Wednesday 06/25/2025
Took a standard walk in the morning. Did some good things in the rest of the morning and I can’t remember what. At 2 we had the monthly AV meeting. One highlight was the introduction of a new IT staff member, Andrew, a pleasant young man. Another was Tom, who demonstrated that you could get a movie going on Netflix, and project it on the auditorium screen. I had thought you couldn’t; apparently I was wrong, and glad to learn that.
This evening we had a talk by long-time local politician, now retired, Joe Simitian. He gave his analysis of the state of the nation now and how it came about. In a nutshell: 50 years during which
- only the top 10% (never mind the 1% or the fabulous 0.1%) made economic gains, 90% of the population has at best held their position;
- the foreign-born population increased from 4% of the population to 15%
and one party found a way to capitalize on the resulting discontent. In 1970, senators from the poorest 20 states, he said, were mostly Democrats, and senators from the richest 20 states were mostly Republican. This has inverted; today the poorest states are mostly represented by Republican senators, and the richest states, by Democrats. In politics, the candidate that says “I hear your pain, and here’s what we’re going to do about it” has the edge. Interesting and amusing talk by a skilled presenter.
Codgerville 