Today Americans began to see the concrete effects of the American Rescue Plan show up in their bank accounts, as the expanded child tax credit goes into effect for one year.
While I certainly applaud the child tax credit checks and getting children out of poverty, I'd like to point out the bigger picture and underlying cause -- income disparity. Middle class Americans are not making a living wage even when both the father and the mother are working full time jobs or even when each work more than one job like many teachers. Wages have not gone up in years. The childcare that makes it possible for women to work is very expensive while the income disparity makes it almost imperative. The middle class is being hollowed out by corporations that are keeping wages down and investors who insist on bigger profits by carving any expenses like labor to the bone. The employees do not get their share of that profits. Employees need to become shareholders -- by law if necessary. Capitalism is imploding if corporations keep starving the consumers that make Capitalism work. I'm expecting to hear the word "hand-outs" from the GOP like this is all the fault of lazy people. Glad we have an administration that is working on fixing all this. This is NOT the time for I alone can fix it; we all need to pitch in and support the current President and his administration. Only we together can fix it.
Preach Cathy!!! The Ghastly Obstructionists are already meeping and whining that the enhanced child tax credit will "discourage" poor people from working. (more on this in a sec) In fact, the ability to pay for child care will encourage women to return to the work force--which is a totally verifiable truth.
So I am not sure why I am the only person who keeps on harping on this; perhaps classical economics is not everyone's bag but I would have thought some op-ed wag would have thought of it. Way back in the early days of the British Industrial Revolution, when capitalists were trying to figure out how to compel poor people to move out of their rural homes and into the new "dark satanic mill" towns to work themselves to death in order to enrich the nabobs and robber barons who were exploiting the masses, the economist David Ricardo came up with the clever notion that if the industrialists paid their workers a wage that was just UNDER a livable wage--too little and they won't work at all, so it has to look almost okay on paper--they would be compelled and incentivized to work the long hours and in the appalling conditions required by the early industrialists. They would also push everyone in their family, including children, to work in order to make it possible for the family to survive, but never to thrive. Ricardo's reasoning was that if you pay a living wage that makes it possible for poor people to start to rise out of poverty, they will start saving money and they will stop sending their children into the mines and mills and send them to school instead. He saw this as ultimately dangerous to the wellbeing of the industrialists, who would lose the labor of such children.
The British industrialist class LOVED Ricardian economic theory. Never mind that they were also reluctantly coming to the conclusion the enslaving humans was inefficient, they had hit upon an idea that could work in all situations: if you wanna keep the underclass down, pay them not quite enough to live on. This has been the mantra of these kinds of people for 200 years now.
The appalling, disgusting anti-humans who are bleating and farting on Fox and the WSJ and who populate far too many state legislatures, governors' offices, and the US Congress are in this Ricardian mold. Any attempt to ameliorate the horrific situations of the working poor will be seen as a dangerous infringement of the economic rights of the kleptocrats who support them--and who they want to be.
There are two key points we should all be focused on. 1) It's the kleptocrats that are really running the show and are pulling the strings in the background. Their influence not only serves their greed and avarice but it cruelly and inhumanely punishes the lives of most Americans. 2) The kleptocrats, or plutocrats as I prefer to say, would not have this inordinate power if our elected representatives didn't sell us out for personal empowerment and narcissistic-fueled gratification.
I think we have to look at why voters give power to liars and kleptocrats. Those personalities are very upfront about who they are and yet millions vote them into power.
Voters are malleable and more often than not are shaped by perception instead of facts and evidence. Once they drink the kool-aid they become hooked.
We all are witness to a constant stream of lies, misinformation, and acrimonious soundbites coming from the right. The Republican Party has a truly extraordinary deep and wide supporting infrastructure that drives the narrative that all things Democratic are bad and harmful.
Obviously, the conservative media has tremendous power over voters and politicians, alike. The right-wing media has at their disposal a relatively huge supporting cast of think tank experts, lobbyists, plus mercenary scientists, economists, doctors, and lawyers. Politicians never bite the hand that feeds them.
Democrats can't come close to matching this legion of right-wing propagandists. Why? Because the right has a virtually endless source of funding. It costs billions to fund all the tools that Republicans have at their disposal and the wealthy are all too happy to pony up and do anything to stop the Democrats. They spend billions that save them a hundredfold that amount in profits, investments, and wealth. A perfect example is the billions the medical complex has spent to protect the trillions they rake in.
There are signs that the majority of voters are on to the Republican baseless lies and malfeasance. Republicans are chained to Trump but realize that the bad outweighs the good. Hence, they are upping their game to cheat and disenfranchise voters, and specifically voters of a certain demographic.
It would seem that Democrats in general have a deeper appreciation for truth and self reflection. But minus any partisanship our increasing understanding of neuroscience could be a blessing not just to humanity but to earth. I cannot state often enough my strong opinion that understanding the human mind will bring us peace and prosperity. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/authoritarian-cults-in-america-townhall-tickets-162916352195
A sad, but true story: When I first moved into this little town, my 100+ year old house had a broken down water heater which needed some electrical help. I called a plumber, who instantly responded (now I know why) and sent his "worker" over to fix the thing. The bill came to over $700. The worker, a white guy who had lost his hamburger business due to a fire for which he was uninsured, came back to talk to me later. He apologized for the bill. He said he would repay me if he could, but he had no money. He had worked one hour, for $15. The rest of the bill went into the pocket of his employer, who had no skills whatsoever, but who had managed to procure a legal "license." The worker, who could not afford a license, was an experienced and expert electrician. (I became friends with the worker and his partner and assisted them in acquiring some better paying work over the years.)
The sad news is that they both faithfully vote GQP. And the other sad news is that they remain forever poor and in desperate need of a helping hand. They're not dumb people, they are trapped people.
Fascinating. I had no idea that it was an engineered system. Classical Economics is a new thing for me (I have a horrible relationship with anything to do with numbers, and therefore Economics in general have never interested me.) This is enlightening.
Hi Linda.....Ricardo is not mainstream economics! He is classical only in the sense that he is "history". His approach is decidedly "political" first and economy afterwards....another "man of his times" and doubtless much admired by trumpites who actually read anything serious. In standard pristine, if simplistic, economic theory wages are set by supply and demand when there are no "imperfections" in the market. Imperfections are of course legion (laws, unions, disasters, geographic isolation etc etc etc)...and too numerous for the econometric algorithms to fully handle. So supply and demand are not always allowed to fully interreact and you can get unusually high or low wage situations. The chief target of "Ricardian" accusations of late has been Amazon who are accused of driving local wages down. research however has proved the contrary as they mostly pay above local market rates and thus oblige others to follow in order to maintain or improve their workforce. The other case often mentioned now is the encouragement of large inflows of immigrants to keep down local wages. The conclusions on this are far from firm as it really depends often on the sector you're looking at. The ability to bring into the country whole project teams and work gangs for specific devolpment projects often prevents local people employing or improving their skills and can generate local unemployment if generalized.
What is also interesting now is the difficulties that the "hospitality" and fast food sectors are having in attracting their workforce back and they are having to seriously increase their pay scales. These sectors were particulary good at creating "precarious and low-paid" jobs previously. The reason given for the reluctance to return was that the covid epidemic opened their eyes to better paid and more secure opportunities. Economics works....sometimes.
Stuart, In your correction of what, perhaps, was an amateurish attempt at economic understanding and the mention of Amazon in the comment, do you have an appraisal of Amazon's role on labor in the country?
'Many of the over 350,000 workers Amazon hired from July to October stayed with the company "just days or weeks," the report said. Hourly employees had a turnover rate of about 150% every year, data reviewed by The Times indicated.'
'Amazon intentionally limited upward mobility for hourly workers, said Mr. Niekerk, the former H.R. vice president who retired in 2016 after nearly 17 years at the company. Dave Clark, then head of operations, had shot down his proposal around 2014 to create more leadership roles for hourly employees, similar to noncommissioned officers in the military, he recalled.'
'Instead, Mr. Clark, who is now chief executive of Amazon’s consumer business, wanted to double down on hiring “wicked smart” frontline managers straight out of college, Mr. Niekerk said. By contrast, more than 75 percent of managers in Walmart’s U.S. stores started as hourly employees. Following a pattern across Amazon, JFK8 promoted 220 people last year among its more than 5,000 employees, a rate that is less than half of Walmart’s.'
'Amazon’s founder didn’t want hourly workers to stick around for long, viewing “a large, disgruntled” work force as a threat, Mr. Niekerk recalled. Company data showed that most employees became less eager over time, he said, and Mr. Bezos believed that people were inherently lazy. “What he would say is that our nature as humans is to expend as little energy as possible to get what we want or need.” That conviction was embedded throughout the business, from the ease of instant ordering to the pervasive use of data to get the most out of employees.'
'So guaranteed wage increases stopped after three years, and Amazon provided incentives for low-skilled employees to leave. Every year, Mr. Palmer saw signs go up offering associates thousands of dollars to resign, and as he entered JFK8 each morning, he passed a classroom for free courses to train them in other fields.'
'Mr. Agboka, the H.R. leader, said while the company offered training and careers at Amazon to those interested, it was proud to also provide people short-term employment for the “seasons and periods of time” they need.'
'But it wasn’t clear how much the company was willing to reconsider the sacrosanct systems of productivity, automation and high turnover that propelled it to dominance. “Are they going to address the issue of an expendable work force?” asked Mr. Cavagnaro, the fired worker who was returning to JFK8. “Are there going to be any changes?”
Thanks Fern for the in-depth analysis. As you can imagine my point only covered the hourly rate for the workers. The work rythms, like the "speed of the line" in the car industry, and the social disruption that their methods create is a different and more serious question.
"Mr. Bezos believed that people were inherently lazy. 'What he would say is that our nature as humans is to expend as little energy as possible to get what we want or need.' That conviction was embedded throughout the business, from the ease of instant ordering to the pervasive use of data to get the most out of employees.'"
SO: The culture of Bezo's business is based on his conviction that people are inherently lazy. The Culture of Amazon, then, is DISRESPECT, through and through. That is NOT, as Frederick defines it in these pages, "Moral Capitalism", or "Democracy Capitalism." It is more akin to slavery..
Mass immigration has been a major factor enabling companies to hold wages down. This is why the Koch organization, the Chamber of Commerce, and big biz GOPers generally, and Mark Zuckerberg have all supported mass immigration and legalization of unauthorized immigrants. It's also why the late Barbara Jordan, Black democratic congresswoman from Texas who made her name on the Watergate committee, recommended cutting immigration numbers in half and strict enforcement of immigration laws when she ran a commission on immigration reform under Pres. Clinton. And it's why Cesar Chavez denounced illegal immigrants to INS (google it if you don't believe me).
Biden is doing a terrible job on the border, and wants to double legal immigration to the equivalent of one NY State per decade. (I still think on other than immigration, Biden's doing a great job; and I don't ever expect a politician to do everything I want, but as a member of NumbersUSA.com, I'm fighting him on this--and I recommend to anyone who feels as I do that you should join NumbersUSA.com, which is non-partisan.)
I would add that a majority of Americans oppose loose borders and mass immigration, so this is bound to hurt us on the midterms. Note the graph showing that only 37% of adults approve of Biden on immigration:
The French would more than agree and would like a stop put to legal and illegal immigration. The numbers have gone way beyond the countries capacity to absorb and now they are being told that asking the newcomers to "integrate" is xenophobic/racist! France has been exporting masters and doctoral degreed young and importing the uneducated and often unemployable.
I haven't been to France since before the millennium, but I had the sense that something like this was going on there. I have tremendous nostalgia for the year I spent there as a kid, and I really want to go back, but I worry that I'm going to be badly disappointed. Re the nostalgia--here's my story, which should have been titled, "In Search of Lost Time--With Apologies to Proust". https://www.hagerty.com/media/driving/a-60s-summer-in-paris-leads-to-a-search-for-a-good-peugeot-404/
What most people don’t realize is that there were a number of those “hand-outs” to middle class families all the way through the 70s when I was little, Social Security paid out for struggling families like mine. My parents were both widowed when they met, and my siblings from my mother’s first husband still received benefits after my mom and dad got married.
The shift in wealth since then has been engineered by movement conservatives. Their policies of growing monopolies without controls already established has pulled money from the middle class and independent entrepreneurial endeavors to the whales of their industries. Jeff Bezos cannot spend his billions the way 350 million can spend those same billions. The “handouts” you speak of is actually doing the work of stabilizing the economy for the middle class.
Among those handouts in the 60s and 70s was low-cost state and community college tuition and sholarships for prioirty areas of need; e.g., engineers, physicists, public school teachers, medical doctors, nurses. States invested in higher education with the expectation that well prepared graduates would be a value added to the state for years to come. A liberal education foundation was matched with a career (note that term) field of need state-wide or nationally. Keep the cost low, good students would come, complete, and enter these areas of need with skills and knowleges to address the issues in education or health or engineeering, etc., well into the future. My wife and I were reccipients of such faith and we paid back in good kind for nearly 50 years. There are hundreds of thousands of those like us. The shift I saw take place was to increasingly tie aid, loans, and study to the immediate needs of employers and employers getting greater determination of curricula and outcomes: College (or community college graduates) from public institutions should be job ready. This shift from supply-side to demand-side has, I think, taken a toll whereby we are less and less equiping graduates with the aptitudes and skills to imagine and shape the future as we more rapidly churn out workers who now share the debt of their education as the education is simply for their economic advancement in jobs available in the present economy. Development of graduates capable of shaping the future of our states and communitiies, an intent of those education investments or handouts in the 60s and 70s, is a great loss I believe. Few strings were attached: Graduate, stay in your chosen field (prefferably in the state) for a few years, be a good citizen, do your work well, grow a good responsible family. This is one reason I can be in favor of debt-forgiveness for kids who did their college work in state-supported post-seconday schools.
College debt used to be positive debt, because it was an investment into America. Now, college debt has as much “value” as a payday loan - run by financial vultures, immune from bankruptcy, and impossible to pay off.
We have been living with the effects of financial strip mining of the economy since the Reagan era. Which is the concentration toward the upper income levels of all excess wealth generated by society, where it is skimmed off and pocketed, but which otherwise would have found its way back into communities through various channels. I think the rise of the Yuppie class back then was the first outward signal of this happening, probably why they were met with such a visceral dislike by many of us. The process started a little earlier, in the early to mid 70's, when the business community gathered its resources to respond to the social upheavals of the 60's, which they saw as threats to their business models, and guided to some extent by the Powell Memo from '71 or '72. A dramatic example of this phenomenon is the graph comparing wages and productivity. Throughout history these two factors rose in tandem, when productivity went up so did wages. It was considered an iron law. But somehow, in the mid 70's, productivity kept rising, as it always had, but wages plateaued. It was an anomaly, but it has persisted, and gives some explanation for how we've arrived at our present condition.
Yes, terrific description, Syd. And I can remenber that since I was living in West Virginia coal country when Reagan acted (bluffed, lied) his way to the presidency in 1980. Look at WVa now.
Thank you. I should credit the economist Les Leopold for these ideas. I'm not a scholar, but he has studied this extensively and gives a good analysis of how and why it happened.
Their have been period of levelling off of the growth of productivity too. Productivity has often been achieved in the last 20 years at the expense of employment. The theory said that such innovation was supposed to generate employment....which it does but not at the same place nor at the same skill level.
Good morning Cathy. I applaud every time I hear about an employer, especially from the service industry big or small, complain about reopening and hardship of not being able to get employees to fill the usual minimum wage jobs thst are the bones of the operation of work sustaining the business. The cries of “these people are lazy, they don’t want work so the can collect handouts from govt and Kay on the couch”. Quite the contrary. An odd sequence of events the pandemic created. For the first time in my memory, people stuck at the mercy of inadequate minimum wage had a choice of going back to it or searching for a job that is going to pay more than minimum to get workers or pay some kind of benefit or incentive. And I have talked to scads of families deeply grateful for some wiggle room in choice. Strengthens them and their support of the current administration who has focus on families and lifting them out of economic poverty. These many good people have strong family values of care and responsibility and are extremely resilient. They will remember the government’s steady and strong hand at the ballot box. And so many are newly registered voters that can see from 2020 results that their vote counts.
Let’s keep working. Our efforts are for the people.
I might add, I think Dem strategy led by President and VP of keeping the health and welfare of people first, focusing on family and children, is working and serving as an effective counterbalance to the Republican greed and insouciance.
My “rub the lamp” genie wish in these historic times is for the Heritage Foundation and each of its members and slathering followers to be figuratively hogtied and rendered null, void and useless and then put to work in the fields and service industries picking crops and serving those they have harmed. Even the thought of it gives me grim satisfaction.
And allow me the bad behavior of espousing a conspiracy on this forum. I think Putin and his dogs are running their schemes directly through the Heritage Foundation (message and psychological warfare against democracy and the American people) and the Koch Heads and other corrupt legislators and lobbyists (scratching of each other’s wallets).
Simplistic but corruption usually is. Just requires a few influential evil actors.
The simple economic effectiveness of giving $7200 to 30 million families with two kids versus $2,000,000 to 500 families (The TJTC tax break) that are sitting on hoardes of money should be obvious. Those 30 million will churn more economic activity (buying food, clothing, tows, vacations, housing, health care, medications, joy, family time, toys, junk food, etc) than the 500 who will certainly invest in stocks, buy back stock, and may invest in creating jobs. Way more sectors will grow from money spent by those 30 million families and more collectable taxes will come up the chain from the families of the families who bought and produced and traded and supported other businesses and jobs in local communities. So, go and good for youJoe and Kamela. You got the equation repointed in the right direction for growing America.
In that case, I've just helped another worker. I paid $150 for a thirty-something mile tow the other night after my alternator went out that far from home! He looked pretty happy when he left me off.
Cathy, your "Employees need to become shareholders" comment reminded me of my last job where I automatically enrolled in a "Profit Sharing plan." Of course being a human services job, the agency was "non-profit." So, I had a Profit Sharing Plan of a Non-Profit business." They ended it while I worked there and I cashed out with a couple thousand dollars.
Unfortunately such schemes often only become disguised savings plans. Part of your wage that you can't touch without the company's sayso and which often isn't counted when retirement schemes are being build and wage increases are being considered. They come and they go....mostly the latter with the dominance of republican fantasia economics without the money being incorporated in the wage scales. To make things different the workers have to have significant shareholder rights that come with the shares, a voice on the Board and significant and persevering government support.
Good points about how this could be abused. It may be that the laws would have to require that employees substantial real ownership of the company, a place on the Board and probably a few other things. Then there are the companies that fully own the company like the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. That's another approach.
"Capitalism is imploding if corporations keep starving the consumers that make Capitalism work." This has been going on for decades. Even the last big tax cut for corporations and the wealthy wasn't meant to trickle down to employees. It was meant to boost the wealthy. And, it has.
By the time I reached the end of today's Letter From an American, it felt as a storybook resting in my lap. There was one terrific note after another told by a nimble writer with a smile on her face. In the midst of these tense and uncertain years, how can that be? With news so serious, why did the Letter feel so easy and uplifting to read? Perhaps, because the accumulation of Trump's detritus (TC would use another word or words) has been piling up so high, he may not even be able to see over it.
To begin at the beginning: 'The government sent payments for almost 60 million children on Thursday, totaling $15 billion.' '... the Child Tax Credit increased to $3,000 per child aged 6 to 17 and $3,600 per child under 6. All working families will get the full credit if they make up to $150,000 for a couple or $112,500 for a family with a single parent.' (The Letter),
In my comments, I tend to lean heavily on research, investigative reports, studies, reports by top-notch journalists, but today is another day. For the last few months, I have come to believe that one of the stories of this time is about good and evil, in rather simple terms. Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. is a good man, a truly good man. He looks for guidance and we imagine those sources, so dear to him. Joe cares, he truly cares, and he loves, he smiles, he is full of joy and sorrow. Joe learned his job and he learned us. He listens.
And then there is Donald J. Trump. We know his character, his emptiness, with revenge, rage, desperation, greed, ignorance and destruction filling the spaces. It is our job to see that Donald J. Trump is known to the American people. He is a lesson as is our attraction to him.
Our country, you and I, have been through a cycle of evil and now of good. We are moving with Joe Biden, his administration and other very good women to a better place. I took a big breath while reading today's Letter. Heather Cox Richardson and subscribers to Letter From an American are our friends through these cycles of life in America.
Fern, you posted a very eloquent opinion this morning though there is one thought that really needs to be reflected upon:
"And then there is Donald J. Trump. We know his character, his emptiness, with revenge, rage, desperation, greed, ignorance and destruction filling the spaces. It is our job to see that Donald J. Trump is known to the American people. He is a lesson as is our attraction to him."
I would say any US American, regardless of political affiliation, believes they know Donald Trump. As you stated, "We know his character... It is our job to see that Donald J Trump is known to the American people." Don't you think there is a conservative writer who has written an almost identical comment to yours? Do you really not think that died in the wool Trump supporters believe that we are the ones who are mistaken?
The conservatives who support Donald Trump believe they know him and that we are mistaken in our assessment of him. I'm not sure how to reconcile the two sides of the same coin. In this forum we can discuss and argue but the one thing we aren't able to do is change minds. Right now, the Trump faction is clearly opposed to anything that does not empower and endorse Trump, even when they benefit from the initiatives being set forth by the Biden administration, (the Child Tax Credit, for instance). Their minds are as made up as ours about who and what Donald Trump is. And therein lies the problem.
Changing hearts and minds cannot be done within this forum because we are mostly an echo chamber. The hard work has to be done outside of this forum. The question is, how? The task is Herculean.
There is also the phenomena of the "useful idiot". Those in the GOP are not hooked on him as their savior think that they can manipulate him and the situation to their own advantage. Heads you win.....tails too!
Thank you, Christy. You saved me time. I don't know how daria read that I was suggesting our Forum as the Civics teachers to Trump's Cult, though we have teachers who have been working on it. There have been strong cases against Trump stymied by Barr, Trump's cronies, the Republican Party as well as warranted grievances and white supremacy bred in the bone. The terrible growth of Covid infections through lack of vaccinations; convictions in the courts and many much more evidence compiled by news reports, investigative reports, books, court papers, etc., will penetrate some American minds, which have been swamped by lies and conspiracies. Social Media is an enormous contributor of misinformation and conspiracies, which must be addressed.
"It is our job to see that Donald J. Trump is known to the American people. He is a lesson as is our attraction to him."
THAT is how you suggested that WE on this forum act as Civic Teachers to the Trump Cult. Who is the Our in Our Job, Fern? You missed the point entirely, Fern.
You simply cannot abide someone delving into your comments or your opinions, can you?
Perhaps “our” job is intended as universal? It is indeed everyone’s job to educate through factual comparisons to current events. I believe that is what HCR does on this platform.
Patricia, as long as there are politicians at all levels ready and willing to get on social media, talk shows and news shows and pump lies to the huge segment of our population unwilling to accept truth, reality and science it doesn't matter how "universal" the "our" is. It is a fact that they don't consume what they call mainstream media, they consume media tailored to specifically to keep them stirred up. They won't entertain the idea that Trump did not win the election, that getting a vaccine might just save a their life, that there are serious environmental issues that need to be dealt with and more. You tell me, how are you going to educate your trumpian family member or neighbor through factual comparisons [between historical events and ] current events? Explain to me how many people who skew right and have come to Heather's substack page go away with a changed mind? They don't. And do you know why? Because when they do show up some of us treat them like crap. Some of us use infantile, monosyllabic, scatological responses to their comments rather than ignore them or ask for citations/documentation. Some of us scream troll, or Russian, or God knows what at the right wing visitor. Oh yes, that shows how well the universal "we" is actually able to handle educating someone who is neck deep in right wing lies.
Look, my point was obviously not understood. Not by you or the original poster who immediately took offense at what I was saying. We are not living in a fairy tale, we are living in a country which is being torn apart bit by bit, at all levels of society, every single day. At some point, Democrats and Progressives are going to have to figure out that the combination of Jesus and the media machine that feeds the right wing is compelling, persuasive and far more effective than anything we've been able to come up with.
Sharon, With all due respect, you might read my original response to Fern's original comment. It was polite and I acknowledged her eloquence. Her initial response regarding my comment was to someone else and was demeaning in its tone. You might read it before you jump into the fray and decide that I'm projecting.
I listened to someone on the LP podcast (?) say you can be very clear to a trump supporter that the opposite of something they believe is true—and they likely know you are right—and they simply refuse to accept it.
Maybe if we just stop giving him air call him "he who must not be named" because by speaking his name into the universe it is confused into thinking we want more. We don't. The major social media outlets have silenced him, maybe we should not say his name. Just putting that out there without saying his name!
This is my perspective as well. I’m interested in the very visible approach that TX Dems have been using. Be there, on the ground, interacting with folks who have been effected by policy. I’m speechless that the building failure in Florida has not been tied to conservative rejection of regulation (for instance). This could be done without politicizing the deaths in that event by educating the public about so many other regulatory failures that have been investigated.
Patricia, South Florida (where I was born & raised) has had one of the toughest building codes for decades. The best codes count for nothing if they're not enforced. One story I read about the inspection process said some buildings had failed repeatedly but the powers that be let the building owners and managers slide, never putting any teeth in the fines and citations written up. One building stalled for almost 10 years!! They seem to be in cahoots with the HOAs, or whoever has responsibility for the buildings.
It took me a while to understand why you thought I was suggesting that the Forum educate the Cult about who Trump is and what he has destroyed. When I wrote 'It is our job to see that Donald J. Trump is known to the American people.' I did not intend 'our' to be the Forum but to all the resources at the country's disposal in exposing the social and economic crimes he has perpetrated as well as how they are connected to mental illness, autocracy and fascism. Obviously, Trump is not the lone culprit. Sorry that I was not clearer.
There are two types of Trump supporters. Those who wish to echo the lies Trump spews in order to manipulate the "village idiots" who cannot ferret out truth from lies and fully understand they are being conned. The elected Republican officials and paid celebrities on Fox News are wanting to achieve power and money while the average village idiot wants to hear him speak about white power, buy clothing and flags with his name on them, cheer and scream at his rallies, and deny social and scientific norms to save themselves from COVID in order to feel connection to Trump. The first group needs to be held accountable for their intentional lies and propaganda. Remember that their number one defense is "no average person can begin to believe the lies we tell." The second group will fall into place when the first group stops manipulating them.
Yes, Daria, your are so right about this. However, I’m confident that there are a few trumpians…. perhaps a very few, but still, a few…whose minds can be changed and have been changed by the good President Biden is focused on accomplishing.
Unfortunately, after reading this morning's news, I fail to share your enthusiasm for us "moving out of darkness." I wish to hell I was wrong, but given we can't get all Democrats to see their own self-interest lies in doing something serious about the Republican anti-democracy offensive, we're going to fail. It will be by narrow margins, which will make it all the more maddening and frustrating, but unless Manchin and sinema are repalced with "body doubles" things are not going to succeed.
I'll spend just a minute in an attempt to influence you as a lot of time and solid information could be of no avail. With reference to the Democrats, here's an excerpt from a piece today written by David Leonhardt in the New York Times:
'Manchin to Sanders'
'In the political center, Joe Manchin of West Virginia helped negotiate the infrastructure bill and has spoken positively about a large second bill focused on social programs. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, another moderate, has said she is “open to finding a path forward” on both. Mark Warner of Virginia, known as a “business guy,” is helping craft large parts of the legislation, as my colleague Jonathan Weisman explains.'
'On the left, both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren also seem to be on board, praising the second package even though it’s smaller than they favor. “In some cases, it doesn’t provide all the funding that I would like,” Sanders said this week. But he also called it “probably the most consequential piece of legislation since the 1930s.”
This relative consensus is a contrast to the internal Democratic divisions on some other issues, like voting rights and the filibuster. But the politics of economic policy tend to be different — and easier — for the party. It frequently stays unified on economic issues, including taxes and Obamacare.'
'Why? For one thing, Democrats’ economic positions tend to be popular, even in purple and red states. The two big bills Biden is hoping to get through Congress — which together would spend money on roads, broadband internet, pre-K and other programs while raising taxes on the rich — fit the pattern. A large majority of voters support them, polls show.'
Life in the USA has improved over the last five months. There are other important steps to take along the way.
That's all very nice, but the result is going to be that two idiots are going to flush what's left of American democracy down the drain because they can't see beyond the end of their noses.
I think one will take the bait (in the form of many mil$ in infrastructure) you suggested a few days ago that most likely is being dangled in front of him. The other…..hmmmm. I leave my faith in other influencers.
Splendid post. I too felt the same way after the Dr.’s lucid summary. Things are really beginning to become blindingly obvious about Trump. Or rather, the darkest corners of this reptilian, odious man’s Presidency are now being documented. That may come to mean a slow turning away from this madness, although I’m not so sure that there isn’t a good number of your people who want a conflagration.
I also was touched by Rachel Maddow’s “direct action” theme last night. The dignity, grace, almost majesty of the guests she interviewed, as well as their confreres, were all so evident. It’s odd to see the juxtaposition of Trump news and the report on their actions. Black and white difference - with the Black this time clearly the good.
I didn’t know about Nixon vetoing the child care plan in 1971. It’s odd - through all of my
growing up years and into the start of our parenting, we had exactly that type of plan in Canada. I’m not sure of the formal name, but colloquially it was known as the “baby bonus”. At one point we were getting $99 a month for our three young-uns. It helped. But it was scrapped eventually.
FWIW, I read a review in the Washington Post comparing the Rutter/Leonig book unfavorably with Michael Wolff’s third book on the Presidency. The reviewer described the book as being stitched together articles we all know with some new quotes put in. Wolff’s book, apparently, better catches the feel of the WH in the last throes of the Trump mis-reign.
I’m sure both will be worth the read.
The child punster in me did appreciate the “Thoroughly Modern Millie” pun.
Pun? Appreciate? Ratcaster Carlson “anti-fascist sign” and slyly referencing Gen Milley to Mrs. Meers and characters from blatantly, racially controversial movie from 47 yrs ago? A pun?
Ratcaster will use blackface or yellow face at free will any time to “caste” racial aspersion on a hero to deflect attention from a villain. This was no pun in HCR’s letter today. Or was not taken that way by me. It is frankly disturbing the evil creative lengths that Ratcaster employs. If only he were to rapture to Hell right on air.
Hi Eric, I appreciated your thoughtful reply, however, why did you write: '....I’m not so sure that there isn’t a good number of your people who want a conflagration.' In a previous comment of yours you applied the word of 'conflagration' to me. In my reply, I provided the definition of the word and assured you that 'conflagration' was not on the agenda, ever. Please do not refer to me and what you call 'my people' with the word 'conflagration'. Thank you.
“your” people referred to Americans who are nihilistic, hardly to this deeply earnest group.
I should have spelled it out more clearly but felt it would be understood in context.
I don’t see how it is remotely possible that you, who know me somewhat, would think that the “your” referred to you personally. Such a conclusion is disheartening to me.
I have two choices - to edit my posts with painful scruple- so that nothing possible can be misread.
Or to stop posting. The latter is very tempting. My words are air, read by few and quickly forgotten. Because I hold to my own convictions, I invite attempts to censor. This sub has virtually no elasticity, and certainly little sense of humour. I refer here here to Christine’s squawk of protest above. It was the last point of my post, a throwaway far removed from my main points which were serious, substantive and not negative.
It is not worth an answer to her - she gives every indication of being beyond any purpose in my life except to search for my supposed apostasy.
Hundreds of people respond on this site with an amazing wealth of knowledge and passion. My posts attract, rightfully, little attention. I am not as versed in the great detail of American life.
But I did enjoy putting in my thoughts, mainly because the process of writing added clarity in my own mind.
But it has become wearing and I have other things to do.
I am chalk to cheese for a few members of this group.
Eric. Let me squawk to you some more, directly. Not through another subscriber. Do not reference me or chastise me in a reply to another. I think you thought the “pun” had something to do with the spelling of “Milley” and “Millie”. Not true.
Your attitude is patronizing and authoritarian. Don’t spend another minute slyly inferring my sense of humor is off, my comments are throwaway, or my intent is only to create purpose in my life for searching for your desertion to your POV.
Eric, There are several of us on the Forum who inspire respect, rebuke, sneers, fans and competition. You are not alone. Your comments often attract large numbers as a result of your writing and thoughtfulness. I don't believe that it's a matter of ;chalk to cheese' between you and I or between you and other subscribers -- didn't know that expression until you wrote it. There are inevitable personality clashes, jealously between a very few, confusion, misinterpretations, and strong differences of opinion from time to time. It's Friday, and I look forwarding to seeing you tomorrow or very soon thereafter.
Eric, Sometimes I am forceful and sometimes too quick in my responses. I am loyal advocate of yours. The absence of Eric would be a void here and painful to me. If you take a break, please make it a short one. The Forum flourishes with a range of voices and with people of good character. I'll be looking for you. Salud!
Fern, I agree with almost everything you said in your comment, but as a CPA I can tell you, the Advanced Child Tax Credit is not a storybook with a happy ending. In nine months when millions of families file their taxes, they're going to realize an awful truth: these monthly payments are only an advance on the child tax credit they count on to reduce their taxes owed on their tax returns. They've become used to receiving these credits every year for the last 20 years and this year they're going to be shocked and aghast to learn they're expected to pay that money back to the IRS.
This will end with broken hearts and broken checkbooks.
This comment concerns the comment by Matthew Funk who slammed the Advanced Child Tax Credit. His comment does not appear to conform to reality. The Child Tax Credit is as good as it sounds. The link below contains basic information from the IRS:
Fern, I appreciate you posting these links. Let's look at the first link you posted, the IRS page on the Advanced Child Tax Credit (ACTC).
Quoting directly from the IRS page, "The IRS will pay half the total credit amount in *advance* monthly payments beginning July 15. You will claim the other half when you file your 2021 income tax return." (emphasis mine)
Read that again--it's an advance payment of the credit you usually claim in full when you file your taxes.
Here's how that works against taxpayers: Say Bill and Sally file jointly as a married couple. They have four kids, ages 14, 12, 10, 8. In 2020 they received an $8,000 credit when they filed their tax returns.
On their 2021 taxes they'll receive a $12,000 credit (because the government increased the size of the credit for 2021 and 2021 only, albeit with new, lower phaseouts). But--and here's the problem--the government has already prepaid them half of the $12,000. So, when they file their taxes they'll only get $6,000, a reduction of $2,000 over their prior year's amount.
I know it may appear as though I'm splitting hairs here, but in my experience helping people file their taxes over the last 25 years I've found that the devil is in details and lot of people, particularly those without access to professional assistance, are going to be sadly surprised when they find they owe the IRS money next spring.
That's the root of my frustration, I suppose. Too often we accept as truth the analysis offered by the news media or commentators as gospel when the reality is far more complex.
In any case I hope you have a fun weekend Fern. While we may disagree on tax policy I take comfort in chatting with other fans of HCR. She's wonderful.
Matthew, I appreciate your breakdown. We have more hairs to split, but I have no time now. It is a benefit to flesh out the facts and $ with you. I've got say goodbye now but look forward to continuing our dialogue. A fine weekend to you, too.
REALLY? So the millionaires and corporations get tax rate reductions
( for years if not permanent) and the struggling middle class parents get an advance on their standard tax credit? This little devil in detail certainly didn't come across my local news outlet. Broken hearts will turn to anger at democrats no doubt.
Yes, it's unfair and yes you are correct, wealthier taxpayers receive amazing tax breaks that middle/lower income folks don't receive. I'm afraid that your concern will be born out: people will be upset at president Biden when their tax return is smaller.
It frustrates me when people blame Biden for things that aren't his fault and give the former president a free ride on the disaster he left behind.
Lynn, you are correct to question the 'subscriber' above. I just did some research and will post links for basic information as a aid to subscriber and to raise doubt about misleading comments.
Gotta hand it to you, Dr. Heather, your concluding statements in your Letters are often evocative and bring up emotions ranging from fear, loathing or disgust with 45 and his cult, to hopeful optimism for the next generation, but this is the first time I'm laughing my head off, about:
"As near as I can tell, the former president is the only Republican who has responded to the story. Other leaders are talking about the border, masks, Cuba, and Britney Spears. Their lack of a response to a deeply damaging story about the leader of their party suggests to me that, at best, they are hoping the story will disappear and, at worst, they believe it’s true."
Thank you for your Letters, and all the time you devote to them. Rest well!💜
Am I being too optimistic to think that the Trump Tide is turning? Of course, that would not signal a come to Jesus moment for them, and they'll find another way to obfuscate and deny the country's needs and wants, but I'm guessing that they no longer see benefit in supporting the evil idiot, and will have to regroup.
I would certainly hope that as the slow grind of accountability bears down on all of them they will start singing a different tune. I’ll never ever forget the look on Derek Chauvin’s face when the verdict was read. It truly gave away his arrogant self-righteousness up to that point. He appeared shocked! At this point so many are complicit in #45’s crimes and treason that they can’t possibly let go of their need to deny/block any investigation
I realize this could be wishful thinking, but I'd pay money to see every Repug grifter's sins exposed for the world to see. Let's hope that Nancy Pelosi, so long derided by the Right, is able to expose them. It will be interesting to find out whether the Capitol Police kept records of the "guided tour" conductors and "tourists," for starters. It is also possible that Liz Cheney will offer some inside scoop. I saw the same expression on Chauvin's face - shocked and amazed! He was the only one besides his mother who expected another outcome!
LOL. Thank you for pointing out how my word choice might be misconstrued. I prefer “right” as in Merrimack Webster: “conforming to facts or truth”. Would there be less likelihood of confusing it with the mobsters if I had not capitalized it?
I got mine today! $250 is a real help to us. I make a decent living, but we're in an expensive city made expensive by people who make a lot more than me. We're middle class in that we could last maybe a month if I got laid off. So I say thanks Joe! It appears someone out there cares whether I have a little breathing room, and whether people who make less than me have some air to breathe at all. The Republicans seem intent on creating an entire Ozone around the rich, and by extension, themselves.
I just learned from my daughter that our niece is going through a rough time as she and her husband head into a divorce. What's important in this story are the circumstances surrounding this family tragedy that so many young Maine and US families are caught up in.
Our niece married a good young man in the National Guard, who made this his fulltime career. His pay was not adequate to support him and his wife. She was a college graduate and proceeded to work and establish her career. They proceeded to have two children, both still under the age of five.
The National Guard regularly reminded this couple that service away from home should be expected and would be required without any plans for supporting any spouces and children.
Since the children were born, the husband / father was sent to Iraq for six months, I believe this included Christmas. In preparation for this deployment, there was other time away from home. About a year or two later, the husband was sent to Texas for six months of training.
During these periods, our niece was coping with her husband's absence, two young children who did not respond well to these changes, her job with an employer with little understanding, sympathy, assistance or cooperation. Child care apparently was entirely the responsibility of the family to find and pay for to meet their particular needs.
All of this stress has played a huge part in the breakdown of this family. A couple that for years before the father's military absences spent several periods each summer visiting and bringing other family and friends to our home in Maine on the coast. Not a huge contribution to our state economy, but a cumulative amount with so many others going through similar conditions living in our state or visiting us regularly that will eventually drop out of our state economy.
The two key issues here from our vantage are childcare and the military. We see first hand the importance of President Biden's proposal that childcare is critical infrastructure for our economy, for employment and jobs, for our families, for our healthcare and just about everything. Stress like this leads to alcoholism, poor personal healthcare, mental and physical deterioration, and so many other problems and expenses for our state and nation.
The military is not family friendly. Particularly for the National Guard which has been called upon with more demands as Congress demands more from fewer American families. Our military staff are not paid enough to cover the costs of so many support services that they need. Healthcare, mental health, counselors and marriage support, childcare, food and housing should be in most cases provided free, accessible and sufficient that no military family is left in isolation without full support.
Finally, I would add that the hostile politics of violence coming mostly from the Trump administration and supporting Republicans who cannot say that President Biden won the election and continue to use this to attack our democracy is stressful to all Americans, particularly those who with so many responsibilities, who are separated without adequate support.
We musr give our full organized vocal, lobbying and voting support to our young military and working families. There is no substitute for adequate resources for our young families and children.
You make an important point, and a painful one. I witnessed a similar story 20 years ago when 2 Airforce members married, had 2 children, then both parents were called away at the same time - and zero consideration or help was offered for those poor babies under 3yo. A grandparent stepped in until he broke. The military Dad took the babies, then broke himself and left the military and ultimately his family. He never recovered, but things ended up okay for his x-wife and 2 sons. These stories are not told, but should be. There is too much lip-service about caring for military families and vets.
There was a piece on the PBS Newshour springing from the OH people paying the OH NG to go to the border. Im afraid the NG has been duscovered to be a low cost substitute for the Army, Air Force and Navy and are being exploited accordingly.
The NG here is being exploited for political purposes. The Texas governor in particular is trying to distract voters (and prevent them from voting, but that's another story) from his abject failure to maintain and fix the power grid.
PBS last night reported that the Defense Department will childcare will be increasing childcare for regular military under the Biden Administration. Sufficiency and access have been a real problem is being acknowledged. However, military staff will still have to pay for some large part of this out of their pay. There was no mention of the National Guard.
Saw the program last night on PBS NewsHour. Yes, military personnel will have to pay a portion of the childcare but it's substantially less than 'civilian' childcare. Childcare personnel, according to the story, are also more highly paid and have benefits. Like Daria, I'm guessing NG is not included. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/could-the-military-child-care-system-be-a-model-for-the-nation
I wondered about that, Kim. Was it Gov. Dewine that authorized the deployment? If so, it surprises me as he has seemed like one of the few sensible Republicans.
“We were asked to play a small part in (securing the border), and I said yes,” he said. “I think it’s in Ohio’s interest to do that. I think it’s the right thing to do.”
The old saying that if the military had wanted you to have a family they would have issued you one is regrettably too true. On the one hand, there is the need to the members of the military to be prepared to be deployed or transferred on a moment's notice. And on the other, without proper consideration for the needs of family members (housing, child care, schooling, etc.) those who serve are distracted from their military duties by concern for family at home. Plus the stress of service abroad and lengthy separation from families contributes to their breakup. Doubtless we need a military, and equally doubtless foreign adversaries don't care about the impact on service members' families their action produce. I don't know of any easy solutions to the family conflict and disruption our military should be confronting, except by knowing of these adverse effects, budget should be provided to provide adequate support services to families. Policies need to be developed to accommodate the needs of military families. It is well past time when 'if the military had wanted you to have a family they would have issued you one' type thinking needs to be mothballed.
The entire time I was reading this, I kept thinking to myself, "So much for family values!" U.S. society and culture gives lip service to "family". Certain groups are more concerned about a fetus than they are about a fully functioning human. I am a Veteran whose family has served since The American Revolutionary War until our latest generation. The enlisted ranks "take it on the chin", yet they are the backbone of our Military. The officers' ranks fare much better in many respects.
I am saddened by your story. A young family with young children should be tightly knit; not fractured. Sadly, that fracturing has become common place in so many quarters of today's America.
Thank you David for writing about this subject. I'm sorry about your niece's situation, but I can certainly understand it. 3 weeks ago I was at an Army base in GA watching my 6 month old grandson. My daughter and her husband both had their 2 weeks active duty scheduled for the same 2 weeks at 2 different Army bases in 2 different states. Their oldest child was being watched by his other grandmother in FLA. It's been 'all hands on deck' for 3 generations for the last 5 years! We are ALL in the National Guard. Both grandmoms know the kids' pediatrician well. She laughs at us and says she's never seen 2 grandmothers be 'besties' before. Somehow we make it work. Tomorrow, my daughter and her family will be on a plane at 6 a.m. because she has her required monthly weekend drill to fulfill. Her mother-in-law will help her husband with both children. Both my son and daughter have full time jobs in the private sector. The military does not help with childcare, travel or accommodations. We are very proud of our kids. I just don't think most people know about National Guard service, so I'm really grateful for your post.
Thank you for your family's service. Please share your families experiences in the NG. The military should not be a mythical and mysterious organization in a democracy.
I was #9 in the lottery for Vietnam. Graduated from college in 1971 and was not called. My ROTC training was stopped before I needed to commit. I have come to realize that the draft had the important aspect of forcing all Americans to think about our foreign policies and how we serve, support and protect our military.
But perhaps two years of public service with military service as an option would be a good, if not better option, because we have a lot of domestic service projects that are unrecognized and unmanned. Americans should know what it takes to run a nation and sustain a democracy cared for and managed by civilians doing our part.
Thank you for recounting your draft, ROTC and Vietnam war references with wisdom and clarity. I agree that 2 years service to our nation would help us realize what we have in America and help us coalesce into a hopefully more homogeneous society,, one borne of shared sacrifice and service. My takeaway with my daughter is that, apparently, she is very good with a Glock! Not every mother's dream for her little girl!
BOTH political parties are remiss in proper care for our Military personnel. But, Republicans get the Oscar for "disingenuous love" for the Troops because Republicans more than Democrats see our Troops as servile fodder that can be laid waste in battle. I realize that is coarse and crude. But, that is how I see it. As Dick Cheney said some years ago during a televised interview, "Well, they volunteered [to get killed]" I wanted to reach into the TV set and pulverize him.
I'm thoughly disgusted that the GOP are turning a blind eye to these developments. This just proves there is zero accountability in politics.
I am already seeing the idle threats of "this is the end of Trump" on social media. I urge you to dismiss this fantasy. No it isn't. Lest I remind you, he can shoot someone on 5th Ave and nothing will happen to him. This is another of those moments. That scenario will run continuously long after his death.
It's certainly a relief that the GOP are concentrating their collective efforts on the Britney Spears scandal or they would have had to come up with something to top that. Perhaps one of them getting a bad haircut or buying shoes off the internet that don't fit. 🙄
Linda, you are spot on. When Donald kicks the bucket his groupies will elevate him to sainthood and erect a shrine in his honor. The thought makes me nauseous.
In the time of Reconstruction, wasn't there some form of early FDA enforcement? Or something to prevent the Snake Oil "salesman" from taking advantage of the ignorant and unlearned?
The former guy’s response “[I]f I was going to do a coup…” sounds suspiciously like “Number one, she’s not my type. Number two, it never happened”. Of course he was trying to stay in power by any means possible. And now he's laid out a blueprint for the GOP to follow for the next couple of elections. We have from now until 2022, maybe 2024, to reverse this trend, or we're in for full on fascism.
We must all do what we can to push the needle in the other direction. One simple thing we can do is to call/write your elected officials, from county to federal, regardless of party, and tell them what you think of the job they're doing. Be constructive and respectful, but direct. They need to be reminded that YOU are their constituents and CAN'T be ignored.
Make this a weekly task. If your rep is doing a good job, let them know. The good ones need our support now more than ever.
Make it fun by getting together with friends over coffee and write together. Keep up the pressure. Even GOP "lawmakers" have to hire folks to answer their constituents. Put those putzes to work.
….“number one, she’s not my type. number two, it didn’t hapoen”…..
Oh, thank you Kara, for adopting the perfect story telling tone similar to HCR’s in today’s Letter. That is a classic remark about the former Pres Trump’s brain storage of one liners to defend the inexcusable from a sitting president. Someone could write an essay listing them.
Or we could remember the ridiculous theater of it all with all these Repubs and their cover lines as we sit with friends as you suggest over coffee or a beverage writing our own constituent lines of notice and demand to our representatives at local, state, and federal level.
There is a theory that when the people see that the government is truly responsive to their needs (as in Child Tax Credits) that they will flock to the polls and all Democrats will win in a national landslide. A reasonable strategy.
Books, investigations and even trials will reveal, again, that Republicans are idiots and sociopaths.
However, if the Republican voter suppression is not stopped our enlightened population will not be able to vote and, in some cases, their vote will be overruled by the state legislators. Who will count the votes?
The Republican strategy continues to be distraction and our Democratic weakness is focus.
Unfortunately, Bruce, I know from sad first-hand experience that even some of those who receive the CTC will not say thank you or vote Democratic. They are that perverse. Don't you know some like that?
Nor is the Biden administration doing it for that reason, of course, but hopefully it will have the effect you say, at least in some of them.
I have zero doubt that the Milley story about the Orange Asscactus is true. I also have zero doubt that he will continue to face no consequences whatsoever for trying to end democracy in this country (an effort that is ongoing, mind you). Republicans treasure power more than they do the democratic institutions of this country.
Good Morning Dr Richardson and fellow reader-activists.
Now that they have gotten the Child Tax Credit into action the next move will be to make it permanent. Too bad they couldn't do that with the extra $300/wk for unemployment. If you do the math that $300 works out to be $7.50/hr only slightly above minimum wage rates.
Of course the GOP is going to talk about anything except trump's statement about a coup and the insurrection, they know that many of their members are facing deep scrutiny over the mechanics of the insurrection and their culpability.
I have been heartened by the words from Gen Milley that they were not unaware of the danger that trump posed and they were forming plans to thwart that possibility. But if they had resigned would there not have been others who would have stepped up to support the coup? I am glad we didn't have to find out.
“In America, one in seven children lives in poverty.” Shame on our country. Shame on the policies that have been enacted to make this so. Yes, Dr. R, the Child Tax Credit IS a big deal! It should be shouted from the rooftops. Good news that benefits people now and in the future. As for the Trumpublicans and their treachery, we must not let them succeed.
The Child Tax Credit is to be applauded as temporarily bringing half of poor children out of poverty. Never mentioned, and probably even more important, is the huge impact it will have on those who remain in poverty.
For example, if an extremely poor family doubles its income, it is hugely helpful, even if that family remains below the poverty level. It might allow them to move out of an old car and into a mobile home. Kids would have better clothes for school. Though they might remain poor, their lives would be somewhat less desperate. Ideally for some, it might mean their guardians might more easily afford the minimum they need to get employment or training, like clothing and carfare. Though every child and adult should be lifted out of poverty, this is a huge step forward.
Thank you for this insight Ken! I served on our Social Services Board after years of community health nursing, but I forgot about what a significant impact this would have on our homeless and most destitute who don't figure into Biden's stats. Yes, a remarkable impact!!
We effectively had two trials involving treason directed at the Trump administration. The impeachment trials of Donald J. Trump. Republicans acquitted him. Enough Republicans participated in or knew enough about those treasonous acts to be conspirators, accessories or facilitators. When President Lincoln was assassinated, those identified as knowing or having contact with John Wilkes Booth were tried and hung. There is more evidence against Republicans this time around than they had when Lincoln was assassinated. President Trump and his participating Republicans have been trying to assassinate the United States of America with help from FOX.
There is the crime of treason....which in US law is so circumscribed that it is practically impossible to prove other than for spies caught red-handed.
I love the description of Qevin McQarthy (R-Oklafornia) visiting Trump to "lick the soles of Trump's shoes." That's exactly how abject his surrender is.
As regards the Guardian report, "beware of the news that gives you exactly what you want to hear." I seriously doubt that Putin and his gang would put what they did in writing, because the damage it would do to them if it ever came out. Some things governments do never get acknowledged anywhere, and doing this is exactly one of those things. I think the "tell" that this is fake news is the "psychological profile" of Trump. Those are exactly the words we Trump-haters use to describe that worthless piece of shit.
As for trust-fund baby Carlson, someone needs to walk up to him on the street, not say a damn word to him, and just punch him so hard in the face his nose is broken and he hits the pavement hard enough to fracture his skull - not that anything vital would be harmed.
Of course the details of an official Russian covert operation would be in writing. How else would instructions be communicated, permission granted, funding appropriated and spent? I'm sure that they aren't all running around on foot, whispering into each other's ears.
Just as the WWII concentration camps kept detailed records of the intake and disposition of inmates, Putin's political interference program would have to have a "paper trail," just like any other government program.
It's the "leak" aspect that is suspicious to me, considering the impact his program of "dirty tricks" has had on Putin's reputation. With each reiteration of his success, the world's respect for him grows. After all, it's his job to damage the United States, and with our cooperation, he's done very well.
While I certainly applaud the child tax credit checks and getting children out of poverty, I'd like to point out the bigger picture and underlying cause -- income disparity. Middle class Americans are not making a living wage even when both the father and the mother are working full time jobs or even when each work more than one job like many teachers. Wages have not gone up in years. The childcare that makes it possible for women to work is very expensive while the income disparity makes it almost imperative. The middle class is being hollowed out by corporations that are keeping wages down and investors who insist on bigger profits by carving any expenses like labor to the bone. The employees do not get their share of that profits. Employees need to become shareholders -- by law if necessary. Capitalism is imploding if corporations keep starving the consumers that make Capitalism work. I'm expecting to hear the word "hand-outs" from the GOP like this is all the fault of lazy people. Glad we have an administration that is working on fixing all this. This is NOT the time for I alone can fix it; we all need to pitch in and support the current President and his administration. Only we together can fix it.
Preach Cathy!!! The Ghastly Obstructionists are already meeping and whining that the enhanced child tax credit will "discourage" poor people from working. (more on this in a sec) In fact, the ability to pay for child care will encourage women to return to the work force--which is a totally verifiable truth.
So I am not sure why I am the only person who keeps on harping on this; perhaps classical economics is not everyone's bag but I would have thought some op-ed wag would have thought of it. Way back in the early days of the British Industrial Revolution, when capitalists were trying to figure out how to compel poor people to move out of their rural homes and into the new "dark satanic mill" towns to work themselves to death in order to enrich the nabobs and robber barons who were exploiting the masses, the economist David Ricardo came up with the clever notion that if the industrialists paid their workers a wage that was just UNDER a livable wage--too little and they won't work at all, so it has to look almost okay on paper--they would be compelled and incentivized to work the long hours and in the appalling conditions required by the early industrialists. They would also push everyone in their family, including children, to work in order to make it possible for the family to survive, but never to thrive. Ricardo's reasoning was that if you pay a living wage that makes it possible for poor people to start to rise out of poverty, they will start saving money and they will stop sending their children into the mines and mills and send them to school instead. He saw this as ultimately dangerous to the wellbeing of the industrialists, who would lose the labor of such children.
The British industrialist class LOVED Ricardian economic theory. Never mind that they were also reluctantly coming to the conclusion the enslaving humans was inefficient, they had hit upon an idea that could work in all situations: if you wanna keep the underclass down, pay them not quite enough to live on. This has been the mantra of these kinds of people for 200 years now.
The appalling, disgusting anti-humans who are bleating and farting on Fox and the WSJ and who populate far too many state legislatures, governors' offices, and the US Congress are in this Ricardian mold. Any attempt to ameliorate the horrific situations of the working poor will be seen as a dangerous infringement of the economic rights of the kleptocrats who support them--and who they want to be.
There are two key points we should all be focused on. 1) It's the kleptocrats that are really running the show and are pulling the strings in the background. Their influence not only serves their greed and avarice but it cruelly and inhumanely punishes the lives of most Americans. 2) The kleptocrats, or plutocrats as I prefer to say, would not have this inordinate power if our elected representatives didn't sell us out for personal empowerment and narcissistic-fueled gratification.
Excellent assessment.
I think we have to look at why voters give power to liars and kleptocrats. Those personalities are very upfront about who they are and yet millions vote them into power.
Voters are malleable and more often than not are shaped by perception instead of facts and evidence. Once they drink the kool-aid they become hooked.
We all are witness to a constant stream of lies, misinformation, and acrimonious soundbites coming from the right. The Republican Party has a truly extraordinary deep and wide supporting infrastructure that drives the narrative that all things Democratic are bad and harmful.
Obviously, the conservative media has tremendous power over voters and politicians, alike. The right-wing media has at their disposal a relatively huge supporting cast of think tank experts, lobbyists, plus mercenary scientists, economists, doctors, and lawyers. Politicians never bite the hand that feeds them.
Democrats can't come close to matching this legion of right-wing propagandists. Why? Because the right has a virtually endless source of funding. It costs billions to fund all the tools that Republicans have at their disposal and the wealthy are all too happy to pony up and do anything to stop the Democrats. They spend billions that save them a hundredfold that amount in profits, investments, and wealth. A perfect example is the billions the medical complex has spent to protect the trillions they rake in.
There are signs that the majority of voters are on to the Republican baseless lies and malfeasance. Republicans are chained to Trump but realize that the bad outweighs the good. Hence, they are upping their game to cheat and disenfranchise voters, and specifically voters of a certain demographic.
It would seem that Democrats in general have a deeper appreciation for truth and self reflection. But minus any partisanship our increasing understanding of neuroscience could be a blessing not just to humanity but to earth. I cannot state often enough my strong opinion that understanding the human mind will bring us peace and prosperity. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/authoritarian-cults-in-america-townhall-tickets-162916352195
Good morning fabulous Linda Mitchell. I did harp on these very things in my own way just before reading this. You added some historical class to it.
Thank you. Great minds think alike on this forum. Just in astoundingly different creative ways.
A sad, but true story: When I first moved into this little town, my 100+ year old house had a broken down water heater which needed some electrical help. I called a plumber, who instantly responded (now I know why) and sent his "worker" over to fix the thing. The bill came to over $700. The worker, a white guy who had lost his hamburger business due to a fire for which he was uninsured, came back to talk to me later. He apologized for the bill. He said he would repay me if he could, but he had no money. He had worked one hour, for $15. The rest of the bill went into the pocket of his employer, who had no skills whatsoever, but who had managed to procure a legal "license." The worker, who could not afford a license, was an experienced and expert electrician. (I became friends with the worker and his partner and assisted them in acquiring some better paying work over the years.)
The sad news is that they both faithfully vote GQP. And the other sad news is that they remain forever poor and in desperate need of a helping hand. They're not dumb people, they are trapped people.
Fascinating. I had no idea that it was an engineered system. Classical Economics is a new thing for me (I have a horrible relationship with anything to do with numbers, and therefore Economics in general have never interested me.) This is enlightening.
Hashtag, me too, Ally!
Ditto!!
Hi Linda.....Ricardo is not mainstream economics! He is classical only in the sense that he is "history". His approach is decidedly "political" first and economy afterwards....another "man of his times" and doubtless much admired by trumpites who actually read anything serious. In standard pristine, if simplistic, economic theory wages are set by supply and demand when there are no "imperfections" in the market. Imperfections are of course legion (laws, unions, disasters, geographic isolation etc etc etc)...and too numerous for the econometric algorithms to fully handle. So supply and demand are not always allowed to fully interreact and you can get unusually high or low wage situations. The chief target of "Ricardian" accusations of late has been Amazon who are accused of driving local wages down. research however has proved the contrary as they mostly pay above local market rates and thus oblige others to follow in order to maintain or improve their workforce. The other case often mentioned now is the encouragement of large inflows of immigrants to keep down local wages. The conclusions on this are far from firm as it really depends often on the sector you're looking at. The ability to bring into the country whole project teams and work gangs for specific devolpment projects often prevents local people employing or improving their skills and can generate local unemployment if generalized.
What is also interesting now is the difficulties that the "hospitality" and fast food sectors are having in attracting their workforce back and they are having to seriously increase their pay scales. These sectors were particulary good at creating "precarious and low-paid" jobs previously. The reason given for the reluctance to return was that the covid epidemic opened their eyes to better paid and more secure opportunities. Economics works....sometimes.
Stuart, In your correction of what, perhaps, was an amateurish attempt at economic understanding and the mention of Amazon in the comment, do you have an appraisal of Amazon's role on labor in the country?
'Many of the over 350,000 workers Amazon hired from July to October stayed with the company "just days or weeks," the report said. Hourly employees had a turnover rate of about 150% every year, data reviewed by The Times indicated.'
'Amazon intentionally limited upward mobility for hourly workers, said Mr. Niekerk, the former H.R. vice president who retired in 2016 after nearly 17 years at the company. Dave Clark, then head of operations, had shot down his proposal around 2014 to create more leadership roles for hourly employees, similar to noncommissioned officers in the military, he recalled.'
'Instead, Mr. Clark, who is now chief executive of Amazon’s consumer business, wanted to double down on hiring “wicked smart” frontline managers straight out of college, Mr. Niekerk said. By contrast, more than 75 percent of managers in Walmart’s U.S. stores started as hourly employees. Following a pattern across Amazon, JFK8 promoted 220 people last year among its more than 5,000 employees, a rate that is less than half of Walmart’s.'
'Amazon’s founder didn’t want hourly workers to stick around for long, viewing “a large, disgruntled” work force as a threat, Mr. Niekerk recalled. Company data showed that most employees became less eager over time, he said, and Mr. Bezos believed that people were inherently lazy. “What he would say is that our nature as humans is to expend as little energy as possible to get what we want or need.” That conviction was embedded throughout the business, from the ease of instant ordering to the pervasive use of data to get the most out of employees.'
'So guaranteed wage increases stopped after three years, and Amazon provided incentives for low-skilled employees to leave. Every year, Mr. Palmer saw signs go up offering associates thousands of dollars to resign, and as he entered JFK8 each morning, he passed a classroom for free courses to train them in other fields.'
'Mr. Agboka, the H.R. leader, said while the company offered training and careers at Amazon to those interested, it was proud to also provide people short-term employment for the “seasons and periods of time” they need.'
'But it wasn’t clear how much the company was willing to reconsider the sacrosanct systems of productivity, automation and high turnover that propelled it to dominance. “Are they going to address the issue of an expendable work force?” asked Mr. Cavagnaro, the fired worker who was returning to JFK8. “Are there going to be any changes?”
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/06/15/us/amazon-workers.html
High employee turnover also undermines Union organizing drives.
Check the links below, Sid:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/05/opinion/bezos-amazon-bessmer-labor.html
https://www.geekwire.com/2021/old-boss-amazon-honed-anti-union-bent-seattle-call-center-20-years-ago/
😠
Thanks Fern for the in-depth analysis. As you can imagine my point only covered the hourly rate for the workers. The work rythms, like the "speed of the line" in the car industry, and the social disruption that their methods create is a different and more serious question.
Wow Fern! Thank You, I think:
"Mr. Bezos believed that people were inherently lazy. 'What he would say is that our nature as humans is to expend as little energy as possible to get what we want or need.' That conviction was embedded throughout the business, from the ease of instant ordering to the pervasive use of data to get the most out of employees.'"
SO: The culture of Bezo's business is based on his conviction that people are inherently lazy. The Culture of Amazon, then, is DISRESPECT, through and through. That is NOT, as Frederick defines it in these pages, "Moral Capitalism", or "Democracy Capitalism." It is more akin to slavery..
"if you wanna keep the underclass down, pay them not quite enough to live on." Ricardian Economic Theory. WOW! Damn. It still works. Against us.
Mass immigration has been a major factor enabling companies to hold wages down. This is why the Koch organization, the Chamber of Commerce, and big biz GOPers generally, and Mark Zuckerberg have all supported mass immigration and legalization of unauthorized immigrants. It's also why the late Barbara Jordan, Black democratic congresswoman from Texas who made her name on the Watergate committee, recommended cutting immigration numbers in half and strict enforcement of immigration laws when she ran a commission on immigration reform under Pres. Clinton. And it's why Cesar Chavez denounced illegal immigrants to INS (google it if you don't believe me).
Biden is doing a terrible job on the border, and wants to double legal immigration to the equivalent of one NY State per decade. (I still think on other than immigration, Biden's doing a great job; and I don't ever expect a politician to do everything I want, but as a member of NumbersUSA.com, I'm fighting him on this--and I recommend to anyone who feels as I do that you should join NumbersUSA.com, which is non-partisan.)
https://americancompass.org/the-commons/worker-power-loose-borders-pick-one/
I would add that a majority of Americans oppose loose borders and mass immigration, so this is bound to hurt us on the midterms. Note the graph showing that only 37% of adults approve of Biden on immigration:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/04/25/biden-100-days-poll/
The French would more than agree and would like a stop put to legal and illegal immigration. The numbers have gone way beyond the countries capacity to absorb and now they are being told that asking the newcomers to "integrate" is xenophobic/racist! France has been exporting masters and doctoral degreed young and importing the uneducated and often unemployable.
I haven't been to France since before the millennium, but I had the sense that something like this was going on there. I have tremendous nostalgia for the year I spent there as a kid, and I really want to go back, but I worry that I'm going to be badly disappointed. Re the nostalgia--here's my story, which should have been titled, "In Search of Lost Time--With Apologies to Proust". https://www.hagerty.com/media/driving/a-60s-summer-in-paris-leads-to-a-search-for-a-good-peugeot-404/
Wasn't it Ricardo's theories that give rise to economics being called "the dismal science"?
Phrase originally coined by Thomas Carlisle, Scottish poet and writer.
Well no one knows dismal like a Scot.
Not to mention Malthus.
Kathleen, if it wasn’t, it certainly should have been.
Malthus as well, although his theories were more sociologically based.
What most people don’t realize is that there were a number of those “hand-outs” to middle class families all the way through the 70s when I was little, Social Security paid out for struggling families like mine. My parents were both widowed when they met, and my siblings from my mother’s first husband still received benefits after my mom and dad got married.
The shift in wealth since then has been engineered by movement conservatives. Their policies of growing monopolies without controls already established has pulled money from the middle class and independent entrepreneurial endeavors to the whales of their industries. Jeff Bezos cannot spend his billions the way 350 million can spend those same billions. The “handouts” you speak of is actually doing the work of stabilizing the economy for the middle class.
Among those handouts in the 60s and 70s was low-cost state and community college tuition and sholarships for prioirty areas of need; e.g., engineers, physicists, public school teachers, medical doctors, nurses. States invested in higher education with the expectation that well prepared graduates would be a value added to the state for years to come. A liberal education foundation was matched with a career (note that term) field of need state-wide or nationally. Keep the cost low, good students would come, complete, and enter these areas of need with skills and knowleges to address the issues in education or health or engineeering, etc., well into the future. My wife and I were reccipients of such faith and we paid back in good kind for nearly 50 years. There are hundreds of thousands of those like us. The shift I saw take place was to increasingly tie aid, loans, and study to the immediate needs of employers and employers getting greater determination of curricula and outcomes: College (or community college graduates) from public institutions should be job ready. This shift from supply-side to demand-side has, I think, taken a toll whereby we are less and less equiping graduates with the aptitudes and skills to imagine and shape the future as we more rapidly churn out workers who now share the debt of their education as the education is simply for their economic advancement in jobs available in the present economy. Development of graduates capable of shaping the future of our states and communitiies, an intent of those education investments or handouts in the 60s and 70s, is a great loss I believe. Few strings were attached: Graduate, stay in your chosen field (prefferably in the state) for a few years, be a good citizen, do your work well, grow a good responsible family. This is one reason I can be in favor of debt-forgiveness for kids who did their college work in state-supported post-seconday schools.
College debt used to be positive debt, because it was an investment into America. Now, college debt has as much “value” as a payday loan - run by financial vultures, immune from bankruptcy, and impossible to pay off.
We have been living with the effects of financial strip mining of the economy since the Reagan era. Which is the concentration toward the upper income levels of all excess wealth generated by society, where it is skimmed off and pocketed, but which otherwise would have found its way back into communities through various channels. I think the rise of the Yuppie class back then was the first outward signal of this happening, probably why they were met with such a visceral dislike by many of us. The process started a little earlier, in the early to mid 70's, when the business community gathered its resources to respond to the social upheavals of the 60's, which they saw as threats to their business models, and guided to some extent by the Powell Memo from '71 or '72. A dramatic example of this phenomenon is the graph comparing wages and productivity. Throughout history these two factors rose in tandem, when productivity went up so did wages. It was considered an iron law. But somehow, in the mid 70's, productivity kept rising, as it always had, but wages plateaued. It was an anomaly, but it has persisted, and gives some explanation for how we've arrived at our present condition.
"We have been living with the effects of financial strip mining of the economy since the Reagan era."
I'm saving this terrific description of the past 40 years. You said it succinctly, without vulgarities (that's hard to do!) Thank you!
Yes, terrific description, Syd. And I can remenber that since I was living in West Virginia coal country when Reagan acted (bluffed, lied) his way to the presidency in 1980. Look at WVa now.
Love the description of "financial strip mining of the economy". Thank you.
Financial strip mining. Good comparison.
Thank you. I should credit the economist Les Leopold for these ideas. I'm not a scholar, but he has studied this extensively and gives a good analysis of how and why it happened.
Their have been period of levelling off of the growth of productivity too. Productivity has often been achieved in the last 20 years at the expense of employment. The theory said that such innovation was supposed to generate employment....which it does but not at the same place nor at the same skill level.
Good morning Cathy. I applaud every time I hear about an employer, especially from the service industry big or small, complain about reopening and hardship of not being able to get employees to fill the usual minimum wage jobs thst are the bones of the operation of work sustaining the business. The cries of “these people are lazy, they don’t want work so the can collect handouts from govt and Kay on the couch”. Quite the contrary. An odd sequence of events the pandemic created. For the first time in my memory, people stuck at the mercy of inadequate minimum wage had a choice of going back to it or searching for a job that is going to pay more than minimum to get workers or pay some kind of benefit or incentive. And I have talked to scads of families deeply grateful for some wiggle room in choice. Strengthens them and their support of the current administration who has focus on families and lifting them out of economic poverty. These many good people have strong family values of care and responsibility and are extremely resilient. They will remember the government’s steady and strong hand at the ballot box. And so many are newly registered voters that can see from 2020 results that their vote counts.
Let’s keep working. Our efforts are for the people.
“stay on the couch”.
I might add, I think Dem strategy led by President and VP of keeping the health and welfare of people first, focusing on family and children, is working and serving as an effective counterbalance to the Republican greed and insouciance.
My “rub the lamp” genie wish in these historic times is for the Heritage Foundation and each of its members and slathering followers to be figuratively hogtied and rendered null, void and useless and then put to work in the fields and service industries picking crops and serving those they have harmed. Even the thought of it gives me grim satisfaction.
And allow me the bad behavior of espousing a conspiracy on this forum. I think Putin and his dogs are running their schemes directly through the Heritage Foundation (message and psychological warfare against democracy and the American people) and the Koch Heads and other corrupt legislators and lobbyists (scratching of each other’s wallets).
Simplistic but corruption usually is. Just requires a few influential evil actors.
Even lacking a conspiracy, the end game is the same.
Christine, keep rubbing the lamp! That is a consummation devoutly to be wished!
Shouldn't the right wing Supreme Court join them, or would their membership in the HF make that automatic?
All former’s choices either members or subscribe to ideas.
The availability of information is one important key to a better job market.
The simple economic effectiveness of giving $7200 to 30 million families with two kids versus $2,000,000 to 500 families (The TJTC tax break) that are sitting on hoardes of money should be obvious. Those 30 million will churn more economic activity (buying food, clothing, tows, vacations, housing, health care, medications, joy, family time, toys, junk food, etc) than the 500 who will certainly invest in stocks, buy back stock, and may invest in creating jobs. Way more sectors will grow from money spent by those 30 million families and more collectable taxes will come up the chain from the families of the families who bought and produced and traded and supported other businesses and jobs in local communities. So, go and good for youJoe and Kamela. You got the equation repointed in the right direction for growing America.
Buying tows?
Toys. But, heck, paying for a tow helps another worker support his truck or family. 😄
In that case, I've just helped another worker. I paid $150 for a thirty-something mile tow the other night after my alternator went out that far from home! He looked pretty happy when he left me off.
🤣😅😂
Cathy, your "Employees need to become shareholders" comment reminded me of my last job where I automatically enrolled in a "Profit Sharing plan." Of course being a human services job, the agency was "non-profit." So, I had a Profit Sharing Plan of a Non-Profit business." They ended it while I worked there and I cashed out with a couple thousand dollars.
Unfortunately such schemes often only become disguised savings plans. Part of your wage that you can't touch without the company's sayso and which often isn't counted when retirement schemes are being build and wage increases are being considered. They come and they go....mostly the latter with the dominance of republican fantasia economics without the money being incorporated in the wage scales. To make things different the workers have to have significant shareholder rights that come with the shares, a voice on the Board and significant and persevering government support.
Good points about how this could be abused. It may be that the laws would have to require that employees substantial real ownership of the company, a place on the Board and probably a few other things. Then there are the companies that fully own the company like the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. That's another approach.
"Capitalism is imploding if corporations keep starving the consumers that make Capitalism work." This has been going on for decades. Even the last big tax cut for corporations and the wealthy wasn't meant to trickle down to employees. It was meant to boost the wealthy. And, it has.
By the time I reached the end of today's Letter From an American, it felt as a storybook resting in my lap. There was one terrific note after another told by a nimble writer with a smile on her face. In the midst of these tense and uncertain years, how can that be? With news so serious, why did the Letter feel so easy and uplifting to read? Perhaps, because the accumulation of Trump's detritus (TC would use another word or words) has been piling up so high, he may not even be able to see over it.
To begin at the beginning: 'The government sent payments for almost 60 million children on Thursday, totaling $15 billion.' '... the Child Tax Credit increased to $3,000 per child aged 6 to 17 and $3,600 per child under 6. All working families will get the full credit if they make up to $150,000 for a couple or $112,500 for a family with a single parent.' (The Letter),
In my comments, I tend to lean heavily on research, investigative reports, studies, reports by top-notch journalists, but today is another day. For the last few months, I have come to believe that one of the stories of this time is about good and evil, in rather simple terms. Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. is a good man, a truly good man. He looks for guidance and we imagine those sources, so dear to him. Joe cares, he truly cares, and he loves, he smiles, he is full of joy and sorrow. Joe learned his job and he learned us. He listens.
And then there is Donald J. Trump. We know his character, his emptiness, with revenge, rage, desperation, greed, ignorance and destruction filling the spaces. It is our job to see that Donald J. Trump is known to the American people. He is a lesson as is our attraction to him.
Our country, you and I, have been through a cycle of evil and now of good. We are moving with Joe Biden, his administration and other very good women to a better place. I took a big breath while reading today's Letter. Heather Cox Richardson and subscribers to Letter From an American are our friends through these cycles of life in America.
Fern, you posted a very eloquent opinion this morning though there is one thought that really needs to be reflected upon:
"And then there is Donald J. Trump. We know his character, his emptiness, with revenge, rage, desperation, greed, ignorance and destruction filling the spaces. It is our job to see that Donald J. Trump is known to the American people. He is a lesson as is our attraction to him."
I would say any US American, regardless of political affiliation, believes they know Donald Trump. As you stated, "We know his character... It is our job to see that Donald J Trump is known to the American people." Don't you think there is a conservative writer who has written an almost identical comment to yours? Do you really not think that died in the wool Trump supporters believe that we are the ones who are mistaken?
The conservatives who support Donald Trump believe they know him and that we are mistaken in our assessment of him. I'm not sure how to reconcile the two sides of the same coin. In this forum we can discuss and argue but the one thing we aren't able to do is change minds. Right now, the Trump faction is clearly opposed to anything that does not empower and endorse Trump, even when they benefit from the initiatives being set forth by the Biden administration, (the Child Tax Credit, for instance). Their minds are as made up as ours about who and what Donald Trump is. And therein lies the problem.
Changing hearts and minds cannot be done within this forum because we are mostly an echo chamber. The hard work has to be done outside of this forum. The question is, how? The task is Herculean.
There is also the phenomena of the "useful idiot". Those in the GOP are not hooked on him as their savior think that they can manipulate him and the situation to their own advantage. Heads you win.....tails too!
IMHO the more people who understand the psychology behind authoritarian cults the better. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/authoritarian-cults-in-america-townhall-tickets-162916352195
Thank you, Christy. You saved me time. I don't know how daria read that I was suggesting our Forum as the Civics teachers to Trump's Cult, though we have teachers who have been working on it. There have been strong cases against Trump stymied by Barr, Trump's cronies, the Republican Party as well as warranted grievances and white supremacy bred in the bone. The terrible growth of Covid infections through lack of vaccinations; convictions in the courts and many much more evidence compiled by news reports, investigative reports, books, court papers, etc., will penetrate some American minds, which have been swamped by lies and conspiracies. Social Media is an enormous contributor of misinformation and conspiracies, which must be addressed.
You wrote:
"It is our job to see that Donald J. Trump is known to the American people. He is a lesson as is our attraction to him."
THAT is how you suggested that WE on this forum act as Civic Teachers to the Trump Cult. Who is the Our in Our Job, Fern? You missed the point entirely, Fern.
You simply cannot abide someone delving into your comments or your opinions, can you?
Perhaps “our” job is intended as universal? It is indeed everyone’s job to educate through factual comparisons to current events. I believe that is what HCR does on this platform.
Patricia, as long as there are politicians at all levels ready and willing to get on social media, talk shows and news shows and pump lies to the huge segment of our population unwilling to accept truth, reality and science it doesn't matter how "universal" the "our" is. It is a fact that they don't consume what they call mainstream media, they consume media tailored to specifically to keep them stirred up. They won't entertain the idea that Trump did not win the election, that getting a vaccine might just save a their life, that there are serious environmental issues that need to be dealt with and more. You tell me, how are you going to educate your trumpian family member or neighbor through factual comparisons [between historical events and ] current events? Explain to me how many people who skew right and have come to Heather's substack page go away with a changed mind? They don't. And do you know why? Because when they do show up some of us treat them like crap. Some of us use infantile, monosyllabic, scatological responses to their comments rather than ignore them or ask for citations/documentation. Some of us scream troll, or Russian, or God knows what at the right wing visitor. Oh yes, that shows how well the universal "we" is actually able to handle educating someone who is neck deep in right wing lies.
Look, my point was obviously not understood. Not by you or the original poster who immediately took offense at what I was saying. We are not living in a fairy tale, we are living in a country which is being torn apart bit by bit, at all levels of society, every single day. At some point, Democrats and Progressives are going to have to figure out that the combination of Jesus and the media machine that feeds the right wing is compelling, persuasive and far more effective than anything we've been able to come up with.
Projecting here? 🤷♀️
Sharon, With all due respect, you might read my original response to Fern's original comment. It was polite and I acknowledged her eloquence. Her initial response regarding my comment was to someone else and was demeaning in its tone. You might read it before you jump into the fray and decide that I'm projecting.
Sharon, the child in you lap is a cutie. Related?
I listened to someone on the LP podcast (?) say you can be very clear to a trump supporter that the opposite of something they believe is true—and they likely know you are right—and they simply refuse to accept it.
Which is my point exactly.
Maybe if we just stop giving him air call him "he who must not be named" because by speaking his name into the universe it is confused into thinking we want more. We don't. The major social media outlets have silenced him, maybe we should not say his name. Just putting that out there without saying his name!
This is my perspective as well. I’m interested in the very visible approach that TX Dems have been using. Be there, on the ground, interacting with folks who have been effected by policy. I’m speechless that the building failure in Florida has not been tied to conservative rejection of regulation (for instance). This could be done without politicizing the deaths in that event by educating the public about so many other regulatory failures that have been investigated.
Patricia, South Florida (where I was born & raised) has had one of the toughest building codes for decades. The best codes count for nothing if they're not enforced. One story I read about the inspection process said some buildings had failed repeatedly but the powers that be let the building owners and managers slide, never putting any teeth in the fines and citations written up. One building stalled for almost 10 years!! They seem to be in cahoots with the HOAs, or whoever has responsibility for the buildings.
It took me a while to understand why you thought I was suggesting that the Forum educate the Cult about who Trump is and what he has destroyed. When I wrote 'It is our job to see that Donald J. Trump is known to the American people.' I did not intend 'our' to be the Forum but to all the resources at the country's disposal in exposing the social and economic crimes he has perpetrated as well as how they are connected to mental illness, autocracy and fascism. Obviously, Trump is not the lone culprit. Sorry that I was not clearer.
Never mind Fern. I can't deal with you anymore today.
I am much later than usual reading LFAA so maybe I missed something… but let’s not turn on each other.
There are two types of Trump supporters. Those who wish to echo the lies Trump spews in order to manipulate the "village idiots" who cannot ferret out truth from lies and fully understand they are being conned. The elected Republican officials and paid celebrities on Fox News are wanting to achieve power and money while the average village idiot wants to hear him speak about white power, buy clothing and flags with his name on them, cheer and scream at his rallies, and deny social and scientific norms to save themselves from COVID in order to feel connection to Trump. The first group needs to be held accountable for their intentional lies and propaganda. Remember that their number one defense is "no average person can begin to believe the lies we tell." The second group will fall into place when the first group stops manipulating them.
One can only hope those swallowing the lies will have the necessary aha moment to wake up and "fall into place".
Yes, Daria, your are so right about this. However, I’m confident that there are a few trumpians…. perhaps a very few, but still, a few…whose minds can be changed and have been changed by the good President Biden is focused on accomplishing.
Dyed not died!
Unfortunately, after reading this morning's news, I fail to share your enthusiasm for us "moving out of darkness." I wish to hell I was wrong, but given we can't get all Democrats to see their own self-interest lies in doing something serious about the Republican anti-democracy offensive, we're going to fail. It will be by narrow margins, which will make it all the more maddening and frustrating, but unless Manchin and sinema are repalced with "body doubles" things are not going to succeed.
I'll spend just a minute in an attempt to influence you as a lot of time and solid information could be of no avail. With reference to the Democrats, here's an excerpt from a piece today written by David Leonhardt in the New York Times:
'Manchin to Sanders'
'In the political center, Joe Manchin of West Virginia helped negotiate the infrastructure bill and has spoken positively about a large second bill focused on social programs. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, another moderate, has said she is “open to finding a path forward” on both. Mark Warner of Virginia, known as a “business guy,” is helping craft large parts of the legislation, as my colleague Jonathan Weisman explains.'
'On the left, both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren also seem to be on board, praising the second package even though it’s smaller than they favor. “In some cases, it doesn’t provide all the funding that I would like,” Sanders said this week. But he also called it “probably the most consequential piece of legislation since the 1930s.”
This relative consensus is a contrast to the internal Democratic divisions on some other issues, like voting rights and the filibuster. But the politics of economic policy tend to be different — and easier — for the party. It frequently stays unified on economic issues, including taxes and Obamacare.'
'Why? For one thing, Democrats’ economic positions tend to be popular, even in purple and red states. The two big bills Biden is hoping to get through Congress — which together would spend money on roads, broadband internet, pre-K and other programs while raising taxes on the rich — fit the pattern. A large majority of voters support them, polls show.'
Life in the USA has improved over the last five months. There are other important steps to take along the way.
That's all very nice, but the result is going to be that two idiots are going to flush what's left of American democracy down the drain because they can't see beyond the end of their noses.
I think one will take the bait (in the form of many mil$ in infrastructure) you suggested a few days ago that most likely is being dangled in front of him. The other…..hmmmm. I leave my faith in other influencers.
Isn't it amazing, what slender threads we hang our hopes from?
Truly. When it comes down to it, ridiculous.
edit: 'and other very good women and men to a better place.'
Beautifully stated know it is a shared POV!
Splendid post. I too felt the same way after the Dr.’s lucid summary. Things are really beginning to become blindingly obvious about Trump. Or rather, the darkest corners of this reptilian, odious man’s Presidency are now being documented. That may come to mean a slow turning away from this madness, although I’m not so sure that there isn’t a good number of your people who want a conflagration.
I also was touched by Rachel Maddow’s “direct action” theme last night. The dignity, grace, almost majesty of the guests she interviewed, as well as their confreres, were all so evident. It’s odd to see the juxtaposition of Trump news and the report on their actions. Black and white difference - with the Black this time clearly the good.
I didn’t know about Nixon vetoing the child care plan in 1971. It’s odd - through all of my
growing up years and into the start of our parenting, we had exactly that type of plan in Canada. I’m not sure of the formal name, but colloquially it was known as the “baby bonus”. At one point we were getting $99 a month for our three young-uns. It helped. But it was scrapped eventually.
FWIW, I read a review in the Washington Post comparing the Rutter/Leonig book unfavorably with Michael Wolff’s third book on the Presidency. The reviewer described the book as being stitched together articles we all know with some new quotes put in. Wolff’s book, apparently, better catches the feel of the WH in the last throes of the Trump mis-reign.
I’m sure both will be worth the read.
The child punster in me did appreciate the “Thoroughly Modern Millie” pun.
Pun? Appreciate? Ratcaster Carlson “anti-fascist sign” and slyly referencing Gen Milley to Mrs. Meers and characters from blatantly, racially controversial movie from 47 yrs ago? A pun?
Ratcaster will use blackface or yellow face at free will any time to “caste” racial aspersion on a hero to deflect attention from a villain. This was no pun in HCR’s letter today. Or was not taken that way by me. It is frankly disturbing the evil creative lengths that Ratcaster employs. If only he were to rapture to Hell right on air.
Hi Eric, I appreciated your thoughtful reply, however, why did you write: '....I’m not so sure that there isn’t a good number of your people who want a conflagration.' In a previous comment of yours you applied the word of 'conflagration' to me. In my reply, I provided the definition of the word and assured you that 'conflagration' was not on the agenda, ever. Please do not refer to me and what you call 'my people' with the word 'conflagration'. Thank you.
“your” people referred to Americans who are nihilistic, hardly to this deeply earnest group.
I should have spelled it out more clearly but felt it would be understood in context.
I don’t see how it is remotely possible that you, who know me somewhat, would think that the “your” referred to you personally. Such a conclusion is disheartening to me.
I have two choices - to edit my posts with painful scruple- so that nothing possible can be misread.
Or to stop posting. The latter is very tempting. My words are air, read by few and quickly forgotten. Because I hold to my own convictions, I invite attempts to censor. This sub has virtually no elasticity, and certainly little sense of humour. I refer here here to Christine’s squawk of protest above. It was the last point of my post, a throwaway far removed from my main points which were serious, substantive and not negative.
It is not worth an answer to her - she gives every indication of being beyond any purpose in my life except to search for my supposed apostasy.
Hundreds of people respond on this site with an amazing wealth of knowledge and passion. My posts attract, rightfully, little attention. I am not as versed in the great detail of American life.
But I did enjoy putting in my thoughts, mainly because the process of writing added clarity in my own mind.
But it has become wearing and I have other things to do.
I am chalk to cheese for a few members of this group.
Godspeed to all.
Eric. Let me squawk to you some more, directly. Not through another subscriber. Do not reference me or chastise me in a reply to another. I think you thought the “pun” had something to do with the spelling of “Milley” and “Millie”. Not true.
Your attitude is patronizing and authoritarian. Don’t spend another minute slyly inferring my sense of humor is off, my comments are throwaway, or my intent is only to create purpose in my life for searching for your desertion to your POV.
And, oh yes, my post was a substantive,serious, and yes negative comment about the Ratcaster Carlson, not you.
Geez.
Very well said.
Eric, There are several of us on the Forum who inspire respect, rebuke, sneers, fans and competition. You are not alone. Your comments often attract large numbers as a result of your writing and thoughtfulness. I don't believe that it's a matter of ;chalk to cheese' between you and I or between you and other subscribers -- didn't know that expression until you wrote it. There are inevitable personality clashes, jealously between a very few, confusion, misinterpretations, and strong differences of opinion from time to time. It's Friday, and I look forwarding to seeing you tomorrow or very soon thereafter.
Fern, you are such a kind person. :)
I see you as a sort of anchor for the group, deeply imbued with the sort of patience I can sometimes lack.
That lack of patience is corroding me and making my intercourse with the forum inappropriate.
And then...I'm in the entirely lucky position of having tons of other things to do that don't leave me feeling disappointed in myself.
You're a gem. There are other gems in this group to be sure, but you and I have managed to connect. I deeply appreciate that.
Eric, Sometimes I am forceful and sometimes too quick in my responses. I am loyal advocate of yours. The absence of Eric would be a void here and painful to me. If you take a break, please make it a short one. The Forum flourishes with a range of voices and with people of good character. I'll be looking for you. Salud!
With a choice between mansplaining everything you say or editing your posts with painful scruple, I would suggest the third option.
Eric, I recall it being referred to as “mothers’ supplement” by Canadian friends, back in the day.
Ahh - so true. Thank you.
Subscribers, The Advance Child Tax Credit is as good as it sounds. For information Advance Child Tax Credit Payments in 2021 from the IRS:
https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/advance-child-tax-credit-payments-in-2021
Two links below provide basic information:
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/21/repaying-2021-child-tax-credit-what-to-know.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/irs-child-tax-credit-2021-payments-amount-dates-opt-out-faq/
Fern, I agree with almost everything you said in your comment, but as a CPA I can tell you, the Advanced Child Tax Credit is not a storybook with a happy ending. In nine months when millions of families file their taxes, they're going to realize an awful truth: these monthly payments are only an advance on the child tax credit they count on to reduce their taxes owed on their tax returns. They've become used to receiving these credits every year for the last 20 years and this year they're going to be shocked and aghast to learn they're expected to pay that money back to the IRS.
This will end with broken hearts and broken checkbooks.
This comment concerns the comment by Matthew Funk who slammed the Advanced Child Tax Credit. His comment does not appear to conform to reality. The Child Tax Credit is as good as it sounds. The link below contains basic information from the IRS:
https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/advance-child-tax-credit-payments-in-2021
The following links contain basic info easy to follow:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/irs-child-tax-credit-2021-payments-amount-dates-opt-out-faq/
https://communityadvocates.net/what-we-do/child-tax-credit-expansion-outreach.html
Fern, I appreciate you posting these links. Let's look at the first link you posted, the IRS page on the Advanced Child Tax Credit (ACTC).
Quoting directly from the IRS page, "The IRS will pay half the total credit amount in *advance* monthly payments beginning July 15. You will claim the other half when you file your 2021 income tax return." (emphasis mine)
Read that again--it's an advance payment of the credit you usually claim in full when you file your taxes.
Here's how that works against taxpayers: Say Bill and Sally file jointly as a married couple. They have four kids, ages 14, 12, 10, 8. In 2020 they received an $8,000 credit when they filed their tax returns.
On their 2021 taxes they'll receive a $12,000 credit (because the government increased the size of the credit for 2021 and 2021 only, albeit with new, lower phaseouts). But--and here's the problem--the government has already prepaid them half of the $12,000. So, when they file their taxes they'll only get $6,000, a reduction of $2,000 over their prior year's amount.
I know it may appear as though I'm splitting hairs here, but in my experience helping people file their taxes over the last 25 years I've found that the devil is in details and lot of people, particularly those without access to professional assistance, are going to be sadly surprised when they find they owe the IRS money next spring.
That's the root of my frustration, I suppose. Too often we accept as truth the analysis offered by the news media or commentators as gospel when the reality is far more complex.
In any case I hope you have a fun weekend Fern. While we may disagree on tax policy I take comfort in chatting with other fans of HCR. She's wonderful.
Matthew, I appreciate your breakdown. We have more hairs to split, but I have no time now. It is a benefit to flesh out the facts and $ with you. I've got say goodbye now but look forward to continuing our dialogue. A fine weekend to you, too.
REALLY? So the millionaires and corporations get tax rate reductions
( for years if not permanent) and the struggling middle class parents get an advance on their standard tax credit? This little devil in detail certainly didn't come across my local news outlet. Broken hearts will turn to anger at democrats no doubt.
Lynn,
Yes, it's unfair and yes you are correct, wealthier taxpayers receive amazing tax breaks that middle/lower income folks don't receive. I'm afraid that your concern will be born out: people will be upset at president Biden when their tax return is smaller.
It frustrates me when people blame Biden for things that aren't his fault and give the former president a free ride on the disaster he left behind.
Lynn, I like Matthew. He and I have more hairs and $ to split. Cannot do it now but there will be more.
Lynn, you are correct to question the 'subscriber' above. I just did some research and will post links for basic information as a aid to subscriber and to raise doubt about misleading comments.
Fern, your prose sings today. I know how you feel!
Thank you, Patricia. It combines so much of what we feel, read, see and imagine happening to others near and far. We are singing together.
Gotta hand it to you, Dr. Heather, your concluding statements in your Letters are often evocative and bring up emotions ranging from fear, loathing or disgust with 45 and his cult, to hopeful optimism for the next generation, but this is the first time I'm laughing my head off, about:
"As near as I can tell, the former president is the only Republican who has responded to the story. Other leaders are talking about the border, masks, Cuba, and Britney Spears. Their lack of a response to a deeply damaging story about the leader of their party suggests to me that, at best, they are hoping the story will disappear and, at worst, they believe it’s true."
Thank you for your Letters, and all the time you devote to them. Rest well!💜
Am I being too optimistic to think that the Trump Tide is turning? Of course, that would not signal a come to Jesus moment for them, and they'll find another way to obfuscate and deny the country's needs and wants, but I'm guessing that they no longer see benefit in supporting the evil idiot, and will have to regroup.
I would certainly hope that as the slow grind of accountability bears down on all of them they will start singing a different tune. I’ll never ever forget the look on Derek Chauvin’s face when the verdict was read. It truly gave away his arrogant self-righteousness up to that point. He appeared shocked! At this point so many are complicit in #45’s crimes and treason that they can’t possibly let go of their need to deny/block any investigation
I realize this could be wishful thinking, but I'd pay money to see every Repug grifter's sins exposed for the world to see. Let's hope that Nancy Pelosi, so long derided by the Right, is able to expose them. It will be interesting to find out whether the Capitol Police kept records of the "guided tour" conductors and "tourists," for starters. It is also possible that Liz Cheney will offer some inside scoop. I saw the same expression on Chauvin's face - shocked and amazed! He was the only one besides his mother who expected another outcome!
From your mouth to the cogwheels of our Universe 🙏 May it be so! May we set our course for Right!
You might consider substituting "Righteous" for "Right." We don't want any confusion here. :-;
LOL. Thank you for pointing out how my word choice might be misconstrued. I prefer “right” as in Merrimack Webster: “conforming to facts or truth”. Would there be less likelihood of confusing it with the mobsters if I had not capitalized it?
Nancy, I dub thee "You Be Right!" If only.
If only the day comes soon - I'm old. . . .
I got mine today! $250 is a real help to us. I make a decent living, but we're in an expensive city made expensive by people who make a lot more than me. We're middle class in that we could last maybe a month if I got laid off. So I say thanks Joe! It appears someone out there cares whether I have a little breathing room, and whether people who make less than me have some air to breathe at all. The Republicans seem intent on creating an entire Ozone around the rich, and by extension, themselves.
Paul. Yay! Congrats to your extra “cuppaJoe$“!!!!!!
I just learned from my daughter that our niece is going through a rough time as she and her husband head into a divorce. What's important in this story are the circumstances surrounding this family tragedy that so many young Maine and US families are caught up in.
Our niece married a good young man in the National Guard, who made this his fulltime career. His pay was not adequate to support him and his wife. She was a college graduate and proceeded to work and establish her career. They proceeded to have two children, both still under the age of five.
The National Guard regularly reminded this couple that service away from home should be expected and would be required without any plans for supporting any spouces and children.
Since the children were born, the husband / father was sent to Iraq for six months, I believe this included Christmas. In preparation for this deployment, there was other time away from home. About a year or two later, the husband was sent to Texas for six months of training.
During these periods, our niece was coping with her husband's absence, two young children who did not respond well to these changes, her job with an employer with little understanding, sympathy, assistance or cooperation. Child care apparently was entirely the responsibility of the family to find and pay for to meet their particular needs.
All of this stress has played a huge part in the breakdown of this family. A couple that for years before the father's military absences spent several periods each summer visiting and bringing other family and friends to our home in Maine on the coast. Not a huge contribution to our state economy, but a cumulative amount with so many others going through similar conditions living in our state or visiting us regularly that will eventually drop out of our state economy.
The two key issues here from our vantage are childcare and the military. We see first hand the importance of President Biden's proposal that childcare is critical infrastructure for our economy, for employment and jobs, for our families, for our healthcare and just about everything. Stress like this leads to alcoholism, poor personal healthcare, mental and physical deterioration, and so many other problems and expenses for our state and nation.
The military is not family friendly. Particularly for the National Guard which has been called upon with more demands as Congress demands more from fewer American families. Our military staff are not paid enough to cover the costs of so many support services that they need. Healthcare, mental health, counselors and marriage support, childcare, food and housing should be in most cases provided free, accessible and sufficient that no military family is left in isolation without full support.
Finally, I would add that the hostile politics of violence coming mostly from the Trump administration and supporting Republicans who cannot say that President Biden won the election and continue to use this to attack our democracy is stressful to all Americans, particularly those who with so many responsibilities, who are separated without adequate support.
We musr give our full organized vocal, lobbying and voting support to our young military and working families. There is no substitute for adequate resources for our young families and children.
You make an important point, and a painful one. I witnessed a similar story 20 years ago when 2 Airforce members married, had 2 children, then both parents were called away at the same time - and zero consideration or help was offered for those poor babies under 3yo. A grandparent stepped in until he broke. The military Dad took the babies, then broke himself and left the military and ultimately his family. He never recovered, but things ended up okay for his x-wife and 2 sons. These stories are not told, but should be. There is too much lip-service about caring for military families and vets.
For those of you who don't know.....we ALMOST got universal child care back in 1971. Congressional support was bi-partisan and it passed 63-17. So what happened? Richard Nixon vetoed it. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/06/23/that-one-time-america-almost-got-universal-child-care/
There was a piece on the PBS Newshour springing from the OH people paying the OH NG to go to the border. Im afraid the NG has been duscovered to be a low cost substitute for the Army, Air Force and Navy and are being exploited accordingly.
The NG here is being exploited for political purposes. The Texas governor in particular is trying to distract voters (and prevent them from voting, but that's another story) from his abject failure to maintain and fix the power grid.
PBS last night reported that the Defense Department will childcare will be increasing childcare for regular military under the Biden Administration. Sufficiency and access have been a real problem is being acknowledged. However, military staff will still have to pay for some large part of this out of their pay. There was no mention of the National Guard.
Saw the program last night on PBS NewsHour. Yes, military personnel will have to pay a portion of the childcare but it's substantially less than 'civilian' childcare. Childcare personnel, according to the story, are also more highly paid and have benefits. Like Daria, I'm guessing NG is not included. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/could-the-military-child-care-system-be-a-model-for-the-nation
Likely exclusion of the Guard? That is a shame.
I wondered about that, Kim. Was it Gov. Dewine that authorized the deployment? If so, it surprises me as he has seemed like one of the few sensible Republicans.
“We were asked to play a small part in (securing the border), and I said yes,” he said. “I think it’s in Ohio’s interest to do that. I think it’s the right thing to do.”
Well, at least you (citizens) were asked.
Not to mention the absence of "continuing care" for the NG returning from combat operations.
The old saying that if the military had wanted you to have a family they would have issued you one is regrettably too true. On the one hand, there is the need to the members of the military to be prepared to be deployed or transferred on a moment's notice. And on the other, without proper consideration for the needs of family members (housing, child care, schooling, etc.) those who serve are distracted from their military duties by concern for family at home. Plus the stress of service abroad and lengthy separation from families contributes to their breakup. Doubtless we need a military, and equally doubtless foreign adversaries don't care about the impact on service members' families their action produce. I don't know of any easy solutions to the family conflict and disruption our military should be confronting, except by knowing of these adverse effects, budget should be provided to provide adequate support services to families. Policies need to be developed to accommodate the needs of military families. It is well past time when 'if the military had wanted you to have a family they would have issued you one' type thinking needs to be mothballed.
The entire time I was reading this, I kept thinking to myself, "So much for family values!" U.S. society and culture gives lip service to "family". Certain groups are more concerned about a fetus than they are about a fully functioning human. I am a Veteran whose family has served since The American Revolutionary War until our latest generation. The enlisted ranks "take it on the chin", yet they are the backbone of our Military. The officers' ranks fare much better in many respects.
I am saddened by your story. A young family with young children should be tightly knit; not fractured. Sadly, that fracturing has become common place in so many quarters of today's America.
Thank you David for writing about this subject. I'm sorry about your niece's situation, but I can certainly understand it. 3 weeks ago I was at an Army base in GA watching my 6 month old grandson. My daughter and her husband both had their 2 weeks active duty scheduled for the same 2 weeks at 2 different Army bases in 2 different states. Their oldest child was being watched by his other grandmother in FLA. It's been 'all hands on deck' for 3 generations for the last 5 years! We are ALL in the National Guard. Both grandmoms know the kids' pediatrician well. She laughs at us and says she's never seen 2 grandmothers be 'besties' before. Somehow we make it work. Tomorrow, my daughter and her family will be on a plane at 6 a.m. because she has her required monthly weekend drill to fulfill. Her mother-in-law will help her husband with both children. Both my son and daughter have full time jobs in the private sector. The military does not help with childcare, travel or accommodations. We are very proud of our kids. I just don't think most people know about National Guard service, so I'm really grateful for your post.
Thank you for your family's service. Please share your families experiences in the NG. The military should not be a mythical and mysterious organization in a democracy.
I was #9 in the lottery for Vietnam. Graduated from college in 1971 and was not called. My ROTC training was stopped before I needed to commit. I have come to realize that the draft had the important aspect of forcing all Americans to think about our foreign policies and how we serve, support and protect our military.
But perhaps two years of public service with military service as an option would be a good, if not better option, because we have a lot of domestic service projects that are unrecognized and unmanned. Americans should know what it takes to run a nation and sustain a democracy cared for and managed by civilians doing our part.
Thank you for recounting your draft, ROTC and Vietnam war references with wisdom and clarity. I agree that 2 years service to our nation would help us realize what we have in America and help us coalesce into a hopefully more homogeneous society,, one borne of shared sacrifice and service. My takeaway with my daughter is that, apparently, she is very good with a Glock! Not every mother's dream for her little girl!
BOTH political parties are remiss in proper care for our Military personnel. But, Republicans get the Oscar for "disingenuous love" for the Troops because Republicans more than Democrats see our Troops as servile fodder that can be laid waste in battle. I realize that is coarse and crude. But, that is how I see it. As Dick Cheney said some years ago during a televised interview, "Well, they volunteered [to get killed]" I wanted to reach into the TV set and pulverize him.
Thank you Heather.
I'm thoughly disgusted that the GOP are turning a blind eye to these developments. This just proves there is zero accountability in politics.
I am already seeing the idle threats of "this is the end of Trump" on social media. I urge you to dismiss this fantasy. No it isn't. Lest I remind you, he can shoot someone on 5th Ave and nothing will happen to him. This is another of those moments. That scenario will run continuously long after his death.
It's certainly a relief that the GOP are concentrating their collective efforts on the Britney Spears scandal or they would have had to come up with something to top that. Perhaps one of them getting a bad haircut or buying shoes off the internet that don't fit. 🙄
Be safe, be well.
Linda, you are spot on. When Donald kicks the bucket his groupies will elevate him to sainthood and erect a shrine in his honor. The thought makes me nauseous.
The pillow man will name a new pillow after trump. “Batty as bird feathers!”
🤣🤣🤣
While his previuosly psychophantic followers try to go on milking the golden cow.
Love the parallel to Sherlock Holmes and the clue about the family dog not barking!! ❤️😂
Leading to the retort: "No sh*t, Sherlock!"
😂
Exactamente.
If HRC were to use side-bars to highlight sections, that would be my choice as well.
Fox News should not be allowed to call themselves news. It is propaganda contributing to the demise of our country by spreading lies.
My thought exactly as I lay in bed early this morning listening to the real news on NPR.
Their defense in court is Fox News is an “entertainment” enterprise thus allowing opinionated bullsh*t.
Hopefully most folks here have seen this documentary already: https://www.thebrainwashingofmydad.com/
Foxophrenia
Coup O P
This documentary could be really helpful to inoculate the young.
Because of their statement, they should be required to drop the word 'News' from their name.
In the time of Reconstruction, wasn't there some form of early FDA enforcement? Or something to prevent the Snake Oil "salesman" from taking advantage of the ignorant and unlearned?
Susan, technically they aren't. They are an entertainment channel per FCC rules. Yes, that really does suck.
The former guy’s response “[I]f I was going to do a coup…” sounds suspiciously like “Number one, she’s not my type. Number two, it never happened”. Of course he was trying to stay in power by any means possible. And now he's laid out a blueprint for the GOP to follow for the next couple of elections. We have from now until 2022, maybe 2024, to reverse this trend, or we're in for full on fascism.
We must all do what we can to push the needle in the other direction. One simple thing we can do is to call/write your elected officials, from county to federal, regardless of party, and tell them what you think of the job they're doing. Be constructive and respectful, but direct. They need to be reminded that YOU are their constituents and CAN'T be ignored.
Make this a weekly task. If your rep is doing a good job, let them know. The good ones need our support now more than ever.
Make it fun by getting together with friends over coffee and write together. Keep up the pressure. Even GOP "lawmakers" have to hire folks to answer their constituents. Put those putzes to work.
….“number one, she’s not my type. number two, it didn’t hapoen”…..
Oh, thank you Kara, for adopting the perfect story telling tone similar to HCR’s in today’s Letter. That is a classic remark about the former Pres Trump’s brain storage of one liners to defend the inexcusable from a sitting president. Someone could write an essay listing them.
Or we could remember the ridiculous theater of it all with all these Repubs and their cover lines as we sit with friends as you suggest over coffee or a beverage writing our own constituent lines of notice and demand to our representatives at local, state, and federal level.
There is a theory that when the people see that the government is truly responsive to their needs (as in Child Tax Credits) that they will flock to the polls and all Democrats will win in a national landslide. A reasonable strategy.
Books, investigations and even trials will reveal, again, that Republicans are idiots and sociopaths.
However, if the Republican voter suppression is not stopped our enlightened population will not be able to vote and, in some cases, their vote will be overruled by the state legislators. Who will count the votes?
The Republican strategy continues to be distraction and our Democratic weakness is focus.
We need to protect the vote.
Unfortunately, Bruce, I know from sad first-hand experience that even some of those who receive the CTC will not say thank you or vote Democratic. They are that perverse. Don't you know some like that?
Nor is the Biden administration doing it for that reason, of course, but hopefully it will have the effect you say, at least in some of them.
Amen!
I have zero doubt that the Milley story about the Orange Asscactus is true. I also have zero doubt that he will continue to face no consequences whatsoever for trying to end democracy in this country (an effort that is ongoing, mind you). Republicans treasure power more than they do the democratic institutions of this country.
Good Morning Dr Richardson and fellow reader-activists.
Now that they have gotten the Child Tax Credit into action the next move will be to make it permanent. Too bad they couldn't do that with the extra $300/wk for unemployment. If you do the math that $300 works out to be $7.50/hr only slightly above minimum wage rates.
Of course the GOP is going to talk about anything except trump's statement about a coup and the insurrection, they know that many of their members are facing deep scrutiny over the mechanics of the insurrection and their culpability.
I have been heartened by the words from Gen Milley that they were not unaware of the danger that trump posed and they were forming plans to thwart that possibility. But if they had resigned would there not have been others who would have stepped up to support the coup? I am glad we didn't have to find out.
Pamela, I had the same feeling about resignations. And now that we know so many of the military and law enforcement are also full-on dt supporters… 😢😔
“In America, one in seven children lives in poverty.” Shame on our country. Shame on the policies that have been enacted to make this so. Yes, Dr. R, the Child Tax Credit IS a big deal! It should be shouted from the rooftops. Good news that benefits people now and in the future. As for the Trumpublicans and their treachery, we must not let them succeed.
The Child Tax Credit is to be applauded as temporarily bringing half of poor children out of poverty. Never mentioned, and probably even more important, is the huge impact it will have on those who remain in poverty.
For example, if an extremely poor family doubles its income, it is hugely helpful, even if that family remains below the poverty level. It might allow them to move out of an old car and into a mobile home. Kids would have better clothes for school. Though they might remain poor, their lives would be somewhat less desperate. Ideally for some, it might mean their guardians might more easily afford the minimum they need to get employment or training, like clothing and carfare. Though every child and adult should be lifted out of poverty, this is a huge step forward.
Thank you for this insight Ken! I served on our Social Services Board after years of community health nursing, but I forgot about what a significant impact this would have on our homeless and most destitute who don't figure into Biden's stats. Yes, a remarkable impact!!
We effectively had two trials involving treason directed at the Trump administration. The impeachment trials of Donald J. Trump. Republicans acquitted him. Enough Republicans participated in or knew enough about those treasonous acts to be conspirators, accessories or facilitators. When President Lincoln was assassinated, those identified as knowing or having contact with John Wilkes Booth were tried and hung. There is more evidence against Republicans this time around than they had when Lincoln was assassinated. President Trump and his participating Republicans have been trying to assassinate the United States of America with help from FOX.
There is the crime of treason....which in US law is so circumscribed that it is practically impossible to prove other than for spies caught red-handed.
😠
I love the description of Qevin McQarthy (R-Oklafornia) visiting Trump to "lick the soles of Trump's shoes." That's exactly how abject his surrender is.
As regards the Guardian report, "beware of the news that gives you exactly what you want to hear." I seriously doubt that Putin and his gang would put what they did in writing, because the damage it would do to them if it ever came out. Some things governments do never get acknowledged anywhere, and doing this is exactly one of those things. I think the "tell" that this is fake news is the "psychological profile" of Trump. Those are exactly the words we Trump-haters use to describe that worthless piece of shit.
As for trust-fund baby Carlson, someone needs to walk up to him on the street, not say a damn word to him, and just punch him so hard in the face his nose is broken and he hits the pavement hard enough to fracture his skull - not that anything vital would be harmed.
As my father used to say, 'Where there's no sense, there's no feeling.'
My mom used to say “No brain, no pain.”
Of course the details of an official Russian covert operation would be in writing. How else would instructions be communicated, permission granted, funding appropriated and spent? I'm sure that they aren't all running around on foot, whispering into each other's ears.
Just as the WWII concentration camps kept detailed records of the intake and disposition of inmates, Putin's political interference program would have to have a "paper trail," just like any other government program.
It's the "leak" aspect that is suspicious to me, considering the impact his program of "dirty tricks" has had on Putin's reputation. With each reiteration of his success, the world's respect for him grows. After all, it's his job to damage the United States, and with our cooperation, he's done very well.
Ahh. Damn.
"Qeven McQarthy." Thank you for that, TC!