JaneAusten

For anyone who's interested, indivisibleguide.com is as they say a practical guide to resisting the Trump agenda. We had many copies of this printed out at the ACA rally Sunday and they all got picked up but we also had little magnetic business cards setup called "THE RESISTANCE" How to fight the Trump Agenda with a couple of links to where to find more info. One of the links is to this guide: https://www.indivisibleguide.com/ It's a good starting point for people who want to get involved and don't know what to do. And it uses the rise of the Tea Party and the Anti Obama agenda that was used as a basis for it as a starting point. It also has a link to many local groups and if you're looking for one, you just need to key in your postal code and the site presents a list of orgs locally. The thing about using the rise of the Tea Party is that it encouraged a grass roots approach and starting as the lowest levels in your community and states to gain visibility, traction, and control. I am going to women's march in Chicago and am a marshall for it and with the 55 degree sunny weather, they are expecting a turnout of close to 60,000 people. Plus there are 120 buses from Illinois that are going to Washington for the march.

I agree with all this and AMEN the industry needs massive reform but there is not one person in our political system either party with the guts to lead that effort. ANd there is a huge lobby in Washington. One reason Medicare actually works is that providers who accept it agree to the limits and such that are put in place also. Personally I believe healthcare is a right to every citizen and while I think the government needs to provide it, in this climate probably not. On the flip side I will ask you that old policy you had, did you use it, did it actually cover any healthcare costs you experienced? Would you have been covered in the event you suffered a catastrophic illness? If the answer is no, then doesn't that kind of answer how valuable that 200 dollars a month being spent on the policy was? And for ACA advocates, call your congressperson but also call 3 GOPers - Rand Paul, Lemar Alexander, Bob Corker are the top 3 add in Susan Collins, Cotton, Collins, and Murkowski.

And that's the key is getting people registered and getting them to vote. EVERY YEAR. Because there are elections every year not just every 2 years or 4 years. Frankly not teaching civics in school anymore has been a big detriment to a generation of people who only care about reality TV.

While I agree with you to a great extent, I think many of them just don't know what to do. THey look at MLK's history and think that everything was changed due to marches and think well I'll march now. And we know the marches didn't change anything. It was their tenaciousness, the boycotts, voter drives, fighting voter intimidation tactics, etc that mattered. I think the marches and gatherings are great to generate attention and enthusiasm but the question becomes where to go from there. And honestly most don't know. THey need to be led. In fact they crave to be led. I was at a Suit Up meeting last week where the room was overflowing and people were begging for direction. One woman stood up and literally said to talk to people. And that's it. And while I understood what she was saying, it's not a very effective motivational tactic. Talk to them exactly about what. The organizer got control and the group was finally divided up into subgroups with people leading them who have experience. I was at the ACA meeting/demonstration on Sunday in Chicago and we had a table setup asking people to help and giving them information on how to best protest including phone numbers, fax numbers, addresses to write to, scripts to help them when they call, and followup actions. We got a ton of people signing up so we'll see if that translates to real help. I do think the ACA pressure is getting attention. Will it change anything at this point? Maybe not but maybe so.

No offense as someone who had to purchase on the free market before but what was so grand about it? You honestly believe without the ACA things would have stayed the same? The ACA didn't cause the cost increases the greedy insurance companies, who will apparently again be allowed to turn away millions, do. Employers were regularly searching for cheaper options each year, What was once an employee benefit, those costs have also been passed down to employees, and that started years before the ACA. Again going back is not an option because there is and never would have been a going back that would be sustainable. And women again will be allowed to be penalized and charged more for their gender simply because we are women. And yeah that's also what existed before.

So the Center on Budget and Public Priorities (non partisan) released a report this AM showing the catastrophic result of overturning the ACA. First is, and I chuckle while I cry) that premiums will double once repealed while the top 1% get 7 million dollars on average in tax breaks a year. And young people will suffer the most as their premiums will increase as much if not more. People didn't want to listen. This is coming from someone who was self employed for years and knows how expensive health coverage was for non employer plans for years. It's only going to be worse now and employer plans will continue to be downgraded also.

I don't know where you are looking but the average salary for a front desk clerk nowdays is around $18,000 - yr. I don't find that in any way a real living wage and I would assume in areas where the COL is low, that salary is actually lower as that is an average. Ask your president elect why he insists on using H1B Visa's to bring in non American workers and has no issue paying them low wages. It's the question of the real greedy elistist's, you know the ones who cheat people and have no issue putting people in poverty or screwing them to get one more penny to answer to, not any of us. And seriously give it up on the Hillary stuff. You sound like every other Trump or Sanders supporter in every other venue/forum who can't come up with anything that makes them stand out other than saying how bad and awful she is. She lost and is likely out of politics. You have to come up with a new scapegoat. And now you goto my ignore list. Lee Greenwood sihging yet again "God Bless the USA", as he's done for last 4 GOP country destroying presidents(minus GHWB I guess). So there has been roughly 200 bus permits applied for, for the Trump inauguration, 1300 for the women's march the following day. And for anyone keeping track, Obama's first inauguration - 3,000 bus permits were applied for. Yeah we elitists all take buses wherever we go.

Paul Ryan is f*cking hypocrite because he was a recipient of Social Security for years up until he graduated from college as his father died when he was young.

Talk to your incoming president who is one of the biggest abusers of H1B Visa's and an advocate of continuing to increase them along with the rest of the GOP. Your political party is the one who keeps increasing the number being issued each year while corporations bastardize the process saying these are for jobs "Americans can't fill". Guess what. Because they have done it so long, those hotel jobs are not jobs American's want because since they are being filled with legal immigrants, people who will accept pennies, Americans don't want them. These jobs pay minimum wage and I am talking the current minimum wage these same people you support want to decrease. I haven't heard Trump once talk about limiting these Visas or increasing the minimum wage. Oh wait to a measly 10/hr. I have a real issue with all of this and how corporatists have bastardized the H1B process. I also have an issue with them using H1B Visas to bring in technology workers, replacing Americans at a lower pay-scale. Same thing. Americans cost too much so lets replace them with cheap workers. Not only have they crushed the hotel service industry with this, but they are now crushing the technology industry, one which was and still is to some extent white collar but soon will be just another "service" profession downgraded by making these jobs expendable and cheap. Remember all those Disney workers fired recently? Yep they were replaced by cheap H1B tech workers from various Asian countries. But I hear not one word about any of this. I have zero issue with Asians or Asian workers what I have an issue with is replacing American workers just to pay cheaper labor which is exactly what they are doing. It's not that Americans can't fill those jobs it's that Americans demand fair pay.

So apparently the incoming POTUS is having to hire paid seat fillers at the inauguration. http://perezhilton.com/2017-01-14-donald-trump-inauguration-paid-seat-fillers-reports-twitter-job-creator Also ^^ there have been rallies all day today organized by OURREVOLUTION(yes Bernie) on the ACA. I am at the one in Chicago and there are people standing in line who could not get into the venue. I was going to suggest you also see if your congressman or senators have any townhalls setup and GOTO them with your story. Face to face dialogue does matter.

Thanks for sharing Tried sending you a PM with some info about the ACA but I got a message back saying you can't receive messages. Maybe I can message me and I can respond.

You know I am no conspiracy theorist - I do believe Russian propaganda was used in our election, but Moscow News is reporting that the Chief of Staff to Putin associate Igor Sechin - the one who met w/Trump aide Carter Page - was found dead in Russia. Could all be coincidence but it does make one wonder. This was back in December. https://themoscowtimes.com/news/top-rosneft-exec-found-dead-in-moscow-56649

You are NOT being annoying. Don't ever think that. But I do believe if worst case happens and it goes, the blue states will band together and create their own marketplace. And honestly I do think states like Ohio and Wisconsin could easily opt to be part of that. In fact they may already have. I have an ACA committee meeting tomorrow evening and I'll find out there and who you can contact in Ohio.

There are several states talking about partnering to create their own marketplace if this were to happen. I'll get that information for you and if Kasich is a supporter, he'd push for it I expect.

We knew they were going to try this. Keep calling and writing. Let your senators know you are watching them Portman especially can be an ally. Is Ohio one of the states talking about partnering with other states to create their own marketplace? I can find out for you.

He should he investigated for doing basically nothing to date with allegations of foreign ties to a potential president. Seriously does it matter? He should resign and someone else needs to be in charge. He clearly has lost control over the agency, if he every had it to begin with.

Yep. I mean obviously TIllerson's nomination is an indirect help to Russia. Exxon Mobil can't drill in Russia now hindering them due to sanctions against them. But I honestly believe Putin's main objective was to help get that buffoon into the Whitehouse to cause the US to lose stature and credibility around the world and to hinder democracy and other democracies. I don't think there is any kind of desire for world domination. Russia is not Nazi Germany and their economy is barely the size of Italy.

I'm glad you mentioned Rumsfeld because that's what that PC reminded me of.

I don't even think it's about taking over. It's about making the US weak by getting an idiot as president in place. Bush was bad but even he didn't turn on the intelligence community or the press even with criticism. All Putin has to do now is sit back and watch all of this play out. We could disintegrate in front of the world with no one lifting a finger now.

Of course we are. And Putin IMO already achieved what he wanted which was to make the US look like a blithering mess to the world by putting this idiot in charge. And forget our stature. I am terrified this nutcase is going to unleash a nuclear bomb on his own country. The worse part of this is he came out again attacking the intelligence community and praising Russia which just means the leaks will continue and our stature around the world continue to disintegrate.

So John McCain has come out and said he was in possession of that information and turned it over to the FBI last year. If the MI-6 agent is a well respected former official - an expert on Russia, how hard could it be for the FBI to substantiate a lot of what the report contained. Especially the part about Trump's attorney meeting with RIA officials in Prague last year. TO me that would have been one of the easiest items to verify. There were reports last year that foreign intelligence services were all wary of Trump due to his pro Russia stance and were suspicious as to whether Putin had anything on Trump, as that's his tactic, so there were varied intelligence agencies around the world who were putting effort in to discover if anything was there.

I am in tears. President Obama has been an extraordinary President and even a more exceptional man. It's not even about his accomplishments, it's about his honesty, dignity, and especially his love for this country and it's ideals. People don't know yet how much he will be missed. We haven't had a president with this kind of decency since Jimmy Carter.

Holy crap I didn't hear that one. I did hear this arrangement went back 5 years ago. And that is was an arrangement between Putin and Trump to undermine democracies around the world. Another democratic victory - maybe a smaller one They succeeded in delaying the confirmation hearings on the cabinet members until ethics checks complete. I guess today was considered a disaster for the GOP https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/10/us/politics/donald-trump-cabinet-nominations.html?_r=0 Who is reporting this?

If anything needed to be investigated it was the Bush administrations ignoring of intelligence forewarning 9/11 and also where the lie about the Weapons of Mass destruction in Iraq originated causing an invasion and loss of at least 4,000 more American lives. Hey but who cares. It was a republican so it doesn't matter.

I honestly think it would have been disclosed at some point maybe a couple of years down the road who knows. Why? Because I honestly don't believe secrets last in Washington. That's why I will never buy that JFK was killed by anyone other than Lee Harvey Oswald. But at least he would have had the intelligence community trying to protect his interests. And the fact that the GOP is content to allow the leader of our country open to blackmail is treason IMO.