The worries keep mounting! Faith is a little hard to muster up. I hope Americans never become apathetic about politics again. I thought teaching was such a good career path, but politics has even soured that for me! A friend said her 18 year old’s friends are ready to keep up the fight, and all are voting democrat. I sure hope so! Like the girl in Georgia that posted the school picture. She said it was necessary trouble! Go Hannah Waters! 💙
She said it in her Cuomo interview. She didn’t back down and the principal removed her suspension and apologized. She had asthma and is worried about her and her peers safety, as well as someone in her home. This is real for her!
People, especially Republican politicians, have always misrepresented the Post Office as being mismanaged.
In the 1990s when Hillary Clinton made her healthcare proposal, the dispicable Phil Gramm, senator from Texas, thought he was being witty when he said (something like this), "I won't let the greatest healthcare system in the world turn into the U.S. Post Office."
I told everyone I could tell at the time, "PLEASE make our healthcare system like the Post Office. It's service is universal, affordable and they still make house calls."
I've written this here before, but the small nonprofit publisher I work for ships books all over the country and even around the world via the Post Office. The service has always been excellent. We also use UPS, but we find the Post Office is better and faster and cheaper for smaller packages. If you get the address wrong on a UPS package, they don't even try to deliver it, but ship it back to you and charge you for the return. The Post Office often is able to deliver a package with an incorrect address, and if they return it to you they don't charge you.
Every day's news seems to make it more clear that Trump intends to steal this election. This so-called re-structuring of the USPS came just after Congressional Democrats sent a letter to the Inspector General of the Postal Service asking for an investigation. DeJoy is shameless in his pursuit, making it clear that he is trying to force the USPS to fail in order to strengthen the argument for privatization. I hadn't heard the bit about DeJoy's heavy investment in private courier services, but that doesn't surprise me - I would be willing to bet that many people have invested heavily in these services in anticipation of the forced collapse of the USPS, and I certainly wouldn't be surprised if the Trump Organization was one of those investors. The strategy that enables corruption in the Trump era seems to be to throw so many acts of cruelty, profanity, greed, and ignorance at the public that people can't possibly absorb it all, much less respond to it. We are becoming numbed and overwhelmed by the constant assault, and if there is anything that can be labelled genius in Trump's profane, viral existence, this is it.
Trump is good at flooding the zone with attention getting words and hate messages--as an idiot savant.
Other operators--with nefariously creative genius akin to the Nazis and Bin Laden--lurk in the background. These operators are flooding the zone with agents of disruption who spring ongoing multi-pronged attacks that challenge our faith in the democratic process and our perseverance in keeping it.
That is exactly it. One of 45's earliest targets was the end of immigration. With the aid of his murdurously sloppy non-response to the pandemic, that goal seems achieved. That serves two main goals - advance white nationalism, and serve Putin by damaging the country. This assault on the Post Office amounts to outright war on the election.
Trump is a chaos agent. It's incredible to have such a force for instability occupy one of the most important positions of power on our planet. But here we are. He whips up dervishes of disturbance and distraction, then moves purposefully toward his goal while his opponents are off balance or focussed on the wrong issue. It's very effective and difficult to counter.
There are many Trump supporters on my job. Intelligent people I work with every day. Their support seems rooted in the belief that America offers opportunity for anyone and everyone with the initiative to take it. Those who don't are lazy and looking for free handouts. Again, very difficult to counter. We are a land of opportunity. Making the argument that government regulation is needed to ensure transparency and fairness does not resonate. Rather, it is seen as an impediment to innovation and free enterprise. As such it's to be applauded when burdensome regulation is attacked and dispensed with.
I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but Thank God for the choir! I'm continually reaching for ways to effectively counter argue these beliefs. The destruction of norms and processes simply makes it easier for those so prepared to take advantage of loosened controls to enrich and/or empower themselves, generally at the expense of the greater public. This is termed "being smart" by the trumpistas, who seem to congratulate wealth accumulation by any means necessary.
The predicament of the Postal Service horrifies me. Nevermind that reliable mail service is a defining and uniting core of a civil nation, one that has historically provided a path to middle class stability for it's employees. The fact that Agent Orange is attacking its reputation AND functionality at this point in time is shocking. To blatantly meddle in and impugn what is obviously going to be a crucial mechanism in the upcoming election is a travesty. I would think there must be some way to prevent such wholesale unilateral disruption to a critical function of an election this close to its date. If nothing else it appears to be setting up an obvious path to electoral chaos, and is in fact an attempt at fraud.
Trump is committed to destroying the machinery that makes our government run. All to benefit himself and his cronies, and to force a model of governance based on unfettered capital above all on a population that knows better, but is too busy trying to get by to be effectively united against an entrenched oligarchy. Here's hoping we can put this beast back in its cage!
And yet those people you work with are relying on government regulation in almost everything they do. The building they're standing in is safe because of government building codes. The lunch they eat is safe because of government inspectors and rules. The car they drove to work can withstand a significant crash and uses less fuel because of government safety and efficiency regulation. The doctor they saw last week is licensed by a government licensing board that can certify that the doctor has passed a lengthy education and internship. They probably got their education from a public school, and if they went to a private school, that school had to meet or exceed the education given from the public one or they wouldn't stay in business.
They've probably forgotten that in the 70's, before the Clean Air Act, Lake Erie routinely caught fire and the air in major cities was as bad as Beijing is today. They don't realize that the 2008 financial meltdown happened because their Republican leaders stripped away all the financial regulations that had, until then, prevented such fraud from happening. They get their weather reports from NOAA, and their Google Maps only works because of a government-funded Global Positioning System. Depending on where you live, your co-workers may even be getting their electricity from a government-created cooperative, or from power plants that were built with government funding.
And these are just the benefits from government regulation that I can pull from the top of my head. I'm sure there are many, many more.
Dan, I believe studies have been done that showed when surveyed, most of John Q. Public claims they never received any government benefits - everything they achieved, they did by their own little, hard-working self. I
I've run into many of them where I live. When you ask them about those benefits you mentioned, they're dumbfounded and hard pressed for an answer. Or ask them if they have a mortgage, and if so, do they claim the deduction off their taxes? Of course they do!
We need to do a MUCH better job of educating our young people so that when they get out in the world they'll know which side their bread is REALLY buttered on. And that no man is an island, or entirely self-made.
Agreed! I’ve been saying for a long time that education is one of the roots of our current problem. A well educated electorate will not vote in favor of polices that actively harm them, but look at the people of KY - home to Mitch McConnell- as just one example. We no longer teach subjects, such as civics, government, and critical thinking, that used to be routinely required in schools. How can the general public understand how government works and how to evaluate ANYTHING without having the background knowledge and education to do so?
Absolutely! My dad had to drop out of school in 11th grade, due to health issues. He could add a column of 3 digit numbers in seconds, in his head, before my mom could do so on her adding machine. But beyond that, he was schooled in all you mention, especially critical thinking.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems the shift from teaching those subjects and critical thinking in general, started happening about the time of school consolidations around the country. Thankfully, I was long gone from the system by then, but I have friends who were still in high school at the time and they describe it as very disruptive.
There was one thing in John Lewis' final letter to the editor that I disagreed with. "Democracy" isn't an attitude, it's a form of government. And when you have a weak, ineffective, and corrupt government, like the oligarchs and Republicans want, you have a weak, ineffective, and corrupt democracy.
Several reactions are intermingled on reading Heather's account of what Trump and his minions are up to, over and above gratitude for her fortitude and clarity, and i can't decide which takes precedence. "A bull in a china shop" , "children in a candy store" "Disney's Devil's Apprentice" or "Captain Hook in Peter Pan". The scale of their duplicity, arrogance and immorality leave me flabergasted. Where should one turn one's head to see through the murk of their corruption? The only bulwarks of any use in the short term given the complicity of the Senate are firstly the judges and then the vote. November is still a long way off and January 20 is even further.
When I first read that Trump wants to eliminate the payroll tax, I was absolutely shocked at the people I know who support him and don't realize that this could mean the end of their Social Security monthly check. And these are retirees who depend on that monthly check!
As far as the current administration and past Presidents of similar ilk...Reagan, Hoover, Taft etc..... is concerned such payments are "iniquitous wealth redistribution" and take money from the industrious and give it to the lazy and should be stopped.
And yet, they have no problem at all 'redistributing' the wealth upward! They've never given a satisfactory answer to that. As Krugman says, "Socialize the risk and privatize the rewards." Hypocrites, all.
They have never accepted the fact that wealth is generated by a combination of labour and capital contributions. They consider that capital alone, with their individual intelligence, creates the wealth. Therefore labour's "just desserts" can be reduced to near zero without affecting negatively "society's richness" .
What an amazingly arrogant perspective that must be! It reminds me of the Southern planter class type attitude towards POC or any lower SES people. Very congruent with Heather’s argument in How The South Won The Civil War.
Yes indeed! I've just finished HCR's book too and the rest is straight macro-economic philosophy. Trump' GOP is in this way the totally opposite extreme from Karl Marx who suggested that only the labour input generated the wealth and thus all profit should go to the worker
Let's not forget that we workers pay into social security our whole working lives. If we were to take the money withheld from our paychecks over 30 years and invest it in the stock market or real estate we would have money within our own control and probably more of it.
They actually argued that that isn't what will happen. One person said, oh well, SS has been bankrupt for years and people shouldn't really expect it to be there anyway. I'm afraid that doesn't help the retirees who depend on that check every month. Another argument is that people should just get a job! Well, my husband worked hard all his life, paid into that program and that money should darned well be there.
Exactly what kind of jobs do they think are even available for retirement age people?!! And what happened to taking care of each other? Plus, I paid into social security for 50 years, and now I'm depending on it. I am fortunate enough to have had a job that allowed me to save money as well, but my savings won't last without the social security check. This is no 'benefit' program - we paid in, we earned that money.
Another stunning, and thoughtful, wrap-up, Heather. Thank you BIGLY! So many thoughts sprang to mind, reading it.
Aldona Vos made waves here in NC when she was put in charge of DHSS and thoroughly screwed it up. I had no idea who her husband was, just that they are multi-millionaires, living in Greensboro.
Re: the USPS, I recently called my small town PO to ask about a package that the tracking email said was out for delivery. My regular carrier had been and gone, no package. I know they sometimes run two deliveries, one just for packages. But I also know there have been balls dropped, like once when my husband's medicine order got stuffed in a cubbie for some reason, and was only found when I raised enough hell. But I digress.........I told the employee who took my call that I am aware the new boss is working to sabotage the system, and her first reaction was agreement, then she caught herself and realized she might incriminate herself, so she turned very businesslike. Turns out they were running two deliveries (how efficient is that?) and if I hadn't received it by late afternoon to call her back.
I believe some of the rank and file employees are going to be mounting a counter-offensive, if they haven't already. They are the ones who are getting the irate phone calls and tongue-lashings over the mailbox, after all. Mr. DeJoy surely isn't.
As for the wrangling over the extended emergency benefits, the GOP is cutting their own throats (Mark Meadows, this one's for you). Not only are the youngish cohort of unemployeed furiously trying to find a way to survive, but they have PARENTS and grandparents who may be in the same boat AND are worried sick about their kids. I am one of them. And we vote. Even if some haven't voted in years, or voted for Trump in'16, they aren't keen on seeing their kids lose everything they have, or their grandkids end up in homeless shelters.
The GOP, especially the Freedom Caucus, are not even on the same planet with the real people out here in the real world. And that goes double for McConnell and his henchmen.
Not sure I can make it to November without being heavily medicated..............😒
We "ain't seen nuthin' yet." 87 more days to go and every single new one is going to be worse than those that came before. The horse hockey is going to multiply and expand. Think of the last hour of "The Return of the King," that had your heart pounding as it looked like Sauron's Orcs and the other forces of darkness would overwhelm and prevail. That's what we're in for, with hopefully a similar end.
Where are our majestic eagles, living trees, sympathetic elves, courageous hobbits, laborious dwarfs, heroic Aragorns and wise Gandalfs now when we truly need them....in the people who believe that the US is a force for good and progress in this world. Who believe that the buck stops with each and every one of them and they will deal with this band of usurpers.
They are us. When I was training to become an EMT a question was asked by our instructors early into our program about what would we do if we saw an accident happen and one of my classmates replied “call 911?” I looked at the person and said “we ARE 911.” and got a round of applause from the whole room. I didn’t mean to embarrass my classmate and don’t mean to offend with this post but the same is true here: THEY are US. We ARE 911. We must all do what we can to the best of our ability, knowledge, and training to save America.
To use an expression of "animal cunning"...badger, badger, badger your politicians and journalists so that they are fully aware of the consequences of ignoring or not fully protecting your rights and interests. Let them have no peace at any level untill we clean up this mess.
My politicians are already in the right place - Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey, Katherine Clark. I nudge them anyway. I repost these letters on facebook and linked in. I write get out the vote letters. My question is, what else can I do.
People, especially Republicans, forget that the post office is a service and not a business. The new rule that mail in ballots will now require 55 cents to be mailed instead of 20 cents in some states is a prime example. The post office is providing a service to US citizens. It doesn't consider whether it's making a profit or not. Another aspect that hasn't been talked much about if the post office is privatized is that the post office is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. They cannot disclose "information of a commercial nature, including trade secrets, whether or not obtained from a person outside the Postal Service, which under good business practice would not be publicly disclosed". They have not disclosed any such information. Do you really think a private company would do the same? I think not.
Am I thinking too naively or is it possible to do the Post Office a favor and just skip mailing back our ballots by taking them directly to the polling place and placing them in a drop box provided?
The Republicans think people are staying home because people are making more money on unemployment and are thus de-incentivized from returning to work. I fear, in *red states* this could possibly be true. I searched to see state minimum wages nationally. Not shockingly, I found that *blue states* generally have a minimum wage $3+ higher than the federal minimum wage. While *red states* are either at the federal minimum wage or slightly above it. Not that it’s an excuse for their actions, but, it’s a rationale for their cruelty.
The irony of all of this is that THESE BENEFITS are keeping the economy running. If the Feds stop pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy by way of individual people’s wallets, this entire *recovery* is going to fall flat on its face before it ever even starts recovering.
While there are certainly some individuals who say they are staying out of work because it pays worse, on the whole this is not a significant factor. Several studies, including one by Yale economists, have shown that people are going back to work at the same rate whether or not unemployment paid better. Also, if an employer who reports that the job has opened up, the worker is no longer eligible for unemployment insurance. The real obstacle to people going back to work, is that there are three times as many people unemployed as there are jobs open.
It is hard not to be totally disheartened by the continued onslaught of news of the disfunction of our government. That McConnell sits out the talks makes my blood boil. His abuse of his position should not be forgotten come Nov. That the repubs have "forgotten" how to negotiate, and then turn failure to come to an agreement on dems, increases my rage as well as my feeling that there is nothing left except to VOTE, VOTE VOTE. And make sure everyone I know votes as well.
It’s so important to broadcast the law at this point. The House cannot pass a bill without the agreement of the Senate and the Senate cannot pass a law without the agreement of the House. We are in this impasse because the Senate refuses to negotiate with the House on the current stimulus bill. Make sure it is widely known that the House finally offered a $2B compromise bill that was roundly rejected by the Acting White House team. McConnell let the White House team take his position as head of the Senate in order to sit his own responsibility out — no doubt to protect his own re-election.
Ballot distribution will represent one of the biggest crises leading into the election, and everyone here should be calling their local officials to ask what their plan is (and encouraging everyone else to do the same).
"Hi, with all of the delays happening in mail delivery, I'd like to know what your office is planning on doing to make sure that absentee ballots arrive on time."
Interesting to watch Pompeo appear to act independently, similarly to appearance of some of Barr's behaviors, albeit within arena of 45's approval range. DeJoy initially appeared to be another "swamp filler" with self interests like many of 45's appointees but does seem to be taking on a more proactive position for the upcoming election. USPS handled heavy holiday mail successfully for as many years as I can remember so should have been able to handle whatever increase might have been caused by mail-in votes before restructuring introduced by DeJoy. It will be interesting to see if this is found to be level of election interference as Pelosi & Schumer question (investigate) reported postal delays.
A side question, if gold stays at its current high rate it can be an indicator of insecurity about financial stability, so I'm wondering if there are other indicators we should be watching. In the current chaos I presume a single indicator may not behave 'normally' so shouldn't be given too much credence without a grain of salt. ;)
Gold going through the roof and breaking price records is not an indicator of stability but quite the opposite. When the world Economy/poloitics seems to be going down the chute, "people" cash in their other investments for gold as they figure it will be the last to keep its value and thereby maintain their assets when all others will have lost theirs.
That is correct. Or they may maintain gold as a part of the portfolio to maintain the total portfolio value. As other investments fall in value, gold goes up.
The worries keep mounting! Faith is a little hard to muster up. I hope Americans never become apathetic about politics again. I thought teaching was such a good career path, but politics has even soured that for me! A friend said her 18 year old’s friends are ready to keep up the fight, and all are voting democrat. I sure hope so! Like the girl in Georgia that posted the school picture. She said it was necessary trouble! Go Hannah Waters! 💙
She said that phrase, necessary trouble? That's badass!
She said it in her Cuomo interview. She didn’t back down and the principal removed her suspension and apologized. She had asthma and is worried about her and her peers safety, as well as someone in her home. This is real for her!
People, especially Republican politicians, have always misrepresented the Post Office as being mismanaged.
In the 1990s when Hillary Clinton made her healthcare proposal, the dispicable Phil Gramm, senator from Texas, thought he was being witty when he said (something like this), "I won't let the greatest healthcare system in the world turn into the U.S. Post Office."
I told everyone I could tell at the time, "PLEASE make our healthcare system like the Post Office. It's service is universal, affordable and they still make house calls."
I've written this here before, but the small nonprofit publisher I work for ships books all over the country and even around the world via the Post Office. The service has always been excellent. We also use UPS, but we find the Post Office is better and faster and cheaper for smaller packages. If you get the address wrong on a UPS package, they don't even try to deliver it, but ship it back to you and charge you for the return. The Post Office often is able to deliver a package with an incorrect address, and if they return it to you they don't charge you.
Trump is a disgrace!
Every day's news seems to make it more clear that Trump intends to steal this election. This so-called re-structuring of the USPS came just after Congressional Democrats sent a letter to the Inspector General of the Postal Service asking for an investigation. DeJoy is shameless in his pursuit, making it clear that he is trying to force the USPS to fail in order to strengthen the argument for privatization. I hadn't heard the bit about DeJoy's heavy investment in private courier services, but that doesn't surprise me - I would be willing to bet that many people have invested heavily in these services in anticipation of the forced collapse of the USPS, and I certainly wouldn't be surprised if the Trump Organization was one of those investors. The strategy that enables corruption in the Trump era seems to be to throw so many acts of cruelty, profanity, greed, and ignorance at the public that people can't possibly absorb it all, much less respond to it. We are becoming numbed and overwhelmed by the constant assault, and if there is anything that can be labelled genius in Trump's profane, viral existence, this is it.
Trump is good at flooding the zone with attention getting words and hate messages--as an idiot savant.
Other operators--with nefariously creative genius akin to the Nazis and Bin Laden--lurk in the background. These operators are flooding the zone with agents of disruption who spring ongoing multi-pronged attacks that challenge our faith in the democratic process and our perseverance in keeping it.
That is exactly it. One of 45's earliest targets was the end of immigration. With the aid of his murdurously sloppy non-response to the pandemic, that goal seems achieved. That serves two main goals - advance white nationalism, and serve Putin by damaging the country. This assault on the Post Office amounts to outright war on the election.
Trump is a chaos agent. It's incredible to have such a force for instability occupy one of the most important positions of power on our planet. But here we are. He whips up dervishes of disturbance and distraction, then moves purposefully toward his goal while his opponents are off balance or focussed on the wrong issue. It's very effective and difficult to counter.
There are many Trump supporters on my job. Intelligent people I work with every day. Their support seems rooted in the belief that America offers opportunity for anyone and everyone with the initiative to take it. Those who don't are lazy and looking for free handouts. Again, very difficult to counter. We are a land of opportunity. Making the argument that government regulation is needed to ensure transparency and fairness does not resonate. Rather, it is seen as an impediment to innovation and free enterprise. As such it's to be applauded when burdensome regulation is attacked and dispensed with.
I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but Thank God for the choir! I'm continually reaching for ways to effectively counter argue these beliefs. The destruction of norms and processes simply makes it easier for those so prepared to take advantage of loosened controls to enrich and/or empower themselves, generally at the expense of the greater public. This is termed "being smart" by the trumpistas, who seem to congratulate wealth accumulation by any means necessary.
The predicament of the Postal Service horrifies me. Nevermind that reliable mail service is a defining and uniting core of a civil nation, one that has historically provided a path to middle class stability for it's employees. The fact that Agent Orange is attacking its reputation AND functionality at this point in time is shocking. To blatantly meddle in and impugn what is obviously going to be a crucial mechanism in the upcoming election is a travesty. I would think there must be some way to prevent such wholesale unilateral disruption to a critical function of an election this close to its date. If nothing else it appears to be setting up an obvious path to electoral chaos, and is in fact an attempt at fraud.
Trump is committed to destroying the machinery that makes our government run. All to benefit himself and his cronies, and to force a model of governance based on unfettered capital above all on a population that knows better, but is too busy trying to get by to be effectively united against an entrenched oligarchy. Here's hoping we can put this beast back in its cage!
And yet those people you work with are relying on government regulation in almost everything they do. The building they're standing in is safe because of government building codes. The lunch they eat is safe because of government inspectors and rules. The car they drove to work can withstand a significant crash and uses less fuel because of government safety and efficiency regulation. The doctor they saw last week is licensed by a government licensing board that can certify that the doctor has passed a lengthy education and internship. They probably got their education from a public school, and if they went to a private school, that school had to meet or exceed the education given from the public one or they wouldn't stay in business.
They've probably forgotten that in the 70's, before the Clean Air Act, Lake Erie routinely caught fire and the air in major cities was as bad as Beijing is today. They don't realize that the 2008 financial meltdown happened because their Republican leaders stripped away all the financial regulations that had, until then, prevented such fraud from happening. They get their weather reports from NOAA, and their Google Maps only works because of a government-funded Global Positioning System. Depending on where you live, your co-workers may even be getting their electricity from a government-created cooperative, or from power plants that were built with government funding.
And these are just the benefits from government regulation that I can pull from the top of my head. I'm sure there are many, many more.
Dan, I believe studies have been done that showed when surveyed, most of John Q. Public claims they never received any government benefits - everything they achieved, they did by their own little, hard-working self. I
I've run into many of them where I live. When you ask them about those benefits you mentioned, they're dumbfounded and hard pressed for an answer. Or ask them if they have a mortgage, and if so, do they claim the deduction off their taxes? Of course they do!
We need to do a MUCH better job of educating our young people so that when they get out in the world they'll know which side their bread is REALLY buttered on. And that no man is an island, or entirely self-made.
Agreed! I’ve been saying for a long time that education is one of the roots of our current problem. A well educated electorate will not vote in favor of polices that actively harm them, but look at the people of KY - home to Mitch McConnell- as just one example. We no longer teach subjects, such as civics, government, and critical thinking, that used to be routinely required in schools. How can the general public understand how government works and how to evaluate ANYTHING without having the background knowledge and education to do so?
Absolutely! My dad had to drop out of school in 11th grade, due to health issues. He could add a column of 3 digit numbers in seconds, in his head, before my mom could do so on her adding machine. But beyond that, he was schooled in all you mention, especially critical thinking.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems the shift from teaching those subjects and critical thinking in general, started happening about the time of school consolidations around the country. Thankfully, I was long gone from the system by then, but I have friends who were still in high school at the time and they describe it as very disruptive.
There was one thing in John Lewis' final letter to the editor that I disagreed with. "Democracy" isn't an attitude, it's a form of government. And when you have a weak, ineffective, and corrupt government, like the oligarchs and Republicans want, you have a weak, ineffective, and corrupt democracy.
Several reactions are intermingled on reading Heather's account of what Trump and his minions are up to, over and above gratitude for her fortitude and clarity, and i can't decide which takes precedence. "A bull in a china shop" , "children in a candy store" "Disney's Devil's Apprentice" or "Captain Hook in Peter Pan". The scale of their duplicity, arrogance and immorality leave me flabergasted. Where should one turn one's head to see through the murk of their corruption? The only bulwarks of any use in the short term given the complicity of the Senate are firstly the judges and then the vote. November is still a long way off and January 20 is even further.
When I first read that Trump wants to eliminate the payroll tax, I was absolutely shocked at the people I know who support him and don't realize that this could mean the end of their Social Security monthly check. And these are retirees who depend on that monthly check!
Again, education is an issue.
As far as the current administration and past Presidents of similar ilk...Reagan, Hoover, Taft etc..... is concerned such payments are "iniquitous wealth redistribution" and take money from the industrious and give it to the lazy and should be stopped.
And yet, they have no problem at all 'redistributing' the wealth upward! They've never given a satisfactory answer to that. As Krugman says, "Socialize the risk and privatize the rewards." Hypocrites, all.
They have never accepted the fact that wealth is generated by a combination of labour and capital contributions. They consider that capital alone, with their individual intelligence, creates the wealth. Therefore labour's "just desserts" can be reduced to near zero without affecting negatively "society's richness" .
What an amazingly arrogant perspective that must be! It reminds me of the Southern planter class type attitude towards POC or any lower SES people. Very congruent with Heather’s argument in How The South Won The Civil War.
Yes indeed! I've just finished HCR's book too and the rest is straight macro-economic philosophy. Trump' GOP is in this way the totally opposite extreme from Karl Marx who suggested that only the labour input generated the wealth and thus all profit should go to the worker
Let's not forget that we workers pay into social security our whole working lives. If we were to take the money withheld from our paychecks over 30 years and invest it in the stock market or real estate we would have money within our own control and probably more of it.
My thoughts ex; I’ve been saying this for years!
Did they listen when you told them?
They actually argued that that isn't what will happen. One person said, oh well, SS has been bankrupt for years and people shouldn't really expect it to be there anyway. I'm afraid that doesn't help the retirees who depend on that check every month. Another argument is that people should just get a job! Well, my husband worked hard all his life, paid into that program and that money should darned well be there.
Exactly what kind of jobs do they think are even available for retirement age people?!! And what happened to taking care of each other? Plus, I paid into social security for 50 years, and now I'm depending on it. I am fortunate enough to have had a job that allowed me to save money as well, but my savings won't last without the social security check. This is no 'benefit' program - we paid in, we earned that money.
Another stunning, and thoughtful, wrap-up, Heather. Thank you BIGLY! So many thoughts sprang to mind, reading it.
Aldona Vos made waves here in NC when she was put in charge of DHSS and thoroughly screwed it up. I had no idea who her husband was, just that they are multi-millionaires, living in Greensboro.
Re: the USPS, I recently called my small town PO to ask about a package that the tracking email said was out for delivery. My regular carrier had been and gone, no package. I know they sometimes run two deliveries, one just for packages. But I also know there have been balls dropped, like once when my husband's medicine order got stuffed in a cubbie for some reason, and was only found when I raised enough hell. But I digress.........I told the employee who took my call that I am aware the new boss is working to sabotage the system, and her first reaction was agreement, then she caught herself and realized she might incriminate herself, so she turned very businesslike. Turns out they were running two deliveries (how efficient is that?) and if I hadn't received it by late afternoon to call her back.
I believe some of the rank and file employees are going to be mounting a counter-offensive, if they haven't already. They are the ones who are getting the irate phone calls and tongue-lashings over the mailbox, after all. Mr. DeJoy surely isn't.
As for the wrangling over the extended emergency benefits, the GOP is cutting their own throats (Mark Meadows, this one's for you). Not only are the youngish cohort of unemployeed furiously trying to find a way to survive, but they have PARENTS and grandparents who may be in the same boat AND are worried sick about their kids. I am one of them. And we vote. Even if some haven't voted in years, or voted for Trump in'16, they aren't keen on seeing their kids lose everything they have, or their grandkids end up in homeless shelters.
The GOP, especially the Freedom Caucus, are not even on the same planet with the real people out here in the real world. And that goes double for McConnell and his henchmen.
Not sure I can make it to November without being heavily medicated..............😒
We "ain't seen nuthin' yet." 87 more days to go and every single new one is going to be worse than those that came before. The horse hockey is going to multiply and expand. Think of the last hour of "The Return of the King," that had your heart pounding as it looked like Sauron's Orcs and the other forces of darkness would overwhelm and prevail. That's what we're in for, with hopefully a similar end.
Where are our majestic eagles, living trees, sympathetic elves, courageous hobbits, laborious dwarfs, heroic Aragorns and wise Gandalfs now when we truly need them....in the people who believe that the US is a force for good and progress in this world. Who believe that the buck stops with each and every one of them and they will deal with this band of usurpers.
They are us. When I was training to become an EMT a question was asked by our instructors early into our program about what would we do if we saw an accident happen and one of my classmates replied “call 911?” I looked at the person and said “we ARE 911.” and got a round of applause from the whole room. I didn’t mean to embarrass my classmate and don’t mean to offend with this post but the same is true here: THEY are US. We ARE 911. We must all do what we can to the best of our ability, knowledge, and training to save America.
Yes and we are not victims unless we see ourselves as such.
We here have that belief, the question is how to we exert our power, beyond whatever we are already doing.
To use an expression of "animal cunning"...badger, badger, badger your politicians and journalists so that they are fully aware of the consequences of ignoring or not fully protecting your rights and interests. Let them have no peace at any level untill we clean up this mess.
My politicians are already in the right place - Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey, Katherine Clark. I nudge them anyway. I repost these letters on facebook and linked in. I write get out the vote letters. My question is, what else can I do.
How is it possible for DeJoy to destroy the USPS this way? Is there anything Congress can actually do to stop him? This is terrifying.
People, especially Republicans, forget that the post office is a service and not a business. The new rule that mail in ballots will now require 55 cents to be mailed instead of 20 cents in some states is a prime example. The post office is providing a service to US citizens. It doesn't consider whether it's making a profit or not. Another aspect that hasn't been talked much about if the post office is privatized is that the post office is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. They cannot disclose "information of a commercial nature, including trade secrets, whether or not obtained from a person outside the Postal Service, which under good business practice would not be publicly disclosed". They have not disclosed any such information. Do you really think a private company would do the same? I think not.
Am I thinking too naively or is it possible to do the Post Office a favor and just skip mailing back our ballots by taking them directly to the polling place and placing them in a drop box provided?
The Republicans think people are staying home because people are making more money on unemployment and are thus de-incentivized from returning to work. I fear, in *red states* this could possibly be true. I searched to see state minimum wages nationally. Not shockingly, I found that *blue states* generally have a minimum wage $3+ higher than the federal minimum wage. While *red states* are either at the federal minimum wage or slightly above it. Not that it’s an excuse for their actions, but, it’s a rationale for their cruelty.
The irony of all of this is that THESE BENEFITS are keeping the economy running. If the Feds stop pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy by way of individual people’s wallets, this entire *recovery* is going to fall flat on its face before it ever even starts recovering.
While there are certainly some individuals who say they are staying out of work because it pays worse, on the whole this is not a significant factor. Several studies, including one by Yale economists, have shown that people are going back to work at the same rate whether or not unemployment paid better. Also, if an employer who reports that the job has opened up, the worker is no longer eligible for unemployment insurance. The real obstacle to people going back to work, is that there are three times as many people unemployed as there are jobs open.
It is hard not to be totally disheartened by the continued onslaught of news of the disfunction of our government. That McConnell sits out the talks makes my blood boil. His abuse of his position should not be forgotten come Nov. That the repubs have "forgotten" how to negotiate, and then turn failure to come to an agreement on dems, increases my rage as well as my feeling that there is nothing left except to VOTE, VOTE VOTE. And make sure everyone I know votes as well.
It’s so important to broadcast the law at this point. The House cannot pass a bill without the agreement of the Senate and the Senate cannot pass a law without the agreement of the House. We are in this impasse because the Senate refuses to negotiate with the House on the current stimulus bill. Make sure it is widely known that the House finally offered a $2B compromise bill that was roundly rejected by the Acting White House team. McConnell let the White House team take his position as head of the Senate in order to sit his own responsibility out — no doubt to protect his own re-election.
Ballot distribution will represent one of the biggest crises leading into the election, and everyone here should be calling their local officials to ask what their plan is (and encouraging everyone else to do the same).
"Hi, with all of the delays happening in mail delivery, I'd like to know what your office is planning on doing to make sure that absentee ballots arrive on time."
I am weeping.
Thank you for your hard work, Heather. You promised a bumpy ride...I have a feeling, this ain’t nothing.
Interesting to watch Pompeo appear to act independently, similarly to appearance of some of Barr's behaviors, albeit within arena of 45's approval range. DeJoy initially appeared to be another "swamp filler" with self interests like many of 45's appointees but does seem to be taking on a more proactive position for the upcoming election. USPS handled heavy holiday mail successfully for as many years as I can remember so should have been able to handle whatever increase might have been caused by mail-in votes before restructuring introduced by DeJoy. It will be interesting to see if this is found to be level of election interference as Pelosi & Schumer question (investigate) reported postal delays.
A side question, if gold stays at its current high rate it can be an indicator of insecurity about financial stability, so I'm wondering if there are other indicators we should be watching. In the current chaos I presume a single indicator may not behave 'normally' so shouldn't be given too much credence without a grain of salt. ;)
Hope you had fun kayaking!
Gold going through the roof and breaking price records is not an indicator of stability but quite the opposite. When the world Economy/poloitics seems to be going down the chute, "people" cash in their other investments for gold as they figure it will be the last to keep its value and thereby maintain their assets when all others will have lost theirs.
That is correct. Or they may maintain gold as a part of the portfolio to maintain the total portfolio value. As other investments fall in value, gold goes up.
Pompeo’s Presidential aspirations are showing.