In reference to mariner’s recent post about cronyism, a report from Politico shows a racial pattern in Congress reflective of older folk who still have pre-civil rights attitudes:

“More than 1,000 top House staffers are white. Out of 1,174 top staffers, 79 are African-American, 45 are Latino, 32 are Asian American/Pacific Islander, one is Native American and four are bi- or multiracial. The report defines top staff as chiefs of staff, legislative directors and communications directors in members’ personal D.C. offices; chiefs of staff, policy directors and communications directors in the top four leadership offices of both parties; and staff directors assigned to full committees.

“This systemic problem matters because Congress cannot effectively create public policy that benefits all Americans if the people making policy decisions don’t look like America,” said Spencer Overton, president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. The report recommends that House members collect and disclose detailed demographic data on staffers, adopt a rules package in the next Congress that includes measures to increase diversity and inclusion, apply the “Rooney Rule” — interview at least one person of color for each open senior position — in hiring and offer paid internships and fellowships.”

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Mariner was incensed yesterday when he read that Donald reallocated 10 million from FEMA to ICE – even as a strong hurricane approaches the Carolinas. Mariner should not be surprised; Donald has a public record of disregarding the purpose and designations of different accounts. He drew down all the cash from his casino business, driving it into bankruptcy; he uses a charity account as a revolving door to avoid taxes; he has settled multiple times for fraudulent business practices. Now, he is in charge of dispensing the Federal budget. He and his sycophant cabinet must be gleeful at the opportunity for abuse.

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Three sources have suggested that the next significant socio-political upheaval in the United States will not be the liberals and the progressives nor will it be African Americans. It will be an emergence of Latinos as a major influence in political change. No authors were able to connect the dots from the present but base their assumptions on demographics in the US and the whole of Central America and South America. At some point the politics of immigration will transition away from Europe and the Middle East and turn to the relationships between nations on North and South America.

It has been speculated for more than a hundred years that a mega nation will emerge on the two continents. Mariner asked Guru about this; he said a lot of current history has to adjust to that circumstance. First the new world economy, China emergence and artificial intelligence all must arrive at that opportunity. Still, within the US there are enough Latinos to launch a shift in politics.

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Patrick J. Egan of New York University writes that identity politics is beginning to shift in US citizens. What led identity politics heretofore was one’s religion, political party, economic class, and race. However, recent surveys by the General Social Survey, a reliable survey of American attitudes, shows that citizens are modifying their root identities to align themselves with an ‘ism’. Examples are liberalism, progressivism, libertarianism, conservatism, etc. Is this the beginning of the end for identity politics?

Ancient Mariner