TomCADem
TomCADem's JournalFinding A Way In Trump's America Through MLK's 'Drum Major Instinct'
The following Lyndon Johnson quote is often noted as an explanation of how Trump uses the racism of his white supporters as means of oppressing them. Lyndon Johnson, of course, was a white southerner who nonetheless signed the Civil Rights Act.
However, there is also Lyndon Johnson's contemporary, Martin Luther King, who addressed this same phenomena from the perspective of a black man.
The perspectives of both Lyndon Johnson and Martin Luther King are particularly important during the Trump presidency. We cannot simply deny racial inequality or argue as some progressives have that racism is simply the result of economic hardship. We cannot assume that by eliminating economic inequality, racism will go away. To the contrary, racism itself is used to perpetuate economic inequality. By scapegoating immigrants, racial and religious minorities, and women in the workforce, Trump can get the white working class to sign off on tax cuts to the rich on cuts in salaries to federal workers, to cuts in health care all in exchange for feeling superior and entitled.
https://www.essence.com/culture/dr-martin-luther-king-drum-major-instinct-trump/
Dr. King went on to talk about the character trait that would prompt James and John to ask that question of Jesus in the first place. He calls it ‘The Drum Major Instinct,’ and says it’s that innate desire that we all have to lead the parade or be first. Philosophers say it’s the most dominant human impulse. When the instinct goes unharnessed we will put others down so we can be on top.
Dr. King tells a story of being locked up in a Birmingham jail, talking to police officers about race, when the subject of money came up. When the officers revealed how much they were earning Dr. King laughed:
“You ought to be marching with us. You’re just as poor as Negroes. You have been put in the position of supporting your oppressors, because through prejudice and blindness, you fail to see that the same forces that oppress Negroes in American society oppress poor white people too. And all you are living on is the satisfaction of your skin being white, and the drum major instinct of thinking that you are somebody big, when you are so poor you can hardly send your children to school.”
Little has changed. Poor whites think it’s the black and brown population taking away jobs and security when it’s really the one percent. Dr. King also warns of what could happen if China, the U.S. and Russia had a standoff. We’d all go within seconds. Even less has changed. Dr. King goes back to Jesus, James and John.
Snopes: Trump Denied He Said Mexico Would Write a Check for the Wall -- But He Did
Part of the problem why the shutdown is going to last so long is because now that Democrats hold the House, the media is falling back into its old pattern of pushing false equivalency instead of objectivity.
https://www.snopes.com/news/2019/01/11/trump-mexico-wall-payment/
President Donald Trump on 10 January 2019 claimed he never said Mexico would write a check to pay for his promised new border wall. That’s not exactly true.
As a protracted partial shutdown of the federal government was on pace to be the longest in U.S. history, President Trump made the comment as he headed from the White House to Texas, where he visited the U.S.-Mexico border. He was trying make the case that unauthorized immigration was a national crisis that merited an appropriation of $5.7 billion for new border wall construction, an assertion Democratic lawmakers denied. Federal government employees began missing paychecks as of 11 January 2019 due to the impasse over the issue and resulting failure to pass a spending budget.
The idea of the wall came from the 2016 campaign trail. Roughly 580 miles of barriers already exist along the nearly 2,000-mile U.S. border with Mexico, and unauthorized crossings are at an historical low. But the idea of Mexico’s paying for the new wall was the subject of a well-known, call-and-response between then-candidate Trump and his rally attendees.
Despite President Trump’s more recent comments, he said on many occasions that Mexico would pay for the wall in full. And during a town hall event hosted by Fox News personality Sean Hannity on 13 April 2016, Trump said Mexico could pay by writing a check.
Vox - Conservatives won't trade the wall for anything good because they know it's a bad idea.
Interesting article that answers the question of why there is no deal to be had: Because it is a stupid idea and Republicans are not going to offer anything worthwhile in exchange for it. Higher taxes on the rich? Nope. Protection for Dreamers? Nope. Thus, despite false equivalency being pushed in the media, Republicans really just want a shutdown and appreciate the cover the media is giving them by pushing a false equivalency.
https://www.vox.com/2018/12/28/18158873/wall-shutdown-trump-dreamers-deal
Spending billions of dollars to build hundreds of miles of additional walling — or “steel slats” or whatever you want to call it — on the US-Mexico border is a bad idea. That’s a critical, underrated feature of the current standoff that has led President Trump to partially shut down the government.
After all, if the president of the United States wants a $5 billion appropriation for a pet project that’s important to him personally and partially fulfills a campaign promise, then he ought to be able to get it. And the time-honored way to get it is to give congressional skeptics something else in exchange. That’s how the system has worked ever since Alexander Hamilton got James Madison to back federal assumption of state debts in exchange for locating the nation’s capital on the banks of the Potomac River.
But back at the beginning of the year, when it seemed as though a compromise involving wall money and a path to citizenship for DREAMers was in the works, it was immigration hardliners in Trump’s own administration who scuttled the deal. That’s certainly their prerogative, but it underscores the core truth of this standoff: Immigration hardliners themselves don’t think the wall is especially useful or important in the real world. If they really wanted a wall, they would go get a wall by offering something — it wouldn’t even necessarily have to be immigration-related — in exchange for it. But since they know the wall is a bad idea, they won’t trade it for anything. Yet precisely because the wall idea is so bad, Democrats, rightly, aren’t going to give it away for free.
The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Parents are Going Broke by Elizabeth Warren
If you want to get to know about Elizabeth Warren, and get beyond the caricature and stereotypes created by Fox News and Trump, check out the book that put her on the map in the first place. I read it when it first came out in 2004, and it does a great job of explaining why the middle class has become so precarious in the modern age. Fox paints Warren as an out of touch lefty without any real policy chops. The fact of the matter is that she is as serious a policy wonk as anyone running for President.
https://www.amazon.com/Two-Income-Trap-Middle-Class-Parents-Going/dp/0465090907
In this revolutionary exposé, Harvard Law School bankruptcy expert Elizabeth Warren and financial consultant Amelia Tyagi show that today's middle-class parents are increasingly trapped by financial meltdowns. Astonishingly, sending mothers to work has made families more vulnerable to financial disaster than ever before. Today's two-income family earns 75% more money than its single-income counterpart of a generation ago, but has 25% less discretionary income to cover living costs. This is "the rare financial book that sidesteps accusations of individual wastefulness to focus on institutional changes," raved the Boston Globe. Warren and Tyagi reveal how the ferocious bidding war for housing and education has silently engulfed America's suburbs, driving up the cost of keeping families in the middle class. The authors show why the usual remedies-child-support enforcement, subsidized daycare, and higher salaries for women-won't solve the problem. But as the Wall Street Journal observed, "The book is brimming with proposed solutions to the nail-biting anxiety that the middle class finds itself in: subsidized day care, school vouchers, new bank regulation, among other measures." From Senator Edward M. Kennedy to Dr. Phil to Bill Moyers, The Two-Income Trap has created a sensation among economists, politicians, and families-all those who care about America's middle-class crisis.
Truck owners are blocking Tesla Superchargers in 'ICE-ing' protests
I have an electric car and I have had folks in pick-up trucks with a flag flying in the truck bed inexplicably speed up, and try to cut me off out of the blue. There is just a lot of anger being stirred out there.
https://www.businessinsider.com/truck-owners-are-blocking-tesla-superchargers-in-ice-ing-protests-2018-12
Tesla drivers are reporting a spate of "ICE-ing" (an acronym from Internal Combustion Engine) by large trucks at Superchargers across the country.
In one instance, Reddit user Leicina said a group of trucks blocked all of the charging spots while changing "F Tesla" before being asked to leave by an employee of the store.
Like most superchargers, the location where the incident occurred — behind a Sheetz convenience store in Hickory, North Carolina, about 40 miles northwest of Charlotte — isn't on land owned by Tesla. Rather, it's leased from third-parties, giving the company no control over how the Supercharger spots are used from day to day.
"I was really uncomfortable," the Tesla owner said, adding that the Sheetz employees were "really understanding and sent someone out immediately."
I guess this is just a continuation of the rolling coal "protests."
Fortune - Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts Are Expected to Lower Charitable Donations
The hits keep on coming.
http://fortune.com/2018/12/26/trump-tax-cuts-lower-charitable-giving/
‘Tis the season for giving—especially if you’re trying to squeeze in some charitable tax breaks for 2018.
Nonprofits may not see the influx of revenue they’re used to, however, as the Trump administration’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act eliminated many incentives for giving.
To gain more tax breaks via itemized charitable donations, individuals and couples need to give more than the standard deduction. But under last year’s new tax law, the standard deduction for singles nearly doubled, rising from $6,350 to $12,000. For married couples, the standard deduction rose from $12,700 to $24,000.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act also capped the state and local tax deduction at $10,000 and eliminated other itemized deductions.
NPR - After 'Calling Out' Sanders Over Event Snub, Vermont Leaders Of Color Offer Path Forward
This is why I do not support Bernie. I think a lot of his populist platform is based on dog whistles meant to stoke white working class resentment such as his past opposition to immigration reform, railing against trade (with Mexico and China, but Canada is okay), complaining about globalism, his support of laws immunizing gun makers from lawsuits, and his attacks on the Democratic party for promoting "identity politics."
So, he holds a progressive conference in Vermont with prominent Democratic critics Cornel West and Susan Sarandon, but fails to invite the grass roots members of the civil rights community such as the local NAACP.
http://digital.vpr.net/post/after-calling-out-sanders-over-event-snub-vermont-leaders-color-offer-path-forward#stream/0
Sen. Bernie Sanders has in many ways become the figurehead of the national progressive movement, but leaders of color in Vermont say his spotty track record on racial justice issues could undermine his status as its leader.
Now, those same advocates are trying to lay the groundwork for what they hope will be a more collaborative relationship with Sanders in the future.
Sanders, as well as an institute that bears his name, have come under fire in recent days for failing to invite Vermont-based social justice advocates to a three-day gathering in Burlington.
In an open letter to Sanders and the Sanders Institute, more than a dozen racial and social justice advocates said that “Vermonters in marginalized positions” have found themselves “excluded from the movement” that Sanders is trying to foster.
Bloomberg - Wall Street's Debt-Ceiling Dread Resurrected by Shutdown Strife
This is part of the reason why it is so important for Democrats to stand firm. If Trump gets his blank check on the wall, then who knows what other type of extortionate demands he will attach to increasing the debt limit.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-20/wall-street-s-debt-ceiling-dread-resurrected-by-shutdown-strife
The looming U.S. government shutdown is beginning to worry Wall Street. Just not for the reasons you might think.
Traders aren’t really losing much sleep over the prospect of furloughed bureaucrats inside the Beltway. Instead, market veterans are on edge because of what the debacle signals about Washington’s inability to compromise ahead of the early March debt-ceiling reinstatement, after which the Treasury will need to resort to extraordinary measures to pay America’s obligations.
In what’s become something of a grim ritual, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are likely to lock horns once again as the clock to a U.S. debt default ticks down, using the threat of economic disaster to try and wrangle legislative concessions from the other party. While Congress has never failed to reach an accord, many longtime Wall Street prognosticators are growing increasingly concerned that 2019’s clash could match, or surpass, some of the more bitter showdowns of years past, leading to a major market disruption.
“This shutdown episode is important because it’s a window into the governing dynamics next year, which is concerning because the debt limit comes back into play,” said Isaac Boltansky, a senior policy analyst at investment advisory firm Compass Point. “Legislative brinkmanship takes on a whole new market dynamic when it encompasses the debt ceiling. We are going to have a concentration of political risks that investors need to be aware of.”
Is Trump Ripping Off Bernie Sander's Again? - This Time Its The Federal Reserve
It seems like Trump and Republicans are jumping on the Bernie Sander's populist band wagon without giving him the credit for one of his policy proposals, which is to reign in the independence of the Fed. Bernie Sanders has long railed against the efforts of the fed to control inflation by raising interest rates. Now, Trump and many Republicans are feeling the Bern in blaming the Fed for diluting the growth of their magical tax cuts with interest rate increases. First, trade. Second, immigration and guest workers. Now, Federal Reserve independence. Does Trump have any original ideas?
Perhaps this proves that Trump sees Bernie Sanders as the greatest threat to his 2020 re-election, which is why Trump is digging deep into the Bernie Sander's playbook to try to blunt his populist appeal.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-blames-mnuchin-for-powells-fed-interest-rate-policy-2018-11-24
President Trump has expressed dissatisfaction with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, blaming him for the appointment of a Federal Reserve chairman who has been raising interest rates, a move Trump worries will jeopardize economic gains as his 2020 re-election campaign approaches, people familiar with the matter said.
In conversations with advisers in recent weeks, President Trump also has voiced displeasure with Mnuchin over the turbulent stock market and the Treasury chief’s skepticism toward the sort of punitive trade actions the White House has taken against China, the people said.
Looking back to his appointment of Mnuchin in 2016, President Trump has mused to advisers about whether he should have tapped someone else, mentioning JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM, -0.92% Chief Executive James Dimon as an alternative. A spokesman for Dimon declined to comment.
Aides fall in and out of favor in a White House known for high turnover, and Mr. Trump’s pique doesn’t necessarily mean Mnuchin is in danger of losing influence or being replaced. As President Trump prepares for a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 summit on Nov. 30, he has relied on Mnuchin in sounding out Beijing on a trade deal.
Here is Bernie Sander's New York Times Op-Ed describing the approach that Trump is now trying to steal:
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/23/opinion/bernie-sanders-to-rein-in-wall-street-fix-the-fed.html
Bernie Sanders Op-Ed: To Rein In Wall Street, Fix the Fed
WALL STREET is still out of control. Seven years ago, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department bailed out the largest financial institutions in this country because they were considered too big to fail. But almost every one is bigger today than it was before the bailout. If any were to fail again, taxpayers could be on the hook for another bailout, perhaps a larger one this time.
To rein in Wall Street, we should begin by reforming the Federal Reserve, which oversees financial institutions and which uses monetary policy to maintain price stability and full employment. Unfortunately, an institution that was created to serve all Americans has been hijacked by the very bankers it regulates.
The recent decision by the Fed to raise interest rates is the latest example of the rigged economic system. Big bankers and their supporters in Congress have been telling us for years that runaway inflation is just around the corner. They have been dead wrong each time. Raising interest rates now is a disaster for small business owners who need loans to hire more workers and Americans who need more jobs and higher wages. As a rule, the Fed should not raise interest rates until unemployment is lower than 4 percent. Raising rates must be done only as a last resort — not to fight phantom inflation.
What went wrong at the Fed? The chief executives of some of the largest banks in America are allowed to serve on its boards. During the Wall Street crisis of 2007, Jamie Dimon, the chief executive and chairman of JPMorgan Chase, served on the New York Fed’s board of directors while his bank received more than $390 billion in financial assistance from the Fed. Next year, four of the 12 presidents at the regional Federal Reserve Banks will be former executives from one firm: Goldman Sachs.
Dr. Seuss Anti-Nazi/America First Cartoons in the 1940s. What's Old Is New Again
It is amazing how we are once again in a battle against racism, xenophobia and anti-semitism as though World War II and the fight against the Nazis never took place with a President proudly proclaiming that he is a white nationalist. Indeed, you can say we are worse off, since celebrity Lindbergh never won the Presidency.
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