Feathering His Own Nest

It's reported that every time Donald Trump travels from Washington D C to his golf resort at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, it costs American taxpayers about $3.6 million.  That's $3,600,000.00 - one beaucoup bucket of bucks.  When one considers further that The Donald has made the trek at least nine times since his inauguration, we're looking at a price tag that would  give many pause.

But not the Bloviator in Chief.  He's cleaning up as well as having fun, since it's been estimated that nearly $1 million per year will  go into the coffers of the Trump Organization as a result of these and other similar visits.  What's even more distressing is the fact that the money spent on Trump at Mar-a-Lago could have funded a year’s worth of meals for 9,000 Meals on Wheels recipients, six years of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, or 7,000 Pell grants to help low-income students pay for college, among other options.

Marginalizing People

In a clip on MSNBC, someone carried a home-made sign that read Keep the Kids - Deport the
Racists.

 Were that to be carried out, Donald Trump would be the first to be booted.  Just before Christmas (how's that for insensitivity?), Trump, during a meeting at the White House regarding immigration policy, said Haitians have aids, and Nigerians will forget about their huts ... 

The breadth and depth of the man's complete lack of suitability for the office he holds are stunning.  But there is a hopeful note.  An ever-increasing number of prognosticators predict that Democrats will regain control of the House of Representatives, and perhaps the Senate as well, in 2018.

What has any of this to do with advocating for the working class?  Just this.  The kind of folks among whom I grew up deserve better than to be viewed as pawns by the current occupant of the Oval Office.  Remember who you are and where you came from, and vote Democratic next year!

Tax Reform That Changes Little

Despite happy-talk of Republicans from Paul Ryan to Donald Trump, the recently-passed tax "reform" bill will do little if anything to address, let alone ameliorate, income inequality in the United States.

According to Business Insider, a number of the provisions of the legislation in question will actually exacerbate income inequality.

Should we be surprised that images like that below present so disturbing a picture for workers and the middle class?

Don't Get Sick

One of Bodhie's colleagues recently caught a severe case of sticker shock.  In spite of having supplemental coverage for Medicare Part D, the very high deductible for that policy forced him to pay $236.99 for a 30-capsule, 30-day supply of the anti-cholesterol drug Zetia.

That's right - about $8.00 per capsule.  Why so costly?  Because Merck charges outlandishly for this drug.

These facts make the Republican Congress's rush to force through a Koch-  and  Mercer-friendly "tax cut for the middle class" even more hypocritical.  That cut relies on, among other things toxic to the interests of workers, eliminating the individual mandate from the Affordable Care Act.  As a result, as many as 16 million more Americans might join the ranks of the un- or under-insured.  That in turn might cause them to share expenses like those outl8ined below with my friend.

Drug	Treats	Retail Cost per dose / capsule
atorvastatin	High cholesterol	$6.00
fenofibrate	High cholesterol	$3.00
zetia	High cholesterol; risk of stroke	$8.00

Let's do the arithmetic.  For a 30-capsule, 30-daqy supply of all three of these drugs, you'd pay ($17.00 * 30), or $510.00.

All the meds in the table are commonly prescribed, and among those my friend currently takes.  The costs shown are from a single web site, and are specific to southeastern PA.

I'm reminded of a statement by former Representative Alan Grayson (D) Florida ...

Chain Migration

If opposition to chain migration, like that recently espoused by Donald Trump, had been active in the 20th Century, I wouldn't exist.

My maternal grandparents, Nicholas and Elizabeth Boytim, came to this country as a nuclear family.  Indeed, they brought their infant daughter Ann with them.  But the Petrovskys and Mahuskys, despite having lived only about 25 miles apart in the old country (AKA Carpathian Mountains), didn't get here as a unit.  Indeed, they didn't even become a unit until a few years after they'd arrived.

Grandfather Joseph (Petrovsky) saw Grandmother Elizabeth (nee Mahusky) walking along Braddock Avenue with the cousin who'd sponsored her.  After they married, Joseph and Elizabeth in turn sponsored one of Elizabeth's cousins, my "uncle" Mike Mahusky.

Joseph and Elizabeth helped other immigrants, whether or not those folks were part of the family "chain".  From what are now Hungary, the Slovak Republic, and Ukraine, people came to southwestern Pennsylvania with the help of my paternal grandparents.

The state, and our country, are better because of them.

A Numbers Game

Since his inauguration, Donald Trump, or those speaking or writing on his behalf, have issued one thousand six hundred twenty eight (1,628) lies.  Not alternative facts; not misstatements; not misunderstandings.  Lies.  Period.

Don't believe Bodhi?  How about the Washington Post?

Booze, Women, and Movies

Senator Chuck Grassley (R - Iowa) said a couple of days ago that a tax cut for the uber-wealthy is not unfair, since so many in the working- and middle-classes spend most of their $$ on - wait for it - booze, women, and movies.

His Republican colleague Orrin Hatch of Utah implied that workers were at fault for being what Hatch called layabouts.

Shame on them both; email them  ...

Budding Buddhist, Serial Blogger

15104 was born when I realized that an educated, well-informed working class is archetypical to progress for the community and for the world.

My mini-epiphany dates back to 2012, when I started blogging in earnest, first with my own website;  then through a collection of essays on politics based upon my growing involvement with Buddhism as a destination for my personal spiritual journey; and finally with a small collection of those essays titled Donkey Dharma.

For the past several years, my blogging has continued, on a number of forums, including the United Steel Workers Union as well as two sites of my own - Thoughts4Change and I Owe It All to J. Thaddeus Toad.  The thread that runs through all these is my to-the-bone conviction of the importance of individual thoughts, speech, actions, and work to accomplish real, significant, non-violent social change.  (Noble eightfold path, or Edmund Pettis Bridge,anyone?)

Cue a reference to Robert Kennedy; he made the case for the impact of individual integrity far more eloquently than I could ever hope to.  Read it and remember it whenever you feel hopelessness creep in ...

Not Even In My Wildest Dreams

... can I expect to benefit from the currently-proposed Republican tax plan.

The Congressional Budget Office has evaluated that proposal, and has determined that any individual making less, in  2027, than $75,000.00 a year would be worse off, that is, pay more taxes, than he or she does now.  In that not-at-all-distant future, only those garnering at least $100,000.00 would get a tax break.

Why am I not surprised?

Sympathy for the Devil?

One of Bodhi's favorite authors, Tony Hillerman, once described one of his major characters like this.  Just when you think Joe Leaphorn wouldn't surprise you, he surprises you.

The same can be said of Donald Trump.  Don't think the man is anything other than self-involved and with a sense of entitlement the size of Montana.  Trump has described the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau, designed to assist individuals tussling with large financial institutions, as having devastated those institutions.

The man is [ supply your favorite pejorative ] ...

But I Digress ...

At first thought, the upcoming special election (12/12/2017) in Alabama for the Senate seat vacated by Jefferson Beauregard Sessions (yes, I'm lampooning him) would seem to have little relevance in a blog that purports to advocate for workers.

Mais non, mon freres et soeurs.  By now, we all know about Roy Moore's regrettable predilections.  What many may not know is that Doug Jones, Moore's Democratic opponent for the seat, is not, as Donald Trump claimed a few days ago, weak on crime.  Just the opposite; Jones successfully brought to trial and won convictions of Ku Klux Klan members responsible for the bombing of a black church in Birmingham, Alabama, and the death therein of four young African-American girls.  Around that same time, Roy Moore, as Chief Justice of Alabama’s Supreme Court, ruled in favor of the allegedly abusive ex-husband of a woman who came out as a lesbian. Moore's reason?  Homosexual behavior is crime against nature, an inherent evil, and an act so heinous that it defies one’s ability to describe it.  AKA I don't have to explain myself.

As workers, in order to distinguish what will benefit us as a group (e.g., deep-sixing the current Republican tax plan) we must be able to separate truth from fiction.  In Bodhi's opinion, it's a fiction that Roy Moore or anyone like him can claim to be god-fearing or Christian.  It's a fiction to distort Doug Jones' record.

15104 deals frequently in numbers; here's one that made me happy - Jones leads Moore by as much as 12 points in a poll taken by - wait for it - the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Expensive and Ersatz, Revised

Yesterday's post had a few errors; they're corrected below.

1. Mr. Trump has been in office for 306 days, not 205.
2. Of those 306 days, he has spent 99 at a Trump property.
3. Of those 99, 77 were spent at one of his golf clubs.
4. Of those 77, 39 were spent at the Bedminster New Jersey site.
5. So, an estimate of the cost to taxpayers of Trump's wanderlust would be, not over $90K, but rather:
6. 60 trips from our nation's capitol to Mar-al-Lago, and 39 from DC to Bedminster., at an estimated cost of: ($1,300,000 * 60) + ($600 ,000 * 39) 
7. = $78,000,000 + $23,400,000
8.  = $101,000,000  

Yup - over $100 mill ...

Expensive and Ersatz

Of his 205 days in office, Donald Trump has spent 97 at a Trump property, most frequently Bedminster in New Jersey or Mar-a-Lago in Florida.  (That later name has always annoyed me.  Unless my BA in Spanish has become completely useless, the name translates as From the Sea to the Lake.  WTF?)

It's been estimated that every time he goes from DC to FLA, The Trumpster spends about $1.3 million in air-travel-related expenses alone.  Even if we make the following (in Bodhi's opinion, far too generous) assumptions about Mr. Trump's behavior, we still drown in over-spending.

1. Over the 97 days noted above, only 96 one-way trips were taken.
2. Of those 96, half were from our nation's capitol to Mar-al-Lago, while half were from DC to Bedminster.
3. The cost of the 48 one-way trips to Bedminster was just under half that of those to Florida - that is, $600,000.00 each.
4. A little quick but still accurate arithmetic tells us that the cost to American taxpayers of  Mr. Trump's wanderlust is one merde-load of money

Or, put another way:  ($1,300,000 * 48) + ($600 ,000 * 48) = $91,200,000.00  That is, well over $90 million ...

How Do You Think I Got So Rich?

Shades of the old Chateau Luzerne commercial ... and a big duh ... the rich will indeed benefit mightily from the currently-proposed tax cuts.

The Trump Tower Tax Cut

Despite The Donald's claims to the contrary, both he and his family may benefit greatly from the Republican plan to do away with the inheritance (AKA death) tax.

From the Let Them Eat Cake Department

It's being reported that the Republican tax plan (AKA make our donors like the Mercers happy plan) would add $1.7 trillion to the budget deficit of the United States.

Shades of Marie Antoinette  ...

Worker-Friendly, and Tastes Good Too

Vlasic Pickles, that is.

Tuesday, November 14 was National Pickle Day; Polish dills are Bodhi's favorite.

We can all celebrate not only Vlasic products, but also their dedication to their business ethics and to their workers.

Don't Patronize Wells Fargo

They continue illegally to repossess automobiles from service members.

Lest We Forget

... that the current occupant of the Oval Office is completely incompetent and probably more than a little crazy, let's review some of his most outrageous recent statements.

To those I know who support Mr. Trump: this post is not out of keeping with the mission of 15104 - to advocate for workers.  Trump is so far beyond caring about anyone's interests other than his own that any illustration of his lack of empathy can only be educative.

My brothers and sisters in the working class need to wake up, and see this man for who he really is.

History Repeats Itself - Again

In 2015, I sometimes blogged for the USW.  The title of one such post was Trickle-Down Goes Belly-Up.

Now as then, the phantasm of trickle-down economics is much-beloved by the Right.  The Republican tax "plan" is a potent illustration.

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) was asked recently how that proposed drastic cut in corporate taxes can result in wage increases and more and better jobs. He provided no answer, but his colleague, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX), did.

This is a complete redesign of the code; we can simplify it so much that nine out of 10 Americans can file by using a postcard-style system, Brady said. Lowering the rates, protecting more of the first dollars you earned, making sure you have strong middle-class relief — but it’s more than that ... we propose to drive a newer tax car that can compete and win against any country in the world.

In other words, Brady asked Americans to submit to the chimera of trickle-down.

Don't do it.  Contact your Representative; speak out against this most recent incarnation of a skewed theory.

Education, Education, Education

15104 seeks to advocate for workers and the working class.  Bodhi Mickie's family history and life experience can aid in that effort.

Joseph Petrovsky

Grandpa Joseph, in addition to his native Ruthenian , spoke German, Hungarian, and Polish.  In the early 20th Century, those skills got him a job as a crew chief in the Edgar Thomson Works of U.S. Steel.

Dad (AKA the Munchkin) was ABD in physics from the University of Pittsburgh.  At various points in his life, he worked as a teacher, an engineer, and even The Voice of Kennywood.

Aunt Martha also had a degree from Pitt - in social work.  She once described her job as going around to all the bars in Braddock and telling the drunken steelworkers to go home and dry out.

I've worked as a bookkeeper, a secretary, and a lecturer in computer science.  My sister was a petty officer in the Hospital Corps of the U.S. Navy.  One cousin was a nurse, another an accountant, and yet another a sales manager.

From Grandpa Joseph's generation through mine, education was pivotal not only to income level and social stratum, but most importantly to self-esteem and membership in the larger community.  So allow me to close by reiterating the title of this post, and by paraphrasing real estate:  what counts is education, education, education.

Trumpian Math

The effort to bring to light, and to justice, connections between the Trump campaign and the Russian government lend themselves to fuzzy math of the sort we saw a few days ago. It's estimated that as much as $7 million has been spent to date on Russiagate.  Such an amount would finance tuition for about twenty thousand six hundred forty nine (20,649) three-credit courses at Delaware County Community College in southeastern Pennsylvania. 

Something else for which we might have to hold The Donald responsible ...

Those Who Don't Learn From History ...

are doomed to repeat it.   So let’s take a walk down Economic Memory Lane.  On the day after the end of the Republican-driven shutdown of the Federal government in 2013, the financial services company Standard & Poors estimated that the closure had removed about $24 billion from the economy of the United States.

It’s hard to get one’s head, let alone one’s heart, around such numbers.  To borrow a metaphor from the brilliant novel Daughter of Time, “A thousand people drowned in a flood is news.  A single child drowned in a pond is tragedy.”

Let’s try to bring that $24 billion closer to home.  Such an amount would finance:

1. About nine million five hundred sixty one thousand seven hundred fifty three (9,561,752,88) school lunches
2. Tuition for about one hundred fourteen million two hundred ninety five thousand seven hundred fourteen (114, 295, 714.28)  three-credit courses at Delaware County Community College in southeastern Pennsylvania
3. The resurfacing of about six hundred thirty one thousand five hundred seventy nine (631, 578.94) miles of roadways

Here’s hoping we don’t go through all this again, should the Trump tax plan pass in 2017.

$23K? So What ...

The high point reached today by the Dow - Jones Industrial Average means little or nothing to the working class or to the working poor.

An annual income of $32,718.00 puts a family of four at 133% of the Federal poverty level, and makes that family eligible for SNAP and LIHEAP benefits.  But such income leaves little if anything to invest, since as much as $36,900.can be needed to sustain that family.

Mr. Trump might equate the performance of the stock market with material success overall, but Bodhi doesn't buy it.

Immigration

During my years in the classroom, I told one story so often that some of my students would groan when I launched into it.  But it pertains, even today.

In Ohio and Pennsylvania, thousands of refugees from Bhutan are being helped to feel at home, and to build a new life.

In a way, that's reminiscent of me before IT and blogging.  Shades of North Braddock can be found in Akron and Cleveland.

Bodhi was a bookkeeper at Fashion Spear, a retailer of women's clothing.

Ya Think?

The one group that most benefits from a free, independent press is us - the working class.

Yet Donald Trump,who presented himself as a champion of workers, today issued a not-very-thinly-veiled threat against those who provide us with critical information.  He suggested that licenses of entities like NBC should be challenged.

Bodhi agrees completely with Chris Cillizza of CNN.com, author of the piece just cited, when he says This is, simply put, the stuff of authoritarian governments. Democracy is built on the free and independent press. If a president or any leader seizes the ability to control the news media, democracy dies.

Our best protection is to be correctly, fully, and regularly informed.  So I'll let my inner lecturer take over; read Cillizza's full piece.

What In Hades Were You, and Are You, Thinking?

I ask that of all my working-class brothers and sisters.

Not only will Donald Trump not make us safer (by decertifying the Iran nuclear accords), he won't:

• bring back coal jobs
• move a finger to prevent the complete loss of a fish habitat
• promote a Clean Power Plan that might have helped reduce greenhouse gases

Pay attention, people; the man s a con artist.

Fear-mongering R Us

Late last week, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that the University of Nevada, Las Vegas should look into a professor who said that people will die as a result of President Donald Trump’s election.

Specifically, Sanders said that the instructor in question should be ashamed of herself, and the university should look into it. What a terrible example to set for students.

No - what a terrible ignoring of the First Amendment ...

Ya Gotta Love 'Em

Hackers, that is - at least, benevolent ones.

One great pleasure of my life as a geek was my interaction with icons of Open Source like Monty Widenius.  Despite my not being even close to such folks in technical prowess, those exchanges were characterized by a full-duplex flow of ideas.

So it was with something approaching glee that I read of the Voting Machine Hacking Village held recently at the DEF CON hacker conference.  Hackers toyed with more than 25 pieces of election equipment, such as voting machines and electronic poll books, purchased from eBay.

By the end of the conference, each of the 25 had been breached.

These folks plan to form a coalition comprised of cyber and national security leaders, academic institutions, and government associations, in order to focus on ways to make elections more secure on the federal, state and local level.  That's good news for us all.

So Much for Populism

Once again, shame on the Trump administration.  Late Monday (10/09), Department of Homeland Security spokesman David Lapan announced that the Jones Act waiver for Puerto Rico expired on Sunday night, and would not be extended.

That means that the island will go back to paying much higher shipping costs to import supplies. The Jones Act requires that all goods shipped between U.S. ports be carried by American-owned and operated ships, which are more expensive vessels than others in the global marketplace. So, Puerto Rico will again pay double the costs for goods from the U.S. mainland than is paid by neighboring islands like the U. S. Virgin Islands.

Ability to Assimilate

My bubbas might have been turned away at Ellis Island, had Donald Trump's standards for issuing green cards been in force 100 years ago.  The Trump Administration's immigration policy is based upon:

• a merit-based approach to issuing Green Cards
• a focus on ability to assimilate

What the heck does ability to assimilate mean?

Living in Tumpland

Don't envy those who reside there; it's like having a bully always over your shoulder.  Just ask Bob Corker and Mike Pence.

After the Senator from Tennessee announced he would not seek re-election, Mr. Trump tweeted the statements below.  (I've substituted bold and italic for his quotation marks.)

Senator Bob Corker begged me to endorse him for re-election in Tennessee. I said NO and he dropped out (said he could not win without my endorsement). He also wanted to be Secretary of State, I said NO THANKS. He is also largely responsible for the horrendous Iran Deal!  Hence, I would fully expect Corker to be a negative voice and stand in the way of our great agenda. Didn't have the guts to run!

Though it's completely emblematic of the total lack of courtesy and sensitivity we've come to expect from POTUS, this effort at humiliation is in fact second to another - Trump's ordering VP Mike Pence to fly from Indianapolis to San Francisco to stage a faux protest against the First Amendment.

Happy Columbus Day

In his proclamation celebrating Columbus Day, Donald Trump praised the permanent arrival of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere as a transformative event that fundamentally changed the course of human history.

It certainly did so for Native Americans ... and slaves ... and ...

It Figures

In its online October issue, New Yorker Magazine reported that Donald Trump complained to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that laws prohibiting U.S. companies from bribing foreign officials unfairly penalized businesses in the U.S.

Why am I not surprised?

Our Gun Culture

Bodhi Mickie has family members and friends who take their Second Amendment rights seriously, among them some with open-carry licenses.  But none, I know, would  consider equating those rights with what took place in Las Vegas a couple of days ago.

First of all, the Second Amendment is not an open-ended invitation to acquire firearms.  It was intended only to allow enough of same to provide the material for a well-regulated militia, something the British government had frowned upon among its colonies. The Amendment reads:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Note there's no mention of semi-automatic weapons, let alone automatic ones that can support 1000-round ammunition clips.  Yet it's formidable items like those that have come to distinguish the United States in the eyes of the world.  Know this - we own nearly half of all civilian-owned guns on the planet.  We're waaay ahead of the pack, with 310 million firearms; India is a distant second with about 46 million.

Not the kind of statistic one can be proud of ...

Work Longer!

In the science fiction film When Worlds Collide, there’s a scene in which those attempting to save humanity from Earth’s impending destruction are urged, in a harsh, discordant tone, to work harder!

If that sounds vaguely familiar, it might be because leading Republicans often have opined something similar.  Trouble is,  it my be an integral part of their economic plan.

Some, like former Florida governor Jeb Bush, have stated that people should work longer hours if the economy is to achieve faster and larger growth.  But Jeb, longer hours most likely would make no difference to the economy because most Americans already work more than 40 hours a week.

According to a 2014 Gallup poll, at least 40% of full-time workers put in more than 50 hours each week on the job.

During the debate in the House of Representatives over the Affordable Care Act, Representative Alan Grayson of Florida said the Republicans’ health care plan for America was Don’t get sick.   Now it seems a metaphor for Republican economic plans can be gleaned from When Worlds Collide.

The Man Is Full of Sh*t

The man being Steve Bannon.  Today it's reported that Bannon showed more concern for the effect of the Las Vegas shootings on the Trump -political base than for victims of the rampage.

Bannon was quoted as saying that the reaction from Trump’s base would be ... worse if he made a deal with Democrats on gun control than if he supported comprehensive immigration reform.

It will be the end of everything Bannon told Axios in a text message.

They're Nuts

I didn't know about it till it came up in a search today.  But given the events in Las Vegas last night, I wanted to make you all aware of this.

In late June of this year, the Pennsylvania Senate passed legislation that would allow public school employees to bring guns onto school grounds.

One of Government's Core Functions Is to Regulate Evil

That's Senator Chris Murphy's summary of what should be done in the aftermath of the massacre in Las Vegas.  Murphy knows whereof he speaks.  He's one of the Senators from Connecticut, site of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass killing.

His response was to a tweet from Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin, which < 140 said in part that those who cite the tragedy in Las Vegas as evidence of the need for more regulation of guns are political opportunists.

Kudos to Murphy for speaking truth to the power of the gun lobby.

Our Top 10% Owns 77%

This past Wednesday, the Federal Reserve released the outcome of its 2016 Survey of Consumer Finances.  It's a bit of a grim picture.

The first graph below shows the wealth level at each percentile of distribution; note that wealth is overwhelmingly concentrated at the top of society.

Use regions/landmarks to skip ahead to chart.

Wealth Level By Percentile (2016)

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The next graph shows the percent of wealth owned by each decile, that is, by each 10% of the population.  So, you can see that while the bottom 10 percent of us owns 0.5 percent of the wealth in the country, the top 10 percent owns 77.1 percent of it.

Use regions/landmarks to skip ahead to chart.

Wealth Share By Wealth Decile (2016)

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Finally, let's see what percent of national wealth is owned by the top 1 percent of families.

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Wealth Share of the Top 1%

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In 1989, the top 1 percent owned 29.9 percent of our country's wealth.  Today, that's up to 38.5 percent.

A possible clue to the dwindling of the middle class?