About Me

My photo
Jack is a graduate of Rutgers University where he majored in history. His career in the life and health insurance industry involved medical risk selection and brokerage management. Retired in Florida for over two decades after many years in NJ and NY, he occasionally writes, paints, plays poker, participates in play readings and is catching up on Shakespeare, Melville and Joyce, etc.

Wednesday, March 9, 2022

03-9-2022 - January 6 Committee Findings, Toothpaste and Some Comments on Ukraine

 

IF YOU LIKE THIS BLOG, PLEASE SHARE IT WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY AND OTHERS YOU FEEL MIGHT ENJOY READING IT.

 JL

                                                    *   *   *   *

 

What to Do with What the January 6 Committee Discovers

The Associated Press reported the other day that while the House panel investigating the January 6, 2021 insurrection attempt had enough evidence to suggest that the defeated former president committed crimes, that doesn’t mean that he would be charged with committing them, or that the Department of Justice would even investigate them, if they are not already doing so. 

That’s well and good because such legal action, even disregarding the defeated former president’s expertise in delaying litigation, would probably keep going on for at least several years.  (Recall it took ten years in courts to rule on Remington’s partial responsibility for the Sandy Hook school shootings, because of the manner in which it advertised its weapons.)

The important thing is that the evidence uncovered by the House Committee be widely released to the public so that they might be made aware of the *evils which permeate the Republican Party, convincing voters to throw the G.O.P. out of office at all levels, national, statewide and local. 

·        * To start a list, these ‘evils’ include catering to white supremacists, attacking voting rights, disregarding women’s rights, preferring foreign dictators to democratic leaders, defying the Constitution, downgrading science, misusing the First and Second Amendments, legitimatizing ignorance, etc.

  JL

                                                    *   *   *   *

 Toothpaste Economics


Just opened a new toothpaste tube (Colgate Cavity Prevention) and noted, after careful searching on the box, that it was made in Mexico. 

I figure that the raw materials and the manufacturing equipment needed to produce a tube of toothpaste cost about the same in the United States as in Mexico, but the wages and benefits paid to those who are employed to oversee its production there are far less there than north of the border.  Being that the cost of living and the standard of living in Mexico are less than they are here, the Mexican workers are probably happy with their jobs and I ought to be happy being able to pay only about $2 for the toothpaste.  Were it made in the United States with its higher cost of living and higher standards of living for American workers, it probably would have cost me about five or ten dollars!

The only unhappy people are the American workers who would have had a job with a decent salary and benefit package if it were made here.  But then, could I afford toothpaste at ten dollars a tube?  At least it wasn’t made in China.

This is a problem.  Other than settling for serving food and busing off tables in restaurants, making beds in hotels, cleaning out planes between flights, and other low-paying menial jobs, what are the occupational potentialities for the relatively unskilled worker? We cannot become a nation of scientists, engineers, technicians, physicians, lawyers, educators, programmers, coders, media creators, bankers, and accountants, with everything else outsourced to places where labor is inexpensive.  There will never be enough such jobs for all that aspire to them.  Even jobs as salespeople or telemarketers are disappearing too, as automation and the internet offer alternatives.

Solutions might include mandating a maximum twenty-five hour work week, with full benefits, or temporarily increasing the number of government jobs as FDR did during the Great Depression with the CCC and WPA, but we had better find one quickly, or we will have millions of unhappy citizens on our hands, ready to fall for any line of malarky a potential dictator might offer them.  Many did this in 2016 and look at the make-up of many State legislatures!

The key might be in how our government taxes corporations which profit from outsourcing their manufacturing process, like the production of my tube of toothpaste. Many major corporations pay no income taxes whatsoever because of loopholes that are provided for them by legislators to whom they generously donate at campaign time. Out of their profits might come the resources, via taxation, to subsidize workers limited to that 25-hour workweek (no second jobs allowed) and providing them with benefits and paying for those additional government jobs too.  Their shareholders might suffer a bit but perhaps they will move their cash from stocks to bonds.

Opponents of such solutions will scream ‘socialism’ but all it would be is defining a fairer way of distributing the nation’s wealth.

  JL

                                                    *   *   *   *

 Ukraine

No Fly Zones - Some criticism of our Ukraine policy claims that we limited what we had been doing in terms of military aid to protect that nation from Russia (just as Henry Kissinger had capped military aid to Israel to 'just enough') thereby encouraging Putin's military attack. Even today, we correctly oppose the 'no-fly-zone' that Zelenskyy wants since, in enforcing it, the danger of direct conflict between American resources with those of Russia would risk igniting a nuclear World War Three. Zelenskyy responds that World War Three has already started, in Ukraine. Western democracy has to do better for Ukraine than what it did for Spain in 1938, but the danger of nuclear war limits options.

Will Oligarchs and Russian People Stick with Putin? - Increasing economic sanctions on Putin personally and the Russian state will only back him into a corner and risk his committing nuclear suicide for us all.  The pressure must be on the oligarchs, themselves a bunch of thieves who fear losing their ill-gotten wealth, and the Russian people to get rid of him.  And I think they now get the idea and know what to do.  In today's electronic world, the truth gets through even to the Russians in the street.  The Russians did get rid of the Czars a century ago. They know the drill. There is a reason Vladimir Putin sits so far from others when he has a meeting, and it isn't social distancing.  He doesn't want to be too close to anyone, fearing what Brutus did to his buddy, Caesar.  It may take a while, and it might not even be violent, but I think this is the way it will come down.

Selma, Alabama Anniversary and Efforts for Ukrainians Compared to What We've Done for Others - This week is the anniversary of the Freedom March in Selma, Alabama.  The freedoms for which the Selma marchers struggled in this country are not unlike the freedoms which the Russians, specifically Vladimir Putin, are trying to take away from those who have enjoyed them over the past few years in Ukraine. Just as Republicans today attack voting rights and subsequent civil rights legislation protecting them, Vladimir Putin breaks treaties and tries to squelch freedoms present in Ukraine. The United States and Europe recognize this and support Ukraine with aid that stops just short of risking worldwide nuclear war.

Those who demonstrated for freedoms in Selma should be supporting Ukraine in its struggle with Russia. Instead, what I have read are complaints that while European efforts to rescue Ukrainians are admirable, the same efforts are not being made for those fleeing despotism in the Middle East and Africa (and in the United States, for those fleeing Central American terrors). They ask if this difference in Europe’s efforts is based on the Ukrainians being people ‘just like us,’ and not ‘different’ as others seeking sanctuary might be.  Simply, racism.

This lack of conspicuous support for Ukraine from those who support civil rights in this country reminds me of the old story of the Black man who, when asked if he would like to convert to Judaism, replied “Hell no, I got enough trouble being Black.” (Actually, the story involved using the Yiddish equivalent of the “N” word.)  They may have a point.

An interesting article on this can be found by CLICKING HERE or visiting https://www.npr.org/2022/02/28/1083423348/europe-welcomes-ukrainian-refugees-but-others-less-so

 JL

                                                    *   *   *   *

 

 

No comments: