Yesterday was pretty quiet, as can be expected of a holiday, I suppose.We look to be expecting snow on Wednesday and a little more Friday – I”ll expect it when I see it.
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Daily Kos (Kerry Eleveld) – Democrats’ Case Against GOP Extremism Gains Momentum
Quote – But the White House has made an overt shift from the behind the scenes inside game it worked for a solid year to a very public campaign against the saboteurs of our democracy. “I’ve been having these quiet conversations with the members of Congress for the last two months,” Biden said. “I’m tired of being quiet!” he added, pounding the lectern. Click through for story. I have said since before the election that Biden would come to this point. Yes, he’s a consensus builder. But he’s not stupid. He may have resisted, but he can see that sometimes you have to fight for the right, and this is one of those times.
Raw Story – ‘Smoking guns all around’: Conservative connects dots showing Trump ‘election fraud on a massive scale’
Quote – In his weekend wrap-up, conservative Bulwark founder Charlie Sykes makes the case that there is more than enough proof that Donald Trump and his inner circle made a provable attempt to steal the 2020 presidential election through fraud. Jumping right into it, Sykes pointed to a CNN report that stated, “…then-President Donald Trump’s allies sent fake certificates to the National Archives declaring that Trump won seven states that he actually lost,” which have also been labeled forgeries. Click through for more from the thread, which became a conversation. No new information here – the news is in who is saying it. But don’t expect the Qrazies to pay attention.
Common Dreams – Progressives Counter Cherry-Picked Quotes With MLK’s True Legacy
Quote – As the FBI, right-wing political figures, and others came under fire Monday for engaging in the annual trend of dishonoring Martin Luther King Jr. by sanitizing his beliefs, progressives in Congress worked to honor his legacy of fighting for a more just society…. {Per Ayanna Pres;ey. “T]he truth is Dr. King was a radical dreamer with a bold vision for revolutionary change. A disruptive movement builder seeking to upend an unjust status quo.” Click through. Anyone seeking real change must be radical about it – I don’t mean extremist – radical means “pretsining to the root.” Change which does not begin in and grow from the root may spring up quickly, but then will wither away, like the plants in the parable.
Yesterday, I worked on getting my meds together, which I should have done Saturday. But that’s why I keep extras around. So yesterday worked. I also did a little knottong. Broke a needle (which is one reason I like to own multiples of essentially the exact same needle.) In this case, I didn’t have a duplicate.so, after picking up dropped stitches as best I could, I decided my best bet was to finish with one size smaller, since I was in a decreasinf pattern, so I did – finished that project – ordered two new ones to replace the broken one. I have a second similar project, but I think I’ll wait until the broken one is replaced to finish it, since there’s no ruch. I checked the DOC website, which now says in-person visitation is now suspended until Fenruary 1. So I set a pop-up reminder to check again the end of the month. And, I found an animal rescue near me (specializing in cats) that I believe is the right place for me to do the #BettyWhiteChallenge today.
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AP News – US names intelligence official to counter election threats
Quote – The appointment comes amid stalled efforts to create a new intelligence center preventing foreign interference in American democracy. While experts and intelligence officials say the proposed Foreign Malign Influence Center is needed, a proposal to create the center is stalled amid disagreements over the center’s size and budget. Click through for story. I woud not want that job, but I’m uncommonly glad that someone is doing it.
The Hill – Who has the guts to resist authoritarian rule?
Quote – I asked the group a key question — why did they stay rather than trying to flee their country for the West? Their response was inspiring. They said that they always believed that the communist system would eventually fail and their country would be free though it took many years to happen. But stay they did. Most of us in the West thought these countries were gone to authoritarian communism forever. Click through. The Hill classifies this as an opinion piece, but I’d call it a history piece – written by some one who helped make that history.
Daily Kos (David Neiwert) – While FBI offers up flimsy reasons for being unprepared on Jan. 6, its record tells the real story
Quote – Jason Paladino at Grid recently examined all of the FBI’s rationales for its failure to adequately prepare for the siege against Congress, and concluded correctly that all of them fail the sniff test. The only reasonable conclusion—particularly as the evidence is assembled for public viewing—is that federal law enforcement’s cozy relationship with these right-wing extremists blinded them to the reality of the nature of the beast they thought they could use as an ally. Click through for details. I hope and pray this becomes so widely known that Kevin McCarthy cones to rue the day he said, “The real question is why were they so unprepared.”
Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”
When you live with unfettered capitalism, pretty much anything that happens which involves money will also make inequality worse. And inflation is no exception.Without further ado, here are the facts and figures.
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Inflation inequality: Poorest Americans are hit hardest by soaring prices on necessities
But behind the headline number that’s been widely reported is something that often gets overlooked: Inflation affects different households in different ways – and sometimes hurts those with the least, the most.
Inflation, as calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is designed to track the price increases in a typical U.S. household’s basket of goods. The problem is spending bundles differ across households. For example, a family in the lowest 20% of income typically spends around 15% of their budget on groceries – this is nearly 60% more than households in the top 20% of the income distribution, according to my calculations.
The widening inflation gap
On Jan. 12, 2022, the BLS released figures showing that inflation jumped by 7% in December from a year earlier – the fastest pace since 1982. To see how this varied across households, I used the bureau’s own price data and factored in the typical spending habits of different income groups.
I calculate that inflation is running at 7.2% for the lowest income households – higher than for any other group. For the highest income families, the rate of change was 6.6%.
The difference between the two income groups steadily increased throughout 2021, starting the year at just 0.16 percentage point but ending at 0.6 percentage point – near the highest it has been since 2010.
The reason for this widening rich-poor inflation gap, known by economists as inflation inequality, comes down to the typical spending habits of people in each income group.
In times of economic uncertainty and recession, most households tend to hold back on buying luxury goods. But by and large, people can’t cut down on necessities such as groceries and heating – although wealthier consumers are better placed to stock up on these necessities when prices are cheap.
This shift of spending away from luxury items like vacations and new cars, and toward necessities, pushes inflation up for poorer families more than richer ones. This is because lower-income households dedicate a higher percentage of their income on necessities.
My data shows that this inflation gap tends to be widest in times of recession or in the early stages of economic recovery. In the aftermath of the Great Recession of 2008-2009, the gap in inflation rates between the lowest and highest income groups was close to 1 percentage point – higher than it is now.
By contrast, in times of economic growth – for example, from 2012 to 2018 – the gap narrows. It even inverted at one point in 2016; the inflation rate for poorer Americans was almost a half-percentage point lower than that of richer Americans.
The main driver of the growing gap in 2021 was the increases in groceries and gas prices. This has made inflation run hotter for all households. But given the greater proportion of household income that poorer families dedicate to food and energy costs, it has affected them more.
Take out gas and grocery prices, then the inflation gap is reduced significantly.
Going forward, I expect the inflation gap will follow a similar pattern as we saw after the Great Recession – as economic recovery turns into continued expansion, inflation will be lower for low-income households than high-income households.
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================================================================ Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, the vast differences in spending habits is also why a universal sales tax makes no sense. The poor spend every penny they earn, while the wealthy put much of their income into savings. So a universal sales tax translates to those who can best afford to pay taxes paying very little, while those who can least afford it are paying more than they can afford. So of course those who would impose a universal sales tax claim it is more fair, because “everyone pays the same rate.” No. They don’t. End of rant.
People have been prophesying Doomsday for centuries. Many a religion has an apocalypse and/or Judgment Day at some unknown future date as part of its belief system. Priests and prophets claim to have had visions or insights that predict just when that bad moon will rise. So far, though, none of these predictions have come true. Earth goes on its merry way, not caring what sort of doom and gloom people preach.
In the secular and scientific field, researchers and deep thinkers have come up with many ways everything could go to doo-doo without the intervention of any deities. All you need is humanity’s aggression, violence, greed and short-sightedness. Some of you reading this remember the nightmare of the Cold War, when the threat of thermonuclear holocaust hung over everybody’s head like the Sword of Damocles, when students ducked and covered under their desks, when TV specials like The Day After and Threads forced regular citizens and world leaders alike to think about the horrid consequences. Today, though nuclear war no longer seems to loom over us nearly as much as it once did, other threats are poised to wipe out civilization as we know it, if not all of humanity.
In 1947 the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists created the Doomsday Clock as a symbol of just how close we are to annihilation – not just from nuclear weapons, but from existential perils that include climate change, bioterrorism and artificial intelligence. How far the minute hand is from midnight indicates how close they feel humanity is to global catastrophe. The farthest it has been from midnight is 17 minutes in 1991, thanks to the fall of the Soviet Union and hopes of better relations between the United States and Russia. As I write this, the clock is at 100 seconds from midnight – the closest it has ever been – largely due to lack of action to deal with climate change. Granted, this is strictly subjective, and not necessarily an indication that we are all doomed; however, as the consensus of numerous scientists, it is not something to ignore.
Article after article from respected scientists indicate that we are barreling towards catastrophe. Rather than heed common sense and scientific pundits, many governments kowtow to Big Business, whose only concern is the Bottom Line and are not interested in heeding persnickety regulations to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Individuals – as well as some governments, notably that of Costa Rica – are taking steps to reduce humanity’s contribution to climate change; unfortunately, big corporations are the primary contributors. And, of course, they aren’t suffering for it.
Climate change will have multiple consequences, some of which we are facing now: rising ocean levels, changing weather patterns, droughts, crop failures, famines, stronger and more frequent storms, refugee migrations, emergent diseases, wars over scarce resources. People fleeing violence, chaos, hunger and calamity could easily spread viruses and inadvertently start new pandemics. You thought COVID-19 was bad? The next one could be worse – more contagious as well as deadlier. Also, we could face multiple pandemics at the same time.
This is why we must not lose heart, why we must keep on leaning on our various governments to make businesses reduce their carbon footprints. Especially in the United States, this will be a tough challenge, which is why US residents must get out the Progressive/Green/Liberal vote in 2022 and elect candidates who will heed the will of the people instead of the filthy lucre of mega-corporations. Voter suppression is bad for the environment when those who support the Green New Deal and Build Back Better can’t cast ballots for candidates who will fight for those programs.
Also, while we hope and fight for the best, we must prepare for the worst. We all need to make plans for the worst case scenario, in case our present civilization collapses, either a “head for the hills” strategy or “shelter in place.” We also need to preserve our current society’s collective knowledge and culture so future generations don’t have to start from scratch – and can enjoy our best achievements in the various arts.
Humans are tough, resourceful critters. Some of us will pull through the crises that will confront us over the next few decades. The ones who do survive will not necessarily be the best prepared, but probably the most resourceful and flexible.
Yesterday, The Opera was “The Marriage of Figaro” by Mozart. It’s based on the second of three plays by Pierre Beaumarchais, kown as the Figaro plays. All three have been made into operas – The first play, The Barber of Seville, by Rossini in 1816. The second, The Marriage of Figaro, by Mozart in 1786. The third, The Guilty Mother, by many composers, including John Corigliano, completed in 1991, and very different in that the source play is treated as a play within a play, and there is not a living person in the whole thing. These days it’s not obvious why all three were so controversial when new, particularly the plays, but they were. Beaumarchais was an American sympathizer who raised money for the Revolution before France sent actual military aid with LaFayette, and there are hints of that in the plays (fewer in the operas). But things have changed enough so that is not obvious to us today. Human nature, however, has not changed much if at all, and there’s plenty of that in all of them.
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Huff Post – Major Student Loan Processor Cancels $1.7 Billion In Debt
Quote – Most of the loans being canceled are “subprime loans” that were given to students attending for-profit colleges, which often had graduation rates below 50%. That made it unlikely students would ever be able to pay the loans back. Click through for background. This does not apply to all student loans, but it does apply to the most vulnerable. And there is another suit still going forward.
Reuters – DirecTV to drop far-right channel OAN from its service
Quote – OAN, which rose to prominence amid the triumph and tumult of the administration of then-President Donald Trump, has been criticized for spreading conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 election. “We informed Herring Networks that, following a routine internal review, we do not plan to enter into a new contract when our current agreement expires,” a DirecTV spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters. Click through for more. In a related article, Reuters estimates OAN’s revenue from DirecTV to be in the neighborhood of 90% of its total revenue.
The Guardian – Police and FBI respond to synagogue hostage situation in Texas
Quote – The incident took place during an online livestream of the Shabbat service at the synagogue in Colleyville, in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. The livestream cut off at about 2pm local time…. “Colleyville Police Sgt Dara Nelson said negotiators have made contact with somebody inside the synagogue who they believe is a suspect,” the Dallas Morning News said. Click through – They had better respond! This is clear domestic terrorism. UPDATE: All hostages safe, hostage taker dead.
