Robert Reich asks "Is Donald Trump the Worst President in American History?" Is this a trick question?

Courtesy of Common Dreams:  

When he threatens to loosen federal libel laws so he can sue news organizations that are critical of him and revoke licenses of networks critical of him, he isn’t just bullying the media. He’s threatening the constitutionally guaranteed freedom and integrity of the press. 

When he equated Neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members with counter-demonstrators in Charlottesville, Virginia, by blaming “both sides” for the violence, he wasn’t being neutral. He was condoning white supremacists, thereby undermining the constitution’s guarantee of equal rights. 

When he pardoned Joe Arpaio, the former sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, for a criminal contempt conviction, he wasn’t just signaling it’s okay for the police to engage in violations of civil rights. He was also subverting the rule of law by impairing the judiciary’s power to force public officials to abide by court decisions. 

When he criticized NFL players for kneeling during the national anthem, he wasn’t just demanding they demonstrate their patriotism. He was disrespecting their – and, indirectly, everyone’s – freedom of speech. 

When he berates the intelligence agencies and the federal bureau of investigation, he isn’t just questioning their competence. He’s suggesting they’re engaged in a giant conspiracy to remove him from office – potentially inviting his most ardent supporters to engage in a new civil war. 

When he boasts that he made up information in a meeting with the prime minister of Canada, he isn’t just undermining his own credibility. He’s undermining the credibility of the united states in the eyes of the world. 

Donald Trump is degrading the core institutions and values of our democracy. 

Spoiler alert: So that answer appears to be "YES!"

Which means we are likely living through the worst presidency this country has ever endured. 

There are lessons which need to be learned here, and steps that should be taken to prevent something like this from happening again.

However I do not know exactly how those changes to our democratic process would be implemented, or even what they would look like.

All I know is that if we do not figure something out, our democracy will not be stolen from us by outside forces, but rather we will run it off a cliff all on our own.

I'm sorry to start the morning this way but you really need to read this conversation that Robert Reich had with a former Republican Congressman. Update!

Quite the conversation Robert Reich had with a former Republican member of Congress. This is worth a read. pic.twitter.com/PiBKFlSRf7

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 12, 2017

If you read this on your phone while lying in bed, you might as well get up now because there is no going to sleep after reading that.

Update: For those reading this on their phone:  

Let's end our day on a hopeful note.

Last time I looked, it's still a free country. So why not a "Freedom Concert" on Inauguration Day? https://t.co/eGne9aakaI

— Robert Reich (@RBReich) December 22, 2016

Courtesy of the Miami Herald:  

Robert Reich threw out an idea to his nearly 1.7 million Facebook followers this week that has a lot of people asking: How do we make this happen? 

In a Facebook post on Sunday, the former secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton noted the dearth of celebrities and musicians willing to participate in Donald Trump’s inauguration festivities. Many supported Hillary Clinton. 

So Reich is championing the idea that celebrities host an event of their own on Inauguration Day to give the official event, starring Trump, a run for the ratings. 

“Someone just suggested to me a televised ‘freedom concert’ to air at the same time as the inauguration — with huge celebrities like Beyoncé and Jay Z, Madonna, Katy Perry, Justin Timberlake, Gaga, Bruce Springsteen, and so on,” Reich wrote. “Alec Baldwin MC’s the event, playing Trump as he does on SNL. 

“Presto. The Trump inauguration loses all the TV ratings. Basically, no one watches it.” 

I already posted about this "Freedom Concert" earlier last week, but now that Robert Reich is on board it has received significantly more attention.

Now don't be fooled by fake flyers like this one:

Source

Things are not nearly this organized, and certainly none of these stars have been signed up, but I have a feeling that something is definitely going to come together.

Hell at this point I am willing to watch some old guy playing "Oh Say Can You See" on a harmonica if that is all they can scrape together rather than subject myself to whatever passes for entertainment during the inauguration of Putin's puppet.

Robert Reich: "If Bernie does not win....Hillary’s election to the presidency is absolutely essential to the future of this nation and the world."

As many of you know Robert Reich is a rather aggressive supporter of Bernie Sanders, so for him to make this argument is an indication of how dire he considers the situation.

This is a portion of what Reich wrote on Facebook yesterday:

If Bernie doesn’t win the nomination, you have to decide for yourself how active you’ll be in supporting Hillary Clinton. If Trump is the Republican nominee, my personal view is Hillary’s election to the presidency is absolutely essential to the future of this nation and the world. 

Now if you visit the link that I provided you will see that Reich seems to think that Sanders still has a pathway to the nomination, which I find bizarre since he is considered an expert on the economy and should therefore be quite good with numbers.

However putting that aside he is certainly correct on the importance of making sure that Hillary beats Trump in November.

And even though I have recently shared some very good news on that front here on the blog, it still requires that we get up and get to the polls.

I would encourage ALL of you to engage in conversations about politics in every venue that you feel even remotely comfortable doing so, and perhaps in a few where you are not so comfortable.

I think EVERY election is important, but it is hard to exaggerate the importance of this 2016 race.

So yeah we need to help people get excited, inspired, and if need be a little frightened, to get them to take this whole thing as seriously as we all know it deserves to be taken.

I started this blog because before the 2004 election I failed to convince the people in my life the importance of voting for John Kerry.

That is NOT a mistake that I will ever make again.

Good question.

Source

What do YOU think?

Robert Reich presents "The Medicare Solution." Man do I like this!

This, of course, is what most of us liberals were hoping for when Obama first took on the health care crisis. 

However due to incredible blow back from the Republicans, trust issues among many Americans, and lobbying by health insurance companies, all the President could deliver was the Affordable Care Act.  Which has some very good qualities, but is nowhere near the fix that we really need in this country.

But Medicare for all? Now THAT is change we can believe in.

Robert Reich explains that we strengthen the middle class by strengthening unions.

Courtesy of Robert Reich.org: 

 One big reason America was far more equal in the 1950s and 1960s than now is unions were stronger then. That gave workers bargaining power to get a fair share of the economy’s gains – and unions helped improve wages and working conditions for everyone. 

But as union membership has weakened – from more than a third of all private-sector workers belonging unions in the 1950s to fewer than 7 percent today – the bargaining power of average workers has all but disappeared. 

In fact, the decline of the American middle class mirrors almost exactly the decline of American labor union membership. 

I think Professor Reich is one of my favorite sources for learning about politics and economics in this country.

And I am really jealous of his ability to illustrate his lessons while he speaks.

The conservatives in this country have been attempting to bust the unions since the first day workers organized in this country, it is shameful how successful they have been since Ronald Reagan set the standard back in the 1980's.

President Obama's response to Senator Elizabeth Warren's attack over TPP: "She's absolutely wrong."

Courtesy of Yahoo News: 

“She’s absolutely wrong,” Barack Obama said, before I could even get the question out of my mouth. 

He was talking about Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator and populist crusader whom Obama helped elevate to national prominence. Warren generally reserves her more acid critiques for Republicans and Wall Street, but in recent weeks she’s been leading a vocal coalition of leftist groups and lawmakers who oppose the president’s free-trade pact with 12 Asian countries.

Earlier this week Warren made this dire prediction about giving the President the ability to "fast track" trade negotiations: 

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren warned that granting President Barack Obama trade-negotiating authority will help Wall Street in its long campaign to roll back rules imposed on banks after the 2008 financial crisis. 

“This is hardly a hypothetical possibility: We are already deep into negotiations with the European Union on a trade agreement and big banks on both sides of the Atlantic are gearing up to use that agreement to water down financial regulations,” Warren, a staunch opponent of granting the president “fast-track” trade powers, said in a speech in Washington Tuesday.

That is what Obama is responding to in the above quote. And he had even more to say:  

“Think about the logic of that, right?” he went on. “The notion that I had this massive fight with Wall Street to make sure that we don’t repeat what happened in 2007, 2008. And then I sign a provision that would unravel it? 

“I’d have to be pretty stupid,” Obama said, laughing. “This is pure speculation. She and I both taught law school, and you know, one of the things you do as a law professor is you spin out hypotheticals. And this is all hypothetical, speculative.” 

“The truth of the matter is that Elizabeth is, you know, a politician like everybody else,” he said. “And you know, she’s got a voice that she wants to get out there. And I understand that. And on most issues, she and I deeply agree. On this one, though, her arguments don’t stand the test of fact and scrutiny.”

Okay well I certainly don't think the President is "pretty stupid" in fact I have often been amazed at how he has outmaneuvered this critics on issue after issue, sometimes purposefully leaving bread crumbs for them to follow in seemingly one direction, before doubling back and surprising them in another.

However my respect for Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders knows no bounds, so how is it that they can be so diametrically opposed on this deal?

From what I have read about the deal, and what has been explained by Robert Reich, it seems abundantly clear that this is a bad idea for the American people.

So I am left, like many people I imagine, to either believe that perhaps the best President in my lifetime is trying to screw the American worker, or that some of the smartest people I know are dead wrong on this issue.

They should rename this trade deal "Liberal Migraine" because that is what it is giving me.

Barack Obama for the Supreme Court? I can hear the conservative heads exploding already.

This from Robert Reich's Facebook page:

If Hillary Clinton or any other Democrat wins the White House next year, Barack Obama should be their first Supreme Court pick. He's been a constitutional law professor. He has the right temperament and values. He's a superb writer. The average age of newly appointed justices is 53; Obama will be 55 on leaving office. Even a Republican Senate would be hard-pressed not to confirm a former president. There are precedents (William Howard Taft was appointed to the Court after his presidency). 

What do you think?

I am totally interested in what all of you think as well.

But for my part I have to say that while it would be a great idea in theory, that in reality it would be unworkable.

For one thing the republicans would fight this appointment to their last breath.

And secondly I don't think the President would want the job when he has the opportunity to create an impressive "after the presidency" legacy that might make him even more popular and admired than Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

I think the President will go on to do great things, and though he would clearly be a great asset to the Supreme Court, I think he would find that too limiting.

Just my opinion. Care to share yours?

Robert Reich explains why we should urge President Obama to veto the Keystone XL pipeline for good.

Courtesy of MoveOn.org:  

President Obama says he’ll veto the latest attempt by Congress to push through the Keystone XL pipeline, but he hasn’t yet committed to rejecting this dangerous proposal outright. 

That’s where we come in. Tell President Obama that he should stop Keystone XL for good—and do it now.

As usual Robert Reich explains something complicated in a way that makes it simple for even those a little slow on the uptake to understand. 

Probably helps that he was a professor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

I hope the President is listening and takes his advice.

Robert Reich gives us all hope for 2015.

You know when you really think about it, despite attempts by the Right to obstruct progress at every turn, we are really moving forward at a fairly impressive pace.

Former Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich explain how crucial it is to keep the Senate in Democratic hands.

I love Robert Reich's informative videos.

He does an excellent job of explaining complex situations in a manner which makes them much easier to understand.

Bottom line is that we ALL need to make sure and get to the polls in November.

I know this election does not seem as important as some in the recent past, but if 2010 teaches us anything it is that EVERY election is important.

Robert Reich explains America's Koch problem.

You know I am not always a huge fan of petitions, but I am so goddamn sick and tired of these rich assholes undermining our democracy that I think this is one petition that deserves our support.

Robert Reich explains the Republican war on America.

Courtesy of MoveOn.org:  

Connect the dots between policies that keep many of our fellow Americans desperate, and you’ll see they add up to a war on the poor and working families. 

I bet you thought my headline was hyperbole didn't you?

Sadly, it is not.

It is time for the Democrats to start fighting as if they are fighting for their very lives.

Because they are. 

Robert Reich points out that the health care plan that Republicans are so vehemently against today, was once proposed by one of their own, Richard Nixon.

Courtesy of HuffPo:  

In February 1974, Republican President Richard Nixon proposed, in essence, today's Affordable Care Act. Under Nixon's plan all but the smallest employers would provide insurance to their workers or pay a penalty, an expanded Medicaid-type program would insure the poor, and subsidies would be provided to low-income individuals and small employers. Sound familiar? 

Private insurers were delighted with the Nixon plan but Democrats preferred a system based on Social Security and Medicare, and the two sides failed to agree. 

Thirty years later a Republican governor, Mitt Romney, made Nixon's plan the law in Massachusetts. Private insurers couldn't have been happier although many Democrats in the state had hoped for a public system. 

When today's Republicans rage against the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act, it's useful to recall this was their idea as well. 

In 1989, Stuart M. Butler of the conservative Heritage Foundation came up with a plan that would "mandate all households to obtain adequate insurance." 

Insurance companies loved Butler's plan so much it found its way into several bills introduced by Republican lawmakers in 1993. Among the supporters were senators Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa (who now oppose the mandate under the Affordable Care Act). Newt Gingrich, who became Speaker of the House in 1995, was also a big proponent. 

Romney's heathcare plan in Massachusetts included the same mandate to purchase private insurance. "We got the idea of an individual mandate from [Newt Gingrich], and [Newt] got it from the Heritage Foundation," said Romney, who thought the mandate "essential for bringing the health care costs down for everyone and getting everyone the health insurance they need." 

So why are today's Republicans so upset with an Act they designed and their patrons adore? Because it's the signature achievement of the Obama administration. 

There's a deep irony to all this. Had Democrats stuck to the original Democratic vision and built comprehensive health insurance on Social Security and Medicare, it would have been cheaper, simpler, and more widely accepted by the public. And Republicans would be hollering anyway.

I think that this is the point where a lot of liberals are yelling at their computer screens and asking why didn't we just go with single payer in the first place if the Republicans were going to freak out anyway?

However, considering how aggressively the Right Wing is working to stop Obamacare now, just imagine how much worse it would have been if the Dems had tried to shove universal health care down their throats. And yes, it COULD be worse.

I think the interesting thing is that the President attempted to offer the Republicans numerous reasons why they should embrace this health care law, essentially including almost all of the compromises that they had demanded in the past, and yet they STILL could not bring themselves to support it.

Sort of deflates that whole, "If only the President had been willing to compromise with us" argument doesn't it?

Just how did Mitt Romney make all of that money?

Now ask yourself if THIS is an approach which would help America create jobs or repair our broken economy?

Yeah, not so much!

Now your job is to show this video to every idiot Republican you know who keeps repeating the phrase, "Anybody but Obama!'  And then ask them, "Are you sure about that?"