For Martin Luther King voting was essentially American

It’s 2022 and It’s also the annual anniversary of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, it’s a long way from the “Dream” speech that he uttered at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, when he appealed to the better nature of the United States to go forward and light the torch of hope, of humanity and morality to assuage the battered spirit of Black Americans so that they can participate as full citizens of the United States, with the freedom to vote as its central linchpin.

Today the assault on voting rights has battered and nearly broken that right in a series of proposals, most seriously in Georgia to undermine such traditions as Sunday voters for Black worshippers, labeled “Souls to the Polls,” and even criminalizing those who might give water to those same voters standing in line underneath the hot Georgia sky.

No matter the subsequent tweaks, the die is cast especially for Black voters, who helped propel Joe Biden into the White House, and who Republicans are determined to keep it that way, to defeat a Democrat candidate in the 2024 presidential election, and to either re-elect Donald Trump, or another standard bearer.

Call them sore losers, or another name, the battle is on for the GOP and Biden faces an insurmountable hurdle to pass any changes to restore, or ensure, equality, and has powerful opponents, among them Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, W. Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, and Arizona Sen. Krysten Sinema, who opposes changing the filibuster to allow for a rules change despite the pseudo-sob story of how much she supports voting rights, in the Senate, even as Biden’s car was pulling up to the front door.

As Vice President Harris said recently, “The assault on our freedom to vote will be felt by every American, in every community, in every political party,” she noted, and added “And if we stand idly by, our entire nation will pay the price for generations to come.”

That generation, the future that Dr. King spoke about with his four children holding the hands of white children has been only a piecemeal success, and may continue to deteriorate if that dream does not contain the core of American democracy, the right to vote.

In 1981 just after the extension of the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act, and the restoration of several key provisions that had weakened its structure; and Roberts was furious by it.

He sounded the alarm, and said, as Vox recalled: “Something must be done to educate the Senators on the seriousness of this problem,” Roberts wrote his boss, Smith, just a few days before Christmas. In a subsequent memo, he argued that the rapidly advancing bill — which now forms much of the backbone of American voting rights law — was “not only constitutionally suspect, but also contrary to the most fundamental tenants [sic] of the legislative process on which the laws of this country are based.”

President Reagan bowing to political pressure did not weaken the revision but did say that it was “humiliating to the South,”

While presidents were outflanked in the past by weakening the bill, especially with the preclearance requirement, they were outnumbered by liberals, but now with a slim majority in the Senate, with Harris as the tiebreaker, things have not progressed as they once did.

In 2013, the preclearance requirement was legislatively abandoned, that aspect that required, “As originally enacted, the Voting Rights Act required jurisdictions with a history of racist voting discrimination to “preclear” any new voting-related laws with the Justice Department or with federal judges in Washington, DC.”

Justice Antonin Scalia branded preclearance as a “racial entitlement” and Roberts helped to draft the talking points to defy those in favor of it, and, “As the voting rights journalist Ari Berman writes, “Roberts wrote upwards of 25 memos opposing an effects test for Section 2.”

The late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, quipped in her dissension: “Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.”

Further assaults in North Carolina and Texas have made the battle even more urgent for American civil rights and in South Dakota the fight to remove rights was also promulgated to Native Americans and to remove such conveniences as the Motor Voter Act and tribal leaders joined in a lawsuit against lo0cal lawmakers, including the Lakota Rosebud, the Sioux Tribe in what amounts to a return to Jim Crow laws.

While Biden has received some blowback from some Black leaders that he spent too much time on Build Back Better, the truth is, as we have seen, he faces a road that is fraught with opponents, and despite his eloquent and hard hitting speech, will require more than words to preserve our democracy.

For the president, Dr. King’s words fit him at this time, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

Nose Dive for December US Jobs Report

 For the last several months hope has often exceeded expectations for the US economy, and now after being buffeted by supply bottlenecks and shuttered oversea factories producing semiconductors and computer parts, the positive outlook for jobs seemed on an upward trajectory, but on Friday, the US Labor Dept. released its monthly jobs report showing a disappointing 199,000 jobs for December.

Following thes rise and fall of the jobs report has begun as a see-saw, and has evolved into an anybody’s guess, especially with an unemployment rate of 3.9. But, of course this is the marquee rate, with more accuracy coming in from the household survey which shows continued movement, but still not as strong as it would be in a “normal”  month, that is pre pandemic.

We’ve seen the effects of the Delta Variant in prior months, but we can only guess at the effect of Omicron, since the report was garnered in the week of Dec. 12; but many economists and observers remain flummoxed at the decline and some rough guesses are being made to the continued path of resignations among many working classes, especially those at the service level looking to end physically demanding jobs that take them away from their families for long hours.

The labor force participation rate remained unchanged from November at 61.9 causing many to wonder what kept it the same with resignation coupled with retirements, many of which were early. The answer may lie in this: that for those that retired, jobs were kept with the greater bargaining power that job seekers have with employers, causing little movement.

Adding to the conundrum is that the jobless rate was its lowest rate since March 2019, and significantly wages were up 4.6% over the year, welcome news but probably attributable to that same bargaining power.

Some optimism has been seen, according to The Hill, who reported that accounting for the two upward revisions for October and November, to 141,000 with Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at tax and audit firm RSM, stating “the change in total employment is 390K. While that is disappointing to the trading community, that is quite strong from the point of view of the underlying real economy.”

Of significance is that leisure and hospitality gained only 53,000 jobs, possibly reflecting that area’s resignation, and health care was flat seemingly due to lack of interest in an area besieged by Covid.

Nearly two years into the pandemic it is apparent that it can take and shake the US economy, in ways that are not predictable.

Waiting on the sidelines are those who want to work, unchanged at 5.7 million, but have seemed to adopt a wait and see approach especially with many offices still closed, its employees working from home, (11.1 %) and some restaurants cutting staff, or closing its restaurant dining rooms with “must show” vaccine cards, such as New York and Chicago, rather than find staff to check guests at entry.

We can’t forget that despite earlier gains, the benchmark of Feb. 2020 jobs are still down 3.6 million, and the Federal Reserve has taken a strong look, with its mandate of full employment and 2 percent inflation, although it has signaled that it is willing to “wave” that figure as needed, along with rate hikes to stem inflation.

In a report that was similar to November, before revision, and with an anticipated revision, hope springs eternal.