#Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Ayar announced that President Trump will sign an executive order declaring that it is "the policy of the United States" that people with preexisting conditions will be protected. Ayar admitted that the order holds no legal weight. In 2017, Trump wrote an executive order that allowed for the sale of junk plans that would have raised costs for those with preexisting conditions. Trump has made many promises that a health care plan that will cover preexisting conditions and cost less will be coming shortly. Before the 2018 general election, he predicted that the health care plan would be rolled out shortly after the election, and then as the election neared, he said it might be enacted "before" the election. He made the same claim in an ABC townhall on September 15, and continues to promise a health care plan if he is reelected.
#Kali Holloway, "Back Trans Lives Matter," The Nation, August 10/17, 2020.
"While a quarter of white trans- and gender-nonconforming people report being treated disrespectfully during interactions with police, that figure skyrockets to 47 percent among Black trans- and gender-nonconforming people, according to a 2011 report by the National Center for Transgender Equality." "Nearly one-third of Black trans- and gender-nonconforming people who have spent anytime in jail or prison, report being physically assaulted there."
#Eric Alterman, "Ad Nauseated," The Nation, August 10/17, 2020.
"With an estimated 2.6 billion users and $70 billion in annual profits, it [Facebook] is the most effective purveyor in history of right-wing hate, bias, lies and incitement against vulnerable people and the planet." "Most negative information (62%) was about Democrats or liberals." Tim Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School, has said: "Facebook can, by tinkering with its rules for political ads, gives itself a special, unregulated power over elections."
#Rachel Rebouche, "Reasoning About Abortion," The Nation, August 10/17, 2020.
In its 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Louisiana law must be struck down because the requirement that abortion doctors must have admitting privileges at hospitals, would have closed all but one clinic in the state, presenting a significant obstacle to pregnant women seeking abortions.
In his majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts reiterated that "Louisiana women have already difficulty affording or arranging for transportation and childcare on their days of clinic visits, and that increased travel distance would exasperate this difficulty."
#Elie Mystal, "Playing a Long Con," The Nation, August 10/17, 2020.
"Roberts is entirely willing to adopt the hardline Republican agenda; he's just unwilling to embrace harebrained conservatives on the court [who] are ideologically dedicated to ending abortion by any means necessary."
#Republican lawmakers are calling a lawsuit brought by New York City Attorney General Letitia James on August 6 against the National Rifle Association for "fraud and abuse." House Minority Whip Steve Scalise tweeted: "Violent crime is skyrocketing in NYC, while New York's Democratic Attorney General focused on launching politically motivated attacks against the Second Amendment & NRA. Make no mistake. Making it harder for law-abiding Americans to defend themselves is the far-left's agenda."
#Oliva B. Maxman, "The uncertain future of places..." TIME, June 8, 2020.
"Based on a survey of 760 museum directors released July 22, the American Alliance of Museums says one-third of institutions are not confident that they will survive past the next 16 months, and the same number expect to lose 40% or more of their budgeted operating incomes for 2020."
#Abigail Abrams, "80 years after a landmark disability law..." TIME, June 8, 2020.
"The majority of disabled Americans still struggle to find jobs, most affordable housing is still not accessible, and disabled Americans, as a group, experience much higher rates of poverty and incarceration." "Disability-related complaints remain the largest category filed with the federal agencies that enforce fair housing, and employment laws, and many businesses and institutions remain inaccessible."
"Access to employment, one of the central promises of the ADA, is perhaps most out of reach. Disabled people are still roughly twice as likely as nondisabled Americans to be unemployed and to live in poverty, and these numbers have persisted over time."
#"Space Force," page 61, TIME, June 8, 2020.
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated it would cost up to $3 billion in one-time expenses over the next five years to set up the Space Force, and an additional $1 billion or so to set up the new management and administrative positions.
"Space Force is still seen as a joke by many Americans." "Russia and China say it is the U.S. that is militarizing space. Both have lashed out about the creation of the Space Force as a violation of the international consensus on the peaceful use of outer space, which may undermine global strategic balance and stability." The 1967 Outer Space Treaty forbids countries from deploying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction. President Trump is intent on turning space into "a war-fighting domain." He is just violating another treaty.
ADDENDUMS:
*On September 1, 2020, survivors of the 1921 Tulsa race massacres and their descendants filed a lawsuit against the city of Tulsa which has never compensated victims of the brutal event in which white mobs burned down more than 1,200 homes and killed as many as 300 people.
*Definition of Socialism: It is the theory or system of the ownership and operations of the means of production and distribution by society or the community rather than by private individuals, with all members of the society or the community sharing in the work and the production.
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