MEDICARE ELIGIBILITY

JOE BIDEN: MY EARLY VIEW ON HIS FUTURE PRESIDENCY

In 73 days, Donald Trump will officially lose power and Joe Biden will be sworn in as our 46th president. And he will be a vast improvement on many levels. He will bring, at long last, at scientific, compassionate approach to battling the Coronavirus pandemic effectively. I believe he will be successful. Beyond that, however, my hopes for Biden getting much else accomplished remain somewhat subdued. Like President Obama, he will have to deal with an obstructive Mitch McConnell-led U.S Senate. Biden will likely be hamstrung in getting even the smallest possible incremental reform passed. Moreover, the new president-elect has signaled that he may not make pushing for any progressive reforms a priority. Pundits say Biden may appoint anti-labor, austerity-minded Republicans like former Ohio Governor John Kasich to his cabinet. Meantime, many party insiders close to Biden are warning progressives should back off from promoting issues, such as Medicare for All. They say they will be harmful to any future electoral success. 

I believe this approach would be a mistake. Medicare for All is hugely popular as recent polls indicate it has more than 70 percent support among all Americans. In a recent piece published in Common Dreams, New York progressive Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez points out that all the congressional Democrats who lost their re-election bids in Tuesday’s elections were centrists who did not support Medicare for All. While the candidates supporting it, she maintains, won. Sadly, during the campaign, Biden has categorically stated that he is opposed to Medicare for All, but did indicate he supports a revised ACA plan with a public option. I hope, at least, he remains steadfast to that promise.

ANCESTRY FINDINGS UNCOVER ONLY THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG

Until not long ago, I knew very little about my family’s roots. I was armed with only scant knowledge in which I could only trace both my paternal and maternal ancestry to approximately a hundred years ago.

However, during the past few years, I’ve gained an amazing new awareness of it thanks to genealogical research conducted by my brother, and to a lesser extent myself, on Ancestry.com. This research has laid bare a family history that, in some instances, can be traced backed to the Early Middle Ages. 

It revealed that the ancestral Wells line is intertwined intimately with English history, perhaps dating as far back as William the Conqueror. Another paternal line indicates that I could be a direct descendant of English King Edward III. Research on more ‘recent’ findings shows that I have paternal ancestors who were English Puritans that immigrated to New England during the time of the Pilgrims. Later generations lived there while the American Revolution unfolded and one ancestor, it appears, was the father to a Declaration of Independence signer named Oliver Wolcott.

Findings also show more recently that my paternal grandmother’s father, Thomas Jefferson Wiley, had fought in the Civil War as a Union infantryman for a Minnesota volunteer regiment.

While not as far-reaching, this fresh research greatly broadened my knowledge on my maternal roots as well. My family was already aware that my mother, whose maiden name was Kelley, was descended from Irish Catholic stock. However, we could only trace that lineage back to my great-grandfather, John Joseph Kelley, who immigrated from Ireland to the United States sometime during the late 19^th Century. This new inquiry enabled us to learn to my great-grandfather’s surname was ‘Kelly’ before immigration officials anglicized it upon his entry to this country in 1888. The findings also enabled us to trace his lineage, as well as his wife, Bridget Fitzgerald, back several more generations.

Research on my maternal ancestry also revealed, a heretofore, unknown link to Swiss German ancestors who settled in Idaho around 1883 and to Quaker ancestors who originally settled in Pennsylvania during the 1700s and later moved to North Carolina, Ohio, and Indiana in subsequent generations.

My sixth great-grandfather, the Reverend Thomas Beals, is one ancestor in this line who was particularly noteworthy. He was a Quaker missionary preacher who’s credited with being the first to bring that religion to the wilderness in what was to become Ohio. (It existed then as the Northwest Territory.) This link provides an interesting account on how Beals was arrested and later released after working out a peace agreement with Native Americans.

All in all, these findings have been an epiphany. Yet, I must recognize that they paint somewhat of a rosy account of my roots and do not come even close revealing the complete picture. The vast majority of my roots remains hidden and will probably remain so for eternity. These findings are based on written accounts, which become more difficult to come by as one delves further into the past. Many of my ancestors were illiterate and have no record whatsoever of their existence. As is the case with all of humanity, I suspect I don’t have to time travel very far to find direct ancestors who cannot be traced.

TULSI GABBARD TWEET

You are so spot on. Keep getting that anti-war message out. It's beginning to make an impact as the tools for the war mongerers have taken notice and are amping up their smear campaigns against you. #Tulsi2020 #NoMoreWars

— Joel Wells (@animule) August 3, 2019

NATIONAL RADIO DAY

From my radio daze...#NationalRadioDay pic.twitter.com/3gYMy7IvUJ

— Joel Wells (@animule) August 20, 2019

LABOR DAY TRIBUTE TO MY GRANDFATHER

In honor of Labor Day, I decided to post this photo of my maternal grandfather, Thomas Kelley, who appears with facial wounds he received from a beating he took from company thugs while organizing for a union at a Flint, Mich., automaker in 1936. My grandfather, a toolmaker, took part in the historic sit down strikes over unfair wages and unsafe working conditions. After more than forty days of striking amid violent reprisals from police and company hired ‘goons’, the workers won these concessions and subsequently, the United Auto Workers was formed. My grandfather was a charter member. Many of the things my grandfather fought for are now benefits workers take for granted.

While much maligned during the last 40 years, labor unions have always been at the forefront of fighting for social justice in America and Labor Day is a time to honor the blood and sacrifice that has gone into the labor movement’s early days. And while working conditions are not as harsh as they were during my Grandfather’s time, the need for a labor movement has again become increasingly necessary.

OVERUSED WORDS AND PHRASES FOOTBALL ANNOUNCERS USE

Football season is upon us once again.  And it’s time to desensitize our ears to football lingo being uttered every weekend by thousands of Al Michaels and Chris Collinsworth wannabes at a stadium near you.

Now, there’s game terminology, such as “yardage” and “touchdown”, which football fans will hear during every game.  But, then there’s also the excessive expressive talk. Here’s a short list of five words or phrases that football announcers simply overuse:

• Tremendous – I don’t think this word would even exist were it not for football.  Howard Cosell was, perhaps, the one who popularized the word, tremendous. 
• Monster – as in BIG!  “Jones is having a monster game” or “The Colts’ matchup with the Patriots next Sunday is going to be a monster game”. 
• Wide Open – This one must be taught in Football Broadcasting 101.  Announcers at every level of competition, high school, college or pro, use “wide open” at least once a game to describe a player who had no coverage during a passing play.
• Execute or Execution – Somebody somewhere told football announcers that saying “He’s really executing well.” instead of “He’s really playing well,” makes them appear more educated.  But hey, Terry Bradshaw says execute…so what does that tell you?
• Work Ethic – I hear this one a lot in basketball also.  It goes very well with entry number one, “He has a tremendous work ethic!”

So, if you want to give up your day job and try football announcing as a career, just start constructing sentences with one or more of the above phrases.  “Davis, showing tremendous execution and work ethic, managed to get wide open on that monster play.”