Her name was Florence Owens. She was 32 when she, her companion Jim Hill, and her seven children arrived in Nipomo in February 1936. It was a cold, wintery afternoon in the depths of the Great Depression, the worst economic crisis our nation had ever known.
Their car had just broken down, and Jim went looking for parts to repair it. As Florence and her youngest children cowered in a makeshift lean-to in a migrant labor camp, she was approached by Dorothea Lange, a photographer on assignment from President Franklin Roosevelt.
Lange captured six images of this struggling family, pictures that would change the world. One of those images became known as Migrant Mother, and Owens’ face came to represent the nation’s trauma of the Great Depression.
She was born in Oklahoma in 1903; her Cherokee father was absent, and she was raised by her white mother. She married in 1921, but husband Cleo Owens died in 1931; since then, she and her children had sought work as migrant farm laborers.
Ultimately, she transcended those forlorn circumstances: She found better employment and in 1952 she remarried, taking the name of her new husband, George Thompson, a hospital administrator. Together, they raised a loving family with many children and grandchildren.
Still, she resented the fact that her face had become so widely known, all because a government photographer had found her on what might have been the worst day of her life. She believed that Lange had earned royalties on her image, but she prized her privacy: For four full decades, nobody knew that she was the Migrant Mother.
By the time Florence Owens Thompson died in 1983 at the age of 80, her life had taken a different turn. Five years earlier, her identity had been disclosed to the world: After 40 years of anonymity, a Modesto Bee reporter persuaded her to tell the story of the Migrant Mother.
This Thanksgiving holiday is a good time to reflect on her story.
Migrant Mother is believed to be the most widely replicated photograph ever taken. The nation responded to the image of the Migrant Mother with extraordinary generosity. That response speaks volumes about who we were as a nation at that time.
In February 1936, when Dorothea Lange visited that “pea pickers camp” in Nipomo, Franklin Roosevelt had been president almost exactly three years. He was facing a major challenge in the upcoming election in November, only a few short months away.
FDR’s “brain trust” had employed Dorothea Lange and a team of professional publicists to document the desperate conditions in migrant labor camps and “Hoovervilles” that had sprung up all across the American landscape as unemployment soared and millions sank into poverty.
In spite of his best efforts and a supportive Congress, unemployment was still stubbornly high—more than 15 percent in March 1936. But Roosevelt didn’t try to “spin” the news, to assure the nation that all was well. Instead, FDR dispatched photographers, writers, and artists to all corners of the nation to tell the story of our continued suffering.
Within days of the Migrant Mother photograph appearing in The San Francisco News, federal agencies delivered 20,000 tons of food for the desperate migrants camped here on the Nipomo Mesa. Within a few months, SLO County schools Assistant Superintendent Al Rhodes had funded a school for the children of those laborers.
The people of this county, the state, and the nation responded to that face with extraordinary unity, determined to finally grapple with the staggering levels of poverty that had plagued the nation for far too long.
FDR would be reelected in November 1936 with the greatest Electoral College majority ever achieved. He knew how to inspire skilled journalists like Dorothea Lange to compose a picture of America not as he wanted to see it, but as it really was.
In that era, our federal government was committed to knowing the truth. Roosevelt wanted desperately to know us, and he wanted all of us to know America as we truly are.
We now know something about Florence Owens Thompson—and that’s why people gathered at the Dana Cultural Center on Nov. 15: To honor her, and to honor Dorothea Lange for being there to capture the moment, the mood, the anxiety etched on her face.
Led by retired Judkins Middle School teacher Terry Handy, together we dedicated a new bronze plaque carrying her image and her story. The plaque will soon be placed near the site of that long-abandoned pea-picker’s camp on the Nipomo Mesa.
As we acknowledge that important event, we also recognize that everywhere, people are enormously anxious about the economy. It’s highly doubtful, however, that we’ll learn the truth from this administration, or from corporate media, about the challenges we are facing. We may never get the jobs report for October. Who can trust this administration to tell the truth about jobs or inflation in the months ahead?
Congress is piling on with massive cuts to the social safety net that has sustained millions of Americans for decades, in good times as well as bad:
• The “Big Beautiful Bill” that passed last summer (H.R. 1) triggers significant cuts—almost 49 percent—to several USDA programs, including the Emergency Food Assistance program that has historically provided about $1.2 million in support annually for our SLO County Food Bank.
• Reductions in SNAP (CalFresh) benefit programs—laborious paperwork requirements and limits on eligibility—will force thousands more SLO County families to make use of the Food Bank as they lose SNAP benefits.
• These same families are squeezed by the loss of eligibility for other federal benefits such as Medicaid, health care, child care, and rental assistance.
In 1936, Amercans needed to see the face of Florence Owens Thompson—and in 2025, we need the truth about the millions of Americans suffering from the neglect of our ruling oligarchy. We need to see the faces of that poverty and the pain of that loss. ∆
Respond to John Ashbaugh with a commentary of your own by sending it to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Nov 27 – Dec 7, 2025.
That was excellent and inspiring, John. Thank you.
Good to hear from you, Jerry! Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving (and are still having it!)…
Instead of surviving in a lean-to tent, today’s shelter is the beatdown RV on the side of the road. The forces that opposed FDR’s national rejuvenation, his New Deal, never left. They just waited for the right time to roll it all back. It would be real easy to Blame Trump for our country’s problems, but this has been decades in the making. It’s a matter of economics and campaign contributions. The same corporations that contributed to Trump also made contributions to Democrats. Instead of bailing out the American people, they bailed out corporations. What really blows my mind is that the same generation who enjoyed FDRs social safety programs are the very ones who have eliminated it. Boomers did this. Clinton is largely responsible. This generation has parents who literally lived through the Great Depression. Did they not hear the horror stories or did they simply choose to put themselves and their own petty interests above the following generation’s security? Boomers are this country’s biggest traitors and should be locked up and all the wealth they managed to steal should be redistributed downward through the recapitalization FDRs social programs, paying down the national debt Boomers incurred rather than take a hit in their wallets, slashing defense spending and crashing their stocks, balancing the budget and ending the corporate welfare many Boomers depend on to pad their “portfolios,” build publicly owned single family homes, and build clean publicly owned factories operated by public employees.
The author of this commentary, despite his usual out of touch, liberal contributions, was actually was very clear on what the Democratic Party used to stand for. It wasn’t transgender bathrooms or DEI, it was economic security and dignity for all Americans. If the Democratic Party renounced it’s race hustling and instead returned to FDRs New Deal, perhaps the millions of voters who tightly abandoned their party, would return and for God’s sake, AOC is not the sober face of Democrats.
Fly? Clinton huh? lol
Sure those Ronnie Reagan (announced “free trade” with Mexico the day he ran for Prez), HW Bush who negotiated NAFTA and the 72% of GOP in the House amd 78% in the Senate who supported NAFTA , the one the best conservative Prez in the past 70 years, Clinton pushed through!
btw, 55% of the Democrats in the House and Senate opposed Ronnie’s NAFTA, that Clinton pushed through!
But it was more than deindustrialization, it was financialization of the US economy, via tax cuts for the richest and the war on unions/working people.
Only one party has for 45 years fought exclusively for the richest of the rich, The Orange Cheeto being the latest to permanently gut taxes and regulators/regulations for them.
Not all Democrats and their policies have worked as promised, but 80% of GOP policies have hurt US, probably only 20% of the Democratics have.
One party fights for union rights, regulators on the beat (wait for Cheeto’s failures to make Dubya’s look like childs play) and GOOD GOVERNMENT POLICY
The CONServatives and their people have false premises, distortions and lies, nothing more!
In 2012 dollars
In 1980 the US had 10,000 families worth $100 million or more (2012 dollars)
By 2012 the US had over 50,000 families worth $100 million.
WooHoo. We made a small rich population
Middle class isn’t normal, the US created it via GOOD PUBLIC POLICY VIA GOVERNMENT
Look to most of Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe, a small rich population, a small middle class (mostly doctors, lawyers and Biz owners) and HUGE poor populations
THAT’S WHAT THE US IS HEADING TOWARDS, UNLESS WE USE GOOD GOV’T POLICY
Jon:
Do you have an original thought or are you just parroting what you clearly mainline right into your arteries from CNN?
You’re practically foaming at the mouth. I’d be happy to go down the list with you, but don’t have the time. For you, it’s a zero sum game. One cannot criticize the Democratic party without considering that it’s possible to do so fully aware of the faults of its opposition party. Does it really matter at this point? This ship needs to be righted. I was a registered Democrat for years, not be cause I had any faith in the party but because I was raised around Irish and Jewish Democrats. I’m in my 50s and a history major, I didn’t leave your party on a whim. The last straw, aside from Clinton exporting our jobs, was when Joe Biden, acting as this nation’s Commander in Chief, authorized the delivery of MLRS rockets and delivery system, along with the targeting data, assisted presumably by special operators, to bomb the interior of Russia. In a nutshell, the Democratic party was bombing Russia. Let me say that again, the Democratic was bombing the Russian heartland. Russia, a nuclear power. Being bombed by the United States. When Russia was to launch a nuclear counterstrike, do you really think the mushroom cloud is discriminating? That it only kills Republicans or Democrats? I’m sorry, no, it doesn’t. We all die. You. Your spouse (if you have one). Your children. Your grandchildren. Your neighbors. The fishes in the sea. The birds in the air. We all die. And why? Because your party thinks we are nothing more than disposable. Why would any peace loving person ever vote for a party that would risk terminating every living thing on the planet over a country most Americans can’t even place on a map.
I’m a proud Republican. I’m a veteran. I’m a Californian. I want a functional economy and don’t want war. Ever.
Fly, as usual, posits right wing talking points. Of course since Cheeto those “right wing” talking points have came, generally, from Putin
Jun 13, 2025 – Trump tells ABC Israel strikes on Iran ‘excellent’ and warns ‘more to come’
Nov 3, 2025 – Trump Backs Israeli Strikes on Gaza
Nov 28, 2025 – Trump: US land action in Venezuela will start ‘very soon’
Yep, BJ Bill pushed through that GOP bill where 55% of Democrats opposed Ronnie’s/GOP NAFTA. AGAIN, it was supported in the House by 72% of the GOP and 78% in the Senate
Clinton? He created 4 straight budget surpluses, 3 after vetoing the GOP’s $787 billion tax cut.
How did Clinton create 4 budget surpluses?
Thanks to the 1993 omnibus bill not ONE SINGLE GOPer VOTED FOR. It cut spending by $400 billion, took the top rate from HW Bush’s 31% (where he took it from 28%,, Heritage Foundation and mainstream GOP refused to back him because “no new taxes” pleadge). Clinton created a 39.6% top rate, a 35% and the 31% rate.
“The deficit has come down, and I give the Clinton Administration and President Clinton himself a lot of credit for that. [He] did something about it, fast. And I think we are seeing some benefits.” — Paul Volcker, Federal Reserve Board Chairman (1979-1987), in Audacity, Fall 1994
“Clinton’s 1993 budget cuts, which reduced projected red ink by more than $400 billion over five years, sparked a major drop in interest rates that helped boost investment in all the equipment and systems that brought forth the New Age economy of technological innovation and rising productivity.” — Business Week, May 19, 1997
DON’T WORRY, THE GOP STOLE THE 2000 ELECTION IN FLORIDA, AND QUICKLY ALLOWED THE DEBT TO BALLOON AS THEY WENT TO 2 UNFUNDED WARS AND ALLOWED THE BANKSTERS TO RUN THE US ECONOMY INTO THE GROUND.
Cheeto is just following the long term plan of the right wingers
Grover Norquist (ONE OF REAGAN’S MYTH MAKERS) “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”
Jon,
You lost me at “Cheeto.” Didn’t even bother continuing reading whatever you wrote.
Fly, of course not, MAGA’s love them some Cheeto who attack, but when others are much less offensive, that crosses the boundries, lol
Don’t worry, you “history major”, I believe you are rational about being a GOPer after the past 45 years of GOP history!
Jon:
I’m willing to bet you have a massive Ukrainian flag in your front yard and Ukrainian flag sticker on your car, right? When your government worked over 350 billion dollars of our tax money, you went straight to Washington and pounded on every congressperson’s door and demanded they send more, lol. How it feel now? You lost your lame war, wasted all our tax money there, and got 2 million Ukrainian men and women killed in the span of just a few years. Meanwhile, Zylenski has a helicopter gassed up and just waiting to fly him out of the country when his own troops decide to turn on him. He’ll live in the south of france, surviving on the BILLIONS of dollars of our tax money liberals just like you insisted he get. It must feel great just seeing that huge Ukrainian flag flap in your front yard. God, what a waste.
Fly, Nope no flags or stickers for me, but I see you use CONServatives “math”
Breakdown of U.S. Spending and Aid
Total Appropriations: Congress has approved around $187 billion in total appropriations for the Ukraine response since the February 2022 invasion.
Total Funds Spent/Disbursed: As of March 2025, about $83.4 billion has actually been spent or disbursed.
Direct Bilateral Aid: The Kiel Institute, a German think tank that tracks international support, calculated that the U.S. committed around $130.6 billion in direct bilateral aid (military, financial, and humanitarian) between January 2022 and June 2025.
Good thing you admit you, and Cheeto, are Putin’s puppets though
Key Context
Most Aid Stays in the U.S.: The majority of the appropriated funds (nearly 70%) are spent within the U.S. to manufacture new weapons, replenish U.S. military stockpiles, and support the U.S. defense industry and troop presence in Europe.
Comparison to GDP: While the absolute amount is large, the U.S. contribution as a percentage of its GDP is less than 0.2% annually, which is lower than many European allies when measured proportionally.
WHERE ELSE SHOULD PUTIN INVADE THAT YOU’D EXCEPT????
Jon:
Just caught a (free) delicious kelp rockfish this AM at 7:00. Didn’t think about politics once, just enjoyed being on the Morro Bay jetty casting out into the pulsing swells. Just me and full on nature. My wife is Asian and immediately gutted and baked it at home. Our economy is toast but so long as we live near the ocean, we will abide.
In 2012 dollars
In 1980 the US had 10,000 families worth $100 million or more (2012 dollars)
By 2012 the US had over 50,000 families worth $100 million.
WooHoo. We made a small rich population
Middle class isn’t normal, the US created it via GOOD PUBLIC POLICY VIA GOVERNMENT
Look to most of Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe, a small rich population, a small middle class (mostly doctors, lawyers and Biz owners) and HUGE poor populations
THAT’S WHAT THE US IS HEADING TOWARDS, UNLESS WE USE GOOD GOV’T POLICY
Don’t worry though, Fly can fish 🙁
All the President’s Profiting (ONLY UNTIL 2024)
https://www.opensecrets.org/trump/trump-properties
Trump’s Top 10 Grifts as President
https://davidpepper.substack.com/p/trumps-top-10-grifts-as-president
CHEETO WILL FIX IT RIGHT FLY? LOL
Jon:
Why would Putin want to invade western Europe? Paris, London, Berlin are complete trash heaps with broken economies. He has a homogeneous country with plenty of natural resources. Western Europe WISHES he would invade, instead, they’ll be stuck with the consequences of their actions, namely, following American globalists over a cliff. Ukraine lost and the very angry people in western Europe are going to go after the war mongers who destroyed their lives.
Russia and Germany literally just opened Nordstream pipeline of cheap, Russian natural gas into Germany. But NATO and the US blew the pipeline up under the watch of your buddy, Joe Biden. Germany used to be an industrial powerhouse, now it’s overrun by immigrants who go on killing sprees every 6 months.
End NATO.
In 2012 dollars
In 1980 the US had 10,000 families worth $100 million or more (2012 dollars)
By 2012 the US had over 50,000 families worth $100 million.
WooHoo. We made a small rich population
Middle class isn’t normal, the US created it via GOOD PUBLIC POLICY VIA GOVERNMENT
Look to most of Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe, a small rich population, a small middle class (mostly doctors, lawyers and Biz owners) and HUGE poor populations
THAT’S WHAT THE US IS HEADING TOWARDS, UNLESS WE USE GOOD GOV’T POLICY
Don’t worry though, Fly can fish 🙁
CHEETO WILL FIX IT RIGHT FLY? LOL
Go down your right wing mythical “reality” hole
You guys, CONServatives went from normal but patriotic opposition, to today you guys create myths, lies, distortions and are willing puppets to Putin/Cheeto
“Putin puppet.” How old are, Jon, 13? You sound like a teenager. It’s impossible to take you seriously.
“Enemy state”: In June 2024, a Russian government spokesperson referred to the United States as an “enemy state” in what was reportedly the first time the Kremlin had used this specific language.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, echoed Putin’s comments.
“This is what the Yankees and their drooling European dogs think: we have the right to send any weapons to Ukraine—the enemy of our country—but no country can help Russia,” Medvedev said, according to the Russian state-owned news agency Tass.
Yeah, who cares if Russia INVADED A NATION, USSR/Russia are the only nation to invade other nations post WW2. Yes let’s get rid of NATO, lol
I mean, if there needs to be any more evidence of Boomer’s culpability for the dire straits our country finds itself in and more importantly, their absolute concern for there own selves and no one else’s, their generation’s iconic theme song by The Grass Roots was titled “Let’s Live For Today.” And they did, they had a great time. Rather than store up a reserve for future generations, as many of their parents learned by barely surviving the Great Depression and WWII ration coupons, they instead truly “lived for today.” Now we find our country in mortal danger and on the cusp of being sold off for parts. This is a bipartisan creation and decades in the making. Our country is 40 trillion dollars in debt and deindustrialized. We have stepped back to the 18th century all the while an entire generation, my late parent’s generation, continue to party like it’s 1999. They leave us having never once engaged in any meaningful self reflection. As a Gen Xer, we sit between two worlds, one that saw the last of American abundance and moderately responsive government and one of extremely scarcity and precarity. We will never recover regardless of who is in office. No one is thinking of the greater good, just look at our political class. They all posture but refuse to not take corporate campaign contributions. They refuse to pass term limits. They refuse to raise taxes on the rich. Washington is late stage Roman empire. As the Epstein emails show, they even attended banquets and engaged in activity only found in The Satyricon.
Fly, yes let’s ignore 60 years of CONServatives policies (Powell Memo) that created the Heritage Foundation, AEI, etc.
Let’s ignore Ronnie Reagan and Starve The Beast
“Starve the beast” is a political strategy employed by American conservatives to limit government spending by cutting taxes, to deprive the federal government of revenue in a deliberate effort to force it to reduce spending.
The term “the beast”, in this context, refers to the United States federal government and the programs it funds, primarily with American tax money, particularly social programs such as education, welfare, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
Before his election as President, then-candidate Ronald Reagan foreshadowed the strategy during the 1980 US Presidential debates, saying “John Anderson tells us that first we’ve got to reduce spending before we can reduce taxes. Well, if you’ve got a kid that’s extravagant, you can lecture him all you want to about his extravagance. Or you can cut his allowance and achieve the same end much quicker.”
Let’s ignore Clinton and the Democrats sound fiscal policies on the budget (even though he bought into MANY CONServativesideas), that Greenspan warned would “pay down the debt too fast”
Let’s ignore GOP/Dubya had complete control from 2001-2009 when we went from surpluses to record debt, created Medicare Expansion (Part D), IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, that today costs US tax payers over $100 BILLION a year, without a single penny of revenues
Let’s ignore Dubya/GOP gutted regulations AND regulators on the beat 2001-2009 (SUBPRIME LENDING BUBBLE)
Let’s ignore Cheeto is doing the same today.
Yeah, “both sides” lol
Jon:
Are you so wedded to your ideas you are blind? Yes, both parties are responsible for hollowing out our country. Do I really need to go down the list? Does it really matter? You refuse to look at your side of the aisle. You are what is called an idealogue.
Again, considering that the Democratic party, your party, almost instigated a nuclear exchange with Russia last Fall, at a minimum, why would you give that party an opportunity to do it again? That possibility has to be eliminated at all costs, even if it means never voting for that party again. As I tell Democrats, I’d rather live under a fascist regime than be dead under a liberal regime.
So, to bring up the two major points that compelled me as well as millions of others.
1. Joe Biden was bombing the interior of Russia with it’s corrupt Ukrainians proxies and risking a nuclear counter attack.
2. Last summer, the very people your party courts, were openly burning the American flag in the street while waving foreign flags in LA as they dropped chunks of concrete on federal agents trying to save our country from being overrun by illegals.
You can’t get around that. That’s your party, sir. You’ve yet to address that. Your party has yet to provide an actionable plan on how they intend on saving America. The only thing they run on is “not being Trump.” If past is prologue, their only solution is to open the borders and reduce wages by employing illegals and to provide transgender restrooms. How is that supposed to restore economic progress for the majority of Americans? It won’t . What they could do is use the money wasted on defense spending and use it to write off student debt, create a (free) national healthcare plan, provide low or free childcare, and build millions of single family homes.
If you want anyone to take you seriously, Job, ditch the CNN talking points. You’re just parroting what you see on CNN. Get real.
Fly
1) LMAOROG. Putin’s puppet talking points. Weird how you keep going there (Hint RUSSIA INVADED!!!)
2) LMAOROG. I know it’s much better to attack 22 boats of “drug” smugglers AS he vows to pardon the convicted drug guy who was Prez of Honduras AND the multple thousands of criminals like the Jan 6 insurrectionists
But your talking points on what should be done mirrors the GOP plan right? LMAOROG.
Oh no it’s the opposite as Cheeto ramps up for another war (Venezuela), sells out technology to China via Saudi (F35’splanes) , I’m sure Qatar (AIR BASE US SOIL), “free jet” for Donnie, Billions invested via Jared and the Crypto scams
After all Cheeto giving $20 billion to Argentina to bailout his “guy” wil get things headed the right way?
BTW, I’m a liberal, not a Democrat, but recognize what CONServatives/GOP have done for 45 years in the US, and the world
Cheeto stopped the Gaza massacres AND ended Putin’s war day one, don’t you know?
I prefer MS (NBC) NOW than the moderate CNN
BTW, I also have a history degree, History Minor
Oh really, than surely you can see things aren’t so black and white, right? Why are you so attached to your party? It’s a wreck and certainly not FDR’s. He was reelected 3 times because he have a damn and went against his own class interest. Now, your party simply does whatever it’s campaign contributors want, which is to destroy both FDRs legacy and the lives of what remains of America’s working class.
America’s epitaph, written by Boomers:
The Grass Roots, 1967
“When I think of all the worries that people seem to find
And how they’re in a hurry to complicate their minds
By chasing after money and dreams that can’t come true
I’m glad that we are different, we’ve better things to do
When others plan their future, I’m busy loving you
One, two, three, four
Shah-la, la-la-la-la, live for today
Shah-la, la-la-la-la, live for today
And don’t worry ’bout tomorrow, ay-ay-ay
Shah-la, la-la-la-la live for today (live for today)
We were never meant to worry the way the people do
And I don’t need to hurry as long as I’m with you
We’ll take it nice and easy, and use my simple plan
You’ll be my lovin’ woman, I’ll be your lovin’ man
We’ll take the most from living, have pleasure while we can
Two, three, four
Shah-la, la-la-la-la, live for today, ay-ay-ay
Shah-la, la-la-la-la, live for today
And don’t worry ’bout tomorrow, ay-ay-ay
Shah-la, la-la-la-la, live for today (live for today)
Baby, I need to feel you inside of me
I got to feel you deep inside of me
And baby, please, come close to me
I’ve got to have you now, please, please, please, please
Gimme some lovin’, just gimme some lovin’
Gimme some lovin’, just gimme some lovin’
Baby, gimme some lovin’, just gimme some lovin’
I got to have all your love (gimme some lovin’)
Babe, I need all your love (gimme some lovin’)
And now I need all your lovin’ (la-la-la-la-la-la-la)
Shah-la, la-la-la-la, live for today
Shah-la, la-la-la-la, live for today
And don’t worry ’bout tomorrow, ay-ay-ay
Shah-la, la-la-la-la, live for today (no, no, no, no)
Shah-la, la-la-la-la, live for today…”
If, as their band’s name suggests, The Grass Roots, spoke for a generation in 1967 through the lyrics of this extremely popular song, it is an overt rejection of taking any responsibility for treating the unique social and economic conditions Boomers found themselves in and that their parents died to create. This stanza from the above posted song, “Live For Today,” by The Grass Roots is clear:
“When I think of all the worries that people seem to find
And how they’re in a hurry to complicate their minds
By chasing after money and dreams that can’t come true
I’m glad that we are different, we’ve better things to do
When others plan their future, I’m busy loving you”
Only a generation with total economic security would actually have the gall to write and proclaim these words. Why “chase money” when you don’t need to? Why chase money when your currency is strong? Why chase money when the local bagboy at the grocery could buy house on nothing more than a handshake? This generation now gets defensive when anyone younger than them asks why they don’t have the same set of economic conditions and if not, who sold the farm? This same generation smugly accuses millennials and so forth of being stuck in childhood or refusing to grow up, get married, buy a house, have children, and get a job? Let’s see, the petrodollar is dead and with it the demand for the dollar that protected it’s worth. We’ve bailed out banks to the tune of trillions of dollars and debased our currency in the process. I could go on.
I would recommend anyone who takes exception to this to rewatch the film “Saving Private Ryan” and reread Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” to see how badly Boomers ruined our economy in light of what their parent’s, the Greatest Generation, went through. As the lyrics of “Live for Today”‘clearly show, Boomers WANTED to destroy America and the institutions that made it great, all along. This hell we find ourselves in is exactly what Boomers wanted ALL ALONG. It is an expression of their generation’s inferiority complex and rage at the accomplishments their parents made, knowing unless they fought in and won a world war, survived a Great Depression, and sent a man to the moon, they would forever be nothing more flies on their parent’s asses. The destruction of America is Boomer’s equivalent of sending a man to the moon. The destruction of America is Boomer’s equivalent of winning WWII. I guess they can all go to their graves having gotten even with their parents. They managed to forever ruin the incredible accomplishments their parents made. Sure hope their proud of it.
Fly, What’s weird is I agree, Boomers hosed US.
Of course it was through CONServatives policies that have been for 45+ years, coddle the rich.
You complain about Clinton, yet what he bought into, and about 45% of the Democrats and over 80% of the GOP in the NAFTA bill WAS CONSERVATIVE ECONOMIC THEORY!!
A true HONEST look at the past 45 years sees ONE PARTY fighting for the richest, at every point. Sure the Democrats jumped on board with the Repugnants many times, but an HONEST look at history shows the GOP the past 45 years wrong 80% of the time, unless you’re in the top 1%
There is no such thing as a “free market”, never has been.
Your premise on the Democrats fighting for rights is another red herring, yep the “left” has always fought for the minorities and rights for all. Gay, Trans, woman’s, etc, ALL deserve equal treatment. Of couse don’t let FACTS get in the way of the rights false premise on those red meat for their base talking points!!!
Cit United flooded money into the system, and ONLY the GOP has fought back against keeping money out of politics, it’s the money that’s corrupting!
One party has fought for the average person, wanting to help with H/C, student debt, labor rights, oversight of Corps and banks.
One party has fought against unions, stripped regulations and regulators, keeping the effective rates of Corps and the richest at permanent low rates, fought environmental laws and rights, has been quite as Cheeto has seized power and did the most unthinkable the first term (Jan 06, Bleach for covid, highest increase of debt) and the oast 10 months he’s made that look like childs play
Destroying the White House, accepting BILLIONS through his grifting, killing people on fishing boats, etc.
Like the right did with Dubya, they’ll act like they didn’t support him as Prez, lol
It is a powerful, evocative picture depicting the worry and desperation of people without the generous social benefits available today, and like today’s illegal immigrants, willing to travel long distances to work hard at whatever job was available.
“without the generous social benefits available today”
LMAOROG
Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), ALL programs the right voted against AND wants to get rid of
“Compared to most other developed nations, the US has less generous social benefits, particularly in areas like universal healthcare, paid parental leave, and paid sick leave. While the US has a system of social programs, many European, Canadian, and other high-income countries offer more comprehensive benefits like free college education and more extensive paid leave policies, often supported by higher taxes. The US social spending is more concentrated on the elderly and disabled, and its system is often described as a fragmented patchwork compared to the more universal welfare states abroad. “
Funny, but I don’t recall trying to get rid of Social Security or Medicare, especially since I have paid into them all my working life. And, of course, there is a BIG difference between those programs, and welfare and other “free stuff”. Regardless of whatever Europe may do, I don’t think that encouraging further dependency upon government serves anyone well.
JON:
Again, it’s hard to take you seriously with all the tropes you perpetuate and writing style like Hunter S. Thompson. It’s distracting. Words written halfway capitalized? I make numerous grammatical errors because I use a cracked cellphone, no one reads this junk, and I’m too lazy go back and clean it up, not because I’m trying to (unlike you).
John D:
“It is a powerful, evocative picture depicting the worry and desperation of people without the generous social benefits available today, and like today’s illegal immigrants, willing to travel long distances to work hard at whatever job was available.”
I believe this contribution was referring to my inclusion of Steinbeck’s “East of Eden” (travelling long distances to work hard) and social benefits. As someone with family from a small town in Oklahoma, I take acception to comparing Tom Joad’s family to illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants were never invited here. Working hard isnt some sort of exceptional quality. When people believe that hard work pays off, they work hard. Illegal immigrants can work as hard as they want, in their own country, not here. America has been turned into a dumping ground for the world’s poor and the valve that foreign despots and narco states use to send all their angry unemployed or poor people to rather then spend money on fixing the conditions that created their own poverty.
Tom Joad’s family spoke English and despite their poverty never burned the American flag in the street like the scum in LA did a few months back. Just look what happened with an actual legal immigrant here the other day. He just shot and killed one of two young American National Guardsmen/women. Trump is right to shut the border, deport everyone, and review green cards. I say this as someone with a wife and stepson with green cards from an Asian country with more Muslims in it than the middle east. The Somali community in Minnesota just bilked that state’s tax payers out of billions in a fake autism scam. I believe this is the same state that Ilhan Omar comes out of too. As degenerate as our country has become, being here is a privilege. These communities need to leave ASAP. Our state’s AG, Rob Bonta, finds himself embroiled in a corruption scandal too.
If our government and hard core conservatives like you aren’t careful, by completely eliminating the miniscule social safety left in the US, you will drive so many people into the arms of godless communists, you may live to regret it.
Well Fly, I don’t care if you don’t like my writing style, but thanks for showing me with your last comment who YOU are
Not all Cheeto backers are racist, but most racists back Cheeto!
Or as my favorite sign from the peaceful protests against King’s
“Not all Trump supporters are racist but all of them decided that racism isn’t a deal breaker.”
The racism is found in the Democratic party who treat Black folks like helpless dependents who are utterly dependent upon the largess and advocacy of white liberals, and who could not possibly succeed without their help.
Yeah, John THAT’S been the rights meme for 50+ years
You must be right, Cheeto got 20% of the black vote in 2024, the highest i decades. After all getting a whopping 20% proves your posit right?
BTW, That meme will die with you old MFer’s
Fly: I came up with the reference on my own, having friends who, are descended from the “Okies” who fled the Dust Bowl and economic collapse, like the migrant mother in the picture. I have a lot of sympathy for those facing desperation through no fault of their own, like the migrant mother and most of the illegals. Still, we have to secure our borders, as we can not afford to support all of the desperate people in world.
JON:
You do realize we’ve moved beyond the DEI era, right? Your side of the aisle has called everyone “racist” so much, it no longer means anything. I prefer to be called a nationalist, if you think putting America first is a racist, so be it. I could care less.
Look around you. Do you really think the global south, having poured into our country illegally and unvetted, has your interests in mind? Most are practicing members of a one of the largest religions in the world, based in Rome, intent on resurrecting the holy Roman empire with America being but one of its vassals. Take a good look at who is in our state’s Assembly, an ever expanding portion of them are adherents of this faith. Our Governor and AG already waves their flag. If not already, it won’t be long before our state’s laws reflect this religion’s values, namely it will be illegal to have premarital sex, public secular education will be shut down, abortion will be outlawed, and marriage equality will be illegal. How? This particular religion offers both a carrot and stick to its adherents (many of our law makers). It threatens them with excommunication and with it, eternity in hell. At the same time, it offers them seats in the front row at church and other strokes. Your liberalism is your or your liberal children’s undoing. Again, go to the DMV or Costco and look at the shoppers there and look at the make up of our state’s Assembly. Deporting 40 million illegals and their religion, staffed by ordained, celibate pedophiles, actually defends your liberalism. That is unless you’re ok with your daughter being unable to obtain a safe, modern abortion should she need one. That is unless your ok with your gay family member, in a committed decades long relationship with a same-sex partner, being unable to have their relationship recognized by the state, through marriage, like millions of heterosexuals. That is unless you are ok with your children or grandchildren being taught in public school that humans lived with dinosaurs and evolution is heresy. That is unless you are ok with grown consenting adults going to jail for having premarital sex. You ok with that, Jon? Keep calling sensible people racist, keep voting for Democrats and open borders and you just might have your wishes made real. Wait until you wake up in the near future and everyone around you is speaking a foreign language (Latin) and all your actions are dictated by a religion you don’t practice. The best part is, Jon, you will have voted for this. If you or a loved one get sick, don’t go to a doctor (there won’t be any), just have your local cleric pray for your cancer to go away. Hungry and poor? Don’t eat, just remember, to suffer is to come closer to Christ. Need gas for your car? Ride a mule.
When this happens, at least we can sit back and rewatch the wars of religion. For those of us who don’t practice religion, when we aren’t being burnt at the stake, should be entertained. It’ll be a combination of Monte Python’s “The Life of Brian” and “Idiocracy” all over again. Everyone will be illiterate and instead of using words, everything will be expressed in pictures. Instead of using water, crops will be fed Brawno.
Nationalist is just a way to hide your bigotry
You, John and the right wing ONLY have false premises, distortions and LIES to hold onto today.
Moved beyond DEI? Oh right who needs to treat women, the largest beneficiaries of it, with equal treatment! Hint SCOTUS (6 of 9 are Catholic) and the VP is.
Yeah, Gavin and the AG are going hard right, lol
You are supposed to have a history degree, what percentage of the CONfederate States of AmeriKKKa were educated before the Civil war vs the ”Northern aggressors”
Who fought having education standards (The Southern states). Who today will not accept reality of Cheeto having classified documents he wasn’t supposed to have?
Who says his 34 felonies is “fake”?
His war on drugs as he pardoned the Ex Prez of Honduras who imported tons of drugs into the US? Or the silk road guy, tons of drugs AND tried to hire hitmen to kill 5 guys!
1,600 insurrectionists pardoned?
Sadly this accepting of LYING by the right started about 30 years ago by accepting that “tax cuts bring in more revenues” crap, it was nonsense then, like 90% of Cheeto’s crap today
Don’t like being part of the world? Want to be isolationists like those COBServaives pre WW2?
Open borders? LMAOROG
Jon D:
I agree with you, considering that many of today’s euro-americans are descended from the waves of desperately poor that sailed to America at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, to condemn immigrants would be to condemn my own ancestors. But, as you noted, “we have to secure our borders, as we can not afford to support all of the desperate people in world.” It’s not only a matter of supporting them, it’s a matter of national security. We don’t even know who these people are. They come from China and the middle east. Further, for the ones that don’t, many bring their connections to transnational drug cartels. I’d recommend every naive liberal out there to watch the movie “Traffic” before they cry rivers of tears for the waves of illegals who were coming over under the cover of darkness. Thank God our border is pretty secure now.
What unfettered, illegal invasion by the global south means is an erosion of the values that truly made America great. What I’m talking about is the Protestant work ethic. When your salvation can’t be obtained by simply having your local priest bless you or staying in the good graces of that figure’s church, but can only be inferred by material blessings, hard work becomes the means by which one finds God. Without this, why not just sit around and collect unemployment? You’ll still go to heaven. I’m not religious myself, but between the two, I’d rather not see Protestant values get displaced by a religion that presumes to have the authority to come between one and one’s maker.
JON:
Six of nine members of SCOTUS are members of this religion:
Chief Justice John Roberts
Justices Thomas, Alito, Sotomayor, Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.
This is explains many of their conservative rulings, further, the head of this religion (based in Rome) is American. So, Jon, our problem isn’t just illegal immigration, it’s the power this religion exercises over our lives. In a just society, the officials that run this religion would need to register as foreign agents AND on the Megan’s Law list. It’s just going to get worse and I fear for tiny Protestant congregations all across our great country. It’s only a matter of time before they remove, through law, the tax free status many of these obscure Protestant churches rely on to survive. They’ll declare that in order to receive the tax exempt status, they need to have like 1,000,000 million members or something. This means their religion, based in Rome, will continue to enrich itself yet destroy those (Protestants) whom it literally waged war on centuries ago. It’s goal is global domination and a resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire. The millions of illegal immigrants who do nothing more than advance this religion’s cause need to be deported.
When the scum in LA were burning the American flag last summer, they did so proudly waving the flag of our southern neighbor emblazoned with the figure of the Virgin of Guadalupe on it. These people are literally engaged in a holy war on America and AMERICAN VALUES. They’ve outlived their welcome here and their religion, based in Rome, refused to loudly denounce their activity. Why not label their entire religion and its adherents as a terrorist organization before it’s too late??
I for one don’t want to return to the Dark Ages. I like science. Before they passed away, I had gay family members, they lived in an era where they had to live in the closet. I don’t want to see my female family members have to use a coat hanger in a back alley for an abortion. I liked premarital sex (a LOT). I liked loud music and dancing too (a LOT). If this religion gets it’s way, we’ll all be married off at 12yo, dangerous ideas like believing that maybe planets orbit the sun will get you drawn and quartered, and worst yet, believing that one can actually have a personal relationship with Christ, free of interference or intercession by church officials, will automatically get you burned at the stake. They did it before, they’ll do it again.
False premise (except the SCOTUS guys) that religion will turn US into that, it IS the right wing pushing that crap, not the Democrats
JON:
Of course Democrats aren’t pushing “that.” What Democrats are pushing is everything except what America needs: a closed market, tariffs, and direct federal involvement in rebuilding America’s industrial base. What Democrats are pushing is flooding our country with cheap Chinese plastic garbage, flooding our country again with illegal immigrants/scabs to keep wages low and profits high for the companies that hire them, Democrats are pushing more war and tax money with Ukraine, printing more money, and tongue lashing anyone who dares question their insane agenda, using apparatchiks like you as you do. I don’t know what your circumstances are or how old you are, but unless you aren’t in a place of privilege or material security, none of what you say or defend makes any sense. It’s just a distraction. The Dems have no plan for our economy other than fall back on what I just said they intend on doing to splinter and destroy the building trades and blue collar jobs. The Dems are courting anyone they can to register and vote for the Democratic party, including from the worst elements of American society. When various unions speak in defense of illegal immigrants or the people arrested for leading these insurrections, they speak for the Democratic party. When Joe Biden gave approval to send and use MLRS missiles on Russia and threaten the world with nuclear annihilation, he spoke for the Democratic party. The Democratic party has become the party of chaos and illegality.
We’re living in a third world country where your Uber driver is Ph.D, our infrastructure is crumbling, we incur one trillion dollars of debt every 100 days, upward mobility has disappeared, no one can retire, people are living in their cars, the dollar has lost roughly 10% of its value over the last year, people are buying groceries on credit, and old folks are eating dog food to stretch their fixed income. The dollar is about to collapse.
Got it Fly, you’ll stick with Putin’s talking points
How can I be repeating “Putin’s talking points,” I don’t speak Russian. Conversely, you’ll stick with all the war hawk’s talking points. John McCain would just love you.