Campaigned for blue collars, governing for blue bloods

My Sunday movie was The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. It’s a short one, only 40 minutes. This won the Oscar for best short live action film in 2024. They story is by Roald Dahl and the movie opens with an actor playing Dahl introducing the tale. It is about a man from India who says he is able to see without using his eyes. Rich man Henry Sugar learns about the trick because he wants to give himself an advantage when he gambles. But it doesn’t go as expected. This film is very much eccentric. First is Dahl’s story. Second is Wes Anderson’s filming. I’ve seen a couple of Anderson’s films and know his style is eccentric. I haven’t watched everything he’s done because to me his manner can distract from the story. One eccentricity is that one character in a scene is always narrating, even going as far as turning to the camera after another person speaks and adding, “He said.” Another is that most of the scenes are presented on a stage and we see the backdrops come and go and stagehands lean in to place or remove objects. I wanted a short movie because I’ve now completed all of my holiday concerts and was a bit too tired for a long film. Though eccentric this one was enjoyable. Alex Samuels of Daily Kos discussed the failure of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to become the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee. She’s 35. The guy who got the job is 74. The main point is that Democrats have a lot of young (and more progressive) members who would be great leaders, but the current leadership, mostly in their 70s and 80s, isn’t passing the torch to the younger generation. And it is the current leadership that was in charge of messaging in the last election. I’ve been thinking a lot that while Republicans very much support the social hierarchy (with themselves and their billionaire donors on top), that does not mean Democrats don’t support the hierarchy. An Associated Press article posted on Kos reported that the home of Frances Perkins has been designated by Biden to be a national monument. Perkins was the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet, serving under Franklin D. Roosevelt. She was also the longest-serving labor secretary. Her work was instrumental in establishing Social Security, the Fair Labor Standards Act and the National Labor Relations Act, establishing the right to organize and bargain collectively. She helped formulate many parts of the New Deal and helped create economic safeguards to prevent another great depression. Alas, I contrast that with a post by Oliver Willis of Kos reporting that the nasty guy and Musk of the outside-of-government Department of Government Efficiency are talking to potential bank regulators what they think about abolishing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The FDIC was created by a law signed by FDR during the Great Depression to protect consumers in the case of a bank collapse. Of which there were many, and many that were serious. The question is whether the Treasury Department could handle the task instead. The article does not discuss what the effect of absorbing the FDIC into Treasury would do. But if the nasty guy and Musk are behind the proposal it can’t be good for regular citizens. Especially since Musk has also said he opposes the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau created under Obama. The CFPB advocates for consumers against banks, credit card companies, and the like. The CPFB has given $21 billion in relief to consumers since its creation. That is while Musk’s charitable foundations haven’t been donating the required 5% of assets and are behind by about $421 million. Musk’s worth is about $429 billion.

Musk is just the most high profile and wealthiest of the billionaires with no qualifications to steer government policy that Trump has put into positions of influence. Despite professing to be an advocate of “blue collar” values, Trump is giving blue bloods an enormous power boost.

Alix Breeden of Kos reported last week that House Republicans passed a massive $895 billion defense bill. It has some good stuff in it, like hefty pay increases for the military. However, it includes a provision banning medical care for transgender youth. Thankfully, those opposed to that provision includes Republicans. But that wasn’t enough to stop the bill. The bill now goes to the Senate. Chabeli Carrazana, in an article for The 19th posted on Kos, reported that many same-sex couples are rushing to finalize the adoption of their children before the nasty guy is sworn in. These are cases where one is a biological parent and the other isn’t. Many couples haven’t done this because the legal fees can be a couple thousand or more and under Biden it didn’t seem necessary. But under the nasty guy and a Supreme Court wanting to get another look at marriage equality, same-sex couples are looking for all the protection they can get. Supreme Court justice Ketanji Brown Jackson fulfilled a longtime dream of acting on Broadway. Last Saturday she had a moment in the musical “& Juliet.” This article has a short video of getting her ready for the role. Other sources, such as her appearance on the NPR show Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me, talk about how she was a student of theater as well as of law.