Happy Thanksgiving to all of you this year. 2020 has been unbelievable between the pandemic, the politics and the polarization of our society. I thought that it might do us all a little good to hear the original proclamation of thanksgiving by President George Washington to remind us where our priorities should be. I hope this strikes you the same way that it did me, and that you have peace at your table for this great, American, holiday.
While I am posting this about a week after Thanksgiving, I really like Matt Brechwald’s podcast and his observations as a farmer and small town police officer and landlord piecing together a life on his rural land.
Stephen Kinzer’s book, ‘Poisoner in Chief,’ exposes how CIA scientist Sidney Gottlieb worked in the 1950s and early ’60s to develop mind control drugs and deadly toxins that could be used against enemies of the U.S. government. Gottlieb believed the key to mind control was LSD, and is credited with bringing the drug to the U.S. He also experimented on unwitting people in prisons and detention centers in Japan, Germany, and the Philippines. (Originally broadcast Sept. 2019)
The U.S. Supreme Court has temporarily barred New York from enforcing strict attendance limits on places of worship in areas designated coronavirus hot spots, in a decision released late Wednesday.
The court ruled that Gov. Andrew Cuomo's executive order violated the First Amendment's "free exercise" clause, and actively discriminated against religious institutions.
"The restrictions at issue here, by effectively barring many from attending religious services, strike at the very heart of the First Amendment's guarantee of religious liberty," the unsigned majority decision read.
This means the party will have the opportunity, however dominated by the coronavirus public health and socioeconomic crises the state faces, to build on its long list of liberal legislative action from the 2019-2020 session, the first with full Democratic control of state government in a decade.
Though they appear set to continue intra-party bickering and more substantive debate between moderates and those further to the left, the continued dominance of state government may embolden Democrats to pursue additional legislative priorities. And a new crop of progressive legislators, some members of the Demcoratic Socialists of America, will join both the Assembly and Senate, with plans to pull those majorities further left.
One of my hope with the Biden administration is… smaller government, lower deficits
I have observed over the years that Democratic presidents tend to be much better at cutting the deficit and reducing government spending then Republican presidents.
While the GOP is quite happy to flood the military, defense contractors and the police with unneeded new funding when they are in charge of the White House they don’t like funding social or community programs and will make the deficit spending a major issue in the Biden presidency.
A strong post pandemic economy might even mean the federal government is running in the black and could lead to significant investments in infrastructure and climate resilience which is going to be all the more important in coming years.
And I think that’s a good thing because it will lead to a more affordable and better government.
The transition to the Biden administration may be going, let us say, a bit slower than transitions have in the past. But the rumbles of the age-old, post-election shift in Washington can still be heard. Thousands of victorious campaign staffers, donors, glory seekers, and hangers-ons will soon be swarming the capital in search of jobs in the new administration. And, in a few weeks, there will be a convenient guidebook published for them.
The book is officially called United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions, but it's better known as the Plum Book because of its purple cover — and also probably because it's filled with plum jobs, many of which are appointed by the winning presidential candidate. The book is published every four years after presidential elections. It's a long list of positions around the federal government, typically providing information on who last held them and what their salary was.
The NYPD has used tens of thousands of questionable subpoenas over the last decade to intimidate private companies into handing over the personal information of cops and civilians alike — all with no oversight from the city or the courts, The Post has found.
While the vast majority of subpoenas in New York State — and across the country — require the signature of a judge or the blessing of a grand jury, the New York City Council empowered the department nearly a century ago to issue such commands to force unwilling cops to produce internal records or appear at disciplinary hearings
