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Red State Blue State Top Takeaways of the Week





For the past three to four years, the news has moved so rapidly, that the only way to address it has been to write about it in a weekly email sent to followers with links to the Twitter comments as well as articles from top news outlets. Here are the Quotable Quotes and Top Takeaways items that we've been assembling at Red State/Blue State for the past few years. Starting this week, we'll work to bring the news to you in a way that is meant to be seen and digested and then hopefully, to be thoughtful enough to take with you for the short term...Regards to all, ML

Top Takeaways from the past week.

·         From Chris Hayes; Every single HOW WILL YOU PAY FOR IT question wielded as cudgel...something that has THANKFULLY disappeared....will come roaring back... remember THE SECOND a Democrat is elected President, the entire GOP will oppose large Federal rescue...start demagoguing the DEFICIT and calling for Austerity * Re RS/BS Note: But will they have a leg to stand on? Who will take them seriously post-TRUMP but Fox News apologists and the 38% that only talk to themselves...? Willl MEDIA ...they shouldn’t....they might...but they never seemed to do any self-reflection or critiques of their own after media coverage of Trump & Hillary’s emails and Russiagate...Media dropped the ball and seem to always be fighting the last war and telling the last story in response to a new age...
·         From Joe Biden: When we emerge from this crisis, we can’t just go back to the way things were...We need to build a better future for ALL....*RS/BS: What WILL the new normal look like? Should we concentrate on ending partisan divides/ creating good paying jobs for the 21st Century and work to build global consensus as one of the most powerful nation’s on the planet?
·         From Joy: BTW..you all realize that check Treasury is sending you with Trump’s name scribbled on it is YOUR MONEY, right?...It’s your tax dollars that Congress appropriated. Trump is basically the guy who ‘lends’ you back your own lawnmower he borrowed and has had at his house for MONTHS...; The money is something we should realize is necessary for many to survive in the short term-and also that in the long term-we need to raise wages to create a fair living wage for all;
·         From Lawrence O: Sean Penn’s doing more to get you tested than TRUMP...* RS/BS Note: Penn has a nonprofit called CORE that’s on frontlines of pandemic response- Testing is key to this response-the Science says we needed to begin sooner; but now to get out of this mess; we need to test millions per week, which we aren’t doing; Does Trump not realize this? Perhaps he can’t grasp the concept?
·         From Five Thirty Eight: At least 22 Million Americans are out of a job-and we haven’t hit BOTTOm;  *RS/BS Note: It’s frightening to hear that we are at Great Depression #’s; and that we may surpass that-all the more reason to have a strong social safety net in place and time to look at fundamental changes to our system-not Socialism but Capitalism done right....from the bottom up-

The Issues:



Issue Number one is the cost of the pandemic. How are we ever going to pay for this, when there is no will to increase taxes on the wealthy, even slightly? We need to build for the future-but we have crumbling infrastructure that has never been addressed. How will we come together in this country that is so deeply divided along partisan lines.

#2. When we receive the check from the Treasury, we need to remember that not all Americans make a fair living wage. And that we need to address income inequality as well as health care as a right for all Americans. The Democrats were ridiculed for spending too much time in debates talking about these issues, but the pandemic has exposed cracks in our system that tell us these are the issues of our time that won’t go away without sweeping reforms.

# 3.Testing seems to be the basic key to begin to understand how this pandemic will end; and whether we will be able to open up the economy and return to ‘normal.’  Why isn’t the government working night and day to establish a Manhattan Project scale testing model for the entire nation? Perhaps some of the key players aren’t able to grasp the enormity of the challenge?

#4. It is frightening to hear that 22 million people  are out of work in this county and yet we haven’t reached the bottom! What do we do?




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