Ditat Deus: How Red-State Arizona's Failed Policies on Poverty Just Got a little Worse

by Nomad

Arizona is a showcase of Republican policy when it comes to helping needy families. But that's not meant to be praise. Poverty has become an intractable problem and legislators seem to be intent on making life more difficult for the poor.

No Hope, No Change

Arizona's state motto is Ditat Deus which in Latin, translates as "God Enriches" and, for some Arizonans that might be true, but for many others, God seems to have all but forgotten them. Actually, it's not necessary to lay the blame on divinities but on the easily-distracted Republican legislators. 

When the US Census Bureau updated its poverty estimates last year, the bad news about Arizona should have been hard for state officals to ignore. The state ranked third in the nation when it came to the percentage who were at or below the federal poverty line. That's an estimated 21 percent of the state's population.

You'd think those numbers would set off alarm bells that past policies just weren't working. You'd think politicians would realize that changes had to be made as soon as possible. 

That's not what happened. 

Last summer, coincidentally, Arizona became the first state to cut poor families’ access to welfare assistance to a maximum of 12 months over a lifetime.  With the passage of the law, Arizona will have the harshest limit of all the states, most of which offer benefits for five years, the duration allowed under federal law. 

As a local source noted last month:

It means an estimated 2,500 people — including 1,500 kids — will no longer qualify for the modest stipends the program provides. The average payment is $278.

Democrats lawmakers and advocates for the poor struggled in vain to keep the program at its two-year limit went unheeded.

In the debate, Republican Sen. Kelli Ward, R-Lake Havasu City. delivered the standard Republican approach to poverty: 

“I tell my kids all the time that the decisions we make have rewards or consequences, and if I don’t ever let them face those consequences, they can’t get back on the path to rewards. As a society, we are encouraging people at times to make poor decisions and then we reward them.”

It's a pretty pathetic excuse for parsimony. Reagan taught us that the poor don't need our pity or our assistance. And ever since then, the conservatives have been saying that poor have only themelves to blame. We must assume such a rationalization allows them to feel superior and look at themselves in the mirror.

Future News Headlines: GOP Nominee Trump Quits, Announces his Entire Campaign Has Been "Sarcasm"

by Nomad

"Gotcha!" says Donald Trump, in a recent news spoof in the North Carolina Charlotte Observer.

A recent satirical op-ed piece by Walker Lundy of the Charlotte Observer reports that the GOP nominee Donald Trump has announced his intention to delete his entire campaign and endorse the Democrat Hillary Clinton for president.

Furthermore, the presidential candidate gave this startling admission.

Trump said the only point of his campaign was to show how stupid and gullible many Republican voters are.

Even though he had been a Democrat for most of his life, Trump declared, he knew that if he ran as a Republican and said "increasingly ridiculous, idiotic, racist and sexist things" he had a good chance of picking up a lot of votes. 

Beyond Belief

Of course, he says in the Lundy spoof, Trump had never imagined that he would "win the Republican nomination and poll 40 percent or better in a national race against Clinton." 

(Ask me two years ago and I would have definitely said the same thing.)

He also pointed out that he had offered no real solutions to any of the country’s problems and nobody, even the news media, took much notice that “there was no there there in my campaign,” he said.

Long-Time Admirer Hints the Kind of Financial Education President Trump Plans to Offer Americans

by Nomad

An article in a magazine for the unashamed 1% by one of Donald Trump's avid supporters and long time pal claims that  Trump isn't merely a billionaire property developer. He is more than the Republican nominee, Trump is a teacher and he has lesson to teach all of America. 

For People Who Like to Dream of Being Rich

If the ads are anything to go by, the target audience for Jetset magazine is not the average Donald Trump voter. 

The median household income of a Trump voter so far in the primaries is about $72,000, based on estimates derived from exit polls and Census Bureau data. 

Not the kind of person who may be shopping around for a Tom George yacht ("Because you can.") an Island retreat in the Bahamas or a Magellan Jet. 

The pitch for one yacht maker aims at the snob appeal. "We Don't Need Everyone to Read This."

Outside of the ads, the articles include: 

The Beauty of Believing- Critical Factors in Business

OPM- (Other People's Money) The Power of Using Debt 

According to its mission statement, Jetset Magazine is "the definitive authority on connoisseurship for ultra-affluent consumers." It's safe to assume that JetSet is a magazine for the most pampered of the 1%. 

But perhaps I am wrong. 

It could just be a magazine for people who feverishly dream of becoming the pampered rich. 

Back in 2015, JetSet magazine had another article that caught my eye, It was entitled "Why America Needs Donald Trump." The article is full of glossy photos of Donald Trump. One shows the mogul seated at an empty walnut table abroad his private jet, looking decisive- or bored, or petulant. Who knows.

With the plentiful peppering of "we" and "I", the author of the article, Robert Kiyosaki, offers an insider's insight into the man named Trump. 

Only a person who has known Trump on a personal level, it seems, can explain this very complicated man. The author wants to share a few things, personal things, about Mr. Trump.

Uncontrolled or Out of Control?

But first of all, there's one thing you have to know.

Trump, says Kiyosaki, is for real. Really real.

Meaning, perhaps, that Trump isn't a cartoon. He isn't some kind of ugly, silly prank on American voters. That news might have come as a relief a year ago. 

Not so much anymore.

Today, the "reality" of Trump is much more worrying. At this point, it would be more comforting to think Trump was a cruel practical joker.

Thomas Paine and the Last Shadow of Liberty

by Nomad

Donald's Dust: Asbestos, the World Trade Center and The Dangerously Wrong Opinions of Trump

by Nomad

Trump's love for the cancer-causing material asbestos goes back for decades. Trump has boasted of its effectiveness and safety before the Senate. Tell that to the firefighters, cleanup crews, and first responders who were exposed to the 400 tons of asbestos that blanketed the streets of Manhattan on September 11. 

The Conspiracy Theory that Trump Doesn't Talk About

For a man who enjoys his conspiracy theories, Donald Trump seems pretty ignorant of some of the most interesting ones. One 9/11 conspiracy theory that made the rounds involved the suspicion of an inside job and billion dollar insurance fraud. 

For what it's worth, the theory runs something like this:

Six months prior to the attack, the WTC was privatized and, after drawn-out negotiations, finally leased to a private developer. On July 24, 2001, just six weeks before 911, that $3.2 billion bid by the Silverstein Group- made up of property developer Larry Silverstein and investors Lloyd Goldman and Joseph Cayre- was accepted.
A noteworthy milestone. It was the first time in the building's 31-year history that the complex had changed management, the first time it had been leased to a private entity.

According to the theory, the WTC wasn't exactly the prize catch that the developer had been lead to believe. on the other hand, the problem was not exactly a secret.
The Port Authority, according to some sources, considered the WTC a headache. The city had attempted on several occasions to get permits to demolish the Twin Towers but was turned down due the known asbestos problem.

The conspiracy theorists will tell you that

it was well-known the only reason the building was still standing until 9/11 was because it was too costly to disassemble the twin towers floor by floor since the Port Authority was prohibited legally from demolishing the buildings.

The owners of the towers were looking at a hefty bill ($200 million) for mandated "renovations and improvements, most of which related to removal and replacement of building materials declared to be health hazards in the years since the towers were built." 

We are talking primarily about asbestos. 

That figure for clean up would have reportedly represented an entire year's worth of revenue from the WTC.