Republicans and their morbidly rich donors have hated Social Security ever since it was first created in 1935. They've called it everything from communism to socialism to a Ponzi scheme. In fact, it has been the most successful anti-poverty program in the history of America, one now emulated by virtually every democracy in the world. But the rightwing billionaires hate it for several reasons. read more
The United States was added Sunday to the CIVICUS Monitor Watchlist, a research tool that publicizes the status of freedoms and threats to civil liberties worldwide.
" The Education Department plans to lay off more than 1,300 of its employees as part of an effort to halve the organization's staff -- a prelude to President Donald Trump's plan to dismantle the agency.
Republicans and their morbidly rich donors have hated Social Security ever since it was first created in 1935.
They've called it everything from communism to socialism to a Ponzi scheme. In fact, it has been the most successful anti-poverty program in the history of America, one now emulated by virtually every democracy in the world.
ut the rightwing billionaires hate it for several reasons.
Michelle Obama and her brother Craig Robinson will launch a video podcast in the coming days with new episodes dropping weekly, the former first lady confirmed on Monday. read more
- the Russia Hoax
That wasn't...
"The findings, including unflinching characterizations of furtive interactions between Trump associates and Russian operatives, echo to a large degree those of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation and appear to repudiate the Republican president's claims that the FBI had no basis to investigate whether his campaign was conspiring with Russia.
Trump has called the Russia investigations a "hoax."
www.pbs.org
ALSO:
"Trump and Putin: Not a hoax
Trump is pulling the U.S. closer to Russia, undoing decades of diplomacy
"Welcome to the Putinization of America, comrade!" said Garry Kasparov in The Atlantic.
Just a month into his presidency, Donald Trump began "openly embracing Vladimir Putin's wish list for Ukraine and beyond," and upending 80 years of foreign policy by aligning the U.S. with Russia and against NATO. Trump's "personal affinity" for the Russian president has been long apparent, particularly since Putin's intelligence services "worked full-time to promote Trump" in the 2016 election, with the grateful cooperation of Trump and his campaign.
Now Trump's admiration for Putin has escalated into "full-blown imitation": threatening to annex Canada and Greenland; punishing disfavored news outlets; and unleashing his own oligarch, Elon Musk, to undertake a Stalinist purge of the federal government so MAGA loyalists have free rein.
This all evokes chilling memories of how Putin seized dictatorial authority in early-2000s Russia, which I personally witnessed. Beware, America. Your democracy is in danger."
the cringeworthy details at the link:
theweek.com