Also on today’s menu:
More Israeli Hostages Released
Health Care Again Under Attack
No thanks. It’s revenge that Donald Trump had in mind when he posted his Thanksgiving Day message.
Actor Robert DeNiro had a few choice words to say about today’s political world during his speech at the Gotham Awards in New York City on November 27 — a speech in which he was to announce that Martin Scorsese’s Apple film, “Killers of the Flower Moon” in which he starred with Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone, was the recipient of the Historical Icon and Creator Tribute award. As he took the stage, DeNiro realized that Apple had cut out parts of his prepared speech, so he reinserted the censored statements:
History isn’t history anymore. Truth isn’t truth, and even facts are being replaced by alternative facts and driven by conspiracy theories and ugliness. In Florida, young students are taught that slaves developed skills that could be applied for their personal benefit. The entertainment industry isn’t immune to this festering disease. The Duke, John Wayne, famously said of Native Americans, “I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.”
Lying has become just another tool in the charlatan’s arsenal. The former president lied to us more than 30,000 times during his four years in office, and he’s keeping up the pace with his current campaign of retribution. With all of his lies, he can’t hide his soul. He attacks the weak, destroys the gifts of nature and shows his disrespect for example using Pocahontas as a slur.
Discussion: While Donald Trump was continuing his efforts at circumventing the law and denigrating those who enforce it, President Joe Biden Jr. was engaged in personal diplomacy to achieve the landmark breakthrough in the Israel-Hamas war that has led to the release of some prisoners and the possibility of a further delay in fighting so others can come home. Trump loyalists in the Republican Party sabotaged efforts in the House of Representatives to conduct any business, resulting in House Speaker Mike Johnson calling for a recess until December. It is clear that Democrats are looking to govern while Trump Republicans are out to sabotage the government and end democracy.
More Israeli Hostages Released
Hamas released 11 more Israeli hostages on November 27 in exchange for 33 Palestinians prisoners as the two sides extended a temporary cease-fire that also allows humanitarian aid to reach Gaza.
Hamas took around 240 hostages in its October 7 attack on Israel, killing 1,200 others. Not all were Israelis; some of those released on Monday have dual French, German, and Argentinian citizenship. The total number of hostages released during the cease-fire is 50 Israelis and 19 people of other nationalities. Kibbutz officials said those being released are mothers and children as young as 3 years old whose fathers are still being held in Gaza.
As part of the hostage release agreement, Israel has released Palestinian prisoners, some of whom have never been brought to trial. For every hostage released by Hamas, Israel has been releasing three Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.
Meanwhile, the cease-fire has allowed as many as 200 humanitarian aid trucks carrying food, water, shelter equipment, and medical supplies into the Gaza Strip daily, through the Rafah crossing with Egypt. The United States is the largest contributor of humanitarian aid.
Discussion: There always is the fear that negotiating with terrorists for the release of hostages will lead to more taking of hostages. Practically, however, if those hostages are to be saved, some kind of trade is the best way to proceed. In this case, a covert rescue mission is unlikely to succeed, with Hamas’ network of underground tunnels making it difficult to plan a clear attack and the risk to the hostages’ lives being extremely high. Biden’s approach of working with other countries in the area to act as go-betweens appears to be working, and his administration’s insistence in an outcome that will recognize Israel’s right to exist while also establishing a Palestinian homeland with similar recognition has the potential of settling a problem that has existed since Israel’s establishment.
Health Care Again Under Attack
Former president Donald Trump wants to resume the fight over the Affordable Care Act, saying he is “seriously looking at alternatives” to put in place during a second term.
President Joe Biden’s campaign labeled the proposal as another “extremist” stance and is countering it in battleground states by contrasting Biden’s efforts to reduce drug prices with the effect of Trump’s proposal on those with pre-existing conditions, a central benefit of the ACA.
“Donald Trump is campaigning on a threat to rip away health care from millions of Americans, so we’re going to use every tool in our arsenal to make sure the American people know that lives are literally on the line next November,” said Michael Tyler, communications director for the Biden campaign.
Discussion: In the decades before Congress passed the Affordable Care Act, one of Americans’ biggest complaints was the insurance industry’s withholding of access to life-saving healthcare and its refusal to cover people with “pre-existing” conditions. The ACA, passed by Democrats, addressed most of the concerns, although lobbying by insurance companies watered down the original proposal and Republicans refused to even discuss it. There are areas that can and should be improved by amending the ACA as it currently exists, and Biden has worked to reduce prescription costs, but simply gutting it to replace it with something else is unlikely to achieve something better.
National Gratitude Month
The News Café is among the publications that are “Reader Supported” — a revolutionary approach to publishing in response to the struggle of traditional news and magazine publishers, as well as unreliable social media. Many writers were at a loss as to how to reach their readers as their jobs and publications were eliminated. With the exception of the period of the pandemic, people read less and purchase fewer books.
Substack is a platform that aims to put readers and writers into a direct relationship that is not dependent on algorithms, advertisements, and profits. In traditional publishing, the money you pay a publisher is divided between executives and shareholders, distribution outlets like Amazon and other booksellers, editors, designers, agents, marketing and sales staff, and the cost of production. When you put down $25 for a hardcover book, the author receives between $2.50 and $4. If a successful book sells about 10,000 copies, the author may receive $25,000 for something he or she has spent years writing. Most of the authors you love are not rich. If they are lucky, they are a middle-class bunch, like artists, teachers, and preachers.
With Substack publications, instead of paying a corporation, you directly support the writers you like, who receive about 85 percent of the subscription revenue. For your $50 annual fee, the author gets about $42.50.
Since losing my full-time job during the pandemic, I’ve been a freelancer without a regular salary. Through Substack, I’ve been able to supplement the freelance work and continue my craft while thinking about upcoming projects.
That is why your support through paid subscriptions to the News Café and By The Way are so important. Although News Café posts are available to all subscribers at no charge, I appreciate the financial support for the time and resources it takes to do this work. Please consider “upsubscribing” to a paid subscription.
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Thank you Tom, I must admit that I haven’t been keeping up with your posts (which I appreciate by the way), having a multigenerational family keeps me hopping. Especially this time of year. Living here in Florida has been a trial since DeSantis was re-elected. He seemed to believe that , even people who voted for him, wanted this extreme right agenda. Well, this is not true. He did not run on any platform that suggested he was going to push through such a radical agenda. Our legislators are just puppets. He ignores what is really important to people who live here. Such as the out of sight increase in insurance premiums costs. Both home and auto. The high cost of rents. Our homeless situation. And, a number of other maybe less pocketbook issues, but as important. He likes to say that Florida is the ‘free state’, what a joke. People are moving here, but, almost half to 2/3 of that amount are leaving because they are on a fixed income and can no longer afford to live here. He also says that he wants to make America like Florida. God forbid.
Trump, he is just dangerous and doesn’t seem to know who he is running against. He keeps mentioning Obama.