sent 2/28/2018 Analysis: Just 6% of corporate tax cut windfall went to workers. The other 94 percent went to shareholders

"Analysis: Major Corporations Have Spent Just 6% of Tax Cut Windfall on Workers. Guess Where the Other 94% Went," by Jake Johnson, staff writer, Common Dreams, February 28, 2018.
"You mean corporations aren't using the bulk of their tax cuts to create jobs and boost workers’ wages like Trump promised? Weird..."

That was predictable and almost certainly was predicted.  It just was not talked about.

Somewhat related: sent 2/23/2018 The Trump Administration’s War on Workers

sent 2/14/2018 Trump's new 2019 budget proposal: "Everything we see in this budget is about help to the powerful and an assault on working Americans."

love to you and your family,
Larry

sent 2/23/2018 The Trump Administration’s War on Workers

Please do not lose track of this problem, the problem about Trump's war on workers, in the furor over whether or not to gun up teachers.  I am opposed to the idea of arming teachers for a number of good reasons that I may get around to sharing sometime soon.
----------------------------------------
"The Trump Administration’s War on Workers," by Laurence Wittner, Common Dreams, February 19, 2018

Related: sent 2/14/2018 Trump's new 2019 budget proposal...

love to you and your family,
Larry

sent 2/22/2018 Growing Trumpism: 1. “Alt-Lite” Bloggers and the Conservative Ecosystem 2. filter bubbles

1. "'Alt-Lite' Bloggers and the Conservative Ecosystem," by Tyler Bridges, Joan Shorenstein Fellow, Shorenstein Center, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University, February 20, 2018  (same piece, pdf link, to download right click and select "save link as": https://shorensteincenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Alt-Lite-Bloggers-and-Conservative-Ecosystem.pdf )

This is long, brilliant, and most interesting. 

"This research paper examines the important role that “alt-lite” bloggers play in promoting, amplifying, and fortifying Donald Trump’s anti-establishment message to his conservative supporters."

But it is much more than that.

".....The bloggers have not received the credit they deserve in keeping Trump popular with his political base. Each tweet or YouTube video they post ricochets throughout the conservative ecosystem thanks to retweets, likes, and shares that provide a seal of approval for friends and acquaintances.

"And to Trump’s benefit, it is a closed ecosystem, thanks to a phenomenon given a name by Eli Pariser in a 2011 TED talk.[19] Pariser outlined how digital media allowed citizens to tailor the news they consumed to their political beliefs. Conservatives seek out conservative websites. Liberals seek out liberal ones. Pariser called it the 'filter bubble'......"

"......An April 2017 article by Jared Holt of People for the American Way, a left-leaning group, put it this way: 'This new-media ecosystem exists outside of traditional newspapers and cable news networks, instead taking to social sites like Facebook, Twitter, Periscope, Reddit, and YouTube to promote its far-right nationalist politics and conspiracy-laden worldviews to an audience it has isolated and now dominates as its preferred news source.[footnote omitted LAS]

"Those in the center-right, the center, the center-left and the left also exist in the filter bubble to an extent, but nowhere to the degree of the Trump supporters, the Berkman Klein researchers reported. To varying degrees, people other than Trump supporters still seek out mainstream media outlets for their news......."

There is detail on who these alt-right and alt-lite "news" generators are.

2.  You may have noted the mention of filter bubbles above.  This is most informative on that topic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filter_bubble  For more see also filter bubble - Startpage Web Search

love to all,
Larry

sent 2/16/2018 Gun violence has DROPPED in New York, California, and Texas. We do not know why those three

Gun violence has DROPPED in New York, California, and Texas.  We do not know why those three, with such different laws, but maybe studies could find out.

http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/gun-violence-has-dropped-dramatically-in-3-states-with-very-different-gun-laws-20180216

See also:

These may or may not relate to why things are better in New York, California, and Texas.  I do not know.  But they are worthwhile in and of themselves.

https://theconversation.com/why-security-measures-wont-stop-school-shootings-90738

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0044118X10366674
The pdf costs $36.  I did not buy it.  I got something from the abstract.

love to all,
Larry

sent 2/14/2018 Trump's new 2019 budget proposal: "Everything we see in this budget is about help to the powerful and an assault on working Americans."

Trump's new 2019 budget proposal: "Everything we see in this budget is about help to the powerful and an assault on working Americans."  https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/02/14/administration-and-powerful-merkley-nails-mulvaney-over-trump-budget

As was predicted very clearly--sent 12/1/2017 and sent 11/29/2017--Republican officials are seeking to increase the warmongering budget but cut things drastically that actually matter from the domestic budget otherwise, to balance the debt increase that would otherwise result from the tax cut of a short time ago.  The proposals include cutting from education, after school programs, cutting off National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting System, cutting SNAP, Medicaid, Medicare, rental assistance, heating assistance, health clinics, and big cuts to environmental programs including the Environmental Protection Agency--air and water, etc.--things that affect us and our families.  https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/02/12/morally-bankrupt-budget-after-15-trillion-gift-rich-trump-demands-17-trillion-safety

Happy Valentine's Day, and love to you and your family,

Larry

sent 2/7/2018 "character assassination"

It is so interesting that Senator Orin Hatch would accuse the two former wives of a Trump administration official of character assassination for disclosing that he abused them physically, with pictures.  (The Intercept)  Various sorts of domestic abuse are actual crimes these days, in many states at least. 

It is also interesting that so many Republican officials think that this convicted big-time thief is ok--great in fact. (McClatchy)

love,
Larry

sent 2/7/2018 "Boycott the Republican Party": From unlikely sources, a very worthy and compelling idea, well supported.

From unlikely sources, a very worthy and compelling idea, well supported: "Boycott the Republican Party," by Jonathan Rauch and Benjamin Wittes, The Atlantic, March 2018 issue.
"If conservatives want to save the GOP from itself, they need to vote mindlessly and mechanically against its nominees."

This has the major benefit of not having to pay as much attention, I suppose, except for knowing when it is that voting days come around.

love,
Larry