In the six months since the big ugly orange man has been back in the oval office, he’s done considerable damage to our democracy. It seems as if cruelty is the point with this administration. Trump doubled down on the cruelty when he signed that massive Big Ugly bill into law on the 4th of July!
On July 3rd, the Social Security Administration became a PR tool for the orange dumpster when it sent out a grossly misleading email to all beneficiaries (and posted the identical notice to its website at the same time).
One of the big lies in that gaslighting message was that this bill (now law) would eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits. Because this is what I do here, I wanted to get to the truth about exactly what this big ugly piece of legislation will do to our seniors and the healthcare of all citizens, I invited Alex Lawson, executive director of Social Security Works back to the show to help clear up the confusion, debunk the lies and explain just how dire the situation is.
So, most of today’s vacation episode is spent with Alex, who cuts through the bullshit and brings us the hard, cold facts. It’s all bad, but we need to know what they are trying to do to us. Without the truth, we can’t effectively fight back and stand up for our rights.
We had a few minutes left over in the hour, and I didn’t want to leave us feeling hopeless. So I dug back into my archives to keep hope alive!
Seriously! I’ve only spoken with Jesse Jackson once in my life. It was October 4, 2010. I was guest-hosting The Thom Hartmann Show when the call screener told me that Jesse Jackson was on the phone. It hadn’t been pre-arranged. He was just listening and decided to call in!
I dropped what I was doing and went to the phones to speak with the civil rights leader, founder and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the man who is intent on Keeping Hope Alive. Unfortunately, he was calling in from a cell phone with a bad signal, but I wasn’t about to hang up on Jesse Jackson! Thankfully, I was able to understand most of what he was saying…
Tomorrow is my last vacation day before I return to my studio on Thursday and will resume the live show.
Here’s today’s show via YouTube, but it is audio only…
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