Junk health insurance plans are a bad deal, often leaving people with thousands in medical debt. Junk health care plans mislead consumers and don’t offer real coverage.
The new rule announced by the Biden administration is an important move to crack down on junk health insurance, protect patients, and ensure access to quality health coverage. #BidenDelivers
@TonyStark When I worked in that hospital I got to see what Medicaid expansion did for our low income community. It changed everything. A miracle that came about because of the Affordable Care Act. It definitely saved lives, and in our clinic it kept people from going blind. #VoteBlue2024
@GottaLaff This is exactly the sort of thing he plans to do with federal government departments if he is reelected.
I hope this move backfires spectacularly. He is is ridding the organization of experts and no doubt replacing them with clueless, fawning loyalists. RNC will be cut off at the knees, ineffective, ripe for looting.
We're seeing the destruction of the Republican party from within. A decade ago no one would have believed this could happen. #ETTD
Mitch McConnell blocked a SCOTUS pick from a Black President claiming it was too close to an election, announced he was doing it in February 2016, so 9 months before an election, called it his proudest moment, and then turned around and let a Trump pick go through in 2020 after early voting for that election in some places had already started.
So fuck him.
Unfortunately today’s GOP will undoubtedly pick someone worse. Don’t forget to vote for every Democrat you can for Senate in November.
@TonyStark Just before Pres.Obama took office in 2009 McConnell met with his caucus to
discuss undermining him, making him a one term president. In 2021 he publicly vowed to "stop" Pres. Biden by any means necessary. He was never a statesman, only an obstructionist. Constituents don't matter.to him. KY is still one of the poorest states.
My only regret about his stepping down is that he isn't leaving the Senate now. His politics defiled it.
And yes, his replacement will probably be worse.
This article leaves out a couple of things. One, the people allegedly worried about kids and/or being “pro-life” interestingly aren’t bothering to pass any laws protecting them from things like this- Republicans keep loosening them.
Second, shutting down immigration makes labor shortages worse and that’s another Republican goal.
@TonyStark Iowa and Arkansas now allow 14 year olds to work in dangerous industrial settings, construction, etc. No work permit required. Red states leading the way.
Keep it up, we cannot afford to lose the Senate (and yes, I donated).
Via Kyle Griffin:
Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown hauled in more than $12 million in the first quarter of 2024 for his re-election bid — breaking an #Ohio record, according to his campaign.
@GottaLaff Donated again today. Recently Sherrod Brown participated in 36 roundtables around Ohio. His goal is to expand benefits to vétérans exposed to toxic chemicals. This is just one of his many initiatives.
Brown walks the walk!
“Among the ideas that advisers have presented to #Trump is a cut to the federal payroll tax, said one of those people, a move that could 👉🏼lower the flow of money into the Social Security and Medicare trust funds and open Trump to criticism from Democrats that he is torpedoing the safety net for elderly Americans.👈🏼 Trump has signaled he is open to the idea.” https://www.reuters.com/world/us/donald-trump-mulls-middle-class-tax-cut-he-eyes-return-office-2024-04-17/
"Gov. Ron DeSantis axed funding on Thursday for Central Florida projects to stop flooding during the next hurricane, strengthen government cybersecurity defenses, celebrate Black history and tackle gun violence."
From Orlando Sentinel
I can understand why the budding fascist, gun loving racist freak, doesn't support gun control or Black history, but flood prevention and cyber security?
Why does Desantis hate Florida?
James Fallows, who should know, explains why presidential debates are WORSE than useless.
There’s one more reason this year. By sharing a stage, Biden will normalize the idea that it’s all right for Trump to be a free man, as opposed to an incarcerated criminal.
@JamesGleick
"Presidential elections do not ever have the effect of 'sending a message.' Their unique purpose is to determine who will be in power". #VoteBlue2024
“Donald Trump's ugly rhetoric about the attack in Jordan is intended to persuade people who don’t remember what actually happened when he was in office.”
@TonyStark Thanks, Tony. Important article. Wanted to add that 4 American soldiers were killed in Niger in 2017. In a phone call Trump even insulted the widow of one of the dead. Of course he denied it ...
Americans sometimes seem to have very short memories. Let's not allow Trump to put the truth down the memory hole.
Bret Favre scandal drags on. He took $5 million from Mississippi welfare funds 5 yrs ago. Money slated for the poor built a soccer facility at his daughter's school.
Tape exists of Favre asking officials for funds, seeking advice on hiding source of money. No state/federal entity has charged Favre or anyone else w/criminal conduct. He paid $1 million per court order, now owes another $750K.
Welfare fraud is a felony. Anyone other than a very rich white man would be facing prison. #privilege
Climate change is leading to increasingly severe weather. Impacts worsen water management, reduce agricultural productivity and food security, damage infrastructure, and disrupt essential services.
The former guy couldn’t get one infrastructure deal done in 4 years. Biden oversaw the most significant deal ever.
@Tony Stark@progressivecafe.social It's telling that even during the previous administration the US military continued its mission to prepare for climate change. Military has long known that its infrastructure is vulnerable to extreme weather and other climate driven threats. It's a national security issue.
Glad to see our President making resources available for vital projects in the civilian realm.
Millions of Americans live within one mile of an abandoned coal mine or an orphaned oil and gas well. These sites are environmental hazards that pollute backyards and community spaces.
Interior announced a nearly $55M investment in ND and WV to plug wells, address hazards, and create good-paying jobs.
@TonyStark When I moved to Ohio I discovered mine subsidence. Earth can shift around old mines. There are so many of them that locations may be unknown, so a third of counties require homeowners insurance to cover it. Also, according to a recent study, there are close to 200,000 abandoned oil and gas wells in Ohio alone. Only a small fraction have been plugged.
So grateful that the President is beginning to address these hazards. Hope that more states can be helped in the future.
👏🏻👏🏻Politico: #Ohio Sen. #SherrodBrown raised $6.6 million in the last three months — a huge sum which will be critical in his challenging reelection campaign.
@GottaLaff Sherrod Brown is running neck and neck with Frank LaRose, Ohio's atrocious Secy of State. LaRose is well known for attempted voter suppression and has worked tirelessly to defeat popular citizen initiatives on abortion and gerrymandering.
The race should not be this close. We need Brown in the Senate. As a former Ohioan in a blue state I'll be supporting Sherrod Brown from afar. For the sake of democracy I urge others to do the same if they can. #voteblue
This morning, MSNBC made sure to bring us two uncommitteds who said if Biden doesn’t change course by November they’ll vote for Trump. In my head I pictured him holding a gun to his own head and a thought bubble read “Ceasefire now or the useful idiot gets it in November.”
(Reminder: Hamas has about as much interest in a ceasefire as they do a two-state solution.Which is to say they have none. Zip. Nada.)
@Tengrain@shoq@lcwebsxoxo This is of utmost importance. Many Americans seem to forget, if they ever knew, that trump signed the Muslim ban exactly one week after his inauguration. It was on of his top priorities, and it created serious chaos not only in the US but in many countries are the globe.
I was motivated to drive 120 miles roundtrip in a snowstorm to protest at
an international airport in Ohio.
It was the first of many horrors of the trump admin. Never forget!
Kennedy used to be an environmentalist. His current positions on the environment are more libertarian, since he doesn't believe in cutting greenhouse gasses through regulation or jump-starting green energy with subsidies. He wants to let the market work its “wonders.”
He's also a crypto fan, which generates about 23 metric tons of CO2 annually.
@TonyStark Absolutely not presidential material. And no, he should not be attracting voters from the left, but some are rabid Biden haters, and he may win their protest vote.
Spoilers like Kennedy have never, to my knowledge, helped Dems in Presidential elections. Leftists deny that Nader cost Gore the 2000 election, but personally I will never forgive him.
Donald Trump is set to receive national security intelligence briefings once he secures the Republican nomination despite being indicted on charges that he mishandled classified materials after leaving office.
Barring any changes, once Trump is formally nominated at the Republican National Convention, he will be offered intelligence briefings ahead of the general election. Despite facing a “bevy of federal charges” stemming from his stash of classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago residence in August 2022, “nothing” would currently restrict Trump’s access to further classified information if he secures the Republican nomination this summer, unless he is convicted by a jury or pleads guilty, Javed Ali, former senior counterterrorism official at the Department of Homeland Security, told Salon.
Trump’s other legal charges, apart from those related to the classified documents investigation, may not influence his potential candidacy, Ali said. Only if these cases result in guilty verdicts would they potentially affect his candidacy, as both the presidential challenger and the incumbent receive classified briefings from the intelligence community.
After leaving office, the former president is charged with taking classified materials containing intelligence on nuclear weapons programs and information on the nation's defense capabilities. When the government pressed Trump to return all materials taken to Mar-a-Lago, he provided only a few of them and engaged in repeated efforts to obstruct the investigators' efforts to retrieve the documents, the indictment alleges.
The prospect of having someone like Trump with a documented history of mishandling classified materials holding office again raises concerns about any legal or administrative mechanisms preventing him from having unrestricted access to classified materials, Christopher McKnight Nichols, the Wayne Woodrow Hayes Chair in National Security Studies at Ohio State’s Mershon Center for International Security Studies, told Salon https://www.salon.com/2024/03/04/likely-to-weaponize-intelligence-experts-alarmed-as-poised-to-get-security-briefings-again/
@cdarwin Joe Biden broke with tradition in early 2021 by forbidding Trump access to intelligence briefings normally given as a courtesy to all former presidents. Biden refused on grounds of Trump's erratic behavior.
There is no law requiring that trump as a nominee must receive these briefings. It's a courtesy extended at the discretion of the current president. I really cannot see President Biden allowing trump to be briefed.
