A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF INFLATION .....

Why the White House

Robert Reich  Feb 19

The Biden White House has decided to stop tying inflation to corporate power. That’s a big mistake. I’ll get to the reason for the White House’s shift in a moment, and why it’s a mistake. First, I want to be clear about the relationship between inflation and corporate power.

Corporate power and rising prices

While most of the price increases now affecting the US and global economy have been the result of global supply chain problems, this doesn’t explain why big and hugely-profitable corporations are passing these cost increases on to their customers in the form of higher prices. They don’t need to do so: With corporate profits are at near record levels, they could easily absorb the cost increases. They’re raising prices because they can, and they can because they don’t face meaningful competition. As the White House’s National Economic Council put it in a December report:

Businesses that face meaningful competition can’t do that, because they would lose business to a        competitor that did not hike its margins.

Starbucks is raising its prices to consumers, blaming the rising costs of supplies. But Starbucks is so profitable it could easily absorb these costs (it just reported a 31 percent increase in yearly profits). Why didn’t it just swallow the cost increases?

McDonald’s and Chipotle have increased their prices, also blaming higher food and labor costs. But McDonald’s revenues hit a five-year high in 2021 and Chipotle’s revenues increased by over a third from two years before. Why didn’t they absorb the cost increases?

Procter & Gamble is charging more for consumer staples, citing “rising costs for raw materials, such as resin and pulp, and higher expenses to transport goods.” But P&G continues to rake in record profits. It’s even been spending billions buying back its own stock. Why didn’t it just absorb the cost increases?

And on it goes. America’s largest and most profitable retailers -- Walmart, Amazon, Kroger, Costco, and Target -- say they must raise their prices because the products they’re selling cost more. But these retailers are so profitable they could absorb much of the cost increases and be profitable with smaller markups. Why didn’t they?

The answer in all these cases is they didn’t absorb the costs — and instead passed them on to consumers in the form of higher prices — because they face so little competition. Market power allows them to keep high profit margins even in the face of rising costs. As Chipotle’s chief financial officer said, “our ultimate goal … is to fully protect our margins.”

Some economists argue that corporate power can’t be driving inflation because any corporation with the market power to raise prices would already have done so. (This reasoning is roughly analogous to the old story about two economists who were walking along a street when one says “look! There’s a ten dollar bill!” and the other says “don’t be silly. If there were a ten dollar bill, someone would have picked it up by now.”) Corporations are raising prices now because their costs are increasing now. They’re using their market power to pass on these rising costs to their customers.

That’s not all. Inflation has given some big corporations cover to increase their prices well above their rising costs

On a recent survey, almost 60 percent of large retailers say inflation has given them the ability to raise prices beyond what’s required to offset higher costs.

Meat prices are soaring because the four giant meat processing corporations that dominate the industry are “using their market power to extract bigger and bigger profit margins for themselves,” according to a recent report from the White House’s National Economic Council (emphasis added).

Not incidentally, that report was dated December 10. Now, the White House is pulling its punches.

So why has the White House stopped explaining this to the public?

According to Thursday’s Washington Post, when the prepared congressional testimony of a senior administration official (Janet Yellen? The President?) was recently circulated inside the White House, it included a passage tying inflation to corporate consolidation and monopoly power. But that language was deleted from the remarks before they were delivered.

According to two people aware of the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity, members of the White House Council of Economic Advisers raised objections. I don’t know what their objections were but as I've said, some economists argue that since corporations with market power wouldn’t need to wait until the current inflation to raise prices, corporate power can’t be contributing to inflation. This argument ignores the ease by which powerful corporations can pass on their own cost increases to customers in higher prices or use inflation to disguise even higher price increases.

The Council of Economic Advisers is likely being influenced by two Democratic economists from a previous administration. According to the Post, former Democratic treasury secretary Larry Summers and Jason Furman, a top economist in the Obama administration, have been critical of attempts to link corporate market power to inflation.

“Business bashing is terrible economics and not very good politics in my view,” Summers said in an interview. Wrong. Showing the connections between corporate power and inflation is not “business bashing.” It’s holding powerful corporations accountable.

Whether through antitrust enforcement (or the threat of it), a windfall profits tax, or price controls, or all three, it’s important for the administration and Congress to do what they can to prevent hugely-profitable monopolistic corporations from raising their prices. Otherwise, responsibility for controlling inflation falls entirely to the Federal Reserve, which has only one weapon at its disposal — higher interest rates. Higher interest rates will slow the economy and likely cause millions of lower-wage workers to lose their jobs and forfeit long-overdue wage increases.

Robert Reich, is one of the most prominent political thinkers and activist in America nowadays, a great intellectual mind. his articles are very valuable. Again my thanks to all my good readers, stay safe and well. 

THE NOT SO UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ....

 

D.S.A. or divided States of America, is efficiently replacing U.S.A. it is becoming clearer and more factual, more visible to any observer living within or outside the country since the American civil war and the mid 19th century crisis. The causes are almost the same, the naming and picturing are a bit different. Racism white male supremacy, religious intolerance and literalism, extreme conservatism are all existing and well maintained in all of what we call nowadays "Red States", less so to different degrees and levels in "Blue States". Even economic theories and applications are affected by degrees of redness or blueness of a State rendering them generally poorer or better off. 

Until now most if not all still believe in the power of unity and the Union, and its benefits, plus the fact that each individual State big or small, rich or poor still believe that it could win, influence and impose its ways all over, even on the entire country. Both camps believe and cherish their own models of thinking, behaving and governing.  

Regional alliances are often de facto on the ground, as in the southern and the north-eastern cases, the Biblical belt, the Pacific States, or the Mid-Eastern center right States. But all these are becoming more vulnerable, as the new political, socio economical and religious fervors are all accelerating the divide, the idea of a cessation or some type of separation is playing more loudly than ever in many corners, Texas and Florida are leaders that could initiate something of the sort and drag a few others with them. California could be seen doing something as well from the other political side.

Many other States and their populations believe that should things happen along these lines, they would be better off alone than united. No thinking nor any consideration of how weaker and more vulnerable they would end up being. How dangerous any conflict or dispute among the various new semi independent entities. Some would prefer alliances with foreign countries, rather than internal cooperation between different ideologies among once unified States. Consider who might prefer an alliance with Canada, or Mexico rather than the Southern belt with the Western Pacific States. 

Can the United States avoid its own unravelling and disentangle ?? Can it learn to better compromise and listen to the other, to look at progress as a necessity and not always cling to a past traditional way, or are we doomed to apply internally what for decades and centuries we applied internationally, just a one sided look, a one sided greed and selfishness, a one sided supremacy and obstinacy, unfortunately this time it could turn bad and very detrimental to the country and its people as a whole. 

All futuristic elements of the once vibrant American society, leading and giving examples to the entire world, are now crumbling, collapsing, and being deliberately destroyed. To end it all note; "Americans have finally started killing each other over mayonnaise", with all of what's happening in the country, maybe it is inevitable and irreversible ..... 

What is taking place here can not be said to be purely ideological, it is both much more and much less than ideology, it is the production of effective instruments, working systematically for long years for the formation, accumulation and monopolization of wealth and power, using religion narrowness, white male supremacy, racism, and a false pseudo conservatism, plus some old inherited 18 and 19th century colonialism. 

my thanks to all, as always stay safe and well.                           

   

The true meaning of patriotism, Why America is in trouble - Robert Reich Jul 4, 2022

It is not the meaning propounded by the “America First” crowd, who define it as securing our borders. For most of its existence America has been open to people from the rest of the world fleeing tyranny and violence. Nor is the meaning of patriotism found in the ravings of those who want America to be a white Christian nation. America's moral mission has been to widen inclusion -- providing equal rights to women, Black people, Native American, Latinx, LGBTQ, Muslim, Jewish, atheist, agnostic.

True patriots don't fuel racist, religious, or ethnic divisions. Patriots aren't homophobic or sexist. Patriots seek to confirm and strengthen and celebrate the "we" in "we the people of the United States." Nor are patriots blind to social injustices. They don’t ban books or prevent teaching about the sins of our past. They combine a loving devotion to America with a demand for justice.

This land is your land, this land is my land, sang Woody Guthrie.

Langston Hughes pleaded:

Let America be America again,

The land that never has been yet—

And yet must be—the land where every man is free.

The land that's mine—the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME—.

Nor is the meaning of patriotism is found in symbolic displays of loyalty like standing for the national anthem and waving the American flag.

Patriotism’s true meaning lies in taking a fair share of the burdens of keeping the nation going — sacrificing for the common good. Paying taxes in full rather than lobbying for lower taxes or seeking tax loopholes or squirreling away money abroad. Refraining from political contributions that corrupt our politics. Blowing the whistle on abuses of power even at the risk of losing one's job. Volunteering time and energy to improving the community and country.

Real patriotism involves strengthening our democracy—defending the right to vote and ensuring more Americans are heard. Not claiming without evidence that millions of people voted fraudulently. Not pushing for laws that make it harder for people to vote based on this Big Lie. Not running for office on the Big Lie.

True patriots don’t put loyalty to their political party above their love of America. True patriots don’t support an attempted coup. They expose it — even when it was enabled by people they once worked for or engineered by a president who headed their own party.

When serving in public office, true patriots don’t try to hold on to power after voters have chosen not to reelect them. They don’t make money off their offices. When serving as judges, they recuse themselves from cases where they may appear to have a conflict of interest. When serving in the Senate, they don’t use the filibuster to stop all legislation they disagree with. When serving in state legislatures, they don’t try to suppress the votes of people unlikely to support them. When serving on the Supreme Court, they don’t disregard precedent to impose their own ideology.

Patriots understand that when they serve the public, one of their major responsibilities is to maintain and build public trust in the offices and institutions they occupy.  

America is in trouble. But that’s not because too many foreigners are crossing our borders, or we’re losing our whiteness or our dominant religion, or we’re not standing for the national anthem or celebrating our history. We’re not in trouble because of voter fraud. We’re in trouble because we are losing the true understanding of what patriotism requires from all of us. 

As always, my gratitude for your time and participation, stay safe and well. 

AMERICAN POLITICS ....

 

Practically most serious polls in America, indicate and demonstrate that a comfortable majority of American voters overwhelmingly support Democrats in their social agendas, and align with the values of the Democratic party. When asked about their priority issues for president Biden and Congress, American voters prioritize climate change, advancing renewable energy, saving voting rights, jobs creation, better wealth distribution and equality, plus the economy in general. The vast majority of Americans support abortion access, eliminating the filibuster, better gun controls, universal health care and most approve and support the president's job creation, and his handling of the Ukrainian war.

Many surveys continue to demonstrate that Americans in all their different ethnic and gender, color or back ground, middle classes or poor, they in their majority continue to support Democrats and the president's agenda. They are increasingly strongly opposed to Republican political mumbo jumbo and exotic tactics in Congress, as well as the new GOP leadership blindly following the ex-president in all decisions concerning America and the world. Lately even a hidden approval and appreciation of Putin and his barbaric invasion of Ukraine. 

It also demonstrates how the American voters in augmenting numbers are deeply concerned about attacks on the country's democracy. They oppose Republican-led voter suppression laws, and hold Trump and the GOP responsible for the Jan. 6 insurrection and the fascist armed militias mushrooming all over, trying to force a way of life and governance, toping it all, the latest very conservative Supreme Court mini coup, reversing the wright to abortion and leaving it to individual states to regulate or ban. Plus further weakening regulations about gun control, climate change and state and church separation.  

While these polls show continued support for Democrats and intense opposition to the Republican political machinery, it also emphasizes the important work ahead of America, as it approaches the 2022 midterm elections that will decide the control of the Senate if not both chambers of Congress, a very important step in deciding the next 2 years of the Biden administration' progress in the White House. 

Democrats will win in the midterm if American voters get out in force and vote consistently with their values and their declared convictions, without fear from a very demagogical right wing machine blaming all American present illnesses on this administration. Putting aside the same propagandist different brain washing machines of a well trained professional extreme right, white supremacist with certain very specific religious affiliations. 

And of course the very big money back up of major conglomerates, corporations, all through very powerful political and industrial lobbying agencies, as well as some very rich individuals, all benefitting big time from the Trump and Republican agenda. Even news networks and social media platforms are playing a major role in the propaganda machine of the extreme right and the Trump campaign. Take for instance how many platforms banned mostly Republican politicians even Trump himself several times for fake news and deliberate lies, Fox news TV and their presenters are not news broadcasters anymore, they are clearly turning fully into a right-wing propaganda network, Representing Trump, Americans in their majority see that. 

Another phenomena on the American political scene is ; politicians adopting Trumpism without Trump. It's becoming a set tactic for many Republicans, ultra right-wing, extreme conservatives, and some religious white supremacist, for now they are gaining ground and are forging themselves a strong footage within the Republican election and funding machine.  

As Voltaire once said, "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." As always my thanks to all, stay safe and well.                

WE'RE CONSTANTLY REMINDED OF KHASHOGGY BUT NOT SHIREEN ......NOR FROM GHISLAIN MAXWELL

 

Dear Friends,

In virtually every incident, Israel's first step has been to routinely, "buy time", typically by converting any accusation against it, as though it should be positioned in a "state of doubt".  

(And to, consequently, give time to its "Israel-supporters" to prepare their typically reflexed responses).

And it is easy for them to do, since over decades, our media and propaganda machine behind it, have deceptively converted our name from being "Palestinian" to a two syllable word, "Palestinian-terrorists". Consequently, when Israel "reflexively" claims that the shooter was most likely a "Palestinian", the typical readers in the West subconsciously convert it and understand it to be, "Palestinian terrorist".  And their conclusion? "Yes, of course, How can the shooter be anyone else, but a Palestinian terrorist"?

It is like Russia's attempt to call Ukraine's regime as being "Nazi". It would be like every time a Ukrainian is killed, Russia would accuse Ukrainian defenders of being responsible for the murder because of their chaotic behavior and indiscriminate shooting. It is like Russia accusing Ukrainians of stepping into an area that is "Disputed territory", etc, etc.

And people forget, or don't even realize, that only a year ago when Palestinian people in Gaza demonstrated for many weeks at the border area demanding that Israel let them return to their homes and farms and properties in Israel from which they were forcefully evicted and terrorized to flee, Israeli snipers were aiming at the  heads/necks and legs murdering and maiming hundreds of Palestinian "civilians" (the word "our" media correctly but also selectively uses to describe the Ukranians murdered by Russians military). 

Please read the article, below, by James Zogby, a Lebanese-American.

Awad

I am Furious

Washington Watch
May 13, 2022

Dr. James J. Zogby ©

President

Arab American Institute

The killing of Shireen Abu Akleh has left me furious. Furious that a wonderful woman journalist has been taken from the world. Furious because of the predictable way Israel has responded to this tragedy. And furious at the US for its failure to take a principled stand to ensure that the truth is known about Shireen’s death and there’s accountability for it.

Much has already been written about Shireen. She’s an American citizen and a journalist who for the past 25 years has been reporting from Palestinian lands. She wasn’t just a journalist, she was a storyteller who, like other greats in her profession, was able to get “under the skin” of an event to lay bare its human drama. Where Palestinian officials failed, she succeeded.

Shireen endeavored to bring to life the stories of individuals and families bearing up under the indignity, pain, and injustice of the occupation. Because of that, she posed a greater danger to the Israelis than any gunman ever could. She threatened their dehumanizing narrative that reduced Palestinians to faceless objects.

In this context, it was revealing that the Israeli military spokesperson described Shireen and her colleague, Ali Samodi, who was shot in the back, as being “armed with cameras, if you will permit me to say so.” That is what good journalists do — they arm themselves with cameras and laptops. They witness events as they happen and tell stories so that readers and viewers can understand the human drama that is unfolding. It appears that Israel finds this profoundly — even existentially — threatening. Why else would they have killed 20 Palestinian journalists since 2001 (according to the Committee to Protect Journalists)?

The Israeli response to Shireen’s killing has been predictable. Their hasbara (propaganda) machinery went into overdrive doing what they have always done — a combination of denying, lying, and obfuscating what may have happened.

Even before the military investigated the killing, the early Israeli response was that they were “looking into the possibility that journalists were injured, possibly by Palestinian gunfire.” Another spokesperson added: “I don’t think we killed her…if we indeed killed her, we’ll take responsibility, but it doesn’t seem to be the case.” While this effort at deflection was taking place, the Israelis took another tack claiming that they had offered to conduct a joint investigation with the Palestinians — while even the Israeli press was noting that no such offer had been made. After reading press reports of this “joint investigation” the Palestinians rejected the “offer” saying “no one approached us and no one offered anything…Whoever wants a joint investigation knows who to turn to.” This led an Israeli minister to suggest that the Palestinian refusal was “perhaps to cover up the truth.” 

The effort to obfuscate and deflect blame was also in evidence in an Israeli Foreign Ministry tweet which read: “Palestinian terrorists, firing indiscriminately, are likely to have hit…Shireen Abu Aqla.” While Prime Minister Bennett added, “Our forces from the IDF returned fire as accurately, carefully, and responsibly as possible. Sadly…Shireen Abu Akleh was killed in the exchange.”

To create further confusion, the Israelis offered a video which they claimed showed the direction from which the bullets may have been fired by Palestinians. An Israeli human rights group using satellite maps debunked this claim by showing that it was impossible for Palestinian gunmen, given where they were located, to have fired through walls and around corners and hit Shireen and Ali.

To answer why the Israelis engage in such a relentless effort to obfuscate, we need only look at an article that appeared in the Israeli press the day after Shireen’s killing. Written by the Israeli general who had been in charge of the division that was responsible for killing 12-year-old Muhammad Al-Durrah in 2000.  That killing was captured on camera and the image of a little boy being shielded by his father amidst a hail of bullets became iconic. In the article, the general confesses that he erred in immediately accepting responsibility, noting that in the days that followed other “explanations” were posited —including positing that it was all a hoax staged by the Palestinians to besmirch the good name of the Israeli military. The lesson he learned was to not admit to anything up front. Instead, wait until you have talking points that can muddy the waters for the Israeli public and Israel’s supporters abroad.

This is the approach suggested by the famous Marx Brothers’ comedic line: “Who do you believe, me or your lying eyes?” And it’s been used by the Israelis from the very beginning — e.g. “Palestinians weren’t expelled from their homes in 1948.  Arab armies called on them to leave” — despite all historical evidence to the contrary. It might be a lie, but if it’s plausible enough to convince or confuse the Israeli public and Israel’s supporters in the international community, then use it.

Finally, there’s the equally frustratingly predictable US response to Shireen’s killing that was in evidence at the State Department briefing the day of the killing. The spokesperson opened with: “We are absolutely heartbroken to learn of the killing of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh…We send our deepest condolences…and strongly condemn her killing as we do the killing of journalists around the world…We call for an immediate and thorough and full investigation and full accountability. Investigating attacks on independent media and prosecuting those responsible are of paramount importance.”

That resolve, however, faded under intense questioning by the journalists present at the press session. While insisting that the investigation be full and thorough and that there be accountability, the spokesperson resorted to the usual deflections. When reporters pointed to instances where Israel either exonerated itself or only offered a slap on the wrist to its forces who had been found guilty of atrocities, the spokesperson would only reaffirm that the US had full confidence in Israel’s ability to investigate itself.

The US refusal to hold Israel to the same standard it insists upon for other countries is upsetting. More so in this case because Shireen is a journalist and a US citizen. In the more than four decades that I’ve been bringing cases of US citizens who’ve been killed, arrested without charge, tortured, had properties confiscated, or been denied entry, the US response has been the same: expressions of concern; quietly discussing the matter with the Israelis; and then doing nothing, as the issue is forgotten.

The result is that Israel operates with a sense of impunity and Palestinians are left defenseless. In the case of Palestinian Americans, the message sent is that to the Israelis and to our own government our US citizenship offers no special protection. And so, I’m furious. 

COLLAPSE .......

China says it will work with Russia to promote "Real Democracy" I wish they'd include Donald Trump with them, he might prove quite inspirational, and maybe few others like Orban of Hungary, Erdogan of Turkey and most autocracies/theocracies of the world, like Iran, Saudi, Israel and few others. 

All this at a moment when few can deny that this country is experiencing a deep crisis, depression, addiction, suicide, extreme wealth inequality, more difficult to attain medical and health treatment including medicine prices and monopoles, education and its availability in adequate forms for the public sectors, all made worse by Covid 19, the rash of mass killings, the effects of too many individual guns and high military and assault machine guns in too many individual hands. (Over 400 million pieces already existing in America). 

As well as a general political malaise, fueled by a total divide from an old inherited conservative and religious ideology, countering a more liberal, 21st century international ideology. More concentrated especially within the younger and better educated and more democratic populations, deserting fascism, and dictatorships, whether theocratic or secular, not to forget the greatest of our curses "Racism", and finally the spectacle of war, produced by all sorts of adventures all around, finally culminating by the Putin's war in Ukraine, and the threat of yet another one in the China sea. 

Altogether producing an omnipresent and universal anxiety, reigning in the back-ground, all of which lead to more economic instability, poverty, exploitation, undermining resilience and resistance world wide, destroying the general hope of a stable and more prosperous unified glob. 

Just by being a little more observant and looking around all over, we can all begin to notice something profoundly disturbing happening to our world, it's the same feeling that led in a sense to world wars one and two, to a situation of cold war or an in between semi cold and hot war. Our civilization all over is beginning again to start collapsing and it's visibly failing, our economic systems are not functioning well anymore, our social policies and fair equality of wealth distribution are left behind and being neglected, even refused under different parroted arguments. 

But surely they are all united under few general headings; greed, and concentrated power, and winner takes all, superiority and supremacy of the few, etc...etc.... Israel is a clear leader and joins many of the world entities with these attributes.  Food, water, energy, money, state welfare, climate change, selfishness, major immigration shifts, how many crises can a civilization take ?? Are we really facing an inevitable civilizational collapse ?? Are we really living through a pre collapse era, by witnessing failures of all kinds, pushing all our basic systems to start shattering and breaking. 

The real source of distrust, many Americans feel toward the establishment and government, being it Democrats or Republicans, presently being played and manipulated by Republicans, this distrust comes from some chronic ailments, manifested by four decades of near stagnant wages to all but the highest echelon of the corporate world, widening inequalities, a clearly alarming shrinking middle-class, an ever more concentration of wealth at the very top, and growing corruption in the form of campaign cash and bribes from the wealthy and the corporate world, leading to an almost total stagnation of governance and some very nuanced legislations, always to favor the few very rich and powerful. 

     My as always, many thanks to all, stay safe and well.                  

IDEOLOGIZING MASSACERS ......

 

The Uvalde (West Texas) elementary school should not have happened , 21 people including 19 children and 2 teachers were murdered in cold blood by a young gunman yesterday, their death are incomprehensible, they should not have lost their lives. Little kids, massacred, few days after another massacre, after another, after another, and the response from half of American politicians; Nothing. 

America is not defined by the worst of its citizens, of course not, but it must not pretend that they are not part of its rooted fabrics. And they are shaping the image of America and what it is, in some awful, terrible way, they and the weapons they use, are for sure a solid part of the American culture, and it's not to say that Americans have to accept it. Americans need to push, fight and speak out, and do everything they can to move the country in a better direction. 

Americans love and cherish their freedom, their constitutional rights, even now when it is harder every day to do so, with mass killings occurring on daily bases around the country, and most are vulgar and cheep, driven by mostly white young people, whose hearts and minds are fully polluted and poisoned by racist ideologies, by practically legitimizing the killing of not fully perceived as equal or legitimate white original citizens, so Blacks, Latinos, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Asians and or any other ethnic minority in America. 

The next major test in choosing these ugly patterns and directives will be in November's rapidly approaching mid-term elections, and opening the way for the next presidential elections in 2024. When everything the country stands for ,  and the fundamental rights of millions of Americans will be on the ballots. 

The teenager who murdered 19 elementary young students and their 2 teachers in Texas few days ago, the one who murdered several black people in Buffalo, the guy who drove 9 hrs. to kill Latinos in El Paso, the man who gunned down Jews at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, the one who shot and killed 9 people at a bible study in South Carolina, and many, many more, they all share the same convictions of "Great Replacement" and it is their duty to kill indiscriminately all non fully belonging real white Americans. 

American history include a long and bloody trail of that kind of violence, since its conception. But, and to be honest, these acts of brutality and racism, are not the whole story, American history is also a story of people of all walks of life, coming together, melting in the great pot of what the country is really all about, totally countering the idea that this country belongs to any particular group more than any other other sharing its common goals. 

No one is more American, or more patriotic and loyal to America on account of their skin color or their religion or their ethnic original background. No one should be discriminated against for where they were born or who they love, or who they believe in or don't believe in. America is living at a time when so many unprincipled people are set to divide the country for power, profit, or blind ideological and religious demagogy. 

 These are specifically the days when Americans need each other the most, to face existential future dilemmas, whether political, economical or existential climatic on world levels. Those are the days to be grateful that there are so many Americans who have made firm commitments to making a difference, to recommit to the idea of the true American way, they're committed to save the country. 

As always, my many thanks for your time, stay safe and well.