Author Archives: Mark M. Meinero

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MORE THAN TWICE

Just yesterday, some idiot congresswoman from upstate New York proposed making Trump’s birthday a federal holiday.

The cult is strong with her.

It’s strong with a lot of them. Trump supporters see the chaos, anger and dysfunction taking place and love it. Like it’s a twist in a strange TV series and they’re eager to see what happens next.

One wishlist favorite of the people who go around telling everyone to read the Constitution is the idea that an 82-year-old Trump can run for president again in 2028. 

So I’ll start part two of my bottom-up “reading” of the Constitution with…

22nd Amendment: No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

You don’t have to read past the first 14 words to know why the Constitution prohibits Trump from running for a third term. Maybe the proponents of such a stupid idea should, I guess, READ THE CONSTITUTION.

Now, I’ve been told that one way around this might be to have Trump run for vice president with some patsy at the top of the ticket. It could be Vance, whose photo alone would define “patsy” in a pictorial dictionary.

Then, the thinking goes, the chump would step aside and Trump legally gets his third term. 

I’m not sure that works – I’m not an legal expert or Constitutional scholar, but I would think there’s something problematic about that.

Actually, if Trump wants a third term, he’d just declare it, claiming Section II of the Constitution. We’ll get to that in time.

This amendment was enacted right after the death of Franklin Roosevelt shortly after he won a fourth term. Republicans were horrified by the idea of another wildly popular Democrat controlling the Oval Office until he wanted to leave. 

FDR broke a tradition, started famously by George Washington (See, going to see “Hamilton” would prove useful one day!) of only two terms.

Democrats supported the idea – maybe someone foresaw Reagan, who might have won a third term even with dementia, and Trump. But they made sure it didn’t apply to Harry Truman, the incumbent.

So forget the run-on second sentence – brevity is not a strong suit among legal types. Truman is the only person to whom that applied.

21st Amendment: The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed. The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.

The only way you can get rid of a provision of the Constitution is by an amendment repealing that provision.

If what Trump has tried to do with birthright citizenship was legitimate, FDR would have ended Prohibition by executive order.

As it was, the 21st Amendment getting rid of the 18th Amendment was pretty popular after the abject failure of banning booze. So Roosevelt was on pretty firm ground to let this repeal go the right way. Amazingly, Utah – not known as a haven for “intoxicating liquors” – is the state that made repeal effective.

Besides the fact that Prohibition was less observed than any law other than the one stopping you from tearing off a mattress tag, the 21st Amendment allowed states to ban alcohol on their own. Mississippi was completely dry for another 30-plus years.

20th Amendment: The terms of the President and the Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day. If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified. The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the House of Representatives may choose a President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them.

In 2020-21, there were 78 days between Election Day and the inauguration of Joe Biden . That gave Trump and his henchmen a little more than two months to conceive and execute the January 6 plot to overturn the election.

Imagine if they had another 43 days to put things in place.

Or, this year, given how quickly they moved to rend the fabric of American democracy, if they had another 78 days to organize their bullshit.

The 20th Amendment moved Inauguration Day to January 20 to March 4. It also decided to make being in Congress more of a real job by making sure it met every year and started to work on January 3.

This amendment also tries to relieve some of the hypothetical havoc of what if something happens to the president-elect, vice president-elect or both.

There’s something simplistic about it, though – as if Congress is going to rise to the crisis and agree on an acting president. 

Good luck with that.

19th Amendment: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

American women did not fully have the right to vote until 105 years ago.

You would think it’s unthinkable to repeal the 19th. But some of the Againers in MAGA believe going back to a time before suffrage would create an American paradise.

Mark Robinson, the clown Trump supported to be governor of North Carolina last year, said in 2020, “I absolutely want to go back to the America where women couldn’t vote.” Then, Robinson posited, we could get the real change Americans need, which he believes is freedom from government.

Robinson’s not alone. There are several MAGA bros who think the women should shut up and let the guys decide how the world runs.

And while I concede that this is a distinctly small minority of the populace expressing such thoughts, I do notice that Trump won both his elections against highly more qualified women and lost to an exceedingly decent man.

The 19th Amendment might still be in effect. But the belittlement of thinking women continues uninterrupted.

18th Amendment: After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Apologizing to a liberal advocate for a scathing letter he sent her, former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson, a Republican, quoted a former Democratic colleague by saying “When I make a mistake, it’s a doozy.”

It’s hard for our times to conjure what a failure Prohibition was. It was an attempt by the center and bottom of the country to dictate morality to the rest of it.

The result was not a sober America. It was an America in which unregulated alcohol killed people. It was an America where people lost respect for the rule of law. It institutionalized organized crime. It destroyed honest family businesses that had been distilling or brewing for generations.

It should have served as a warning to future generations.

Instead, it seems that that America – a proven failure as shown by the 18th Amendment – wants to pull this kind of a stunt again. Banning abortion, or birth control, or IVF, or same-sex marriage, or recriminalizing marijuana will backfire in a godawful way.

Just like Prohibition.

17th Amendment: The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures. When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct. This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.

Until 1913, your state’s U.S. Senator was chosen by your state’s legislature. Marty Massachusetts did not cast a ballot for Daniel Webster. Kenny Kentucky did not check off the box for Henry Clay.

It was spelled out in Section I that senators weren’t directly elected. You could argue that your assemblyman voted in your interest when he (remember, our trip from bottom to top goes back in time, so the 19th Amendment hasn’t passed yet) cast his vote for senator.

But the problem was leaving it up to your assemblyman. He apparently didn’t agree with the guy your state senator wanted. And soon, Senate vacancies were taking an inordinate amount to fill, sometimes leaving states with no representation.

In addition, a Senate opening became an opportunity to make bank. Bribery and payoffs were widespread.

Of course, in the 21st century, we’ve evolved to the point at which money doesn’t control politics at all. Campaign spending is minimal. Ambassadorships and cabinet posts are awarded on merit, not on how much you contributed to a campaign.

And the moon is made of green cheese.

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Uncategorized

MAYBE THEY’RE THE ONES WHO SHOULD ACTUALLY READ IT

One of the tenets of MAGAism is that their opponents haven’t actually read the Constitution of the United States.

If they did, they “reason” (that’s not a word easy to apply to these people) that we’d all understand why women and people of color should be second-class citizens, immigrants have no business being here and everyone should arm to the teeth.

So, let’s take them up on the challenge. And because people tend to stop reading after the top of the page – especially when a document is started in 18th century English – let’s start from the bottom. With the last six amendments to the Constitution, numbers 28 to 23.

— 28th Amendment: Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.

Here’s the first bone of contention.

What’s commonly known as the Equal Rights Amendment was supposed to have been approved by three-quarters of the state legislatures by 1982. It came up three states short by the deadline. But since 2017, three states – Nevada, Illinois and Virginia – have voted to ratify.

After the 2024 presidential election, Democrats pushed to have President Biden declare that the amendment was ratified. They were not acting without legal support – the American Bar Association agreed that the amendment could be enacted. Even after the deadline – and even after six states changed their mind and voted to rescind ratification.

Biden sort of said “Why the hell not?” and declared the amendment ratified, especially given the two-year clause for taking effect had passed.

He knew that the idea that men and women are equal under the Constitution – something not specifically spelled out in the 237+ years prior – would piss the hell out of Trump and the pet rocks who support him.

The idea of ignoring deratification has precedent. Southern legislatures tried to do that with the 13th and 14th Amendments, the ones that abolished slavery. For once, the Jim Crow types lost – those rescinding moves were ignored.

Ignoring the seven-year deadline for ratification is another matter. It isn’t part of the amendment’s text (READ THE CONSTITUTION!), so whether it has standing is in dispute.

My thought here is this: After all the unchecked actions taken by Trump in the first three weeks of this debacle, it’s pretty rich for the right to complain about something Biden declared following approval by the requisite 38 states. 

Best of all, if you happen to be a woman who disagrees with my position, your rights are protected under this 28th Amendment.

— 27th Amendment: No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.

The only people I can imagine opposing this are those who sought Congressional seats to make bank from the public payroll.

Basically, nobody in the current Congress – the 119th – can collect on a vote to raise their pay until the 120th. And that’s after the people of their state or district have a chance to consider whether that pay raise is a good idea.

— 26th Amendment: The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.

This amendment passed just in time for me – I turned 18 the year after its ratification and voted for the first time in the 1972 New York presidential primary.

No amendment has been ratified faster than the 26th. That’s surprising, because its adoption came at a particularly fraught time – in the midst of all the protests of the Vietnam War and during the administration of Richard M. Nixon, who was not perceived as the kids’ choice.

Opponents thought 18-year-olds were too immature to pass judgment on civic matters. There was just one problem with that – they certainly appeared to be mature enough to die in a Vietnamese rice patty.

The 26th passed with widespread support in both parties. There are many on the right who would like to take that back. 

Good luck with that.

— 25th Amendment: In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress. 

Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

Troppe parole! They needed a lot of words to resolve what they saw as a complicated problem.

Here’s one simple thought:

Had Trump tried to stage the insurrection in December 2020 instead of January 6, 2021, there’s a good chance that last sentence would have been invoked by Trump’s cabinet. Starting with Mike Pence, who was the guy who the MAGAts wanted at the end of a rope.

It is clearly not going to be invoked by this bunch of pillbugs. And it certainly wouldn’t pass the muster of supplicants like House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune.

The dolts in this cabinet are loyal to Trump. Not to the Constitution. There’s no provision in the 25th for the people of the country to attempt removal of someone as clearly unfit as Trump.

— 24th Amendment: The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay poll tax or other tax.

A lot of the MAGA types, when they tell us to READ THE CONSTITUTION, think that there’s some need to require voter ID to exercise your franchise.

The 24th Amendment can be construed as an answer to that. 

Poll taxes were imposed in the South as a way to restrict Black adults and less affluent whites from voting. There were also citizenship tests with really dopey questions aimed at frustrating people.

Can voter ID be construed as a poll tax? Yeah.

Voter ID is not free. It’s something like a driver’s license or a passport. You are requiring people to get these things whether they want them or not – and whether they can afford to pay for them or not. 

That applies to any other of the stupid rules being enforced by states like Texas, Georgia and Florida. They violate the 24th Amendment.

READ THE CONSTITUTION!

— 23rd Amendment: The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as Congress may direct: A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous State; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.

Remember that whole thing about taxation without representation? Well, welcome to Washington, D.C.

Living in the nation’s capital doesn’t afford you the same rights as someone living in Washington, Illinois. You don’t have senators or a representative in the House. Your local legislative body has no power to change the Constitution. So laws in this country are made without your input.

Thanks to the 23rd Amendment, Washingtonians have some say in who lives on one of the biggest pieces of property in town. But they didn’t get that right until 1961 – for 174 years, they were completely powerless.

There’s one big reason why Washingtonians won’t get any more rights anytime soon. It’s the fact that 62% of the population isn’t white. That scares the hell out of people in the red states – imagine two more senators and one representative voting in the interest of people of color.

MAGA types talk about feelings of helplessness against the system. They don’t seem too bothered by the idea that there are Americans who are Constitutionally helpless against the system.

Admitting D.C. as a state or amending the Constitution to require representation are the only ways to right this wrong. That ain’t happening.

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Economy

WE NEED A RAISE

The median monthly rent in the United States, as of 2023, is $1,348, according to the Census Bureau (assuming Musk and his rodents haven’t been screwing around with the data).

If you had a minimum wage job and devoted your entire paycheck – 100% we’re talking, sans vacation, and assuming no taxes are taken out – you’d be short $108 every month. 

Also: heat, electricity, food, transportation and clothing would have to appear magically, since you’d have no money left for anything besides your landlord.

The national minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. It has not risen in 15-1/2 years. Remember all that inflation everyone complained about the past couple of years? It ain’t because people getting the minimum wage are getting rich – makes you wonder who actually is causing prices to rise.

In fact, they keep falling back, making their lives more difficult. In the process, because people getting the minimum wage aren’t getting raises, it allows employers to limit the raises they give workers making a little bit more. “You should be grateful you’re getting $10 an hour because I could be paying you $7.25” is the attitude we’re looking at here.

Somehow, most politicians forgot that the people doing the least desirable jobs in our country might be well-served getting a little more money for doing them.

Now, to be fair, a majority of states and territories have minimum wage rates above the national mandate – the highest being Washington, D.C.’s $17.50. But a lot of states have minimum wage rates at the national average, below the national average or even no minimum wage at all.

It fails to take into consideration the fact that people have lives outside their jobs. That they’re supporting themselves and want to build the kind of financial foundation that allows them to realize their dreams.

Businesses thinks that’s not their problem. Being successful is. But if a business can’t make it without paying the people powering it a living wage, maybe that business needs to rethink what it’s doing and how.

A living wage in 2025 America being something in the vicinity of $20 an hour.

Oh, my goodness, that’s inflationary. That’s what the conservatives – the so-called “job creators” – will say. But, again, we had inflation without anyone – especially getting in the minimum wage category – a raise. 

Not only should the minimum wage allow people to actually make a living earning it, but it should also be indexed according to inflation. In other words, a rise should come just about every year – not every 15-1/2 and counting.

This is not a radical concept. Twelve states and Washington, D.C., all have annual minimum wage adjustments. Three of those states – Alaska, Missouri and Montana – voted for Trump three months ago. We do it for Social Security – and employers seem to able to pass on price increases whether or not they raise workers’ wages.

Now a lot of you are thinking “With all the crap going on since TrumpMusk took over, it seems like raising the minimum wage is a low priority.”

Stop thinking like that.

We should have learned by now that you can’t beat something with nothing. Since the Reagan years, Democrats have had to come in and clean up messes left by Republican presidents.

Let’s stop doing that. Let’s advance an economic agenda that benefits the people who somehow vote against their interest and see Trump as a hero. Let’s offer a better path, actual help for the problems they need solved.

Americans – especially young people and those working the thankless jobs that pay the least – need to be able to afford to live. A program to raise the minimum wage and provide a universal basic income, as I suggested two weeks ago, might go a long way toward remedying the economic anxiety millions face.

It would have the added benefit of making the heads of Trump and the Republicans who enable him spin.

If you get a chance, call or write your representative, your senator, the White House and tell them Americans need a raise.

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Uncategorized

COME ONE, COME ALL

Trump promised his minions mass deportations. 

So why is anyone surprised that the topic of conversation in the United States this week is mass deportation?

The stories of ICE raids in schools and workplaces are heartbreaking and cruel. But just as important, what’s going on is totally in stupid territory and not in any way in the best interest of the United States.

There’s a feeling of screaming into the void. You can tell people their rights and protest all you want. But a plurality of Americans gave Trump a victory and he believes he has a mandate to do this crap.

So here’s what I think is the best way to respond to this BS:

To the people who want to come here from Guatemala and El Salvador, from Haiti and Cuba, from China and Myanmar, from Rwanda and Congo, from Syria and Somalia, there should be one word – albeit in a different language for each.

WELCOME!

The only people we should stop from coming into this country are the ones who want to avoid going through one of the legal doors – I’d be suspicious of their motive in coming here. But for everybody who comes to a border crossing – people fleeing gang violence, political oppression and/or crippling poverty – I think we should tell them to come on in.

I think that’s the right response to Trump.

That might seem crazy. The sentiment among his supporters is these are people leeching off American prosperity. 

They’ve been stoked into this sentiment by decades of xenophobia. There are strains throughout American history and they’ve been applied to all kinds of newcomers. They never seem to go completely away.

The latest strain cropped up around the turn of this century. It was stoked by people like Lou Dobbs, who spent every night on his CNN broadcast proclaiming that America’s borders were broken and that unwanted people were taking American jobs.

And, of course, the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, exacerbated fears that people were coming into this country to destroy it. Forget that the terrorists came into this country legally. Forget that their gang leader was a citizen of a supposed ally, Saudi Arabia. 

As far as the stokers were concerned, it was the woman trekking hundreds of miles in brutal conditions trying to get in via a boxcar in 110-degree weather or across desert land in the Southwest who was the “real” threat.

It was – and is – bullshit. Because we found ways to exploit them. We used their desperation to put them in jobs citizens didn’t want to do, pay them what we thought were miserable wages and hold the threat of deportation over their heads if they complained. And we did little to improve conditions in the homelands of these folks, forcing them to flee or die.

It was a situation that needed resolution – the “illegal” border crossings were a contrivance, because people felt the need to get here somehow. And there were people in both parties who understood that – who came up with ideas to help resolve the manufactured crisis.

But the gurus of right-wing power madness had other ideas. Immigration was a gift that kept on giving – fear-mongering as a recruitment tool. As a political strategy.

Trump and the Fox News klan latched onto this nonsense and exploited it brilliantly.

The people who believe in humanity – that would be us – always play this game on their turf. We seem to think that there’s a problem because they tell us there’s a problem. So we try to find a way to placate the radicals when all this is their way of gaining and maintaining power.

Here’s what we want:

We want everybody who wants to come here to come here. We want people who are willing to take the jobs Americans don’t want to do – fruit picking, meat packing, lawn mowing, burger frying – to take the jobs Americans don’t to do. If people are desperate to escape oppression and poverty – and are willing to do anything to make their lives better – we should be their champions.

It makes no sense to create this bizarre system that forces people to use desperate measures to get here. What Trump is doing now enables the coyotes – the people who extort the tired and poor, and make them indentured servants. He’s not hurting MS-13, he’s making it more powerful.

And instead of this nonsense of blackmailing Latin American countries into taking people rounded up by Gestapo wannabes on the streets of our cities, we should work with those countries to improve conditions and allow people to live their best lives in their own homeland.

But those who want to come help us – to make America truly great? Let ’em in. Let them help us build a better country. 

A strong country,  a country that calls itself the most powerful in the world, that calls itself the world’s beacon, isn’t afraid of Honduran 4-year-olds. It embraces them, it educates them and gives them comfort and safety. And then when they succeed, it’s our success as well.

I’m here because a century ago Benito Mussolini was a prick in Italy. My wife is here because 75 years ago Mao Zedong was a prick in China. There are millions of us who can tell that story, from every land on this planet. We’ve worked together to create a nation that – at its best – captures the world’s imagination. 

Because we’re not all the same. And a few more in our situation, wherever they’re from, can help.

That’s what we need to push for. Double down, not double over.

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Uncategorized

FREE MONEY

Last summer, in my happy ignorance of thinking there was no way Trump could return to office, I was stuck at a Met game sitting next to a couple of his adherents.

It was a Met game, so you would hope they’d be focused on seeing the Amazins win.

But, nah, why would they focus on that? More than sufficiently lubricated by strong beverage, they began spewing the mantra of the indignant:

There are people getting free stuff!

They spent the whole game complaining about various groups who were getting things they perceived they weren’t. Forget that they were sitting in one of the more expensive sections of Citi Field – and could apparently afford spending a ton on booze. They screeched “These people” – and there was strong language that the people to whom they referred were not of pale complexion – are getting giveaways of money and cellphones and whatever else from Joe Biden and the rest of the Democratic elite.

Alas, they prevailed in November and we are now three days into this go-round. And instead of lamenting what happened, I’m focused on what we should do.

And that is give free stuff to everybody.

Actually, it’s not stuff. It’s money. Cash. 

It seems like a good time to figure out how to initiate some form of universal basic income (UBI) in the United States.

There are several ways to do UBI. But basically, the idea is to give everybody money on a regular basis. The standard idea would be $1,000 a month. It would go to every person in a household, which means if you and your spouse have two kids, that would be an extra $48,000 a year in family income.

And it would go to you no matter your status. Employed or unemployed. Husband or wife. Parent or child.  Billionaire or living hand-to-mouth. 

What would that extra money provide? 

Obviously, if you’re unemployed, it would provide you with some income. (Although it’s likely unemployment benefits might be better – in New York, weekly unemployment pay goes up to $500.)

If you’re working two jobs to make ends meet, maybe you can quit the one you like least. Or you can buy time to get a better job. UBI begins to compensate women for staying at home with their kids. It is a way to help families build the kind of generational wealth so many can’t afford. 

Andrew Yang, when he ran for the Democratic nomination in 2020 and before he lost his common sense, made UBI a cornerstone of his campaign. His argument was that the tech revolution is chewing up jobs faster than it’s creating them – and that giving everyone money would soften the blow for unemployed families and the rest of the community.

There have been several small efforts at UBI around the world. The results are generally positive – people receiving a steady supplement are significantly happier than those who don’t.

It is, of course, a form of socialism. Although a kind of socialism that some doctrinal conservatives seem OK with.

In fact, there is one place in the United States where a form of UBI has been in effect for more than 40 years. It is not a hotbed of liberal thought like California or Massachusetts.

It’s Alaska, one of the most politically conservative states in the union. Every resident of the state get a check from the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend – paid for by the revenue generated from the production of oil and gas in the state. 

Last year, each Alaskan received $1,702. You and your spouse have two kids – that’s $6,808 just handed to you.

The thing is that Alaska addresses the issue that opponents would flag instantaneously: How do we pay for this? In this case, oil companies are paying to deplete the state’s natural resources and the money is going to people.

It’s likely a UBI program would require an increase in government revenue of about 75%. And right away, critics would scream about imposing an at least 50% tax increase on the American people. Nobody wants that.

So the task facing anyone who thinks UBI might be an idea whose time has come is daunting: paying for it. Is it an effort to get the wealthy to pay a larger share of the burden after they backed Trump in order to get even more tax breaks? Or are there creative ways to generate the revenue: a national lottery, leasing fees from government land?

The idea is to have an idea – to have more than one. Finding ways to improve our lives needs to be the focus, because our warnings about what a horror Trump is went unheeded by a plurality of our countrymen.

So let’s see if CBI is something that we can push and advance – something you can be certain is not in the interest of selfish bastards like Trump and his tech bro friends. 

Because everyone likes getting stuff – if only to pay for another scotch-and-soda in the 6th inning. MAGA types might be less indignant if they’re getting it too.

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Uncategorized

MAKE AMERICA GREATER

There are just four days left in the Biden administration and it is my intention to enjoy each one as a gift.

A decent, hard-working man – perhaps a bit too old for the job but still good at it anyway – graced us from noon ET on January 20, 2021 to this coming Monday at noon. Like every other presidency, Joe Biden’s wasn’t perfect. But it came as close as any in my lifetime.

Joe Biden guided us gently out of the gloom of the COVID-19 debacle inherited from the guy who’s replacing him. They might be a pain in the butt, but all those highway construction projects you see are making our roads – along with the rest of our infrastructure – more suited to the century we’re now a quarter of the way into.

He stood for Ukraine when Vladimir Putin got frustrated by waiting for his imperial dreams to come true. He combatted climate change and showed respect for people who have been traditionally belittled in American society.

The American economy is the strongest in the world. He managed to blast America’s way out of the pandemic-induced recession and then brought the growth lower with a brief spike in inflation.

That spike, however, did in both him and Kamala Harris. And so we get Trump again for four years – assuming the blowhard makes it to age 82.

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Both Joe Biden and Barack Obama spent way too much of their presidencies cleaning up the messes left by their predecessors.

Biden, of course, had the aftermath of the pandemic. Obama faced both the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and an American military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I suspect just about everyone reading this and liking it agrees there will be an equal or worse clusterfuck to deal with four years from Monday.

And yet, that’s the mistake we make and the other side doesn’t.

We concentrate on fighting them. They fight us – don’t get me wrong – but they also develop new, crueler, stupider ideas to foist on both the left and the cucumbers who voted for them in November. 

There will be a lot of angst to go around. But part of their gameplan is to frustrate us – to make us concentrate on their latest perverse idea or vendetta.

Right now, you’re seeing it with the wildfires in Los Angeles. How California is a failed liberal experiment and the disaster is due to a combination of its godlessness, diversity and economic initiatives. Just check out some of the comments from Wyoming Sen. John Horsesasso.

It’s meant to drain our energy. And it has to, at least to some extent. You can’t claim to be a decent human being and then deny aid to Los Angeles, or just uproot millions of people living and working here peacefully because they didn’t get the documents you demand. Or tell women they risk prison or worse if they try in any way to end an unwanted or dangerous pregnancy.

But we need to be better this time. And the way to do that is to think about what we want to do to make America greater.

See, I think Peruvian restaurants and Hmong gymnasts and Somalian-born soldiers make this country great. Not McDonald’s or Walmart or Tesla – or not by themselves, anyway. 

And it certainly is not a hateful convicted felon who is absolutely clueless about what it takes to lead an amazing land.

So we need to advance our agenda. To come up with ideas we think will improve our country and, maybe with it, the world. 

They don’t have to be popular now. Some absolutely won’t be. But we need to advance the case so that we can sell them from conviction and evidence. And begin the process of educating and converting some of the just shy of 50% of American voters who actually chose Trump over a really smart, energetic woman.

Over the next five weeks, I’m going to put forward some ideas I’ve thought about as ways we can show how we’re looking toward 2100, not 1900.

The ideas:

— Universal basic income: This is what Andrew Yang promoted when he ran for president in 2000, and then got weird. 

Both liberals and conservatives have reasons to like this idea. But Trump and his supporters will see it as free money (that they don’t think they’re getting) and squawk.

— Police reform. I bristle every time I see a car with one of those black versions of the American flag and the blue stripe in the middle. As if policing in this country should go unquestioned and unfettered. 

But when you see three or four cops together, do you feel safer? Or nervous? And do the answers depend on what you look like? Frankly, few things are in more need of improvement in this country than how we police ourselves.

— Immigration reform. Trump and his minions don’t want to reform immigration. They want to abolish it – unless you can make a considerable donation to the GOP after you get here. The question of how we treat people coming here, for more than four centuries, is one of our greatest dilemmas. 

We should aspire to be better than that – this doesn’t seem like that intractable a problem if we come up with creative and humane solutions.

— Getting around. It’s believed one of Trump’s first executive orders will be to maximize oil production and end credits for electric vehicles – the short-sighted, idiotic “drill, baby, drill” mantra.

Let’s get past both those forms of transportation – there have been few innovations in creating new ways to go places compared with communication technology. Let’s encourage imagination.

— Kindness. Mean will be in power starting Monday. Mean will be the default approach of the White House, Congress and Supreme Court. Mean will drive the stories you see on the news and the attitude of the plurality. If you don’t believe that, explain why a house near me still flew its “Fuck Biden” and “Fuck Kamala Harris” flags as late as New Year’s Eve. 

We have to create new, innovative ways to be kind – to look out for people who are pariahs to the MAGAs. Kindness is our not-so-secret weapon for making America greater – a task that will be easier once we get past Trump and his ilk.

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DECONGESTIVE

Big changes usually happen over time – years or decades.

Which is why New York’s imposition of congestion pricing interests me so much. That and the fact that I live in the suburbs north of the city, where the pitchforks glisten and children listen to hear adults whining in the snow.

Congestion pricing – if you’re not aware of it, you probably don’t care, but I’ll describe it anyway – is a toll on vehicles entering the area of Manhattan from Battery Park to 60th Street. That includes such places as Times Square, Chinatown, Greenwich Village, Wall Street and the World Trade Center. Cars pay $9 in peak periods and $2.25 off peak.

The purpose is twofold. New York’s mass transit system desperately needs upgrading and repair. Legislators, mainly from rural and suburban areas, never fund the system adequately. So this will raise money for the work that needs to be done.

The other purpose is to relieve the unbearable congestion on Manhattan streets. Motorized vehicles were an afterthought for the city fathers of the Big Apple. So we have gridlock on many streets and the accompanying pedlock for people who have to walk around the areas. 

It’s cool that NYC is trying something so different to the American experience. I can’t think of too many changes so quickly imposed – except for the pandemic when everything was shut down and most everyone was forced to stay at home.

It’ll take a few months of analyzing the data to see if congestion pricing is successful in reducing traffic, whether that helps the air quality and if the tolls are raising the money as expected.

But congestion pricing is already considered an abject failure and an insult by the people who live here in the suburbs.

The primary reason is that they want things to stay the same. It’s great for them. They drive down to Manhattan, look for street parking to avoid paying for those $50 garages, and go door-to-door with impunity.

Pedestrians are not their problem. Foul air is not their problem. Rundown subways and clogged bus lanes are not their problem.

Suburban commuters are goaded by the lame politicians they elect. As with other things in this era, they stoke anger about things that are unfamiliar or seem hostile to the status quo.

The idea that New York might impose congestion pricing has been around for at least a decade. But the only response legislators and executives in the suburbs conjured was lawsuits. That was the plan – we’ll sue the city and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and just the threat will force them to back down.

It didn’t work. Now what they’re hoping is that Trump, after he takes office on the 20th, will work some kind of magic to get rid of the plan.

It’s lazy, stupid  – and typical for the fatasses who worm their way into office around here.

What should they have done?

I’m not denying their right to employ pet lawyers at taxpayer expense to adjudicate a grievance. But maybe, just maybe, while they were doing that, they could have come up with actual plans to help the people they represent adapt to the new reality.

Was there any effort by New Jersey or the New York suburbs to develop alternatives to driving to midtown? Free bus service, either to the city or to the commuter rail stations outside it. New park-and-ride lots – and repromotion of existing ones – to encourage car pooling or to offer shuttles to the zone. Setting up offices in the zone to promote alternatives and provide information about congestion pricing.

No. The knee-jerk solution is the courthouse. Sue the city into submission. Don’t adapt to the reality, obliterate it.

Now, I also don’t want to let this seem as though I’m putting a halo on the people who support congestion pricing. Yes, I think it’s takes some gumption to implement a plan like this. Bravo.

But maybe, just maybe, the proponents could have made people more aware of the alternatives to driving. Yes, we know about the subway, suburban buses and commuter rail. How about creating satellite parking lots near rail stations to encourage using the train? What about using all these abandoned or nearly abandoned strip malls and shopping malls to provide commuter assistance services?

And what about expanding the use of water transportation – in a zone surrounded on three sides by rivers and a bay – to get people to where they need to be quickly and more efficiently?

One other thought: 

When I was walking through Midtown just after Christmas, I would count the cars at every crossing and multiply by $9. There were hundreds of dollars at every intersection, thousands – maybe even millions – of dollars over the course of a day.

It would be cool if, every day or every few days, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority disclosed how much money it took in – and then announced what, specifically, that money will be used for.

If it takes $350,000 to repair an escalator at Grand Central Station, tell people that the receipts for January 9 will be used for that. (I have no idea if that figure is even close, but I use it as an example.)

Let people see specifically what the money is being used for and there’s a chance you might at least shut up some of the numbskulls who keep saying the authority won’t spend the money on improvements.

That would be an out-of-the-box idea. Just like congestion pricing.

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GOOD THINGS THAT END

Jimmy Carter’s passing reminds us that human lives aren’t eternal – even ones as worthy of going on forever as the 39th President’s.

Carter died Sunday at the age of 100, the longest-living American president. That’s a nice fact, but here’s a nicer one – he appears to have been a genuinely good person. He was honest – perhaps too much for American politics – and saw the future when others found it safer to stay in the past or present.

Because his opponents – on both the left and right – found it convenient, the narrative they painted was of a failed presidency. 

His firm stand on human rights and only tepid support of the corrupt Shah of Iran was seen as leading to the Iranian Revolution, 

In turn, that was seen as leading to the taking of American hostages at the embassy in Tehran and a largely unwarranted surge in oil prices. 

And that in turn led to some of the worst inflation in my lifetime. Which resulted in the election of Ronald Reagan.

That all sounds really bad. But Carter got what we would now call “trolled” a lot. 

He was not popular with the Washington establishment – to be fair, he was a bit haughty about it, but there was certainly some justification. His focus on human rights ticked off the Arab nations, right-wing dictators in Latin America and the Soviets. And once the U.S. right – Reagan et al. – and the left – Ted Kennedy et al. – ganged up on him, he was finished.

But Carter saw climate change and the energy crisis coming. He established diplomatic relations with China and negotiated the Camp David accords that still keep the peace between Israel and Egypt.

More important, he didn’t talk to the American people as though they were idiots. His August 1979 address to the nation – often called the “malaise speech” – is perhaps the bravest any American president ever delivered. 

But by telling the American people that there might be something wrong with them, he opened the door to opportunistic types who knew they could curry favor by pandering. (see Trump, Donald J.)

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The timing of Carter’s death seems like quite a coincidence. It’s three weeks before Trump’s inauguration – just in time for Carter’s family to avoid having Trump play a major role in the commemoration of a man he belittled for decades.

Instead, a eulogy will be delivered by President Biden, who was among the first major political figures to support Carter’s long-shot 1976 presidential run. (It also says a lot about Carter that the man he defeated for the presidency, Gerald Ford, will eulogize him through a letter written before he died.)

That’s a reminder that another good thing that’s ending, unfortunately, is Biden’s presidency.

The Biden and Carter presidencies share a lot. They both inherited a mess from a disreputable Republican predecessor. Biden got the mishegas Trump left because of his botching of COVID. Carter came on in the aftermath of Richard Nixon’s resignation in disgrace following Watergate, something the more honorable Ford couldn’t overcome.

Both men confronted a fanatical and fantastically well financed assault from the far right. Carter contended with the so-called “Moral Majority,” the slime such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. For Biden, it’s the megabillions of Elon Musk and other would-be oligarchs seeking favor from their bought-and-paid-for candidate.

The final thing the two men share is that their presidencies being appreciated more than 40 years after the fact. Carter’s vision and humanity is coming to the fore now that he’s no longer around to accept the accolades. 

That, I’m afraid, is what will happen to Joe Biden. Americans blamed him for higher gas prices and whatever it was they were paying for a dozen eggs. It didn’t matter that the supply chain problems that produced the inflation came as a result of Trump’s COVID failure.

In the process, Biden not only rebuilt the economy, but managed – along with the Federal Reserve – to cool its overheating without inflicting a recession on this country. He actually get the funding for thousands of project to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure.

Biden stood steadfast behind Volodymyr Zelensky and the people of Ukraine when threatened by Vladimir Putin – who seems to be Trump’s hero. And while he couldn’t get out of the trap Putin, Iran, Netanyahu and Trump set for him in Gaza, he never stopped trying to get a fair solution and an end to the horror – his critics notwithstanding.

Joe Biden – in fact, probably you and I – won’t be around when historians realize how lucky we were to have a man of such compassion and intelligence as our president. That’s little comfort as 2024 ends.

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If my GOOD THINGS THAT END headline seems a little off to you, I understand.

The proverb is “all good things must come to an end.” I’m guessing its intended meaning is that you should appreciate what you have when you have it.

But while that might apply to vacations in Hawaii, a bowl of chocolate chip ice cream, and the presidencies of Jimmy Carter and Joe Biden, it doesn’t – it can’t – apply to everything.

Caring about the other people in our world. Compassion for the sick and needy. Encouraging dreams and hard work. Civility. Diversity. Generosity. Creativity. 

Democracy.

In the eight weeks since the election, I’ve taken the first breather from news in my 70 years. I’ve avoided social media except for wishing good tidings to friends and family – and sharing my thoughts about holiday music. I refused to let the latest outrage, the chaos meant to consume and disable us, spoil my holiday season with friends and family.

Now, it’s time to reengage. We have less than three weeks until we are mandated to give the White House back to its desecrator. It’s time for the fight of our lives.

Because there are many good things about America that can never be allowed to end.

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HOLIDAY SONG COUNTDOWN – DEC. 25 (2 OF 2)

“(WHEN IS) HANUKKAH THIS YEAR” – 1ST NIGHT OF HANUKKAH

Hanukkah is always the same day in the Hebrew calendar – the 25th day of the month of Kislev.

But since that’s a lunar calendar, it never falls on the same day in the Gregorian one. So figuring out when to wish our Jewish friends a Happy Hanukkah is often a challenge.

In 2024, Hanukkah begins on the night of December 25 – tonight if you read this when it’s posted. And it’ll run all the way into the first two days of January.

This song, by the alternate rock band Mêlée, captures the calendar confusion as well as the joy of a festival that celebrates lighting the way in the darkness.

Happy Hanukkah!

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HOLIDAY SONG COUNTDOWN – DEC. 25 (1 OF 2)

“GOD REST YE MERRY, GENTLEMEN” – CHRISTMAS DAY

The last Christmas song in this year’s countdown is this old English carol whose origin isn’t known for sure.

Some say it dates back to the 16th century. Others place it in the 1700s.

It’s one of those songs that’s in every holiday songbook, but doesn’t particularly make anyone’s favorite list. It’s nice, but somewhat innocuous.

Except that the Kiwi composer John Metcalfe has created a version that’s interesting. It has become my favorite version of this song.

And it’s a good way to wish you all a wonderful Christmas Day and a better-than-expected 2025.

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