The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

Baby boomers write about family issues, finances, and candy

Last week, I spent days looking through my photo collections for photos for a funeral. It was a huge, huge trip down memory lane. Marriages, kids, divorces, travel, deaths, and more. I feel like I’ve been through an emotional wringer. However, through it all, I had an additional realization, again, that I need to work on getting my photos better organized.

I have 50 notebooks full of photos, and I have about that many more that need to be put in archival sleeves. Also, I could take more photos out of my digital chronological files and put them in the named files so I could have them handy to use.

Anyway, above is one of the photos I found, which is now properly identified.

Meanwhile, my baby boomer blogger friends are busy, too, continuing to write great articles. Topics for this issue of the Best of Boomer Blogs are:

Education Department rule that fails to protect students from fraud challenged by lawsuit

A low-income advocacy group filed a lawsuit Wednesday to invalidate the U.S. Department of Education’s new borrower defense rules, which dump protections from predatory schools and impose standards and hurdles for defrauded students seeking to cancel loans.

The lawsuit was filed by the Project on Predatory Student Lending and Public Citizen Litigation Group on behalf of the New York Legal Assistance Group. The lawsuit challenges borrower defense regulations published in September 2019 that are due to take effect in July 2020.

Federal law states that students can ask to cancel their federal student loans when the schools they attend engage in misconduct or close suddenly. In 2016, the U.S. Department of Education issued new rules to protect student borrowers and federal taxpayers. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos attempted to block those rules from going into effect three times – and the groups suing now were successful in having those attempts declared illegal.

Ads for 2020 Super Bowl mostly violent, unimaginative

For some reason, the Super Bowl this year seemed to be so violent and sexist.

I'm not a football fan, but I watch the Super Bowl every year to comment on the ads to see if they continue to be violent, sexist, and ageist.

This year, the game itself and the ads this were so violent, with dozens of ads for violent TV shows and violent movies. It was discouraging. After being blasted with all the violent ads, it hard to even concentrate on the others to see if there was anything worthwhile.

I was also disappointed with the half time performance. When it came time for women can take part in the Super Bowl, we had scantily clad women singing and dancing. It was so discouraging that women's role in the Super Bowl and on TV continues to be as sex objects. As one of my friends said when I commented on this on Facebook, let's have a marching band.

However, I didn’t see any sexist or ageist ads, which is a big improvement from years past.

This year, the most expensive 30-second ads cost advertisers $5.6 million.

Best ads

Google: An older man asks Google to see photos of his late wife, Loretta.

Jeep Gladiator: An older Bill Murray, of “Groundhog Day” movie fame, finds an orange Jeep in downtown Punxsutawney, kidnaps the groundhog, and goes on a series of adventures, saying “No day is the same in a Jeep Gladiator.”

Baby boomer bloggers keep chugging on even in tough times

It’s been a tough week. I had to organize the hundreds of photos I took at the National Women’s History Alliance conference in early January, which meant I lost time writing my book, “Follow the Money: My Life as a Financial Journalist.”

On Sunday, the Super Bowl was so violent, the game itself and the ads, and sexist, the half time show, that I’m trying to get over it before it before I write about the Super Bowl ads. Then, the delay in results for the Democratic winner of the Iowa caucuses disappointed. Next came the state of the union address, which I didn’t watch, but I’ve had to endure dozens of clips on the radio and television. Then, Wednesday, the Senate voted to acquit President Trump.

Can I go to bed and cover up my head?

Meanwhile, my baby boomer blogging friends are writing about:

• A sailboat trip in the West Indies.
• The challenges of shopping at IKEA.
• The pros and cons of cruises.
• What to do when mobility starts to decline.
• The one thing you need to do to follow your dreams.
• How North Carolina isn’t turning out to be warm for a winter vacation.
• How to view your life with kindsight.

Carol Cassara of Heart•Mind•Soul writes about these articles in the Best of Boomer Blogs #635. Click here to get the links to the articles. And be sure to join in the conversations. Boomer bloggers enjoy hearing from readers.

Copyright 2020, Rita R. Robison, Consumer and Personal Finance Journalist

Highest court should support federal consumer financial agency and consumer protection, attorneys general say

Twenty-four attorneys general want to make sure that states can continue to benefit from tools under Title X of the Dodd-Frank Act that help them protect consumers from fraud and abusive consumers practices.

In an amicus brief filed Thursday in Seila Law v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the attorneys general argue that the U.S. Supreme Court should preserve the CFPB and other significant consumer protections provided by Title X.

“Following the Great Recession, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was created as an independent enforcer of consumer protection laws to ensure that consumers could never again be so egregiously defrauded, deceived, or misled by private companies,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Best wishes on Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Over the years, I’ve written more than a dozen articles for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. They included his most famous quotes, how a day to celebrate King was finally approved, and how it’s a day of service, not a day off.

But one of ones I liked the best was on King’s commitment to eliminating poverty. I found it when I did research on what were King’s thoughts about consumers. In his last book, “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?” written in 1967, King said programs to improve housing and education and to offer counseling to families were sporadically funded and uncoordinated. And, in addition, he said such programs are indirect. Each seeks to solve poverty by first solving something else.

King supported a guaranteed income for all Americans in his book.

Baby boomers enjoying the New Year and making plans for 2020

Last week, I was fortunate to be able to attend a conference in San Diego on women’s history. Sponsored by the National Women’s History Alliance, an organization that promotes women’s history, the conference featured discussions on how to plan activities to celebrate the 100^th anniversary this year of women getting the vote in 1920.

The Washington delegation offered a presentation on “From Bloomers to Short Shorts: A Brief History of the Right to Wear Pants.” I portrayed Fay Fuller, who, in 1890, was the first known woman to climb Mount Rainier.

Boomer bloggers in the Best of Boomer Blogs are also writing about what’s up for 2020:

Tom at Sightings Over Sixty came across several new state rankings for retirement in 2020. So this week he puts them all together and gives us the highlights and the low lights about retirement meccas from Hawaii to Florida to Vermont. Check out "Best States to Retire In – 2020" to see if your state made the Top Ten Best List, or Top Ten Worst list.

For the New Year, Jennifer Koshak of Unfold and Begin writes about trying new things. Whether it’s eating at a new restaurant, starting a new job, or buying a new pair of shoes, we’ve all tried new things in our lives. It’s part of life and it’s part of growing up. But sometimes, when we're about to start something new, we become unsure and let fear creep in. Koshak discusses why it's important to try new things in “When Was the Last Time You Tried Something New.”

Carol Cassara of A Healing Spirit has a tip if learning yoga is on your list of 2020 resolutions. Cassara was relieved to know that yoga can be practiced without having to contort one's body in unnatural (or natural) poses. She tells us we don't have to use our body at all to be a yogi in “How Can You Practice Karma Yoga.”

Meryl Baer of Six Decades and Counting began the New Year by traveling once again. Baer spent a lot of time on the road the past two weeks not driving, or rather not necessarily moving along. Her trip began with a bit of a problem at the airport, as she recounts in this week’s post, "Winter Brea(down – Almost)."

For the New Year, Rebecca Olkowski with BabyBoomster.com has updated her best online exercise programs for women over 50 as she’s found some new and exciting programs you can enjoy from the comfort of your home. 

Laurie Stone of Musings, Rants & Scribbles, on the other hand, tell us about an activity that she admits to liking throughout the year. She eavesdrops sometimes. She tries not to, but can’t help it. And her favorite place for eavesdropping is her local java joint. She's there for lunch an embarrassing amount of time. (O.K., almost every day). She brings her laptop and works. But here’s the interesting thing. Fascinating insights can be gleaned by “accidentally” listening into the following groups…

This is the Best of Boomer Blogs #632. Click on the links to read these great articles. And, be sure to join in the conversations. Boomer bloggers love to hear from readers.

Copyright 2020, Rita R. Robison, Consumer and Personal Finance Journalist

Pharmaceutical companies raise the prices of more than 250 drugs as of Jan. 1

Big pharmaceutical corporations, including Gilead, Pfizer, and GlaxoSmithKline, have hiked the prices of more than 250 prescription drugs as of Jan. 1. Annual and biannual price increases on existing medicines have become a standard practice of brand-name pharma corporations, said Steven Knievel, access to medicines advocate for Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group.

It’s a new decade, but it’s business as usual for prescription drug corporations, Knievel said.

“Tweets and half-baked proposals from President Donald Trump are not stopping Big Pharma from price gouging consumers,” he said.

Top consumer stories for 2019

As usual, most of the end-of-the-year, round-up articles are about national issues or corporations. If consumers are mentioned, it’s usually about how they’re responding to some corporation.

For the most part, it’s been a grim year for consumers. With the Trump administration that is so probusiness and anti-consumer, the not much is happening for consumers that's positive.

1. President Donald Trump is impeached.

We have a president who puts his personal interests above the public interest. He tried to bribe the Ukrainian president to get him to investigate a political rival. As a result, he’s been impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives. This is incredible.

How a percentage of the American can support Trump is a great mystery to me. He and his administration announce anti-consumer proposals almost daily.

In addition, we have a president who lies. Since he was elected, Trump has told more than 15,000 false or misleading claims. In 2019, he’s said that the U.S. economy today is the best in history, he passed the biggest tax cut in history, the U.S. has lost money on trade deficits, article II of the Constitution lets him do whatever he wants, windmills cause cancer, and toilet flushes are up. All are untrue.

2. Consumer rights and programs are under continual attack from President Trump and his administration.

The Republican conservatives want to reduce the size of government and give corporations more power. Almost daily, we read about how the Trump administration has done it or is planning to do it. Some examples include:

• The Trump administration’s decision to roll back light bulb standards will cost consumers billions.
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s rule speeding up pork lines and reducing inspectors endangers the lives and safety of consumers and workers. 
• Corporations keep breaking the law due to declining federal prosecutions.
• The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and seven states launch an “innovation network” that will approve new, risky financial products and protect them from enforcement.
• The CFPB fails consumers by not carrying out the payday lending rule.
• Fewer children’s products were recalled in 2018.
• Under Trump, enforcement of consumer financial laws drops sharply, especially in areas with the highest complaints.

The list goes on and on. Government regulations and programs help consumers. Reducing the size of government and slashing consumer regulations just helps corporations make more profits at the expense of consumers.

President Trump is impeached

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you know I’m not a fan of the Trump administration. As it works to dismantle our government institutions and slash consumer and environmental protections, consumers are put in a worse position every day.

In my opinion, it’s a good thing that the U.S. House of Representatives voted Wednesday to impeach President Donald Trump. The House centered it’s investigation on the Ukraine travesty of bribery and obstruction of Congress for withholding documents and witnesses during the investigations.

To me there could have been many more items on which Trump could be impeached. Abuses of power and putting personal interest above the public interest occur regularly in the Trump administration.