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Is Pete Buttigieg Just a Shill for Corporations and the Donor Class?

Why has Buttigieg flipped from being a putative progressive to being perhaps the most conservative, pro-corporate Democrat remaining in the field? A good place to start would be to follow the money… Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, the fourth-largest town in Indiana, is the shiny new object in the race to become the Democrats’ candidate for president in 2020.

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The 2020 Disinformation War

Deepfakes, anonymous text messages, Potemkin local-news sites, and opposition research on reporters-a field guide to this year’s election and what it could do to the country One day last fall, I sat down to create a new Facebook account.

The post The 2020 Election Will Be a War of Disinformation – The Atlantic appeared first on Rationally Thinking Out Loud.

‘I Need to Claim My First Victim’: Alleged Neo-Nazis’ Violent Plans for Virginia Rally Revealed

The pro-gun rally in Virginia on Monday could have been a bloodbath if the FBI hadn’t arrested three alleged members of the violent neo-Nazi organization The Base last week. Court documents released Tuesday show how alleged Base members William Garfield Bilbrough IV, Patrik Jordan Mathews, and Brian Mark Lemley Jr.

The post ‘I Need to Claim My First Victim’: Alleged Neo-Nazis’ Violent Plans for Virginia Rally Revealed – VICE appeared first on Rationally Thinking Out Loud.

The FBI Just Put White Nationalists and Neo-Nazis on the Same Threat Level as ISIS

The FBI has elevated racially-motivated violent extremism to a “national threat priority,” in yet another sign that the U.S. government has finally woken up to the threat posed by white nationalists and neo-Nazis at home and abroad.

The post The FBI Just Put White Nationalists and Neo-Nazis on the Same Threat Level as ISIS – VICE appeared first on Rationally Thinking Out Loud.

A Complete Psychological Analysis of Trump’s Support

Whether we want to or not, we must try to understand the Donald Trump phenomenon, as it has completely swept the nation and also fiercely divided it. What is most baffling about it all is Trump’s apparent political invincibility.

The post A Complete Psychological Analysis of Trump’s Support | Psychology Today appeared first on Rationally Thinking Out Loud.

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Universal Basic Income versus Jobs Guarantee-Which Serves Workers Better?

The need in the United States for big new economic ideas has become obvious: despite a record low unemployment rate, the nation’s economy is failing to provide good paying jobs to those who want and are willing to work for them.

The post Universal Basic Income versus Jobs Guarantee—Which Serves Workers Better? appeared first on Rationally Thinking Out Loud.

McGovern Didn’t Lose in 1972 by Going Too Far Left. Neither Will 2020 Democrats.

One of the most persistent arguments surrounding the 2020 presidential contest is that Democrats are heading “off the deep end” on a left-wing ideological bender that will mean disaster in the general election.

The post No, Democrats Are Not In Danger of Another McGovern Disaster appeared first on Rationally Thinking Out Loud.

“Democrats should try and find a candidate that can win rather than bitching about a president who is delivering on the campaign promises he made to the people who voted him into office!! …”.

And I thought and then wrote…

As I am sure you know Trump only won the Presidency because of the quirky and antiquated election process we have called the Electoral College and in all likelyhood the only reason he was able to eke out a victory in the swing states he did was due to Russian interference in the marketing we have around our elections. And lets not forget too that Trump has never had a majority of Americans supporting him. Never. He lost the popular vote to HRC by 2.9 million votes. (Ouch!)

 

• As for his campaign promises while campaigning Trump promised to eliminate the debt in 8 years. Instead, he plans to add $9 trillion to it raising it to $29 trillion.
• Trump also promised to build a wall on the Mexican border (only tiny sections of it have been built and sections of new wall blew over in the wind) and he promised to have Mexico pay for it too. Mexico hasn’t paid a cent.
• Trump also promised “Real change begins with immediately repealing and replacing the disaster known as Obamacare.” and that certainly hasn’t happened…

He has however allowed the insurance industry to create and flood the market with insurance programs that doesn’t help Americans cover their bills…Under Trump, Health Insurance With Less Coverage Floods Market – Bloomberg

• He also promised to save the coal industry and it’s tanking.He promised he wouldn’t make any cuts to Social Security and Medicare but now he is entertaining cuts to those programs.
• He promised to eliminate the carried interest loophole and that hasn’t happened.
• To his credit I guess he promised to not take a salary but instead he has taken spent the equivalent of 278.5 years of presidential salary on golf outings.

And so he Trump could spend a couple of hours on Sunday with his paying guests at his for profit Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach he stuck Americans with a $3.4 million bill for his travel and security. (Taxpayers Get $3.4 Million Tab So Trump Can Host Super Bowl Party For His Club Members | HuffPost)

I could go on…

Going on… Trump and the Trumplicans like to boast about the low unemployment rate but ignore the FACT that there was an average monthly gain of 217,000 during the last four years of the Obama administration compared to an average monthly gain of just 191,000 jobs per month under Trump. (Trump’s Numbers January 2020 Update – FactCheck.org)

Also while unemployment is at a record low more and more than eight million American workers or roughly 5% of all workers  have full-time jobs that don’t pay enough to make ends meet so they have to work a second job to makes ends meet. (Opinion | One Job Is Better Than Two – The New York Times). Some estimate have the number of people holding down two jobs as high as 13 million and women were more likely than men to have a second job (About 13M U.S. Workers Have More Than One Job).

trump also promised he would bring our troops home from endless war overseas and instead of keeping his promise he has increased our exposure. (Trump Didn’t Shrink U.S. Military Commitments Abroad—He Expanded Them)

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Speaker Nancy Pelosi hints House could take further action against Trump if Senate acquits

“We’ll see what we do next,” she said during a press conference. As the Senate appeared to be moving toward acquitting President Donald Trump on two articles of impeachment, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday refused to rule out further action to hold the president accountable.

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U.S. Can Run Deficits Much Bigger Than $1 Trillion: Economist Kelton
Bloomberg Daybreak: AmericasTV Shows
January 30th, 2020, 10:36 AM EST
Stephanie Kelton, Stony Brook University professor of public policy & economics, discusses the U.S. deficit, modern monetary theory, and the limits of the U.S. economy. She speaks with Bloomberg’s Erik Schatzker on “Bloomberg Daybreak: Americas.” (Source: Bloomberg)

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Last night I found myself re-reading portions of a The Art of War by the ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu and began to think that the book describes strategy based on these human biases.

This Business Insider article provides great list of 60 cognitive biases and how they influence our judgments.

60 cognitive biases that screw up everything we do

The affect heuristic describes how humans sometimes make decisions based on emotion. The psychologist Paul Slovic coined this term to describe the way people let their emotions color their beliefs about the world. For example, your political affiliation often determines which arguments you find persuasive.

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New Reports Show That Trump’s Economic Promises Were Empty

With the impeachment trial, the coronavirus, and the Iowa caucuses in the news, dry economic statistics aren’t getting much attention right now. But two new reports-the latest gross-domestic-product figures from the Commerce Department and a new set of budget projections from the Congressional Budget Office -shouldn’t be allowed to pass without comment.

The post New Reports Show That Trump’s Economic Promises Were Empty | The New Yorker appeared first on Rationally Thinking Out Loud.