In the "Are you kidding me?" category:Curt Schilling says he lost Hall of Fame votes because he is a Republican. Check out this account on the Hardball blog. Not even sure where to start on this one... missing stephen colbert on comedy central?Introducing 1% News Network - the best news money can buy.
"Media experts say that the ideological right will always have a lock on the emotions of fear and resentment, and, that the rest of America will always enjoy a similar monopoly on satire and humor. If this is true, then we should make it our goal to engage as many Americans as possible in the latter, while luring as many as possible away from the former. We’ve observed over the past 30 years how hate-based political content can turn its consumers into reliable voters, activists, and opinion makers. The makers of humorous and satirical political content should do the same." ~ Eric Byler Eric further explains that the 1%NN is a framework in which to explore organizations and causes seeking economic and social justice... and to re-engage an American public that has come to see politics as impossibly corrupt. OK, so its not Stephen Colbert - but the Walmart segment (linked above) and Moral Mondays - the Musical will make you smile. Interesting article from the Washington Post - and of course NH gets a mention.
Republicans in state governments plan juggernaut of conservative legislation For a quicker, interesting read, check out John DiStaso's Granite Reports: So Many 2015 Questions Begging for Answers And you probably don't even need to read beyond the title on this one, but feel free: A House divided: O’Brien appoints own leadership team, may set up separate House GOP office from NH Journal.com. Last year, New Hampshire’s enrollment in health insurance plans offered through HealthCare.gov topped out at 40,262 – more than double initial projections. About half of those people enrolled during the final 45 days of the open enrollment period.
While only one carrier was available on the marketplace in New Hampshire last year, four additional insurance providers have joined to offer plans for 2015. And while some hospitals were not covered through the options offered last year, each of the state’s 26 hospitals is included on at least three insurance networks under this year’s plans. See the Concord Monitor article here. And, you can read about the end-of-year press release from Governor Hassan about the final enrollment in NH Medicaid (NH Health Protection Program) at this Vermont website. There were more than 30,000 enrollments in NH expanded Medicaid through Dec. 31st. Yeah, it takes Vermont to pick up that story... Follow legislation and budgeting in Concord, how our local legislators vote and the bills they sponsor.My resolution is to read the calendars each week, follow the budgeting and voting, and post summaries here. Your part is to follow along. Stay informed. Talk to others, your friends, spouse or neighbors. Talk to each other! Maybe even write a LTE? Why not? Live a little! No need to worry what others might think or say, or maybe that is exactly the reason to write the LTE! In the inimitable words of Taylor Swift, "the haters gonna hate - baby I'm just gonna shake it off!"
Today the new calendars should be out for the NH House and Senate. As they are posted I will try to keep you all updated on this blog. You check the calendars, bill text, roll call votes, etc too - just go to the NH General Court website. Y'all come back now, ya hear? So, there's a Resolution I was leading up to with my last post... then I remembered the Resolution on the home page our Windems site - and they are both important. So, today you get one, tomorrow the other - stay tuned!
Taking the lead from yesterday, here is Resolution #1 - posed as a question: How are YOU going to end the system of corruption in Washington? We had Lawrence Lessig speak at a Windems meeting last year. He laid out the case for why action is required, how it can and will work and why NH is uniquely situated to effect this change. Re/watch his TED talk to get up to speed. His first TED talk is great as well - Lesterland! Same topic, earlier on, more background info on the why and how of this approach - before NHRebellion was on the scene. Now he is working with NHRebellion (www.nhrebellion.org), a grassroots organization to educate and energize NH citizens to engage with the 2016 presidential primary candidates with the exact question posed above. This month, NHR is organizing several walks from the far reaches of the state, meeting in Concord on the 21st. I will be walking three of the four days covering the distance from Nashua to Concord. I have a modest fundraising goal - you can contribute here. You can register to walk one or more days here or to join the event in Concord on the 21st. Why walk? Why not? It raises awareness. Through awareness we educate. Money in Politics - and out of the general fund...It is the end of the year, so those of us who do deductions on our taxes are running the mental checklist of donations and other deductions to be completed before the calendar turns to another year. My deductions don't even register as a pittance compared with those of corporations - both in scope and in percentage of earnings.
I recently came across an article from Rolling Stone magazine from a few months ago talking about inversions - American companies that buy out smaller foreign companies in order to claim their citizenship - and avoid US taxes. In the words of President Obama, these companies, "don't want to give up ... all the advantages of operating in the United States. They just don't want to pay for it." The quote from the article that really got me? "Last year the IRS finally collected more in tax receipts than it did before the crash in 2007... (but) Corporations paid nearly $100 billion less in federal income taxes last year than before the Great Recession... corporate profits and corporate tax collections are now trending in opposite directions. Profits were up $93 billion last year - to a high of $2.1 trillion, according to the Commerce Department. Yet corporate tax payments actually fell last year by more than $15 billion." So, wages are flat, corporate profits are up, corporate taxes are down but tax collections are up. Someone is paying the increase in tax collections! That means that while corporations are seeing increased profits and paying less taxes, you and I are shouldering the tax burden without seeing an increase in pay. Check out the article, The Biggest Tax Scam Ever. Journalist Tim Dickinson explains it all way better than I can, including how the corporate tax reductions are perpetrated. Leading us to... a New Year's Resolution! Robert Reich's 2014 in Review"If we give up on politics we give up on our democracy. If we give up on democracy, we don't stand a chance." ~ Robert Reich This is one of those videos to remind you why we bother with politics - even when it is hard, or tiring or maybe not successful in our neck of the woods. Take a minute (ok, 2 1/2 minutes) to view this, you will be glad you did. |
AuthorA collection of perspectives, quotes, writings, tweets and clips that got me thinking - so I'm passing them along to you ~ Kristi - Windems Chair Archives
June 2015
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