65 Films I Have Watched Over and Over Again

 

Casablanca—Michael Curtiz 1942

The Pride of the Yankees—Sam Wood Veloz 1942

A Christmas Carol ("Scrooge")—Brian Desmond Hurst 1951

The Red Balloon—Albert Lamorisse 1956

The Seventh Seal—Ingmar Bergman 1957

The Magnificent Seven—John Sturges 1960

West Side Story—Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins 1961

A Pocket Full of Miracles—Frank Capra 1961

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge—Robert Enrico 1961

To Kill a Mockingbird—Robert Mulligan 1962

Zorba the Greek—Michael Cacoyannis 1964

King of Hearts—Philippe de Broca 1966

Five Easy Pieces—Bob Rafelson 1970

Getting Straight—Harry Bailey 1970

Dirty Harry—Don Siegel 1971

The Godfather—Francis Ford Coppola 1972

Paper Chase—James Bridges 1973

Annie Hall—Woody Allen 1977

Breaking Away—Peter Yates 1979

Warriors—Walter Hill 1979

The Empire Strikes Back—Irvin Kershner 1980

Amadeus—Milos Forman 1984

The Natural—Barry Levinson 1984

Das Boot—Wolfgang Petersen 1985

Stand By Me—Bob Reiner 1986

Field of Dreams—Phil Alden Robinson 1989

Born on the Fourth of July—Oliver Stone 1989

Dead Poets Society—Peter Weir 1989

Scent of a Woman—Martin Brest 1992

Unforgiven—Clint Eastwood 1992

My Cousin Vinny—Jonathan Lynn 1992

The Sandlot—David Mickey Evans 1993

Schindler's List—Steven Spielberg 1993

Tombstone—George Cosmatos 1993

A Bronx Tale—Robert De Niro 1993

Legends of the Fall—Edward Zwick 1994

Shawshank Redemption—Frank Darabont 1994

Forrest Gump—Robert Zemeckis 1994

That Thing You Do—Tom Hanks 1996

Beautiful Girls—Ted Demme 1996

Birdcage—Mike Nichols 1996

Good Will Hunting—Gus Van Sant 1997

The Red Violin—Francois Gerard 1998

Saving Private Ryan—Steven Spielberg 1998

Almost Famous—Cameron Crowe 2001

61—Billy Crystal 2001

The Rookie—John Lee Hancock 2002

The Last Samurai—Edward Zwick 2003

Glory Road—James Gartner 2006

Bright Star—Jane Campion 2009

Grand Torino—Clint Eastwood 2009

Midnight in Paris—Woody Allen 2011

The King’s Speech—Tom Hooper 2011

Water for Elephants—Francis Lawrence 2011

Not Fade Away—David Chase 2012

The Railway Man—Jonathan Teplitzky 2013

John Wick—Chad Stahelski 2014

Fury—David Ayer 2014

St. Vincent—Theodore Melfi 2014

Spotlight—Tom McCarthy 2015

McFarland—Niki Caro 2015

Darkest Hour—Joe Wright 2017

The Christmas Chronicles—Clay Katis 2018

Green Book—Peter Farrelly 2018

All Quiet on the Western Front—Edward Berger 2022

The Unfunded Pension Liability of Illinois

 

SPRINGFIELD -- The state saw its unfunded pension liability decrease in fiscal year 2021 for the first time in four years, due in large part to investment returns that exceeded 20%, according to a new report from the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability.

Measuring by the current-day values of the pension fund assets, unfunded liabilities -- or the amount of debt the state pension funds owe that they can't afford to pay -- dropped by nearly 10%, to $130 billion in FY 2021 from $144 billion in the previous fiscal year. That put the state's five pension funds at 46.5% funded, up from 39% the previous year.

It's the best funding ratio since 2008 and only the third decrease to unfunded liabilities in the last 15 years, the last occurring in FY 2017 at 0.5%, the other in FY 2011 at 2.9%. Otherwise, unfunded liabilities have risen annually from $42.2 billion in 2007. But the report also noted that not much has changed to alleviate the underlying financial pressures that have caused unfunded liabilities to triple since the financial crisis of 2007-2008, meaning the good financial news was more anomaly than trend.

The returns of 22.9% to 25.2% for FY 2021, which ended June 30, far exceeded the anticipated 6.5% to 7% returns, according to the report. Aside from the good investment news, the report was substantially similar to countless other pension reports in recent years, particularly because it once again called on the state to revamp the much-maligned 1994 "Edgar Ramp" plan for paying down pension debt.

That's the name commonly used to refer to Public Act 88-0593, or the state's 50-year plan to bring its five pension funds to 90% funded by 2045. The actual target for that ramp should be a 100%-funded pension system within the next 25 years or preferably sooner, according to a letter attached to the commission's report from its actuary, Segal Consulting.

The letter also faulted the Edgar Ramp for "backloading" pension payments, providing for smaller contributions in the early years leading to the current reality which sees 20% of the state's discretionary spending going to pension payments each year. It also highlighted other times the pension system was shortchanged, including during the tenure of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Only after the target is increased to 100%, the report noted, would the state begin to see sustained reductions to its unfunded pension liabilities. "(T)he funding plan under (Public Act) 88-0593 produces employer (State) contributions that are actuarially insufficient, meaning if all other actuarial assumptions are met, unfunded liabilities will still increase due to the State contributing an amount that is not sufficient to stop the growth in the unfunded liability," according to the report.

But increasing pension payments is easier said than done, Alexis Sturm, director of the Governor's Office of Management and Budget, said in a letter accompanying the report. She was unavailable for a phone call Thursday, but her letter to commission co-chairs said consideration of changes to the current 90% target "needs to be reviewed carefully within the context of the impact on the state's budget."

The $8.6 billion pension payment in FY 2021 was 20% of the state's $42.9 billion General Revenue Fund budget, and pensions are routinely the state's largest general fund expense outside of K-12 education. In fiscal year 2022, the commission estimated the pension payment at $9.4 billion, or more than 21% of the operating budget. FY 2023's Edgar Ramp-mandated payment is estimated at more than $9.6 billion, or nearly $10.8 billion including other state funds.

But, according to the report, if the state wants to contribute at a rate approved by actuaries, it will need to contribute nearly $14.9 billion in FY 2023, which begins July 1, or 38% higher than what is provided for via the Edgar Ramp. "An increase to the goal would result in higher payments, but eventually lead to a reduction in the unfunded liabilities in the systems," Sturm wrote. "Given the current fiscal pressures facing the state, this too is inadvisable to consider until Illinois can eliminate the unpaid bill backlog, borrowings undertaken to pay off the debts remaining from the budget impasse and the COVID-driven recession and address the underlying structural deficit."

The backlog currently sits at about $4.8 billion, according to the website maintained by state Comptroller Susana Mendoza, who said in a public appearance this week that the oldest unpaid voucher was 21 days old. Still, the 90% goal, Sturm said, is "reasonable and achievable," given the circumstances. Gov. J.B. Pritzker's administration has fully funded the pension system at Edgar Ramp levels in each of his first three years, although he briefly considered lowering the payment in his first year before quickly dropping the plan.

Leaders at the state's "big three" pension funds -- the State Universities Retirement System, State Employees' Retirement System and Teachers' Retirement System -- all also endorsed the 100% funding target and shorter ramps to full funding. "Earlier funding, in addition to a targeted funding ratio of 100%, would make the retirement systems more secure and would substantially reduce financing costs due to interest accruing on the unfunded liability, the primary driver of the state contribution requirements," the leaders of the pension systems wrote. The report also noted that a pension buyout program initiated in 2018 and extended for three years by the General Assembly under Pritzker created a $213 million reduction in unfunded liability for FY 2021.

“Report: Good pension news doesn't alleviate state's underlying financial pressures” by Jerry Nowicki, Capitol News Illinois

Commentary:

Most Illinois legislators and their benefactors do not care whether teachers and other public employees have contributed responsibly to their pension funds or that teachers will receive [little to] no Social Security when they retire. It is troublesome that they do not care whether retired teachers’ and other public employees defined-benefit pension plans are a fundamental source of economic stimulus to communities in Illinois and the only retirement income for hundreds of thousands of people.

Most Illinois legislators and their benefactors do not care that the State of Illinois has not consistently paid its full constitutional and obligatory contributions to the public pension systems throughout the decades, that this money was diverted to other operating expenses and special interests’ groups, that the State of Illinois saved billions of dollars by not paying what actuaries have calculated the Teachers’ Retirement System should have received throughout the years, that this theft also enabled the State of Illinois to provide services for its citizenry without raising taxes during that time, and that this money was deferred-earned income for teachers in Illinois. The aforementioned is not a myth but a reality machinated by past legislative bodies and governors.

It is obvious Illinois legislators do not possess the resolve to take on an inadequate fiscal system that fails to generate enough revenue growth to properly maintain state services and pay state expenditures for health and social services, education, government, transportation, capital outlays, public protection and justice.

Many Illinois citizens are aware that state legislators have not fully funded the public pension systems throughout the decades; that instead of paying into the pension systems, state legislators have misappropriated that money. Thus, without having to pay for services, state legislators have created an enormous pension debt (or unfunded liability) for the public pension systems in Illinois. The pension debt is, indeed, exorbitant.

Approximately one-fifth of the total pension payment each year is for “normal costs” to the system; the other four-fifths of the payment is the interest owed on the debt the state incurred for not fully funding the pension systems.

According to the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, “the greatest cause of the state’s unfunded liability has been borrowing against the pension systems. This borrowing meant that the state’s contributions were not sufficient to pay for both benefits earned by current employees and interest on the pre-existing unfunded liability. Without sufficient contributions, an unfunded liability annually grows by a retirement system’s investment rate assumption (which ranges from seven percent to eight percent among Illinois’ five state systems).

“The state’s annual contribution to the retirement systems for debt service can be thought of as having two components: one part goes to pay down principal and the other is for interest on the principal. This is similar to paying down a credit card bill or home/car loan.

“The significant debt owed to the pension systems is the core cause of the systems’ cumulative unfunded liability—a situation that did not arise overnight. In fact, Illinois lawmakers essentially borrowed against the pension systems for several decades by not funding what was owed, and instead diverted the revenue that should have gone towards pensions to fund the delivery of current services—like Healthcare, Education, and Public Safety.” 

Be that as it may, state legislators should transform the state’s failing revenue system and unfunded pension liability. They should find ways to generate more revenue instead of incessantly attacking public employees’ and retirees’ pensions. They should restructure the unfunded pension liability. The so-called Pension Ramp is flawed! Most importantly, they should defend the Illinois and U.S. Constitutions above all else.

-Glen Brown

The Teachers' Retirement System of Illinois Approves $5.9 Billion State Contribution for Fiscal Year 2023

SPRINGFIELD, IL – The TRS Board of Trustees has given final approval to a fiscal year 2023 state government contribution to TRS of $5.89 billion.

The TRS Board is required each year to calculate and certify the state’s annual contribution to the System for the next fiscal year. A preliminary contribution calculated in October was reviewed by the State Actuary, Cheiron, Inc., of McLean, Virginia, prior to final approval by TRS. The certified contribution is now forwarded to state officials for inclusion in the FY 2023 state budget.

The FY 2023 contribution is a 4 percent increase over the state’s $5.69 billion contribution for the current fiscal year. By comparison, the increase in the state’s contribution to TRS between FY 2021 and FY 2022 was 10.7 percent.

Led by a strong +25.5 percent net investment return in FY 2021 and a stable funding commitment from state government for the last few years, the System’s unfunded liability has decreased slightly from $80.7 billion to $79.9 billion. TRS ended FY 2021 with a record $63.9 billion in assets, according to the System’s annual actuarial valuation, compiled by Segal Consultants, of Chicago. The TRS funded ratio inched up during the year to 42.5 percent from 40.5 percent.

While the funded ratio is important as an official measure of the System’s long-term fiscal health, it is not a reflection of the System’s current financial ability to pay benefits. In any given year, TRS only is obligated under state law to pay out the amount of money owed annually to retired members and other beneficiaries. During FY 2021, benefits owed totaled $7.4 billion. TRS was more than able to pay all benefits for the year on time and in full. In fact, for 82 years TRS has paid all benefits in full and on time.

The actuarial valuation also revealed that since the 2019 inception of two benefit “buyout” programs, TRS members have collected $534 million in advance benefit payments. This led to a $70 million reduction in the required state contribution for FY 2023.

About Teachers’ Retirement System

               The Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois is the 42^nd largest pension system in the United States, and provides retirement, disability and survivor benefits to teachers, administrators and other public-school personnel employed outside of Chicago. The System serves 434,000 members and had assets of $64 billion as of September 30, 2021.

Dave Urbanek, Director of Communications, Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois, P.O. Box 19253, 2815 W. Washington Street, Springfield, Illinois 62794-9253

The Origin of Christmas Trees, Celebration, and Santa Claus by Thomas Adam

 

Each season, the celebration of Christmas has religious leaders and conservatives publicly complaining about the commercialization of the holiday and the growing lack of Christian sentiment. Many people seem to believe that there was once a way to celebrate the birth of Christ in a more spiritual way.

Such perceptions about Christmas celebrations have, however, little basis in history. As a scholar of transnational and global history, I have studied the emergence of Christmas celebrations in German towns around 1800 and the global spread of this holiday ritual.

While Europeans participated in church services and religious ceremonies to celebrate the birth of Jesus for centuries, they did not commemorate it as we do today. Christmas trees and gift-giving on Dec. 24 in Germany did not spread to other European Christian cultures until the end of the 18th century and did not come to North America until the 1830s.

Charles Haswell, an engineer and chronicler of everyday life in New York City, wrote in his “Reminiscences of an Octoganarian” that in the 1830s German families living in Brooklyn dressed up Christmas trees with lights and ornaments. Haswell was so curious about this novel custom that he went to Brooklyn in a very stormy and wet night just to see these Christmas trees through the windows of private homes.

The first Christmas trees in Germany

Only in the late 1790s did the new custom of putting up a Christmas tree decorated with wax candles and ornaments and exchanging gifts emerge in Germany. This new holiday practice was completely outside and independent of Christian religious practices.

The idea of putting wax candles on an evergreen was inspired by the pagan tradition of celebrating the winter solstice with bonfires on Dec. 21. These bonfires on the darkest day of the year were intended to recall the sun and show her the way home. The lit Christmas tree was essentially a domesticated version of these bonfires.

The English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge gave the very first description of a decorated Christmas tree in a German household when he reported in 1799 about having seen such a tree in a private home in Ratzeburg in northwestern Germany. In 1816 German poet E.T.A. Hoffmann published his famous story “Nutcracker and Mouse King.” This story contains the very first literary record of a Christmas tree decorated with apples, sweets and lights.

From the onset, all family members, including children, were expected to participate in the gift-giving. Gifts were not brought by a mystical figure, but openly exchanged among family members – symbolizing the new middle-class culture of egalitarianism.

From German roots to American soil

American visitors to Germany in the first half of the 19th century realized the potential of this celebration for nation building. In 1835 Harvard professor George Ticknor was the first American to observe and participate in this type of Christmas celebration and to praise its usefulness for creating a national culture. That year, Ticknor and his 12-year-old daughter Anna joined the family of Count von Ungern-Sternberg in Dresden for a memorable Christmas celebration.

Other American visitors to Germany – such as Charles Loring Brace, who witnessed a Christmas celebration in Berlin nearly 20 years later – considered it a specific German festival with the potential to pull people together.

For both Ticknor and Brace, this holiday tradition provided the emotional glue that could bring families and members of a nation together. In 1843 Ticknor invited several prominent friends to join him in a Christmas celebration with a Christmas tree and gift-giving in his Boston home.

Ticknor’s holiday party was not the first Christmas celebration in the United States that featured a Christmas tree. German-American families had brought the custom with them and put up Christmas trees before. However, it was Ticknor’s social influence that secured the spread and social acceptance of the alien custom to put up a Christmas tree and to exchange gifts in American society.

The introduction of Santa Claus

For most of the 19th century, the celebration of Christmas with Christmas trees and gift-giving remained a marginal phenomenon in American society. Most Americans remained skeptical about this new custom. Some felt that they had to choose between older English customs such as hanging stockings for presents on the fireplace and the Christmas tree as proper space for the placing of gifts. It was also hard to find the necessary ingredients for this German custom. Christmas tree farms had first to be created. And ornaments needed to be produced.

The most significant steps toward integrating Christmas into popular American culture came in the context of the American Civil War. In January 1863 Harper’s Weekly published on its front page the image of Santa Claus visiting the Union Army in 1862. This image, which was produced by the German-American cartoonist Thomas Nast, represents the very first image of Santa Claus.

In the following years, Nast developed the image of Santa Claus into the jolly old man with a big belly and long white beard as we know it today. In 1866 Nast produced “Santa Claus and His Works,” an elaborate drawing of Santa Claus’ tasks, from making gifts to recording children’s behavior. This sketch also introduced the idea that Santa Claus traveled by a sledge drawn by reindeer.

Declaring Christmas a federal holiday and putting up the first Christmas tree in the White House marked the final steps in making Christmas an American holiday. On June 28, 1870, Congress passed the law that turned Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, Independence Day, and Thanksgiving Day into holidays for federal employees. And in December 1889 President Benjamin Harrison began the tradition of setting up a Christmas tree at the White House. Christmas had finally become an American holiday tradition.

Thomas Adam is an Associate Professor of International and Global Studies at the University of Arkansas. The article was printed in The Conversation.

 

"Apathy Is How Democracies Die" -Laura Thornton

 

“…[The] reactionaries in the current-day Republican Party are a minority of the country. As David Atkins points out in the Washington Monthly, Republicans are operating from a position of weakness. In the United States, Democratic counties produce more than 70% of the nation’s gross domestic product (the total market value of goods and services produced). Democratic states fund the Republican-dominated states that complain about ‘socialism.’ Eighty-three percent of Americans now live in cities, which tend to vote Democratic, and young people are overwhelmingly progressive.

“The problem is this: ‘Democrats…need to win every single election from here to prevent the destruction of democracy, while Republicans only need to win one. And the American system is set up so that Republicans will win sooner or later, whether fairly or by cheating.’ Atkins urges the American people to ‘start thinking about and planning for what ‘Break glass in case of emergency’ measures look like—because it’s more likely a matter of when, not if. It not only can happen here; it probably will happen here. Conservatives are guaranteed to make every attempt to turn America into the next Russia or Hungary. It will take coordinated, overlapping solidarity among both regular people and elites across various institutions to stop it.’

“Laura Thornton, the director of the Alliance for Securing Democracy of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, lays out what American authoritarianism looks like and shows that it is already here. Focusing on Wisconsin, she deplores the statements of Senator Ron Johnson and Republican lawmakers who are openly demanding control over election management in the state.

“‘I spent more than two decades living and working overseas to advance democracy and credible elections—giving me plenty of opportunity to see the lengths to which autocrats will go to gain power,’ Thornton writes. ‘Even so, the proposed Wisconsin power grab is shocking in its brazenness. If this occurred in any of the countries where the United States provides aid, it would immediately be called out as a threat to democracy. U.S. diplomats would be writing furious cables, and decision makers would be threatening to cut off the flow of assistance.’

“How can we stop the march of authoritarianism? Thornton says that ‘it is up to us, the people. No party or leader will save us here. No foreign savior will shake us out of our stupor. Americans need to start caring about democracy enough to act on it…. Apathy is how democracies die. I’ve seen it.’ What does minority rule look like? It looks like individual liberty and violence to make others do what those in power want…” -Heather Cox Richardson

For additional insightful information, here are excerpts from The Origins of Totalitarianism, click here: glen brown: The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt (teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com)

"Trump tested positive for COVID... days earlier than the White House admitted" -Heather Cox Richardson

 

A forthcoming book from former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has the story. Despite the positive test, Trump went forward with his public schedule, unmasked. 

He exposed the guests at a Rose Garden ceremony for Amy Coney Barrett, his nominee for the Supreme Court; it became a super spreader event that infected Chris Christie, Kellyanne Conway, and Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Mike Lee (R-UT). That night, Trump held a rally in Middletown, Pennsylvania.

The next day, Trump met with Gold Star families who lost a loved one in the military, posing for photographs. He later suggested he might have contracted the virus from the families, although he knew he had been infected at the time and risked infecting others. 

On September 28, Trump spoke in the Rose Garden from a lectern 10 feet away from everyone else, prompting Philip Bump of the Washington Post to ask a week later whether Trump had known then that he might have COVID.

On September 29, Trump went to his scheduled debate with Democratic candidate Joe Biden, arriving too late for testing. Chris Wallace of the Fox News Channel, who was the moderator at the debate, later said the event was relying on the “honor system.” Trump railed and snarled at Biden, who was close enough to him to have been in danger. Trump’s contingent refused to wear masks despite rules at the venue to do so. At least 11 people tested positive after the debate.

Trump continued to hold his normal schedule until 1 a.m. on October 2, when the White House announced he was sick. As soon as today’s story broke, Trump’s spokesperson called it “Fake News.” Tonight on the strongly pro-Trump network Newsmax, Meadows echoed Trump and agreed the story was “fake news” and said that the positive test was “a false positive.” 

Trump’s arrogance and disregard for others—and perhaps of his desire to infect Biden with a deadly virus— struck a blow at the principle that “all men are created equal.” The men who broke England’s North American colonies away from the monarchy insisted that no man had an inherent right to rule. 

They embraced a theory of government that says men are equal, that they have inherent rights, and that government is legitimate only if those it governs consent to it. Their vision excluded women and men of color, but their theory of a government based on equality is very different from the idea that some people have more rights than others.

The idea of a country based on equality means that no person should be able to disregard others’ interests in order to serve their own. It also means that the law must treat everyone equally and that lawmakers must govern in such a way that they win the support of a majority of those they govern. 

By risking others’ lives without their knowledge or consent, Trump claimed the right to dominate them. But now that Trump is no longer at the head of the government, the rule of law appears to be bearing down. Yesterday, a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit appeared to reject Trump’s argument for blocking access of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol to official documents from his presidency. 

The committee has already found Trump advisor Stephen K. Bannon in contempt of Congress for ignoring a subpoena; today it held former Department of Justice lawyer Jeffrey Clark in contempt for his refusal to testify but said it may reconsider if he shows up on Saturday. Desperate to stay in the news and keep supporters angry, Trump on Sunday night called for a public debate of his long-debunked arguments that the election was stolen from him.

Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY), the committee’s vice chair, responded with what sure sounds like a warning that Trump might soon be on the receiving end of a subpoena. She said: “[Trump] has recently suggested that he wants to debate members of this committee.” The committee’s investigation “is not a game,” Cheney said. “Any communications Mr. Trump has with this committee will be under oath and if he persists in lying then, he will be accountable under the laws of this great nation, and subject to criminal penalties for every false word he speaks.”

Equality was also at stake today before the Supreme Court as it held hearings over a Mississippi law banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. This law directly attacks the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing the constitutional right to abortion. In the hearings, the right-wing justices on the court, especially Trump appointees Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, appear to be willing to uphold the Mississippi law. 

Roe v. Wade was part of the dramatic expansion of civil rights after World War II, in which Republican-led Supreme Courts used the equal protection and due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution to enable the federal government to overrule discriminatory state laws and protect individuals’ civil rights. It was on these grounds that the court protected Black and Brown rights, interracial marriage, access to birth control, religious freedom, gay rights, and so on. 

Those who objected to such expanded equality insisted the court was indulging in “judicial activism” by overruling the state laws that preserved the power of white men. They worked to stack the court with “originalists” who would defer to the states. Now, finally, thanks to Trump’s three Supreme Court picks, the era of using the federal government to protect equality appears to be under deadly threat, although the laws that protect civil rights are popular: 58% of Americans want Roe v. Wade to stay in place, for example, while only 32% want it overturned.

Make no mistake: it is not just reproductive rights that are under siege. If the Supreme Court returns power to the states to legislate as they wish, any right currently protected by the federal government is at risk. Justice Sonya Sotomayor made the connection to the First Amendment’s protection of religious freedom today when she was questioning a lawyer during the oral arguments: “The issue of when life begins… it’s still debated in religions. So, when you say this is the only right that takes away a life, that’s a religious view, isn’t it?”

After 19 Republican-dominated states have passed election laws suppressing the vote and gerrymandering districts, a reactionary minority controls them. Although Biden won Wisconsin, for example, the state supreme court today left in place districts that likely will enable Republicans to control 60% of the legislative seats in the state (and 75% of the state’s seats in the U.S. House of Representatives). Ending federal protections for civil rights means handing to these reactionaries' power over the majority of us. 

In 1858, Abraham Lincoln deplored the state laws discriminating against Black Americans, as well as immigrants in the North and West. He challenged Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas, who said that discriminatory state laws—including laws that protected human enslavement—were just fine so long as those few men allowed to vote liked them. 

“I should like to know if taking this old Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men are equal, upon principle, and making exceptions to it, where will it stop?” Lincoln said. “If that Declaration is not the truth, let us get the statute-book in which we find it and tear it out….”

—Heather Cox Richardson

Notes:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/trump-suggest-coronavirus-infection-came-from-interaction-with-gold-star-families/2020/10/08/db8c4376-0974-11eb-991c-be6ead8c4018_story.html

https://www.thedailybeast.com/chris-wallace-says-trump-arrived-at-debate-too-late-for-coronavirus-test

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/02/cleveland-reports-11-new-covid-cases-stemming-from-debate-425487

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/12/01/trump-covid-test-reckless-timeline/

BREAKING: In a 4-3 decision, the Wisconsin Supreme Court says it will make as few changes as possible to legislative and congressional districts. That approach all but gurantees Republicans will continue to hold large majorities in the Legislature.  

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/01/trump-tested-positive-covid-before-biden-debate-chief-staff-mark-meadows-book

https://www.newsweek.com/abortion-jewish-right-scotus-june-medical-services-louisiana-constitution-1514214

https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/01/politics/jeffrey-clark-criminal-contempt-report/index.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/01/bad-day-trump-stonewalling-good-day-jan-6-committee/

Cheney: Trump has recently suggested that he wants to debate members of this committee. Any communications Mr. Trump has with this committee will be under oath and if he persists in lying then, he will accountable.. and subject to criminal penalties for every false word he speaks

This was followed by a brief, fascinating debate involving religion and philosophy. FTR, Sotomayor is correct: People of faith do, in fact, disagree over the precise beginning of life, and very much disagree about abortion policy. By way of example:  

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-laws-roundup-october-2021

https://news.gallup.com/poll/350804/americans-opposed-overturning-roe-wade.aspx

 

"What You Shouldn't Pay For" by Chicago Consumers' Checkbook

 

Air-Duct Cleaning

We call duct cleaning work a solution in search of a problem. Companies that do it claim that their services will improve your home’s air quality, but there’s little evidence this yields any substantial benefits. Even if you have dust allergies, you may want to avoid having your ducts cleaned: The little independent research that exists indicates duct-cleaning work may temporarily worsen problems.

Amazon Prime    

When Amazon launched Prime, its main benefit was free two-day shipping. Now Amazon provides free shipping for much of what it sells if your order is $25 or more. Prime is still worth its $119 annual fee (or $12.99/month) if you regularly watch its original TV shows or movies or other programming available for free to Prime members. And its unlimited cloud storage for photos, its music streaming service, and Subscribe & Save discounts on household and baby products also make membership costs a better deal if you use those services. But many Prime customers aren’t getting their $119-a-year’s worth.

Bottled Water

Each year, U.S. consumers pay more than $100 billion to a bottled water industry that gobbles up about 100 million barrels of crude oil to manufacture and transport plastic bottles. Getting your drinking water from the tap is nearly free and doesn’t waste all that energy. Food & Water Watch, an advocacy group created by Public Citizen, says that tap water in the U.S. is usually safer to drink than bottled water, since it is tested more rigorously. Plus, bottled water is more likely to be contaminated by microplastic particles. If you need to filter your community’s tap water, and your refrigerator doesn’t have a built-in filter, you can buy a standalone model for less than $20.

Cable TV

Thinking about cutting the cord? Droves of consumers continue to join the cable-free club. The growing variety of streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, YouTube, Disney+, and Sling TV make it easy to access a plethora of a la carte programming for less moolah than the all-or-nothing plans still sold by cable and satellite TV companies. And because streaming services usually don’t require term commitments, you can subscribe to a few and if you grow tired of what one offers (or its free trial ends), cancel, and move your money to the next one. Some watchers will save as much as $100 a month by saying buh-bye to cable.

Car Leases

Even though ads featuring low monthly payments make vehicle leases look like good deals, in the long run these plans will cost most consumers more than buying. Unless you purchase the wheels at the end of your lease, you have to give back the car and won’t own anything; you’ll then have to lease or buy something else, starting a process of paying for a new ride’s steep depreciation all over again. Plus, you can’t customize a leased car, drive it farther than preset annual mileage limits, or damage it without paying the vehicle’s real owners extra fees. Whether you lease or buy, avoid overpaying. Click here for our advice on how to get the best price on a new car.

Car Repairs at the Dealership

Unless the work you need is covered by a new-car warranty or manufacturer recall, use an independent shop, not a dealership. Many consumers believe dealers have access to proprietary knowledge, sophisticated diagnostic software, and better tools than independent garages. That’s not true. And when we use our surveys of consumers to compare quality of work at dealers and non-dealers, the non-dealers on average score better. We also find that dealerships typically charge a lot more than independents.

Car Repair Warranties

Vehicle extended service contracts are incredibly profitable for auto dealers and other companies that sell them. But because many new cars are very reliable, most owners make few service claims. Even when something goes wrong, many consumers who buy these plans find their claims are often denied due to sneaky fine-print exclusions. We reviewed the lists of excluded repairs buried in several contracts and were left wondering if there was anything on the car left to cover.

Credit Reports, Scores, and Monitoring

Carefully watch your credit and accounts for signs of fraud, but don’t pay a company to do it. Identity-theft monitoring services cost $10 to $30 a month, but you can easily do it yourself for nothing. Federal law entitles you to one free credit report every 12 months from each of the three credit bureaus—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Request yours at AnnualCreditReport.com. You can stagger your requests to get a free report from one of the three major credit bureaus every four months. Because of the pandemic, you can access a free online copy of your credit report from all three credit bureaus once a week until April 20, 2022. And identity theft victims are always entitled to unlimited free credit reports from the credit bureaus. The credit bureaus’ free reports won’t include your credit scores. But you don’t need to pay extra to get yours. Many financial institutions have set up access so their customers can monitor their FICO scores for free; check the websites of your bank, credit union, and credit card companies for how to enroll.

Extended Product Warranties, AppleCare, Etc.

Purchase protection. Service contracts. AppleCare. Whatever retailers call them, these policies are sources of easy revenue for the outfits that hawk them and for the insurance companies that administer them and honor infrequent claims. But we find they are usually bad deals for you. For example, buy an iPhone 11 and for no extra cost you get a one-year limited manufacturer’s warranty covering repairs and 90 days of tech support. Pay an extra $149 for AppleCare and it extends that warranty for another two years; spend yet another $100 and you’ll get coverage for theft or loss. The problem? Even after paying those premiums, you’ll still have to pay extra if you run into trouble. Cracked screen? There’s a $29 deductible to fix it under AppleCare; you’ll pay $99 if your clumsiness or a product defect necessitates a different type of fix. And if you bought Apple’s full-boat policy covering theft and loss, you’ll still have to shell out a $229 deductible to replace a lost phone.

So you’re out $699 for the phone, plus $149-$249 for AppleCare, then up to another $99 if you break it or $229 to replace it. That means if something goes wrong you could be out-of-pocket $248–$478 to cover a $699 purchase. Even if you want an extended warranty, you can usually get it for free. Many credit cards automatically provide free extended warranties when you use them to pay for products that have manufacturer’s warranties. Costco and Sam’s Club also offer free warranty extensions. That so many companies give away extended warranties is an obvious sign that they’re not worth paying for.

HVAC Maintenance Contracts

Some heating and A/C companies swear by these contracts, arguing that regular maintenance helps avoid untimely breakdowns during peak-usage months. But many really push these plans to keep their technicians busy during otherwise slow months—and to maintain a steady flow of revenue. Use our ratings to identify a reputable HVAC contractor and ask it how often your equipment needs service. If you need professional maintenance visits every year—if, for instance, you have a large house or don’t want to perform even the simplest tasks, like changing filters yourself—a maintenance contract might make sense. But most of us won’t benefit much from these plans, and we get a lot of complaints from consumers who buy service contracts and find that technicians discover something to repair on every service visit—at extra cost. Some contractors seem to use service contracts as twice-a-year opportunities to squeeze customers for unnecessary repairs.

Life Insurance—Cash Value and Annuity Policies

Permanent life insurance plans, aka cash value policies, and similarly structured annuity plans are typically bad deals for most consumers. If you want to buy coverage, shop around for a term life policy. The way permanent life plans are structured make them more investment vehicles than reasonably priced insurance policies, and as investments they offer lousy rates of return. You’ll most likely do better by paying a bundle less for term life coverage and investing elsewhere savings earmarked for long-term needs. Click for more advice on buying life insurance. Some quick savings tips: Shop around for the best price, and don’t overinsure—if your kids are 15 years old and you’re 10 years away from retirement, you probably don’t need a 20-year term policy.

Utility Line Warranties

Homeowners across the U.S. often receive ominous, official-looking letters bearing the logos of their utility companies warning they are responsible for repairs to water and sewer lines on their property. The clincher: If there are problems, the homeowner could be on the hook for thousands in repair costs. Although these mailings seem to come from their utilities, they’re really pitches from third-party companies. They’ve struck sketchy partnership agreements with utility companies allowing them use of their names and logos to hawk (in our view, lousy) warranty coverage. The ploys work: So far, more than 7 million homeowners have purchased these plans. But our research found that few homeowners ever have to deal with expensive water or sewer line repairs or replacements. These warranties are bad deals.

For the complete list, click here: 65 Things You (Probably) Shouldn't Pay For - Chicago Consumers' Checkbook