Whitcomb: MAGA Militarization; Primary Treatment; Cost of Tax-Free Tips; Sometimes Eerie Visits

Whitcomb: MAGA Militarization; Primary Treatment; Cost of Tax-Free Tips; Sometimes Eerie Visits

 

“When you move away, you see how much depends

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on the pace of the days—how much

depended on the haze we waded through

each summer, visible heat, wavy and discursive

as the lazy track of the snake in the dusty road….’’

-- From ‘Landscape, Dense with Trees,’’ by Ellen Bryant Voigt (born 1943), Vermont-based poet

Here’s the whole poem:

 

 

“The Boston Beguine

Was casting its spell

And I was drunk with love...

And cheap Muscatel.’’

From “The Boston Beguine,’’ by Sheldon Harnick (1924-2023)

Here’s the funny (to me) song sung, after a brief ad:

 

 

 

‘‘We all have a contract with the public—in us they see themselves, or what they would like to be.’’

-- Clark Gable (1901-1960), American movie star

 

 

 

“For sooner will men hold fire in their mouths than keep a secret.’’

-- Petronius (27-66 A.D.) Roman writer and probably the author of The Satyricon, the satirical novel

 

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So we’re seeing good old-fashioned summer haze (supplemented by Canadian fires); the green of the maple leaves is fading; the crabgrass is spreading (leave it alone), and the ivy is out of control. Maybe you can hear in the distance a kid connecting his bat with a ball. And fireflies are doing their thing in places that haven’t been sprayed.

 

It’s not official, but it’s very much summer in southern New England.

 

 

A Tale of Two Flags

One wonders if some of those waving Mexican flags at the anti-ICE demonstrations in Los Angeles were planted by the Trumpers to pour more fuel on the Orange Monster’s mostly successful incendiary efforts to politically profit from the multi-year immigration mess. The flag-wavers are a gift to the regime. What idiots some of these wavers are, though Mexican flags have long been common in Southern California!

 

But reminder: The stormtroopers of Hitler-admirer Trump waved the Confederate flag (a symbol of treason and slave-owning) at his bloody insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, and some still do.

 

The Biden administration inadvertently helped install the fascist machine in Washington that we see reveling in the demonstrations.  The stuff in the streets now (very minor compared to what happened in the '60s) is just the sort of thing that the MAGA crowd, which is overwhelmingly white, wants as a reason for its divine Fuhrer to smite those it hates and/or fears. Trump, as any demagogue would, benefits from the ignorance, fear and hatred that characterize many of his followers. For that matter, many citizens don’t care at all about democracy, which is why it may well be doomed in this country.

 

Anyway, Biden waited too long – from a political standpoint -- to crack down on illegal immigrants residing inside America, as opposed to migrants at the border, though that would have never been easy – legally and logistically; it still isn’t. That delay, coupled with part (not all) of his party’s obsession with embracing identity politics, were among the major reasons for the party’s defeat last November.

 

Which presidents have been the biggest deporters? Here's some useful historical context. It sweeps aside some of the politically based lies:

Here More

 

 

In 2024, the Democrats did present a bipartisan bill that would have made it easier for a president to kick out illegal immigrants and deny asylum requests. But Trump’s nihilist servants in Congress nixed that at his command. Our caudillo understandably feared that it would help the Democrats. Biden also took executive action last year to tighten immigration.

 

But politically, it was all probably far too late. Biden should have pressed for immigration action soon after taking office in 2021, when his party narrowly controlled Congress, but pro-immigration interest groups had his ear, and he has always wanted too much to seem kindly. Meanwhile, something he didn’t seem to get was that many Hispanic-Americans, as well as other groups, wanted a crackdown, too. And many big Democratic donors, like many big Republican donors,  didn’t seem to care that much that many Americans were upset by the migrants, whence come many of the nannies and other servants of the rich.

 

So far, anyway,  most Americans, not just MAGAers, seem to generally like Trump’s campaign against immigrants – a campaign that he’s now illegally militarizing. Some would probably be happy to see Marines and National Guard personnel shooting demonstrators in the street. Will this change as many businesses close and assorted services (including in such places as hospitals and nursing homes) are curtailed as immigrants are deported, self-deport or go into hiding? We’ll see in the next few months, though Trump’s servants will try to hide and distort economic data regarding this.

 

Whatever, Trump will continue to try to turn the U.S. military, by law and tradition meant to be nonpolitical, into a tool to slake his power lust, insecurity,  bottomless narcissism and even greed. Note the screening of soldiers to sit behind him during his venomous and lie-filled speech at Fort Bragg last Wednesday to ensure the televised appearance of adoration,  and that MAGA merchandise was sold at the event.

 

This is one of the craziest and scariest times in American history.

 

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I wonder how many private-sector institutions, now most notably private universities, will reconsider, for the long term, their dependence on federal money and make major efforts to wean themselves off the Feds as much as possible, via rich people (and our rich have never been richer!) and foundations. Now that we have a corrupt, ruthless, lawless and erratic man in the Oval Office, with supine helpers, these institutions see how vulnerable they can become.

 

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House Speaker Mike Johnson’s oily servility to the Orange Monster is hilarious. The hell with the Constitution!

 

 

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The technological and military-intelligence prowess of tiny Israel (population about 10 million) shown in the precision of its attacks on Iran (population about 90 million) is amazing.  Might this display of Iran’s weakness eventually lead to a revolution there?

 

 

 

Rx for Primary Care

It’s a start!  A bill in the Rhode Island House, of last week, would help the state’s stressed primary-care sector by putting more than $40 million — $15 million in state funding, the rest from federal sources — toward Medicaid rate increases for primary-care providers. Reimbursements lag behind those in surrounding states and are a major reason for the dangerous exit of physicians and others in the primary-care sector from the state.

 

GoLocal also reports that the bill includes, among other measures to relieve the primary-care crisis, a rate review by the Office of the Healthcare Insurance Commissioner in 2026 and maintains a proposed match to qualify for federal funding for a loan-forgiveness program for primary-care doctors working in underserved communities.

 

If taxes must be raised to pay for this, so be it!

 

 

Conflict of Interest

The Rhode Island Ethics Commission decision to give the go-ahead to Valerie Lawson to serve as state  Senate president while she’s also president of the National Education Association-Rhode Island, one of the Ocean State’s most powerful public-sector unions, creates a grotesque conflict of interest.

 

The commission, to defend its position, says she could/should recuse herself from taking part in any legislative action that would benefit herself, her family or her teachers union. But so powerful is the Senate presidency that conflicts of interests will frequently arise with her two jobs, and are unlikely to be resolved to the detriment of the NEA.

 

While private-sector unions are needed – indeed, I wish they had more power in these days of steadily rising income inequality -- public-sector ones present big dangers. As Franklin Roosevelt, the greatest liberal Democratic icon, noted in his presidency:

 

"All government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management.

"The very nature and purposes of government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with government employee organizations.

"The employer is the whole people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives in Congress. Accordingly, administrative officials and employees alike are governed and guided, and in many instances restricted, by laws which establish policies, procedures, or rules in personnel matters."

As for protecting public employees from unfair actions by their bosses, that’s why we have civil service-style protections.

(President Lawson represents East Providence, a city with some charms, such as the lovely Rumford and Riverside neighborhoods. But it’s also the Sneaky Speed Trap Capital of New England. People with slow reflexes and high anxiety might want to avoid it, though that’s tricky to do given the regional road system.)

 

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What with the housing shortage, it’s good to see the recent speedup in long-vacant lots in Providence being used for  new multi-and-single-family housing. Let’s hope that the increased supply will at least moderate housing costs.

 

 

Fun If Slow Way to See the Island

It was  very pleasant  to see that the 13-mile long Newport & Narragansett Bay Railroad is providing passenger service on its scenic route on Aquidneck Island. That’s especially given that we’re approaching high tourist season. Of course, people will use this slow-moving service for fun, and not for any practical reason.

The train might slightly cut down on car traffic on the crowded island.  What would cut it much more would be a railroad bridge connecting Tiverton, on the mainland, and Portsmouth, such as the one that was closed in 1988 and removed in 2006–07.

How great it would be if we could take the train to Newport from Providence and Boston!

 

 

 

Making Matters Worse

The regime’s plan to exempt tip income from federal income taxes for many people is lousy policy, but might be popular for a while if it’s enacted.

 

This is just one of the irresponsible tax proposals in the current “Big, Beautiful’’ budget bill, which sure isn’t “conservative.’’ The tip break would be a record-keeping nightmare, be rife with fraud and be unfair to the many workers who wouldn’t get the exemption. And the tax code isn’t complicated enough yet? The measure would also obviously deepen the yawning national debt, though in a small  way compared to other grossly irresponsible dreck in “Big, Beautiful.’’

 

The tipping break would give employers an excuse to avoid paying their workers more. It would throw sand in the gears of any drive to enact an overdue increase in the federal minimum wage for all employees. For most workers, that hasn’t been increased since 2009. That’s when it rose to $7.95 an hour from $6.55.  More importantly, the federal “subminimum wage’’ for tipped employees—the mandatory base wage that employers must pay to tipped workers regardless of their tip income—remains just $2.13 an hour – set in 1993!   The law is that tips, combined with the base wage, much reach at least the federal minimum wage. But it’s all so easy to cheat on….

 

Indeed, not taxing tips would be a boon to businesses that pay low wages, such as fast-food chains.  And remember that tip income is far more volatile than wages.

 

The measure would probably expand the pressure on consumers to tip in all sorts of new situations. You may start seeing “expected gratuity” signs all over the place, such as at gas stations.

 

Also nice for business owners is the proliferation of jars at stores and restaurants into which patrons are encouraged to drop money for charities, which I usually do to (hypocritically?) look nice. Thus, the owners get good PR, for free.

 

 

Education, Exercise, and Entertainment

Citizens in other “advanced” nations are astounded by how much money, energy and attention is expended  at American colleges and universities on sports. Some of the bigger of these institutions are far more identified as sports-team businesses than as places for scholarship, with some “student athletes’’ paid for playing. More cultural corruption.

 

Consider tiny Stonehill College, in Easton, Mass. The largest gift in the nice little Catholic school’s history -- $15 million from alumni Thomas and Kathleen Bogan -- will go to helping to build new basketball and hockey arenas in a complex to be named for the Bogans, not to academics.

 

Stonehill seems to be in pretty good shape, financially and otherwise. But what’s going to happen to all those bucolic campuses around America as colleges close as the number of potential students continues to shrink with a declining birth rate and, sadly, as so many doubt the advantages of a liberal-arts education.

 

Christian Koulichkov is a managing director at Hilco Real Estate, where he helps closed colleges sell their campuses. He told Bloomberg News: “This is the next big land grab in the United States. There’s going to be thousands and thousands of acres with no plan. People never thought these things could disappear.”

 

Hit this link:

 

 

Final Innings

As we age, most of us go to more and funerals, and visit more and more house- or institution-bound friends and relatives. A few of the visited don’t remember who we are, but we go to see them anyway to celebrate who they were, and they generally like our company, whoever we are. And sometimes they’ll blurt out an alarming or amusing anecdote from the past that resolves some old mysteries. Given the age of some of these people, we’re sometimes surprised that they say how fast their lives have gone. “Eighty-two years old, and what happened?!,’’ said one old lady in New Hampshire we met.

 

I worry that there are so many aging people without close relatives to help look after them, including by such visits.

 

America still likes to think of itself as a young country, but it’s increasingly a place for the old, and not just in Washington, D.C.

 

Aging is so quirky. Some people start to seem out of it at age 60; others are sharp to over 100. The brain remains a mystery in so many ways.