Wednesday, July 12, 2023

American Psycho

Donald Trump's docket: All the legal cases and investigations Trump faces including federal charges over classified documents
The lawsuits and prosecutions involving Donald Trump are piling up.

The ex-president — who has officially launched his 2024 presidential bid — now is indicted in two separate prosecutions, the first former White House occupant to ever be charged. In New York, he stands charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. And in Florida, the Justice Department brought 37 counts against him for his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House, making him the first president to face federal criminal charges.

Beyond that, Trump remains the subject of at least three major investigations relating to the election, the insurrection, and his finances.

A state prosecutor in Georgia is weighing if Trump broke laws in attempts to overturn the 2020 election results in that state. The Justice Department is also looking into the 2020 election.

Sunday, February 19, 2023

The Neverending Grift

How dare workers expect more than $7.25 per hour! Don't count on a decent retirement or health care plan from your employer either. Fix poisonous lead pipes? Gonna have to wait. Repair potholes and crumbling bridges? Not this decade. Strengthen Social Security and Medicare? Not a chance! Maybe we should phase them out. 

More money for private, billionaires' sport stadiums? No problem. There's always hundreds of millions in public dollars for private playgrounds and speculation.

Milwaukee's Miller Park (now American Family Field) baseball stadium (for the Milwaukee Brewers) opened in 2001. Total cost to taxpayers was estimated over a billion dollars. Already, twenty years later, the Brewers need nearly $300 million more from taxpayers.

The same old myth is playing out in this greed and grift saga, wrapped in the contrived cloak of economic development and jobs. As the fairy tale goes, sports have a significant economic impact, spurring other developments, and creating jobs. And, as always, there's the threat of leaving. The Brewers may find a new host city if Milwaukee and Wisconsin don't fork over the cash.

Thought experiment: Can a business (sport team) claim to be infinitely successful and astoundingly economically impactful if, every twenty years or so, said entity must bribe and blackmail to be able to afford, supposedly, needed upgrades for their place of work (the sport arena)? 

Or, sadly, is that just how this blackmail song-and-dance shakes out, each and every time, in city after city? [Spoiler - yes, this is how it plays out in city after city, year after year.]

The boondoggles march on.

For Further Reading:
Site Selection Shenanigans

Saturday, January 7, 2023

Another American Revolution Needed

The United States has 13 of the world's top 20 billionaires. 

Let's stop pretending welfare, social programs, minimum wage, retirement plans, etc. are the true American budgetary issues. Living wages, health care, and pension plans are NOT the problem.

It's the fact that we've allowed a privileged few to avoid paying their fair share whilst amassing grotesque fortunes. 

It's time to start taxing these kings and queens and return the United States to a shared prosperity instead of the current plutocracy.