On The Path To Plutocracy

Posted on December 1, 2022 by jilldennison under Economic issues, education, Environmental Issues, guns, History, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary, voting rights

Everything … literally everything … in the United States is a business. Healthcare is a business. Prescription drugs are a business. Education is a business. These things are all venues of profit for the already-wealthy, carefully guarded by members of Congress who are beholden to those with the money. This, my friends, is capitalism run amok. Today’s Congress is afraid to take a single step forward for the people without consulting with the owners of the fossil fuel, pharmaceutical, technology industries and others. Environmental regulations? Not if they’re going to cut into the profits of corporate America! Affordable or universal healthcare? You’re kidding, right? Affordable insulin and other life-saving medications? Not a chance. Free college? Who do you think you are?

This is, in part, the result of the Supreme Court ruling in the case of Citizens United v Federal Elections Commission (FEC) back in 2010 that gave carte blanche to corporations to spend obscene amounts of money to literally buy a politician’s vote on issues important to them. It is also, in part, due to the fact that so many of our legislators are themselves among the millionaires who have various interests that are better served by laws that favour the wealthy.

Plutocracy is a government controlled exclusively by the wealthy, either directly or indirectly. A plutocracy allows, either openly or by circumstance, only the wealthy to rule. This can then result in policies exclusively designed to assist the wealthy, which is reflected in its name—the Greek words “ploutos” and “kratos” translate to wealthy and power or ruling, respectively, in English.

Plutocracy doesn’t have to be a purposeful, overt format for government. Instead, it can be created through the allowance of access to certain programs and educational resources only to the wealthy, thereby making it so that the wealthy hold more sway. The concern of inadvertently creating a plutocracy is that the regulatory focus will be narrow and concentrated on the goals of the wealthy, creating even more income and asset-based inequality.

Plutocracy more often arises informally and is implicitly embodied in constitutional, legal, or regulatory measures that create barriers to participation in politics and political life that can be met only through the possession or expenditure of significant wealth.- https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/plutocracy.asp

Why do you think the federal minimum wage rate of $7.25 has not been increased since 2009? Inflation has increased on average by 2.26% per year since 2009, for a total of 33.74% by 2022. The purchasing power of that $7.25 today is approximately $5.35, and still Congress refuses to pass legislation to raise it. Worse yet, the federal minimum wage for restaurant servers and other ‘tipped’ employees is $2.13, the assumption being that they will earn enough in tips to make up the $5.12 difference. Can you imagine covering your monthly bills on just $7.25 per hour, or less than $1,000 per month after taxes? Heck, that wouldn’t even pay our rent, let alone utilities, car payment, and food!

Guns … Nobody in their right mind actually thinks it’s a good thing that we have more guns than people in the U.S. But … the gun manufacturers and their lobby, the NRA, put lots of money into the pockets of our members of Congress to ensure that there will be few, if any, restrictions on gun ownership.

Healthcare … take a look at this map of the countries (in blue) that currently provide universal health care to ALL residents …

Why isn’t the United States one of the ones that cares about the health and well-being of its citizens? Because of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries who would stand to lose some bit of their profits. They donate to politicians in exchange for the politicians striking down any ideas of establishing a universal healthcare system.

And yet, while prices rise, people struggle to buy food, pay their rent & utilities, and often go without medical care, corporate profits are zooming!

The wealth disparity today is greater than ever before … I think you can see why. Far too many members of Congress have pledged to their corporate donors that they will protect them against such things as an increase in federal minimum wages, universal healthcare, strict gun regulations, and even environmental regulations. In 2018, the fossil fuel industry spent $84 million on congressional campaigns to help anti-environmentalists win seats. Their profits today matter more than the lives of our grandchildren tomorrow.

So, what do We the People do? Well, first and foremost we VOTE! Research the candidates, their own wealth and who their donors are, then vote those who are beholden to the fossil fuel, agriculture, insurance, gun manufacturers and other industries OUT of office! We have literally become a plutocracy, a government largely controlled by the wealthiest 1% of the nation. But we DO still have the right to vote, even though more and more states are trying their level best to restrict our votes, especially those of the poor and minorities. You’ve heard the term, “Use it or lose it”? That applies here … if we shrug our shoulders and say, “Meh, what’s one vote gonna do?”, then we may not get a chance next time around.

Yes, our government is now, by definition, a plutocracy, but we can turn that around … maybe. If we vote wisely in 2024, if we let our elected officials know loud and clear that we are sick of being trampled by the causes of the wealthy, then maybe we can make a difference. If we don’t try, we’ll never know if we could have changed the course of the future.

James Ferguson Web

THERE WAS APARTHEID, AND THERE IS STILL APARTHEID — IF WE CHOOSE TO LOOK AT THE TRUTH

Posted on November 30, 2022 by jilldennison under education, Global Issues, History, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Re-blogs, Social commentary, Tributes

I’ve been friends with rawgod for many years now, and I have to say that this is by far the BEST post he has ever done! It is a timely post, a humanitarian one … a reminder to us all. The video is particularly interesting and I learned a lot from it about Apartheid in South Africa only a short 50 years ago … and as I watched, I thought, “Is this where the U.S. is headed?” (I recommend using the closed captioning for the video, as the narrator’s accent is sometimes difficult to keep up with, at least for me) Thank you, rg, for this excellent post.

Ideas From Outside the Boxes

On Sept. 12, 1977, Bantu Stephen Biko was murdered by the South African government. They considered him the biggest threat to their apartheid way of life. Little did they know that he had already accomplished his goal of raising the consciousness of the black people of South Africa. It took another 17 years before Apartheid was officially ended, but it would not have happened without the hard work and great insight and organizing ability of Stephen Biko.

I have been singing his praises for more than 40 years now, but few seem to really care. So, when I found the video below, I just had to post it. It is only a summary of his life and work to make South Africa free, and does not present the real struggles he went through daily, but it is something.

So why do I keep coming back to the life and accomplishments…

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Good People Doing Good Things — A Reprise And An Update

Posted on November 30, 2022 by jilldennison under animals, Good people doing good things, Holidays, Humour, Saturday Surprise, Social commentary

I briefly considered skipping the ‘good people’ post this morning, for my energy seems to have flown the coop and I just really want to go to bed. But then … I saw a post from our friend Bee Halton and something about it looked familiar. The light bulb in my head came on!!! I wrote about these people! So, I searched my archive and sure enough … I wrote about them in 2018, a quirk of fate brought them together, and today, they still spend every Thanksgiving together! So, I decided to redux my original post with an update from Bee’s! This is truly one of the most heartwarming stories …

From my 2018 post titled Saturday Surprise — A Nice Story And A Cute Video …

Every now and then it happens that Saturday Surprise collides with Wednesday’s Good People and the result is … awesome, heartwarming and fun! Today is one of those times!

The story begins at Thanksgiving 2016, when Wanda Dench made a text-a-boo-boo … or an erroneous text sent to the wrong person. The story is told in the following text messages … the recipients of the original text inadvertently included Jamal Hinton, a complete stranger …

And so it happened that 17-year-old Jamal went over the river and through the woods to grandma’s house for dinner! Since the heartwarming story first broke Dench has named Hinton as her ‘honorary grandson,’ which is quite fitting. The two stayed in touch, and last year, he was invited back for Thanksgiving 2017. In an interview with the Arizona Republic last year Dench said, “It was really nice having everybody here, we got to laugh about last year and reminisce about how it all blew up on our phone and how I had to change my number. We had a laugh and a good time.”

The two have stayed in touch, and ‘Grandma’ Wanda even sent Jamal a couple of gift cards at Christmas last year. And this year … well of course Jamal was invited back and his girlfriend too!

Hinton finds the dinners and his newfound family meaningful. “The world is becoming a better place than it used to be. With all the Donald Trump going on and all the racial comments going on, it’s kind of good to see there’s still good people out there.” Dench gave her new ‘grandson’ an open invitation for all future Thanksgivings at her house, so this is a tradition likely to live on for a lifetime.

A small thing? Perhaps, but … seems to me that a whole lot of these “small things” add up to a whole lot of good in the world, a whole lot of heart, a whole lot of love.

Okay, so that was nice and heartwarming, but the holiday season has now officially kicked off and I think we need to start the weekend with something funny, don’t you? So, you know what that means … a funny animal video!!! I considered taking the cute animal video out for this reprised post, but thought, what the heck … we can all use a bit of a smile anyway, right?

Have a great weekend, folks, and don’t let the crowds crush you if you go shopping! I went shopping from the comfort of my own chair, in my jammies, while sipping coffee last night! Keep warm & safe!

And the update from Bee’s Good News Tuesday: I Absolutely Love This Story! Thank you, Sweet Bee!!!

Tolerance, Love, Kindness Instead of Hate … PLEASE!

Posted on November 29, 2022 by jilldennison under Bits 'n Pieces, education, History, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

Mass shootings, racist teachers, pushing, shoving and name-calling … so may signs of increasing incivility in the U.S. today. Where does it all come from and more importantly, how do we stop it? Where do people get the idea that one race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, or religion is somehow superior? Humanity sometimes seems to be almost a thing of the past. Dan Rather and Elliott Kirschner have a few worthy thoughts on the topic …

Combating Hate

Silence is complicity

Dan Rather and Elliot Kirschner

29 November 2022

Antisemitisim. Racism. Homophobia. Misogyny. Bigotry. The demonization of immigrants.

That these forces are ascendant is newsworthy. And it is vital they are considered thus. That these forces exist, however, is not news. Neither is the fact that they are being stoked, winked at, and normalized by the previous president. And neither is how most of the Republican Party leadership is silent, supportive, or insufficiently disapproving.

To say all this is not a political criticism. It is about confronting a grave threat to our nation and the world. Politics should be about a competition for ideas that fall within the realm of civilized discourse. What these people are peddling is not policy, but prejudice.

Repeating these sentiments should not diminish the importance of the message. The need for us all to confront this with the frequency that we are is evidence of the salience of the mission. And let’s be clear: It is of extra importance for those not directly targeted to speak the loudest. Silence is complicity. To speak softly is cowardice.

The latest outrage swirls around an occasion at Mar-a-Lago in which the former president dined with avowed antisemites. But we do a disservice to history and the dangers we face by bundling recriminations under the banners of combatting “MAGA” or “Trumpism.” The former president may have built his political power by tapping into a well of hate, but the reservoir was already there. Others are eager to draw from its waters as well.

Discrimination, often enforced with violence, has been a hallmark of our country since its founding. White supremacy is embedded in our Constitution. And the biases and bigotries of the American electorate have shaped some of our national narrative ever since.

To be sure, there is a powerful counter-narrative. It begins with the noble words of our founding documents, which laid out a vision of equality and justice unimaginable at the time of their writing. Over the centuries, countless activists and dreamers have leaned on the courage of their convictions to wrest the nation toward a path of greater inclusion and enlightenment. Most who signed up for service in this army of conscience are not famous, but we are lucky to live in a world made better by their mettle. They have helped to make the nation better and now keep hopes alive that it can and will be getting better, a lot better, still.

We have undoubtedly made progress, but the undercurrents of hatred have never been fully expunged. It takes very little for them to resurge. Far more energy and commitment are required in combating them than in fomenting them.

We should find hope in the journey our nation has taken before. The bigotry we are now decrying was once largely accepted political discourse, in both parties. This is not ancient history. Many of us were of memory age when antisemitic, homophobic, and racist statements were spoken without a second thought. Our country was a weaker place because of it. Our struggle now is to be vigilant in making sure we do not return to that darkness.

We know we have shared these sentiments in this space before. And we know we will almost assuredly have ample reason to do so again. That is the reality. And that is all the more reason this needs to be said. By all of us. Often.

Just A Few Of The Ol’ Snarky Snippets

Posted on November 29, 2022 by jilldennison under Bits 'n Pieces, cartoons, Economic issues, Election 2022, Global Issues, guns, Humour, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

Once again, I have no single topic in mind, but a number of things are bouncing about in my head … have you noticed this seems to be happening a lot lately? Hmmmm … I wonder if I’m trying to cram too much into my head and bits of this and pieces of that just keep getting embedded.

Fuel prices – no, Republicans can’t ‘fix’ the problem

Republicans point to specific targets they know are personal for many voters, such as fuel prices, and say, “Look how much you’re paying for a gallon of gasoline! Elect Republicans and we’ll fix the problem.” Well, sorry, folks, but Republicans cannot ‘fix’ the ‘problem’. Gas prices are not set by the president nor by Congress, as they would have you believe. To a large extent, fuel prices are driven by us, the consumers. You’ve all studied the “law of supply and demand” in school, and as long as demand exceeds supply, the oil producers have the upper hand. Supply is driven by a number of things but is often manipulated by OPEC to ensure that the bottom doesn’t fall out of the market, that the oil companies will continue to rake in profits. Anyone, including Kevin McCarthy, who tells you otherwise is lying to you. If you really want to do your part to help bring down oil prices, drive less, turn your thermostat down and don a sweater, skip the vacation this year and have a ‘staycation’, turn some lights out (candlelight is more romantic anyway, though admittedly it makes it hard to read). Lower your demand, and the market will respond. Yes, this is a simplification and there are other factors as well, but We the People don’t have much control over the war in Ukraine, the impending rail strike, or other global issues affecting fuel supplies, while we do have a degree of control in how much fuel we use. Once again, we have met the enemy and he is us.

Angry at 18???

I’m thinking back to when I was 18 years old … I didn’t hate anybody. I loved hanging out with friends when I wasn’t either studying or working, was saving up for a newer car (at the time, circa 1969, I drove a ’56 Chevrolet Bel Air that I had paid $50 for), had a boyfriend, learned to hot wire a car and occasionally ‘borrowed’ my dad’s car when my parents were out of town, but I didn’t have an abundance of raw anger, didn’t hate anyone.

On May 14^th, an 18-year-old man (boy?) bought a gun, traveled 200 miles from his home in Conklin, New York, to Buffalo, entered a supermarket and killed 10 people in cold blood simply because they were Black. 18 years old!!! WHY does a kid that age hate Black people? Both of his parents are civil engineers, and he was studying engineering science, hoping to follow in their footsteps. This wasn’t some spur-of-the-moment thing … he had traveled to Buffalo in March and visited the store, and again the day before he went on his killing spree. He graduated from high school in June 2021, and when a teacher asked him about his plans for the future, he replied, “I want to murder and commit suicide.” Was that not a red flag??? Why wasn’t it reported and followed up on?

Yesterday, the gunman pleaded guilty to 15 charges, including 10 charges of murder and one charge of domestic terrorism. While I am thankful that he will likely never walk free again to murder even more, I think this entire situation shows a pathetic negligence to recognize and identify a serious mental health issue. It also furthers my position that guns are too damned easy to obtain in this country! Next thing you know, they’ll be packaging derringers (very small, but lethal guns) as the prize in packages of Cracker Jacks!

Some honest Republicans? Be still my heart …

Maricopa Country in Arizona is home to over half the population of the entire state! So, what happens there matters … a lot. I was encouraged last night to read that the Republican-controlled election board voted unanimously to certify the November 8^th election, whereby Democrat Katie Hobbs won the governorship. Hobbs’ Republican opponent, the conspiracy-theorist, Trump-backed Republican Kari Lake, insists that Republican voters were denied the opportunity to vote, that there was some irregularity with voting machines, and … ho hum … same ol’ same ol’ … we’ve heard it before and no doubt we’ll hear it again. Other counties have put their certification on hold based on Lake’s claims, but I find it very encouraging that the largest county by far has certified the election.

And just a handful of ‘toons to add to the fun!

Wise Words From A Former President’s Daughter

Posted on November 28, 2022 by jilldennison under Election 2020, Free Press Issues, History, Political commentary, Social commentary

Nearly two years ago, when President Joseph Biden took his oath of office and the former guy left the White House and Washington behind, I expressed a hope that the media would not keep Trump in the headlines, that they would relegate him to the annals of history, let the nation heal. I suspected then that I was spitting into the wind, but I didn’t realize to what extent. Not a single day has gone by in those 23 months that his name has not been in the news, on the editorial pages, and shoved in our faces just about everywhere we turn. ENOUGH!!! He is the “former” guy … you didn’t see President Obama’s face on every news site every day for two years after he left office! Obama’s face and words would be much more welcome than Trump’s, for that matter. There are much more serious and important matters to cover than the temper tantrums of a low IQ former guy!

Patti Davis, the daughter of the late President Ronald Reagan, wrote a guest essay for the New York Times today that caught my eye and makes a lot of sense, if you think about it. While I wasn’t a fan of Reagan’s political views, have mocked his ‘trickle down’ theory of economics more than a few times, I do think that he was a good man, a humanitarian, and the advice he gave his daughter those many years ago is sound. Take a look …

If We Ignore Donald Trump We Might See Who He Really Is

Guest Essay by Patti Davis

Nov. 28, 2022

When I was about 8 or 9, I was bullied ruthlessly in school by a boy in my class. I faked being sick so I wouldn’t have to go to school, but my parents figured out that something was going on and my father came in to talk to me. I confessed to him that I was scared of my tormentor, and what followed was a lesson in the beauty of ignoring another person. He explained that bullies crave attention and that if they are ignored, they sort of deflate. He then showed me how frustrating it is to feel like you’re invisible, by ignoring me when I tried to speak to him. It worked. I returned to school, I ignored the bully and he gave up his attacks on me.

Donald Trump is like the abusive boyfriend or ex-husband who won’t go away. In that situation, one would take out a restraining order, but obviously we can’t do that with Mr. Trump. So how about not making him the predominant news story? I have noticed, to be fair, that he is a little less predominant, but let’s face it, he is still everywhere in the news. I understand that announcing his candidacy for president is news. But does it have to be a front-page story? Does the end of his exile from Twitter have to dominate the day’s coverage? Does every move he makes, every ridiculous statement he utters, have to be reported?

With each news story, each segment on television, we are giving him the elixir that keeps him going — attention. There are plenty of things going on in the world that are more important than Donald Trump. We have a planet to save. Russia is still waging war on Ukraine, and still imprisoning American citizens like Brittney Griner. The West is running out of water. There are mass shootings so often it’s hard to keep track of them. Just to name a few really important issues.

What if there was a collective pledge among responsible news organizations to take Donald Trump off the front pages, to not talk about him every single day? He would huff and puff and try to blow the house down, but no one would be paying attention. Think of how much calmer the waters would be. Think of how many other stories would get the bandwidth they deserve.

It’s not easy ignoring someone who keeps barreling onto the world stage, determined to create chaos and eviscerate the democracy we depend on, but it is often the only remedy that will work. The person being ignored will find himself alone on a battlefield he created, with only his own voice bellowing around him. Linger on that image for a moment — Donald Trump all alone in the wilderness, with only his own voice to keep him company.

There was a very satisfying end to the story of my school bully. My parents insisted that I had to invite everyone in my class to my birthday party — I couldn’t be rude and leave him out. We had my birthday parties at our ranch and the entertainment was a man with a horse and a dog, who had trained the dog to ride on the horse and do other tricks. Then the kids would get a chance to ride the horse for a few moments. My former tormentor burst into tears and recoiled at the idea of getting on a horse. He was terrified, and everyone started laughing at him.

Every bully has something they’re scared of. Every bully has something that knocks them off their game and reveals the weaknesses they’ve worked so hard to hide. All the media has to do is turn away from Donald Trump and we will see who and what he truly is. Aren’t you at least curious?

Rainy Day Thoughts

Posted on November 27, 2022 by jilldennison under Bits 'n Pieces, education, Free Press Issues, guns, Personal, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

Just a few thoughts on this rainy Sunday afternoon …

No longer should we be shocked or even surprised by man’s inhumanity to man, for we have seen enough instances of it to know it exists. Humans have great capacity for love, but for many there are too many conditions placed on that love, and their capacity for cruelty and hatred is even greater than their capacity for love.

You may not have heard about the teacher in Pflugerville, Texas (yes, there really is a town by that name, but don’t ask me to pronounce it!) who was fired a couple of weeks ago. Why? Because of the conversation he had with his class of 6^th grade children …

Teacher: “Deep down in my heart, I’m ethnocentric, which means I think my race is the superior one.”

Student: “So White is better than all?”

Teacher: “Let me finish. I think everybody thinks that. They’re just not honest about it.”

Student: “You said you are a racist, right?”

Teacher: “I did, yeah, I’m trying to be honest.”

When a student asked him to repeat what he had just said, he lashed out …

Teacher: “I said, ‘I am a racist.’ That’s what I said. Do you know what that means?”

My jaw dropped when I read that! Those kids were 12-13 years old! This man was never fit to be a teacher, to be alone with a group of children at all!!! Does this man believe that being a racist is something to be proud of? Somebody, presumably one of the students, recorded the incident and when parents found out, naturally they were outraged and reported the conversation to the school board, who promptly fired the unnamed teacher the following Monday. How many more teachers are of the same belief, and while perhaps are not as blatant about it, subtly allow their racism to bleed into their interactions with their classes?

On Wednesday, I was at my local Kroger grocery store picking up a few last-minute things for Thanksgiving dinner. As I was trying to reach something on a high shelf, a man literally pushed me aside to get by me. Surprisingly, I remained cool, calm and collected, saying only loudly enough for him to hear me, “Oh, that’s okay … just shove me aside, for I’m sure that you are so much more important than I am.” He glanced back at me and nodded. Yes, he nodded! No, I didn’t throw anything at him, but merely rolled my eyes and muttered an obscenity under my breath.

We have so many different ‘hate groups’ in this country that I’ve lost count of them all, media figures and even church pastors are preaching hate and inciting violence. Pair that with the gun culture that has suddenly run amok and … is it any wonder that we must look over our shoulders in any public venue, and cross our fingers when we send our children to school in hopes that they will return in one piece rather than in a body bag?

There is a saying that “Politics makes strange bedfellows,” but the opposite is also true … it makes enemies of people who would ordinarily be friends, drives a wedge between people whose goals, hopes and dreams are really the same, but they are blinded by the loud voices telling them that the paths to their dreams are different. Would that we humans were smart enough to realize that we are being manipulated, not for our own good, but for the wealth and power of the already wealthy and powerful. Would that we realized that we are all – regardless of skin colour, gender identity, religion, or ethnidity – in this world together and it is only when we pull together that we can make progress toward making the world a better place.

“United we stand. Divided we fall.” – Winston Churchill

Robin Hood Reversal

Posted on November 27, 2022 by jilldennison under animals, Bits 'n Pieces, Economic issues, guns, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

Hypocrisy abounds in the United States. Take, for one example, those who call themselves ‘pro-life’. They will take away women’s rights in order to ensure that a fetus, that may or may not turn into an actual human life, is protected, sometimes at the cost of the woman’s life, yet they will go out and shoot innocent animals, not for food, but simply for the ‘pleasure’ of killing, of taking a life. Oh … you say it’s only human life they are ‘pro’? Well, let’s delve a little deeper there.

Many of the very same ones who call themselves ‘pro-life’ support the death penalty, whereby at some point we could take the life of a perfectly innocent human who will later be exonerated … but he cannot be freed, for he is dead. They rail against tax dollars being used in support of single mothers struggling to buy food to feed those babies that the ‘pro-lifers’ insisted they have. They also stand firm for unlimited guns in the hands of any who want them, claiming it is a “god-given” right. Guns, I might remind you, have a singular purpose: to kill, to take those lives that these people claim to be protecting. ‘Pro-life’ is really nothing more than anti-women. Call a spade a bloody shovel, as my friend Mary says.

Perhaps one of the greatest hypocrisies that abound in the U.S. today is the attitude of some toward immigrants. I would bet money that every single person who wants to ‘build a wall’ or ‘shut down the border’ is the child of immigrant ancestry. Their grandparents or great-great-great grandparents – someone from their family tree came to this country from another seeking freedoms or opportunities they were deprived of in their ancestral land. And yet, when people are knocking on the door at our southern border or seeking admission from a Middle Eastern nation, the people of this nation would turn them away. Too bad the Indigenous People of North America didn’t have the wherewithal to turn away those who came to our shores in the 16^th and 17^th centuries and beyond!

As a child, I was told that ‘America’ is the land of opportunity, the ‘Land of milk and honey’, the land where you can grow up to be anything you want. And that’s true for the mostly-white, mostly-male millionaires and billionaires, but for the rest of us … we have an opportunity to try to survive as best we can. Dodge the bullets, folks, keep your head down and work your ass off and maybe, just maybe, you’ll be able to afford to pay your rent and buy groceries next week.

And speaking of those wealthy people … here’s a statistic that will blow your mind. 19,000 – The number of Americans who made at least $1 million in 2020 who also collected unemployment assistance that year, according to new IRS data. That included 4,500 people who earned between $5 million and $10 million and 229 people with eight-figure incomes or more. Think on that one for just a minute … a person whose total salary in 2020, the year of the pandemic when people were in serious danger of going hungry or losing their homes, was over a million dollars, got an additional $13,900 from our taxpayer dollars!!! Not just one person but 19,000 millionaires got extra money from We the People. Talk about hypocrisy!!! That anyone who had already made $1 million or more that year, or had millions in the bank, would even apply for unemployment benefits is the lowest of low.

Certain members of Congress are hoping to be able to cut Social Security and Medicare soon … programs that we working people have paid into every day of our working lives … but there is no mention of cutting their own pensions or salaries or perks. I call it Robin Hood Reversal … rob from the poor to give to the rich.

The Week’s Best Cartoons 11/26

Posted on November 26, 2022 by jilldennison under Bits 'n Pieces, cartoons, Economic issues, Election 2024, guns, Humour, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Re-blogs, Social commentary

My mind seems not to have yet recovered from the Thanksgiving holiday and I can’t even seem to figure out what day of the week it is, much less put fingers to keyboard to write a reasonably coherent post. But that’s okay — fortunately the cartoonists have my back and are as sharp as ever! Our friend TokyoSand is also right on top of things and has searched the world over via the internet to find the best of the best. Needless to say, Elon Musk heads the list of things that go ‘bump’ in the night, but there are plenty of others, as well. So, without further ado, heeeeeeeeere’s TokyoSand …

As a heavy Twitter user for the past 6+ years, forgive me for all the cartoons about Twitter. It has been an important place to share news and opinions, and it’s hard to watch it overrun with trolls, especially its CEO. But there was other political news, which you’ll find covered below.…

Be sure to check out the rest of the ‘toons!

Conservative Millionaire CEOs Are Becoming Their Own Stereotype of the Welfare Queen

Posted on November 25, 2022 by jilldennison under Economic issues, Environmental Issues, History, Political commentary, Re-blogs, Social commentary

In case you were wondering why far too many of our members of Congress do NOT represent us, the answer lies here in this well-spoken post by our friend Gronda. It all boils down to this: The rich get richer, while the poor get poorer. Democracy in action? I think not.

Gronda Morin

Disclaimer: I’m pro-business but I truly do believe in free enterprise, competition in the marketplace where companies win by innovating, creating new widgets, smart cost cutting while paying their employees a living wage and treating them and their consumers with respect.

In short, anyone like Elon Musk buying a company at an inflated price where bills aren’t paid, employees who’ve yet to be fired are treated with disrespect, and management doesn’t deliver on a quality product, shouldn’t be allowed to stay in business. It’s the height of hubris for CEOs to blame workers who don’t want to live 24/7 in the workplace for their owners’ stupidity. This is the definition of lazy management and the antithesis of businessmen taking personal responsibility for their own lack of due diligence and failures. These greedy short-sighted CEOs have become their own stereotype of the “welfare queen.”

These are the same guys who get…

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