The Democratic Party is now the party of welfare — not working people

The Democratic Party used to call itself the party of working people and hail the “dignity of work.” No more. Now Democrats want to guarantee people who choose not to work an income funded by the suckers who show up for employment, care for their families and pay taxes.

Fortunately, these self-supporting Americans just dodged a bullet. The failure of Build Back Better to pass in Congress, thanks to holdout Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), means that the monthly checks or automatic bank deposits to parents with kids — sometimes dubbed Biden Bucks — come to an end this month. (Though progressives haven’t given up on trying to revive them some other way.)

For working people, the monthly payments were merely an advance on their tax refunds. But parents who choose not to work have been getting no-strings money to support their nonworking lifestyles.

Using the pretext of pandemic relief, Democrats who enacted the American Rescue Plan in March changed a feature of the tax code — the child tax credit available to adults who work and pay taxes — into a grant paid unconditionally and monthly to almost all adults with kids, whether they work or not.

Democrats have been pushing to extend the free monthly payments through 2022 as part of the Build Back Better Act, with a plan to make them permanent.

Manchin saw right through what his party intended: a socialist-style universal basic income. Manchin objected to the unconditional monthly cash grants: “There’s no work requirement whatsoever. Don’t you think if we’re going to help the children,” he asked, the parents “should make some effort?”

So what about the Democratic Party that represents working people? President Joe Biden still talks the talk. “My dad used to say, ‘Joey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It’s about your dignity. It’s about respect. It’s about your place in the community.’”

But Biden’s party is no longer walking that walk. As Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) told the House Ways and Means Committee during a debate over Build Back Better, “the so-called dignity of work — that’s like hearing a fingernail on a chalkboard.” New York magazine’s Eric Levitz calls Manchin’s work-ethic convictions “contemptible.”

Sorry, but most Americans don’t want to support the moochers.

Advocates of the monthly payments hail them as “already a huge success” for lifting millions of children out of poverty. Nonsense. That’s what a working parent does. The national poverty rate fell temporarily, but the payments didn’t solve the problem of parents without the mindset to support their children.

This is déjà vu. Uncle Sam used to send checks to nonworking parents. The 1996 welfare reform enacted by a Republican Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton changed that, requiring parents to work or train for work in order to receive cash benefits.

It succeeded, reducing the welfare rolls, ameliorating child poverty and helping single mothers become self-sufficient.

Yet today’s Democratic Party spurns that model. Democrats tend to blame unemployment on racism or a rigged economy and argue that people deserve dignity whether they choose to work or not.

Of course, all human beings deserve dignity. But not a seat on the couch in front of the TV, funded by people who toil.

Democratic politicians all over the nation are pushing to provide a monthly basic income to the nonworking poor, courtesy of taxpayers. They’ve formed Mayors for a Guaranteed Income.

Los Angeles is sending out monthly $1,000 checks to 2,000 residents.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is using millions in federal pandemic relief funding to distribute $500-a-month cash stipends to randomly chosen low-income recipients. That ought to enrage anyone who works and pays taxes.

Jobs are plentiful. The National Federation of Independent Business reports that half of small businesses cannot fill positions and a record number say labor quality is their biggest business problem. Small businesses nationwide are posting “Help Wanted” signs in windows.

Every time you pass one of those signs, you can think of Manchin. And thank him for holding the line against turning taxpayers into suckers supporting the freeloaders.

https://nypost.com/2021/12/28/the-democratic-party-is-now-the-party-of-welfare-not-working-people/

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Riot Games to pay $100M in gender discrimination suit

Tencent Holdings’ Riot Games on Monday said it has agreed to pay $100 million to settle a 2018 gender-based discrimination class-action lawsuit with California state agencies and current and former women employees.

The company said it will pay $80 million to the members of the class-action suit, comprising all current and former full-time women employees and temporary agency contractors in California who worked from November 2014 to the present.

An additional $20 million will be paid towards attorneys’ fees and miscellaneous expenses, Riot Games, the maker of League of Legends, said in a statement.

“In an effort to drive ongoing transparency and accountability, Riot has also committed to having its internal reporting and pay equity processes monitored by a third party jointly approved by Riot and the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing for three years,” the company said.

A final approval of the settlement by the court is pending, with a hearing expected in the coming months, the statement added.

The lawsuit was filed in November 2018 by now-former employees Melanie McCracken and Jess Negrón, alleging gender discrimination as well as sexual harassment and misconduct at Riot Games, the Washington Post reported on Monday. The suit was followed by two inquiries led by California state agencies, the reported added.

https://nypost.com/2021/12/28/riot-games-to-pay-100m-in-gender-discrimination-suit/

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Coronavirus response needs to put freedom first, New York’s Zeldin says

New York gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin bashes President Biden over his handling of the COVID pandemic on ‘The Ingraham Angle.'

U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., appeared on Fox News’ "The Ingraham Angle" on Tuesday night, where he claimed the Democrats’ coronavirus response has been a heavy-handed list of restrictions such as mandates and lockdowns.

The congressman – who’s looking to be elected New York’s governor next year -- claimed the Republicans’ trust in people making their own decisions and exploring such possibilities as natural immunity might be a better path forward as the nation continues to grapple with the deadly outbreak.

U.S. REP. LEE ZELDIN, R-N.Y.: First, you have to value freedom. You have to respect that people are smart enough to make their own decisions, talking with their own doctors.

The left has run out of ideas so they’re talking about mandates, lockdowns, threats, fines, firings, instead of talking about early access to advance treatment and therapeutics -- following science as opposed to having the science follow the politics.

As we’re getting new information out from omicron -- as we saw in South Africa and the same thing playing out here -- the data, the facts, the science, the truth is telling us that the peak time may be narrower, that hospitalizations are lower, the reactions are milder.

Yes, it’s contagious but the reactions might even be more milder [sic] than the mild prediction that people are making.

Let’s also look at the science behind natural immunity. People have gotten COVID and there’s now research that’s out that says that their body has a certain level of immunity to the virus.

It’s being studied by scientists as to whether or not that level of protection may be more than if you get vaccinated.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/coronavirus-response-freedom-new-york-zeldin-ingraham-angle

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France closes mosque after imam incites hatred against Christians, Jews

A mosque in northern France has been shut down after the government determined that the place of worship was "inciting hatred" against Christians and Jews, as well as gay people.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced earlier this month that his administration was in the process of shutting down the mosque. The mosque was accused of hosting a regular speaker that pushed its members toward violent radicalization, according to translations provided by EuroNews.

Darmanin claimed that the mosque's speaker was "presented as an occasional speaker but who, in reality, acts as a regular imam." He reportedly made comments to the congregation that "glorify jihad and the fighters, whom he describes as heroes."

A lawyer for the nongovernmental organization Espoir et Fraternité (French for "Hope and Fraternity"), which operates the mosque, told journalists that the NGO would be filing a countermeasure with the courts within 48 hours.

The organization defended the attendance and preaching of the unnamed imam at the center of the investigation, with their lawyer dismissing "certain remarks made during preaching by one of the mosque's imams – who has since been suspended – who was speaking on a voluntary basis."

Darmanin has been a point man for dozens of investigations into reportedly radical mosques across France.

The minister previously stated that 99 mosques have so far been controlled for advocating dangerous or violent ideology.

"Of these 99 [mosques], 21 have been closed, and 6 are currently in the process of being closed," Darmanin reported earlier in December, according to EuroNews. "We also found that 36 of these mosques had accepted the demands of the Republic – either to leave a particular federation, or to separate from the imam whom we considered dangerous, or to stop foreign funding, or unfortunately to combine these provisions – and so we removed them from the list."

The Daily Mail reported that earlier this year the French government announced it was cracking down on places of worship and groups suspected of pushing radical Islamic propaganda. The interior ministry revealed earlier this month that they had investigated 100 mosques and Muslim prayer halls in recent months out of more than 2,600 across France due to fears of "separatist" ideology being spread across the country.

https://www.foxnews.com/world/france-closes-mosque-imam-hatred

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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