Category: Politics

What has happened to this country…

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Maus by Art Spiegelman

  Graphic novels are not something I typically read. The closest I have come as an adult would be several books compiling the work of various newspaper cartoonists.  What piqued my curiosity on this book is that a school board in Tennessee banned this book from the eighth grade curriculum. While a graphic novel, honors received include: The Pulitzer Prize, a Guggenheim fellowship and National Book Critics Circle Award. The New Yorker called it “the first masterpiece in comic book history.” The very conservative Wall Street Journal described it as “the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust.”

This is not an easy book to read due to the theme.  It deals with the treatment of the Jews in Poland by the Germans and Poles at the beginning of the World War II.  The main character and his wife end up at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Partly through ingenuity, but mostly Continue reading “Maus by Art Spiegelman”

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A Polemic – Which Is the Greater Sin?

I really do not believe in the concept of sin, at least in sin as defined in the Christian Bible.  The idea that there is a god that will condemn the soul of one of his creations to burn in the fires of hell for all eternity for some behavior during their all too short life span is more than I can give credence to. But then I also do not believe in the concept of heaven or hell.  I have no idea if we have a soul or not, the rational part of me believes that death is simply the extinguishing of a light, no big deal.

However, I do believe that there are any number of human behaviors and actions that can be classified as “sins”. For me a sin is any action or behavior that damages another being either physically, mentally or emotionally.  I would also put into the definition harming the environment, the planet, the overuse of resources, basically any unethical behavior that reaches Continue reading “A Polemic – Which Is the Greater Sin?”

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The Flags Flying in Rural Areas

I just returned from a 3 day backpacking trip in north central Arkansas.  My brother and I were in the Ozark National Forest a little ways south of Jasper which is on the Buffalo National River.  It is a very rural area, a very scenic area, consisting mainly of national forests and cattle operations, sparsely populated would be an accurate description.

I have written before of how I felt my beloved American flag has been hijacked by the conservatives, especially the extreme right.  That has resulted in my having mixed emotions Continue reading “The Flags Flying in Rural Areas”

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Race on Census Forms Starting 1790

To state the obvious, race continues to be fractious subject in this country and worldwide.  It has all too often in history, including recent history, morphed into a reason for genocide. In my conversations with folks in Central and South America,  I find interesting their perplexity with how racist a country the United States is.  They  tend not see skin color as a reason to exclude, minimize or even hate another person… then I think of the history of many of these countries and how they have mistreated their indigenous populations and continue to mistreat them. And racism becomes a story without end.

I forget what I was reading or listening to, but whatever it was, it claimed that Jews and Italians were not considered “white” until very recently.  So to Google I went to research that statement a bit.  I stumbled across this Pew Research article listing the race question on all census forms since 1790.  I found it interesting.

What Census Calls Us

 

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Strange Bedfellows

We just celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day this third Monday of January , the 17th, which started me thinking about an anecdote I have been telling for years.

In the fall of 1983, much against the desires and better judgment of my now ex-spouse, I weaseled – and weasel is the operative word – my way back into her abode after a very long separation.  I don’t remember exactly how long this particular separation had been, probably somewhere around 18 months. While we stayed together, more or less,  for another dozen years, the marriage had been a tumultuous relationship nearly from day one.  At one point in my life I spent a lot of time ruminating Continue reading “Strange Bedfellows”

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Ann Wagner, Always Disappointing

FYI:  I live in the 2nd Congressional District of Missouri, a very conservative district that gave us such luminaries as former Representative Todd “Legitimate Rape” Atkins. Ann Wagner is of the same ilk.

I am not quite sure how my phone number ended up in Rep. Ann Wagner’s texting file, but it did.  A text from Wagner popped up the other day, and when I saw who it was my feeling was very similar to one I had when a gal I dated one time would not stop calling me and texting me.  Obviously, I can block their number, see if their “STOP” option really works, just automatically delete them, but I would rather get a restraining order. I am doing pretty good though, generally when I see Ann Wagner’s name I go on an obscenity filled rant that has folks running for the hills.  So far I have refrained.

Wagner’s text had a link to a survey requesting constituents’ opinions. “Well,” I thought, “she wants my opinion,  I’ll  be glad to give her a piece of my mind!”  I opened the link, and by the fourth question I was ready to throw my phone against the first hard object I encountered, not counting my head.

I truly found her survey offensive. The first few questions were waving red Continue reading “Ann Wagner, Always Disappointing”

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God, Guns & Trump: A Jeremiad

I was in Memphis, TN this weekend and saw this bumper sticker – God, Guns & Trump – on the back of a small, older pickup truck with Mississippi tags.  The sad reality is that I could have seen this sticker many places; they are just more common in that part of the country.  I live in St. Louis which is not what I would call a particularly liberal or progressive area, but it is an island of sanity in the red cesspool of MAGA Republicans of rural Missouri and southern Illinois.  I see many bumper stickers of a similar ilk around here too.

God, Guns & Trump…To me this encapsulated the sickness that is currently inflicting our country.

God:  While I understand people’s need for religion, I am not a big fan. My personal opinion Continue reading “God, Guns & Trump: A Jeremiad”

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Social Security cost of living bump

”I heard a cynical comment to the recent announcement of a 5.9% cost of living adjustment to Social Security benefits, “Oh that is just Biden attempting to buy votes!

Just a few bits of data for grinding the old mental gears on:

  1. The current US monthly inflation rate is running north of 5%. If that continues the COLA will be mostly wiped out by inflationary pressures. The consumer price index is in the same ballpark. I’ve not researched it, but I do not believe past COLAs have kept up with inflation.
  2. A recent study found that 40% of Americans are living solely on Social Security. Forbes, among others, disputes this study as being inaccurate and biased (for my part, I always assume Forbes has a conservative agenda to push).  Whatever the real number is, there are a fair number of our fellow citizens solely reliant on SS benefits for their daily bread.
  3. Pension — Less than one-third (31%) of Americans are retiring with a defined benefit pension plan today. For those who do retire with a pension plan, the median annual pension benefit is $9,262 for a private pension, $22,172 for a federal government pension, and $24,592 for a railroad pension.
  4. The average 401(k) balance for a 65 year old is $216, 720, but the median amount is $64,548. By definition, the implication is that 50% of this age group has less than $64,548 in these types of plans. At 65 you have a good chance of living another 15 or 20 years…not a lot of savings for that time frame.
  5. They talk about the 3 pillars of retirement: Social Security, a defined benefit plan (pension) and savings, 401(k) etc. Most of us are sitting on 1 or 2 legged stools.
  6. The average Social Security benefit was $1,543 per month in January 2021. The maximum possible Social Security benefit for someone who retires at full retirement age is $3,148 in 2021. The average amount works out to $18,516 a year.  A 5.9 % bump works out to $91 a month.  I am reasonably sure the commenter would think he was living in poverty at twice or even thrice the average annual amount.
  7. Purely anecdotal, but when I was in college I did a survey for the Department of Transportation about the need for public transportation in under-served areas. The area I surveyed happened to have a high percentage of retirees. One of the questions on the survey was about income.  Of course, people will almost always lie about two things, money and sex  However, many of these folks were very open about giving me their income information (I did not ask about their sex lives… that would not have been professional).   It was very scary what some folks were trying to live on, many of them solely dependent on a SS check.  I vowed then to work towards having a retirement not solely dependent on SS.

Continue reading “Social Security cost of living bump”

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Flags Half Mast

When I was young it seemed to be an extraordinary event when the United States flag was flown at half mast.  It was especially so back then as it did not happen that often.  It is still a big deal to fly the flag at half mast, but it seems to be happening all the time now.  Often it seems to be for victims of yet another mass shooting incident which are  an absolute pandemic in this country.  After the recent FedEx shooting in Indianapolis, there were two more of ONLY 3 or so people, one in Wisconsin and one Texas, this past weekend.

I am going to suggest that it would be easier and saner to leave the flags at half mast all the time until we do something about the availability of guns in this country – especially assault style rifles – and gun laws in general. The fact that we have failed to act on gun legislation, that guns have become so prevalent in our society, that mass shootings are so common, that guns are especially problematic in inner cities (there is nearly a gun death a day in St. Louis), is reason enough to be flying the flag at half mast.  I am not so sure that we should not be flying it upside down as a signal of dire distress.

And so it goes.