THE ALLURE OF BIRD WATCHING

 

Those of us in retirement have adopted a slower pace with empty nests. No longer are we anchored to a punishing work schedule while nurturing a growing family. As seniors, we get to slow down and watch the frantic activities taking place in other unique nests. The action is year-round with a changing cast of characters. I am referring to birds.

According to the U.S. Field and Wildlife Service some 57 million Americans feed the birds for the allure of observing them from the comfort of their homes. During the pandemic, this number skyrocketed. Bird feeding is a big business. Americans spend $4 billion each year on about a billion pounds of bird seed. In addition, millions of pounds of suet are deployed throughout our nation’s backyards.

Bird watching outside the home has also caught on with older folks. My wife and I have visited many domestic and foreign locations where bird watching became part of the adventure. Observing the shore birds and twice-yearly migrations through Chincoteague, Virginia has always captivated us. We will never forget the many varieties of colorful hummingbirds or noisy parrots from Costa Rica. During our trip to the Serengeti in Kenya and Tanzania, we saw more varieties of unusual birds than mammals and reptiles combined.

However, nothing makes us happier than observing the life cycles of the local birds in our backyard aviary. From the short visits of Baltimore Orioles and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, and the one-time nesting of a family of Brown Thrashers, to an unusual two-week show of Barred Owls at dusk, and our regular year-round bird population, there are always new surprises.

Watching a family of Chickadees or Cardinals nest, fledge and take over the yard keeps us filling the feeders and bird baths year-round. Coming face to face with a curious hummingbird is close to a spiritual experience.

Why does bird watching captivate us? One book to read is Feeding Wild Birds in America: Culture, Commerce and Conversation. (Baicich, 2015) The Council for Environmental education calls the book “a fascinating history of our love affair with feeding birds...wrapped with wonderful insights on how bird feeding can be used to connect people to nature right at our doorstep. It's a treasure.” In reviewing this study, the National Audubon society says “This book chronicles our growing love affair with birds.”

One of my favorite authors is Joanathan Franzen, fellow Swarthmore graduate and winner of the National Book Award. As Franzen got older and began looking up while walking through Central Park in New York City, he fell in love with birds. His observations in an Audubon Magazine interview are educational, heartwarming and worth repeating, “There have been two kinds of amazing animal developments.  One is us—in terms of totally transforming things—and the dinosaurs were the other. And the birds are what became of dinosaurs. The dinosaurs got all light and they got feathers, truly one of the remarkable adaptations in the history of evolution. They sing. They fly. They make nests. Flight, the complexity of their behavior, their beauty.  You can love nature in the abstract and care about it, but once you actually start having an emotional connection with part of nature like birds, then it becomes a wholly different thing.”

Other factors draw those of us in retirement to become enamored with birds. Bird seed is not expensive. Bird watchers in the field only need a pair of binoculars and a smart-phone app, or guide-book for identification. The moderate physical exercise is exactly what our physicians are recommending.

Retirement biological clocks often come into sync with the local bird population. We go to bed earlier, after the final robin chirps in mid-summer. We wake up early on spring mornings to a loud chorus of nest builders. Now we have the time to pay attention.

A study published in 2024 in the Journal of Environmental Psychology finds that “even half an hour of bird watching makes us happier, healthier and can help foster a deeper connection with nature.” The psychological concept of “noticing” is an essential aspect of awe. Noticing means that our full attention is on the birds rather than ourselves. Moreover, being in nature and noticing wildlife requires us to immerse ourselves in the activity. This provides “a deep engagement and profound sense of tranquility through prolonged observation.” 

Bird watchers become fully engrossed in identifying bird species, deciphering their behaviors, and observing their actions. After being “in the flow” birdwatchers “can experience a rush of endorphins and a profound sense of satisfaction and wellbeing.”

One would think that bird watching is an activity that is above the controversies that have recently divided America. After all, in our back yard, even the “red” cardinals and the “blue” jays seem to get along.  However, on Oct. 3, NPR reported that birders are arguing over a plan to change dozens of bird names. It seems that the American Ornithological Society wants to do away with those names that honor people. The goal is to rename over one hundred North and South American birds to purge names with links to racism and colonialism. Many birders are not happy and the upcoming debate promises to be bitter and divisive.

Thankfully, none of the bird species of Pennsylvania appear to be affected. We can continue to post the photos and common names of our backyard visitors without offending the neighbors.

 

 

 

RISING INCOME INEQUALITY HAS DECIMATED THE MIDDLE CLASS

 

“Income inequality is the defining challenge of our times.” Barack Obama 

According to the Pew Research Center, eight in ten registered voters (81 percent) say the economy will be very important to their vote in the 2024 presidential election. The state of the economy and inflation are the centerpiece of Republican attack ads against Democrats, notwithstanding a growing economy, lower inflation, lower unemployment, lower interest rates, cheaper gasoline, and a booming stock market.

Many middle-class voters have concluded that the Biden-Harris administration has adversely affected their economic welfare, and that a Trump presidency will improve it. However, the middle-class economic situation is more complex than these voters realize. Fifty years of income inequality, resulting in lower earning power, has decimated the middle class.

Last year’s inflation spike, largely caused by the pandemic and a booming economy, exposed a larger problem. An avalanche of adverse economic events has impacted the middle class since 1970.  Inflation is only one cause for the decrease in middle-class purchasing power. Other economic forces have long been at work to increase the net worth of the wealthy at the expense of the middle-class.

A recent Pew Research Report, The State of the American Middle Class, provides some background. “Not only do a smaller share of people live in the middle class today, the incomes of middle-class households have also not risen as quickly as the incomes of upper-income households. The median income of middle-class households increased from about $66,400 in 1970 to $106,100 in 2022, or 60%. Over this period, the median income of upper-income households increased 78 percent, from about $144,100 to $256,900. (Incomes are scaled to a three-person household and expressed in 2023 dollars.) 

“The median income of lower-income households grew more slowly than that of other households, increasing from about $22,800 in 1970 to $35,300 in 2022, or 55 percent. Consequently, there is now a larger gap between the incomes of upper-income households and other households. In 2022, the median income of upper-income households was 7.3 times that of lower-income households, up from 6.3 in 1970. It was 2.4 times the median income of middle-income households in 2022, up from 2.2 in 1970.”

A Brookings Institute study highlights four long-developing economic factors that have adversely affected middle class prosperity.  First, despite gains in national income over the past half-century, American households in the middle of the distribution curve have experienced very little income growth in recent decades.  Actually, there has been greater income growth over the last four years under President Biden. Most earners did well following the pandemic, when jobs were plentiful.

Second, while workers of all skill levels were hard-hit by the Great Recession that began in December 2007, those without four-year degrees saw the steepest earnings declines.

Third, upward mobility is no longer the almost-universal experience among America’s youth.  While 90 percent of those born in 1940s grew up to experience higher incomes, this proportion was only 50 percent among those born in the 1980s.

Fourth, middle-class families are more fragile and more dependent on two incomes. Were it not for women’s economic contributions, middle-class families would have experienced sharper reductions in income over the 1979 to 2020 period.  The rise in single parenthood has dropped many families into the lower middle-class, or worse.

The upper middle class is prospering and gaining wealth in a booming economy that is the envy of the world. These millions of economically well-off Trump supporters are not concerned with inflation or the price of eggs.  Their higher incomes, investments and increasing net worth more than compensate. Wealthy individuals are supporting Trump to keep Kamala Harris from raising their taxes and to keep their wealth accumulating at unprecedented rates. The economic priorities of Trump supporters from the upper middle class are exactly the opposite of those important to Trump supporters from the middle and lower classes.

Which candidates’ positions will actually help the middle class to recover from its fifty years of economic malaise? Kamala Harris would extend the Trump tax cuts for the middle class – but not for the wealthy individuals and corporations. She would raise taxes even higher for the richest Americans. The tax deduction for small business start-up expenses is currently $5,000. Vice President Harris’ plan would push for expanding this deduction to $50,000 for new small businesses to cover more of these costs and provide more flexibility on when and how they can claim it.

According to a recent essay in Newsweek Magazine, “Looking forward instead of backwards, only Harris has real proposals for the middle and working class. These include a plan to spend $40 billion to bring down home prices, incentives for developers to build affordable housing, a $2,000-a-year cap on prescription drug costs and a dramatic expansion of the child tax credit that would immediately relieve some of the pressure on middle-class families.”

Regarding Trump’s economic plan, Goldman Sachs wrote in a report in early September, “The hit to growth from tariffs and tighter immigration policy would outweigh the positive effects of tax cuts.” According to Moody’s analysis, “Trump’s tariff plan would spark a recession by mid-2025.”  Economists believe such a tariff will rapidly accelerate inflation and cost the average family $1,500 a year.

Negative political ads and FOX news commentators are not to be believed. The economic plight of the middle-class would steadily improve under a Kamala Harris administration.

WHY TRUMP IS UNFIT TO BE RE-ELECTED PRESIDENT

 

In January 2024, the Atlantic Magazine produced a special issue entitled If Trump Wins. A bipartisan group of political scientists, journalists, and historians weighed in on what a second Trump administration would mean for the country. The special issue was published long before Biden withdrew from the campaign, before the Supreme Court increased the reach of presidential power, before Project 2025 became well known, and before many prominent Republicans and conservatives endorsed Kamala Harris for president. Nonetheless, this collection of 24 essays, which examined a number of topics and outlined the negative consequences of Donald Trump returning to the presidency, remains spot on.

For an individual in search of hard facts and reasoned opinions, this special issue of The Atlantic is insightful. This commentary will summarize some of the important findings in this landmark attempt to educate voters on why Trump is unfit to be re-elected president.

Jeffery Goldberg, Editor’s Note. “The Atlantic is deliberately not a partisan magazine. We believe that a democracy needs, among other things, a strong conservative party in order to flourish. Our concern is that the Republican Party has mortgaged itself to an antidemocratic demagogue, one who is completely devoid of decency.”

David Frum, on Autocracy.  “It has always been Trump’s supreme political wish to wield both the law and institutional violence as personal weapons of power – a wish that many in his party seem determined to help him achieve.”

Anne Appelbaum on NATO. “As president, Trump threatened to withdraw from NATO many times – including infamously at the 2018 NATO summit. But during Trump’s time in office, there was always someone there to talk him out of it. If Trump is re-elected in 2024, none of those people will be in the White House.”

McKay Coppins on Loyalists, Lapdogs, and Cronies.  “The available supply of serious qualified people willing to serve in a Trump administration has dwindled. Just four [now 24] of Trump’s 44 Cabinet secretaries have endorsed his current bid. If Trump is elected, he is expected to sign an executive order eliminating civil service protection for up to 50,000 federal workers, making them political appointees. Those fired could see their positions filled with Trump loyalists.”

Sophie Gilbert on Misogyny. “Trump’s glee in smacking down women has filtered into every aspect of our culture. But what’s more chilling about a possible second Trump presidency is that he would certainly be unchecked in his attitudes toward women. The advisors who remain with him are the ones who bolster his darker impulses.”

Zoe Schlanger on Climate Change. “A second Trump administration could do major damage. The Heritage Foundation has already made a battle-plan to block electricity-grid updates that would allow for solar and wind expansion, and to gut clean-power divisions at the Department of Energy, among other things. Under a second Trump term, the EPA would be threatened with budget cuts as it was during the first.”

Franklin Foer on Corruption. “Trump’s history suggests that he regards the government as a lucrative instrument for his own gain. It was this scenario in which the virus of foreign interests implants itself in the American government that the Founders most feared. They designed a system of government intended to forestall such efforts. But Trump has no regard for that system and every incentive to replace it with one that will line his own coffers.”

Juliette Kayyem on Extremism. “Until the very end of his presidency, Donald Trump’s cultivation of the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, and other violent far-right groups was usually implicit. He counted on their political support but stopped short of asking them to do anything. After Nov. 3, 2020, his language became more direct. The President of the United States embraced violence as the natural extension of America’s democratic differences, and he has not stopped since.”

Megan Garber on Disinformation. “Donald Trump announced in 2018 that ‘his gut tells him more than anybody else’s brain can ever tell him.’ Facts are work. They require study; they require curiosity; they require patience; they require humility. Trump suggests he will ease the burden.  You can outsource your mind to his gut. Science lies to you. The media lies to you. Books lie to you. Courts lie to you. Other people lie to you. Democracy lies to you. The only thing you can trust, in this dizzying world, is the inveterate liar who would never lie to you.”

Clint Smith on History. “In a second term, Trump would have even more reason to promote the rewriting of the American past. The MAGA movement is already doing this in connection with Jan. 6, 2021, one of the darkest days in our country’s history. The most patriotic education is one that demands that we sit with the totality and complexity and moral inconsistencies of the American project. Trumpism seeks to censor attempts to tell this sort of story.”

Vann R. Newkirk II on Civil Rights.  “Under Trump, the Justice Department abandoned its active protection of voting rights. If Trump were to win in 2024, many of the remaining foundations of the civil rights era would be undone.”

Other essays in this special issue include science, immigration, the courts, abortion, and the way Trump induced anxiety while president. Before the most important election in our lifetime, I urge all voters to read them. https://www.theatlantic.com/if-trump-wins/

 

 

A LOOK AT THE VICE-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES

 

“The vice presidency is not worth a bucket of warm spit.” John Nance Garner

There has long been disagreement among political scientists whether vice presidential candidates make a difference in presidential elections. The above quote sums up the traditional view that voters pay little attention to the second person on the national ticket.

In recent elections, this opinion has changed. For example, there is strong evidence that Sarah Palin damaged John McCain in 2008 and that Joe Biden garnered important votes for Barack Obama in the same election.

The definitive book on the subject is Do Running Mates Matter? The Influence of Vice-Presidential Candidates in Presidential Elections. (May 15, 2020 by Christopher Devine & Kyle Kopko). The authors concluded that a running mate who is experienced and well-qualified can improve the perception of the presidential candidate, capture some votes, and make a difference.

The following commentary provides background and opinion on each of the vice-presidential candidates in the upcoming election: Minnesota Democrat Governor Tim Walz and Ohio Republican Senator JD Vance. I gained some insights from those who live in the home state of each candidate and relied on the excellent deep dive reports published by POLITICO on each candidate’s history.

Democrat Governor Tim Walz.  Dana Ferguson from MN Public Radio reports that Walz “Was able to pass a balanced budget in the state with a Senate Republican majority and a House Democratic majority. In 2023 he passed “a child tax credit, legal protections for abortions, along with new protections for workers and for voters.”

I spoke with our cousin, Noel Bye, from Minneapolis, MN who was happy to see Governor Walz chosen to join Kamala Harris on the ticket. His impressions included, “Walz has been an amazing Governor and we are sorry to lose him. He has been able to reach across the aisle and accomplish many things including a free breakfast and lunch program for schools. He has actually worked for a living and understands the struggles the middle class faces every day.”

The POLITICO article, 55 Things to Know About Tim Walz, provides a lifetime of basic information. Walz was raised in Butte, Nebraska, a town of 400. He enlisted in the Army National Guard at 17. After college, he learned to speak Mandarin and traveled to China with a government sanctioned group to teach in Chinese high schools. Walz served in the Army for 24 years and retired as a Sergeant Major.

In MN, Walz taught geography and coached high school football. He was first elected to Congress in 2006 and re-elected five times in a mostly rural, conservative section of the state. In Congress, Walz was named the ranking member on the House Committee on Veteran’s Affairs. He often worked with Republicans to sponsor and pass legislation.

Walz is an avid hunter who is graded “F” by the NRA because of his forward-looking positions on gun control. In 2019, he ran for Governor of MN and defeated the Republican by 11 points. Walz was chosen to Chair the Democratic Governors Association, in 2023.

Walz has a theory that Trump-endorsed candidates “are weird,” and the voters are being turned off by their radical positions.

Republican Senator JD Vance. In OH, the Republican Attorney General has called Vance “A patriot and fighter for Ohio’s forgotten middle class.” A close friend from Columbus, Michele Wyatt, disagrees. She told me, “Vance’s move to OH was done to support his political aspirations. I think it is dangerous to have someone as ideologically fluid, with minimal experience, questionable ties, and unclear motivations hold the position of second-in-command.”

Returning to POLITICO, the article 55 Things to Know about JD Vance, is a similar in-depth study of Mr. Vance’s background. Vance grew up in a working-class family in post-industrial OH. He describes himself as a descendant of “hillbilly royalty” and was raised primarily by his grandparents. Vance wrote a bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy about his early years in Jackson, Ky. and Middleton, OH.

During the 2016 election, Vance emerged as a vocal critic of Donald Trump. In a TV interview, he stated “I am a Never Trump guy” and tweeted “my god, what an idiot.’” However, during Trump’s years as president, Vance came to support his policies. He voted for Trump in 2020.

After graduating from Yale Law School, Vance joined a venture capital firm run by the Silicon Valley Republican Peter Thiel. In 2022, Vance ran for and won the OH Senate seat, his first public office. He was endorsed by Trump and received over $10 million in donations from his employer.

During his brief time in the Senate, Vance has embraced the “new right” and has attempted to push the Republican Party in a more populist, nationalist, and culturally conservative direction. He is a leading critic of American support for Ukraine and has called the Democratic border policy “a deliberate strategy to kill Republican voters with fentanyl.”

In recent polls, Walz is clearly viewed as more experienced and more likeable than Vance. Vance has assumed the role of attack dog and Walz as a moderate Midwesterner. However, there is no evidence that either VP candidate will move the needle with Trump Republicans or Democrats that previously voted for Biden. Because more independents have an unfavorable view of Vance, like Sarah Palin in 2008, he could hurt the Trump ticket in the critical battleground states.