The American way of life is under attack. This is an internal operation in the hands of a weak president who is afraid of the future and unable to fulfill his duties. Firing the top people in his cabinet to bring others pledging loyalty, Trump pretends to run America. Corporations and special interest groups, not the people of the US, are in control of our government. Massive tax cuts for the top 20 percent of Americans, falsely sold as job creation and benefits for everyone ignore the national debt. Minorities, seniors, and children are at high risk. The efforts of the US Arkansas Congressional Delegation to explain false solutions are insulting.
“After eight years of democratic government, it took a short time to dismantle the balance of power in the branches of government, fair elections, an independent judiciary, a free media, and a civil society that could work with the government instead of living in fear of it. The national economy was changed to champion oil and gas, and banking sectors. Let’s steal together, has been the motto, using executive orders to move massive amounts of money into the pockets of those wielding power.” This is how the Russian chess grandmaster Gary Kasparov describes in his book Winter is Coming, what a former KGB agent did to become the most powerful man in the world. This seems strikingly similar to what Trump has done in his first year and explains Trump’s admiration for Vladimir Putin.
It may seem nothing gets done in Washington, but behind the chaos, Trump and the GOP have changed our democratic system of government. Blaming the world for US domestic problems, Trump has taken erratic, impulsive measures. Trump is no longer relevant. Let’s dig in.
Mass deportations
Mass deportations using private for-profit detention centers and thousands of agents will damage farming and construction sectors and keep away the top talent of the future.
Mass incarcerations
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is not Mr. Magoo. The name seems to fit, an affluent, elderly, myopic, and bumbling character. But Sessions is a cruel, racist devil who enjoys mass deportation and rolling back Obama protections for immigrants.
Sessions addressed the International Association of Chiefs of Police last week. Sessions mentioned a decline in federal prison populations and said, “We’ve got some space to put some people.” Federal prosecutors are “eager to be unleashed, to charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense in drug cases, even when that would trigger mandatory minimum sentencing.” Sessions retracted an Obama-era guidance to state courts to end debtors’ prisons, where people who are too poor to pay fines are sent.
Mental health care, medical marijuana
The lame response to the opioid epidemic has been to penalize the use of medical marijuana and suggest the death penalty for drug dealers. Protecting Big Pharma while people die is insane. The use of medical marijuana is endorsed by medical professionals, without the harm from opioids to protect the supply chain. Suggesting the death penalty is a cowardly response to a medical epidemic, people do not choose to be addicts, or have cancer.
No more prisons
US prisons are overcrowded and understaffed, manned by officers who often don’t last long at the prison before quitting due to burnout, forced overtime and poor wages. The problem has been exacerbated by the closing of state-run treatment centers. Incarceration is not the solution.
GOP ignores the people
The combined results of import tariffs to increase treasury revenues, mining leases on national monuments, and offshore deep water drilling leases, as well as welfare cuts on food stamps, disability aid regulations, Meals-on Wheels, Arts and Science programs… along with higher taxes and consumer prices, are war on Americans.
A nation of dreamers
We are not afraid, we are dreamers and we rise. During the March for Our Lives, MLK’s granddaughter, Yolanda King, inspired the crowd: “I have a dream that enough is enough, and this should be a gun-free world. Period. Spread the word. Have you heard? All across the nation. We are going to be a great generation.”
Dr. Luis Contreras
The Justice Department announced a new federal policy to help state and local police take cash and property from people suspected of a crime, even without a criminal charge, reversing an Obama administration rule prompted by past abuse by police.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/sessions-greenlights-police-to-increase-seizures-of-cash-and-property-from-suspected-criminals/2017/07/19/3522a9ba-6c99-11e7-96ab-5f38140b38cc_story.html
Mental health care and the opioid epidemic
People have the right to live happy, productive and healthy lives. Incarcerating those suffering from mental illness or drug addiction are cruel, ineffective ways to help our brothers and sisters. The US has the highest number of inmates in the world with private, high-profit prisons.
Big Pharma and Insurance industries profit from human suffering. Americans have poor health, lax environmental regulations, and low-quality, high-cost health care. There are better solutions: medical marijuana is a safe way to treat the opioid epidemic, rehabilitation community centers create thousands of jobs for compassionate health professionals.
February 2018 — New York City’s, filed in New York state supreme court on January 23, 2018, goes after Purdue Pharma, creator of OxyContin, Endo, maker of Percocet and Cephalon Inc. (now part of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries) which manufactures fentanyl lozenges, among others.
“More New Yorkers have died from opioid overdoses than car crashes and homicides combined in recent years,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said, announcing the lawsuit. “‘Big Pharma’ helped to fuel this epidemic by deceptively peddling these dangerous drugs and hooking millions.”
In 2017, the Trump administration promised to produce some “really tough, really big, really great advertising” to persuade Americans to “Just Say No,” according to the New York Times. But Trump has so far offered little in the way of funding for the communities harmed by the opioid epidemic, which killed nearly 64,000 U.S. citizens in 2016.
Instead, Trump has attempted to pass trillion-dollar cuts to Medicaid and proposed slashing the Office of National Drug Control Policy by 95 percent
It’s in this federal environment that cities have decided to sue – en masse.
More than 60 U.S. cities have filed lawsuits against the makers of prescription pain killers like OxyContin, Percocet, and fentanyl. In late January, New York and Philadelphia joined their growing ranks.
https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/more-than-60-us-cities-suing-big-pharma-over-opiods