INTRODUCTION:

Gentle Reader – The next months and years in our United States will be fraught. How so many of our people could have been convinced to vote for a fraud, a charlatan, a self-described abuser of women, a man who encourages torture and war-crimes, encourages violence upon dissenters, is a question that will consume gallons of ink and reams of paper (or 1s and 0s). There will be much blame to pass around; indeed analysis has already begun.

In this Section –  Issues of our Time and Destiny – we will discuss what went wrong and how we can correct the wrongs. I have some thoughts in this and will post them as well as the thoughts of others. Please comment and criticize if you wish.

By the way, the title of this page, Issues of our Time and Destiny, is from a poem of one of the victims of the first 9/11, Victor Jara, a crime in which we were complicit and for which we have never accounted. A bit of a problem when we only look forward and never back.

43. Gentle Reader –

Mr. Gebelhoff, an assistant editor and opinions contributor for the Washington Post, published the above-cited piece today, 3 January, 2019. I detail the URL for the piece below, and then detail a brief criticism laying out why I think he is off base in his analysis.

Article URL:

progressives can_t be trusted with medicare-for-all – the washington post

Response to Robert Gebelhoff Editorial – Progressives can’t be trusted with Medicare-for-all

Mr. Gebelhoff –
1. The cost of MfA: we currently spend about $3.5 trillion yearly for health care. That’s government spending and what citizens must add in terms of non-coverage, co-pay, drugs, etc. That’s $ 35 trillion, give or take a few billion, over 10 years. About $3 trillion more than MfA costs. With MfA, there would be significant savings due to decreased administrative costs – one study puts these at 30 cents of every dollar spent for health care. That’s another $ 1.05 trillion yearly. Then there is the decrease in drug costs through negotiated prices. Further, there is Evidence Based Medicine which will decrease waste by no less than 20%, another $700 billion yearly….

http://ajlayon.com/2019/01/03/response-to-robert-gebelhoff-editorial-progressives-cant-be-trusted-with-medicare-for-all

42. Gentle Reader – This piece was published today by AB Gutman, writing for the Philadelphia Enquirer. It is superb.

AB gets that either there is justice for all of us, or there is no justice. Read.

From Tel Aviv, Marc Lamont Hill’s Palestine comments don’t sound so wrong to me | Opinion

— Read on www2.philly.com/philly/opinion/commentary/marc-lamont-hill-cnn-fired-israel-palestine-20181130.html

41. Gentle Reader – This is a piece by Danny Sjursen, co-host of Fortress on a Hill podcast, historian and serving US Army officer. In the context of the piece I just posted in the section of this blog entitled “Survival Tools for a Fascist Era” (How Did We Get Here?), detailing our inability – our Country, our Leaders, us – to learn lessons from our mistakes and failures, Major Sjursen’s piece is important to read.

Will Iraq Become Another ‘Lesson Lost’ Like Vietnam?

The Army commissioned, then sat on a 1,300-page evaluation of the war. It probably fell short of the truth anyway.

According to reports, the Army has delayed the publication of a 1,300-page internal Iraq war study commissioned by General Ray Odierno in 2013. The volume, which few in the public were even aware of, was an admirable project. After all, the U.S. military famously ignored and jettisoned any lessons after its defeat in Vietnam. Most of us would agree that simply can’t happen again.

Will Iraq Become Another ‘Lesson Lost_ Like Vietnam?

40. Gentle Reader – Here are a couple of pieces I wrote rapidly and placed on Twitter recently. I have begun work on a book, directed at my fellow citizens, to discuss these issues. read and comment please!

The first part comes from Ms. Chandra, a former pediatric intensive care unit nurse. She spent nearly six years volunteering on board a hospital ship off the coast of West Africa before her son Ethan’s heterotaxy diagnosis unexpectedly brought her family back to life on land in 2014.

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She tweeted a picture of her son’s $231,115 hospital bill to show why laws that protect affordable healthcare are so important.

What she didn’t expect: the hate in response.

Ms. Chandra’s post: It was late on a Friday evening when I collected the day’s letters from the mailbox. One of those envelopes held a medical bill for my 3-year-old son; I’d moved it to the bottom of the pile because I wanted to work up to opening it, but when the ads for roofing companies and oil changes were taken care of, there was nothing else left. I took a deep breath and pulled the sheets of paper from the envelope, scanning them quickly, past line after line of impossibly large numbers, until I found the simple statement, printed in bold letters: PLEASE PAY THIS AMOUNT: $500…..MORE

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http://ajlayon.com/2018/10/09/a-taste-of-what-we-need-to-do-is-medicare-for-all-enough

39. Gentle Reader – A piece on the recently eliminated Individual Mandate and why it mattered – and matters.

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 It appears that, barring some action by the Courts, the Republican Tax “Reform” will become law. While there is much to criticize about this bill, including the massive transfer of wealth from the middle and working class to the rich, one item of particular note is the elimination of the individual mandate for health insurance. That is, the requirement that all people have coverage or pay a penalty…..MORE

 http://ajlayon.com/2018/04/04/it-matters-the-individual-mandate/

38. Gentle Reader – This is a piece from the Kaiser Health Network. Quite interesting in as much as it shows – we all should know this – that we have as much to learn as we have to teach.

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A Poor Neighborhood In Chicago Looks To Cuba To Fight Infant Mortality

Over the past few months, medical professionals on Chicago’s South Side have been trying a new tactic to bring down the area’s infant mortality rate: find women of childbearing age and ask them about everything.

Really, everything.

“In the last 12 months, have you had any problems with any bug infestations, rodents or mold?” Dr. Kathy Tossas-Milligan, an epidemiologist, asked Yolanda Flowers during a recent visit to her home, in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood. “Have you ever had teeth removed or crowned because of a cavity?”

Though they seem to have little to do with motherhood, these questions are borrowed from the playbook of the Chicagoans’ new mentors — doctors from the Cuban Ministry of Public Health. As Tossas-Milligan administered her survey, two Cuban doctors sat nearby, observing………MORE

http://ajlayon.com/2018/01/12/a-poor-neighborh…infant-mortality/

37. Gentle Reader – This is the last of three on the MSF trip, and the last that will be published in the regional press for a while. I will continue to post here, however.

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The Continuation of Hope

My last column noted the amazing work performed by Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF, Doctors without Borders), detailing the Jahun, Nigeria Project. The picture was a sweeping one, the 30,000 foot view of that project. You might ask – you should ask – if there are real examples of the work done by MSF there; specifics, not generalities.

I have, for you, just such an example, and just in time for the holidays. Here is a Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Boxing Day true story of hope fulfilled; this is what we do when we are at our best.

A Fistula Patient’s Story

Asabe is an 18 year old woman from the village of Hantsu in Jigawa State, Nigeria……MORE

http://ajlayon.com/2017/12/23/the-continuation-of-hope/ ‎

36. Gentle Reader – The second of two from Africa.

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Hope

One of the various, non-religious, definitions of “hope” found in the Oxford English Dictionary is “grounds for believing that something good might happen”. Perhaps the Biblical definition (Hebrews 11:1) is more interesting, “…the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen…”. To believe in either (or both) of these demands a certain faith that is, sometimes, lacking; hope itself often seems in short supply.

And indeed, why should it not be? We have ongoing “generational” wars – some of you who read this were not even born when they were begun – with no end in sight; climate change that threatens the future of our world; and of course, the threat of nuclear war, now more present than in decades………MORE

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http://ajlayon.com/2017/12/23/hope/

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33. Here is the 5 part series on the Health System of the United States and its’ “peer systems”. We CAN do better than this, and not through the Graham-Cassidy bill.

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The Health System of the United States of America – Can We Do Better than This ? A Five Part Series

“There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?”

Those over a certain age will remember this phrase from then Presidential-candidate Robert Kennedy’s 1968 speech. I use it here purposefully, to begin a series on health systems and health. We hear repeatedly – I’ve said this – that our system is inadequate, expensive, unresponsive; a Rube Goldberg system that results in high-cost and poor outcomes. This price is not just in dollars: it is lives lost, potential wasted, opportunities destroyed.

I have been extremely critical of the so-called “Repeal and Replace” or “Just Replace” process that Representative Ryan, Senator McConnell and Mr. Trump attempted to institute; that it unwound is a plus for our citizens. This does not mean that what we have in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is optimal, or even just ok. Thus, I dream of what could be and say: Why not?…..more follows

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http://ajlayon.com/2017/09/20/the-health-syste…five-part-series/

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32. Gentle Reader – The piece for the column to be published 6 August, 2017

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The Collapse of “Repeal and Replace” and “Just Repeal” – Was There Ever a Plan ?

Now we know. Despite eight years calling for repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Messers McConnell (R-KY), Ryan (R-WI) and colleagues had no plan, actually no clue, of what to do. This is unsurprising. The ACA is an amalgam of conservative, originally Republican, proposals that were finally operationalized by President Obama…….more follows

—————————————————————————————–http://ajlayon.com/2017/08/04/the-collapse-of-repeal-and-replace-and-just-repeal-was-there-ever-a-plan

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31. Gentle Reader – The Introduction to the new twice monthly column in the regional press. All pieces will be placed here as well.

====================

INTRODUCTION TO NFTSH

Welcome to the new column on healthcare and health policy. I use this initial space to explain who I am, how I got here, and what you can expect if you walk this path with me every other Sunday.

As the poet says:

I am a man from across the ocean, who has come to stay with you, who speaks a different language, and who walks on different legs.

In a way, that’s me. We are immigrants from the Middle East; my father and his brothers were Navy and Army during WW II – dad on the USS Yorktown – mom a Coast Guard’s Woman. My brother and sisters all dreamed – and achieved – the American Dream. Our three children are adults in service to humanity……more follows

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http://ajlayon.com/2017/07/16/notes-from-the-s…e-regional-press/

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30. Gentle Reader – Another piece whose title says it all. The case of Charlie Gard and our continuously shrinking President’s intervention in the affairs of the British National Health System and a Family’s tragedy.

This Man Has No Sense of Irony

In Britain this morning, there is an 11-month old child named Charlie Gard with a genetic disease that condemns him to death. The disorder, Mitochondrial DNA Depletion Syndrome (MDS), is a group of disorders caused by abnormalities in various genes that result in mitochondrial failure. The mitochondria, you may remember, exist in all the cells in our bodies and produce the energy we need to live; without them we die…….more follows

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http://ajlayon.com/2017/07/04/this-man-has-no-sense-of-irony/

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29. The piece says it all. I think I am running out of words.

Why has the Senate Kept Us in the Dark about the AHCA ?

he House of Representatives passed the American Health Care Act of 2017 (House Resolution 1628) on 4 May 2017. While the Senate is in the process of re-writing this legislation, it is being done completely in secrecy. Democrats, Independents and even Republicans are being kept in the dark. When Republican Senators are asked about even the broad outlines of the bill, their response is: We don’t know. Because they don’t know……more follows

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http://ajlayon.com/2017/06/27/why-has-senate-k…em-com-news-item/

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28. I have nothing more to say than what is said in the piece.

Maybe Death Isn’t All That Bad: Trump’s Budget Proposal Slashes Spending by $3.6 Trillion Over 10 years – Guess Who Pays ?

The “oil spot” theory of counter-insurgency asserts, in brief, that if we take an area and make it safe for the population, the effect of this improved safety would spread beyond the confines of the area made safe(er), kind of like an oil spot spreads. Not being a counter-insurgency expert, I can’t be sure I have this exactly right, nor that it actually works – Viet Nam, Afghanistan and Iraq come quickly to mind – but you get the point.This oil spot analogy may work in life as well; at least in my life as I am living it now. I am thinking, specifically, about death.

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https://ajlayon.com/2017/05/29/maybe-death-isnt…s-guess-who-pays/

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27.  Gentle Readers – this was published this morning in the Daily Item, the paper for this area of Pennsylvania. I grant that it is not measured and without passion. But then, if you have read anything I have written, you will know that the facts are correct, but there is always passion.———————Today the Republicans and their President presented the “idea” they have to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known to many as ObamaCare.To be perfectly transparent, I must point out that while I read the actual legislation and generally supported it, I found too many insurance company give-aways were included. The single-payer option, which would have driven costs down in a major way while focusing our quality efforts, was not allowed to see the light of day. Obama and his collaborators made the calculation that if they tried to have a single-payer option – that is, one among many – the entire plan would fail. So, they chose, instead, a complex system of Exchanges, Subsidies, Medicaid expansion and regulation to get where they wanted to go.

https://ajlayon.com/2017/03/10/repealing-the-affordable-care-act-be-afraid

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26. Gentle Reader – We are in for a rather wild ride, and I don’t mean that in the most pleasant or interesting way. The new administration – or should I say anti-administration since Trump has appointed government haters to his cabinet, from the Secretary of Education to the Director of Management and Budget, to say nothing of his Breitbart Chief of Staff – having come to power on the strength of lies, will soon betray the people who voted for him. Indeed, the very Cabinet members I refer to is the beginning of this betrayal, not just to his voters, but to our planet, but more on that later.In classes I teach, a complex issue will come up with no obvious way to perform analysis. I often remind my students that they should at least start the analysis by finding some part of the problem of which they have knowledge, and working from there. This does not, of course, guarantee final successful analysis of the entire problem, but it does provide a start point. In the same way, we will deal with this President-elect and what are likely to be the contours of his policies. And we will do this by studying, in the detail available, his plans for health care.Some years ago, after reading the legislation that produces the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) – yes, I ACTUALLY read it, the first 600 pages which dealt with acute care; I didn’t read the last several hundred dealing with chronic care, although I probably should have as the issue of chronic care becomes more and more important in our health system………

https://ajlayon.com/2016/12/18/healthcare-under-trump

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25. Gentle Reader – Much is written about the bravery and heroism of our men and women in uniform. Even I, one who doesn’t wear uniforms or accept top-down discipline easily, think much about these accolades are right. Much, not all. There are horrors, crimes, carried out by our men and women in the military, and all too often, there is no justice when these illegitimate acts are discovered.When the leaders of our country refer to, essentially, anyone in uniform as a hero, it is unseemly; a uniform doesn’t make you a hero, words uttered or actions performed in a dangerous setting make the hero. Sometimes, a hero is born merely by living her or his life: one of my heroes are single mothers who do the best they can every day to provide for and raise her child; the teacher – much abused in our culture and profoundly disrespected by many (see Trump’s selection for Secretary of Education if you have doubt) – are another of my heroes. I should point out that three women I love are teachers, so I might be somewhat biased here.None of this, however, should suggest that military men and women aren’t or can’t be heroic. The story below details the unique heroism – real heroism – of three men of my generation. Hugh Thompson, Larry Colburn and Glenn Andreotta, young men flying one of the United States’ armed helicopters in Viet Nam, confronted abuses and crimes by their fellow soldiers and acted.By their actions, these three men – now all dead – have earned the right to be called heroes. These three are my heroes.—————————————-

Larry Colburn, Who Helped Stop My Lai Massacre, Dies at 67

By SAM ROBERTS

DEC. 16, 2016

Larry Colburn, who became an 18-year-old American hero when he intervened with two comrades to halt the massacre of unarmed Vietnamese civilians by United States soldiers in 1968, elevating an innocuous hamlet named My Lai into a watchword for the horrors of war, died on Tuesday at his home in Canton, Ga. He was 67.

https://ajlayon.com/2016/12/17/american-heroes

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24. Gentle Reader – Let us now say goodbye to what we thought we knew about how our Government worked. Infrastructure spending – goodby. Health care (ACA, Medicare, Medicaid) – adios. Educational assistance – adieu.

The rich will make out like – well – bandits.

This is what thumbing our nose to the elites – without thinking, without analysis – gets us. An elite thug, blending crony capitalism with fascism.

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Analysis of Trump’s Tax Plan Shows Big Cuts in Taxes, Federal Revenue

By

Richard Rubin

Updated Dec. 22, 2015 8:34 p.m. ET

Donald Trump’s tax plan would cut federal revenue by $9.5 trillion over a decade and boost the after-tax incomes of the wealthiest households by an average of more than $1.3 million a year, according to an analysis released Tuesday.

The Republican presidential candidate’s proposal would lower income tax rates and exempt millions of low-income households, requiring significant new borrowing or unprecedented spending cuts beyond anything Mr. Trump has detailed in his campaign.

Mr. Trump’s plan, first released in September, would eliminate 22% of federal revenue over 10 years, radically shrinking the government, according to the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan project of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute.

https://ajlayon.com/2016/12/02/the-trump-tax-plan-greed-like-youve-never-seen-before-or-analysis-of-trumps-tax-plan-shows-big-cuts-in-taxes-federal-revenue

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23. Gentle Reader – It is this setup for the next 4 years – a tax cut that removes somewhere between $ 5 and $ 9 trillion from the Federal Treasury, most going to the wealthiest 1% – that sets the stage for cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, educational assistance, Social Security (?), everything.  A renewed or revised Accountable Care Act ? Forget it, you 20-million who were helped by the attempt – this first step – at a national health care scheme. We will be lucky to have anything except the dried husks of empty promises.

And the tax-cuts of this charlatan will result in a TAX INCREASE for the the unsung heroes of our country: low-income and single parent families.

Cuts to everything, that is, except for our bloated military. A military that this President-elect will use to our detriment when his economic plans and promises are ship-wrecked on the reefs of reality. At that point, he and his cabal of criminals will be in search of an enemy to make war upon.

The most likely victims are middle- and low-income families.

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Expert warn that more than eight million low-income and single-parent families will face sharp tax increases under Donald Trump, exacerbating income inequality.

Under Donald Trump’s proposed tax plan, the most wealthy Americans will receive an average annual tax cut of $215,000.

| US news | The Guardian

Rupert Neate

in New York

@RupertNeate

Wednesday 23 November 2016 12.00 GMT

President Donald Trump is set to give America’s richest 1% an average annual tax cut of $214,000 when he takes office, while more than eight million families with children are expected to suffer financially under his proposed tax plan.

https://ajlayon.com/2016/12/02/trumps-tax-plan-massive-cuts-for-the-1-will-usher-era-of-dynastic-wealth

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22. Gentle Reader – the attempt to “normalize” these bigots and racists has begun. Remember, the violence these people are capable of perpetrating upon us will always start with words; indeed the words have begun. They are not normal; this is not a normal time.

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Donald Trump, Stephen Bannon and how bigotry became a cool new trend

Nesrine Malik

29 November, 2016

There is no journalism course that prepares students for the advent of a bigot in high office. How does one address the president-elect of the United States and his associates when they have clearly made racist, sexist or antisemitic statements? It is a protocol of tact and diplomacy that has not recently been tested in the western world. But some in the media have not risen to the challenge, choosing instead to treat the office and status with a respect that has been voided by its occupants.

 https://ajlayon.com/2016/11/30/donald-trump-stephen-bannon-and-how-bigotry-became-a-cool-new-trend-nesrine-malik-opinion-the-guardian

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21. Gentle Reader – In the context of the previous piece, this may be the place where the war begins. When the President-elect’s economic plans fail, when he is reviled by the very people who voted for him, when his tax cutting is revealed for what it is – a $ 3.5 to $ 5.5 trillion hole in our budget with the proceeds going to the richest 1% of the US population – this man and his minions of hate will be looking for scapegoats, for new enemies to divert our attention.

This may be – although we should all hope I am wrong – where that diversion occurs.

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Opinion Asia

27 November, 2016

Source: Al Jazeera

Will there be a Korean war under Trump’s presidency?

If Trump moves away from US’ cautious policy towards North Korea, it might trigger a conflict on the Korean peninsula.

Andrei Lankov

https://ajlayon.com/2016/11/28/will-there-be-a-korean-war-under-trumps-presidency

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20.Gentle Reader – This is frightening enough, yet not written to frighten. Rather to steel one’s mind as to the work we have to do to salvage our world from the likes of Trump, Erdogan, Putin, Dutarte, al Asad, Netanyahu, and others. The question is: Do we have the ability to work together, or will the end come first ?

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The Drums of War

24th November 2016

Share152

The combination of automation, complexity and climate change is dangerous in ways we haven’t even begun to grasp.

By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 23^rd November 2016

Wave the magic wand and the problem goes away. Those pesky pollution laws, carbon caps and clean power plans: swish them away and the golden age of blue-collar employment will return. This is Donald Trump’s promise, in his video message on Monday, in which he claimed that unleashing coal and fracking will create “many millions of high-paid jobs”. He will tear down everything to make it come true.

https://ajlayon.com/2016/11/28/the-drums-of-war

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 19. Gentle Reader – This, I fear is what happens when we “look forward, not back”, as President Obama so generously stated at the beginning of his first term. But by not dealing with the criminality that was perpetrated by our largest banks and bankers, by holding no-one accountable, our President Obama sent a message that there are no consequences of criminal behavior if you are rich or powerful enough; to our detriment.

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Business Day

How Letting Bankers Off the Hook May Have Tipped the Election

By GRETCHEN MORGENSON

The New York Times

NOV. 11, 2016

Photo

There are many facets to the populist, anti-establishment anger that swept Donald J. Trump into the White House in Tuesday’s election. A crucial element fueling the rage, in my view, was this: Not one high-ranking executive at a major financial firm was held to account for the crisis of 2008.

https://ajlayon.com/2016/11/19/nytimes-how-letting-bankers-off-the-hook-may-have-tipped-the-election

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18. Gentle Reader – Adrian says what I have been thinking better than I. How could we ? Stay home ? Not vote ? Carp about Hilary’s flaws ? Complain about her changing positions ? (don’t serious people change their positions when faced with new facts ?). How could we let her and ourselves down by not standing by her, and in so doing, allow a racist, KKK and American Nazi-supported, woman hating and abusing, would-be-torturer thug and his minions into the office of the President ?

This will be a bad four years, a bad generation. Yes, generation. The men  – and they are likely to be men – that this President-elect puts into the Supreme Court will color our lives for a generation.

I am a Muslim

I am a Jew

I am a woman

I am a man

I am a Mexican

I am an American

This criminal will never be my president.

(the subtitle is mine, Adrian isn’t responsible)

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Adrian J Anchondo

4 days ago

Owning Our Shit

(or: Hilary Didn’t Let us Down, We  Failed Her)

I’m about to piss y’all off. I might even lose some friends because of this. If you’re too much of a (grab ’em by the) pussy to handle it or tired of angry rants, maybe you should stop reading now because I’m going in on all of us. It’s been a week since the election and I’ve had some time to weep, rage, drink a bottle of wine, gather my thoughts, eat lots of carbs, weep again and drink two more bottles of wine, but still I have not yet been able to come to peace with the worst thing that has happened to this country since they made a standalone movie for Catwoman. But maybe bitching to you, my friends, my fellow progressives, may help bring some solace and help us understand where we went wrong so we can come together and kumbaya or whatever.

https://ajlayon.com/2016/11/19/owning-our-shit

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17. Gentle Reader – Is this what our fellow citizens who voted for the President-elect wanted ? If not, speak up. Words have power, my friends. The President-elect’s words are there for all to see.

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 ‘You Deserve to Be Gassed’: Hate Crimes Skyrocket After Trump’s Win

U.S. Election 2016 – Haaretz – Israel News

Debra Nussbaum Cohen Nov 13, 2016 4:35 PM

NEW YORK – In the days since Donald Trump won the American election, as many 250 reports of hate crimes were filed with the Southern Poverty Law Center, it says — roughly the amount they receive in a typical five or six month period.

https://ajlayon.com/2016/11/16/you-deserve-to-be-gassed-hate-crimes-skyrocket-after-trumps-win

https://ajlayon.com/2016/11/15/httpsmedium-comniaiswe-are-not-ok-ad4691fb86adsourceuseractivityshare-1f3238c8482f-1479216709

14. Gentle Reader – Sometimes laughter is the best way to make the pain and sorrow abate, if only for a short time. This really is Hilaryous. (Sorry !)

https://ajlayon.com/2016/11/15/httpsmedium-comshithrccantsayare-you-fucking-kidding-me-86bdc2c638d6sourceuseractivityshare-1f3238c8482f-1479217003

13. Gentle Reader – Dissent is as American as our Republic. The very Republican Party that spent 8 years blocking every program President Obama attempted to put into place is in no position to be telling us to “just pull together”.

THE NEW YORKER

https://ajlayon.com/2016/11/14/what-trump-needs-to-learn-about-protests-the-new-yorker

12. Gentle Reader – We ignore the coalition of Roosevelt at our peril.

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Dangerous Idiots: How the Liberal Media Elite Failed Working-Class Americans

https://ajlayon.com/2016/11/14/dangerous-idiots-how-the-liberal-media-elite-failed-working-class-americans-portside

11. Gentle Reader – Another analytic piece attempting to assist us in our understanding of what we missed, how we made this error.

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Notes From a Very Close Election

https://ajlayon.com/2016/11/14/notes-from-a-very-close-election-portside

10. Trump health-care agenda evolves toward core Republican thinking – The Washington Post 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/trump-health-care-agenda-evolves-toward-core-republican-thinking/2016/11/11/a31858c4-a828-11e6-8fc0-7be8f848c492_story.html?tid=a_inl#comments

9. Labor Leaders Deserve Their Share of the Blame for Donald Trump’s Victory

Portside

http://portside.org/2016-11-13/labor-leaders-deserve-their-share-blame-donald-trump%e2%80%99s-victory

8. Gentle Reader – Blowback, indeed. We are about to reap the whirlwind.

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Through the Gates of Hell

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176210/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_through_the_gates_of_hell/#more

7. Gentle Reader – This man is not a firebrand, not a radical. If he’s worried, we should worry.

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https://ajlayon.com/2016/11/13/press-release-from-senator-harry-reid-not-a-radical

6. Gentle Reader – The first, by no means last, profound disappointment we will see with the election of this man.

Three items are particularly poignant:

1. Carrier Executives have said too bad so sad, we’re leaving;

2. The increase in salaries for working people OCCURRED UNDER THE PARTY OF ROOSEVELT. THE ONE WE JUST REMOVED. There were none under the Party of the Rich – er, Republicans.

3. In this article, one of the workers interviewed comments that Hilary has “never worked a day in her life”.  What a profound lack of understanding of what it takes to study, to study The Law. And then to vote for a man who has done more harm to workers than we can imagine.

Breath-taking

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Can Trump Save Their Jobs ? They’re Counting on it

Nelson D. Schwartz

The New York Times

11 November, 2016

https://ajlayon.com/2016/11/13/can-trump-save-their-jobs-theyre-counting-on-it

5. Gentle Reader – Allegory sometimes makes it easier to see what is happening to us.

Teju Cole is the author, most recently, of the essay collection “Known and Strange Things.” He is the New York Times magazine’s photography critic.

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A Time for Refusal

Teju Cole

https://ajlayon.com/2016/11/14/a-time-for-refusal

4. Gentle Reader – yet another piece trying to understand how we could have made this historic error.

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America’s Dark Underbelly is Now its Face

Nov. 13, 2016

By Peter Certo | (Otherwords.org) |

https://ajlayon.com/2016/11/13/americas-dark-underbelly-is-now-its-face

3. Gentle Reader – The next months in our United States will be fraught. How many of our people could have been convinced to vote for a fraud, a charlatan, a self-described abuser of women is a question that will consume gallons of ink and reams of paper (or 1s and 0s). There will be much blame to pass around; indeed analysis has already begun.

In this Section –  Issues of our Time and Destiny – we will discuss what went wrong and how we can correct the wrongs. I have some thoughts in this and will post them as well as the thoughts of others. Please comment and criticize if you wish.

By the way, the section title, Issues of our Time and Destiny, is from a poem of one of the victims of the first 9/11, Victor Jara.

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From the NEW YORK TIMES
303

NOVEMBER 12, 2016

Lies in the Guise of News in the Trump Era

Nicholas Kristof

https://ajlayon.com/2016/11/13/lies-in-the-guise-of-news-in-the-trump-era

2. Gentle Reader – this thoughtful piece is from the Washinton Post. Authored by Steven Pearlstein, a WaPo business and economics writer, he is also Robinson Professor of Public Affairs at George Mason University.

Some data before you go on to the article:

UNDER OBAMACARE –

1. 129 million of us – including about 19 million children – with pre-existing conditions are protected from denial of coverage and reduced benefits;

2.  105 million citizens have benefitted from annual caps on out of pocket spending;

3. Prior to this year’s (2016) open enrollment period, 16 million uninsured have gained coverage;

4. Another 14 million of us – in addition to the above 16 million – have received coverage through Medicaid since Obamacare’s first open enrollment in 2013;

5. Tax credits have helped 7.8 million Americans, who otherwise couldn’t have afforded it, buy insurance in the Health Insurance Marketplaces;

6. 5.7 million young adults gained coverage under Obamacare because they could stay on their parent’s health plans until age 26.

Source whitehouse.gov

All of this is real. All of this shows the positive power of government intervention.

All of this is at risk now.

There are consequences to our choices.

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Repeal Obamacare ? Not Quite So Easy….Unless You’re Peddling Hokum

Steven Pearlstein

13 November, 2016

https://ajlayon.com/2016/11/13/repeal-obamacare-not-quite-so-easy-unless-youre-peddling-hokum

1. Gentle Reader – it may be me, my own flawed character or even lack of “pedigree”, but I’ve thought for years that way too much attention is given the brainiacs on the East Coast. Here is a beautiful and haunting piece by our own Gary Fincke, the Charles B. Degenstein Professor of English and Creative Writing at Susquehanna University.

Would that we paid attention to more like him.

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 Post-election empathy

Gary Fincke

Nov 12, 2016

For the last two days, I’ve tried to put the best face on the election results. There’s no point in ranting. There’s little to be gained by accusing others of being racist or misogynist or just plain stupid for voting for Trump even though, despite the claim that working-class America elected him, I know that in the working-class neighborhood in which I grew up, Trump would have been dismissed as a “pig” or worse.

https://ajlayon.com/2016/11/13/issues-of-our-time-and-destiny