Welcome to Jonathan’s Verdicts. I’m Jonathan Simeone. The title of this episode is: Democrats Ignore People With Disabilities: The verdict for this episode is: no Democratic candidate for president talks about people with disabilities.
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Our long national nightmare is over. Thankfully, we now know, as if there was any doubt, Beto is running! What we don’t know, other than his ego, is why Beto is running. America doesn’t need an empty suit with little experience, a moderate record, and an unwillingness to take many stands. In honoring Beto’s announcement, I’m going to make a second donation to Bernie Sander’s campaign. A commitment to progressive ideals and a willingness to fight for universal health care, at least a 15-dollar minimum wage, and more is what matters.
Welcome to Jonathan’s Verdicts. I’m Jonathan Simeone. The title for this episode is: A Jobs Guarantee Makes Sense. The verdict for this episode is: guaranteeing every American who wants a job a job isn’t radical.
Some of the benefits of everyone who wants a job having one include:
There are two factors that must also be considered:
So, we have millions of jobs unfilled. We have a crumbling infrastructure. Large areas lack broadband. Millions of Americans aren’t working.
Given those realities and the benefits that would come from a guaranteed jobs plan, how can you intelligently argue against a guaranteed jobs plan?
During the Great Depression, President Roosevelt introduced a host of jobs programs. Those programs created new roads and parks, brought electricity to millions and did much to modernize America. All of that while providing millions of Americans decent jobs.
After the Great Depression, the will for government-provided jobs through projects that invest in America disappeared. Over time, our infrastructure began crumbling, areas of our country fell further behind, and good working-class jobs became much harder to find.
If America adopted a guaranteed jobs plan that promised a living wage and union protection, millions of working-class people would find the kind of work they want, our communities would revitalize and modernize, fewer people would need benefits, and America would be a much better place to live.
Oh yeah, millions of Americans would choose these good government jobs over the low-wage, little to no benefit jobs offered by corporations. Oops, I think I answered my question. The idea of a guaranteed jobs plan is regularly criticized because corporations want to continue exploiting American workers.
Thank you for listening to this episode of Jonathan’s Verdicts. I appreciate your support.
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Max Blumenthal’s Republican Gomorrah highlights the hypocrisy, connects the sleazy dots, and demonstrates the true character and history of the Christian right and its hold over the GOP better than any book I have ever read.
We have to begin by making one thing that should be obvious but apparently isn’t clear: criticizing Israel doesn’t make someone antisemitic. Israel is a government. It does not represent all Jewish people. Questioning governmental policy shouldn’t be seen as attacking an entire religion.
Many people, certainly including me, focus on the staggering amount of lies Donald Trump tells daily. We all want to believe he is a true outlier. People, including me, regularly discuss how America has never had a liar like Trump in government.
It’s true America has never had someone in government who lies as often as Trump Lies, but most of his lies are insignificant. On the other hand, there are volumes of evidence to indicate politicians with substantially more respect than Trump, I know that’s a low bar, have lied about extremely substantial things.
Jodi Picoult’s Change of Heart was a good read, but I didn’t like it as much as I liked the other Pocoult books I have read. The focus on religion, which may be interesting and sometimes educational for others, was too much for me.
The Pinochet File produced by Peter Kornblugh and the National Security Archive uses declassified US government documents and phone conversations to demonstrate America’s involvement in Chile through the ’70s and ’80s. With shocking, stunning detail, Kornblugh uses government secrets to tell a story that will surprise most Americans.
Even though I write largely about American domestic policy, I think a lot about foreign policy. Those who follow my blog know I have lately been reading a lot about America’s terrible history in Latin America. Facing that terrible history and thinking about Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and more, has led me to feel confident in sharing what I hope is a new, interesting foreign policy idea.
Since I’m not a politician in practice or mindset, I’m not going to mislead. The truth is I have no idea of all the consequences of what I’m proposing. Nor can I guarantee some of the possible consequences wouldn’t result in outcomes I would hate. Still, I’m proposing this idea because we need something different. We need something that gets us closer to living up to our founding ideals. We need something that rejects exceptionalism and imperialism in favor of respect and openness. We need an approach to other nations that understands foreign policy based on military might and massive amounts of cash, especially when that might and cash was too often created by exploitation and is too often used to exploit–is wrong. We need the humility to admit we don’t have all the answers. We need the confidence to acknowledge we have much to learn from others. And, we need the character to stick to our principals when immediate results challenge our idea that we know best.
If our ideas are the best, we shouldn’t be afraid to work with those who think differently. If our ideals really are the most just, we shouldn’t be afraid of ideals we don’t support. If our system of government really is the envy of the world, we shouldn’t have to force people to adopt it.
As I’m sure almost everyone knows, Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former attorney, testified before Congress this week. While Cohen testified before three House committees, this post addresses his comments to a public session of the House Oversight Committee.
