Recent Comments

1. about 6 hours ago on Chip Bok

   Why is Trump still walking around free, demanding special treatment and threatening any and everyone and encouraging his followers to intimidate judges, juries and witnesses, with a private jet sitting in his driveway and North Korea et al salivating at the chance to have him live there in luxury for the rest of his life, laughing at the inept American “justice” system? If he had tried to pull his crap in any of the countries he so admires, he would have been out a high rise window within a week.

2. about 6 hours ago on Eric Allie
   There is no way of knowing what we have lost with our policy of not giving every person their best opportunity to achieve whatever they can. It is detrimental to the entire human race, not just to the individual. And, it isn’t just that the mind that could have discovered the cure for cancer could have been born in poverty and never learned to read.

   The average college graduate pays more in federal taxes very year of their working life than the average high school graduate. If that’s divided by the 4 years it takes to get a college education, and public schools were free, those additional taxes would pay for the cost of college, with a net gain for total income taxes paid. THE REST OF US WOULDN’T HAVE TO PAY MORE TAXES, IN FACT THE NET EFFECT WOULD BE A TAX PLUS. This doesn’t even consider that with the degree, the person is less likely to ever need unemployment or welfare, and that more students would complete high school if they could see it as the way to a good job. They would also be paying a larger amount in all other types of taxes, social security and Medicare.

   The best investment we could make to keep America strong is to not just forgive all student loans but to make all public higher education, including trade schools, etc totally free There is no better way to spend money than, to give our people every opportunity to be the best they can be. Yes, It’s good for them individually, but the country is made up of individuals, so what’s good for one is good for the country

3. about 6 hours ago on Joey Weatherford

   While employers squeeze workers and their unions for cuts to health care and other benefits, the CEOs of major corporations now make nearly 400 times more than their average employees, the largest employer-worker gap in our history. While 60 percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck– with three multi-billionaires owning more wealth than the bottom half.

   If you are wondering why we continue to pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, you should know that Pfizer has increased its profits by 42 percent so far this year to $26.4 billion.

   Gasoline? Profits of Exxon Mobil, Chevron, BP and Shell skyrocketed by 169 percent so far this year to $125 billion. They are spending over $73 billion not to reduce gas prices at the pump but to buy back their own stock and increase dividends to their wealthy stockholders.

   Groceries? Global food prices skyrocketed by over 33 percent last year and are expected to go up another 23 percent this year. Billionaires in the global food and agri-business industry became $382 billion richer during the pandemic.

   Covid actually did cause problems that could be used as an excuse to raise prices. Once those prices were raised, they aren’t coming down unless people stop buying and there is a glut of product that has to be addresses by lowing them. Since people are going to buy groceries, meds and gas as long as they possibly can, the rich will get richer while the middle class gives up everything but these necessities.

4. about 6 hours ago on Pedro X. Molina

   It does make me nervous that she did it but it makes me a lot more nervous she thought it would be a good thing to put in a book designed to make people vote for her.

5. 2 days ago on Gary Varvel

   Very true. The president has some control over the national debt, but so does congress. In fact, it’s mostly congress. Blaming inflation, debt etc on the current president is ignoring the fact that this is an ongoing operation, about 250 years old now, and every decision made since then has changed what can be done by whoever is currently sitting in the Oval. I am just playing along with the Republican mantra that Democrats are the “tax and spend party”. This isn’t their biggest lie but it is a consistent and harmful one.

6. 2 days ago on Lola
   Neither party is squeaky clean. The difference between a bribe and a campaign contribution is mostly in the mind of the person doing the donating. That’s the way the game is played and no one gets to the federal level who doesn’t know how to play the game. It simply isn’t possible to win if you don’t play at least a little bit dirty, or pretend not to notice when other people do it for you, because you put yourself at too much of a disadvantage against the multitude of people who don’t have those silly scruples.And, you can make the argument that if it’s not illegal, just dishonest and slimy, you kinda have an obligation to do what you expect the other side to do to avoid that disadvantage. So, accept that fact, get past it, and figure out who will be working for you and who will be working against you.All politicians basically work for their own reelection. They may sincerely believe that their being in a position of power helps people they care about, or they may be simply interested in keeping a paying job. The result is the same. The voters need to be informed in order to separate the ones who are interested in helping the middle class from the corporate stooges who can then go get a job with their contributors. If you really want to know who a candidate will be working for, look at a site called “Open Secrets”. There are others, but this is a good one. It will tell you who is financing their campaign. We all have to do the bidding of who ever is supplying the money to pay our bills. So do politicians. If most of their money is coming from individuals, unions, or other organizations representing the Middle Class, that is who they are going to work for. If most of their money is from banks, etc, they are going to work for the 1%. They don’t really have any choice if they want to win the next election. To vote their conscience against the 1% would be political suicide.
7. 2 days ago on Gary Varvel

   When the Republicans have the White House they run up the debt. When Busch 1 began running up the debt, Chaney explained “Reagan has proven that Deficits Don’t Matter". They only become an issue for Republicans when a Democrat is in the White House and the bills need to be paid. Then they do this charade so that they can blame the Democrats and make points for the next election.

   Reagan took the deficit from 70 billion to 175 billion.

   Bush 41 took it to 300 billion.

   Clinton got it to zero.

   Bush 43 took it from 0 to 1.2 trillion.

   Obama halved it to 600 billion.

   Trump got it back to a trillion.

   Biden reduced it $350 billion his first year in office. And the budget office expects to see it drop by another 1 trillion, 500 billion dollars – the largest drop ever. This is despite a $1.9 Trillion pandemic relief package. The Republicans screamed about this at the time, but it is credited with funding a faster recovery than anywhere else in the world, and actually decreasing the debt further.

8. 2 days ago on Jack Ohman

   The small government only applies to what companies do, what you do in your bedroom is everybody’s business.

9. 3 days ago on Zack Hill

   While employers squeeze workers and their unions for cuts to health care and other benefits, the CEOs of major corporations now make nearly 400 times more than their average employees, the largest employer-worker gap in our history. While 60 percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck– with three multi-billionaires owning more wealth than the bottom half.

   If you are wondering why we continue to pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, you should know that Pfizer has increased its profits by 42 percent so far this year to $26.4 billion.

   Gasoline? Profits of Exxon Mobil, Chevron, BP and Shell skyrocketed by 169 percent so far this year to $125 billion. They are spending over $73 billion not to reduce gas prices at the pump but to buy back their own stock and increase dividends to their wealthy stockholders.

   Groceries? Global food prices skyrocketed by over 33 percent last year and are expected to go up another 23 percent this year. Billionaires in the global food and agri-business industry became $382 billion richer during the pandemic.

   Covid actually did cause problems that could be used as a reasonably valid excuse to raise prices. Once those prices were raised, they aren’t coming down unless people stop buying and there is a glut that has to be addressed by lowering them. The only alternative is regulating prices.

10. 3 days ago on Bill Bramhall

    If Trump actually ever realized what he was doing, he would probably be so ashamed he would commit suicide.