Tag: Money

BEWARE OF DEALING WITH PHARAOH

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 1 Comment

Looking at the American economy of the past half-century, with its continuing erosion of the middle-class and the implicit right of a livable income in the exchange of the work ethic, I keep hearing a warning for us to avoid selling ourselves into slavery.

I can’t find an exact passage in Scripture, but we can see the way it happens after Joseph invites his brothers to Egypt. Over the years, they fall prey to bondage. As the story of Moses demonstrates, the pathway to freedom is quite a struggle.

We have warning signs in the growing inequality in wealth (as American pharaohs hunger for more), the rising percentage of have-nots, the burden of student-loan debt many graduates have no hope of paying off (not on the wage levels being offered, should they even find jobs in the fields they’ve prepared for), and so on.

Well, Ronald Reagan once said, “If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth.”

I doubt he expected it could be a rallying cry for the Left, much less the Center.

A BILLION IN PERSPECTIVE

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 4 Comments

By definition, a billionaire has at least a thousand million dollars. There are, by one count, 492 billionaires in the U.S. They and their families would fit in a single hotel, if they’d settle on something less than a suite. Think about that. They own more than half of the nation’s wealth.

SO MUCH FOR THE BIG-MONEY PIPELINE

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 1 Comment

Wait! The billionaire Koch Bros. are rebuffing Trump’s overtures for campaign donations?

That in itself is shocking!

  • Could it be his Russian connections? Or his Russian lenders?
  • Could it be they know a bad investment when they see one?
  • Could it be they have no desire to see their largess prop up Trump’s businesses and private wealth rather than his run for the White House?
  • Could it be he’s not right-wing enough for them? Or that they have no idea where he really stands, much less what he might deliver?
  • Could it be they’re going to give heavily to Gary Johnson and the Libertarians instead?
  • Just what do they know that we don’t?
  • How soon before Trump starts smearing them with nasty nicknames? As if he hasn’t already?

As if our heads weren’t spinning already, just trying to keep up with the surreal news developments.

SO HERE WE GO CHARGING TOWARD NOVEMBER

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 3 Comments

For perspective, remember that the infamous Chicago convention of ’68 took place nearly a month later, in late August. This is going to be a long and brutal battle.

The national government’s been gridlocked, thanks to a Republican vow to oppose and undercut anything President Obama has desired.  They have no basis for blaming him or his administration for anything, then. The failures really fall back on their own shoulders.

The challenge now is to elect officials who will work together to solve problems on behalf of all Americans.

Trump and his party have, in practice, already excluded all but older white males of a nominally Christian persuasion. As a white male, and as a radical Christian, I’m deeply offended by their arrogance and presumption.

The alternative of either the nation’s first woman president or first Jewish president has been far more welcoming in the primary season. Now, if Democrats and Independent voters stay united, the reality of an inclusive White House that serves all Americans is in reach.

So here we go.

NO MATTER WHAT, IT’S NOT PALIN

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 1 Comment

With all of the hoopla surrounding vice presidential picks, I can’t help but wonder where the scrutiny was when John McCain pulled Sarah Palin out of the hat.

His lapse in judgment there may well have cost him the White House.

Quite simply, we dodged the bullet.

Let’s not underestimate the importance of this half of the ticket.

I, for one, am grateful for Joe Biden’s service the past eight years.

WAIT! DO RUSSIANS REALLY ‘OWN’ DONALD J. TRUMP?

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 2 Comments

Apart from the furor over the WikiLeaks release of hacked Democratic National Committee emails is a much bigger, more troubling, question: Exactly why were the Russians doing covert electronic snooping against the American liberal party, anyway?

(Makes me wonder about the presumed security of U.S. State Department lines, by the way – the ones Hillary Clinton avoided at times, to the consternation of her partisan attackers.)

We might begin with the fact that Russian president Vladimir Putin hates Hillary Clinton, probably because of her toughness as Secretary of State in opposition to his aggression.

But now Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo makes more serious connections as he looks at what he calls “the seeming bromance between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.”

Quite simply, as he notes, ” There is a lot of Russian money flowing into Trump’s coffers and he is conspicuously solicitous of Russian foreign policy priorities.”

Marshall then observes, “Trump has been blackballed by all major U.S. banks with the exception of Deutschebank, which is of course a foreign bank with a major U.S. presence. He has steadied and rebuilt his financial empire with a heavy reliance on capital from Russia. At a minimum the Trump organization is receiving lots of investment capital from people close to Vladimir Putin.”

And Marshall then goes on to note the close Russian relationships with Trump’s closest advisers. That alone should be raising red flags. No pun intended.

It’s all truly frightening stuff, especially for those of us who have viewed many right-wing operatives as more dangerous to American freedoms than any of the “communist takeover” we’ve long been warned against. (Marshall, by the way, steers clear of conspiracy theories.)

How is it Trump’s Republican opponents overlooked these connections? Well, for one, they never took him seriously. He was, after all, essentially a comical TV entertainer. Or so they thought. Look at the disaster they could have prevented.

But now? Could Trump be a Manchurian Candidate?

Put the dots together, and it’s fair to guess, this is worse than we might imagine. Or, as Marshall explains:

“Trump’s tax returns would likely clarify the depth of his connections to and dependence on Russian capital aligned with Putin. And in case you’re keeping score at home: no, that’s not reassuring.”

No wonder Trump has refused to release 10 years of tax filings! On top of all the other shenanigans those documents would likely disclose, we have this reality: He’s in debt up to his eyeballs to Russians! Think about that!

Now, for more from Marshall: “To put this all into perspective, if Vladimir Putin were simply the CEO of a major American corporation and there was this much money flowing in Trump’s direction, combined with this much solicitousness of Putin’s policy agenda, it would set off alarm bells galore.”

Why hasn’t it? Go ahead, blame the mainstream media, if you must. Maybe they’ll catch up. This could be the bombshell to destroy his campaign, believe me, if additional details come to light..

Now, we can also ask: Just how crooked are Trump’s financial dealings? How shaky is his empire? Or how shady? Could it be Russians are simply trying to protect their investment?

For Marshall’s full account, I urge you to click here.

GO AHEAD, ASK

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Would they live by the Golden Rule? Could they live on the minimum wage, much less raise a family? Will they even donate as much to charities serving the poor as they give to political campaigns? Especially considering how the middle-class has been impoverished?