Claims And Issues

"THE GOVERNMENT WILL DEMAND PRECISELY NOTHING IN RETURN."

"BUT IT SHOULD."

Kate Aronoff has an op-ed column looking at the Biden Administration considering more U.S. subsidies and tax breaks for international oil and gas companies.  The Biden Administration is poised to ask the oil and gas companies in return:  Nothing.  Using the Putin War in Ukraine as an excuse, in addition, this development comes after the Biden Administration pledged to cut pollution.

Kate Aronoff's column is here:  Guest Essay, We've Opened the Door Too Wide for Oil and Gas Companies, New York Times (which may have it behind a paywall), April 29, 2022.

Please read the disclaimer.  This blog article ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

HOW PENNSYLVANIA U.S. SENATE RACES AFFECT FLORIDA, AND EVERYONE ELSE.

Events are happening in Pennsylvania that may tell the tale of many things.

Most striking, economics is on the ballot during primary season.  Economics will take center stage in the general election come November if the party front-runners get the nominations of their respective parties.

On the Republican side, Dr. Oz has gotten the most headlines and the endorsement of TFG.  But he is not the Republican front-runner.  If Oz does not get the nomination, he and his master will not have much if anything to say in the Pennsylvania election this Fall.

The current leader in the polls for the Republican nomination to the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania is instead -- are you ready? -- the Bridgewater hedge fund CEO David McCormick.  Hedge fund manager McCormick is likely to come face-to-face with what is probably his nightmare:  Managing his funds to pay his fair share to fund this country.

On the Democratic side, Pennsylvania Lt. Governor John Fetterman is the leader in the race for the U.S. Senate nomination.  Fetterman is easily recognizable.  If you have seen him once, you will not be likely to forget him.  He is 6'8" tall, has a goatee, and speaks his mind in sometimes uncomfortable ways.

Of particular interest to his likely opponent in the general election, he wants to end the carried interest loophole, which allows hedge fund managers like McCormick to get away with near-zero tax rates. 

If the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race comes down to Fetterman v. McCormick in the Fall, it will be very entertaining indeed -- and on the substantive side, we will get a pretty clear indication of what kind of country this will be.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

Mallory McMorrow, The Best Domer Since Hesburgh and Parseghian.

.@MalloryMcMorrow, I'm on board with your message.  I'm a White Christian straight suburban Dad who went to @NotreDame, too:  #HateWontWin.

Thank you.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

President Biden, May I Call You Joe? Listen, no joke.

.@JoeBiden it's not just Christians and @NotreDame who win with the people you know.  It's everyone who leads by example, who does not accept unfairness, who includes us all in the human family, like @MalloryMcMorrow, @staceyabrams, @PramilaJayapal, @spmaloney.  #HateWontWin.

No joke, now act.  Thanks for listening.  

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

LABOR, WORK, AND JOURNALISTS IN 2022.

One reason for the media's approach to reporting news on labor issues is that there used to be a place reserved at most journalistic outlets for labor reporters, but no more.  There is a better chance at turning iron into gold, than finding a labor reporter in 2022.  But that's changing.  It is changing because it has to change.  There are many developing stories about union organizing among baristas and among warehouse workers all across the country.  There are so many developing stories that newspapers and magazines and the cable networks are going to have to hire people to cover the stories.

That's how we're going to get journalists who know about labor issues.  It's called capitalism:  They make money by covering the news, and these days, there's so much news on the labor front that it's creating jobs for journalists. 

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

THIS IS NOT ABOUT THE JUDGE. IT'S ABOUT JUSTICE.

Let's take a look at the federal judge's ruling that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agency does not have the authority to tell people to wear masks on airplanes, so as to control and prevent COVID-19.

No, I will not be writing about the judge who issued this freak ruling.  She is not the point her. Enough people are already talking about her, anyway.

The focus here is on how the Department of Justice has defended the CDC and the Mask Mandate on airplanes.

Briefly stated, they haven't.

Before we get into the weeds a little bit, only one thing about lawyers and lawsuits that you need to know first.  I promise, this won't be complicated.  The one thing to know here is that people who are sued, defendants like the CDC and other federal officials including President Biden in this case, defend themselves with an Answer to the Complaint against them.

That's it.  Just like real life, when someone complains, you answer and defend yourself.

Except in this case, the Department of Justice didn't defend anyone or anything.  They filed an Answer in the Court file, yes, but they did not raise any defenses.

They agreed that the people suing, the plaintiffs -- there were three, one individual who said she lives in Pinellas County (St. Pete), a second individual who said she lives in Hillsborough County (Tampa), and the third, a Wyoming corporation with headquarters in Idaho -- could amend their complaint.

And after they agreed, and after the plaintiffs filed their Amended Complaint, the Department of Justice did not answer it.  The DOJ did nothing.

With this kind of legal representation, you have got to wonder about many things but there is clearly no doubt about one thing, and that's how this case ended up with a ruling that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agency does not have the power to tell people to wear masks on airplanes in a pandemic.

And these are the people who are supposed to win the appeal? 

The federal case in Tampa is Health Freedom Defense Fund v. Biden (M.D. Fla. No. 8:21-cv-01693).

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

SAY IT'S SO, JOE.

Dear Joe @JoeBiden,

May I call you Joe?  I feel like I know you.  You're a good person, not perfect, but better than many.  Certainly a better person than some other people in Washington, D.C. who seemingly have been around forever.

It's a hard thing to say, Joe, but your approval numbers are in the low 30 percent in the polls.  That doesn't mean that anybody would vote for The Former Guy instead of you; we've already been there, done that.  You're the President.

But things are not looking up, Joe.  You're doing so many things right -- rallying NATO, standing up to the little guy Putin (did you know he's only 5'7"?), appointing Judge Jackson to the highest Court in the land, making eleven straight good jobs reports and on pace to make 10 Million new jobs and 3% unemployment, all for the first time ever, and good stuff like that.

On the other hand, you're doing so many things not right -- opening up federal lands to oil drilling permits when you promised you wouldn't, choosing Merrick Garland, making moves that make Joe Manchin (Joe Manchin, for gosh sake!) look better than you, and not-so-good stuff like that.

So, I've been telling you on Twitter that you need to change it up.  Maybe you've seen my tweets.  I think I could have been a little more specific.  In my defense, you just can't say a lot in tweets (and that's before Elon Musk gets his hands on Twitter).  At any rate, you haven't changed things a heck of a lot, which is what you need to do, Joe.  You need to change things a heck of a lot.

One thing that you could change is to stop turning off people that want to support you but are appalled by your catering to the corporate Democrats.  This is your biggest overall problem, Joe.  Being a corporate Democrat did not sell for Hillary, and Barack never ran as one (although he governed as one after he got elected).

Specifically, there are things you can change, and change now, if you want to, Joe, things like those oil drilling permits for federal lands.  Some of your hardest-working supporters in the 2020 election were the young people of the Sunrise Movement.  If you continue to turn them off with your anti-environmental actions that you said you were against in the campaign, where do you think they will go?  Not to TFG, that's for sure.

No, they will sit out the next elections, Joe, if you keep turning them off.  Why would you do that when you need support so badly?

Oh, and if it comes to that, how many corporate Democrats do you know that are willing to walk precincts and knock on doors and do all of the things that campaigns need to get done, whether it's in the Midterms in 2022 or the next National Election in 2024 or any election in-between?

Young people are willing to do those things.  Just check out the aforementioned Sunrise Movement.

Progressive Democrats and Progressives of all kinds and parties are willing to do those things as well.

Pay attention to them, Joe.  Listen to them.  Put them on your policy teams.  Change things now, Joe.  Make things better.  For you and for your country.

Thank you for listening.  May God bless you and Dr. Jill.

Sincerely,

Dennis

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

ANDREW CLYDE IS NOT THE PROBLEM. IT'S MUCH WORSE.

Andrew Clyde moved to North Georgia and was elected to the U.S. Congress in 2020.  Born in Canada, he moved to Indiana and New York before he moved to Georgia.  Mr. Clyde took office in the U.S. House last year.  His district is 79% White and less than 7% Black.  These things are important to our story's background.

    Since he took office, Andrew Clyde first declared the 1/6 insurrectionists a "mob" such that he had to help blockade the House, before he declared that the mob was on a "normal tourist visit" to the Capitol.  A gun dealer by trade, he voted against giving the police a medal,  and refused to shake the hand of a police officer who had protected him on 1/6.  There are many more things that show the quality of his character, but that is enough for now.

    Andrew Clyde, it should be clearly understood or nothing wonderful can come of our story, is currently from Georgia.  He opposed naming a federal courthouse in Florida after a deceased federal judge.   

    It turns out that 2/3 of the House was required to vote in favor of naming the federal courthouse.  Both of Florida's two Republican Senators supported it; all 27 of Florida's Representatives supported it too.  In fact, it seems that at first everyone supported it.  Then a member of Andrew Clyde's staff showed him a newspaper clipping from 1999.

    The newspaper clipping was about a decision authored by the judge, who was Black, when he was on a federal appellate court.  The decision obeyed a previous decision of the U.S. Supreme Court and struck down a measure that would have allowed prayer to be a mandatory part of the official state graduation ceremonies at a school in Jacksonville, Florida.  It seems that Mr. Clyde's real problem, in this situation anyway, was with the Supreme Court's decision interpreting the U.S. Constitution.

    To say again, that was in 1999.   It was a newspaper clipping.

    Now the rest of the story, as they say.  Mr. Clyde showed his Republican colleagues in the U.S. House the newspaper clipping about the Black judge from Florida.  His Republican colleagues dropped their support for the bill to name the federal courthouse.  That left the House short of a 2/3 majority.  The bill failed.

    The Black judge wrote many opinions in his professional career, starting from the time he became the first Black Justice on the Florida Supreme Court, which was before he became the first Black judge on the federal appellate court.  The decision that the newspaper wrote about in 1999 was only one decision from a judge's lifetime on the bench in which the judge made too many decisions to count.

    But this story is not about defending that one opinion.  This story isn't even about Andrew Clyde, not really.  It is about how it came to be that a person in office a little over 1 year, from Georgia, went to Washington and ended up blocking more than a mob on January 6, 2021.   This is the story of how an elected federal official from Georgia blocked a federal courthouse in Florida from being named after a federal judge from Florida.

    We start with the perspective that a person in Mr. Clyde's position had on the task facing him.  Clyde wanted to stop a federal courthouse in Florida from being named after a Black judge from Florida.  To be sure, Mr. Clyde denies that his opposition was born from the judge being Black.

    Still, it is reasonable to ask how many other federal courthouses from anywhere let alone Florida, did Mr. Clyde block from being named after any other federal judges?

    Back to Mr. Clyde's perspective, if we ever really left it.  The pending bill to name the federal courthouse required a 2/3 vote.  The objective was to reduce the vote enough so that it would not get a 2/3 vote.  (As it happened, a majority voted for the bill, 238 to 187, but not 2/3.)  That was the system.

    How the system was gamed also deserves our attention, because it shows how things are run in today's national Capitol.  In this case, a press clipping was enough.  It is very doubtful that many if any of the people who were for the bill before they were against it, actually read the 23-year-old decision.  It is probably even doubtful that many of them actually read the newspaper clipping before they changed their position.

    They moved on the word of what someone told them a newspaper clipping from 23 years ago said about a judicial decision in one federal case.  Even many children need better evidence than that.

    To sum up the story here, the U.S. House of Representatives failed to pass a bill which started with virtually unanimous support, then got majority support, but a majority did not win because of House rules.  Mr. Clyde took advantage of the House rules; he did not write them.  But he or someone else knew them.  To get majority rule, the House rules need to be changed.  Blame the Clydes all you want, but the system needs to be changed.

    It is also a part of the story that some Republican Representatives were persuaded strictly by fear.  They did not even know why they were suddenly against something after they were for it.

    And all because of a 23-year-old press clipping.

    Blame the system all you want, blame all of the Representatives if you want, but here our focus at the moment is instead on the people who are so afraid that they do not know why they are doing what they are doing.  They are not the people we need in positions of authority in this country.  It is no consolation that they are in the minority; as our story shows, they still run things. 

    But maybe, in the end, they did know why they were doing what they were doing, when they suddenly refused to name a federal courthouse after a federal judge who happened to be Black.

The saga of U.S. Representative Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) using a newspaper clipping from 1999 to successfully block the naming of a federal courthouse in Florida after a Black judge from Florida was published deep in the New York Times, reported by Annie Karni, House Republicans Abruptly Kill Bipartisan Bill to Honor a Pioneering Black Judge, NEW YORK TIMES, Wednesday, April 13, 2022, at A24, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/12/us/politics/gop-joseph-hatchett-florida.html?searchResultPosition=2.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

SEND IN THE INTERMEDIARIES: TAKE THE ECONOMY AND JOBS REPORTING.

Intermediaries between us and news reporting is necessary on some issues, important on all issues.  Take the economy and jobs.

It is a fact that the Biden Administration is on pace to make 10 Million new jobs and lower the unemployment rate to 3%.  That has never, ever happened before.  As Eric Boehlert wrote in his last post before his tragic death:  "Context:  In four years in office, Trump lost three million jobs, the worst record since Herbert Hoover."  Eric Boehlert, Why is the Press Rooting Against Biden?  / Burying Great News, posted Monday, April 4, 2022.

Further, there have been 11 straight strong job reports documenting the addition of over 400,000 jobs to the economy for 11 straight months.

The corporate media's reaction is strange.  They find sad news in the face of all this good news.  Sad news fits with what they know how to write, which is the trope that the economy is bad, and so are Joe Biden's poll standings.  Politico reportedly wrote about the latest jobs report, for example:  "The reality is that one strong jobs report does not snap the administration out of its current circumstances."  That may be as may be, but there have been 11 strong jobs reports in a row, not just 1 strong jobs report.

There are probably many reasons for the media's slant, just as there are probably many reasons for almost everything.  One reason for the media's approach to reporting news on labor issues is that there used to be a place reserved at most journalistic outlets for labor reporters, but no more.  There is a better chance at turning iron into gold, than finding a labor reporter in 2022.

It is time for the media to return to the days of being an intermediary between us and many news issues.  Labor is just one, but it is an important one.  As Margaret Sullivan has written in The Washington Post recently:

At many news organizations, the traditional labor beat was dismantled years ago. It should be brought back in reinvented form with attention paid to the gig economy, working from home, the burgeoning unionization movement and more.

It’s a deep, fascinating, close-to-home topic with great story potential — including the potential to give citizens a far better understanding of what’s really going on.

Margaret Sullivan, Perspective / The Media is Failing the Public on the Good News About Jobs / The Job Market is Great Right Now.  If People Think it's the Opposite, Some Part of the Blame Falls On Us, WASHINGTON POST online Sunday, April 10, 2022.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.  

FIRESIDE CHATS: LOWER ANXIETIES, RAISE RESULTS.

Fireside Chats by the President.  I have just heard that suggestion.  The suggestion that President Biden speak to the people regularly and often in  Fireside Chats is a good idea.  A real good idea.

Talking policy is not working.  Not because the policies -- Build Back Better for example -- are bad but because for whatever reason, they're not working.  Your poll standings are in the basement.  Many of your proposed policies are not even being seriously discussed.  Whatever you do when you talk policy, the yahoos will criticize you.  Criticize is most of what they do, if not the only thing they do.  And they have proven that they will even make things up whenever they see TV cameras.

So there will be criticism talking policy.  And talking policy won't get the results you and we want.  I know you think that it will, and you have surrounded yourself with people who think that changing policy will change America, but it doesn't.  Not so long as there are yahoos and Second President Manchin.  You didn't invent this system, Joe, but you need to think now about what you and we need and not so much about what you want.  Discard the preconceived notions and embrace reality:  What your Administration is doing is not working to get the change you want.

So change what you're doing.

Fireside Chats are in your wheelhouse.  They call upon your strengths.  They call upon you to calm the anxieties of a troubled people who long for something, someone, to believe in.  Fireside Chats give you the opportunity to be grandfatherly, which fits with your age and your position now.  The yahoos will still call you names, but they will have a harder time convincing anyone to believe anything but good things about their grandfather.

Fireside Chats also draw upon your capacity to empathize with people.  You talk to us like our family and friends talk to us.  We've heard and seen that many times after many tragedies and disasters.  You have shown that you will be there when people need your help in a crisis.  Now you need to show your empathy about the problems many people face in daily living.  Your empathy needs to be sustained.

And, yes, the yahoos will criticize even your empathy.  But regardless of what they do and think, does anyone seriously believe that attacking empathy and demanding cruelty is a winning proposition? 

One of your political heroes is FDR.  FDR was able to balance Fireside Chats with speeches that pulled no punches.  ("I do not shrink from their hatred, I welcome it!") 

You can too, Joe.  Maybe you can't be FDR.  There was only one of him, after all.

But you can be Joe Biden.

Joe Biden may be exactly what we need right now.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

Dr. KING'S PRAYER FOR AMERICA.

Dearest Jesus, come and sit with us today.  Show us the lies that are still embedded in the soul of America's consciousness.  Unmask the truths we have made our best friends.  For they seek our destruction.  And we are being destroyed, Lord.  Reveal the ways the lies have distorted and destroyed our relationships.  They break your shalom ... daily.

Jesus, give us courage to embrace the truth about ourselves and you and our world.  Truth:  We are all made in your image.  Truth:  You are God; we are not.  You are God; money is not.  You are God; jails, bombs and bullets are not.

And Jesus, give us faith to believe:  Redemption of people, relationships, communities and whole nations is possible!  Give us faith enough to renounce the lies and tear down the walls that separate us with our hands, with our feet, and with our votes!

--Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Please read the disclaimer.  This blog post ©2022 Dennis J. Wall. All rights in it reserved. No claim to Dr. King's Prayer.