America will not survive a contest between cruelty and milquetoast

Here it is Christmas Day and I spent it by myself. In all my decades of life I hadn’t done that before. Even the Christmas when I lived in Germany an American couple invited me and a few other unattached people to their home for dinner. I have a white Christmas. The Detroit area got snow overnight and it has been snowing most of the day. I think we got 1.5 inches. Tomorrow’s exercise will be shoveling. I ate reasonably well today. For “dinner” I warmed up a precooked pork chop with some dressing I got at a gourmet grocery. I also had salad greens from a bag with dressing. This morning I started up the crock pot to have beef stew for supper. It turned out pretty good. I had the tree lights plugged in all day (I’ve had it lit up only in the evening) and Christmas music on the radio (until I got tired of it). I did a bit of genealogy work and a bit of composing. And I called my sister and sister-in-law. That’s about it. Yesterday I wrote about the spending bills Congress passed and how the nasty guy managed to blow it all up. At the time I said I didn’t have links to news articles. This morning I found a few, which gives me a bit more information. Joan McCarter of Daily Kos reported the nasty guy vetoed the National Defense Authorization Act. McCarter reported on Nancy Pelosi’s effort to get the $2000 relief checks the nasty guy said he wanted and that the GOP House leadership shot down. Pelosi will bring the House in session on Monday for a roll-call vote, to force members to put their names to approval or rejection. McCarter reported that the GOP in the Senate will just ignore the increase to $2000. They know they can’t get 60 votes. In addition GOP senators are relying on the nasty guy to sign the government funding bill he hasn’t signed yet – so no plans for if he doesn’t. McCarter added more details here. In one more post McCarter reported if the virus relief package doesn’t pass there will be an “avalanche of evictions.” The census estimates 11.3 million households won’t be able to pay next month’s rent or are already behind. Moody’s Analytics estimates there is a $70 billion backlog in unpaid rent. And communities of color will be hardest hit. Anand Giridharadas, publisher of The Ink, tweeted a thread:

It is simply unsustainable that so many of the leaders who wish Americans ill have no dearth of confidence about their authority, while so many of the leaders who wish Americans well are full of insecurity about their power. … I understand the practical difficulties. But message matters. Rhetoric matters. Moving the public matters. Why is there not a thundering, historic, down-through-the-ages speech being given every day by someone right now? That doesn't require Mitch's consent. … America will not long survive a contest between cruelty and milquetoast. Step up to the plate, people. And within the party, the new voices who are brilliant, who are fiery, who have passion, who know how to tell a story, who ache for regular people -- they are sidelined, they are scorned, they get no speaking time. And the bland, the encrusted, and the passionless reign forever. You can't blame the other side for beating you if you don't try to win.

There has been a lot of talk during this year’s campaign about raising taxes on the rich. There are ideas for higher income taxes and suggestions of a wealth tax, based on the total stash, not just on the new stash this year. Neither of those will pass if the GOP still controls the Senate in January. Hunter of Kos suggests an alternate method of taxation – increase the likelihood of audit by the IRS. A big reason the wealthy pay so low in taxes is they hide income, committing crimes as they do so. Raising the possibility of an audit means those schemes to hide money will be exposed. Right now the IRS focuses on lower income Americans because they can’t afford to lawyer up to fight the case. Another reason is the IRS budget has been cut so much they don’t have the staff to go after the big cases – and that was intentionally done by the GOP and their donors, the ones who would be audited. If the GOP stays in control of the Senate the IRS budget won’t get increased. Even so, Joe Biden can direct them to stop harassing poor people and spend their limited efforts on the rich. Hunter concluded:

The heart of the problem here is that the American upper class is awash in financial crimes as a way of life. It is expected, and celebrated. It is seen, by the plastic classes that file through Mar-a-Lago, as cleverness. The Occupy movement had them dead to rights, but could not make headway against a government too keen on collaborating with its own saboteurs. Appeals to decency or patriotism have never worked. Enforcing the laws already on the books, Republicans often say, is the path to ending out-of-control criminality. Imagine tens of thousands of Donald Trumps squealing like stuck pigs at the news that their tax returns are being genuinely probed; imagine a good chunk of those taking Trump's own path, declaring that if it's the nation versus his own pocketbook, then it is the nation which must go down. Russia, it seems, is not the most powerful nation that’s under the thumb of an inherently criminal class.

Mark Sumner of Kos is embarking on a book project that sounds intriguing and like a neat way to tell history. He started the idea in an essay posted in 2008. Two weeks before Arthur Schlesinger had died. Sumner wrote about the major world events (well, the western world) that happened during Schlesinger’s life from the most recent and going back in time. Schlesinger was born in 1918, the same year that “Buffalo Bill” – William Frederick Cody – died. Sumner did a similar review of world events during Cody’s life. From there he switched to John Quincy Adams (1767-1848). And through the lives of just three people he’s back before the United States came into being. We declared our independence in 1776, 244 years ago, which is now a bit longer than the lives of three people living to the age of 80. For the book project Sumner would like to start with someone still living or who died recently (Ruth Bader Ginsburg was suggested), then go much further back, perhaps through the lives of 60 people to when Abraham came to Canaan. Laura Clawson of Kos reminds us what in our Christmas wrappings can be recycled and what cannot. Do not recycle glittery, metallic, or flocked, paper. Do not recycle bows and ribbons. Do recycle other types of wrapping paper, even pieces with tape. When you buy more paper buy the stuff that can be recycled, even better buy paper made from recycled paper. All that stuff that can’t be recycled – the metallic paper and the ribbons – can be reused. My family has been reusing for years. I’ve got a couple bags of it in my closet. Ruth Fremson is a photographer based in Seattle. She was on the East Coast to cover the last few months of this weird election. At the start of December she took the long way home, spending more than two weeks on the road taking photos of Christmas plus one of Hanukkah. Her travelogue and photos are now published in the New York Times. My friend and debate partner sent me the link. One of his favorite pictures is also one of mine. It is a sign in front of the Frostburg United Methodist Church in Maryland that says, “Love Thy Neighbor, Wear Thy Mask.”