A message from President Carter of Ohio State University

 "I value and welcome free speech. I have spoken to this since the day I arrived here at Ohio State. As many of you know, I wore the cloth of our nation for 38 years to support and defend these rights. What occurred on our campus on April 25 was not about limiting free speech. It was an intentional violation of university space rules that exist so that teaching, learning, research, service and patient care can occur on our campuses without interruption.

As a public university, demonstrations, protests and disagreement regularly occur on our campus – so much so that we have trained staff and public safety professionals on-site for student demonstrations for safety and to support everyone’s right to engage in these activities. Sadly, in recent days, I have watched significant safety issues be created by encampments on other campuses across our nation. These situations have caused in-person learning and commencement ceremonies to be canceled. Ohio State’s campus will not be overtaken in this manner."

And so forth, but they did it anyway, some were students, but most were outsiders.  I don't know why they talk about negotiation.  What's to negotiate with non-students and outsiders?  They can't settle the Israel-Hamas war, and the rules for encampment were set. Other college presidents have folded immediately.  Let's see how long Carter will stand up to bullies.

https://studentlife.osu.edu/articles/finals-week-message-to-all-ohio-state-students/?

Police confirm 36 arrested at OSU anti-Israel protest Thursday night (dispatch.com)

Should I pay your child care costs?

The TV (Spectrum) was on in the background, but all I heard was not only am I supposed to pay their college loans, but I need to pay for their mom and dad's cost to go to work by paying for child care for their little ones.  Governor announces details on Child Care access program (spectrumnews1.com)

Let's think about this. I didn't have any college loans to pay back at high interest rates, and I didn't have any daycare costs because I didn't go back to work as a librarian until my kids were in school, and then only part time so I was home when they were. Many parents don't pay these costs--except for other's kids. Maybe they juggle schedules with a spouse or drop the kids off at Grandma's, or wait like I did. 

I have 2 female relatives who run a daycare in their homes so they can raise their own children, and they earn much more than they would if they were employed outside the home. Why? Daycare can cost from $27,125 a year in CT to $14,813 in SD. Teachers according to BLS make $71.93 and hour and nurses $72.48 (figures include benefits). Sounds like a lot of money unless you have child care costs that the Governor of Ohio wants me to help with.

I can hear the screams now. But you lived in ancient times (1980s) and probably only had one car, one TV and no contracts for internet, cable, phone, and never went out to eat at 5x what it costs at home. Yup. And now that I can afford not to work (because I saved and invested the maximum allowed when I did work), and can afford a pedicure, a cleaning service, a vacation, and someone to do home repairs, I'm supposed to pay off someone else's living expenses so she can be a wage slave at a salary I couldn't have dreamed of. Check the BLS figures.

Update:  When AI (Copilot) started giving me vague responses like consulting a government website, I wrote: "If I wanted to spend hours looking at government sites I wouldn't be asking Copilot." So it apologized and gave me more specifics. Is it OK to be rude and snarky for something that isn't human and just a collection of data and pixels? Does the Bible cover that?

Now Thank We All Our God--again

 I love reading hymns in my morning devotions.  Sometimes I spend all my time on the opening hymn and Psalm. I own two hymnal sources, both Protestant, but often these hymns are also used in Catholic services.  Today it was Now Thank We All Our God.  I wrote about it for Thanksgiving 2022. Collecting My Thoughts: Now thank we all our God, story of a favorite hymn  Such an interesting and tragic background.  Martin Rinkart, a Lutheran pastor, wrote it during the 30 Years War, the most devasting war in Europe's history.  The war is often called a religious war, however, it was primarily political with the various Lutheran and Catholic princes fighting each other, plus disease and starvation. It wiped out about half of the German population.

I noticed today that it was based on a benediction in Sirach (The Wisdom of Sirach or The Book of Ecclesiasticus) 50:22-24. "And now, bless the God of all/ who has done wondrous things on earth;/ Who fosters men's growth from their mother's womb,/ and fashions them according to his will!/ May he grant you joy of heart/ and may peace abide among you;/ May his goodness toward us endure in Israel/ as long as the heavens are above." 

"Martin Rinkart was a minister in the city of Eilenburg during the Thirty Years War. Apart from battles, lives were lost in great number during this time due to illnesses and disease spreading quickly throughout impoverished cities. In the Epidemic of 1637, Rinkart officiated at over four thousand funerals, sometimes fifty per day. In the midst of these horrors, it’s difficult to imagine maintaining faith and praising God, and yet, that’s exactly what Rinkart did. Sometime in the next twenty years, he wrote the hymn, “Now Thank We All Our God,” originally meant to be a prayer said before meals. Rinkart could recognize that our God is faithful, and even when the world looks bleak, He is “bounteous” and is full of blessings, if only we look for them. Blessings as seemingly small as a dinner meal, or as large as the end of a brutal war and unnecessary bloodshed are all reasons to lift up our thanks to God, with our hearts, our hands, and our voices."  https://hymnary.org/text/now_thank_we_all_our_god

Grab and Go

When I hear the word "grab" in church it just doesn't feel right. "Grab a communion cup," or "Grab your Bible and turn to (chapter verse) or "Grab your neighbor's hand and share your concerns." Really? In God's House? So, I looked up synonyms to see what else is available. Snatch. Capture. Snag. Seize. Nab. Hmmn. Proves my point--not even the synonyms sound loving, graceful, kind, charitable or spiritual. Some of you are more knowledgeable or fluent in English than I am. How would you phrase the same meaning?

Biden's Charlottesville moment

I noted that Biden had said nothing in 7 months about the riots against Jews all across the nation and on many college campuses even though he had the J6 protestors jailed. And now, ta-da! His own Charlottesville moment.

"I condemn the antisemitic protests, that’s why I set up a program to deal with that,” Biden told reporters in Virginia. “I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians and their — how they’re doing.”

Biden ran on the Charlottesville “good people on both sides” lie. Now in 2024 we have Joe Biden actually doing what he claimed Trump did in regards to antisemitism pic.twitter.com/IyxiY6q5Ue  — boxingMD (@BoxingMD1) April 22, 2024

But Trump didn't say what the media (and Biden) condemned him for. The reporters continued to harass him and question him, demanding that he clarify that he wasn't talking about neo-nazis. Now Biden says there are "very fine people" protesting and supporting Hamas, but he also waited 7 months. Plus the Charlottesville protest was in one place over one statue. These "hate all the Jews" protestors are condemning an entire race all over the world. And if they say it's just about Israel, why are they threatening American Jews?

Biden Sees Very Fine People on Both Sides of Campus Antisemitism (breitbart.com)

PolitiFact | In Context: Donald Trump’s ‘very fine people on both sides’ remarks (transcript)

Fact check: Meme on Trump 'very fine people' quote has inaccuracies (usatoday.com)

Fact Check: President Trump Did NOT Say Charlottesville White Supremacists and Neo-Nazis Were "Very Fine People" In 2017 | Lead Stories

The ham sandwich trial

"Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Trump in 2023 with 34 counts of falsifying business records supposedly to cover up “hush money” payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.

“This case is just bogus from start to finish,” Von Spakovsky says, adding, “It’s in Manhattan. It’s a Manhattan jury, and I’ll tell you, quite frankly, I think if the DA charged Donald Trump with eating a ham sandwich, the jury would find him guilty.” "

https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/04/15/why-criminal-case-against-trump-bogus-legal-expert-explains/?

I glance at the trial periodically, but it makes me ill to see our justice system fall this low.  No one else in the U.S. would ever be tried for this, and we all know it.

But what also makes me sick is that there are Democrats in Congress now who want to remove his Secret Service protection so that he can be assassinated.  

While Biden allows Islamists and their rich kid lackies from elistist schools like Columbia, Harvard, Yale and the other wannabies riot and protest and shut down traffic, he also wants us to pay off their loans. There is so much evil roaming the streets it's depressing.

Proof that Joe Biden hates women

Absolute proof that Joe Biden (or his stand-ins for Obama) hates women.

Trump reversed many of the anti-woman regulations (never voted on by Congress) developed by Obama's swamp team around Title IX. It puts men in women's private spaces--locker rooms, bathrooms, clubs, prisons, etc. If there were no other reason to vote for Trump, this would be it. 

Our Constitution allowed, in Title IX, separation and differences when sex was relevant. Now it's discrimination. The word gender with all its wokey wanky hanky panky meaning has replaced "sex" in Title IX. The regulation also affects men in that there are kangaroo courts (victim advocates) at any school that gets federal funds, even for lunch or 4-H, to use against boys and men since sexual harassment now can mean anything, such as using the wrong pronoun. The males have no right to question or to even ask for the evidence. It's impelled speech, and loss of freedom of speech. 

There will be law suits--it's been coming for 2 years and people are prepared. Donate to fight this anti-woman, anti-female, anti-Christian regulation from the Department of Education. 

It's bad for everyone. Gay or straight, black, white, brown or Asian. It's a disaster for the Constitution, which it completely bipassed. It eliminates free-speech, freedom of religion, and due process, and all the election laws which are supposed to give us a representative government. No one elected these creatures in the regulatory swamp.

Department of Education’s New Title IX Rule Just as Bad as Expected  (dailysignal.com)

Donald Trump and MAGA

Someone believes this is a great country worth saving and that's President Donald J. Trump.

 
I believe all these phony charges and ridiculous trials (NARA, Jack Smith, Fani Willis, Letitia James, Alvin Bragg) would never come to trial for any other American. Begin with the classified documents--Biden, Pence, and even Jimmy Carter all had classified documents unsecured years after they served, and vice presidents aren't allowed to take ANY, not even for their memoirs. And no one knows what Obama has because his are in a "special" NARA facility. The charges are in part to convince Trump and his supporters that this really is a country deeply flawed because the president in power can jail his opponents just like a third world country. Look how many people they've already jailed during the Biden term.

With Big Tech and Big Pharma colluding with FBI, CIA, FDA and CDC the Biden team has managed to cancel thousands of lives and ruin the education of millions of children over an unapproved vaccine and unnecessary lockdown. What great country would do that?

They want to defund the police, and emasculate the military by spending our wealth on the safety of other countries in proxy wars. They are importing drugs and gangs making every state a border state. They allow Islamists shouting death to Jews, but jail Christians if they pray in front of an abortion clinic. What great country would do that? Democrats believe former NY governor Cuomo who said, "America was not that great."

Yes, Biden and the Democrats are making a strong case against the U.S. being a great country.

Biden's campaign strategy

 

  

NPR--many kinds of truth, unless you support Trump or are a conservative

Katherine Roberts Maher hasn't been CEO of NPR very long, but she's certainly a symptom of the rot there. She used to run Wikepedia, where everyone except conservatives get to provide their own "truth." Conservative media is now providing "mash ups" of her comments before she entered the elitist disinformation land of public supported radio. I'm not on X (Twitter), but I'd guess they are making mincemeat of her.

NPR CEO Katherine Maher Says She Coordinated With Government To Censor Misinformation As CEO Of Wikipedia | Video | RealClearPolitics

50 NPR employees demand CEO Katherine Maher, editor-in-chief publicly rebuke 'factual inaccuracies' (msn.com)

American Spectator, April 17, 2024:  "What is perhaps most notable about Maher’s radicalism is how utterly conventional it is. While her posts may be exceptionally risible, her views are par for the course in most of America’s elite institutions — in many cases, they are the price of entry. Maher herself sports impeccable elite credentials: Prior to NPR, she served as CEO and executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia. According to a 2021 biography, Maher was also “a fellow at the Truman National Security Project,” has written for outlets such as Foreign Policy, the Atlantic, and the Guardian,” and serves as “a member of the Advisory Council of the Open Technology Fund and the board of the Sunlight Foundation.”

These are the people who run our country. Maher’s only distinction is that she was marginally clumsier about concealing or soft-pedaling her ideas in the public eye.

This may come as a surprise to many elected Republicans, who have happily forked over government check after government check to institutions like NPR, but we are not actually obligated to fund people and organizations that hate us. https://spectator.org/its-bigger-than-nprs-katherine-maher/?

Update from City Journal: "Maher’s prolific history on social media, which she seems to have used as a private diary, narrating her every thought, emotion, meeting, and political opinion in real-time. This archive is a collection of her statements, but at a deeper level, it provides a window into the soul of a uniquely American archetype: the affluent, white, female liberal—many of whom now sit atop our elite institutions." https://www.city-journal.org/article/quotations-from-chairman-maher?

The Nashville Shooter

A woman killed 3 children and 3 adults at a Christian school last year and her name isn't even listed in the article I just read about the investigation. Is it because she is white? Anti-Christian? Was she taking hormones dangerous for women? Does her journal implicate an influential institution in charge of her care? Like Vanderbilt's Vivid? Vanderbilt generates about $12 billion annually. Is there abuse recorded in her journal? Is this white privilege or LGBTQ+ privilege?

Nashville Police Say ‘Ongoing Investigation’ Prevents Release Of Covenant Shooter’s Manifesto | The Daily Wire

Lawyers for both Covenant School and Covenant Presbyterian Church, where the school is located, argued against the release of the writings.

New twist: Parents of the murdered children say they own the copyright to the journal.   Tennessee judge wants more information on copyright before ruling on school shooter's writings | AP News

DEI and the AMA

Remember this when you need a kidney transplant.

"Medical schools are introducing into the curriculum material in which everyone can excel. Programming on “structural racism” and the “need for a diversified workforce” is now part of a core content area, according to the academic head of the American Medical Association. A mandatory three-semester course at the University of Pennsylvania medical school, Doctoring I, looks at such topics as “race/racism in medicine,” “narratives,” and “structural competency” (the last means that, if you are white, you are structurally incompetent to give optimal care to underrepresented minorities). The Diversity Strategic Action Plan at the Case Western Reserve medical school trains faculty and students to address implicit bias and microaggressions. The DSAP was developed in response to the changing demographics of the student body, explains the school. None of these courses will help physicians diagnose obscure tumors or prescribe the proper course of drugs.

What and who gets published in scientific journals, who reviews submissions and edits articles—these decisions are now being driven by the felt need for more diverse, that is, more black, faces. An article in the March 14, 2024, edition of Nature by a professor of social policy and race at King’s College, London, complains about how “exhausting” it is to exist at the “intersection” of being black and a woman. A December 2023 article in Science announced that “racism in America is a system of oppression that produces and sustains racially unequal outcomes.” Systemic racism places “Black Americans at a compounded disadvantage even in the absence of overt discrimination,” according to the article."

https://www.city-journal.org/article/kidneys-dont-see-color?

Robert Malone reports on long-term Covid

"There are millions of people world-wide who suffer adverse events from these products or worse, they suffered death. People who were not at a huge risk from the virus or who had already had natural immunity. We were all lied to. Repeatedly.

We deserve a government apology.

We deserve our scientific community and our health care professionals admitting the damages done.

We deserve to have our vaccine injuries taken seriously, and those who have damages deserve some sort of compensation.

People need to be held accountable.

The HHS needs a complete overhaul and we need the next president to be discussing how this will be accomplished."

mRNA Pseudo-Vaccines: Current Research (substack.com)

Who are the rioters?

 

Terrorists and treasonists among us marching in the streets

Right now, in the USA there are illegals, immigrants and US born terrorist supporters blocking federal and state highways flying the flags of our enemies and shouting death to America. There are Democrat members of Congress who support their efforts who also wish death on Israelis and Americans.

The protestors should be allowed to speak if they are Americans, and deported if not, but should be jailed for their behavior that is hurting others. If abortion protestors can't pray in front of PP clinics, then the pro-Hamas and pro-Hezbollah screamers can't block women on their way to the clinic. The Congress Squad should be charged with insurrection and treason.

Meanwhile an innocent man who is running for president is being held hostage by the Biden lackies and Obama appointees in the worst case of election fraud and corruption by the Democrats since 2020. Democrats ignore the crimes and warfare at our own border so they can thwart the will of the people. Biden jails his political enemies, and Trump lets his enemies use the Constitution in their effort to destroy him.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/anti-israel-agitators-block-golden-gate-bridge-traffic?

Pro-Palestinian Demonstrators Block Traffic At Chicago O’Hare Airport And Golden Gate Bridge (msn.com)

Millions of Democrat voters in Democrat run cities are being inconvenienced:

"In Chicago, protesters linked arms and blocked lanes of Interstate 190 leading into O'Hare International Airport around 7 a.m. in a demonstration they said was part of a global “economic blockade to free Palestine,” according to Rifqa Falaneh, one of the organizers.

Traffic in the San Francisco Bay Area was snarled for hours as demonstrators shut down all vehicle, pedestrian and bike traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge and chained themselves to 55-gallon drums filled with cement across Interstate 880 in Oakland. Protesters marching into Brooklyn blocked Manhattan-bound traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge. In Eugene, Oregon, protesters blocked Interstate 5, shutting down traffic on the major highway for about 45 minutes." Detroit News

Phil is blooming

 Our son Phil had a good friend, Sonja, who was battling breast cancer as he fought glioblastoma. They spent a lot of time talking/texting and she would visit him in his home.  She planted an azaelea tree near her new home when he died, and called it "Phil."  This year Spring is early, and it's throwing out a lot of color. She writes:

“Phil” is coming along…I can’t help but think he may be holding out for Sunday to be in his full glory, which, of course, would bring another round of tears to my eyes, as that will be 4 years since he was called home.

 
Not a single day goes by that I don’t want to share something with him that I saw, heard or experienced, to hear his wisdom, and/or laughter, on whatever it was that I wanted to share…I really miss my dear friend a lot…sigh."

 

April 15--Tax Day and Get Trump Day

Happy Tax Day! 35,000,000 words in the tax code, mostly to attack the middle class and enrich the upper 10%. Biden wants more IRS agents to go after us but won't demand that federal employees pay their back taxes. Imagine if he and son Hunter had to pay taxes on their kickbacks from China and Ukraine!

It's also the day of Alvin Bragg's illegal and despicable attack trial in New York on all voters in the U.S. who want a candidate who can destroy wokeism, progressivism, and socialism with a legal, fair election. Bragg, Willis and James are an embarrassment to the legal profession and all Democrats. They are the personification of the 19th century lynch mobs and Jim Crow Redux. And they only go after Trump. They are the crowd cheering for O.J. killing white victims.

Here's how Democrats will work the election

 

The ants are back, an analogy

Our summer ants are early. Normally I wouldn't see one until late June. I saw one on the kitchen counter yesterday. Tiny. Then 10 and then more. I got out the Terro ant trap and opened it. At first they ignored it. But they seemed to be everywhere. This morning when I turned on the light, the trap had attracted maybe 100 or more, and others were sort of dazed. An hour later, there were only about 25. Then by 10:30 there were almost none. It's like sin. It must be good, everyone's doing it. Let's check it out. So they take a few sips have a party and take it back to the nest (which I can never find) to tell their friends and neighbors and infect them with the poison.

TERRO® Ant Killer & DIY Home Pest Control | Kill Bugs & Insects

Naomi Wolf was cancelled--interview with Tucker

Tucker's interview with Naomi Wolf will knock your socks off. She was one of the most famous liberal intellectuals in America. Then she questioned lockdowns and the covid vax because she'd made a career writing about medical issues and feminism, and knew women were reporting changes in their bodies. Newborns were dying. Facts. She was cancelled big time. Her income, her friends, her "community of liberals," and all her core beliefs. She turned to prayer and the Bible for answers. And she found a new community--and they are looking into Big Pharma's crimes.

A secular Jew and a secular Episcopalian talk about the Bible and what it says about the meaning of tragedy and failure.
 

The Tucker Carlson Podcast: Naomi Wolf on Apple Podcasts

Planned Parenthood solicitation and expansion to new programs

I get mail frequently from Planned Parenthood. Appeals for money, laced with lies. The graphics are right out of the DEI playbook. The unborn are the most righteous, the poorest. and the weakest in our society. We are commanded by God to care for them.

Ps 37:12 "The wicked plot against the righteous, and gnash their teeth at them; but the LORD laughs at the wicked, for he sees that their day is coming."

Planned Parenthood is a shill and fund raiser for the Democrat Party. A high rate of its victims is minorities, the poor and the young. Black women are 4x more likely to have an abortion white women--23.8 per 1,000 compared to 6.6 per 1,000. Now it is also in the sex manipulation business for teen--hormones, counseling, etc. That's where the real money is.

After a Knoxville PP clinic closed due to an arsonist in 2022, NPR did a big sympathy piece on how far children confused about their sexuality had to travel for "gender affirming care." Out of 629,898 abortions reported to the CDC for 2019, Black women accounted for 38.4 percent of them. By comparison, white women made up 33.4 percent of those abortions.

Watching the Eclipse--bringing communities together

 Columbus was in a line through Ohio to see the total eclipse on April 8.  We went outside about 2:40 and sat in our lawn chairs in our drive-way and chatted with the neighbors while we watched with our special glasses.  Later I saw on Facebook that my friend Jeanne had equipped her dogs for the event. We noticed about a 10 degree drop in temperature and the birds were acting strangely. 

  

My brother in Byron, Illinois with 90% eclipse, also sat in his drive-way with neighbors with his glasses saved from 2017.

My friend Anna from Cherry Valley, Illinois drove to a small town in Indiana with her son and granddaughter where they enjoyed a full eclipse at a park with lots of festivities.

Ten exercises to improve balance for Seniors

 Putting this here so I can find it. There are not a lot of good spaces in our home to do these, however, some don't take a lot of room. https://youtu.be/cAOK3apyCOc?si=9L4TLOSMLFj8qluA  I often read the comments: 

"Thank you so much i am 84 yrs old .at last exercises i can actually do." 

Sounds like me!

"I am in PT right now to work on my walking. Most of these exercises have been given to me to do. My balance was terrible when I started. Now it's much better. The exercises help if you put in the effort. Keep trying if you start, you will improve."

Doug Weiss, this instructor, has a webpage with a good overview lecture, and highlights of many videos. How to WALK to prevent Falls (youtube.com)  He has some good advice on using a walker in order to increase your miles and balance--uses the example of using a shopping cart at the store. Home | Proprioceptive Rehab

Proprioception: What It Is, Disorder, Symptoms, and More (webmd.com)

California's minimum wage trick by Democrats--virtue signaling

Who are they kidding? $20/hour in California for an unskilled teen-ager, or recently released prisoner?

Minimum wage was never intended to be a living wage. An increase has always hurt the poorest by raising prices and closing them out to the possibility of moving up. It began in the Great Depression and FDR hurt blacks and women the most who at that time could compete for jobs by using their negotiating for wages. This is more smoke and mirrors by Democrats. What employer would take a chance on an 18 year old with no skills but potential? Some kids don't even know how to show up on time--it's part of learning/teaching your minimum wage staff. Very few employed people earn minimum--it was already too high. Employers forced to pay $10-$15 will look for people worth it. California has hurt the poor and particularly American born minorities (immigrants often have a better work ethic if they walked 1,000 miles to get here).

Only about 1.4% of wage earners make federal minimum, compared to 13.4% in 1979. And that's not good. Those are earning/learning jobs--part time, good for teens and the mentally challenged that require good mentoring to move to the next level. Those jobs are now done by machines who won't take smoke breaks, call in sick, or want off for a relative's funeral. The good paying, living wage jobs are the kids who went to trade school, or high school grads who can be carpenter or plumber helpers.

Some are saying then an increase is needed for Social Securty. For that we have COLA. Like Minimum wage, Social Security was never meant to be a living wage. Rate of return in 2022 was about 6%--and considering a dicey economy struggling with socialist Bidenomics, that's not bad. It was about 1.2% in the late 90s. Possibly private investing could do better, but SS has a number of other programs to help workers that pensions and 401-k's don't. Unfortunately, we are now down to about 2.9 workers for every retiree. In 1940, that was 42. Someone in FDR's cabinet couldn't do the math. But that's Democrats. Promises, promises.

Batya Ungar-Sargon talked to the people

Yesterday I listened to an interview of Batya Ungar-Sargon who went out into America and actually talked to working people about what they believe about immigration, abortion, the economy, education, etc. What a concept! She's published a book "Second class: How the elites betrayed America's working men and women." I'd be surprised if one would vote for Biden because Democrats haven't been the party of the working class for decades. Their pollsters also lie to you every night on the news about the working class beliefs. If they don't answer the questions as the elites want, then the check mark is racist/ homophobic/ xenophobic etc. And Americans DO want those jobs that the elites wouldn't do. Dem economists are such snobs and have a low opinion of the people who allow them to live well that they skew the results of polls. Batya works for Newsweek.

Honestly with Bari Weiss: How the Working Class Became America’s Second Class on Apple Podcasts

"Bari Weiss: My guest today, Newsweek opinion editor Batya Ungar-Sargon, has been on a journey for the past eight years to understand how Trump won the White House in 2016 and how the left fundamentally misunderstood the American working class. She eventually came to the conclusion that the most salient feature of American life is not our political divide. It’s “the class divide that separates the college-educated from the working class.”

Democrats have historically been the party of the working class. But for the better part of the past decade, Democrats have seen their support among working-class voters tumble. Policy wonks and demographic experts kept saying just wait: the future of the Democratic party is a multiethnic, multiracial, working-class coalition. But that didn’t pan out.

Instead, in 2016, Trump carried 54 percent of voters with family incomes of $30,000 to $50,000; 44 percent of voters with family incomes under $50,000; and nearly 40 percent of union workers voted for Trump—the highest for a Republican presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan in 1984. Meanwhile, in 2022, Democrats had a 15-point deficit among working-class voters but a 14-point advantage among college-educated voters.

In order to understand how and why this happened, Batya decided to spend the last year traveling the country talking to working-class Americans. Who are they? Do they still have a fair shot at the American dream? What do they think about their chances to secure the hallmarks of a middle-class life?

She collected these stories in her new book: Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America’s Working Men and Women. What she found is that for many of them, the American dream felt dead.

Today, Batya discusses who really represents the working class; why she thinks America has broken its contract with the working class; how we reinstate our commitment to them; and what will happen in 2024 if we don’t.

Biden still going after the middle class

"The most recent data suggests the IRS is still focused on the middle class. As of last summer, 63% of new audits targeted taxpayers with income of less than $200,000. Only a small overall share reached the very highest earners, while 80% of audits covered filers earning less than $1 million. Don’t forget to save those charitable-giving receipts." Wall Street Journal,  April 3, 2024.

I wonder why the IRS doesn't go after the federal government employees who are behind on their taxes. 10 years ago the figure was over 300,000, but nothing has been done.

The Number of Tax Delinquent Feds Is Growing. The IRS Watchdog Wants a Crackdown. - Government Executive (govexec.com)

Spring rains in April 2024

We've certainly had our spring rains. We have a small, sleepy creek north (our view), south and east of our condo grounds . Although I've seen it higher, not often. What's usually quiet is called "Turkey Run" and it meanders through the OSU Golf course and empties into the Olentangy River. The view from our deck. First view.

Second View link.  This is the topographic map and we're sitting on that little red line between Kenny and Olentangy. We get a lot of deer here and the birds love it. Long time residents of UA may remember the bad flood we had around 1973. Then we were 2 houses from "Evans Ditch" on Abington Rd. which was really for drainage, but people called it a creek. Everyone but us had flooded basements--we were slab on grade. Our neighbor had a large wine collection in his basement.  All the labels came off and floated away. I think all the creek beds and walls in UA were upgraded then. It ran to the Scioto Golf Course on Rt. 33. Phil and his little friends loved playing in it and scaring me to death. 

  

Turkey Run Topo Map in Franklin County, Ohio (anyplaceamerica.com)