From Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo

I've been watching closely as Hillary Clinton's popular vote lead has grown and grown since election day. It now stands at over 2.6 million votes, a 2 percentage point lead in the popular vote. Of course, the electoral college determines who becomes President. But contrary to what some say, the popular vote is still important. It shows that Trump will be a minority President. It also helps focus Democrats on what did an did not go wrong.

But I wanted to flag a short opinion column which I believe captures a critical element of what is happening in the country right now: our constitutional architecture can allow popular minorities to dominate or at least disproportionately influence the nation's politics. But not permanently. This was the case for most of the 19th and 20th century. But it can't do so forever. Even in this period of nationwide Republican dominance I think most Republicans realize it is a fragile grip.

Here's the rather breathtaking column by Michael Barone, in which he argues that the electoral college is important because it is preventing California from exercising 'colonial' rule over the rest of the country.It is a very unlovely argument. It has a number of statistical ins and outs. But these two passages capture it.

It is a very unlovely argument. 

So much more at link.

Just read it.

We have 100 days to stop Donald Trump from systemically corrupting our institutions


The country has entered a dangerous period. The president-elect is the least qualified man to ever hold high office. He also operated the least transparent campaign of the modern era. He gave succor and voice to bigoted elements on a scale not seen in two generations. He openly praised dictators — not as allies but as dictators — and threatened to use the powers of his office to discipline the media. He also has a long history of corrupt behavior, and his business holdings pose staggering conflicts of interest that are exacerbated by his lack of financial disclosure. But while most journalists and members of the opposition party think they understand the threat of Trump-era corruption, they are in fact drastically underestimating it. When we talk about corruption in the modern United States, we have in mind what Andrei Shleifer and Robert Vishny define as “the sale by government officials of government property for personal gain.”

Credit to Occupy Democrats

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Indiana GOP Curt Nisly, R-Goshen proposes total abortion ban in Indiana This guy reps an area just a few miles from me. From the article.

INDIANAPOLIS — A Hoosier lawmaker hoping to permanently end abortion in Indiana could get an assist from a U.S. Supreme Court reshaped by Republican President-elect Donald Trump. State Rep. Curt Nisly, R-Goshen, said Tuesday he plans to file a “Protection at Conception” proposal when the Republican-controlled General Assembly convenes in January.

 If enacted into law, it would prohibit all abortion in Indiana in all circumstances and authorize the criminal prosecution of any doctor or woman who participates in an abortion. “It’s time to bring the Roe v. Wade era to its logical conclusion,” Nisly said. “My goal is to deregulate abortion right out of existence in Indiana.”

Good Read

Nice people made the best Nazis. 
 Or so I have been told. 

My mother was born in Munich in 1934, and spent her childhood in Nazi Germany surrounded by nice people who refused to make waves. 

When things got ugly, the people my mother lived alongside chose not to focus on “politics,” instead busying themselves with happier things. 

They were lovely, kind people who turned their heads as their neighbors were dragged away. I don’t remember the first time I heard the stories my mother told me; I feel like I always knew them. 

She’s dead now. If she were alive, I imagine she would be quite sanguine; all her anxieties would be realized, so there would no longer be anything left to fear. More goodness at link.

Farm Bill Compromise Cuts Food Stamps For 850,000 Families

From By Elissa Gomez via The National Memo. Congressional negotiators announced on Monday that they’d reached a deal on a farm bill that saves $24 billion over the next decade and includes an $8 billion cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) – the program responsible for providing food stamps to millions of Americans nationwide. Yep. There's the ticket cut more aid to the people who need it most. Please sign this petition to tell Hoosier senators Joe Donnelly and Dan Coats ABSOLUTELY NO MORE CUTS TO FOODSTAMPS!

Will Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion Continue?

From the National Memo: Again, I don’t want to make more of this than the evidence can support. But for what it’s worth, early evidence supports the liberal optimist (and conservative pessimist) view: that where it’s in place, Medicaid expansion is here to stay. If that’s truly the case, then sooner or later Obamacare’s Medicaid component will expand to all 50 states. Eventually, every state will have a governor who is willing to embrace it. Provided that trend is not counteracted by reversals in states that were in the first wave of Medicaid expansion, we’re talking about a one-way street. The only question is how long it takes.

I sure hope this is the case. Kind of hard to believe Mike "right-to-life" Pence will continue to refuse the medicaid expansion here in Indiana when so many Hoosier lives are at risk.

My Recent Healthcare Experience....and I have "EXCELLENT" Insurance

Rally with Community Coalition 4 Immigration Reform. With South Bend Mayor @PeteButtigieg Fri~June14th~4pm

This was on my car tis morning.

There are some ugly people out there. My grandmother was a daughter of the American  Revolution

TED Blog | All of our survival is tied to the survival of everyone: Bryan Stevenson at TED2012

TED Blog | All of our survival is tied to the survival of everyone: Bryan Stevenson at TED2012:

'via Blog this'

How to Cover Everyone: Vermont’s Single-Payer Success by Amy Gluckman — YES! Magazine

It can be done!
The state’s progressive health care model has already bolstered campaigns in more than 20 other places. 

Reform took a different path in Vermont. In 2010, the state hired a Harvard economist to recommend a cost-conscious system of universal coverage. The result, unveiled in early 2011, was a single-payer plan to be run by an independent, quasi-governmental board, with private insurers’ role limited to contracts for claims processing and other administrative tasks.

In the meantime, Vermonters elected a strong single-payer supporter, Peter Shumlin, for governor. But the state had seen good single-payer plans and supportive governors before (think Howard Dean). One difference this time around was a huge popular mobilization. As the legislature deliberated, supporters of single-payer turned out in large numbers, including a “People’s Team” clad in bright red T-shirts that became a fixture at the State House. The Vermont Workers Center, which had been working to build grassroots support on the issue for two decades, can take a lot of the credit. “It would be a shame,” the center’s James Haslam emphasized, “if the lesson people took from Vermont was that the win here was all about having … a sympathetic governor.”

How to Cover Everyone: Vermont’s Single-Payer Success by Amy Gluckman — YES! Magazine

How to Cover Everyone...

http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/9-strategies-to-end-corporate-rule/how-to-cover-everyone-vermonts-single-payer-success

Senator Bernie Sanders calls for shared sacrifice

Tax Time? Not for Giant Corporations

Sanders compiled a list of some of the 10 worst corporate income tax avoiders.
1) Exxon Mobil made $19 billion in profits in 2009. Exxon not only paid no federal income taxes, it actually received a $156 million rebate from the IRS, according to its SEC filings. (Source: Exxon Mobil's 2009 shareholder report filed with the SEC here.)
2) Bank of America received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS last year, although it made $4.4 billion in profits and received a bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department of nearly $1 trillion. (Source: Forbes.com here, ProPublica here and Treasury here.)
3) Over the past five years, while General Electric made $26 billion in profits in the United States, it received a $4.1 billion refund from the IRS. (Source: Citizens for Tax Justice here and The New York Times here. Note: despite rumors to the contrary, the Times has stood by its story.)
4) Chevron received a $19 million refund from the IRS last year after it made $10 billion in profits in 2009. (Source: See 2009 Chevron annual report here. Note 15 on page FS-46 of this report shows a U.S. federal income tax liability of $128 million, but that it was able to defer $147 million for a U.S. federal income tax liability of $-19 million)
5) Boeing, which received a $30 billion contract from the Pentagon to build 179 airborne tankers, got a $124 million refund from the IRS last year. . (Source: Paul Buchheit, professor, DePaul University, here and Citizens for Tax Justice here.)
6) Valero Energy, the 25th largest company in America with $68 billion in sales last year received a $157 million tax refund check from the IRS and, over the past three years, it received a $134 million tax break from the oil and gas manufacturing tax deduction. (Source: the company's 2009 annual report, pg. 112, here.)
7) Goldman Sachs in 2008 only paid 1.1 percent of its income in taxes even though it earned a profit of $2.3 billion and received an almost $800 billion from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department. (Source: Bloomberg News here, ProPublica here, Treasury Department here.)
8) Citigroup last year made more than $4 billion in profits but paid no federal income taxes. It received a $2.5 trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury. (Source: Paul Buchheit, professor, DePaul University, here, ProPublica here, Treasury Department here.)
9) ConocoPhillips, the fifth largest oil company in the United States, made $16 billion in profits from 2006 through 2009, but received $451 million in tax breaks through the oil and gas manufacturing deduction. (Sources: Profits can be found here. The deduction can be found on the company's 2010 SEC 10-K report to shareholders on 2009 finances, pg. 127, here)
10) Over the past five years, Carnival Cruise Lines made more than $11 billion in profits, but its federal income tax rate during those years was just 1.1 percent. (Source: The New York Times here)

Shame, shame, shame on Komen

This is for all the anti-choice, anti-women people out there.
Listen up.

You can spend every minute of every day trying to force the rest of us to live by your ideology. You can go after federal funds for health care and pressure private organizations like the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation to stop funding breast cancer screenings for poor women. You can try to make it impossible to get birth control.

But you know what you can't do? You can't win. You can't break us. Planned Parenthood isn't just a family of organizations. It's a movement. It's women and men of all ages who believe that health care — including reproductive health care — is a basic human right. We are millions strong. We are everywhere. We act, we give, and we do whatever it takes to make sure that Planned Parenthood is there for the women, men, and teens who rely on them.

Know this: When you go after Planned Parenthood and the people they serve, you go after ME. I stand with Planned Parenthood. I stand with them against anyone who wants to stop women from receiving the health care they need. I stand with them today, tomorrow, and for as long as I need to.

PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION HERE

Working Class Hero-John Lennon

NFL players statement: 'No to RTW'

NFL players statement: 'No to RTW'
As NFL players, we know our success on the field comes from working together as a team. We’re not just a team of football players—we’re also the fans at games and at home, the employees who work the concession stands and the kids who wear the jerseys of our favorite football heroes. NFL players know what it means to fight for workers’ rights, better pensions and health and safety in the workplace.

To win, we have to work together and look out for one another. Today, even as the city of Indianapolis is exemplifying that teamwork in preparing to host the Super Bowl, politicians are looking to destroy it trying to ram through so-called “right-to-work” legislation.

“Right-to-work” is a political ploy designed to destroy basic workers’ rights. It’s not about jobs or rights, and it’s the wrong priority for Indiana.

The facts are clear—according to a January 2012 Economic Policy Institute briefing report (“Working Hard to Make Indiana Look Bad”), “right-to-work” will lower wages for a worker in Indiana by $1,500 a year because it weakens the ability of working families to work together, and it will make it less likely that working people will get health care and pensions.

So-called “right-to-work” bills divide working families at a time when communities need to stand united. We need unity—not division. We urge legislators in Indiana to oppose “right-to-work” efforts, and focus instead on job creation.

As Indianapolis proudly prepares to host the Super Bowl it should be a time to shine in the national spotlight and highlight the hard-working families that make Indiana run instead of launching political attacks on their basic rights. It is important to keep in mind the plight of the average Indiana worker and not let them get lost in the ceremony and spectacle of such a special event. This Super Bowl should be about celebrating the best of what Indianapolis has to offer, not about legislation that hurts the people of Indiana.
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MS, Vitamin D and Viruses...a MUST SEE!