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Friday July 14, Pairings Cellars, 310 Main Street, Pleasanton CA 94566 at 8pm to 11pm. Rolando returns to this exciting social hotspot in downtown Pleasanton. This new wine bar features fine wines, tapas and now dinners, as well as Rolando Morales performing his broad repertoire on solo guitar and voice. Free! www.pairingscellars.com, (925) 398-8846.
Tuesday July 11, Maria, Maria Cantina, 710 Camino Ramon Road, Danville CA, approx. 6-9pm. After about nine months(!), Rolando finally returns to Carlos Santana’s Danville restaurant for Taco Tuesday. $1 tacos, baby! And Rolando on solo guitar and voice with his diverse repertoire performing out on the patio by the fire pits. Reservations: (925) 820-2366. See www.mariamariarestaurants.
During the past five months of Trump being in charge 863,000 jobs were created. During the same period last year 955,000 jobs were added while Obama was still in office. On July 5th this year, Gallup reported: “Last week, Americans’ confidence in the economy averaged a score of 0, the first time in the 33 full weeks since the presidential election that the index’s weekly average was not positive. ” Full Report
In a recent NYT article of Today, half of American jobs pay about $37,000 or less each year, a quarter pay about $23,000 or less, and a family of four qualifies for SNAP at $32,000 or less. No wonder just over half of all SNAP families work, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. In America, “real” poverty is not about a lack of work, but a lack of compensation.
Trump has run on a platform of addressing this issue by “Making America Great Again” by creating jobs. So far this has not come to pass and slowly the public are losing faith in his “Art of the Deal.”
The US is in trouble it is no longer the land of the free and it is not the land of opportunity. Our research shows that in many respects it never had been.
National Conference of State Legislatures shares that in Oklahoma the minimum wage in 2017 is $2.00 per hour.
Oklahoma Employers of ten or more full time employees at any one location and employers with annual gross sales over $100,000 irrespective of number of full time employees are subject to federal minimum wage; all others are subject to state minimum wage of $2.00 (OK ST T. 40 § 197.5). National Conference of State Legislatures.
How can people survive and pursue their happiness on wages like that? Meanwhile the cost of living index in Tulsa Oklahoma is only 24.42% lower than in New York City.
Realtor.com suggests that a 1 to 2 bedroom, 1 bath apartment in Tulsa costs between $526 to $2,280 dollars per month which is of course much lower than the monthly rents in NYC $2,815 for 340 sq ft up to $22,000 for 2400 sq ft, or the San Francisco monthly rents of $2,815 for 340 sq ft to $13,500 for 2240 sq ft. The minimum wage is $9.20 to $11.00 depending on employer size in NYC and $14.00 per hour in San Francisco as of the time of this article. It is impossible to find a decent place to live on a minimum wage and it is little wonder that people who were raised believing in the American Dream are turning to suicide as a solution to their life issues at record numbers.
Housing Crisis and Fraud at all time high
Countries with a strong middle class are economically strong. Only after owners and investor of large companies, and political policies support a strong middle class will the country stop the trend toward becoming a third world nation.
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay promoted the ratification of the United States Constitution with articles and essays that were collected and are still available at The Federalist Papers.*
Within these articles and essays these founders outlined their thinking about creating a federal union. They urged people to allow wise and experienced men who have the public good in mind to counter balance the needs, wishes, and desires of individual states. They believed that a federal union would better safeguard national borders, treaties with foreign nations. National Government would enforce the laws for all people better, instead of having individual states or individuals fall prey to undue influence for personal gain, personal wealth creation, or a desire of personal power, or by foreign powers.
The Federal Papers were used to educate American voters about the benefits of balancing individuals and individual states’ freedoms with the public good and freedom as well as safety and overall wealth for all.
It is amazing how topical these papers are still today when we are engaged in the same exact battle once again. It is obvious that the current administration and the Congress is not occupied by educated, experienced and wise men who strive for what is best for everyone. The Constitution which was written with the public good in mind is now under constant attack.
Freedom of the Press is under attack by a President who has falsified Time Magazine covers decorating his golf courses. He recently stated that the Constitution is “old-fashioned.”
The health care bill that is currently proposed by the House and the Senate leans strongly toward wealth creation for the few, instead of the public good and freedom for all. The desire for individual wealth and power trumps the desire to protect freedom and safety for all.
The current administration who won due to manipulating the voting regions by gerrymandering, does not have full public support. Trump undoubtedly won over a lot of the working white class voters by promising to improve the health care system. Now instead his party wants to eliminate coverage for millions, lower coverage for those who are sick, and increase the premiums for when the policies are used when needed. This translates to the fact that millions more will either not be able to afford healthcare as soon as they get ill or they will go bankrupt trying to pay for medical expenses. In Alaska for instance Premiums for a 60 years old man will go up to $34,000 per year a high price to pay even in a state that offers above average median wages ranging from from $84,000 to $37,284 per median family incomes.
Clean water is under attack by the chosen head of the EPA. Millions of acres of public lands are leased to oil and gas companies with a history of causing oil spills ruining the environment. The Secretary of State, Tillerson has a known history of ignoring, if not supporting human rights offenses, by working with government known to steal from their inhabitants and in some cases killing entire villages to be able to provide Oil companies, like Exxon, with drilling rights.
In an op-ed piece in “The Hill” David Abramowitz, points out that looking for short term wealth for the few often hurts human rights for the many in the long run.
Right now the US is run by people with a history of siding with Human Rights offenders. Trump is publicly friends with human trafficker and known child molester Jeffrey Epstein, who ended up with very little jail time due to the Trump’s family intervention; Tillerson who was nearly sued by Indonesia for human rights offenses but “let go by W. Bush;” Joe Sessions lost his bid for the Supreme Court for his racist comments and attitudes; Steve Bannon, known for garnering support of the KKK, Neo-Nazis; Mike Pence, known for his ties with the tobacco industry and support of ultra conservative Christians oppressive and dangerous to LGBT persons; Sebastian Gorka known for his help to Russia overthrow Democracy in Hungary; and of course Manafort, Flynn and Trump’s own son in law; Guiliani who consulted helped prop up dictators like Duterte, Erdogan and created havoc in Venezuela. The list is too long for this article.
It may be a good idea to reread the Atlantic Monthly Time Capsules as we watch Democracy, Human Rights, Ecology, Education, and everything that has made this country great in the past under attack.
Will the battle for democracy and freedom for all people, regardless of sex, race, religion and national heritage as outlined in the US Constitution be won – AGAIN?
* Kindle Edition free from Amazon and the Gutenberg Press.