Robert Reich: “We Blew It”. By ‘we’, I’m talkin’ baby boomers, of which I am one. A few choice excerpts:
If you’re an average working person today, you are extraordinarily vulnerable. Nobody is protecting you. This is one of the attractions that Donald Trump wittingly or unwittingly presented in 2016 and continues to present. He has provided an explanation for people who have been economically and socially brutalized and bullied. An explanation that is, by the way, completely wrong and that has to do with immigrants and the deep state and transgender people. Part of the book is my attempt to help the Democrats, or at least the progressives, see that the way forward is to talk truthfully about why it is that so many people are powerless and bullied and feel so vulnerable and so angry.
Some Democrats don’t want to tell the true story of concentrated wealth and power because they are drinking at the same trough as Republicans. This quandary has been growing since I was in my 20s, beginning to watch money and politics and the Faustian bargain that the Democrats were making. The Democrats want to be on the side of social justice and fairness and equal opportunity and political equality, and yet some Democrats — I don’t want to tar with too broad a brush here — are taking money and don’t want to bite the hands that feed them.
Democrats would point to the large corporations in this country, to their monopolistic practices, their antilabor practices, to all sorts of things that they are doing that are keeping the rest of America poorer. Democrats would do what Bernie Sanders and A.O.C. and Elizabeth Warren have done quite effectively. It strikes me as a little crazy that the Democrats are divided between the establishment Democrats, who I call corporate Democrats, and the progressive Democrats. Why aren’t all Democrats progressive Democrats? Who in the world needs corporate Democrats when you have a Republican Party that is pretty good at representing big corporations, even though it now has a facade of populism?
I might add here: Who needs a national Democratic Party apparatus that does everything in its power to discourage progressive change?
I highly recommend the entire interview.
Which reminds me: ‘The American Dream Is A Farce”:
Americans are getting married, having kids, buying a home, and retiring years later than what once was the norm. Many don’t ever reach these milestones.
While there is a complex web of factors that go into decisions like having kids or buying a house, a person’s financial situation often plays an major role. In a May Harris/Guardian poll, six out of 10 Americans said that the economy had affected at least one of their major life goals, because of either a lack of affordability or anxiety about where the economy is heading.
People delaying these major life decisions don’t just affect individual lives. On a societal level, the impacts are huge. When people retire later, that leaves less room for younger workers to move up in the workforce. When birth rates drop, it can lead to an ageing population that puts a strain on the healthcare system.
And philosophically, it seems to raise questions about agency and freedom. What happens when people feel like larger political and economic forces are controlling their lives?
Officers Lied. Charges Dropped Against Protesters. The first sentence is ‘dog bites man. The second? The opposite:
US immigration officers made false and misleading statements in their reports about several Los Angeles protesters they arrested during the massive demonstrations that rocked the city in June, according to federal law enforcement files obtained by the Guardian.
The officers’ testimony was cited in at least five cases filed by the US Department of Justice amid the unrest. The justice department has charged at least 26 people with “assaulting” and “impeding” federal officers and other crimes during the protests over immigration raids. Prosecutors, however, have since been forced to dismiss at least eight of those felonies, many of them which relied on officers’ inaccurate reports, court records show.
The justice department has also dismissed at least three felony assault cases it brought against Angelenos accused of interfering with arrests during recent immigration raids, the documents show.
Raising the question–are the lying ICE-stapo members still on the immigration beat(down)?
Wilmington Port Operator Loses Its CEO. No comment on whether he was fired:
The Port of Wilmington’s state oversight board will hold a public meeting on Monday, but its members are unlikely to hear from the official who led operations at the embattled facility for nearly the past two years.
On Friday, a spokesman for the port’s private operator, Enstructure, said in an email that Bayard Hogans, the company’s Mid-Atlantic regional president, “is no longer with the organization.”
The spokesman, Justin May, declined to answer additional questions, including about whether Hogans was fired, and whether Enstructure has a successor lined up to take over management at the port, which directly and indirectly generates thousands of well-paying, blue-collar jobs in Delaware.
More information will likely be revealed on Monday during a meeting of the board of the directors of the Diamond State Port Corporation – the state-owned entity that oversees Enstructure’s operations and guides the port’s expansion in Edgemoor.
The meeting, which is open to the public, is scheduled from 2 to 4 p.m. Monday at the Buena Vista Conference Center, located at 661 South DuPont Highway in New Castle. For details about how to watch virtually, click here.
Hmmm, I just might have to watch…
What do you want to talk about?