Are We Ready?

 

This week the world will get to see (on the debate stage together for the first time in about four years!) the two expected contenders for the Office of the Presidency. Debate rules are set: the candidates may bring no notes but can jot down some points as they wish, and the moderators will mute the microphone when the other person is speaking. There will be no studio audience at the Atlanta CNN studio site at the event on Thursday, June 27^th. President Biden will stand at the podium on the right side of the stage, while his opponent stands on the left side and will make the final statement. Neither person will make an opening statement. Since this debate is not being sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates, which has run these events since 1988, and is on a commercial network, there will be two breaks for ads in the 90-minute program.

What should we make of these elaborate requirements? Could it be that one candidate is known to be mercurial and must be tempered on stage? Do you think these measures will work?  I do not know if the moderators will have fact-checkers reporting to their ears, but certainly calling out the serial liar might be helpful. Personally, I have doubts, but will wait and see how it goes. There will be another debate in September. The VP debate will be in July between VP Kamala Harris and ?

DJT has been out and about on the campaign trail recently, now that his first trial ended, but his speeches ramble, repeat his oft-told lies about the election being stolen from him, his claims of persecution by Biden and others, and continue his rants against immigration. Today, he voiced his support for the new laws in Louisiana that require placing a copy of the Christian Ten Commandments in every public classroom. He mentioned a couple, but since he has already broken so many of the others, mentioned no more.

(Actually, I wonder if he could name all ten!) 

Although the Supreme Court already ruled on this separation of church and state issue many years ago, some Christian conservatives are hoping this more conservative court might reverse that ruling.

While President Biden is planning for the debate and huddling with aides up at Camp David, as is usual, DJT claims to not need to prepare and suggests the President will come into the debate “jacked up on drugs”. He is even floating the idea of demanding a drug test for the President.

The right-wing media and Maga hangers-on continue to splice and doctor videos, and make crude remarks about the President walking off into nowhere when he was looking at a soldier off-camera, or needing guidance to find his chair. There are apparently no laws to prevent these misleading or lying presentations. In a free country, one hopes that truths will prevail. However, there is a saying, attributed to Winston Churchill: “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”

If there is no rigorous fact-checking, I expect more outrageous claims to appear. Some pundits expect Hunter Biden to be attacked with claims that he is part of the so-called Biden crime family, as has been said before. Biden quietly deflected this subject when it was raised in 2020. I hope he can do so again.

Somehow, I find it hard to believe that logistics and rules are being widely discussed without attention being paid to policies,  programs, and initiatives for the new presidency. Perhaps it is because the Heritage Foundation and others have been working on a plan to overhaul our democracy and reduce government and its services as we know them now. The Center for American Progress discusses some of these proposals here:

USA Today goes further in its explanation:

The Heritage Foundation document is over 900 pages long (and I’m certain they don’t expect many Americans to even glance at it). It is called A Mandate for Leadership-The Conservative Promise. and can be found here.

Hey, they are telling us all what they are going to do to our country, dismantle much of the Affordable Care Act, destroy the Civil Service structure as we know it, weaponize the Department of Justice, and go after those who might oppose any of these initiatives.

In its opening statements, the coalition defines its goals:

“It’s not 1980. In 2023, the game has changed. The long march of cultural Marxism through our institutions has come to pass. The federal government is a behemoth, weaponized against American citizens and conservative values, with freedom and liberty under siege as never before. The task at hand to reverse this tide and restore our Republic to its original moorings is too great for any one conservative policy shop to spearhead. It requires the collective action of our movement. With the quickening approach of January 2025, we have two years and one chance to get it right. Project 2025 is more than 50 (and growing) of the nation’s leading conservative organizations joining forces to prepare and seize the day. The axiom goes “personnel is policy,” and we need a new generation of Americans to answer the call and come to serve. This book is functionally an invitation for you the reader—Mr. Smith, Mrs. Smith, and Ms. Smith—to come to Washington or support those who can. Our goal is to assemble an army of aligned, vetted, trained, and prepared conservatives to go to work on Day One to deconstruct the Administrative State.”

Is this description of America one that you recognize? I certainly do not agree with the premise. I know there are and have been generations of Americans working for the betterment of this country through their terms as Civil Servants, whether in a governmental agency such as Commerce or the Treasury, reviewing spending under the GAO, or looking at healthcare in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS). There are military members who sign on to protect the country against enemies, take an oath to protect the Constitution, and serve the office of the Presidency (not the president). We all know, especially in the DC MD VA area, our neighbors who diligently work for the “government” whether it is as a scientist at NIH, a groundskeeper for the Park Service, or a deputy secretary in the State Department. They are not members of a nefarious plot to turn the country Marxist, they are just hard workers doing their jobs. When they took civil service jobs, they were given the protections from the old-school patronage and other favoritisms that prompted the laws that protect them now. They should not be so maligned or threatened by this apparent right-wing attempted coup.

These plotters against our current systems are not out to better our country, they are after power and money. They want to create an autocracy where they do not need to follow the Rule of Law. Why else would we see billionaires giving the Maga campaign folks $50 million dollars, as Paul Mellon did recently?Oh, there are nefarious plots out there, but they are coming from the radical conservatives, not the progressive community.

They are the ones who want to take away a woman’s bodily autonomy, create a Christian nation, ban books, and mandate rote education that obliterates historical facts, just to mention a few of their ideas.

Just take some time and read parts of their document. I have just gotten started, but hey, we can get through 900 pages well before election day, can’t we?

Til next week-Peace!

Summertime, Econ 101, & Us

Schools are letting out for the summer, new grads are basking in their achievements and hoping to find jobs. Families plan for beach weekends or perhaps are packing for long-awaited trips across the country or elsewhere in the world. Airlines noted record numbers of passengers over the recent Memorial Day holiday, and it is not one considered a big travel weekend. Over 7.7 million travelers took to the air that weekend, according to the news here.

The national employment rate is 60.3%; the unemployment rate for May 2024 was 4.0%. On Friday the Dow Jones Stock average was 38,589, just a bit lower than its highest-ever total of 40,051 reached in May. The Dow Jones average on President Biden’s inauguration Day was 31,188. The US treasury bond yield now sits at 4.65%.

Some other major points to consider are the facts that gas prices have come down to a national average of$3.46 per gallon, although rates in MD are slightly higher at $3.58.

Recently, according to the Washington Post, several major chains, such as Walgreens and Target, reduced hundreds of prices on food and goods. Some fast-food chains such as McDonalds and Burger King are offering $5.00 meals. Ford dropped some of its car prices and Ikea lowered prices on its furniture. Consumers slowed down their post-pandemic buying spree; supply chain issues have eased.

Under pressure, several major pharmaceutical firms dropped prices on some of their most expensive drugs; CMS is working on a list of the 10 priciest to reduce their costs; low costs for insulin and inhalers are underway. The Biden administration has been working diligently on multiple consumer issues such as these. The Consumer Protection Board proposed this week to remove medical debt from credit scoring algorithms. Relief from excessive interest on student loans, although challenged by Republican states and defeated initially, is now being implemented in a revived format.

Each of these items is good news for average Americans. Some of it was delayed in implementation. But all show an administration that gets it and is trying to make economic issues better. Some things a President has the power to change, others may require Congressional action. But neither can control corporate greed; the greed that saw companies drive up prices during the pandemic crisis and worker concerns, but then did not see prices return after the immediacy ended.

Restaurant meals increased (often due to increased food, supply, and labor costs), apartment rents (which had some moratoriums during the pandemic) skyrocketed, and housing (subjected to supply chain issues) costs soared. All of this is understandable to a point, given the unusual circumstances. Inflation came roaring in, interest rates rose, and mortgage seekers were suddenly looking at 7% rates or more.

According to Bankrate.com: ( a publication from the Federal Reserve)

“The annual US inflation rate in April 2024 was 3.4%. Inflation is substantially lower now than at its high point of 9.1 percent in the summer of 2022, but it's still short of the Federal Reserve's stated goal of 2 percent.”

Bankrate also noted:

“Currently, the main contributors to inflation are shelter and motor vehicle insurance.

Taken together, shelter accounted for more than two-thirds of the increase in prices excluding food and energy over the past 12 months, BLS said.

Put another way, if shelter had remained stable, prices would have only risen 1.4% from a year ago.

Over the past 12 months, inflation would have risen just 2.8% had motor vehicle insurance costs remained stable.

Over the past 12 months, energy has contributed to almost 8 percent of the annual increase in prices, while medical care has accounted for roughly 7 percent.”

So let’s take a look at shelter costs, for one.

Landlords can raise rents on their properties. Good ones do so within the economy. But since rate increases were limited during the pandemic, many sought to make up their losses all at once, leaving tenants in the lurch. Tenants could either accept the increases or move. Some cities and counties have housing rates capped, such as the New York City rent controls; most do not. Rentals often require initial deposits and security fees for having a pet, for example. Moving costs require new utility deposits, perhaps new appliances, and movers. Tenants frequently feel trapped and often feel they can demand few repairs from their landlords as complaints might lead to a refusal to renew a lease. One solution might be the Bill of Rights such as that developed by Montgomery County.

This document sets the standards for landlords and tenants such as requiring that a 90-day notice be given to tenants for rent increases and a 60-day notice of intent to not renew. Tenants may organize, distribute literature, and use a meeting room, if available for free, once a month for their meetings. Landlords can charge late fees and review a client's credit history. Landlords must give notice of routine repairs and be allowed access; exceptions are made for emergencies, such as plumbing leaks, for example.

This document lets both sides understand rights and responsibilities, which is as it should be.

Because housing costs should not take over 30% of one’s income, according to experts, these recent increases have not kept up with employees' salaries. In Frederick County, where I live, the average rental cost for a one-bedroom of 933 square feet is $1835; in Montgomery County, a studio apartment of about 500 square feet rents for $1871/month.

In January of this year, several states raised their minimum hourly wages to $15.00 an hour or above. The Federal Minimum wage was last raised in July 2009 to $7.25/hour. That equates to $290.00 as a base, weekly, assuming the worker worked 40 hours. The base rate for tipped workers is $2.13/hour with the employer expected to supply any funds needed to make the minimum if tips do not.

The states that now have raised their minimums above $15.00/hour are California and New York (known as expensive markets), Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Washington, and the District of Columbia. Several other states have incremental raises in place over the next few years but have not yet reached the $15.00 level. The Economic Policy Institute shows a map of the states and their wage minimums here.

“There are 30 states and D.C. that have a minimum wage higher than the federal minimum wage.

Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Washington D.C., and West Virginia

The minimum wage is indexed for inflation in 19 states and D.C., meaning it is automatically adjusted each year for increases in prices.

Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Washington D.C.

There are 7 states that have no minimum wage law or a minimum wage below the federal minimum wage. The federal minimum wage applies in all of these states.

Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Wyoming.”

17.6 million workers earn less than $15.00 an hour; 47% of those workers are paid at the federal minimum; many work in red states.

Therefore it was unbearable to see candidate DJT promise tipped workers recently in Las Vegas that he would remove any taxes from their tipped wages when he was president. He cannot do so, as this would require an Act of Congress.

As quoted in the Nevada Current (link above)

“Tips are not always a predictable form of income,” she said. “And there’s a great deal of variation, the tips that the server gets at the top-notch restaurant are going to be very different than the tips the person in the diner gets.”President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign responded to Trump’s “wild campaign promise” by saying that Biden supports increasing the minimum wage and eliminating the tipped minimum wage, “a much bigger deal” than Trump’s proposal, a campaign spokesman wrote in a Monday email to States Newsroom.Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer for Culinary Workers Union Local 226, which has 60,000 members in Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada, said the organization has for decades “fought for tipped workers’ rights and against unfair taxation.”

“Relief is definitely needed for tip earners,” Pappageorge said in a statement over the weekend. “But Nevada workers are smart enough to know the difference between real solutions and wild campaign promises from a convicted felon.”

The convicted liar continues to lie and apparently fooling few at a Business Roundtable as reported here by CNBC.

“Washington — Former President Donald Trump failed to impress everyone in a room full of top CEOs Thursday at the Business Roundtable’s quarterly meeting, multiple attendees told CNBC.

“Trump doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” said one CEO who was in the room, according to a person who heard the executive speaking. The CEO also said Trump did not explain how he planned to accomplish any of his policy proposals, that person said.

Several CEOs “said that [Trump] was remarkably meandering, could not keep a straight thought [and] was all over the map,” CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin reported Friday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

Among the topics on which Trump offered scant details were how he would reduce taxes and cut back on business regulations, according to two other people in the room who spoke to CNBC.”

Til next week-Peace!

Why D-Day Still Matters

 

I was only two years old on D-Day, so I have no memories of that time. Despite that, I was aware of some aspects of the war through my family connections. Uncle Bill served in the Navy and fought in the Pacific. My mother was a Red Cross nurse stateside. Both my father and stepfather served in Europe. My stepfather was in the Medical Corps; his brother was in the infantry and did not survive. I have powerful memories from my childhood of my grandmother dressing in her white uniform and attending frequent Gold Star Mother meetings. She had a Gold Star in her front window to commemorate the family loss.

Years later, I had a high school teacher who had been tortured by the Japanese in a prison camp and a Jewish neighbor with numbers inked on her arm from a concentration camp imprisonment. When I subsequently worked as a nurse in New Jersey, several elderly patients carried similar numbers along their left arms. Wars have lasting effects.

During my lifetime, I learned a lot about the war itself and the lasting significance of that battle. The era of the Second World War, occurring some eighty years ago, is far different from our lives today. The world was coming off an economic depression preceded by a decade of the Roaring Twenties.

During the 1930s, repressive, fascist, and authoritarian leaders came into power in Germany, Italy, Japan, and Spain. In the USSR, the Communist government was solidifying its power through purges, labor camps, starvation, and murder. Italy invaded Ethiopia for the second time in 1935. Japan, already occupying Korea, moved into parts of China in 1931. Many other countries had colonies across the globe, so in their continued quest for power, said little about these invasions. The phrase: "The sun never sets on the British Empire", true during much of the 18^th and 19^th centuries, carried forward into the next century. Some estimates gave Britain control over 25% of the population in the known world.

Many leaders in America called for the US to stand back from the issues in the world, avoid conflicts, adopt a stance of isolationism, and put "America First". (Now where have we heard that recently?) Some Americans even supported fascist movements as a bulwark against communism.

As Hitler started his expansion and moved into wars against other countries in Europe, President Roosevelt grew alarmed and began planning for what he expected would be a World War that Americans would have to fight. With the Lend-Lease military equipment and arms program for Britain in 1940, the institution of the draft, and the start of industrial mobilization, tentative steps were taken for the inevitable conflict.

Yet, still, Congress would not sanction any further support to a beleaguered Great Britain. Some military officials so expected Britain to fall to Hitler during the Blitz and other bombardments, they cautioned about allowing American supplies into a battlefield where the Germans would capture them.

But when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, all of that changed, and a woefully unprepared US was suddenly at war across the world as Germany and Italy both then declared war on America. The USSR, which assisted Germany in the invasion of Poland, and supplied it with arms, reversed alliances after Germany, then invaded it, too, later in 1941.

Mini wars were fought across the globe in Southeast Asia and the Philippines, in China, North Africa, and Europe between 1941 and 1944 when D-Day happened. The major battles were always going to be the ground wars in France, Italy, and Germany. Spain, under the fascism of dictator Franco, remained away from the fray, although it was a conduit for both factions. France, soon mostly occupied and cruelly repressed, could do little to provide opposition; many troops fled to England when they could do so.

The American fighting forces were engaged as soon as possible. They deployed some into battle with minimal training. African-American troops fought in segregated units such as the famed Tuskegee Airmen. The authorities rounded up Americans of Japanese heritage and placed them in containment camps unless they were young men of fighting age who agreed to join the military. The authorities assigned these troops to fight in Europe. Skills from several Native Americans who could talk in their varied languages (the Code Talkers) allowed the military to communicate in a code not easily broken. Many Hispanic troops from the southwest, although not segregated, joined with Native Americans and deployed to the jungles across the Pacific islands.

Women could not fight in battle but served support roles in moving supplies, code craft, communication, and logistics through service in the Women's Army Corps, (WACS), the Navy Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service (WAVES), the Coast Guard Women Reserves (SPARS), the Women's Air Force Service Pilots (WASP) and Marine Corps Womens reserve. The Army Nurse Corps and Navy Nurse Corps together supplied over 70,000 nurses who served across the battlefields, in transport, evacuations, field hospitals, and in health and safety positions. Some nurses were captured and imprisoned in the Philippines.

When the men went off to war, the women at home went to work and staffed the factories and civilian jobs that were now vacant. Think of the Rosie the Riveter cartoon. Through all of this, the country was changing. It became globally engaged. Communities followed on maps, advancement, or defeat in battles. They also came to bury their dead and mourn the losses. The Gold Star Mothers started after the First World War, added chapters to assist veterans and their families. Communities tolerated food and fuel rationing to help the troops, started Victory Gardens, bought war bonds, and saved aluminum foil. The country had a shared mission and a common goal: to bring the troops back home as soon as safely possible.

During the totality of the war, 38% of the troops (6,332,000) were volunteers while 61.1% were draftees (11,535,000). 407,316 troops perished in this war; over 670,000 others were wounded.

On D-Day, troops from several nations took part: The US, Britain, Canada, Australia, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, France, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Poland, and others all fought that day. 5000 vessels carried a force of 130,000 fighters to the French shores now defined as Omaha Beach, Sword, Juno, Utah, and Gold along the coasts of Normandy. 24,000 paratroopers attacked from the air.

Few veterans from D-Day are still alive (about 100,000 from the over 17 million who served); some were on site at the eightieth-anniversary ceremonies this week in France. Most were around 100 years old. Yet all spoke of the tremendous storming of the beaches on that day as memories they cannot erase. They mentioned the bodies cut down in the water as they arrived; seared memories they have never forgotten. Some 4400 Allied troops died that day; Americans lost around 2500 men with another 5000 wounded. The battle for Normandy would persist over several more months and lead to many thousand more deaths.

President Roosevelt announced the long-awaited invasion by saying: "They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate."

We commemorate this day, perhaps in part, because of the enormity of the mission and the depths of the sacrifices made. But, I think, what draws us together on this anniversary is our thought that our quest for victory was noble, to defeat tyranny and fascism. (The liberation of the concentration camps would still be a year away.) The veterans from that day are proud of their efforts and they should be. Many say they would fight again for our values if necessary. That is because when we went to war in that situation, we, as a country, had shared values, imperfect as they were. And yes, today, our country continues to have injustice and inequities since some citizens think they are owed special rights and privileges, but we mostly try to get things right. And as long as most of us believe in our Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the Rule of Law, we will get there someday. (Hear that SCOTUS?)

But, aren't all wars a failure of the human intellect? An inability to reduce discord before it becomes conflict? A refusal to see that two wrongs do not make a right? So, as a world, we have not gotten close to the goals set out when, after WWII, we formed the United Nations, often because of the notion that some have, that it is okay to start wars for no particular reason, that ethnic cleansing and genocide are permitted, as is discrimination against women and tribal minorities, and that religious wars should persist.

Til next week-Peace!

Convicted! Now What?

So, now we have the spectacle of a convicted felon running as the potential candidate of one of our two major political parties. A jury of his peers in Manhattan found the former US President guilty as charged on 34 felony counts dealing with falsifying business records to cover up payments to hide an illicit relationship with a porn star. This action was taken to protect the 2016 election campaign already reeling from the Access Holywood tapes. False election reports were filed that did not reflect these payments. The jury agreed with the prosecution’s assertion that the former president knew of and took part in this scheme.

Headlines across the country blared the banner headline:

GUILTY!

A convicted felon runs for president! Ordinarily, such a headline would evoke derision and laughter. The Republican Party is doubling down on this message and hysterically screaming against the entire legal process. The Speaker of the House, Michael Johnson, joined the former president in calling for the
Supreme Court to overturn the conviction before the scheduled July 11^th sentencing date.

But, according to Axios, the nation’s highest court can only get involved if there is a unique constitutional or federal law question, and then after state appeals processes were exhausted. The appeals process also cannot start before the sentencing date. Any appeal through the New York state courts could take several months and extend far past the November election.      

Recently, I noticed this quote from Carl Sagan and thought that it was appropriate for this time in our history:

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: if we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozler. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozler has captured us. It is too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken.

Once you’ve given a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”

“The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”. On page 241.

A day after the verdict, many pollsters conducted instant polls: the results were harsh and showed that many voters no longer supported his candidacy. As Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC blog reported:

The ABC News/Ipsos poll found that 50% of voters agreed with the jury verdict and 49% said that he should end his candidacy.

Reuters said that 10% of Republicans were less likely to vote for him as were 25% of polled Independents. Support for President Biden was up by 2%.

CBS/You Gov found that 54% of those sampled believed the trial was a fair process with 57% agreeing with the verdict.

The Morning Consult noted that 54% of their sample approved the verdict with 15% of Republicans calling for his campaign to end.

Other polls showed:

The left-leaning Data for Progressives indicated that 56% of all voters approved of the verdict with 57% of Independents and 60% of Swing voters agreeing.

Many voters wanted resolution of the other charged cases before the election. (Of course, DJT has been doing his best to delay every one of these trials.)

Justice delayed is justice denied, for the public, as well as the defendant. The efforts of the MAGA-funded multi-million dollar defense teams demonstrate many of the inequities in our justice system. Ordinary defendants would not have the budget to delay and appeal such things as change of venue, replacement of a judge, document discovery, or other delaying tactics they employed. Money did not buy a verdict of innocence, but it pushed back the trial date in this and the other cases. Just this week, another appeal delayed the Rico case in Georgia by attempting to remove District Attorney Fani Willis.

So, while these voter opinions are fresh decisions, we do not know how well memories and emotions will last until election day.  

The former president appeared on a recent Fox show and made some wild threats and comments, including claiming that he never said “lock her up” when campaigning against Hillary Clinton in 2016, despite video evidence to the contrary. Media comments pointed out the interview was heavily edited and wondered just how many wilder statements were not aired. Several appearances before the public were rambling and incoherent and so much so, that TV networks pulled away from live transmissions.

Since he cannot make his case coherently, his sycophants are stepping up and demanding that Congress hold hearings and go after Democrats. His enablers are calling for Republican Attorney Generals to go after opponents and Democrats, as are Senators Vance, Rubio, and Scott, among others. These wild accusations and irresponsible demands threaten the sanctity we have long held for our judicial and legislative processes. There remain several months until the election, so who knows to what extremes these fanatics will go? I hope more responsible voices will speak up for the benefit of our citizenry.

‘Til next week-Peace!