Our House passes the Build Back Better Act, 220-213, with only one Democrat, Jared Golden of Maine, voting against it -- and not without making a good point, that the bill gives a massive handout to rich folks by raising the SALT cap. Maybe he'll win another term! The House-passed bill includes four weeks of paid family leave, and the more times we make Joe Manchin come out against it the worse for him, and the CBO estimate said it would add nearly $400 billion to our national debt over 10 years, though said estimate didn't include incoming revenue from better IRS enforcement (though it also estimated that would raise a little over $200 billion over 10 years, which could be a bit conservative). Needless to say, making that SALT cap repeal a lot smaller would narrow that gap. Anyway, Democrats have some more things to run on; now let's see if they'll run on them.
John Deere workers who had been on strike for five weeks ratify a new contract, which gives them a 10% raise and an $8,500 signing bonus right away, preserves premium-free health insurance benefits, and strengthens their pensions. The total wage increase of 20% over six years isn't quite as impressive as the immediate pay hike, and the immediate pay hike isn't as impressive when you remember that inflation is now up to 6%, but we should still celebrate their achievement, because the best way to get treated right is to make your bosses realize they can't function without you. (The second best way would be to make hedge funds illegal. Really, how do they differ from speculators? We used to clamp down on speculators.)
President Biden fires two members of our USPS Board of Governors, including Ron Bloom, who had been a big Louis DeJoy supporter and whose investment fund just so happens to have a nice chunk of DeJoy money in it. It'll take time to get the new nominees in, who would then have to vote to fire Mr. DeJoy, but just remember that "Americans paying more for slower mail" is actually a hard sell! Especially to the good Americans who get their insulin through the mail! Then, after getting rid of Mr. Get-Used-to-Me, if we can get the Postal Reform Act through Congress and restart postal banking, that'll be a good couple of years' work. (As an aside, boy do I not care that the insiders didn't see President Biden's moves coming! We've been on him for almost a year about it, but I guess the "insiders" don't talk to very many regular Americans.)
Apple decides to let people repair their own iPhone 12 and 13 devices beginning early next year. It's not a particularly broad response to all out "right to repair" activism, and you'll still have to get Apple replacement parts, but getting Apple to go even this far testifies to our good works. I mean, this is Apple, which hates giving any control over their products to anyone! As an aside, does anyone else find it odd that Apple has long extolled its customers as "the best people" yet has spent the last two decades not trusting "the best people" to repair their own computers? I love telling folks about those halcyon days when I could replace the processor and RAM in whatever Apple laptop I had, and maybe, with a lot more agitation, those days can come back.
Max B. Sawicky at In These Times delivers another necessary reminder that all the scaremongering over inflation is "one of dumbest turns in what passes for economic thinking since voodoo economics." Saying more government spending (paid-for government spending, no less!) is "inflationary" is, for Mr. Sawicky, "like criticizing a fire company for using water instead of gasoline." And the real costs of rent, college, and health care -- all of which inflation barely tracks, I wonder why! -- have been going up for a long time, and even the Build Back Better Act as "moderates" have whittled it down would help lower these costs. And Jesus Mary and Joseph I'm old enough to remember when inflation was twice what it is now, so no breathless "news" stories about one family of 11 in one state paying $36 a month more for milk should put the scare in anybody.
Finally, Harvard Law School professor Ronald Sullivan explains why the Kyle Rittenhouse not-guilty verdict "flies in the face of legal standards for self-defense." Mr. Sullivan explains why pretty well, but all I can add is that I really wish I could see the silver lining in this verdict, but I don't -- Kyle Rittenhouse has many more (and many more obnoxious) supporters than former Most Unpopular Man in America George Zimmerman ever did, and thus he'll be feeding at the right-wing welfare trough until he croaks. Judge Schroeder sure did destroy his reputation, though. The only thing he can do now is run for Congress.
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