Time to Think

Labor Day                                              #238 by Hank Silverberg  Labor Day 2022. It's still sizzling hot in many parts of the country and with climate change now apparent to almost everyone (except maybe the GOP), it's clear some things will have to change. Labor Day used to mark the unofficial end of summer. Kids were going back to school, the leaves were starting to turn colors, the warm pleasant days of swimming, boating and gardening were turning into cool nights on the porch. There was the anticipation of the broadcast TV networks starting their seasons off with new adventures on "Must See TV" or fresh episodes of old favorites.    It was time to plan that trip up to Skyline Drive or the Catskills to see the foliage and get ready for the World Series and the NFL season.  Labor Day also used to be the day political campaigns began...

Student Loans                                                                                                   #237 By Hank Silverberg  Have you paid off your student loan? More than 43 million Americans have outstanding loans which average just under $29,000 each.   It adds up to $1.6 trillion.  So, when President Biden announced this past week that as much as $10,000 of each loan would be forgiven, many young people, millennials and even Gen Xers, rejoiced. Some said it was not enough, while many who had already paid off their debt the hard way cried foul.  No one was happy, and Republicans have been having a field day criticizing the plan, but as usual they have no alternative ideas.    There are two is...

  Distribution of Power                                                                             #236 By Hank Silverberg There's a strong probability that many of you have been approached over the last year or two by a company trying to sell you solar panels for your roof. Solar power produces about 3% of all the electricity in the United States, and the industry is growing. Large solar panel farms are cropping up on fields across the country, and almost every neighborhood now has some rooftops with solar panels on them. The $700 billion Inflation Reduction Act, which the President Biden just signed, includes a 30% tax credit for homeowners who install solar panels to provide electricity for their own homes. The companies selling these panel installations have a good pitch.  You wil...

The Condition of Journalism      #235 By Hank Silverberg  When I started writing this blog almost five years ago, I had been away from day-to-day reporting for a bout 18 months. It was very hard for me to break my 40-year-old practice of reporting the news in an objective, non-partisan way. I resisted criticizing politicians or other reporters for quite a while or getting partisan. But as the months went by and the Trump administration told lie after lie without being challenged by the media, I broke my 40-year-old pledge of non-partisanship. By then conservative media like Fox News and Newsmax had routinely jumped the fence (or knocked it over) and were operating almost like propaganda machines for conservative causes and candidates.  So yes, I had to counter that in my own mind and with my growing readership.  But now there's a new twist that may make me go back to my roots and report human events the way I was trained to and the way I practiced for all ...

  Out of Touch                                                                                                         #234 By Hank Silverberg  Beyond all the rhetoric about gas prices, all the politics about who supports Trumpism, and all the gaggling about tax policy, many of our elected representatives in Washington and elsewhere are once again completely out of touch with what the average American is dealing with in our daily lives.  There was a good example this weekend in the debates and votes over a massive spending bill.  The Inflation Reduction Act, as it's called, passed the senate after more than 20 hours of debate, but without the proposal to cap the price of insulin at $35. It seems the GOP mem...