Today’s two big domestic stories are developments that will help to determine the future of our democracy: President Biden’s insistence on a major new coronavirus relief bill and Trump’s role in the January 6 insurrection.
The GOP definition of unity and bipartisanship is, "Do it our way". I kept hearing news people last night talking about 'finding middle ground', 'meeting in the middle', as if this were some weird kind of geometry problem. Take a 24" line and find the mid-point and that is the answer. No nuance, no context, just equal measure for each side. That's not bipartisanship, that's not fairness. That's math.
Regarding the other elephant in the room - the impeachment trial, a friend tipped me to an Australian documentary on the insurrection that was far more complete than I've seen on US TV. "The Downfall of Donald Trump" https://iview.abc.net.au/show/four-corners/series/2021
If the Senate does not convict Trump, we might just as well turn the country over to the Proud Boys and their ilk, because we won't have a country any longer. The fact that the GOP is still pretending that what happened January 6th was an aberration is ludicrous. When I hear people say, "That's not who we are.", I want to scream, "That is PRECISELY who we are" That's why HCRs history lessons are so incredibly valuable. Most of us only had a very skim of history in high school, long forgotten. We don't have true leaders of integrity anymore, or very few, at any rate. We've been like the frog in boiling water for over 50 years, not really seeing how much danger we are collectively in.
And yes, I am speaking as someone who has benefited from my white privilege all my life, often, I'm ashamed to say unaware of just how much it has buoyed me. I know things have been so much worse for my brothers and sisters of color.
I really feel we are at an inflection point as a country - we must deal with the inequality, racial and every other kind. We must quit believing the Trumpian POV that life is a zero sum game, and realize that, "Everybody does better when everybody does better".
I think that's what this community here is doing. and I am thankful for each and every one of you.
Right on the money, Sandra. The Cline Center report linked in HCR’s citations is also chilling. The Republican effort to minimize and normalize the events of Jan 6 must not be allowed to succeed.
Just, "WOW!" Thank you Sandra, for a beautifully written comment full of truth. And thanks for that link to the Australian documentary. We cannot have TOO much information about the back story on January 6, 2021.
Thank you for that documentary; I will watch it (well, at least listen to it) while I go about my morning activities. Your third paragraph summarizes exactly what my thoughts (much more scattered and less eloquent than yours) have been.
The thing that has been true since 1994 is that there is no more "middle ground" either philosophically or mathematically in the US. The attempt by the Obama administration to find "common ground" with the republicans in 2009 when he had to lead this country out of the economic recession that the republicans had created should serve as an illustration for President Biden that he cannot find middle ground with these scorched earthers. Offer a reasonable response (hint: what they have mentioned so far is not reasonable) and then steamroll them.
A comment I read months ago stated that there is no middle ground between facts and “bat-shit crazy”. As events have unfolded since November, I keep thinking of that.
Yes, middle ground - one party is already there! NOW its up to the Republicans to come to the "middle ground". Why is no one in Congress speaking that truth!
Sandra, you have precisely stated the facts of this matter. I am also climbing out of the white privilege cocoon to see the world & this nation really for the first time (many thanks to HCR and BLM). I'll be 70 this year & I fear for what America will be over the next decade and for my children & grandchild beyond that. I watched the Four Corners video. We were so close to complete tragedy. And *45 will not be convicted and then what? We have to stay strong and resist tyranny and be better than we were yesterday in all ways.
Thank you, Sandra for your wonderful comment and sharing the link. Reading comments like yours and several others in this community always give me a sense of hope.
Just watched the documentary. MANY thanks! I hope portions, if not all, can be used at the trial. The footage is exceptional; I don't know how the photographers managed to be so close to the horrific violence without themselves being harmed. Kudos to them.
Sandra, you're reading my mind, using the same words in my head: "ilk" popped into my head while watching the Australian documentary, and the frog in boiling water analogy.
Thank you for this link. I finished viewing this moments ago. I am truly frightened for our democracy. When Ford pardoned Nixon I was disappointed but eventually drank the Kool-Aid and began to think that perhaps the pardon was needed to heal the nation. WRONG. Instead, the lesson was that the events of Watergate would be tolerated, that you could go at least this far in destroying the nation and that going just a bit farther was all you needed. So we get Trump. He went more than a bit farther. And despite all he did to stir up the insurrectionists and rioters, the Republicans in the Senate will acquit him, sending the message loudly and clearly that violence against the government is perfectly fine with them. The third time the insurrectionists will likely succeed. And along with the Democrats and Independents and various minority members not a few Republicans will be swept up in the purge of non-believers that is bound?”
I watched on a PC. This is the second time this morning someone has commented on something not playing on their Ipad. The other was a Vimeo video, but people using laptops and desk tops had no problem, so it must be an interface issue.
My son-in-law writes apps for a software company and until he told me there has to be specific programming for each kind of device, I had no idea; I thought if it could be seen on one, it could be seen on any, but that's not so.
It's the same with their definition of "compromise." As in "Democrats need to compromise with us."
One needs a doublethink dictionary to understand all the right wing dog whistles. Like the way the use "reform" as a synonym for "destruction." As in "eduction reform."
Further proof that, with rare exception (and I say this as a former journalist), the average "reporter" is an over-educated, under-intelligent, otherwise-unemployable.
Is it just me, or how is $3,200 over the course of nearly a year do much? (Providing that perhaps $1400 is added to the $1200+$600 already paid to single people.). For some that might be a single month's mortgage, utilities, food, gas, essentials. It boggles me how wealthy politicians haggle back and forth so much on such a piddly amount for us that they don't even need themselves. People are so far behind on payments for everything, that I just don't understand how things go up from there. As Robert Reich points out taxing the mega rich will add billions to the economy and they will still be mega rich. I made donations to organizations with my checks to help those out of work. And put some in savings. I have been an essential food service worker at a school district helping prepare and give out over 500,000 free meals in 10 months. I am beat and exhausted. Let the schools safely open. I have faith in Joe Biden. Let's get this leadership team room to lead.
Well said, Jane and thank you for feeding our children. I, too, work in a school. We are every one of us exhausted! Please hang in there, we’ll get through this and better times will be ahead... times we can see each other’s smiles, and hug, and even walk hand in hand with a child. Snow day today, we sent home extra food with the children yesterday- just in case.
Thank you, Pamsy. To be honest, I don't feel like a hero. My neck, back, knee, thumb are all messed up from the repetitive motion, lifting, and standing. I used to love my job as a high school lunch lady. Now I cry on my way to work. I guess it's burnout. We all miss life the way it used to be.
Even better, some members of Congress are pushing for a pay rise for themselves on the basis that $138,000 (I think that is the number quoted) is not enough to live on with dignity. Of course that is more than I think over 80% of Americans make. But can’t have poor people actually surviving and perhaps beginning to gain some security. Oh no! Never that!
Their salary is $174K. They do have to maintain two places of residence. One in DC and one in their home state. Keeping two "homes" and travel back and forth to their districts is costly. That said, I think there is only one Senator who is not a millionaire. I don't know about Congressional members. Plus they are granted "allowances" for staffing, health insurance, "franking" privileges, etc. They have forged into law that their salaries will rise automatically so that they can say that they have nothing to do with their salary increases, "the law makes those decisions." Here's the agreement that controls their incomes. https://www.senate.gov/CRSpubs/9c14ec69-c4e4-4bd8-8953-f73daa1640e4.pdf
Well, Josh Hawley does not maintain a residence in Missouri--he has a million +$ house in Fairfax County, VA. He uses his sister's home as his "official" address in MO. And many have shared housing in DC--the stories about the boyz who shacked up with Gingrich in Georgetown in the 90s and Oughts are legendary. So between the subsidies and the salaries, I think most congresspeople do just fine.
Hawley is a outlier. I'm not arguing that "they aren't doing just fine." I'm arguing that they are all millionaires, that we need some regular people in Congress who can use the money. The members who "shacked up" did so because even renting a room in DC is prohibitive. It is one of the most expensive cities in the world.
AOC offers advice to newly-elected congresswoman on how to economically and sustainably afford Congress-appropriate clothing. (And remember, they have to show up dressed appropriately BEFORE they get their first paycheck!)
There are folks who earn slightly more than the income limit is set for who qualifies for economic relief. Many of them experienced pay cuts, and some 2 income families are now one income families. Kids in college, mortgages, car loans and much more, those expenses and the of living for them didn’t decrease. Is It a sin to point out that people are having a very difficult time even if they don’t make the ‘cut’.
Believe me, not for a moment do I suggest that no income and little food and no ‘basics’ compare, but many on the other side of the ‘line’ are getting clobbered as well.
Cynthia, I do understand this. But the same people who are in Congress complaining about their salaries are refusing to vote for a living minimum wage, for enhancing and extending unemployment benefits, for more money for food stamps and WIC, for a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions with support for landlords who also need to pay the bills, and for assistance to strapped state and local budgets to help out public and higher education, support homeless shelters, and pay for Covid remediation. So I have absolutely no sympathy for them. MLK said that elites get welfare and the poor get "rugged individualism." He was right. The few members of Congress who are not enjoying independent income over and above their salaries seem to have other ways of paying the bills. The whole Christian notion of "feed the poor, clothe the naked, heal the sick" is lost on these guys and gals and yet they hide under a bizarre banner of Christianity for their Antisemitic, sexist, and racist rhetoric.
Sorry for the screed, but in my way of thinking there is no moral equivalence between a disposable income in the top 20% (with the ability to do things like send children to college, pay for broadband internet, and cover their expenses with relatively little pain) and the situation of Black women whose average disposable income (i.e. not dedicated to basic substance) is $5. Literally: $5. And I am in that upper range of privileged white professionals. When the Waltons stop instructing their employees to register for food stamps and WIC because they don't pay them enough to keep them above the poverty line and agree to pay their workers a living wage, I'll stop griping about Congressional salaries.
There's an indirect way to edit using the Delete function. Highlight the text to be edited; delete the original post; copy it into a new one, then correct/revise to your heart's content.
I've lost al patience with the Press pressing Jen Psaki and other Biden folks to accept their narrow focus of "unity" only meaning to appease Republicans and moderate Democrats.
Unity means to bring "the whole" together and Biden more than once made the distinction he meant the whole country. Every President promises to work with the other side but that hasn't happened in decades.
When you hear the call for unity and see that 74% of all Americans are in favor of a big relief package and 400 Governors and Mayors from both parties are begging for life saving aid, you can see how Biden can fulfill his promise for unity.
Republicans tied to Trump are a lost cause, cut them loose and save the ship from sinking. They don't want unity, they want to retain power but 81 million Americans wanted something else.
Well said. I've been thinking that maybe "unity" should have less to do with compromise/agreement between Democrats and Republicans, but rather, have more to do with healing the divide between government and everyday Americans.
We can thank Ronny Ray-gun for starting that rumor - "I'm from the gubmit, and I'm here to help." He said they were the most dangerous words in the English language, and obviously a lot of people believed him.
It’s important to remember, I think, that Reagan stood on the broad shoulders of a wide and long swath of the American experience.
Before Reagan, there were the states’ rights klan, and the private enterprises supporting a racist government, from top to bottom. Even the northern economies depended upon southern slavery. And, going further back, to the founding of our country and, of course, 1619. So there’s our long shadow.
I believe that President Biden is the first national elected figure to call on America to begin to recover untold stories and shine the light on this shadow. I remember Biden referring to 1619, at some point of the campaign. THEN, I realized this man was prepared for this time.
So, I’m glad it's the month of February, at the time. There will be MANY stories told in the next four weeks. At this time, we can chart a new direction, so our actions will be a history of “liberty and justice for all"
Frederick, That's why I love history - it shows us the structure from the bottom up, time-wise. We get to see that everything is predicated on something that came before - decisions that were made, mistakes and right-thinking decisions, too.
We tend, as humans, I think, to think what we see before us is how it's always been, even when we 'know; better. What history allows - maybe forces us - to do is see context as well as content. Very important to understanding ourselves and our world.
I'm with you with regard to the ridiculous amount of time spent by members of the press asking for clarification in re Biden's definition of the word unity. Yesterday morning alone they flogged that dead beast for what seemed half the briefing.
Any suggestions for how an ordinary citizen can support a better quality press. I surely feel they share significant responsibility in getting us here. I wonder why they don’t have licensing boards and ethics like other professions.
The Fairness Doctrine helped to perform that role, but it was revoked in 1987. We need it again, not just to ensure "balance," but also fact-based reporting. A new FD must be stronger, and broadened to cover new non-broadcast media developed since 1987.
Back before the electronic age, I wrote a lot of Op-Ed letters (200 published between 1982 - 2000). Many of them actually criticized the newspaper or reporters for sensationalized or downright erroneous articles. However, the bottom line is "the press" is a competitive commercial enterprise at that time to sell newspaper subscriptions & now to sell online subscriptions. And the most disturbing thing is "The National Enquirer" still exists, showing the mindset of too many ppl who consume "the news."
200 is a lot; thanks for performing a civic duty well. How many were actually published, i.e. approved by editors and appearing in the Letters section rather than as online comments? I've probably submitted c.60-70 letters over four decades, with about a dozen published, all in the last 15.
I'm concerned about the amount of oxygen the press in general continues to give folks who perpetuate lies. I just don't get it - how can we move in the direction of unity and truth when lies continue to be given credence and spread across the land over and over again?
Hear.Hear. I find myself screaming at the tv when yet another reporter 'challenges' Psaki about what the president means by "UNITY," (caps intentional) ..and is that a unifying thing he said/did? Maybe it's going to take time for reporters to realize that they are in a White House briefing room where a real Press Secretary is trying to give real information about what the administration is trying to do. The press has had four years of lies, propaganda, obfuscation, and taken downright abuse, so maybe they are still in "ask again and again and again" mode?
Republicans are still calling the American Relief Plan "stimulus". It's not an economic stimulus plan but it certainly will help the economy. But let's call it what it is, "disaster relief" which is what it would be if instead of COVID, every city in America was hit by a tornado, flood or some other natural disaster.
Sometimes the economy just needs a shot in the arm (stimulus), other times a major transfusion (disaster relief). Right now people need vaccination shots but cities and states are in need of a transfusion of cash to make it happen.
I'm not concerned so much about the term stimulus but I am when it's not used correctly. Folks who can't or don't follow current events closely can easily be bamboozled with wonky terms.
I'm confused about this. As in many places, the state of NH is using the National Guard (whom I believe we pay already, maybe we're paying them more now?) and VOLUNTEER vaccinators at outdoor sites that don't cost anything to administer vaccines that I think are being provided by the feds? The platforms for making appointments and documenting shots are through the state and CDC respectively, so how much money do cities and states need exactly to get vaccines into people? I admit to being naive about this.
Thank you. I used the term stimulus in an earlier comment and it felt so wrong but I was too lazy to stop and think of a better word, thus illustrating how easily these words/terms get stuck in our minds when we hear them over and over...........henceforth! I will use "disaster relief".
The GOP has long been kings of framing, and for all the BS about the 'liberal MSM', here we have a perfect example of how the MSM has worked against the left for years.
I can't decide if they're just too lazy to do their own thinking and so just hop on the Fox News bandwagon, or if they are really duplicitous. Obviously, there are real journalists working hard, but somehow the words of the lightweights seem to get air time.
Well, here on this board we are an example of the activity and energy we give to the right, to trump, to the horror show. We simply do not spend time crafting an alternative. The more we debate, discuss and harangue on an issue, the greater that issue. Look to Lakoff, who reminds us to never debate an issue on the terms of the opposition - but to press our (or mine) issue and agenda.
Liberals most often live in a world of protest, and we have little capacity for the efforts toward building the alternative.
HCR has posted Questions inviting readers' ideas for a better government. There are plenty of HCR readers who are putting energy into crafting the alternatives and taking action. Give credit where credit is due! :)
Morning, all!! Morning, Dr. R!! I asked my bovine friends who live on the property behind me what "We need to quit counting the egg-sucking legs on the cows" means. No word as yet in response to the query. There were, however, several scattered moos that could be heard among the herd...
I was born in West Virginia and so I'll interpret for you. He means don't focus on the small stuff and start acting like a tall dog at a meat counter! (Oh my, I have a million of my Dad's sayings floating in my head. It's a comfort for me, though.) :-)
Appreciate the intel on West Virginia speak, Carla. I live in VA about 20 minutes from the WV border, and have trespassed through from time to time...Harper's Ferry, Charles Town, Shepherdstown, etc. Among many other things I do not know, Fairfax Stone monument heralds the source of the Potomac River, so awesome!
Morning to you, Lynell Abbott. The expression means to get to the point. If you want to know how many cows are in a field, count ‘em! Don’t waste time counting all there dang ( egg sucking) legs then divide by four.
His previous use of this expression is humorously recounted here:
You can't blame the poor cow for any of that! The first thing i came across in this vein when i arrived in Montreal was "Kraft Foods" . My then girlfriend was professionally translating The company's "recipes"
The GOP definition of unity and bipartisanship is, "Do it our way". I kept hearing news people last night talking about 'finding middle ground', 'meeting in the middle', as if this were some weird kind of geometry problem. Take a 24" line and find the mid-point and that is the answer. No nuance, no context, just equal measure for each side. That's not bipartisanship, that's not fairness. That's math.
Regarding the other elephant in the room - the impeachment trial, a friend tipped me to an Australian documentary on the insurrection that was far more complete than I've seen on US TV. "The Downfall of Donald Trump" https://iview.abc.net.au/show/four-corners/series/2021
If the Senate does not convict Trump, we might just as well turn the country over to the Proud Boys and their ilk, because we won't have a country any longer. The fact that the GOP is still pretending that what happened January 6th was an aberration is ludicrous. When I hear people say, "That's not who we are.", I want to scream, "That is PRECISELY who we are" That's why HCRs history lessons are so incredibly valuable. Most of us only had a very skim of history in high school, long forgotten. We don't have true leaders of integrity anymore, or very few, at any rate. We've been like the frog in boiling water for over 50 years, not really seeing how much danger we are collectively in.
And yes, I am speaking as someone who has benefited from my white privilege all my life, often, I'm ashamed to say unaware of just how much it has buoyed me. I know things have been so much worse for my brothers and sisters of color.
I really feel we are at an inflection point as a country - we must deal with the inequality, racial and every other kind. We must quit believing the Trumpian POV that life is a zero sum game, and realize that, "Everybody does better when everybody does better".
I think that's what this community here is doing. and I am thankful for each and every one of you.
Right on the money, Sandra. The Cline Center report linked in HCR’s citations is also chilling. The Republican effort to minimize and normalize the events of Jan 6 must not be allowed to succeed.
Best comment evah! Will watch the documentary. These letters give me hope and this community gives me resolve.
Cantab guy says nice Boston accent. Which neighborhood or neighboring town?
Southern, as in Alabama.
Just, "WOW!" Thank you Sandra, for a beautifully written comment full of truth. And thanks for that link to the Australian documentary. We cannot have TOO much information about the back story on January 6, 2021.
Thank you for that documentary; I will watch it (well, at least listen to it) while I go about my morning activities. Your third paragraph summarizes exactly what my thoughts (much more scattered and less eloquent than yours) have been.
The thing that has been true since 1994 is that there is no more "middle ground" either philosophically or mathematically in the US. The attempt by the Obama administration to find "common ground" with the republicans in 2009 when he had to lead this country out of the economic recession that the republicans had created should serve as an illustration for President Biden that he cannot find middle ground with these scorched earthers. Offer a reasonable response (hint: what they have mentioned so far is not reasonable) and then steamroll them.
A comment I read months ago stated that there is no middle ground between facts and “bat-shit crazy”. As events have unfolded since November, I keep thinking of that.
Yes, middle ground - one party is already there! NOW its up to the Republicans to come to the "middle ground". Why is no one in Congress speaking that truth!
Ally, you make a very important distinction between 'middle ground' and 'common ground'. They've come to be considered synonymous, and they are not.
I too am thankful for this community which buoys me up seeming every day. Thank you all.
Sandra, you have precisely stated the facts of this matter. I am also climbing out of the white privilege cocoon to see the world & this nation really for the first time (many thanks to HCR and BLM). I'll be 70 this year & I fear for what America will be over the next decade and for my children & grandchild beyond that. I watched the Four Corners video. We were so close to complete tragedy. And *45 will not be convicted and then what? We have to stay strong and resist tyranny and be better than we were yesterday in all ways.
What four corners video? Thanks
https://iview.abc.net.au/show/four-corners/series/2021
See Sandra P. Campbell's original post to get the link
Thank you, Sandra for your wonderful comment and sharing the link. Reading comments like yours and several others in this community always give me a sense of hope.
Glad I could be of service! We all must work together to right this ship and there truly is strength in numbers! Keep up the good work.
Just watched the documentary. MANY thanks! I hope portions, if not all, can be used at the trial. The footage is exceptional; I don't know how the photographers managed to be so close to the horrific violence without themselves being harmed. Kudos to them.
Sandra, you're reading my mind, using the same words in my head: "ilk" popped into my head while watching the Australian documentary, and the frog in boiling water analogy.
Thanks for the link. Watching this now. Chilling.
Yes, it is. Maybe should have come with a medication warning....................🤨😯😉
I would love to watch the documentary but I get a message that it is unavailable in my country. Any suggestions on where to find it somewhere else?
Not sure, Karen. I'm in the US, NC, to be exact. Try this link:
https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/downfall:-the-last-days-of-president-trump/13110382
Thank you for this link. I finished viewing this moments ago. I am truly frightened for our democracy. When Ford pardoned Nixon I was disappointed but eventually drank the Kool-Aid and began to think that perhaps the pardon was needed to heal the nation. WRONG. Instead, the lesson was that the events of Watergate would be tolerated, that you could go at least this far in destroying the nation and that going just a bit farther was all you needed. So we get Trump. He went more than a bit farther. And despite all he did to stir up the insurrectionists and rioters, the Republicans in the Senate will acquit him, sending the message loudly and clearly that violence against the government is perfectly fine with them. The third time the insurrectionists will likely succeed. And along with the Democrats and Independents and various minority members not a few Republicans will be swept up in the purge of non-believers that is bound?”
Thank you. This link works on my ipad (the other didn’t for me).
Yay! Glad to hear it.
Thank you Sandra. Just watched it.
This one works on my iPhone!
The link worked on my Mac.
It won’t work on my iPad. Says the app is unavailable in my country.
I watched on a PC. This is the second time this morning someone has commented on something not playing on their Ipad. The other was a Vimeo video, but people using laptops and desk tops had no problem, so it must be an interface issue.
My son-in-law writes apps for a software company and until he told me there has to be specific programming for each kind of device, I had no idea; I thought if it could be seen on one, it could be seen on any, but that's not so.
Interesting. I have a Dell Laptop & watched with no problem on Google Chrome.
You hit it out of the park, Sandra. Thank you.
It's the same with their definition of "compromise." As in "Democrats need to compromise with us."
One needs a doublethink dictionary to understand all the right wing dog whistles. Like the way the use "reform" as a synonym for "destruction." As in "eduction reform."
I just watch the Australian Documentary you posted above. I too have not seen much of it on US TV. Chilling and not for the faint of heart. Thank you.
Further proof that, with rare exception (and I say this as a former journalist), the average "reporter" is an over-educated, under-intelligent, otherwise-unemployable.
Is it just me, or how is $3,200 over the course of nearly a year do much? (Providing that perhaps $1400 is added to the $1200+$600 already paid to single people.). For some that might be a single month's mortgage, utilities, food, gas, essentials. It boggles me how wealthy politicians haggle back and forth so much on such a piddly amount for us that they don't even need themselves. People are so far behind on payments for everything, that I just don't understand how things go up from there. As Robert Reich points out taxing the mega rich will add billions to the economy and they will still be mega rich. I made donations to organizations with my checks to help those out of work. And put some in savings. I have been an essential food service worker at a school district helping prepare and give out over 500,000 free meals in 10 months. I am beat and exhausted. Let the schools safely open. I have faith in Joe Biden. Let's get this leadership team room to lead.
Well said, Jane and thank you for feeding our children. I, too, work in a school. We are every one of us exhausted! Please hang in there, we’ll get through this and better times will be ahead... times we can see each other’s smiles, and hug, and even walk hand in hand with a child. Snow day today, we sent home extra food with the children yesterday- just in case.
You all are our heroes. Thank you for all that you do. Stay safe and take good care of yourselves.
Thank you, Pamsy. To be honest, I don't feel like a hero. My neck, back, knee, thumb are all messed up from the repetitive motion, lifting, and standing. I used to love my job as a high school lunch lady. Now I cry on my way to work. I guess it's burnout. We all miss life the way it used to be.
Even better, some members of Congress are pushing for a pay rise for themselves on the basis that $138,000 (I think that is the number quoted) is not enough to live on with dignity. Of course that is more than I think over 80% of Americans make. But can’t have poor people actually surviving and perhaps beginning to gain some security. Oh no! Never that!
Their salary is $174K. They do have to maintain two places of residence. One in DC and one in their home state. Keeping two "homes" and travel back and forth to their districts is costly. That said, I think there is only one Senator who is not a millionaire. I don't know about Congressional members. Plus they are granted "allowances" for staffing, health insurance, "franking" privileges, etc. They have forged into law that their salaries will rise automatically so that they can say that they have nothing to do with their salary increases, "the law makes those decisions." Here's the agreement that controls their incomes. https://www.senate.gov/CRSpubs/9c14ec69-c4e4-4bd8-8953-f73daa1640e4.pdf
Well, Josh Hawley does not maintain a residence in Missouri--he has a million +$ house in Fairfax County, VA. He uses his sister's home as his "official" address in MO. And many have shared housing in DC--the stories about the boyz who shacked up with Gingrich in Georgetown in the 90s and Oughts are legendary. So between the subsidies and the salaries, I think most congresspeople do just fine.
Hawley is a outlier. I'm not arguing that "they aren't doing just fine." I'm arguing that they are all millionaires, that we need some regular people in Congress who can use the money. The members who "shacked up" did so because even renting a room in DC is prohibitive. It is one of the most expensive cities in the world.
I have a feeling the younger crowd of progressives are ‘regular people’, like AOC, Connor Lamb, Rashid, Primala, et. al.
AOC offers advice to newly-elected congresswoman on how to economically and sustainably afford Congress-appropriate clothing. (And remember, they have to show up dressed appropriately BEFORE they get their first paycheck!)
https://www.businessinsider.com/aoc-pulls-back-curtain-how-afford-congress-appropriate-clothing-2020-11
Agreed. Good point.
Hawley is hardly "going without;" he's reducing expenses by sponging off his family, even if they are willing.
PAY RAISE FOR CONGRESS????????????? For WHAT, exactly???
Probably for hiring personal security.
Can you live with dignity if you never had any dignity?
Touche
There are folks who earn slightly more than the income limit is set for who qualifies for economic relief. Many of them experienced pay cuts, and some 2 income families are now one income families. Kids in college, mortgages, car loans and much more, those expenses and the of living for them didn’t decrease. Is It a sin to point out that people are having a very difficult time even if they don’t make the ‘cut’.
Believe me, not for a moment do I suggest that no income and little food and no ‘basics’ compare, but many on the other side of the ‘line’ are getting clobbered as well.
Cynthia, I do understand this. But the same people who are in Congress complaining about their salaries are refusing to vote for a living minimum wage, for enhancing and extending unemployment benefits, for more money for food stamps and WIC, for a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions with support for landlords who also need to pay the bills, and for assistance to strapped state and local budgets to help out public and higher education, support homeless shelters, and pay for Covid remediation. So I have absolutely no sympathy for them. MLK said that elites get welfare and the poor get "rugged individualism." He was right. The few members of Congress who are not enjoying independent income over and above their salaries seem to have other ways of paying the bills. The whole Christian notion of "feed the poor, clothe the naked, heal the sick" is lost on these guys and gals and yet they hide under a bizarre banner of Christianity for their Antisemitic, sexist, and racist rhetoric.
Sorry for the screed, but in my way of thinking there is no moral equivalence between a disposable income in the top 20% (with the ability to do things like send children to college, pay for broadband internet, and cover their expenses with relatively little pain) and the situation of Black women whose average disposable income (i.e. not dedicated to basic substance) is $5. Literally: $5. And I am in that upper range of privileged white professionals. When the Waltons stop instructing their employees to register for food stamps and WIC because they don't pay them enough to keep them above the poverty line and agree to pay their workers a living wage, I'll stop griping about Congressional salaries.
And sorry about the typo: basic subsistence not substance. HCR: we need an edit function!!!! 🤪
There's an indirect way to edit using the Delete function. Highlight the text to be edited; delete the original post; copy it into a new one, then correct/revise to your heart's content.
Essential worker indeed.
I've lost al patience with the Press pressing Jen Psaki and other Biden folks to accept their narrow focus of "unity" only meaning to appease Republicans and moderate Democrats.
Unity means to bring "the whole" together and Biden more than once made the distinction he meant the whole country. Every President promises to work with the other side but that hasn't happened in decades.
When you hear the call for unity and see that 74% of all Americans are in favor of a big relief package and 400 Governors and Mayors from both parties are begging for life saving aid, you can see how Biden can fulfill his promise for unity.
Republicans tied to Trump are a lost cause, cut them loose and save the ship from sinking. They don't want unity, they want to retain power but 81 million Americans wanted something else.
Have a good day, off to shovel snow.
Well said. I've been thinking that maybe "unity" should have less to do with compromise/agreement between Democrats and Republicans, but rather, have more to do with healing the divide between government and everyday Americans.
We can thank Ronny Ray-gun for starting that rumor - "I'm from the gubmit, and I'm here to help." He said they were the most dangerous words in the English language, and obviously a lot of people believed him.
It’s important to remember, I think, that Reagan stood on the broad shoulders of a wide and long swath of the American experience.
Before Reagan, there were the states’ rights klan, and the private enterprises supporting a racist government, from top to bottom. Even the northern economies depended upon southern slavery. And, going further back, to the founding of our country and, of course, 1619. So there’s our long shadow.
I believe that President Biden is the first national elected figure to call on America to begin to recover untold stories and shine the light on this shadow. I remember Biden referring to 1619, at some point of the campaign. THEN, I realized this man was prepared for this time.
So, I’m glad it's the month of February, at the time. There will be MANY stories told in the next four weeks. At this time, we can chart a new direction, so our actions will be a history of “liberty and justice for all"
Frederick, That's why I love history - it shows us the structure from the bottom up, time-wise. We get to see that everything is predicated on something that came before - decisions that were made, mistakes and right-thinking decisions, too.
We tend, as humans, I think, to think what we see before us is how it's always been, even when we 'know; better. What history allows - maybe forces us - to do is see context as well as content. Very important to understanding ourselves and our world.
I'm with you with regard to the ridiculous amount of time spent by members of the press asking for clarification in re Biden's definition of the word unity. Yesterday morning alone they flogged that dead beast for what seemed half the briefing.
Stay warm.
Any suggestions for how an ordinary citizen can support a better quality press. I surely feel they share significant responsibility in getting us here. I wonder why they don’t have licensing boards and ethics like other professions.
The Fairness Doctrine helped to perform that role, but it was revoked in 1987. We need it again, not just to ensure "balance," but also fact-based reporting. A new FD must be stronger, and broadened to cover new non-broadcast media developed since 1987.
I agree, and I’d like to know the answer to that as well. Would it help to contact these press people directly, and voice our concerns?
It couldn't hurt!
Back before the electronic age, I wrote a lot of Op-Ed letters (200 published between 1982 - 2000). Many of them actually criticized the newspaper or reporters for sensationalized or downright erroneous articles. However, the bottom line is "the press" is a competitive commercial enterprise at that time to sell newspaper subscriptions & now to sell online subscriptions. And the most disturbing thing is "The National Enquirer" still exists, showing the mindset of too many ppl who consume "the news."
200 is a lot; thanks for performing a civic duty well. How many were actually published, i.e. approved by editors and appearing in the Letters section rather than as online comments? I've probably submitted c.60-70 letters over four decades, with about a dozen published, all in the last 15.
I'm concerned about the amount of oxygen the press in general continues to give folks who perpetuate lies. I just don't get it - how can we move in the direction of unity and truth when lies continue to be given credence and spread across the land over and over again?
Hear.Hear. I find myself screaming at the tv when yet another reporter 'challenges' Psaki about what the president means by "UNITY," (caps intentional) ..and is that a unifying thing he said/did? Maybe it's going to take time for reporters to realize that they are in a White House briefing room where a real Press Secretary is trying to give real information about what the administration is trying to do. The press has had four years of lies, propaganda, obfuscation, and taken downright abuse, so maybe they are still in "ask again and again and again" mode?
Republicans are still calling the American Relief Plan "stimulus". It's not an economic stimulus plan but it certainly will help the economy. But let's call it what it is, "disaster relief" which is what it would be if instead of COVID, every city in America was hit by a tornado, flood or some other natural disaster.
President Biden rightly calls it "The American Rescue Plan" and rescue is needed on so many levels.
Whenever I hear the word "stimulus," I think "cattle prod." Honestly. Thanks, Christopher, I agree with your assessment.
Sometimes the economy just needs a shot in the arm (stimulus), other times a major transfusion (disaster relief). Right now people need vaccination shots but cities and states are in need of a transfusion of cash to make it happen.
I'm not concerned so much about the term stimulus but I am when it's not used correctly. Folks who can't or don't follow current events closely can easily be bamboozled with wonky terms.
I'm confused about this. As in many places, the state of NH is using the National Guard (whom I believe we pay already, maybe we're paying them more now?) and VOLUNTEER vaccinators at outdoor sites that don't cost anything to administer vaccines that I think are being provided by the feds? The platforms for making appointments and documenting shots are through the state and CDC respectively, so how much money do cities and states need exactly to get vaccines into people? I admit to being naive about this.
I think of Pavlov's dog. Poor thing!
Thank you. I used the term stimulus in an earlier comment and it felt so wrong but I was too lazy to stop and think of a better word, thus illustrating how easily these words/terms get stuck in our minds when we hear them over and over...........henceforth! I will use "disaster relief".
The GOP has long been kings of framing, and for all the BS about the 'liberal MSM', here we have a perfect example of how the MSM has worked against the left for years.
I can't decide if they're just too lazy to do their own thinking and so just hop on the Fox News bandwagon, or if they are really duplicitous. Obviously, there are real journalists working hard, but somehow the words of the lightweights seem to get air time.
Well, here on this board we are an example of the activity and energy we give to the right, to trump, to the horror show. We simply do not spend time crafting an alternative. The more we debate, discuss and harangue on an issue, the greater that issue. Look to Lakoff, who reminds us to never debate an issue on the terms of the opposition - but to press our (or mine) issue and agenda.
Liberals most often live in a world of protest, and we have little capacity for the efforts toward building the alternative.
HCR has posted Questions inviting readers' ideas for a better government. There are plenty of HCR readers who are putting energy into crafting the alternatives and taking action. Give credit where credit is due! :)
Morning, all!! Morning, Dr. R!! I asked my bovine friends who live on the property behind me what "We need to quit counting the egg-sucking legs on the cows" means. No word as yet in response to the query. There were, however, several scattered moos that could be heard among the herd...
I was born in West Virginia and so I'll interpret for you. He means don't focus on the small stuff and start acting like a tall dog at a meat counter! (Oh my, I have a million of my Dad's sayings floating in my head. It's a comfort for me, though.) :-)
I love that -'tall dog at the meat counter'. I've inherited quite of few family sayings that would fit right in in WV, I'm sure. I love them all.
Appreciate the intel on West Virginia speak, Carla. I live in VA about 20 minutes from the WV border, and have trespassed through from time to time...Harper's Ferry, Charles Town, Shepherdstown, etc. Among many other things I do not know, Fairfax Stone monument heralds the source of the Potomac River, so awesome!
I'm in Charles Town - not native to the state so I appreciate the translation above.
Morning to you, Lynell Abbott. The expression means to get to the point. If you want to know how many cows are in a field, count ‘em! Don’t waste time counting all there dang ( egg sucking) legs then divide by four.
His previous use of this expression is humorously recounted here:
http://ohiovalleynewz.com/2019/05/23/united-cows-of-america-demand-apology-after-gov-justices-calls-them-egg-suckers/
United Cows of America must be a grassroots coalition!
Hah, thanks. When Gov Justice meets cattle, it's steak.
And when on probation or parole it's Milk, Butter, Yogurt and Cheese!
Ha! In the US it would be Velveeta and cheap margarine.
You can't blame the poor cow for any of that! The first thing i came across in this vein when i arrived in Montreal was "Kraft Foods" . My then girlfriend was professionally translating The company's "recipes"
Love this, Daria.
Yuk!
🤣🤣🤣
Is Devin Nunes’ cow onboard with this?
Rogue steers get cut out of the herd.....but can be branded like the rest!
Ooh, ouch, Stuart!
In some cultures the brand would be on the forehead for all to see. Traitor writ large!