USA Today finds that rich corporate-types now have access to our President as no rich corporate-type has ever had access before -- through membership at Mr. Trump's private golf clubs. Members who talked to USA Today said they didn't use their access to discuss matters before our government, but the Trump Administration doesn't disclose whom the President plays golf with, citing, of course, "privacy and national security concerns." What happened to the ethic that public servants should avoid the appearance of corruption, let alone the existence thereof? Hell, what happened to the notion that the First Amendment right to redress grievances should be for everyone and not just folks with money?
Even the notoriously moderate Factcheck.org finds wanting Administration claims that "most economists believe" that corporate tax cuts would help out workers. What happened during the New Deal years, when our government forced corporations to pay 35%, rather than let corporate welfare handouts drag that rate down to half that or less? We created the greatest middle class in the history of the world, that's what -- because corporations couldn't pay their executives outlandish salaries, and didn't want to hold on to too much money in profits, so they created jobs for people to make stuff, and let them pay taxes on it! Don't need an economics degree to see how that worked.
Now that the NFL season has started, Neal Gabler at Moyers and Company reminds us that "professional football gives vent to some of the country's worst impulses." Not just racism and tribalism, of course, but in this description of how the NFL, like most American corporations, treats its workers: "Damage your employees while they are in your service and earning you a fortune, underpay and then discard them." (As an aside, I think Colin Kaepernick is better than 12 starting QBs in the NFL right now, though maybe I shouldn't count the Jets' Josh McCown, since the Jets are tanking. But I just can't imagine why Mr. Kaepernick doesn't have a job.)
Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) has decided to retire rather than run for re-election in 2018. But while this "moderate," this self-described "member of "the governing wing" of the Republican Party, did in fact vote against the House's monstrosity of a health care "reform" bill back in May, you should remember that he voted for Paul Ryan's plan to destroy Medicare numerous times, and you don't get to call yourself a "moderate" if you voted for that. (Come to think of it, all of the three "moderate" House Reps who've recently announced their retirement recently voted for the Ryan plan -- and none of them ever voted against it.)
Finally, a Barnard College study finds that dogs do have the ability to recognize themselves. Dogs don't really recognize themselves in the mirror as far as we can tell, but if you've ever been around dogs, you might surmise that dogs find smell a more important way of understanding and organizing their world than sight -- so now we have at least two studies finding that dogs can recognize their own odor even when it's presented in a mix with other odors. This finding could lead us to presume that pretty much any animal is self-aware, and that we just have to find the way it relates to the rest of the world. Count me as one of the people who thinks only good can come from that.
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