Month: September 2021

I have a theory. The republicans, and Moscow Mitch in particular, are allowing the Trump administration to gift Oleg Derepaska, the Russian aluminum oligarch and close personal friend of Putin, a reprieve on the economic sanctions that he and other Russian oligarchs have been living with since they were put into place. I know the Russians, especially Putin, absolutely hate those sanctions because Putin has persistently been pressuring Trump to lift them ever since before Trump has been in office. The sanctions must be effective because Putin’s insistence on lifting them has been so dogged. The sanctions are economic sanctions but they were not imposed for economic reasons. They were imposed on Russia because of Russia’s horrendous human rights violations, notably the torture and death of Sergei Magnitsky, but there have also been many other cases of abuse, torture and murder that we know about but probably many many more that we know nothing about, and Russia still freely abuses human rights as wantonly as it desires. That, and the violation of the sovereignty of Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea and the occupation of eastern Ukraine by Russian forces and the troubling insertion of pro Russian political leaders in Ukraine with the help, unfortunately of Manafort and Craig. In fact, when it comes to any kind of opposition or dissent, to Russia, there are no such things as human rights.

Now here is my theory: I am supposing the the Russian banking system is free form enough to allow for it do do anything that Putin and the Kremlin direct it to do. So, I imagine that when the sanctions are lifted on the accounts of Oleg Derepaska, those accounts will be allowed to move money to and from any of his accounts into and out of any accounts anywhere in Russia or elsewhere internationally. So, Oleg Derepaska could, in effect, become the new bank of Russia. I also think that Congressional republicans who have taken money from Russia (Moscow Mitch is one example) really like Russian money and that they would prefer that that source of money once again become available to them. So, it really would benefit Congressional republicans who take money from Russia to lift sanctions on Derapaska so they can once again receive Russian cash infusions. Trump himself might also benefit from the lifting of these sanctions. Maybe he will even be able to get the Trump Tower Moscow project financed after all. For Trump, Congressional republicans, Derepaska, and Putin, lifting sanctions on Derepaska is a win win win!!!

Posted on August 25, 2019 Leave a comment on It’s a win win

What would you rather have: A highly-conditional insurance plan that costs you a lot of money in annual premiums plus additional out-of-pocket at point of service copays and fees, a plan which can be terminated at any time or deny you coverage without notice (This is what we have now)?; or, A system that you pay into automatically that is controlled by the government that covers all of your health care needs from the time that you are conceived until the time of your death with no additional costs or premiums and no bills, ever? (This is what we could have with Medicare for All) We could have Medicare for All if our elected representatives put it into law. Could you imagine a world in which you do not ever have to deal with an insurance company ever again? Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

Could you imaging never getting a bill for medical services you have received? Could you imagine never having to worry about being able to pay for your health care, ever, and receiving excellent care whenever you need it and get any treatment that is needed without having to worry about paying for it or having to choose between place to live or buying food for yourself?

This is what we could have if we have elected representatives in Congress who will put Medicare for All into law. The problem with that is the insurance and pharmaceutical industries, hospitals and medical equipment manufacturers are lobbying our elected officials hard and they are lobbying all of the rest of us hard with a campaign that is going to try to persuade us and them that having health care for all or a single payer system is a bad idea. Some of our representatives are being lobbied very heavily right now to not support Medicare for All. You should know if that’s is the case with your elected representatives and if it is, maybe you should let your representatives know that you want Medicare for All.

I will be watching the Supreme Court to see what measures it may take to create a two-tiered justice system; one for the 2%, the political and moneyed elites, and another for the 98%. This isn’t a justice system at all when on one hand it gives immunity and impunity to the wealthy powerful minority and treats them with special privilege and ridiculously light judgment and sentencing. Such a system protects and insulates this tiny group of people and is basically a free pass for them to do whatever they want without fear of ever really being held accountable. And the other system for the rest of us which rigorously prosecutes crime, and delivers judgment and sentencing based on the severity of proven criminal activity. Will the Supreme Court put the president above the law? Kavanaugh’s position is well known. But will the others on the Supreme Court go along with him in it?

Posted on August 25, 2019 Leave a comment on An already established pattern

So. What are we supposed to think about the Supreme Court now with Gorsuch and Kavanaugh occupying space on it? Is the Supreme Court now first and foremost a tool of corporations and large business interests and the richest 10% of the population? Is its mission now exclusively revenge politics and the protection and preservation of the corrupt, cronyism and nepotism, and fascism? Does the Supreme Court intend to take a wrecking ball to civil rights, social issues and rights, the rights of consumers and people to litigate against abusive practices and policies of business and the government, and to the Constitution itself? Does the Supreme Court intend to smash unions and abolish unions and defeat labor organizing? I think these are all open and valid questions. Are these some of the ambitious plans of the new Supreme Court? We’ll soon see, I’m sure of it.

Posted on August 25, 2019 Leave a comment on Anything and everything are possible

I saw an article yesterday. The Supreme Court is preventing the deposition by Congress of Wilbur Ross, Trump’s secretary of Commerce, for his conflicts of interest and insider business activities while on the job. Kavanaugh and Gorsuch are stepping forward and exposing their loyalties and politically important priorities by starting to pay back the benefactors who helped get them on the Court. This is not seeking truth and justice. It’s obstructing them. The Supreme Court no longer deserves our respect, only derision and disgust. The Supreme Court is now nothing more than a tool for the use of the already privileged and obscenely wealthy. It’s acting only in political ways. Law and justice mean nothing at all in this Supreme Court. It’s a mockery of a once great independent branch of the government. It’s also a great tragedy for the American people and their democracy.

Posted on August 25, 2019 Leave a comment on Mock me once,…

Greg Snyder
October 16, 2018 ·
If you are retired and want to do something useful, please consider doing something like joining AARP or ACLU or Southern Poverty Law Center or any other group that advocates for regular people. See if you can be involved in working with these groups to do outreach and work for political reform that will help to protect the future. The fantasies of a very small group of obscenely rich individuals like the Koch brothers who have funded multiple think tanks over the last several decades have come up with a lot of creative ways to buy the government and then have it dismantled. They are now feverishly at work on trying to keep their tax cuts, which really only benefit the obscenely rich and make them even more obscenely rich by having their republican congressmen and senators trying with all their stealth to gut Social Security and Medicare to pay for the tax cuts they and Trump have put into place and which have in the last year added 789 billion dollars to the budget which the republicans are saying are caused by “entitlement” programs. Each individual American worker has paid into the Social Security Trust fund since the first hour they started working and have alway contributed to it in all the work that they have done. It is not an “entitlement”. It is a savings account that every worker has paid into. And that money does not belong to the politicians who are trying to divert it away from its purpose of helping people live in retirement. Nor was it ever intended to be a piggy bank that Congress use to pay for unauthorized or even authorized wars without paying what it borrowed back. That money is not for borrowing. Congress owes the Social Security trust fund trillions of dollars that it has “borrowed”. Congress needs to pay that money back.
The republicans have been pushing idea that Medicare and Social Security cause the national debt. They say it over and over again and have been saying this for a long time. It is an outright lie. But they have been repeating this lie over and over for a long time and now they are really pushing hard for this lie to become a reality. If retired people who have a lot of free time now use some of that time to get involved and help in any way they can, it could help ensure a future that continues to have Medicare, (hopefully an expanded Medicare for all), and Social Security (that should also be strengthened and expanded and could be done easily simply by removing the cap on income that is taxed and currently capped at some hideously low income limit) not just for the rest of the newly retired workers lives to live out the rest of their lives, but for future generations. Do people want to see their children and grandchildren and future generations living in a world where they no longer have these programs? If you care, you will help if you can. It could make a crucial difference. If not, the republicans and the Koch brothers will create a future of deprivation, despair, poverty and increased disease and earlier death because they will have decimated American health care. And now they have a Supreme Court that will absolutely back them up in those efforts. So, it’s kind of either get involved, or help seal the fate of future generations. A future without hope.

Posted on August 25, 2019 Leave a comment on Something you could do for the kids

Greg Snyder
October 11, 2018 ·

Trump said that the climate is “fabulous.”

Posted on August 25, 2019 Leave a comment on A Trump truth

Greg Snyder
October 10, 2018 ·

What is the Supreme Court plotting at this very moment? What “surprises” lie ahead? I now consider the Supreme Court to be fully politically driven. Gone is any semblance of integrity, fairness, impartiality, legitimacy. Now it is hyper partisan, heavily favoring the already wealthy and powerful, large corporations and the 1% or 2%. And now, with Kavanaugh, he brings his baggage of misogyny, extreme political views and revenge. This is not a Supreme Court that represents “the people”. This Supreme Court represents a tiny majority of people of wealth and power. Not “THE PEOPLE”.

Posted on August 25, 2019 Leave a comment on A bought and paid for Supreme Court

Greg Snyder
October 4, 2018 ·

Many thanks to the conservative Judges on the Supreme Court who voted for allowing unlimited foreign and domestic money into this country’s electoral politics. Thanks to them, dirty Russian oligarch money has played a prominent role ever since. And thanks to them, American oligarchs have dumped many hundreds of millions of dollars into the investment of a corruption of our politics like we never experienced before this.

Posted on August 25, 2019 Leave a comment on Do the hustle!

Greg Snyder
September 20, 2018 ·

Why are rape victims treated worse than rapists in the United States? How can a victim of rape or assault who has done all that she can possibly do to get help, to notify authorities, to see that justice is done then be attacked yet again and be berated and torn down and shamed and bullied by the system and the public servants who are supposed to be protecting people, including rape and assault victims? Why are rape victims being treated like the criminals and the rapists being treated like the victims?

Posted on August 25, 2019 Leave a comment on Legitimate, legal, justified, and protected rape