The money circle must eventually somehow be broken.

This is the process I see we're fighting that seems an endless, impossible uphill battle:

1. We buy products and services, now primarily from/through mega corporations.

2. Profits from these purchases trickle up to a large international cabal of high-wealth individuals and groups who are free to spend the excess profits as they wish. In addition, much of their investments and assets are hedged against losses.

3. They use that money that came from us to buy elections, fund lobbying, fund think tanks and public/social media in hundreds of ways that work only in their interests, not ours.

4. This has created a massive layer of power and control mostly invisible to the public, and it's protected hands-off by many politicians. They even write most of the policy papers that are executed into budgets and laws, as well as procedures for destroying existing public welfare and protections for labor, retirement, health and the environment.

This process is getting worse with time, proven by worsening economic inequality, deteriorating public health care and education (keep 'em scared, dumb and sick). Mega-mergers and backstopping of big business from failure (as in 2008) concentrates more assets and power in fewer hands.

Sorry to be so negative, but I'm not seeing a way to stop and reverse this corrupt and destructive cycle. To me, this is the elephant in the room. Most everything else is political flim-flam and bullshit. Rant over.

Demonstrates the power of right-wing media....

RW talk radio, Faux News, normalization by main-stream media along with dogmatic shitstorms on Twitter and Facebook.

Bought and paid for by our carefully concealed billionaire plutocrats......

GOP = Divide more, conquer more......

Questions to pose to Kavanaugh supporters.

For those unfortunate enough to be exposed in public to rabid Republican Kavanaugh supporters and in light of his well-documented political bias in everything he's done in his career, perhaps give these questions a try:

Q1: In America, why do you think we don't put a judicial candidate's political affiliation on ballots?

Correct citizen's answer: Because judges are not supposed to allow their personal politics affect their judgments. We're therefore supposed to only consider their education, life experiences, record of honesty and judicial experience.

Q2: In light of question #1, are you aware that throughout his career both has a political assistant and as a judge, that Brent Kavanaugh has consistently shown a very hard bias toward the extreme right in his writings and judgments?

Correct citizen's answer: Yes, I've fully reviewed his career history.

Q3: Then, in light of Question #2, do you think he would make fair and impartial judgments for all American citizens, regardless of their politics, gender, race or creed?

Correct citizen's answer: No, not really.

Q4: Are you aware that Kavanaugh has lied to or made proven deceptive statements to the Senate Judiciary Committee during his interviews and if so, do you think he can be a fair and impartial Supreme Court justice?

Correct citizen's answer: Yes, then no.

Q5: Do you think it's wise to appoint a judge to our Supreme Court that called Hillary Clinton a bitch in front of several friends?

Correct citizen's answer: No.

My thinking is to catch them off guard and ask them questions not related to his sexual dalliances and drinking. I suspect that just like with Trump, they could care less about his sexual moral character.

Please understand I don't expect them to answer in the way I proposed, but those questions may break the ice and get them to think if they're capable.

.... .......

K&R. Sort of ironic, that.

Repugs never admit to being controlled by their very own private, secretive deep state and the general public does not seem to be the least aware of it.

The dozens of billionaire-funded right-wing political think tanks along with dozens of Christian Right organizations and right-wing media corporations (News Corp., Sinclair, etc.) all form a largely hidden cabal of power unequaled in the world.

Yet, to listen to them, one would think these poor repugs are the persecuted, punished anointed ones lost in the wilderness of progressive bureaucracy.

What they are is a bunch of sanctimonious, greedy, psychopathic bastards.......

Trump's tariffs will make recovery from Hurricane Florence more expensive

Florence likely to expose gaps in flood insurance

Florence likely to expose gaps in flood insurance

Source: The Associated Press

NEW YORK: The number of Americans with flood insurance is on the rise, yet Hurricane Florence is likely to make it painfully clear that too many homeowners in the Carolinas and other vulnerable regions remain unprotected.
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An analysis of federal flood insurance records by The Associated Press found there were roughly 5.1 million active flood insurance policies in the U.S. as of July 31, up from 4.94 million a year earlier.

But large gaps in coverage remain. South Carolina is the second-highest insured state for flooding, with roughly 65 percent of properties in flood hazard areas insured. But in North Carolina, where forecasters say the storm might bring the most destructive round of flooding in state history, flood coverage is less common, with only 35 percent of at-risk properties insured.
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But federal disaster relief typically consists of low-interest loans — money that must be repaid. The maximum amount of disaster assistance available to an individual or household is $34,000, which is typically not enough to cover repairs caused by flooding. The average damage caused by flooding during Harvey was around $80,000, according to the Texas Department of Insurance.

Read more: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article218494210.html

Thanks, Hekate. This is certainly worthy of open-minded discussion.

I'm an amateur psychologist as a useful hobby in my decades-long process of chemical abuse recovery and self-understanding. It also helps me to be more understanding and accepting of others.

That said, I agree that many of these mental oddities are inborn but can now see how we may have inherited those characteristics from early evolution. For example, our species went through millions of years in extremely brutal struggles just to survive, and it may have been that literally 100% of our populations at times were what we would today label as psychopaths. We still carry fragments of those genes in all of us. One could also argue that each and every one of us is a little bit of a psychopath as part of our survival instinct.

So, I believe most mental "oddities" come in degrees, and my experiences with many everyday people seem to prove that. Some of the most interesting people I've been exposed to in my 70 years were those with multiple personalities, and several that were bipolar. Those types will try one's patience and tolerance to our very core. Low-level psychopath are simply just a pain in the ass.

Bottom line is that unless our society is willing to test and classify people mentally at an early age, and then be willing to segregate those we don't want to deal with in open society, then we'll be stuck with the occasional madman that makes it to the top. Seriously, I doubt if humanity will ever be willing to go there to any degree. For a number of practical reasons, I personally would be against it, at least in the near-term.

I do, however, think a thorough mental evaluation should be a requirement for anyone running for very powerful positions in government or business, and it would be fair to the public interest. Republicans would fight against that to their death.

'You didn't get our message': key Trump aide Stephen Miller condemned by childhood rabbi

I interpret that sign to mean....

"I'm an asshole".

Very fitting.........

https://twitter.com/TheTweetOfGod/status/207616483646390272