How Insane This Republican President Is

Extending the most bizarre Presidency in the history of our nation, bar none, at this moment, this same President's own political party is creating bills to undo the man's own very recent handiwork.

GOP Talks of Bill to Thwart Tariffs

Here's what's happening:

Republican lawmakers are openly discussing legislation to limit President Donald Trump’s trade powers after the White House detailed plans last week to impose global tariffs on U.S. imports of steel and aluminum.

It seems Benedict Donald decided, out of the blue and on his own, that he thought we should put tariffs, taxes on aluminum and steel because, you know, we just aren't a wealthy enough country yet. Once he made the decision, he created unilateral Executive Orders, taxing these more, trade agreements and partners be damned.

Now, bad as that is, what's great is that his own political party realizes and understands how crazy this all is, so they're writing a bill to limit his own very powers so he doesn't pull this kind of nonsense in the future.

Ya' just gotta' love these Republicans.

Well, when they aren't destroying the nation or environment or some such, anyway.

This is, as I have said before, the unprecedented Presidency, without doubt.

The Trans Pacific Trade Agreement Vote Today!!

Today is the House vote on fast-tracking the Trans Pacific Partnership.

Republicans need every Democratic vote, and Democrats are under increasing pressure from the White House and from business groups to agree to it.

Please call the congressional switchboard---202-224-312-- and ask to be connected with your representative. Then leave word at his or her office that you oppose fast track and you don't want the Trans Pacific Trade Agreement.

The Biggest--and Worst---Trade Deal Ever You Need to Know About

The biggest trade deal ever, in the history of the nation, is being considered right now and most people know very little or nothing at all of it.

It is the Trans-Pacific Partnership or the TPP and here, in only 2 minutes and 26 seconds, are some very important facts about it.



As ever, please take a moment to write your Congressional representatives in the House of Representatives and the Senate and heck, for the matter, the President himself and tell him your thoughts on this:

Contact the U.S. Congress and the White House

Thank you, in advance.

And enjoy your Sunday and keep safe and warm out there, if you got snow and GO PATRIOTS!

First NAFTA and now the TPP

Are you following this Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations that are going on?

Learn more here:

Trans-Pacific Partnership: The biggest trade deal

The big story in America not being reported

There is a huge story right now in America that is not just being under-reported.  It's very nearly not being reported at all.

And the reason why it's not being reported is because it's not in the interests (read: profits) of the big media companies to report it.

Not even Fox "News."

What's not being reported is the ruling Monday by the Washington, DC Court of Appeals on "net neuttrality." That is, internet neutrality.

First, what it is:

Net neutrality (also network neutrality or Internet neutrality) is the principle that Internet service providers and governments should treat all data on theInternet equally, not discriminating or charging differentially by user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, and modes of communication.

And the reason this effects you and me is this is about who gets the internet and how much they pay for it, ultimately.  As ever, the wealthy will have theirs.  Everyone else will either pay through the nose for it or get little of it at all, or none, in plenty of cases.

And what happened Monday?  This:

Broadcast nightly news shows completely ignored the day's landmark court ruling striking down federal net neutrality regulations, an omission that deals a huge disservice to the public audience and a boon to the news outlets' parent corporations.

Net neutrality -- the principle that corporate internet providers should provide equal access to content for subscribers -- was dealt a serious blow the morning of January 14 when the D.C. Court of Appeals invalidatedthe Federal Communications Commission's requirement that providers offer equal access to online information, regardless of the source. Prior to the ruling, the FCC prevented internet providers from blocking (or slowing down access to) content in order to benefit their own business interests.

That evening, neither NBC, CBS, nor ABC acknowledged the ruling in their evening news broadcasts.

Here's why that's important -- NBC is owned by Comcast Corporation, which bills itself as the nation's largest high-speed Internet provider. CBS' parent company is CBS Corporation, which also owns multiple sports networks and Showtime, while ABC is part of The Walt Disney Company empire, also the owner of ESPN.

We've known, forever, really, that "them that has, gets," sure.  The rich get richer, the poor get, well, little to nothing and poorer. Unfortunately, humans being how we are, it's one more truth of the human condition. 

But it doesn't have to be that way and this is one place where the government should step in, make it right and make certain the internet is not only available but available, reasonably--if not even free, for pity's sake--for everyone.

And the reason is not just decency or fairness, either, by any means. The reason the internet needs to be available is actually, also for even the benefit and competitiveness of the entire nation.  You want a productive nation? You want a productive, well-educated population?  Well, you don't do it, even now, let alone in the future by making the internet only available to and for those who can afford it. Besides being even inhumane, it's not good national policy and it keeps people from being informed and educated.  

You want to cut off productivity and education in America, then vote against net neutrality and for the corporations.  Want to see a more intelligent answer to all this?  Look no further than "Socialist" Europe:

US Consumers Paying More, Getting Less For Internet Than Europe

The thing that's being ignored in all this is that we need net neutrailty for international competitiveness, not just for lining the pockets of the already-wealthy and the corporations.

That's the "bottome line."  We need it not just for the fairness and decency and humanity of it all, we need it sto stay competitive, nationally and internationally. Merely letting the corporations have their way with us, in this case, as in the case of our health care system, makes us weaker as a nation.

You want to weaken America?

Cut us off from education, information and technology.

That'll do it.

That and killing us with obscenely, even immorally too-high health care.

Link:  Net neutrality - Wikipedia

China's control and growth and their--and the world's--future

If you didn't think China was a big enough player already in the world economies and markets and weren't concerned about where they already are and where they're headed, maybe you should be now.

First, a definition:  "rare earth" materials are in chemistry, oxides of the rare-earth metals. They were once thought to be elements themselves. They are widely distributed in the earth's crust and are fairly abundant, although they were once thought to be very scarce. Generally, the name of an earth is formed from the name of its element by replacing -um with -a; e.g., the earth of cerium is ceria. Mixed rare earths are used in glassmaking, ceramic glazes, glass-polishing abrasives, carbon arc-light electrode cores, and catalysts for petroleum refining. Individual purified rare earths have many uses, e.g., in laser, fiber-optic transmission amplifiers, and night-vision goggles. Important rare-earth minerals include bastnasite, cerite, euxenite, gadolinite, monazite, and samarskite.


There are 17 of them, too, by the way.


Okay, that said, there's two more things you need to know about these "rare earths", as they are called.


First, they're needed for new technology products:  The 17 rare earth elements are used in high-tech electronics, magnets and batteries, with applications in hybrid cars, renewable energy, computer monitors and weapons.


The second--and maybe most important thing you need to know about these rare earths is that China controls 97 percent of global supplies of the elements and, oh yeah, they use quotas and taxes to limit exports.


Can you say "Got the world by the cajone's?"


Read on:  


China slashed the export quota by 40 percent this year and plans to trim it further next year. It has already announced increased export taxes on rare earths in 2011.

China's export restrictions have caused "world prices for some of the rare earths to rise dramatically higher than China's domestic prices," which has hindered efforts in other countries to develop expertise in the manufacturing of clean technology products, USTR said.

"In September 2010, China reportedly imposed a de facto ban on all exports of rare earths to Japan, causing even more concern among China's trading partners," USTR said.

China says its curbs are for environmental reasons and to manage supplies.

Outside of an out-and-out, old-fashioned war, can you imagine a better way to both bring the rest of the world to its knees or to control where technology is going than by owning and controlling---and limiting the distribution of--these rare earths?

Hang on to your hats, folks, the next century looks like it's gonna' be a bumpy ride.


Even if you ignore the fact that Republicans are taking over the House of Representatives next January.


Link:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101223/pl_nm/us_usa_china_trade;_ylt=AtAIHmO5uNWhHph1t1bmb6JH2ocA;_ylu=X3oDMTNmdHU3bWJqBGFzc2V0Ay9zL25tLzIwMTAxMjIzL3BsX25tL3VzX3VzYV9jaGluYV90cmFkZQRjY29kZQNtcF9lY184XzEwBGNwb3MDNgRwb3MDNgRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3JpZXMEc2xrA3VzdGhyZWF0ZW5zdw--

A bullet, dodged

Did you hear that sound?

It was the sound of all of us, here in the US, dodging a bullet.

I believe that was done this past long holiday weekend when the international markets tumbled on news of Dubai's default on their loans.

Actually, I guess it's technically not a default, they just asked if they could not repay their loans for 6 months. If you're the banker, it's a default, though.

Anyway, the markets tumbled Wednesday night.

Luckily for us and the world, it was our national Thanksgiving holiday so our trading markets were closed. Had they been open, I feel sure our markets would have emotionally, psychologically and, really, understandably reacted to this news and been set back with a down trading day. There's no telling how much it would have dropped, if at all, if I'm right.

Then, the next international trading day (our Thanksgiving night), the markets came back and were mostly up so by the time we had our partial trading day on Friday, all the bad news was buffered by this second round of better news.

A friend and I predicted a down day on the markets Friday and, as it turned out, we were right.

What I'm saying is that, with the international markets taking a hit last Wednesday, if ours had been open the next day, we likely would have tumbled--and a good deal, I believe--and then, that night, there could was likely a strong chance those same international markets would have reacted to that, too, and negatively.

Of course this is all speculation but I will say that I'm not the only one that thinks that if there is one more big financial problem any time soon, the whole international deck of cards is in fairly precarious shape and it will be tough on this already-weak system.

Here's hoping we skate by.

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20091130/wl_time/08599194339200