Congress, Those Unemployment Payments and the Rent Moratorium

If Congress doesn't get help out across the nation and then only sends $200 in unemployment payments instead of the $600 they were sending but then also doesn't keep the moratorium on evictions during this pandemic?

There could be so many ramifications.

--Putting people, whole families, too, out on the streets.
--Putting people squarely in either poverty or deeper poverty.
--People not able to maybe go, then, to work, because they are on the streets
--Children maybe not able to go to school
--Consequential food insecurity.

All kinds of things, more, much more than I've even poster here, above.

Insane.

This could get really ugly, folks. 

Really ugly.

Think as bad as or worse than the Great Depression.

Two--Big--Reasons Donald Trump Is In Electoral Trouble

Yes sir, ladies and gentlemen, there are two big, big reasons why this very Republican Party President is in trouble--big trouble--in this election year, regarding his possible re-election.

Here's the first.

I.M.F. Predicts Worst Downturn Since the Great Depression

'Unrecognizable': Experts warn of historic collapse in economic activity

US President Trump no longer pushing the US economy

The one thing, the one thing this President had going for him, if even that, was the economy, of course. And even that was largely handed to him, as all Presidents are, from the previous administration. Now, with this national and international, deadly, killing pandemic and the necessary stay at home orders across much of the nation and world, he certainly doesn't have that.

And the second thing now going against this President? Glad you asked. This came out today.

NBC News/WSJ Poll: Majority of Americans disapprove of Trump's COVID-19 response

Oops.

Sure, there's his maybe 30% of the nation or less that are his followers, if that isn't shrinking, but the majority of us, most of the nation see through this empty charlatan and emotional blamer.

These two, Mr. and Mrs. America, are the one-two punches that make this President very to extremely unlikely for re-election this year, this Fall. And his repeated emotional tirades at press conferences, lashing out at reporters and his tweet storms, online, don't help him. Not one bit. In spite of what he apparently thinks or wants.

And thank goodness.

Vote, folks. Come November, the 3rd, vote.

And vote blue.

My one big concern, however, is that, between now and our November election and this President's reckoning day, I hope he can take the pressure and rejection that seems to be--deservedly--coming his way.

God help us all.

Sunrise

Artie Shaw, kids. He used to be big. Look him up. Google him.

Very Republican Senator Roy Blunt Honors Very Democratic President Harry Truman?

I saw this yesterday, Sunday, on Senator Roy Blunt's Facebook page:

"Happy 132nd birthday to former president and fellow Missourian, President Harry Truman. Honored to be able to serve Missourians in the same office Truman used."

The trouble? The problem? The issue? 

Here's, again, very Republican Senator Roy Blunt, honoring our very own, very Democratic, very Missourian and Democratic Party former President Harry S. Truman when this, the following, is what President Truman thought of and said about Republicans while he was here:

“The Republicans … will try to make people believe that everything the Government has done for the country is socialism. They will go to the people and say: "Did you see that social security check you received the other day—you thought that was good for you, didn't you? That's just too bad! That's nothing in the world but socialism. Did you see that new flood control dam the Government is building over there for the protection of your property? Sorry—that's awful socialism! That new hospital that they are building is socialism. Price supports, more socialism for the farmers! Minimum wage laws? Socialism for labor! Socialism is bad for you, my friend. Everybody knows that. And here you are, with your new car, and your home, and better opportunities for the kids, and a television set—you are just surrounded by socialism! Now the Republicans say, ‘That's a terrible thing, my friend, and the only way out of this sinkhole of socialism is to vote for the Republican ticket.’"

"Republicans approve of the American farmer, but they are willing to help him go broke. They stand four-square for the American home -- but not for housing. They are strong for labor -- but they are stronger for restricting labor's rights. They favor minimum wage -- the smaller the minimum wage the better. They endorse educational opportunity for all -- but they won't spend money for teachers or for schools. They think modern medical care and hospitals are fine -- for people who can afford them. They consider electrical power a great blessing -- but only when the private power companies get their rake-off. They think American standard of living is a fine thing -- so long as it doesn't spread to all the people. And they admire of Government of the United States so much that they would like to buy it."

"Republicans don't like people who talk about depressions. You can hardly blame them for that. You remember the old saying: Don't talk about rope in the house where somebody has been hanged."

"I wonder how many times you have to be hit on the head before you find out who's hitting you? It's about time that the people of America realized what the Republicans have been doing to them."

Mimicking, it seems, fellow Missourian Mark Twain, President Truman also said the following:

"Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a Republican. But I repeat myself."

All true then, about 70 years ago. All still sadly, pathetically true today.

So yeah, I loved that. Republican Roy "I Can Be Bought And Sold" Blunt, honoring Democrat and former President Harry S. Truman.

That's rich.

I don't know if he didn't get the irony or if he thought we wouldn't.

Quote of the Day -- On This Day, 1938

True then, a lesson for us, still.

"The first truth is that the liberty of a Democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism—ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power."

--US President Franklin D. Roosevelt: April 29, 1938

Link:   Message to Congress on Curbing Monopolies

A Timely Reminder

To whom was George Bailey speaking if not today's Republican Party?

Entertainment Overnight -- Incredible Talent

Incredible talent.  Incredible fun. There was only one Fred Astaire.

Entertainment Overnight -- Happy Birthday, Willie!

Disney's "Steamboat Willie", born this day, 1928

Entertainment Overnight -- Big Flashback

Entertainment Overnight -- Modern Swing

Great fun.

Entertainment Overnight

Now that's music.

And that's dancing.

Heck, that's swinging.

Quote of the day -- I love this woman

Click on picture for easier reading.

Quote of the Day -- Flashback

True then, 80 years ago, of the Republicans. Still true today.

Flash from the past

I love that:  "WORLD'S HIGHEST STANDARD OF LIVING"

Funny thing, we still tell ourselves that today.

What government representative right now could be against more Americans working?

So President Obama came up with an idea for America:

Obama wants to put people to work by fixing the nation's crumbling roads and bridges

And naturally, everyone in the Right Wing--the Republicans, Tea Party and all the associated and non-associated haters out there--will come out squarely against him and this idea. But unless you simply don't want this president to be successful, how could ANY current government representative in Washington be against this?  Especially right now?

For one, America rather famously needs the infrastructure work.

We've already had not one but two bridges in the nation collapse in the last few years.

Interstate 70, all across the state, from St. Louis and Illinois on the East to Kansas City and Kansas on the West, needs updating, widening, improving and resurfacing, as just one fantastic example.

Secondly, and maybe more importantly, Americans need the jobs. Since 2008, our nation and our nation's people have suffered through the worst economic downturn in 80 years, since the Great Depression. The unemployment rate skyrocketed and is still too high. This, then, would be a place to get people back to work, it seems clear.

Third and finally, our nation's economy needs the boost. We have a lackluster economy now, at best and demand needs to be increased. Give people work, put money back in their pockets and see if demand doesn't increase. It only makes simple economic sense.

As proof or all this, particularly those last two points above, here's a report from NPR this morning:

Jobless Claims Jump Up, Orders For Durable Goods Fall Off

But wait for it.

Somehow, Republicans like John Boehner and Mitch McConnell and even our local Republican politicians will come out agin' it.

'Cuz HE'S fer it.

President Obama and all Democrats, on both state and federal levels, should implore the Republicans, shame them, if it comes to that, into supporting this effort and as soon as possible.

No one should be against getting more Americans back to work.

And this work, infrastructure, at that.

Quote of the day--on our humanity

"Hell to pay" in Kansas and the plains states

The New York Times ran an important article today (one more), this time on the Great Plains overall but Kansas, in specific, and how our water aquifers below ground are running dry:

Wells Dry, Fertile Plains Turn to Dust

Just a bit from the article:

HASKELL COUNTY, Kan. — Forty-nine years ago, Ashley Yost’s grandfather sank a well deep into a half-mile square of rich Kansas farmland. He struck an artery of water so prodigious that he could pump 1,600 gallons to the surface every minute.

Last year, Mr. Yost was coaxing just 300 gallons from the earth, and pumping up sand in order to do it. By harvest time, the grit had robbed him of $20,000 worth of pumps and any hope of returning to the bumper harvests of years past.

“That’s prime land,” he said not long ago, gesturing from his pickup at the stubby remains of last year’s crop. “I’ve raised 294 bushels of corn an acre there before, with water and the Lord’s help.” Now, he said, “it’s over.”

...Vast stretches of Texas farmland lying over the aquifer no longer support irrigation. In west-central Kansas, up to a fifth of the irrigated farmland along a 100-mile swath of the aquifer has already gone dry. In many other places, there no longer is enough water to supply farmers’ peak needs during Kansas’ scorching summers.

And when the groundwater runs out, it is gone for good. Refilling the aquifer would require hundreds, if not thousands, of years of rains.

This is in many ways a slow-motion crisis — decades in the making, imminent for some, years or decades away for others, hitting one farm but leaving an adjacent one untouched. But across the rolling plains and tarmac-flat farmland near the Kansas-Colorado border, the effects of depletion are evident everywhere. Highway bridges span arid stream beds. Most of the creeks and rivers that once veined the land have dried up as 60 years of pumping have pulled groundwater levels down by scores and even hundreds of feet.

On some farms, big center-pivot irrigators — the spindly rigs that create the emerald circles of cropland familiar to anyone flying over the region — now are watering only a half-circle. On others, they sit idle altogether.

Two years of extreme drought, during which farmers relied almost completely on groundwater, have brought the seriousness of the problem home. In 2011 and 2012, the Kansas Geological Survey reports, the average water level in the state’s portion of the aquifer dropped 4.25 feet — nearly a third of the total decline since 1996.

And that is merely the average. “I know my staff went out and re-measured a couple of wells because they couldn’t believe it,” said Lane Letourneau, a manager at the State Agriculture Department’s water resources division. “There was a 30-foot decline.”

And as it says above, we see this coming and we've seen it coming. There have been warnings. We can't go on like this forever. It isn't, it wasn't sustainable. We can't just take and take and take.

Something's got to change.

What has struck me most about our current situation, both about drought and the 2008 financial crisis, the worst in 80 years, since the Great Depression, is that it is, in those two ways--the financial crisis and drought--so very much like those years, the 30's. That is, people hurt by both the financial crisis and the drought.

In the case of the Depression, it was all man-made.

Turns out, really, it could be argued this one is, too.

As if that isn't enough, Robert Reich, writing from Europe today, posts the following on Facebook:

At a time when you'd expect nations to band together to gain bargaining power against global capital, the opposite is occurring: Xenophobia is breaking out all over. 

Here in Britain, the UK Independence Party -- which wants to get out of the European Union -- is rapidly gaining ground, becoming the third most popular party in the country, according to a new poll for The Independent on Sunday. Almost one in five people plan to vote for it in the next general election. Ukip's overall ratings have risen four points to 19 per cent in the past month, despite Prime Minister David Cameron's efforts to wrest back control of the crucial debate over Britain's relationship with the European Union. 

Right-wing nationalist parties are gaining ground elsewhere in Europe as well. In the U.S., not only are Republicans sounding more nationalistic of late (anti-immigrant, anti-trade), but they continue to push "states rights" -- as states increasingly battle against one another to give global companies ever larger tax breaks and subsidies. 

WWIII, anybody?

One last thing from Facebook today that wraps this all up:

Anyone care yet?

Additional link: 

When the Wells Go Dry in the Great Plains

In case you missed it last evening

KCPT and PBS showed Ken Burns' not surprisingly excellent documentary last evening on the Dust Bowl of the 30's here in the US:



As I said last evening on a friend's Facebook page, here's hoping we--the US--and the world, have learned our lessons from this period.

You can go online and watch it there or see it as a repeat on KCPT.

Links: http://kcpt.org/blog/2012/11/12/the-dust-bowl/

What I've always thought

Army Medical Examiner: 'At last! The perfect soldier!', political cartoon by Carl Sandburg in "The Masses."

What a shame.

This is what I've thought for years--at least since I was 16 and in high school and the Vietnam War was taking place.

I saw this, briefly, last evening on the PBS "American Masters" special "The Day Carl Sandburg Died."

It was excellent. I'd recommend you see it, if you can. Really wonderful.

Link: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/carl-sandburg/homepage-the-day-carl-sandburg-died/2267/

Another Ken Burns documentary

A timely film for us, in at least two ways, coming November 18: