We Need the American Jobs Plan

Hoping everyone is on board with President Biden's American Jobs Plan. Americans need it, America needs. Heck, look at Missouri alone. This is from USA Today, June 29, 2013. Missouri was ranked 10th worst, overall, in list of states with bad bridges.

Since 2011, Missouri may have made more strides fixing its bridges than almost any other state in the nation. Although 3,502 of its 24,072 bridges are structurally deficient, this is actually 640 fewer than in 2011. In St. Louis County, just 3.9% of the 865 bridges received a subpar grade. Those 58 bridges in need of repair carry an average of 789,000 vehicles per day. However, the bridges in many other parts of Missouri remain in a serious state of disrepair. In five counties, more than 30% of the bridges are structurally deficient. Phone your Senators, folks. Sure, they're Republicans and it likely won't matter but hey, we have to try.

Week 10 of This Presidency

Week 10 at the White House:

--Launched the American Jobs Plan! --20m Syringes in 7 days: a record! --11 judicial noms w/in 1st 100 days: most ever! --Offshore Wind Plan: powering 10m homes by 2030! --900K new jobs in March: first admin Heavy plus signover 1m jobs in first two months! --Ronald Klain @WHCOS

To Trump Followers, Supporters, Republicans and Right Wingers Across America

You say it's your right to protest now but you get angry when Kaepernick takes a knee.
You say your body is your own, but you get angry at a woman who demands the same.
You are against abortion saying every life is precious, yet you are willing to sacrifice your parents and grandparents for the economy.
You claim corona virus is fake, yet you wear a mask, gown, and gloves.
You say healthcare is a privilege, but want your Covid-19 hospitalization covered.
You say Socialism is bad, yet your hand is out for a stimulus check, unemployment benefits and you wait in line at a food bank.

What you say confuses me.

Forgive me if I no longer care what you say.

-Author unknown

To be clear, you made no sense long, long before this President, too.

If This Coronavirus Hasn't Concerned You Yet, To Date, This Could. Maybe Should

Wonder why the Dow and markets keep sinking, crashing, day after day for the last few weeks?

This might be it.

Coronavirus could force the world into an unprecedented depression

A bit from the article:

In its latest repricing of the economy, the market sees the now-expected global recession caused by the coronavirus outbreak morphing into an economic depression unlike any the world has seen in generations.

The big picture: Bankers and traders are looking to sell everything that isn't nailed down to boost cash positions and hunker down for the worst.

What they're saying:

• JPMorgan wrote down its expectations for global GDP to -1.1% in 2020, expecting the world's economic growth will reverse for the full year, including a second quarter contraction of -14% in the U.S. and -22% in the eurozone.
• Deutsche Bank economists foresee a "severe global recession occurring in the first half of 2020 ... quarterly declines in GDP growth we anticipate substantially exceed anything previously recorded going back to at least World War II."
• Both banks noted their forecasts are based on governments putting in place massive, yet-to-be-passed fiscal stimulus programs and fairly swift containment of the outbreak.
• "It is easy to imagine a still worse outcome," DB analysts, led by head of economics research Peter Hooper and seven chief economists, wrote.

The most dire warning came from Pershing Square Capital Management CEO Bill Ackman, who went on CNBC to beg President Trump to shut down the U.S. economy for 30 days and put the country in a nationwide lockdown.

"Until a vaccine is manufactured, distributed and injected we will go through a Depression-era period in the country," Ackman said. "America will end as we know it unless we take this option."

And here I was just anxious about the conornavirus.

Silly me.

Thank goodness we have good, strong leadership coming out of the White House and this Republican Party President and his administration.

Right?

Link:

The coronavirus economic pain in the U.S. has begun

Republicans Getting Crafty. And Desperate

Big news out today. 

G.O.P. Plans to Drop Presidential Primaries in 4 States to Impede Trump Challengers

Republicans in at least 4 states are dropping Presidential primaries leading up to next year's election so no one can even challenge Trump.

This is pretty fascinating.

What this means is that they are doubling down on Trump. They're solidly backing The Orange One.

 
This has a distinctly high possibility of making the Democratic Party's chances even stronger. They're backing him to the hilt. Meanwhile, his approval ratings, nationally, with all Americans, are at least weak, now, and that's with, so far, a reasonably strong economy. 

DONALD TRUMP'S APPROVAL RATING SLIDES TO 36%, THE LOWEST IT'S BEEN SINCE JANUARY

Trump’s State-by-State Approval Ratings Should Scare Him

Fox News poll: Trump disapproval rises to near record

And already, not only are economists predicting strong likelihood of a recession but today's jobs report showed weakness.

US jobs report August 2019: 130,000 jobs vs. 150,000 expected

With all this and the knowledge, the very sure knowledge, that Donald J. Trump is not a man of nuance or thought or careful consideration, if things should get tougher for him in the coming election and campaign, we will most surely be witness to still more and further emotional, rambling, attacking, incoherent episodes, as we've already witnessed.

Finally, not to be done there, there are these lovelies taking place. First, Trump attacks his own people, his own political party, his only support, last July, because, well, he's Donald Trump.

Trump ambushes Republicans with attacks on minority congresswomen

Then, far more recently, at least some Republicans, anyway, show some sense.

Republican Group Attacks Trump, McConnell In New Ad

Ever since the 2016 Presidential election campaign, nothing has been predictable, that's for sure. It seems, however, now, we do have things going our way, the way of and more for the people.

All that said.... we must TAKE NOTHING FOR GRANTED.  We must vote! And help get out the vote!

GO BLUE!

What Socialism Is and Isn't

Senator Blunt Said WHAT???

Last evening, the following was typed onto Missouri Senator Roy Blunt's Facebook page:

Missouri is at the center of our nation’s highway, railway, and waterway transportation networks, which makes infrastructure an integral part of our state’s economy. Infrastructure creates jobs, connects people and communities, and enables us to compete globally. I’ll keep working to ensure that investing in our nation’s infrastructure remains a priority this week during ‪#‎InfrastructureWeek‬ and every week. ‪#‎RebuildRenew‬

I have to tell you, I was stunned.

Thrilled but stunned.

For all these years, no Republican member of Congress since at least 2008 has written or sponsored or proposed any infrastructure or jobs/infrastructure bill.

Not one.

Including, of course, Senator Roy Blunt.

So here, after all this time of we Americans needing jobs and our infrastructure needing work and updates and improvements and the economy---God knows--needing the boost, suddenly there's this statement, this recognition that we need some things done to our nation's highways, railways, waterway transportation networks, our bridges, all that?

Knock me down with a feather.

And call me skeptical, at the same time.

Sure, I hope Senator Blunt puts his legislative work where his mouth--or keyboard--is but I just find it difficult to believe he'll finally, finally do the right thing for the American people and for the nation and do just that---write, propose and at least try to get passed a jobs/infrastructure bill.

There can be no better example of a highway that needs updating and improving than Missouri's own stretch of Interstate 70 from Illinois and St. Louis to the East, through the middle of the state and Columbia, all the way to Kansas City and Kansas to the West. It's outdated, it's narrow, heck, it's even downright dangerous to the point of lethal, repeatedly.

However right and good it is for the nation and people, it seems the last thing Senator Blunt or his Republican Party wants to do is have more Americans working and America with a better economy while this person of the other political party is in the White House, nation be damned.

God, I'd love to be wrong.

So here's hoping. Here's hoping our own Missouri Senator Roy Blunt and all his Republican colleagues finally see the light, as it were, and do what's good and right and needed and necessary for the people and the economy and the infrastructure of the country.

I don't think they will but it could happen.

Again, here's hoping.

Why we so desperately need a jobs/infrastructure bill from this Congress

"The global economy is more precarious right now than it's been since 2008. China's growth is slowing precipitously, Europe is on the very of recession or deflation, Japan is barely growing, and the United States cannot maintain sufficient aggregate demand without a larger and more buoyant middle class. Interest rates are rock-bottom. Under these circumstances, you might expect governments to borrow more to stimulate their economies. But Germany in the eurozone, and Republicans in the U.S., are still insisting on austerity." 

--Robert Reich

Instead, there is the desire on the part of one political party, quite frankly, the Republicans, to put their own party and their success ahead of that of the nation, people and economy be damned. 

We all know that. 

Why else would they totally avoid an infrastructure/jobs bill from this or the last Congress when the American people need the jobs? the infrastructure needs the updating and improving and the economy needs the boost? They don't want this president or his political party to gain any "points" or to be perceived as having any success so screw you, America.

Flash from the past

I love that:  "WORLD'S HIGHEST STANDARD OF LIVING"

Funny thing, we still tell ourselves that today.

Syria, War and What Our Government Should Be Doing (guest quote)

"While all eyes are on Syria and America’s response, the real economy in which most Americans live is sputtering. More than four years after the recession officially ended, 11.5 million Americans are unemployed, many of them for years. Nearly 7 million have given up looking for work. The share of the population working or seeking a job is nearly the lowest in thirty years. The unemployment rate among high-school dropouts is 11 percent; for blacks, 12.6 percent. And the median wage keeps dropping, adjusted for inflation.

A decent society would put people to work -- even if this required more government spending on roads, bridges, ports, pipes, parks and education. And we can afford it. Deficit hawks in both parties don’t want you to know this but the deficit as a proportion of the total economy is shrinking fast: It’s on track to be only 4 percent by the end of this month, when the fiscal year ends. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office predicts it will be only 3.4 percent in the fiscal year starting October 1. What does this mean? Consider that the average ratio of the deficit to the GDP over the past 30 years has been 3.3 percent. So the deficit is barely a problem at all. (We’re still projected to have large deficits starting 10 years from now because of all the aging boomers needing health care.) 

 A decent society would also lift the minimum wage and expand the Earned Income Tax Credit (a wage subsidy) so no family with a full-time worker has to live in poverty." -- Robert Reich, American political economist, professor, author, and political commentator.

 

A "decent society" would have leaders in government who would do the right thing for their country, their own political party be damned, so if/when the nation had the worst economy in 80 years, since the Great Depression, and also had collapsing infrastructure, literally, they'd pass a jobs/infrastructure/projects bill.

That's what a "decent society" would do.

 

Links:  Robert Reich

 

Robert Reich - Wikipedia

 

Robert Reich | Facebook

 

 

People on food stamps are the problem?

Some facts and one moral truth:

It's not the poor man that's the problem with our nation or debt or deficits, ladies and gentlemen.

Quote of the day

"It makes no sense to elevate economics above the biosphere."

--Dr. David Suzuki

Links: http://www.davidsuzuki.org/david/

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Suzuki

Gas prices headed nowhere good

 

We've seen it, in the last few days, those pesky gas prices, having gone down and somewhat, maybe, spoiling us for a bit, are once again on the rise.  This from the Star today:

Gas prices rise overnight

And the thing is, if they're rising now, in the middle of winter, we all pretty well know where they'll be headed this Summer, right? It seems as though, between that annual Summer rise in prices and a possible economic recovery, if one, in fact, hopefully takes place, it seems clear we'll be at--and likely above--$4.00 a gallon for gasoline this year.

Yahoo.

Economy Improving

Two recent indications the national economy is improving, in spite of the Republicans and Congress:

Housing starts climb to highest rate since June 2008

Economy, Year-End Sales Help Auto Industry In 2012

and not to be done there but the indications for 2013 don't look completely bleak, either:

2013 Auto Sales Will Be Strong, Firm Predicts

Imagine, then, if Congress didn't fight our president on the economy, at least.

Imagine what we could achieve.

Disavowing the presumed Right Wing lean

"A majority of Americans still holds (George W.) Bush accountable for the Great Recession, and with good reason. We are still breathing the fumes of his toxic brew of deregulation, massive transfers of wealth to the rich and a doubling of the national debt. His policies, and those of the Republican Congress that had its way with the economy for six years, were in fact the culmination of a right-wing ideological revolution led by Ronald Reagan, which changed the way Americans view their government. Mr. Reagan's shadow continues to loom large, because Democrats have yet to make the case for a compelling alternative and have too often accepted the premises of the right."

--Drew Weston in The New York Times, yesterday, in his column "America's Leftward Tilt?"

Link: http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/03/americas-leftward-tilt/?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20121104

"Economic patriotism"

Indeed, we do need "economic patriotism", even and especially from our representatives in Congress in Washington.

We need everyone to do what's right and best for the nation, not just for the corporations and/or wealthy.

It's a type of insane we even have to say this.

Conservative, Right Wing, Republican Bill Kristol on this President--and Mitt Romney

"I think the biggest disaster for America in the 21st century was fighting two wars on a credit card. We could suck up several thousand killed in a terrorist attack (no offense to those who lost a loved one) but the economic damage of kicking multi-trillion dollar wars into Barack Obama's lap (and then blaming him for the deficits!) is profound and will resound for many more years. Do we want to put the geniuses responsible for this economic crime back in power?" --Brian Rock (friend)

Links: http://www.salon.com/2012/09/24/kristol_obama_did_pretty_well_with_financial_meltdown/

Good Kansas City manufacturing news

Here it is, from AOL online news last evening:

Bullish on Hogs: High Gas Prices Drive Harley-Davidson Sales Way Up

"It's a good time to be a Hog: On Wednesday, Harley-Davidson (HOG) announced a stunning second-quarter jump in income, making the legendary Milwaukee-based motorcycle manufacturer a rare bright spot in a gray economy.

Between April and June 2011, Harley brought in $190.6 million in net income; a year later, its net had jumped 30%, to $247.3 million. But while the company's growing income was a boon for investors -- the year-over-year growth translated to an extra 26 cent dividend on every share -- its changing fortunes also highlight some major, and lasting, political and economic shifts that may have long-lasting effects for the motorcycle market."

So, the bad news?

Gasoline costs too much.

The good news? And there's lots of it--

People are trying to save. They're trying every way they know how to use and burn less gas.

That's good for the air we breathe.

It's good for putting less pollution in our atmosphere and air.

It's good for manufacturing in America. (At least so far).

It's good for exports for the nation, hopefully, potentially.

It's good for jobs.

It's good for the middle class in the country.

It's great for Kansas City.

Link: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/08/02/harley-davidson-sales-rise-high-gas-prices/

Two bad headlines with negative indicators for the president

First this one:

Economic Fears Hurting Obama, Poll Indicates

Then this:

Public's Opinion of Supreme Court Drops After Health Care Law Decision

This is one crazy, crazy election year, isn't it, folks?

Romney's imploding but the president is eroding.

Links: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/19/us/politics/poll-shows-economic-fears-undercutting-obama-support.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120719

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/19/us/politics/publics-opinion-of-court-drops-after-health-care-law-decision.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120719

Is China fighting "the next war" while the US is fighting the "last war"?

For anyone who's read about or studied war, there is a famous line of thought that too many losing sides were always fighting the "last war", the previous war.

With the US still spending at least $711 million dollars per year on war and weapons of war, I think the likelihood is high that the US is still, in fact, fighting World War II or Vietnam or something, while China realizes that spending on their people and society and business and their economy is the "next war."

China is working hard and spending big on manufacturing, period, but on photovoltaic cells and solar technology, specifically, apparently and that may be, in fact, that "next war" at present.

It's fairly well accepted as truth that China is, right now, manufacturing lots of solars panels and dumping them on our American market.

The fact is, it's been widely accepted that whatever country owns solar energy in general, but photovoltaic cells, specifically, owns the next century.

Maybe we need to wise up.

And fast.

Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=31825