. 

Quote

Often, those who employ fascist tactics do so cynically – they do not really believe the enemies they target are so malign, or so powerful, as their rhetoric suggests. Nevertheless, there comes a tipping point, where rhetoric becomes policy. Donald Trump and the party that is now in thrall to him have long been exploiting fascist propaganda. They are now inscribing it into fascist policy.

Quote

Fascist propaganda takes place in the US in already fertile ground – decades of racial strife has led to the United States having by far the highest incarceration rate in the world. A police militarized to address the wounds of racial inequities by violence, and a recent history of unsuccessful imperial wars have made us susceptible to a narrative of national humiliation by enemies both internal and external. As WEB Du Bois showed in his 1935 masterwork Black Reconstruction, there is a long history of business elites backing racism and fascism out of self-interest, to divide the working class and thereby destroy the labor movement.

Quote

For a far-right party to become viable in a democracy, it must present a face it can defend as moderate, and cultivate an ambiguous relationship to the extreme views and statements of its most explicit members. It must maintain a pretense of the rule of law, characteristically by projecting its own violations of it on to its opponents.

In the case of the takeover of the mainstream rightwing party by a far-right anti-democratic movement, the pretense must be stronger. The movement must contend with members of that party who are faithful to procedural elements of democracy, such as the principle of one voter one vote, or that the loser of a fair election give up power – in the United States today, figures such as Adam Kinzinger and Elizabeth Cheney. A fascist social and political party faces pressure both to mask its connection to and to cultivate violent racist supporters, as well as its inherently anti-democratic agenda.

American republicans are playing a dangerous game with our republic.  Are their voters even aware of the danger?

[subee, MSN, CRNA]

5 hours ago, Tweety said:

I've been reading some of the churches are starting to pay back their loans now that tithes are back up.

Sometimes we forget much of the pandemic spending was in the form of loans and not handouts.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/09/16/fact-check-usps-and-religious-organizations-received-covid-19-loans/5625995002/

Also yes, while America's sympathies seemed to lie with the small business owner and the unemployed.  Big business was affected by the pandemic as well.  Some retailers like Lord and Taylor, and many other big businesses went bankrupt.  While you can claim stimulus went to "private jet owners" when these businesses went bankrupt it laid off working people.

 

Large department stores were circling the drain before the pandemic, which only hastened their demise.  But the fact remains that billionaires and millionaires snared about 80% of government handouts in Covid relief.  

[subee, MSN, CRNA]

1 hour ago, chare said:

Fringe Scheme to Reverse 2020 Election Splits Wisconsin G.O.P.

The irony is that the idea that Democratic  benefit from increased access to voting is unfounded.  Scot Schraufnagel, a researcher from Northern Illinois University, has sussed out that Republicans benefitted more in states that expanded access to voting because of the pandemic.  Trump, for example, got more votes in 2020 in Iowa than he did in 2016 because of increased turnout.  He has repeated this same result in other pandemic elections.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

1 hour ago, subee said:

Large department stores were circling the drain before the pandemic, which only hastened their demise.  But the fact remains that billionaires and millionaires snared about 80% of government handouts in Covid relief.  

which might correspond to their percentage the economy and the number of employees they have  not all of them put it in their bank account.

But yes many people rich and poor got money they didn't need.  

Pelosi help draft it.

[nursej22, MSN, RN]

10 hours ago, Beerman said:

First,  I don't know how much did go to megachurches, Tesla, and private jet owners.  Do you?  Educate me.

Are you implying there was an acceptable amount to go these non-essential entities? 

Educate me. 

Assuring quality childcare is an investment. Early childhood education and adequate nutrition can mitigate the effects of adverse childhood effects. 

Our country needs to see children as a value, not a a frivolous expense to be ignored. 

[chare]

2 hours ago, toomuchbaloney said:

You didn't say what you thought about this current trajectory of republican political leadership and objectives. Do you think it's a "fringe" element or is it reflective of GOP politics in general? ...

[...]

I believe I've  addressed this in another post.  I like to think this is a fringe movement, but don't know.  Unfortunately.  Unfortunately, with those I know with whom I discuss politics, it is somewhat concerning the number that believe the election was "stolen" from Mr. Trump. 

[Beerman, BSN]

2 hours ago, subee said:

Large department stores were circling the drain before the pandemic, which only hastened their demise.  But the fact remains that billionaires and millionaires snared about 80% of government handouts in Covid relief.  

Would you be so kind as to provide a source for this?

[Beerman, BSN]

15 hours ago, nursej22 said:

According to ChildCareAware, a nonprofit organization, as many as 17 million children are in childcare. If my calculations are correct, $30 billion comes to about $2300 per child. According to the same organization, annual costs for childcare are between $8000 and $14000 a year. A single parent, making minimum wage of $7.25, brings home about $15,000. They are going to need more than $2300. 

Actually, the money was to keep child care providers open.  So, by your logic, it was $2300 per child to a provider (actually quite a bit more...you used $30 billion in your calculation.  Should have been $39B).  So, a provider with 10 kids would have received $23,000.

  

1 hour ago, nursej22 said:

Are you implying there was an acceptable amount to go these non-essential entities? 

Educate me. 

Assuring quality childcare is an investment. Early childhood education and adequate nutrition can mitigate the effects of adverse childhood effects. 

Our country needs to see children as a value, not a a frivolous expense to be ignored. 

The half a billion to private jet companies pales in comparison to $39 billion, and has nothing to do with money that goes to child care.

And, if you weren't so concerned about hating the rich, you might realize that money was more helpful to the employees of those companies than their rich customers, as they kept their jobs.

[nursej22, MSN, RN]

2 hours ago, Beerman said:

Actually, the money was to keep child care providers open.  So, by your logic, it was $2300 per child to a provider (actually quite a bit more...you used $30 billion in your calculation.  Should have been $39B).  So, a provider with 10 kids would have received $23,000.

  

The half a billion to private jet companies pales in comparison to $39 billion, and has nothing to do with money that goes to child care.

And, if you weren't so concerned about hating the rich, you might realize that money was more helpful to the employees of those companies than their rich customers, as they kept their jobs.

I'm not sure why you think I hate the rich, but I do think they should pay more in taxes.

Do you have any data about how many private jet company employees were helped?