No one hates First Lady Melania. No one. Her husband is wrong.

I have to agree with Ms. Baty, she looks well rested.

Some of what is heard regarding the First Lady that the President believes is a bad press; is the fact First Lady Michelle Obama was heavily ridiculed by the right wing press, especially the talk radio bunch. So, some of the negativity the First Lady is receiving is retribution (something the President understands well) for the lousy press First Lady Michelle receives. Former First Lady Michelle still is picked on by Talk Radio. Heaven forbid she should make a public statement about anything, FOX News and Talk Radio are all about defaming her.

So, while some folks may want to apologize to First Lady Melania, there are many who need to make an apology to Former First Lady Michelle Obama. Knowing that will never happen, there is no one that sincerely hates First Lady Melania. Most Americans are glad she is okay and rested. She is our First Lady and she really does love the USA and does her best at fulfilling her duties. 

There are those in the fashion industry that boycott any aspect of First Lady Melania's wardrobe. This may or may not be due to her statements about the LGBT community, so much as her husbands'. But, as she said, she agrees with her husband on many things and that is common among political wives.

So, if the fashion industry disapproves of the treatment of LGBT Americans by the Trump administration it is their right to protest in a way that will make that statement. The First Lady's wardrobe is one of those protests and most probably the few magazine articles about her to date also represents that reluctance to reward her with attention when she is very controversial as well. Does any fashion designer or magazine editor want to run the risk of her legitimizing the position of her husband when there would be a backlash? Of course not and I don't blame them.

June 6, 2018
By Emma Baty

Melania Trump (click here) just made her first appearance in 27 days, following a kidney procedure on May 14. 

She and her husband Donald were at FEMA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. listening to a briefing on hurricane preparedness, and Donald said she's "doing great" after the surgery.

“She went through a little rough patch but she’s doing great,” Trump said. “The people of our country love you. Thank you, honey.”

One of the reporters there said that Melania was “looking well, like her old self, perfectly healthy from at least her outward appearance.” She didn't speak at the event, according to the reporters. Earlier this week, Donald tweeted to criticize how the media speculated about Melania's absence....

The #MeToo movement is having far reaching implications.

Miss America no longer will have a swimsuit competition.

Go, Gretchen Carlson, Go.

There is some discussion about a "Fitness Component." I think that is a good idea, but, it should not be an on-stage performance issue. The fitness component can be part of the preliminary requirements at the grassroots level and then verified at any competition all the way to the final Miss America pageant.

Can a woman be that skinny and still be healthy and fit? We will find out.

June 5, 2018
By Matthew Haag and Cara Buckley

For the first time (click here) in nearly a century, Miss America contestants will not strut onstage in swimsuits this year, the organizers announced on Tuesday, as the pageant tries to redefine its role in an era of female empowerment and gender equality.

Miss America and swimsuits have been synonymous since its first contest in 1921 on the Atlantic City boardwalk. But what started as contestants wearing one-piece bathing suits, conservative by today’s standards, became women in revealing bikinis and high heels parading around for a leering television audience.

Now under mostly female leadership, the Miss America Organization said Tuesday that it was scrapping the swimsuit competition, starting at the national contest in September, in a sweeping change that will also reshape local and state contests....

The success of the #MeToo movement continues...

June 6, 2018
By David Jackson, Jennifer Smith Richards, Gary Marx and Juan Perez Jr.

They were top athletes (click here) and honor-roll students, children struggling to read and teenagers seeking guidance.

But then they became prey, among the many students raped or sexually abused during the last decade by trusted adults working in the Chicago Public Schools as district officials repeated obvious child-protection mistakes.

Their lives were upended, their futures clouded and their pain unacknowledged as a districtwide problem was kept under wraps. A Tribune analysis indicates that hundreds of students were harmed.

Drawing on police data, public and confidential records, and interviews with teens and young adults who spoke out, a Tribune investigation broke through the silence and secrecy surrounding these cases and found that:

When students summoned the courage to disclose abuse, teachers and principals failed to alert child welfare investigators or police despite the state’s mandated reporter law....

The students are being taken seriously because a candidate for election started a political attack based on the statistics from the Chicago Public Schools. Mayor Rahm Emanuel (click here) has apologized for the circumstances children faced, but, wants a dialogue to end the loop holes and abuse that has allowed the problems to exist in the first place. There are brave students, parents and teachers willing to talk to authorities about their experiences, in the same brave manner the first #MeToo victims disclosed their experiences.

The #MeToo movement is successful. It is successful in the USA and internationally and now it is successful in the image of the American woman and the children abused within their lives at school have now found a voice.

Some Republicans are beginning to realize the agenda and lies of President Trump.

The only problem is that in order to actually speak out about the truth and end Trump lies, the Republican has to be finishing up their term and not running again for the seat in Congress.

June 6, 2018
By Melanie Zanona

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) (click here) on Wednesday pushed back against President Trump’s “spygate” claims, siding with Rep. Trey Gowdy’s (R-S.C.) defense of the FBI’s investigation into Trump’s campaign and Russia.

“Chairman Gowdy’s initial assessment is accurate, but we have more digging to do,” Ryan told reporters during his weekly news conference.

While both Ryan and Gowdy received a closed-door briefing on the bureau’s use of an informant in the investigation, there is still an outstanding request to view the underlying documents to support the briefing.

"We have some more documents to review. We still have some unanswered questions... If we got all the information we were looking for, we could wrap this up faster," Ryan said.

"I have seen no evidence to the contrary of the initial assessment Chairman Gowdy has made. But I want to make sure that we run every lead down and make sure we get final answers to these questions."

A week after the closed-door briefing, Gowdy told CBS News that he had seen no evidence to support Trump’s claims that a “spy” was improperly inserted into his 2016 campaign.

The Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman, who is retiring, said he did not believe the FBI had done anything out of bounds in its investigation, and defended the use of informants by the bureau and other law enforcement agencies....

June 6, 2018
By Rebecca Klein

Testifying (click here) before the Senate appropriations subcommittee on Tuesday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said the Federal Commission on School Safety, which she chairs, will not look at the role of guns in a recent spate of school shootings.

In an exchange with Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), DeVos said it is “not part of the commission’s charge per se” to look at the role of firearms as it relates to gun violence. Instead, DeVos said the commission will study “school safety and how we can ensure our students are safe at school.”

Leahy asked DeVos if she thinks an 18-year-old should be able to buy AR-15-style guns and ammunition.

“I believe that’s very much a matter for debate, and I know that’s been debated within this body and will continue to be,” DeVos replied. “Our focus is on raising up successful proven techniques and approaches to ensuring schools are safe for students to attend.”...

Republicans have a problem and if they don't they should.

Republicans are not "Making America Great Again," they are however "Making America White Again." There is huge racism, bigotry and discrimination within the Republican Party. They don't say the words but it is there in very big measure and they count on the White Supremacists to bring home their election. That is a problem they have and they need to shed it.

June 8, 2018
By Olivia Ovenden

Trump's outrage at NFL athletes protesting police injustice (click here) by taking a knee during the national anthem proves just how much he values honouring the US through song.

Trump is like, really, really patriotic OK? Nobody is more patriotic than him, really.

Except perhaps he isn't, judging by a clip from a rally in which the Donald appears to forget the lyrics to 'God Bless America'.

The event was held yesterday after Trump 'cancelled' the Philadelphia Eagles visit to the White House after realising nobody was going to turn up.

"Staying in the Locker Room for the playing of our National Anthem is as disrespectful to our country as kneeling. Sorry!" he tweeted....

There has been catastrophic changes in the USA's "Rule of Law" that continually remove Civil Rights from the American landscape. The assault on the Voting Rights Act of 1964 that now allows racism in places where it was banded for 50 years. That was the sweetener entering the party that paved the way for the blatant hatred we see today within the Republican Party. The display yesterday of nationalism rather than inclusion of all concerns of every race; was shameful.

Flying the flag is legal everywhere, no one suppresses it. The flag represents our freedom and not our country in any state of disrepair. The freedom of African American citizens is under attack, therefore, the flag is not being appropriately displayed and is used in the definition of nationalism to deny identity of the assault on some Americans.

Come forward from the assault on the Voting Right Act of 1964 and there was the Supreme Court decision stating a Christian baker can discriminate who he will make cakes for when it comes to a wedding. Well, the decision has far reaching consequences, including an assault on Colorado's civil rights laws.

The "Bad Bakery" decision is a well veiled attack on civil rights. It was an outrageous decision and I cannot believe only two justices opposed the action of a man that hates the LGBTQ community. That is pure hatred. There is no central religious authority such as the Pope stating if you bake a cake for the Gay Couple, you are destined to hell. The Robert's Court decision is egregious. I don't know what someone put in the Justices coffee or tea the day of the vote, but, it is a deranged decision.

The more and more decisions made in the courts and legislation passed, including the idiotic abortion law of Iowa, the more the USA is looking like a White Man's Country.

June 1, 2018

Inside the Family Leader’s (click here) office near Des Moines, Iowa, photographs of Republican presidential contenders past grace the walls. Housing secretary Ben Carson, former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, Texas senator Ted Cruz all stand frozen onstage, informing visitors of the Family Leader’s influence.

Alongside them is the group’s president, Bob Vander Plaats, a member of a coalition of abortion foes who worked in Iowa to pass one of the industrialized world’s most restrictive bans on abortion. In one portrait, Donald Trump’s face looms over Vander Plaats speaking to a congregation, heads bowed....

Do not believe for one minute the topics that send Liberals and Moderates reeling is going away soon. There is a lot of money, ie: Kochs, at work in providing a social group of people that will definitely vote for the candidate willing to act on their demands. This isn't going away until the electorate turns to candidates that can govern and not simply harness power of the USA for their own purposes. It is no skin off Trump's nose to demand the end of abortion rights for women or end voting rights for minorities and women. The list of on the agenda of these wacko extremist Christians are very invasive into most American's life, but, what difference does it make to a Republican candidate if they can benefit from extremism?

The Christians have left their Bibles in the pew and have taken up organizing an assaultive political agenda that companies such as the Kochs intend to see happy all the days of their lives.

4 June 2018
By David Taylor

A statue outside a megachurch in Tennessee that proclaims: ‘America Return to Christ.

The emboldened religious right (click here) has unleashed a wave of legislation across the United States since Donald Trump became president, as part of an organised bid to impose hardline Christian values across American society.

A playbook known as Project Blitz, developed by a collection of Christian groups, has provided state politicians with a set of off-the-shelf pro-Christian “model bills”.

Some legislation uses verbatim language from the “model bills” created by a group called the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation (CPCF), set up by a former Republican congressman which has a stated aim to “protect religious freedom, preserve America’s Judeo-Christian heritage and promote prayer”...

...Opponents warn that the CPCF (which claims more than 600 politicians as members across state legislatures ) is using the banner of “religious freedom” to impose Christianity on American public, political and cultural life.

In Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Louisiana and Tennessee, so-called “In God We Trust” bills have become law since 2017, which will see the phrase emblazoned on public buildings, hung in schools and displayed on the side of public vehicles including police cars.

But the Project Blitz playbook sees those largely symbolic bills as just the first stage on the way to more hardline laws. They are presented as measures to preserve religious liberty, but are intended to give businesses, pastors and childcare providers the right to discriminate against LGBT people in line with their “sincerely held religious beliefs”....

"Project Blitz" (click here) Project Blitz is a Christian Agenda that says nothing about diversity, inclusion of all people and certainly doesn't entertain other religions standing on equal footing with their ideas of faith.

There is no room for anything, but, Christ. Their attitudes are justified by "If the Muslims or the Catholics believe they have the one true God, then they should be doing the same as we are."

Category 2 Resolutions and Proclamations Recognizing the Importance of Religious History and Freedom

Items for Inclusion in a Proclamation Recognizing Religious Freedom Day or Christian Heritage Week or Bible in History or Recognizing the Year of the Bible or Recognizing Christmas Day (Maybe this was an agenda item before Bill O'Reilly left FOX News). There is nothing here about Ramadan, *Rosh Hashanah, Navaratri/Dassehra, Mawlid-al-Nabi or the Lunar New Year. They like to state their focus is Religious Freedom, but, that is already in the First Amendment to the USA Constitution. Not only is it in the amendment, it is in the First Amendment. There is no need to set aside in special legislation Christian emphasis. As a matter of fact, it should be more humble.

And they are after children: Page 50


The religious idolatry of the Christian Conservatives are already removing children from homes that are considered Pagan, such as Wiccans (case in point - click here - parents were forced to sign off the children or be threatened with more false prosecution), in North Carolina and possibly other states. The false charges are drafted and the children are given to "Foster Parents for Adoption." The parents are then pleaded out so they can not get their children back because they now have a criminal record of arrest.

The modern day Foster Parent has to be certified through a preparation program called "Pride." There are minority number of Foster Parents simply taking care of children until their extended family or parents are again ready for them. Most Foster Parents these days are "Foster Parents for Adoption" and go through not just "Pride 1" but also "Pride 2." 

I have to think the children taken away from the border crossers at the USA Border are never going to be returned to their parents who are more than likely Roman Catholic. Those children will be absorbed into public adoption networks and handed out like candy to those that have been "Certified as Parents."

America needs to wake up. The idea the warning of fascism, touted as a political directive by right wing extremists, is a lie and only a personal attack against a candidate. If the candidate in this modern era of computer elections is saying he will pass legislation that will deny "certain" people adoption in the sovereign USA, THEY MEAN IT. 

Get over it America, there is an extremist element in the country with lots of money to spend and they have created an underclass of Christian extremists that will follow every dog whistle provided to insure the USA is Christian Fundamentalists from sea to shining sea. Once such fanaticism overtakes the USA, it is easy to bring violence into the country by authorities that will be admired regardless of their law breaking.

The USA is not a perfect place to raise children as the Christians of "Project Blitz" wants it, but, if the guns were not flowing like water (which they advocate) it might have half a chance of being perfect for children from highly diverse parenting PERSONS and STYLES.

When is mental health going to become stylish again?

She was magnificent and the world is missing a vital piece today. 

There was a time in the USA when "Who are you being treated by?" was a fashion statement as much as a mental health statement.

The silence surrounding mental health is just not fair and now the world has lost Kate Spade. We should all be ashamed of ourselves and the lack of truth that exists in our society and on social media. There are a go-zillion support groups on social media, so why aren't we having talks face to face?

Someone like Kate, an accomplished woman, would not turn to social media for support and why not? Her fans were in the real world and she was missing them as much as they were missing her. Perhaps neither knew how deeply they were committed to each other.

Back in the 1960s there was a trend among women that took them to a "shrink's office" every week. It was when they would put their feet up on a couch and talk about everything that bothers them, including the old washer and dryer and how much they deserved a new pair.

Everyone who was anybody had a Shrink story to talk about when they met for coffee. The topics included the kids, the house, the car, but, also their husbands and immediately after talking about "him" they would talk about their psychiatrists.

In the 60's it was the duty of the psychiatrist to assign a dose of Valium to the "One A Day" vitamin pills. We don't need the Valium dependency anymore, but, we do need to be able to harness the expertise of psychiatrists that will let women talk about themselves and their lives all they want.

I think there is a built in "sore spot" in every woman's life whereby they are shorter, lighter and the world an edge more dangerous because of their beauty and sexuality; so the reasons to be on a "Shrink's couch" once a week are valid for anyone feeling their life is not what they wanted it to be.

The reasons a successful woman such as Kate Spade would slip off the edge without saying a word, are many. Success brings all kinds of complications to a woman's life. Considering how successful women are given their presence in the work place compared to that of 1950s or early 1960s, women are extremely successful at mastering life. As a matter of fact, when women put their minds to a social task, the society needs to pay attention because a paradigm is about to change.

Kate Spade will be missed and that is not fair. Women need to address depression, the need for excellent psychiatric or psychological care with a possible need for medication. And make the entire idea social. Bring it up among friends and family and let the world know how great she feels while taking Celexa or Amitriptyline. There is NO EXCUSE, when girlfriends get together it needs to include the last happenings in mental health and the treatment for it. It may just open a window that is shut to sharing and that is definitely not fair.

Depression is a chemical imbalance in the brain and it is treatable. It is not some kind of side effect because she hates her boyfriend or has a really disappointing job. Depression is an illness or which there is very successful treatment, including, regular visits to a qualified doctor or councilor. And there is no excuse for the idea "it is too expensive." It doesn't have to be.

Mental health has to come out of the HMO paradigm and enter the COMMUNITY  paradigm. There are community clinics all across the country with highly skilled and dedicated professionals. They love people, their problems and the solutions for them. Most community mental health clinics work on a sliding scale depending on income. This is important and a woman can seek help because she believes she needs it, NOT because they have a stamp of approval by some idiot insurance assessor.

Go, and don't think twice. Find your Shrink, sit on the couch and complain about how miserable life can be to satisfaction. The outcome is a woman that better understands herself and her world. It is amazing what happens when ideas from deep within the heart take flight in words. Please, don't let us down.

And. Talk to men about it, too.

June 5, 2018
By Vanessa Friedman

There is a lot of talk (click here) these days about the lack of women at the top of fashion brands — the statistics are terrible, the gender imbalance striking. It is one of the reasons Kate Spade, the designer who was found dead in her home on Tuesday morning, was so important to so many of us.

She represented not just a terrific talent who built an idea about handbags into what became a billion dollar brand, but a critical figure in the continuum of women who have defined fashion in the United States: designers who thought about what other women (like her) would want in their closets (and later, their homes) and who solved that problem without elitism.

That’s why, in so many profiles over the years, Ms. Spade — or her brand, which she personified — was put in the same cultural bucket as everyone from Dorothy Parker and Nora Ephron to the fictional heroines Nora Charles and Holly Golightly. I always thought of her a bit as Mary Richards throwing her hat up in the air with joy at taking on the big city at the start of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” not because they had the same style, but because they seemed to have the same approach....

Missile development and enrichment capacity in Iran is President Trump's accomplishment.

June 4, 2018
By Robert Windrem and Courtney Kube

Iran's supreme leader (click here) said Monday that Iran will not relent to U.S. pressures on its nuclear program, ordering Iranian scientists to get ready to increase uranium enrichment capabilities if necessary and vowing that Iran won't give up its missile program. 

 In a speech and series of tweets marking the 29th anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said "the Iranian nation and government will not stand being under both sanctions and nuclear restrictions. … The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran must immediately make the preparations for achieving [increased enrichment.)" 

But Khamenei, speaking at Khomenei's tomb in South Tehran, was careful to note the proposed increase in enrichment capabilities would still fall within the limits specified in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, and that Iran plans to stay in the deal.

Via Twitter, Khamenei called for the atomic energy organization to begin preparations "tomorrow."..

Peaceful use of nuclear power is allowed under the Non-Proliferation Treaty. But, Iran wasn't interested in even that much of a wrinkle to the agreement. Iran wanted to be a good partner.

Donald Trump returned Iran to nuclear enrichment.

DON'T FORGET IT!

25 May 2018

According to AirFleets website, Dena Airways operates only one aircraft, an Airbus A340-300.

The United States has imposed new sanctions (click here) against an airline company, which routinely transports Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

In a statement on Thursday, the US Department of the Treasury said Dena Airways is being designated for sanctions based on a 2001 presidential order designed "to impede terrorist funding".  

Dena Airways handles flights for the government of Iran. In November 2017, a previously US-sanctioned airline, Meraj Air, transferred its "VIP flight operations" to Dena Airways, the US statement said.

According to Trita Parsi, executive director of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), Dena Airways operates only one aircraft, which is being used by President Rouhani.

"So what's Trump's aim? Humiliate Iran's moderates and strengthen its hardliners," Parsi wrote on social media....

My answer to that would be, "Yes." It is easier to find fault to enter war with hardliners rather than moderate peace makers. The sanctions go back on and this is what happens. Ahmadinejad is a Holocaust denier.

Is the picture becoming more clear?

Iran needs to work with the P4+1 and not play into the hands of hardliners and war mongers from the USA and Israel. Iran must avoid the temptation to move backwards rather than forward. President Rouhani is Iran's future, not Ahmadinejad.

June 1, 2018

Iran’s former hardline President Mahmud Ahmadinejad (click here) says it was his “agile foreign policy” that led the Obama administration to begin negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program.

Speaking in Tabriz in Eastern Azarbaijan province on Thursday, May 31, Ahmadinejad repeated a recent remark, saying that he had warned Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that “it was not the right time for negotiations,” reported a Telegram channel Dolat-e Bahar, close to Ahmadinejad.

Ahmadinejad delivered his speech despite warnings from the vigilante group Ansar-e Hezbollah not to go to Tabriz; and state officials told him that he cannot deliver a speech as he did not apply to the Interior Ministry to get a permit for the gathering.

Nevertheless, Ahmadinejad spoke to a few hundred of his supporters at a hotel in Tabriz.

In a shift from his tactics during the past year when his harsh criticism mainly targeted Khamenei, in this speech Ahmadinejad pointed his criticism at President Hassan Rouhani, although he did not spare his usual political rivals Majles Speaker Ali Larijani and Judiciary Chief Sadeq Amoli Larijani....

I would rather the unions address this problem. The American worker is not earning enough. Just that simple.

Unions put people to work in a safe work environment with pay that sustains not just the employee, but, their family and THE COUNTRY'S TREASURY.

State legislators should be making their economic climate "Safe for Unions." I don't see that cookie cutter legislation coming out of ALEC (click here). Alec will put guns in the hands of anyone that wants one, but, not food in people's stomach or homeownership.

The Supreme Court decision regarding lawsuits demands unions protect workers. They can right such measures into their contracts and provide for higher worker respect and safety. 

Everyone wants a pleasant work environment as well as a safe one and unions have lead the way for workplace safety for nearly a century. There is no reason to believe the aesthetics of the work environment can't be handled within a union contract.

Senator Brown is right and tired of hearing the rhetoric and quite frankly the lack of moral content in large family run corporations such as the Kochs and the Waltons of Walmart. Never did I think I would hear Walmart has a corporate office that directs it's workers to seek food stamps and Medicaid. That is shameful and the billionaires simply don't have any shame.

Take the Trump Company and the fact it's President, also now President of the USA, has declared bankruptcy on a regular basis which cheats the contractors and subcontractors of income that will provide for their employees. This is America? Wow. Not the one I know.

When food stamps, Medicaid and bankruptcies become a way of life for family run corporations, it is time to look at the real issue. If legislation will correct the course of the country, then so be it.

May 18, 2018
By Dylan Scott

Sen. Sherrod Brown (click here) has a plan to tax corporations that don’t pay their workers enough.

Republicans in Congress just failed to pass a bill that would impose harsher work requirements for federal food stamps as part of the so-called farm bill, but there’s no sign they’re giving up on the idea anytime soon. Their argument is that, particularly with the Great Recession behind us, poorer Americans could and should be doing more to get into the workforce and off federal assistance.

The GOP’s plan raises all sorts of bigger questions, but an alternative plan by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) asks a pretty straightforward one: Is the problem that people aren’t working enough? Or is it that they don’t receive a high enough wage or generous enough benefits from their employer?

Brown thinks the latter is the real problem, and wants to charge corporations a “freeloader” fee if their employees depend on government aid like food stamps.

His proposal implies that a big overarching problem in America isn’t that poor people aren’t working hard enough; it’s that their wages aren’t high enough, their jobs and hours can be unpredictable, and their employers don’t provide robust enough benefits for them to live without support.

The bill has no chance of becoming law anytime soon. But it still underscores the divide between Democrats and Republicans over the real purpose of social welfare programs. Republicans see a workforce that could be doing more; Democrats see a system where the free market hasn’t done enough to lift up people who have the least....

Forty-two of Louisiana households earn less than $48,000 per year.

That is just plain shameful.

May 31, 2018

By Mark Ballard

...Working families (click here) that bring in less than $50,000 a year – about half the state – pay about 10 percent of their income in local and state taxes, which is roughly double the percentage paid by more well-off families, said Susan East Nelson, executive director of Louisiana Partnership for Children and Families.

For the constituents of the Ways & Means committee members, increasing the state’s earned income tax credit would put an average $141 – about $43 more than the $98 received now -- into the pockets of the 97,333 taxpayers taking advantage of the credit on their annual tax returns, said Jan Moller, director of the Louisiana Budget Project, which advocates on behalf of those with low and moderate incomes.

That extra money will be spent, mostly in the representatives’ districts, on necessities like clothing and car repairs, said Rob Tasman, executive director of the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops....               

Legislators in every state need to examine the percentages of residents that achieve the American Dream and if not, why not.

The American worker is not receiving the wages they deserve and when legislators look at the information and honest assessment of the cost of living in the USA, they will find the wage labor needs to be strengthen. No American wants to live on subsidies, they want their hard earned paycheck to mean something.

May 21, 2018
By Nicole Leonard

...“It is morally unacceptable and economically unsustainable for our country to have so many hardworking families living paycheck to paycheck,” John Franklin, president of the project and CEO of United Way of Northern New Jersey, said in a statement. “We are all paying a price when ALICE families can’t pay the bills.”...

More state residents (click here) struggle to afford basic expenses such as housing, food, transportation and health care, according to new national data, indicating life in New Jersey is becoming less affordable for many people.

United Way’s ALICE Project, a grassroots initiative that collects and analyzes data to study the magnitude of financial hardship in America, released new data Thursday showing more than 1.3 million households in New Jersey in 2016 lived below the ALICE — Asset Limited, Income Constrained Employed — threshold, including those under the federal poverty level....

...While New Jersey’s rate of households below the poverty line and ALICE thresholds — 41 percent of all state households, up from 37 percent in 2014 — falls in the middle of all states, rates vary greatly among counties....

New Jersey in 2018 has counties with good incomes and some with poor performance for household income. This state is a clear illustration why ALICE is provided on a county and municipal breakdown.

...Nearly two-thirds of all households in Cumberland County live below either the federal poverty level or the ALICE threshold, which was calculated to be about $64,000 for a family of four in 2014. It was the highest rate in the state in 2016, data show.

Meanwhile, only 27 percent of households were below poverty or ALICE income ranges in Hunterdon County.

Project analysts said ALICE households often contain working residents whose income is above the federal poverty level — and therefore they do not qualify for many federal and state assistance programs — but they do not make enough money to afford basic needs out of pocket....

Unions must fight "Time Poverty" and return the 40 hour week with increased jobs that pay well.

"Take Back Your Time" (click here for free content from Google)

Time Poverty is the plague of the Working Poor in the USA. Families lose children to social workers because parents are not available to be parents.

...Poverty (click here) is determined by the U.S. Census Bureau’s poverty thresholds. These thresholds, updated annually, determine how much income a household requires to meet basic needs, such as food and shelter. In 2016 in a household of two adults, a single full-time worker at minimum wage will earn only 94 percent of their poverty threshold of $16,070. A single parent with one child will earn 91 percent of their poverty threshold.

This means that in order to have earnings above their poverty threshold, a single parent with one child, for example, would have to earn at least $7.95 per hour working full-time. At the current federal minimum wage of $7.25, this single parent would have to work at least 2,282 hours during the year, or an average of about 43.8 hours each week....

There is an article  by Tim Neville (click here), a Colorado Repuglican state senator who actually believes the tax cuts will help the working poor. He is also Vice President of Neville Insurance Associates.

ALICE (click here) is a United Way acronym that stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed.

This ALICE website has information taken within the paradigm of the global economic collapse of 2008. The surveys were conducted in 2007 (as the collapse began) and 2010. There is also a 2017 survey that has as high as 40% of households failing when it comes to a livable wage and accumulating assets to achieve the American Dream.

The 2017 reports are mostly published according to state without a comprehensive federal assessment. The United Way wants to encourage change and their approach this time is to focus on states, counties and municipalities. Evidently, Mr. Neville has seen a country wide assessment and I have not.

June 1, 2018

In the United States today, (click here) essentially anyone who wants a job can get one. Friday's jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the unemployment rate is at a historic low of 3.8 percent and there are a record 6.6 million available jobs. Things are even better in Colorado, where the unemployment rate is a mere 2.9 percent....

...Yet a new survey by United Way suggests that nearly half of households in the country still can't afford basics like rent and food. It finds that nearly 51 million households don't earn enough to afford a monthly budget that includes housing, food, child care, health care, transportation and a cell phone....

Number of households in the U.S. from 1960 to 2017 (in millions) (click here) There are approximately 126.22 million households in the USA. According to Mr. Neville there is about 51 million households suffering under the USA economy. That means of all the households in the USA there is more than 41% failing the promise of America. 

More than 41 percent of American households are failing to achieve the promise the USA has made to them as there birthright.

But was does the United Way know, right?

...Recently passed tax cuts are giving these hard-working Americans some relief. An ordinary household earning $75,000 a year will see more than $2,000 in tax savings as a result of tax reform. This is as a result of breaks such as the doubling the standard deduction, and eliminating the 15 percent tax rate in favor of a vastly expanded 12 percent one....

Ordinary American households do make $75,000 per year.

September 12, 2017

...America's middle class is booming. (click here)

Between 2015 and 2016, US median household income rose 3.2% from $57,230 to $59,039, according to a new report released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Tuesday.

It's now the highest income year on record, beating the previous high of $58,655 in 1999 (all numbers are adjusted for inflation)....

These are the 2018 federal taxes due on $55,000 in income. This comes from a tax calculator site (click here).

This tax can be effected by tax credits such as the child tax credit. The child tax credit is supposed to double for 2018, however, there are eligibility requirements and depending on income all of the credit may not apply.

While the income in a Child Tax Credit can return up to $2000 per child to the household budget, that doesn't mean this is such a help it removes the Working Poor from their plight. The tax home pay of a couple earning $55,000 per year is about $43,000 to $46,000 per year depending on state taxation. When adding $2000 to that take home pay there isn't a whole lot of improvement to monthly cash flow for that family. Even at $4000 per year, that is a monthly increase of about $333. That can improve the chances of accomplishing what in the years to come? A better rental? A chance at a new car? Paying for braces? 

The point is while Colorado Repuglican Neville touts appreciation for the tax changes for 2018, it isn't all that. And, unless a couple has children there isn't anything that radically improves the tax structure from 2016, 2017 or 2018.

THE DAMN WAGES ARE TOO LOW and the American worker in more than 41 percent of the households hasn't got a chance at a House, two cars, a secure retirement and college for the kids.

The unions of the USA have to improve their penetration into the numbers of working Americans. The Working Poor is unacceptable and has been unacceptable. The country needs real change not TRICKLING change. 

Americans are losing and there is every indication according to The United Way, more than 41 percent of Americans have lost their quality of life. They need good wages, JOB SECURITY, the best health care the country can provide and a future for their children. They need vacations and holidays full of joy. 

The American Dream has been compromised and the tax changes by the Repuglicans are not going to return it. Americans need to understand who the backbone of this American economy is and it is them. When a backbone breaks crippling follows and that is where Americans in more than 41 percent of the households are, they are crippled and have a very poor outlook for their future.

The unions have to give back good pay AND time home with family and friends, especially those children. Children need their parents and they don't get it when a parent is working 43.8 per week to simply stay above the poverty line.

America also needs it's brain trust back and that only happens when parents spend time with their children and have the money to send them onto higher education. It's time the USA stand up and demand what is rightfully theirs.

Neville plays Americans for fools when it rants on and on about companies that have increased wages. Those companies are in the minority and ARE FINALLY PAYING THE WAGES AMERICANS SHOULD HAVE BEEN GETTING FOR DECADES!