The infamous gangster/murderer Al Capone was finally brought to justice after being convicted on lesser charges of federal income tax evasion. He was never convicted for his real crimes of multiple-murders. Like Al Capone, Bibi Netanyahu might be charged with lesser crimes of bribery & fraud, but likely not wholesale destruction & death by his approval of assaults in Gaza in the name of self-defense; murderous actions by Netanyahu & Israel constitute flagrant violations of international law. See Norman Finklestein's excellent new book, "Gaza, An Inquest into its Martyrdom".
GOP transfer of income to the top trumps federal funding for infrastructure needs. When we already have unacceptable levels of transfer of income and wealth to a tiny cabal of the .0001% wealthy at the very top, Republicans further decrease taxes for the very wealthy which increases this preposterous transfer. The budget deficits created will supposedly prove that the federal government itself will no longer be able to afford infrastructure repairs, public education, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other social service and public health programs, thus making necessary further slashing of their budgets, transfer of funding responsibility to the local level, and the privatization of most federal programs & systems . The strategy is effectively the same as any conservative effort to sabotage the public sector: defund government programs/starve the beast so that it is less effective and then use that ineffectiveness to argue for further privatization. Using this standard technique of privatization of defunded government services, also make sure things don’t work and that people get angry. ¡Voilà! the need to hand it over to private capital is proven, fulfilling a decades long conservative dream of ending all federal New Deal type progressive programs, health, public health and social services.
The real U.S. history that black people have always known begins with the first slaves brought to Spanish Florida/St. Augustine in the 1550s and 1560s. The first slaves to arrive in the British American colonies were brought to Jamestowne, Virginia in 1607. In the 467 years since, there have been only a few decades when African-Americans have had limited opportunities for entering mainstream U.S. economic life.
The terrible slave labor camps of the new world's “empire of liberty” were major sources of white wealth and privilege in colonial American society, England and the continent. The industrial revolution was based on cotton, produced primarily in the slave labor camps of the United States. Many, including Thomas Jefferson, feared and resisted the liberation of slaves because of “ten thousand recollections” of the crimes to which they were subjected.
A 2014 New York Times Sunday Review of Edward E. Baptist,“The Half Has Never Been Told"
clearly describes how the highly efficient American plantation system allowed productivity to increase very fast thanks to the gun, bullwhip, and practice of brutal torture. Success using black slaves meant great wealth for the white plantation aristocracy, British and American northern colonial manufacturing, and was the basis for commerce and growth and development of 21st century financial institutions and toxic corporatization by the 1%.
As the latest horrible news comes in, strong fear and prejudice of African-American liberty--- as expressed in Thomas Jefferson's 18th and 19th century white fear of, "ten thousand recollections of crimes to which they were subjected"--- once again rears its ugly 21st century white head in the U.S.A. Wm. Faulkner says it best: "The past is not dead, it's not even past".
Taking the concept of chutzpah to a new level, Florida Governor Scott has even assailed Florida hospitals for "price gouging". Everyone recalls that Gov. Scott is a billionaire businessman who formerly was the infamous CEO of Columbia/HCA. Columbia/HCA was fined $1.7 billion for falsified patient billing and giving kickbacks to doctors, perpetrating the largest Medicare fraud in the entire history of the Medicare program. During the investigation, Scott testified that he was “unaware” of HCA' price gouging' while CEO.
The basic problem is not price gouging, but rather Florida Gov. Rick Scott's efforts to lead this state to abandon the poor. It’s outrageous that Gov. Scott and his Republican supporters have joined other Republican state governors and legislators in refusing to provide coverage to low-income adults, even though the Affordable Care Act authorizes the federal government to pay most of the cost of this expansion in the Medicaid program.
Hospital and health cost issues in Florida are problematic because Florida has a very high percentage of its citizens uninsured, and an even larger number under-insured, with a sharp disconnect between public need and the political/social will to change things . Republican obstructionism promotes inaction of the electorate, who in Florida suffer from a combination of being uniformed or misinformed and unable to advocate effectively for policies that would benefit all.
The infamous gangster/murderer Al Capone was finally brought to justice after being convicted on lesser charges of federal income tax evasion. He was never convicted for his real crimes of multiple-murders. Like Al Capone, Bibi Netanyahu might be charged with lesser crimes of bribery & fraud, but likely not wholesale destruction & death by his approval of assaults in Gaza in the name of self-defense; murderous actions by Netanyahu & Israel constitute flagrant violations of international law. See Norman Finklestein's excellent new book, "Gaza, An Inquest into its Martyrdom".
GOP transfer of income to the top trumps federal funding for infrastructure needs. When we already have unacceptable levels of transfer of income and wealth to a tiny cabal of the .0001% wealthy at the very top, Republicans further decrease taxes for the very wealthy which increases this preposterous transfer. The budget deficits created will supposedly prove that the federal government itself will no longer be able to afford infrastructure repairs, public education, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other social service and public health programs, thus making necessary further slashing of their budgets, transfer of funding responsibility to the local level, and the privatization of most federal programs & systems . The strategy is effectively the same as any conservative effort to sabotage the public sector: defund government programs/starve the beast so that it is less effective and then use that ineffectiveness to argue for further privatization. Using this standard technique of privatization of defunded government services, also make sure things don’t work and that people get angry. ¡Voilà! the need to hand it over to private capital is proven, fulfilling a decades long conservative dream of ending all federal New Deal type progressive programs, health, public health and social services.
The real U.S. history that black people have always known begins with the first slaves brought to Spanish Florida/St. Augustine in the 1550s and 1560s. The first slaves to arrive in the British American colonies were brought to Jamestowne, Virginia in 1607. In the 467 years since, there have been only a few decades when African-Americans have had limited opportunities for entering mainstream U.S. economic life.
The terrible slave labor camps of the new world's “empire of liberty” were major sources of white wealth and privilege in colonial American society, England and the continent. The industrial revolution was based on cotton, produced primarily in the slave labor camps of the United States. Many, including Thomas Jefferson, feared and resisted the liberation of slaves because of “ten thousand recollections” of the crimes to which they were subjected.
A 2014 New York Times Sunday Review of Edward E. Baptist,“The Half Has Never Been Told"
clearly describes how the highly efficient American plantation system allowed productivity to increase very fast thanks to the gun, bullwhip, and practice of brutal torture. Success using black slaves meant great wealth for the white plantation aristocracy, British and American northern colonial manufacturing, and was the basis for commerce and growth and development of 21st century financial institutions and toxic corporatization by the 1%.
As the latest horrible news comes in, strong fear and prejudice of African-American liberty--- as expressed in Thomas Jefferson's 18th and 19th century white fear of, "ten thousand recollections of crimes to which they were subjected"--- once again rears its ugly 21st century white head in the U.S.A. Wm. Faulkner says it best: "The past is not dead, it's not even past".
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Taking the concept of chutzpah to a new level, Florida Governor Scott has even assailed Florida hospitals for "price gouging". Everyone recalls that Gov. Scott is a billionaire businessman who formerly was the infamous CEO of Columbia/HCA. Columbia/HCA was fined $1.7 billion for falsified patient billing and giving kickbacks to doctors, perpetrating the largest Medicare fraud in the entire history of the Medicare program. During the investigation, Scott testified that he was “unaware” of HCA' price gouging' while CEO.
The basic problem is not price gouging, but rather Florida Gov. Rick Scott's efforts to lead this state to abandon the poor. It’s outrageous that Gov. Scott and his Republican supporters have joined other Republican state governors and legislators in refusing to provide coverage to low-income adults, even though the Affordable Care Act authorizes the federal government to pay most of the cost of this expansion in the Medicaid program.
Hospital and health cost issues in Florida are problematic because Florida has a very high percentage of its citizens uninsured, and an even larger number under-insured, with a sharp disconnect between public need and the political/social will to change things . Republican obstructionism promotes inaction of the electorate, who in Florida suffer from a combination of being uniformed or misinformed and unable to advocate effectively for policies that would benefit all.