A new WSJ poll shows Biden approval ratings at near-humbug levels, Trump's lead increasing to 6 points, and Virginia creeping back into battleground territory.
Mr Kenney wrote an article, and it's mostly coherent!
God bless us, everyone!
(Picture your most heart rendering waif here.)
Interesting though. It's been proposed that Tiny Tim was suffering from rickets. A common disease at the time, mostly curable by improved diet.
So while it makes a good tale (and better movie - personally liked Bill Murray's Scrooged version most of all) it brings up an interesting point.
Is it better to have the crisis so that someone like Mr Kenney can feel better by "solving" it with his heartfelt and sincere pleas for charity, there by earning themselves brownie points in Heaven as well as the dopamine release concurrent with their "good" deeds here, while the underlying cause still remains?
With him deciding what and if he will give? How much? When? And who is deserving?
To a certain extent - yes - it's his money.
Though if you're looking at it from a Christian viewpoint, one could argue if this is indeed the best strategy.
Mr Kenney appears to enjoy an older English, with his oft quoted Shakespearean references. I enjoy a little later period, the 17th century, when this little gem was published.
Matthew 6, KJV:
6:2 Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:
4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.
Beautiful prose, that.
Back home, we used to have a charity that gave meals to the hungry. But you couldn't get the meal without the preaching. Why the quid pro quo? If you're wanting to feed the hungry, just feed the hungry.
But back to the original question.
Is it better to have a crisis so someone like Mr Kenney can make a grand public gesture of "helping" or is it better to work toward eliminating and minimizing the need in the 1st place?
I would argue the latter has a more meaningful impact.
Life expectancy in the US is 78.9. Tied with Lebanon, just a hair better than Cuba.
38th place.
This despite spending by far the most money per capita (over $12.5k/year - nearest competitor Switzerland at $8k).
Lebanon? $1k - who's getting better value? Cuba spends $1.2k.
Similar statistics abound for things like child mortality, healthcare, housing, etc.
WE can do better. We should do better.
As a society.
We are not reinventing the wheel. Creating cold fusion. Or opening a station on Mars.
Merely cheerfully plagiarizing ideas that work from people who won't mind a bit us using them.
Like socialized medicine.
Support for childcare not based on someone insincerely bowing to someone else's god, but a society recognizing that it is in it's best interest to meaningfully and systematically provide support for the needs of our developing citizens and their care givers.
Hillary was right.
It does take a village.
It shouldn't take beggars. Investing in our citizens is investing in our future. Systematically.
How, you say?
Well, how about this?
Governor Youngkin made another grand gesture of making sure that every taxpayer got $200 of the windfall the state got from the federal government in Covid funds (which was put on a credit card, btw). The distribution was not need based, just free money for everyone.
So now, if someone wants to take $100 of that found money that they don't need, because they were rich before they ever got it due to benefits that those who own stocks and corporations get - that the waitress working for tips does not enjoy because in America, we believe in the golden rule (in that he that has the gold, writes the rules) - they can grandly click Mr Kenney's little button and consider problem solved.
They did their part. Right?
Wouldn't it have been better to provide more money to those raising our children who made under the $150k/year? Maybe expect folks like Trump, Bezos, and Buffett to contribute the same 12.4% of their wages toward SS as the guy working at McDonald's and his employer pay. Why not?
Yet meanwhile, wealth inequality worsens every year (until ironically - recently when funds started going more toward the everyday workers rather than stock owners due to the policies that Mr Kenney and the WSJ are complaining about - all it took was a pandemic, much as occurred during the Black Plague (read Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror for more details)).
We are becoming every year more of a poor country with hyperrich people becoming ever more unequal. Which we tolerate, because it keeps getting put on a credit card and pushed down the road so we don't see it.
One day, we will. Or our children will.
Moody's just downgraded our credit rating this year thanks to Republican grandstanding that will end up costing us billions in interest rates. Imagine how much good that money could have done.
Math is like that.
So by all means, give to your favorite charity. Unfortunately, the need is there. Much worse than it should be.
Do so as part of a grand parade, trumpeted as Mr Kenney and others are so fond. Maybe you can get on TV! Film at 11.
Or do so quietly, as Matthew states. Maybe he would have seen it differently if he only knew about reality TV, but maybe not. (now I'll be humming JC, Superstar tunes for the rest of the day).
Still, there are many worthy charities. My favorite has always been the Salvation Army, just based on the amount of money that actually goes to help people, and the genuine sincerity of their staff.
This Stafford Crossing organization seems to also be one of the good ones. Please give as you see fit.
But I say a more meaningful gesture would be to support policies and people looking to do better.
That does not mean voting Republican. We've tried that.
If you're rich - it works.
If you're middle class - it's working okay right now, but one day, the bill's coming due - and that 1% will have their 30% of the wealth in the Bahamas. The remaining 90-99% will be transferring theirs there as fast as they can.
As the rest of us fight over the scraps, and are left holding the bill. A modern day Hunger Games, all dependent upon whether a Kardashian or Kenney gives their blessing and attention.
May the odds ever be in your favor!
And putting someone who specializes in fraud and bankruptcy in charge again would not be a good idea under such circumstances even if he weren't a court found sexual deviant charged with over 90 felonies. Despite Mr Kenney and the WSJ's apparent fondness for him or acceptance of him.
Merry Christmas.
BTW- you do know that no one actually knows when Christ was born, right?
A made up holiday to replace pagan holidays like Saturnalia at the solstice. Good marketing, not necessarily a holy command.
Still, it's the thought that counts, and it is fun to watch the children's faces light up so, enjoy - but realize pretending is fun - but reality matters.
The children huddled in bunkers in Gaza and Ukraine are good children too. And there will be a lot more unnecessarily hungry, fearful, and cold kids in America this Christmas than there should be. Yes these children Mr Kenney wishes to help are deserving. Please help. A better help would be working so that next year, there are fewer of them. We can do it.
Choose wisely, not loudly, not proudly, not thoughtlessly.
Because if Scrooge had been paying a living wage in the 1st place; Tiny Tim would probably never needed crutches.
It's a Christmas miracle Tiny Tim!
Mr Kenney wrote an article, and it's mostly coherent!
God bless us, everyone!
(Picture your most heart rendering waif here.)
Interesting though. It's been proposed that Tiny Tim was suffering from rickets. A common disease at the time, mostly curable by improved diet.
So while it makes a good tale (and better movie - personally liked Bill Murray's Scrooged version most of all) it brings up an interesting point.
Is it better to have the crisis so that someone like Mr Kenney can feel better by "solving" it with his heartfelt and sincere pleas for charity, there by earning themselves brownie points in Heaven as well as the dopamine release concurrent with their "good" deeds here, while the underlying cause still remains?
With him deciding what and if he will give? How much? When? And who is deserving?
To a certain extent - yes - it's his money.
Though if you're looking at it from a Christian viewpoint, one could argue if this is indeed the best strategy.
Mr Kenney appears to enjoy an older English, with his oft quoted Shakespearean references. I enjoy a little later period, the 17th century, when this little gem was published.
Matthew 6, KJV:
6:2 Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:
4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.
Beautiful prose, that.
Back home, we used to have a charity that gave meals to the hungry. But you couldn't get the meal without the preaching. Why the quid pro quo? If you're wanting to feed the hungry, just feed the hungry.
But back to the original question.
Is it better to have a crisis so someone like Mr Kenney can make a grand public gesture of "helping" or is it better to work toward eliminating and minimizing the need in the 1st place?
I would argue the latter has a more meaningful impact.
Life expectancy in the US is 78.9. Tied with Lebanon, just a hair better than Cuba.
38th place.
This despite spending by far the most money per capita (over $12.5k/year - nearest competitor Switzerland at $8k).
Lebanon? $1k - who's getting better value? Cuba spends $1.2k.
Similar statistics abound for things like child mortality, healthcare, housing, etc.
WE can do better. We should do better.
As a society.
We are not reinventing the wheel. Creating cold fusion. Or opening a station on Mars.
Merely cheerfully plagiarizing ideas that work from people who won't mind a bit us using them.
Like socialized medicine.
Support for childcare not based on someone insincerely bowing to someone else's god, but a society recognizing that it is in it's best interest to meaningfully and systematically provide support for the needs of our developing citizens and their care givers.
Hillary was right.
It does take a village.
It shouldn't take beggars. Investing in our citizens is investing in our future. Systematically.
How, you say?
Well, how about this?
Governor Youngkin made another grand gesture of making sure that every taxpayer got $200 of the windfall the state got from the federal government in Covid funds (which was put on a credit card, btw). The distribution was not need based, just free money for everyone.
So now, if someone wants to take $100 of that found money that they don't need, because they were rich before they ever got it due to benefits that those who own stocks and corporations get - that the waitress working for tips does not enjoy because in America, we believe in the golden rule (in that he that has the gold, writes the rules) - they can grandly click Mr Kenney's little button and consider problem solved.
They did their part. Right?
Wouldn't it have been better to provide more money to those raising our children who made under the $150k/year? Maybe expect folks like Trump, Bezos, and Buffett to contribute the same 12.4% of their wages toward SS as the guy working at McDonald's and his employer pay. Why not?
Yet meanwhile, wealth inequality worsens every year (until ironically - recently when funds started going more toward the everyday workers rather than stock owners due to the policies that Mr Kenney and the WSJ are complaining about - all it took was a pandemic, much as occurred during the Black Plague (read Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror for more details)).
We are becoming every year more of a poor country with hyperrich people becoming ever more unequal. Which we tolerate, because it keeps getting put on a credit card and pushed down the road so we don't see it.
One day, we will. Or our children will.
Moody's just downgraded our credit rating this year thanks to Republican grandstanding that will end up costing us billions in interest rates. Imagine how much good that money could have done.
Math is like that.
So by all means, give to your favorite charity. Unfortunately, the need is there. Much worse than it should be.
Do so as part of a grand parade, trumpeted as Mr Kenney and others are so fond. Maybe you can get on TV! Film at 11.
Or do so quietly, as Matthew states. Maybe he would have seen it differently if he only knew about reality TV, but maybe not. (now I'll be humming JC, Superstar tunes for the rest of the day).
Still, there are many worthy charities. My favorite has always been the Salvation Army, just based on the amount of money that actually goes to help people, and the genuine sincerity of their staff.
This Stafford Crossing organization seems to also be one of the good ones. Please give as you see fit.
But I say a more meaningful gesture would be to support policies and people looking to do better.
That does not mean voting Republican. We've tried that.
If you're rich - it works.
If you're middle class - it's working okay right now, but one day, the bill's coming due - and that 1% will have their 30% of the wealth in the Bahamas. The remaining 90-99% will be transferring theirs there as fast as they can.
As the rest of us fight over the scraps, and are left holding the bill. A modern day Hunger Games, all dependent upon whether a Kardashian or Kenney gives their blessing and attention.
May the odds ever be in your favor!
And putting someone who specializes in fraud and bankruptcy in charge again would not be a good idea under such circumstances even if he weren't a court found sexual deviant charged with over 90 felonies. Despite Mr Kenney and the WSJ's apparent fondness for him or acceptance of him.
Merry Christmas.
BTW- you do know that no one actually knows when Christ was born, right?
A made up holiday to replace pagan holidays like Saturnalia at the solstice. Good marketing, not necessarily a holy command.
Still, it's the thought that counts, and it is fun to watch the children's faces light up so, enjoy - but realize pretending is fun - but reality matters.
The children huddled in bunkers in Gaza and Ukraine are good children too. And there will be a lot more unnecessarily hungry, fearful, and cold kids in America this Christmas than there should be. Yes these children Mr Kenney wishes to help are deserving. Please help. A better help would be working so that next year, there are fewer of them. We can do it.
Choose wisely, not loudly, not proudly, not thoughtlessly.
Because if Scrooge had been paying a living wage in the 1st place; Tiny Tim would probably never needed crutches.
We can do better.
Until then, Peace.