The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

Despite government shutdown, Trump administration continues to work with the gas and oil indistries on offshore drilling

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, under the direction of acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, has issued a revised contingency plan ordering as many as 40 Interior Department personnel to continue work on the Trump administration’s revised five-year offshore leasing plan during the partial government shutdown. The agency said the move necessary to “comply with the Administration’s America First energy strategy.”

Earthjustice, the League of Conservation Voters, and the Natural Resources Defense Council are critical of the move.

“As the American people experience the painful effects of the Trump Shutdown, the administration is busy serving the oil and gas industry," the groups said in a joint statement Thursday. "Instead of working with Congress to end the longest government furlough in American history, the Trump administration is prioritizing a radical, unpopular plan to subject America’s coasts to more offshore drilling. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is asking dozens of employees to return to work at the behest of oil and gas industry lobbyists.

Trump’s government shutdown is disrupting agencies that protect consumers, workers, health, and safety

Consumer, worker, health, and safety protection agencies throughout the federal government are being disrupted by federal worker furloughs coming from the partial government shutdown, according to a report Public Citizen released Wednesday.

“As long as the shutdown continues, essential consumer, worker, health and safety protections carried out by these agencies are on hold,” said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen. “Corporate lawbreakers are going unpunished, safety inspections are being postponed, discrimination charges are going uninvestigated, polluters are not being held in check, financial fraudsters are not being policed, consumer complaints are not being received and accident investigations have ceased.”

Many agencies are falling behind, and it could take many weeks for them to catch up, according to furloughed workers quoted in the report. More than 75 percent of workers have been furloughed at seven agencies dedicated to protecting consumers and workers, according to federal agency memos, and nearly 50,000 employees have been sent home without pay at the following agencies:

Baby boomers face 2019 in a variety of ways

Getting going on 2019 is creating a bit of a challenge for me. I got back from a five-week visit to Spain on Dec. 27 and was gung ho about getting started on new writing projects among other things.

Then I got a cold or the flu. That’ slowing me down.

In addition, I’m writing an article on the top 10 consumer stories of 2018. It’s taking me hours to do research on things such as how much Trump’s Tariff War is costing consumers and how many people had their data breached during 2018. I just finished Item No. 7, so it looks like I’ll be done soon.

Anyway, things looked bleak for consumers in 2018, and the government shutdown is depressing. For 2019, it looks like more of the same.

Meanwhile, here’s what the baby boomers bloggers in the Best of Boomer Blogs are writing about:

Jennifer Kosha of Unfold and Begin went through an overwhelming year last year which included one move and packing for a second move all while decorating and then undecorating for the holidays all while her mother was in hospice care. During all of this craziness, Koshak realized that she needed to simplify and decided that simple will be her word for 2019. She wants to learn how to slow down, keep it simple, and stop over complicating things. Join Koshak as she also starts a year-long program of extreme self-care starting with her January Keep It Simple calendar.

Meryl Baer of Six Decades and Counting can't believe another year is gone. In her post “Cross Off Another Year,” Baer considers how it seems that time passes at a faster rate as we age.  

At A Healing Spirit, Carol Cassara discusses the nature of being human and the best response to challenges. Everyone draws a different hand of cards and life is all about how the hand is played.

Rebecca Olkowski with BabyBoomster.com was feeling lazy after the holidays and wrote about the benefits of being lazy without feeling guilty about it. Read all about it in her article “Six Ways to Embrace Laziness and Not Feel Guilty About It.”

On Sightings Over Sixty, Tom Sightings writes about “10 Things That Are Good for Us” and “10 Things to Avoid If You Want to Stay Healthy.” Check out his articles and see if you agree with his research. Pets are on the bad list.

This is the Best of Boomer Blogs #578. Please click on the links to read the articles. And, be sure to join in the conversations. Boomer bloggers love to hear from readers.

Copyright 2019, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Happy New Year to American consumers everywhere

What will 2019 hold for consumers throughout the nation? It’s difficult to say, but one thing for sure is that 2018 has been a tough year for consumers.

I’m in the process of writing my annual article about the top consumer stories of the year just passed. For 2018, there wasn’t much good news.

Deregulation efforts by the Trump administration brought the weakening of environmental regulations such as coal companies can now dump coal waste into streams. And, efforts by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to help consumers have been stymied with policies such as gutting student loans protections put in place.

USDA’s final rule on GMO foods is lacking

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has released a final rule to carry out the mandatory GMO disclosure law passed in 2016. It will allow the genetically engineered ingredients in many foods to remain hidden from consumers.

“No one should be surprised that the most anti-consumer, anti-transparency administration in modern times is denying Americans basic information about what’s in their food and how it’s grown,” said Scott Faber, senior vice president of government affairs for the Environmental Working Group.

The Trump administration has yet again put the interests of pesticide and biotech companies ahead of the interests of American consumers, Faber said.

Trump Foundation to dissolve under court supervision amid charges Trump used its funds illegally for his political, business interests

The Trump Foundation has agreed Tuesday to dissolve under judicial supervision, with review and approval by the New York Attorney General’s Office of proposed charities to receive the foundation’s remaining assets. 

This agreement follows the court decision last month allowing a lawsuit by the New York agency against the Trump Foundation to go forward. 

In addition to the dissolution of the foundation, the lawsuit also seeks millions in restitution and penalties and to bar President Trump and his three oldest children from serving on the boards of other New York charities.

Trump: The ‘Make America Great Again’ president wants dirty water and air

It was depressing to wake up this morning and read a news article on how President Trump is proposing changes to clean water laws that will benefit polluters. I hope states, local governments, and environmental organizations will step up and fight Trump’s proposal.

The Trump administration released its plan Tuesday to repeal safeguards that prohibit the dumping of pollution into sensitive waterways which provide tap water for more than 117 million Americans.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Army want to significantly roll back federal protections for a number of water sources under the Waters of the United States rule, or WOTUS, put in place in 2015 by President Obama.

Trump appointment to head consumer finance agency will continue to diminish its power, actions

It’s another one of President Trump’s flawed appointments to oversee an important federal agency.

This time, it’s the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency created in 2011 to safeguard American consumers against some of the financial losses they suffered in the mortgage crisis and Great Recession.

On Thursday, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm Kathy Kraninger as the new director of the bureau.

President George H.W. Bush: Not a consumer champion

As President George H.W. Bush is being positively eulogized, it’s important to remember that Bush, as often is the case with most Republican, was more interested in helping business interests than consumers.

Here are some examples of how the Bush administration, and the Republican Party, have failed consumers:

But by and large, [George H.W.] Bush was an establishment president. This meant that he did not fundamentally try to fix the inequities wrought by the American model. He escalated, for instance, Reagan’s War on Drugs – leading to the mass incarceration of African-Americans, a blight that still ails the country to this day. The New Statesman

President Bush signed the biggest rewrite of U.S. bankruptcy law in a quarter century, making it harder for debt-ridden Americans to wipe out their obligations. NBC News

Another mass killing: Let’s do something about responsible gun legislation

It’s been 10 days since I wrote about the last gun massacre. Eleven people were killed and six injured in a shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill, a Pittsburgh neighborhood.

Now, it’s happened again. On Wednesday, 12 people, including a sheriff's sergeant, were killed at a bar in Thousand Oakes, California.

Ian David Long, 28, was dressed in black and wore a mask when he entered the Borderline Bar & Grill. Long threw smoke bombs and used a Glock 21 .45-caliber handgun, which had been modified with an extended magazine, law enforcement officials said.