Today Congress passed the stimulus bill today, probably with no Republican votes.  There will be talk about numbers too large for us to comprehend: $1.9 Trillion; national debt of $29 Trillion, on and on.

I keep thinking of perspective, on several grounds.  (There are numerous sources of data.  My choices, below, are not ‘cherry-picked’ by ideology.  I basically picked the first one I saw in internet search which seemed reasonably credible.)

Here’s the U.S. deficit data over the past few years.

Here’s the average American personal debt.

Then there’s the American wealth relative to the rest of the world: Wealth of UN Countries.  Note the column headings and look specifically at the United States data (which is from 2017).  We remain far and away the wealthiest country, but the inequity in wealth within our country has increased.

And that wealth in America is increasingly concentrated in the very richest Americans.

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I’d encourage you to look at the charts, and to give them context relating to yourself, and those around you who you know, family, friends, other.

Think outside the box – how does someone opposite of you in philosophy think, and why.  We are a dangerously divided country.  I’m not saying one side is right, the other wrong.  But there are polar opposite views.  Personally, I think today’s action in Congress was outstanding, and needed.

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Some thoughts:

Even with the pandemic, the U.S. is incredibly wealthy.  Among the United Nations countries – 193 of them – the U.S. has about 4% of the world population, and nearly one-fourth of the world’s wealth.

As to debt, that too is relative.  American personal debt is about 14 trillion dollars – home mortgage, credit card, etc., etc.  That is serious money, granted.  The national debt about double.  (See next paragraph).

What is never said is that debt is what fuels the American economy.  I’m no recommending that but I think that is true.  The rare individual who pays with cash is, in a sense, not a patriot. We’re accustomed to debt.  We depend on debt.  Think back to the first time you had a credit card.  It’s not ancient history.  What role does credit play in your life today.  Think back to the home(s) you lived in, or your grandparents, and compare them to the very large homes even first time homebuyers demand in these days.

One of the old sayings that comes to mind today is “nest egg” – the savings account.  If you’re fortunate, and most everyone who reads this is very fortunate, you have a rainy day fund of some size set aside.  Everybody has a different idea of what this should be.  I knew a person who literally had almost no furniture because she’d been advised that she needed $5 million to retire.  She was obsessed with saving for the future.  I’m being only a little dramatic here.  She had no perspective.

There are examples of course, on the other end of this.  People who will consider the stimulus as mad money.  Most of us are between the poles.

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Here are the main data points over the last 20 years as I see them.

1. Huge outlays to pay for war in the wake of 9-11-01.  We’re still engaged.
2. The near collapse of the American Economy in late 2008, in large part by careless fiscal management particularly in the arena of real estate.
3. The stimulus to restore the economy in 2009, which probably should have been greater.
4. The immense and ill-advised tax cuts in 2017, which aggravated conditions and were fuel for very large increases in the national debt in the previous four years.
5. The impact of Covid-19, now in its second year.

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Today is a single step.  As the President likes to say, “we are all in this together”.

POSTNOTE 1, March 11: Yesterday, each member of Congress had one minute to make a final argument about the bill described above.  There are 435 members of the House of Representatives.  That is over seven hours if anything went perfectly.  It is a huge opportunity for sound bites, that can be produced by anybody, for anyone, at great length, posted anywhere, said at any meeting….

I made my very imperfect attempt – how I saw it – above.

In the end, the real “legislators” are, really, every one of us, the vocal and the quiet, the beneficiaries.

A democracy is ‘we, the people’.  We truly elect our redemption or our doom in this temporal world.

Yesterday was extremely significant.  Just Above Sunset, overnight, goes into more detail, trying to condense those 435 comments (which also must include the 100 Senators on the other side of the Capitol.)

Just Above Sunset: “Doing some good”.

Today, March 12, is the one year anniversary of the Covid-19 Pandemic.  The date is as determined by the World Health Organization (WHO), and I yield to The WHO Director General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, for his remarks, which you can see/read here.  We are a part of, not apart from, the rest of the planet.  We survive by working together for solutions.

POSTNOTE 2, March 11: Already, the folks who voted unanimously against the package, are fashioning ways to take credit for it.  It was anticipated.

How much is “$1.9T”, as headlined, for some reason, in today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune.

It is a big number: 1,900,000,000,000 – 1,000 million.

There are, more or less, 330,000,000 Americans, men, women, children.

That is $5,756 per person, surely a large number.

But view it from your own vantage point of your own current debt, particularly if you have a mortgage or a car payment.

In fact, those whose hands wring when talking about this aid package secretly worship debt as a driver of wealth in our society.  It is a secret, untold.

Keep it in perspective, particularly looking at how the money will be used to help the economy recover.

POSTNOTE 3, March 12: It occurred to me that this American Rescue Plan was the second Covid-19 related initiative in Congress.  The first was what was called the CARES Act, passed unanimously by the Senate, and easily and bi-partisan by the House of Representatives in the spring of 2020.  The House vote was more ambiguous than the Senate.  There were only 6 “no” votes, 5 of them Republican in the House; on the other hand, there was a fairly large number of “no information” non-votes in the House of Representatives – it appears about 36 of these in the 435 member chamber, most of these Democrat.  More information on the House split vote is here.

In the American Rescue Plan, there were no Republican Yes votes.

Why the difference in the votes?  A good topic for discussion.

POSTNOTE 4, sent byJeff, March 13: Ron Insana at CNBC, here

An early and continuing part of my daily drive during the Covid-19 year was through portions of nearby suburbs Newport, St. Paul Park and Cottage Grove, and Grey Cloud Island, all of which are along and part of, the Mississippi River environs.

In St. Paul Park is an oil refinery, a long-time fixture there that I knew little about.

My knowledge has ratcheted up lately.  In late January, the Union representing workers  there went on strike, and in recent days the action broadened to information bannering such as freeway exits by another union.  Yesterday, I stopped by one of the bannering sites, and the friendly union members gave me a brief and useful information flier: St. Paul Bldg Trades – Marathon.  This unions newsletter has more information.  As noted in the newsletter, this began as a Teamster Strike, apparently a response to a lockout.  (Such events are rarely as clear as they appear.)

I’m glad I talked with the folks holding the banner Sunday afternoon.  I wish the workers success.  Theirs is no frivolous action.

Summit Ave exit on Hwy 61, St. Paul Park March 7, 2021.

St. Paul Park Refinery Mar 7, 2021

I’ve been a union guy for over 50 years.  I was staff for groups that on occasion went on strike.  I’ve been retired over 20 years.  One time, about 1979, I was President of the Union staff group which went on Strike against the Union that was our employer (it made news).

There’s no crossing of picket lines for me; I honk in support when I go past the pickets.  I don’t pretend to know the specifics of the issues or process at St. Paul Park.  I do know, union members don’t strike for the fun of it.

Anyone who’s ever gone on strike – or been on the other side – knows that a work stoppage is one thing when the walkout occurs; something different to resolve differences and get back to work.  To strike is a difficult decision to make; one with consequences for both sides, which is why strikes are rare.  The players on both sides know the realities.  A path is always found to settlement.  The only question: how long the strike will be.  The enterprise itself is at risk if there is no settlement.  Then everyone is affected.

The workers on Strike against Marathon are out for a reason.  The dispute is probably cast in economic terms – that is something everyone can understand – but likely the real issues are deeper, relating to matters generally described as working conditions.  Regardless, both sides know that once out, they’ve got to get a settlement agreeable to both sides.  In this case, a refinery without workers is as handicapped as a worker without work.

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Unrelated to the above Strike, but at about the same time as the Strike began, I was nurturing an interest in seeing how many of my former Union colleagues I could reconnect with.  I started with old e-addresses, about one-fourth of which were bad addresses (no surprise there), and of the remaining 42, I’ve reconnected with perhaps a dozen, and out of these may come some memories of our union days by Memorial Day.

Some years ago a fellow staff rep, I think it was John B., gave me some photographs someone had taken at a PSA (Professional Staff Association – the staff Union) meeting about 1976 or so.  If you’ve ever wondered what teacher union staff actually looked like 45 years ago, here are over 20 (click to enlarge)  I’ve only labeled myself, though I remember all of those pictured: PSA circa 1976.  We were once young….

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Unions are easy to kick around – you know this.  Having been, and still being, one of the people whose career was representing people in a Union, I know that organized workers are the ones who built and made the prosperous society in which we still live.  Money earned is money which can be spent, a fact often overlooked in the rhetoric about things like minimum wage and anti-union rhetoric.

Unions however named, are like every organization, take your pick, including corporate structures no matter how big or sophisticated.  All organizations of people reflect the strengths and weaknesses of their members and leadership.

When I retired from union work.  I was about 60 years old, which made me old within the union; but now, for me, 60 is just a kid, and when I was with the group in the 1976 PSA pictures above, I was in my 30s, not the oldest nor the youngest.  (The photos were taken at a union meeting at the end of a long day of assorted meetings.)  None of us were ‘fresh’ – in other words, we were tired.  I’m amused at my picture in the group.  I was pretty well exhausted by the days work, and hiding out by the chairs in the corner was a little opportunity to refresh.

A couple of years later I became President of this group and in my term we went on Strike.  As the saying goes, I’ve “been there, done that”.

Having said all this – and this is my message to colleague elders – the world ahead will be made by todays youngsters, not people like ourselves.  Watch the people in their 30s and 40s, especially.  They’ll make the world they’ll like…or hate…in 30 years.

I wish the Marathon workers, through their Unions, the very best.

POSTNOTE March 13:  The labor dispute remains unsettled as of Saturday.  The bannering continues and there seems more public visibility by those striking.  The Union staff photos drew quite a lot of attention.  They were likely taken in 1979, not 1976 as I first thought.  Unions contributed to a better society then, and still do.

1. For the first 140+ years of the United States the inauguration of the President of the United States was March 4.  In 1933, the date was changed to January 20.  I really had no knowledge of this until the current chaos.  It’s just another learning opportunity.  If you wish to learn more, here’s an article from the Library of Congress.  The inauguration of Abraham Lincoln is briefly discussed in this article.  It occurred on March 4, 1861.  As noted in the continuing series on Lincoln (CNN, Sunday night, 9 Central time) Lincoln died by assassination a short time after inauguration for his second term as president.
2. Those who regularly visit this site know that I appreciate and respect and very often refer to the frequent blogs at Just Above Sunset.  The two most recent are especially worth your time: Freeing the Vote and Purist Madness.  [Postnote Mar. 5: also Potato Head Politics.]
3. March 6, Saturday, is my personal one year anniversary of recognizing that Covid-19 was a threat.  I’ll post about my reflections on Saturday.  All previous posts for any month are easily accessed via the archive tab at right.

POSTNOTE:  Coincident with the publication of this blog came an e-mail from Jeff, which I find very interesting.  Jeff: Bruce Bartlett (@BruceBartlett) tweeted at 7:51 AM on Thu, Mar 04, 2021:
Philosophers and public intellectuals have ignored the study of epistemology (the study of knowledge itself; how to tell the difference between fact and opinion etc.) for too long.  More here.  (I also have this article in pdf form – the second page is the last page of the article: Michael Patrick Lynch Boston Review and Michael Patrick Lynch Boston Review (2)

Sometime today the Former Occupant is supposed to make an appearance at a conservatives conference in Orlando.  I’m writing and publishing this before the appearance, and while I’ll probably watch whatever pieces are accessible, I won’t have any comments.  We all know what is ahead, there.

A worthwhile read came overnight via Just Above Sunset.  I think you will find it interesting.  “That Odd Golden Statue”.

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Meanwhile, we remain in the aftermath of January 6, and the 77 or so days between the 2020 election and inauguration.

The March, 2021 Smithsonian Magazine arrived this week, and there was an interesting short article: DC Peace Monument Smithsonian Mag (click to enlarge).  It tied the previous attack in 1812, and the Civil War, as analogs to our very recent past.

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Earlier this week, I was watching the Senate hearing about the infamous January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

The estimable Sen. Ron Johnson (WI), entered into the record some blog entry from someone like me.  Johnson suggested that the real problem on Jan. 6 was Agents Provocateurs, people like me, “antifa’s” who came in to stir things up, while the real patriots came in to support the real President whose election had been stolen.  A news report is here.  A visit to Johnson’s website didn’t find the report.

He gave his testimony with a straight face…later were similar declarations in other hearings from other members of Congress on the same topic, all in sound bite length for their favorite news media.  Only losers, not winners like his side, could do such dastardly things.  I suppose the courts will decide in coming months.

Yesterday a friend sent one of those ‘forwards’ we’ve all seen.  This one recycled some very old news in a newly edited way.  It featured a single sentence of a column written by a columnist in 1995, who died in 2013, and rambled on forever.  I’ll leave it at that.

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Insanity.

“Disrupt and confuse” are words that come to mind.  They’re in quotes, because they were in the strategy game plan of a group trying to defeat my group in a representation election 47 years ago.  If we wish to be governed by lies and deception, it is our very unfortunate choice.

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The recent events cause me to think back to the days when I became an activist, which began with a national event whose 20th anniversary is this year:

September 12, 2001

This is in the memory of anyone who happens to read this post.  My feelings are an open book about 9-11.  Occasionally I still share my written opinions from then: Post 9-11-01001; also, 9-11-01 Aftermath001.

There were lots of demonstrations in the days that followed, all peaceful.  I was in many of them.  Most related to the opportunistic wars that followed 9-11.  I could see nothing good coming out of our reaction – bombing somebody else to avenge terrorism didn’t calculate out to ultimate success.

Thence comes Jan. 6, 2020, where home-grown terrorists work their evil on the U.S. seat of government, terrorizing friend and foe alike…and then come forward people like Sen. Johnson, casting blame on people like myself.  He wouldn’t do that if it didn’t work to further incite his fellow partisans.

And the threat continues to be real.  The real President returns on March 4?  Insurgents plan to blow up the Capitol when President Biden next speaks there?   Is this what we have become?

It all seems so insane.  As a society, we’re stuck with this, until enough of us decide to say enough…and mean it.

Terrorism, Jan. 6, 2020.

This afternoon was a time of remembrance in memory of the over 500,000 deaths from Covid-19 since the pandemic began last year.

The bells at the National Cathedral rang 500 times; there were 500 candles at the White House.

Other reports were that the first official death from the pandemic in the U.S. was last Feb. 29, on this day last year there were 35 cases.  500,000 is more than the total number of U.S. war deaths in WWI, WWII and Vietnam – combined.

However one dissects the data, or challenges this fine point or that, the U.S. is world champion for deaths from Covid-19, and not champion in a good way.

Yesterday I was remembering last year in an e-mail to one of the staff at Basilica of St. Mary.  I, and about 50 others, had been attending an excellent series called “Becoming Human” – three of the six lectures had been completed at Basilica, and Janice and the Basilica had a decision to make about the rest.

I still had her e-mail to our group, dated March 16, 2020, and re-sent it to her, yesterday.

“As we continue to learn how to live with COVID-19, and with a deep desire to make decisions for the common good, we have canceled the rest of the series of Becoming Human. We will not hold our sessions on March 17, 24 or 31.

We are in the process of finalizing the videos for first three sessions. In addition, the professors are creating videos, with no audience, for the last three sessions.

We will provide these to you as soon as they are available.  At some time in the future, we will bring people together to watch the videos and have discussions about this important issue.

Thank you for your support of this crucial work.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Peace, Janice”