“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
That he is creating an effective negative interest rate by adding a 2% cash-out fee at the Fed discount window. No longer can banks make free money by borrowing from the Fed at 0.25% and holding two years, and selling at 1.95%. They will need to push their reserves out as consumer loans and buy corporate bonds.
He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.
He that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.
Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.
If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
The Wizard and the Munchkins have wasted 3 years talking about jobs but doing nothing about them. The Wizard wasted three years on healthcare, on watered-down finacial reform with Dodd-Frank, a troop surge in Afghan, and a mis-allocated stimulus program. He talked about jobs but did nothing about creating them.
The GOP. They wasted three years trying to regain power. When they got it, they wasted a year trying to guarantee the Bush tax cuts remain in place, cutting entitlements, and protecting their constituency. Jobs? Well they did talk about them. Doing anything about them? Not s0 much.
Nothing can be done in the short run. Whatever Obama offers up, if it make sense at all, should have been started 3 years ago.
Do the boys in OZ really care? Evidently not. They have been on vacation for the last month.
With Obama set to lay out his plans in a Sept. 8 address to Congress, the administration is focusing on cuts targeted at middle-income Americans to spur consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. ...
“You say you’re the party of tax cuts?” Obama said before the annual Metro Detroit Central Labor Council rally. “Well then, prove you’ll fight just as hard for tax cuts for middle- class families as you do for oil companies and the most affluent Americans.”
Having 420,000 Israelis protesting in the streets, boobie, it has rocked allen's whirled.
The Palestinians are about to have the UN proclaim the Pali's own legitimate City-State, while the Israeli public has obviously tired of the charades propagated by their government. Which will limit the options available to Bibi.
To conflate allen with either Israel or Judaism, a fools errand.
He is just a character in the fiction, not a representative of anything real.
Obama is more interested in speaking with his constituents, finding safe harbor at union gatherings, pandering to the union leader thugs, like Hoffa.
He is more Gore like everyday, having no interest in moving out of his comfort zone. 1 more year of he and his family living it up at the WH, then it's back to Chicago, living the life of an Ex President for the rest of his days.
You can't go back to relying on 70% of the GNP being based on consuming goods made in China. That Pomegranate has been squeezed dry.
We need programs that:
* Is non-consumption oriented. * Leverages federal dollars at least 4 x 1 with private capital. Tax credits, the most obvious. * Projects that replace energy imports. * US labor intensive. * Re-orient construction away from single homes. * Prevent contractors from using illegal immigrants for labor. * Produces facilities that generate income or fees which are economically viable. * Utilize US sourced and produced goods and services. * Projects that consider the need to revalue labor input resulting in higher incomes along with higher productivity. * Programs that can be funded through community banks and not money center banks and not Wall Street.
My first project that would generate fees would be a supermax prison for convicted financial felons where part of their sentence would be to pay for their own incarceration.
After the midterm election, the incumbent party holds more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives than it did after the preceding midterm election. (FALSE)
The incumbent-party nominee gets at least two-thirds of the vote on the first ballot at the nominating convention. (TRUE)
The incumbent-party candidate is the sitting president. (TRUE)
There is no third-party or independent candidacy that wins at least five percent of the vote. (TRUE)
The economy is not in recession during the campaign. (Probably TRUE)
Real (constant-dollar) per capita economic growth during the term equals or exceeds mean growth for the preceding two terms. (FALSE)
The administration achieves a major policy change during the term, on the order of the New Deal or the first-term Reagan “revolution.” (TRUE)
There has been no major social unrest during the term, sufficient to cause deep concerns about the unraveling of society. (TRUE)
There is no broad recognition of a scandal that directly touches the president. (TRUE)
There has been no military or foreign policy failure during the term, substantial enough that it appears to undermine America’s national interests significantly or threaten its standing in the world. (UNCERTAIN)
There has been a military or foreign policy success during the term substantial enough to advance America’s national interests or improve its standing in the world. (FALSE)
The incumbent-party candidate is charismatic or is a national hero. (FALSE)
The challenger is not charismatic and is not a national hero. (TRUE)
If six or more of these statements are false, the incumbent party loses.
Where President Obama left America's trade interests untended, I recognize the job-creating potential of international commerce. I will create the "Reagan Economic Zone," a partnership among countries committed to free enterprise and free trade. It will serve as a powerful engine for opening markets to our goods and services, and also a mechanism for confronting nations like China that violate trade rules while free-riding on the international system. I will not stand by while China pursues an economic development policy that relies on the unfair treatment of U.S. companies and the theft of their intellectual property. I have no interest in starting a trade war with China, but I cannot accept our current trade surrender.
As anon noted, a while back, ethanol "mandates" might be required to force the oil companies to blend the cellulosic ethanol into the fuel that is available at the pump.
He called this classical Mao.
The past Republican President, GW Bush and HIS administrators at EPA mandated an ethanol blend be used in Phoenix and Tucson, each summer season.
To create jobs, Obama could announce he is minting those platinum coins, and that the Treasury will be out of the credit market for the rest of his tenure.
That is a result of the Mandates passed under GW Bush. If you didn't have those Mandates there is no way in hell that the oil companies would be adding ethanol to gasoline.
And, your gasoline would be a hell of a lot more expensive. Some Academic Studies put it around $0.80/gal More expensive.
The Solar, and Wind Industries are being driven by Mandates from states like California, and Iowa/New Jersy for the utilities to buy a certain amount of "Renewable" energy-gemerated electricity.
The Euros tried a long period of "small government/no mandates/no regulation." It was called Feudalism, or "The Dark Ages."
It amazing for someone who doesn't read this blog to often, I knew exactly what the answer to that question was going to be before scrolling past the picture.
Its like knowing whats going on in a soap opera after being away from it for ten years.
You're right. Those fires are Bad for Texas, but great for Perry's political career. Gives him a perfect excuse to skip that debate.
He would love to skip all debates until Palin gets in the race. He knows that with Palin in, she'll draw the fire, and he'll be able to "slide on through."
The prospect of convicting former President Hosni Mubarak in the deaths of hundreds of protesters during last winter's revolution has been complicated by the testimony of four high-ranking police officers that supports the toppled leader.
“At least one of those killed, Furkan Dogan, was shot at extremely close range.
Mr. Dogan sustained wounds to the face, back of the skull, back and left leg.
That suggests he may already have been lying wounded when the fatal shot was delivered, as suggested by witness accounts to that effect.”
The four-member panel, led by Sir Geoffrey Palmer, a former prime minister of New Zealand, appears with these words to raise the possibility of an execution or something close.
Dogan, born in upstate New York, was an aspiring doctor. Little interested in politics, he’d won a lottery to travel on the Gaza-bound vessel. The report says of him and the other eight people killed that,
“No evidence has been provided to establish that any of the deceased were armed with lethal weapons.”
I met Dogan’s father, Ahmet, a professor at Erciyes University in Kayseri, last year in Ankara: His grief was as deep as his dismay at U.S. evasiveness. It’s hard to imagine any other circumstances in which the slaying in international waters, at point-blank range, of a U.S. citizen by forces of a foreign power would prompt such a singular American silence.
It’s hard to imagine any other circumstances in which the slaying in international waters, at point-blank range, of a U.S. citizen by forces of a foreign power would prompt such a singular American silence.
“It’s a typical case where coalition considerations trumped strategic thinking, and that’s the tragedy,” Shlomo Avineri, an Israeli political scientist, told me. “Given the Palestinian issue at the U.N., and relations with the new Egypt, we could use strategic wisdom.”
That’s right. Instead, locked in its siege mentality, led by the nose by Lieberman and his ilk — unable to grasp the change in the Middle East driven by the Arab demand for dignity and freedom, inflexible on expanding settlements, ignoring U.S. prodding that it apologize — Israel is losing one of its best friends in the Muslim world, Turkey. The expulsion last week of the Israeli ambassador was a debacle foretold.
Israeli society, as it has shown through civic protest, deserves much better.
“We need not apologize,” Netanyahu thundered Sunday — and repeated the phrase three times. He’s opted for a needless road to an isolation that weakens Israel and undermines the strategic interests of its closest ally, the United States. Not that I expect Obama to raise his voice about this any more than he has over Dogan.
You can follow Roger Cohen on Twitter at twitter.com/nytimescohen.
The Utilities have been fighting Solar, and Wind as hard as possible (after all, most of them own coal-fired/gas-fired power plants.)
However, Obama's appointee at FERC has won a round against them.
In what has been called the most significant act of reform in years for power distribution in the United States, FERC Order No. 1000 will help solar and wind projects overcome a significant hurdle that has held up the development of more than 25 GW of solar projects and an uncounted number of wind farms nationwide for lack of transmission.
At the end of August, the final day for a rehearing of the controversial rule passed. Despite heated opposition from large non-renewable energy providers, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) ruling, initiated by pro-renewable FERC chief Jon Wellinghof, appointed by President Obama in 2009, is now law.
Source: Clean Technica (http://s.tt/13bY8)
In what has been called the most significant act of reform in years for power distribution in the United States, FERC Order No. 1000 will help solar and wind projects overcome a significant hurdle that has held up the development of more than 25 GW of solar projects and an uncounted number of wind farms nationwide for lack of transmission.
At the end of August, the final day for a rehearing of the controversial rule passed. Despite heated opposition from large non-renewable energy providers, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) ruling, initiated by pro-renewable FERC chief Jon Wellinghof, appointed by President Obama in 2009, is now law.
What could cause the CEO of Entergy to wake up sobbing?
A nightmare about my town, or yours, building their own Wind/Solar Farm.
Solar Panel/Wind Turbine Manufacturers in Arizona/Idaho/Pa selling panels, and turbines to towns/counties in Az/Id/Pa to be owned by local folks, employing local folks, producing electricity for local folks, with the Profits going to local folks, and spent in the local economy.
Yeah, that'll cause nightmares at Entergy/Duke/FPL Headquarters.
Public pessimism about the direction of the country has jumped to its highest level in nearly three years, erasing the sense of hope that followed President Obama’s inauguration and pushing his approval ratings to a record low, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
More than 60 percent of those surveyed say they disapprove of the way the president is handling the economy and, what has become issue No. 1, the stagnant jobs situation. Just 43 percent now approve of the job he is doing overall, a new career low; 53 percent disapprove, a new high...
Nonetheless, current trends are highly unfavorable for the president. By 2 to 1, more Americans now say the administration’s economic policies are making the economy worse rather than better. The number who say those policies have helped has been chopped in half since the start of the year. The percentage of Americans disapproving of how Obama is doing when it comes to creating jobs spiked 10 percentage points higher since July.
Of the more than six in 10 who now disapprove of Obama’s work on jobs and the economy, nearly half of all Americans “strongly” disapprove...
Q, in the real world you would figure that 25GW would yield about 8 GW (Solar and Wind only have about a .30 to conversion factor. Yeah, I know; .30 X 25 = 7.5, but there's no use engaging in false precision, because, depending on location you could be looking at anywhere from .22 (really bad location,) to .38, or higher (really, really good location.) 8 is a nice easy number to work with. :) Also, you can figure that most of the projects, planned at this time are in the more favorable areas, I would think.
Anyways, 8 X 24 X 365 would equal 70,080 Gigawatt hours/yr. Or approx 70 Million MWhrs/yr, or 70 Billion KWhrs/yr.
The plan is detailed in a 160-page book published by the Romney campaign titled “Believe in America: Mitt Romney’s Plan for Jobs and Economic Growth.” It includes 10 specific actions he would take on his first day in the Oval Office.
“Each proposal is rooted in the conservative premise that government itself cannot create jobs,” Romney wrote Tuesday in a USA Today op-ed previewing his plan. “At best, government can provide a framework in which economic growth can occur. All too often, however, government gets in the way. The past three years of unparalleled government expansion have retaught that lesson all too well.”
Romney wrote that he would keep marginal income tax rates as well as tax rates on savings and investments low while eliminating taxes on interest dividends and capital gains for middle-income taxpayers. He would overhaul the corporate tax rate as well while peeling back regulations, including eliminating President Obama’s health-care law.
Romney also wants to create a “Reagan Economic Zone,” a partnership among countries committed to free enterprise and free trade as a mechanism to open markets for U.S. goods and services while confronting countries such as China that violate trade rules...
Before Romney delivered his jobs speech (scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time at a North Las Vegas truck dealership), his Republican and Democratic opponents preempted it by attacking his record of creating jobs as governor of Massachusetts between 2003 and 2007.
The article says nothing about GW 'hours'. Is that just assumed?
I'm trying to figure the magnitude of 25 GW in the big picture.
What is "total U.S." annual energy consumption?
[Reason for the question: I have seen statistics showing renewables represent 11-12% of US total energy production. I've seen solar represents 1% or less. Even if it doubles each year for a number of years, it is still coming off a low base. And each year it becomes harder to sustain the doubling process.
What I miss in all of these discussions is a basis of comparison. I have tried googling it a number of times but have been unable to come up with that total US energy consumption number.]
...All of this is not to say that the government shouldn’t be doing what it can to promote clean energy. It is to say that the government isn’t very good when it tries to directly create private-sector jobs.
In 2009, Josh Lerner of Harvard Business School published a useful book called “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.” He found that for each instance in which the government has successfully promoted entrepreneurial activity, there is a pile of instances in which it failed.
Lerner details case after case where public investments produced little or nothing. But he also makes an important distinction between government efforts to set the table for entrepreneurial activity and government efforts to create jobs directly. Setting the table means building an underlying context for innovation: funding academic research, establishing clear laws, improving immigration policies, building infrastructure and keeping capital gains tax rates low. Lerner notes that one of the most important government initiatives to encourage innovation was the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, which gave universities automatic title to research paid by the federal government.
These table-setting efforts work. The problem is the results are indirect, the jobs take a long time to emerge and the market may end up favoring old-energy sources instead of shiny new ones. So politicians invariably go for the instant rush. They try to use taxpayer money to create private jobs now. But they end up wasting billions.
We should pursue green innovation. We just shouldn’t imagine these efforts will create the jobs we need.
Nowhere was California's old technological ethos more pronounced than in agriculture, where great Californians such as William Mulholland, creator of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, and Pat Brown, who forged the state water project, created the greatest water-delivery system since the Roman Empire. Their effort brought water from the ice-bound Sierra Nevada mountains down to the state's dry but fertile valleys and to the great desert metropolis of Southern California. Now, largely at the behest of greens, California agriculture is being systematically cut down by regulation. In an attempt to protect a small fish called the Delta smelt, upward of 200,000 acres of prime farmland have been idled, according to the state's Department of Conservation. Even in the current "wet" cycle, California's agricultural industry, which exports roughly $14 billion annually, is slowly being decimated. Unemployment in some Central Valley towns tops 30 percent, and in cases even 40 percent...
California's pain is not restricted to farming towns. The state's regulatory vigilantes have erected a labyrinth of rules that increasingly makes doing almost anything that might contribute to increased carbon emissions—manufacturing, conventional energy, home construction—extraordinarily onerous. Not surprisingly, the state has not gained middle-skilled jobs (those requiring two years of college or more) for a decade, while the nation boosted them by 5 percent and archrival Texas by a stunning 16 percent over the same time period.
There is little chance that the jobs lost in these fields will ever be recovered under the current regime. As decent blue-collar and midlevel jobs disappear, California has gone from a rate of inequality about the national average in 1970, to among the most unequal in terms of income. The supposed solution to this—Gov. Jerry Brown's promise of 500,000 "green jobs"—is being shown for what it really is, the kind of fantasy you tell young children so they will go to sleep...
ON Thursday, President Obama will deliver a major speech on America’s employment crisis. But too often, what is lost in the call for job creation is a clear idea of what jobs we want to create.
I recently led a research team to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, where Gov. Rick Perry, a contender for the Republican presidential nomination, has advertised his track record of creating jobs. From January 2000 to January 2010, employment in the Valley grew by a remarkable 42 percent, compared with our nation’s anemic 1 percent job growth.
But the median wage for adults in the Valley between 2005 and 2008 was a stunningly low $8.14 an hour (in 2008 dollars). One in four employed adults earned less than $6.19 an hour. The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas reported that the per capita income in the two metropolitan statistical areas spanning the Valley ranked lowest and second lowest in the nation.
These workers aren’t alone. Last year, one in five American adults worked in jobs that paid poverty-level wages. Worker displacement contributes to the problem. People who are laid off from previously stable employment, if they are lucky enough to find work, take a median wage hit of over 20 percent, which can persist for decades...
Both capitalism and socialism ran short and have been proven wrong in the economical model or social model that became self-destructive; eventually, the economy runs from diminishing demand to diminishing return, or vice versa.
If we use the living standard as the equilibrium position to the supply line of the circuitry of wealth balanced by both of the diminishing return and diminishing demand.
I call my paradigm on the wealth circuitry in economical and social growth that supports and balances both accumulated wealth and consumable wealth; and it created a “Z” shaped development running both on the diminishing demand and diminishing return; which is based on the assumption, the route above the standard of living equal in length with the one below the standard of living is in agreement of its living standard to sustain a viable growth, which contains;
• The base line as the diminishing return where the societies kept peace with its populace that consumable wealth that cause economical displacement like with its negative growth or no growth; it provides entitlement or social programs with non-productive individual citizens for example, 27% of its population on welfare with add-on with subsidies to sustain a standard of living.
• The top line as the diminishing demand that ended with accumulated wealth favors of concentrated wealth owned by individuals that ended with profitless, 1% holds 27% of the global or national wealth, plus those with extra wealth is not in production yields to no growth.
• And the diagonal line that connected to both ends is the support of the price and value in the middle is the standard of living which contains the most of the productive individuals who is moving up and down the ladder of growth.
If more of the wealth accumulated than the wealth consumed, then it causes saturation of the wealth. The diminishing demand under the standard of living agreement made the demand idle because of the shortage of consumption. In the process, the standard of living will go down to meet its demand after the deflationary measure to make it consumable. In reverse, the wealth consumed is over the wealth accumulated, as it is less profitable. Then, it triggers the inflationary measures to aggregate demand to accumulate more wealth in its diminishing return mode; eventually it will balance itself again with the agreement of the standard living with a viable growth.
It is not the supply and demand. It is rather the circuitry of wealth under the spells of the lower living standard that diminishing demand is being part of the deflationary measure. If the accumulated wealth became saturated, then it means the lower living standard that made the demand finite like lesser demand in loan of dollars in ECB.
I am certain I am not being introspective; I may twist the theory a little; but the proof of the lower living standard in Europe made it plausible.
FUCK YOU YOU PIECE OF JEWISH SHIT Tue Sep 06, 08:02:00 AM EDT
Allen’s response was, “Thanks!”
Bob’s comment remains, while Allen’s seems to have been taken down…Hmm
Allen does not care that bob holds this opinion. Allen does care about his response and the appearance of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is a terrible thing to waste on the mundane.
Yes, DR, there are marches in Israel. Yet, there is still not a single report of the police or IDF having opened fire on the protestors - much less bringing in foreign mercenaries to do the dirty work.
How are things working out in that regard with your delightful "Arab Spring"?
The Israeli fired on civilians, back on 2008, allen, killed about 800 of them, as I recall.
The entire Islamic Arc is currently in turmoil. Whatever the threat those regimes in the region may have posed to the US, it is now greatly diminished. A good thing, as far as it goes.
The Assad regime is unable to export terrorism, being tied up with internal civil strife, there in Syria.
The Egyptians will have their "change" and be able to eat it, too.
All in all, the "Arab Spring" is serving US interests, well.
New Russian immigrants are not only being channeled into the Occupied Territories, but also into the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), since military service is compulsory in Israel. This is occurring at the same time that a growing number of native-born Israelis are refusing to serve in the Occupied Territories. And so these new immigrants are victims as well as occupiers. They cannot leave Israel and they cannot realistically refuse military service.
In addition, they are not really prepared, even linguistically, for the military assignments given them. Consider the Kafkaesque quality of the following exchange between newly immigrated Russians and local Palestinians, as reported by Thomas Friedman, the foreign affairs correspondent of the New York Times:
“I am trying to get to al-Funduk village - 10 minutes from here by car,” Luay Tayyem, a Palestinian aid worker, told me as he stood in line to get out of Qalqilya. “Today it will take me three hours. When I tell the soldiers I am going to al-Funduk they ask me in broken Hebrew: ‘Where is that?’ They speak to each other in Russian. I speak better Hebrew than they do.... I have been here 30 years, they’ve been here two.”
Source: “Israel’s West Bank Wall Won’t Solve Problems,” New York Times
This fellow obviously had no trouble targeting members of the National Guard. Seems that he sought them out.
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Authorities have released the name of the man who shot five uniformed National Guard members at a Nevada IHOP, killing two of them and another person in a hail of gunfire.
Carson City Sheriff Kenny Furlong says the man was 32-year-old Eduardo Sencion of Carson City. He says Sencion worked at a family business in South Lake Tahoe.
Historical circumstances produced the raw material: the deindustrialization and financialization of America since about 1970 has spawned an increasingly downscale white middle class - without job security (or even without jobs), with pensions and health benefits evaporating and with their principal asset deflating in the collapse of the housing bubble. Their fears are not imaginary; their standard of living is shrinking.
What do the Democrats offer these people? Essentially nothing. Democratic Leadership Council-style "centrist" Democrats were among the biggest promoters of disastrous trade deals in the 1990s that outsourced jobs abroad: NAFTA, World Trade Organization, permanent most-favored-nation status for China. At the same time, the identity politics/lifestyle wing of the Democratic Party was seen as a too illegal immigrant-friendly by downscaled and outsourced whites.
While Democrats temporized, or even dismissed the fears of the white working class as racist or nativist, Republicans went to work. To be sure, the business wing of the Republican Party consists of the most energetic outsourcers, wage cutters and hirers of sub-minimum wage immigrant labor to be found anywhere on the globe. But the faux-populist wing of the party, knowing the mental compartmentalization that occurs in most low-information voters, played on the fears of that same white working class to focus their anger on scapegoats that do no damage to corporations' bottom lines: instead of raising the minimum wage, let's build a wall on the Southern border (then hire a defense contractor to incompetently manage it). Instead of predatory bankers, it's evil Muslims. Or evil gays. Or evil abortionists.
How do they manage to do this? Because Democrats ceded the field. Above all, they do not understand language. Their initiatives are posed in impenetrable policy-speak: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The what? - can anyone even remember it? No wonder the pejorative "Obamacare" won out. Contrast that with the Republicans' Patriot Act. You're a patriot, aren't you? Does anyone at the GED level have a clue what a Stimulus Bill is supposed to be? Why didn't the White House call it the Jobs Bill and keep pounding on that theme?
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - A man with an AK-47 assault rifle shot an entire group of five uniformed National Guard members eating breakfast at a Nevada IHOP on Tuesday, killing two of them and another person in a hail of gunfire.
Part of a grand conspiracy, or another lone gunman?
The reported content of Mr Obama's upcoming jobs speech, not enough to wad a shotgun.
Half-stepping to the beat of a lonesome drummer.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The economy weak and the public seething, President Barack Obama is expected to propose $300 billion in tax cuts and federal spending Thursday night to get Americans working again.
Last week, Turkey announced that the Israeli ambassador Gaby Levy was being expelled and all bilateral military agreements were suspended as it angrily rejected the findings of a United Nations probe into the deadly flotilla raid.
Now in his first official reaction since that announcement, Erdogan went even further.
“We are totally suspending our trade, military, defence industry relations,” Erdogan told reporters.
“Further sanctions” against Israel would follow, he added. ... Unlike other European countries which regard Hamas as a terrorist group, Turkey has refused to blacklist the Islamists who are the rulers of Gaza and Erdogan said he may pay a visit to Gaza, entering via neighbouring Egypt.
“We are talking with the Egyptians on this matter ... A trip to Gaza is not finalized yet,” Erdogan, who is due to visit Egypt next week, told reporters.
Such a visit would be bound to infuriate Israel but Erdogan seemed in no mood for diplomacy.
"President Obama's strategy is a pay phone strategy and we're living in a smartphone world," Romney said, adding that the president was trying to stuff quarters into a pay phone. "It's not connected any more, Mr. President!"
Praising business leaders like Apple's Steve Jobs, Romney said that he had the business credentials needed to get the economy back on track.
"I also know how to lead. I was in the business world for 25 years," he said.
Well, they were residents of Israel, living in the Gaza ghetto that were killed while they had no weapons, in hand.
Whether you consider them foreigners or Israelis, of no matter, to me.
They were people, civilians, who were abused by Israeli policies of the past 45 years, before they were killed in a military action that was not really vital Israeli interests.
Exemplified that the operation ended when the US withheld the permits for further munitions shipments. The Israeli did not dig into their ammunition reserves, no they went back to their bases.
Source: “Israel’s West Bank Wall Won’t Solve Problems,” New York Times
Tue Sep 06, 06:16:00 PM EDT
:-D)) Yeah, I know when I'm in a quandary (say like Nurse Bloomberg) I always go to the New York Times.
You have got to be kidding! This is the paper that papered over the murders of millions of Russians at the hands of Uncle Joe.
Once more, DR, according to the UN, the land dispute must be settled peacefully by the parties. The PA has not and will never agree to this; therefore, there will be war. One can only hope that eventually the Israelis will tire of the same old song and dance and make a last call.
The terrorist organization Hamas runs Gaza. When these friendly folk halt their unlawful attacks on Israel and swear to abide by a peace treaty recognizing Israel's right to exist, you come back and make your point. At the moment you are just spewing Arab agitprop.
More than 70 percent of people surveyed said the economy has not yet hit bottom. Most Americans still said the president inherited the nation's economic maladies from President George W. Bush rather than caused them, although that number was slipping.
Voters appeared to be looking for a new direction. By 44 percent to 40 percent, Americans now said they were more likely to vote Republican next year than for Obama's re-election.
In June, the president held the edge, 45 percent to 40 percent. The president was losing support from key groups, including political independents, women and Hispanic people.
allen, attempting to dehumanize the victims of Israeli military action.
While those victims in the Gaza are as dead of those militant Muslims in Syria that are being targeted by the Assad regime in the city of Hama and the surrounding area.
Islamic militants that fire on the legitimate authorities, used as an excuse to violence, by the governments of both Israel and Syria.
I cannot dehumanize non-humans. "People" who commit the vile atrocities so favored by your kith and kin are barbarians. Note: I did not say animals: animals behave better.
You are so blessed to have this site. Stick with it.
I'm far past Israel. I hate Allen's guts.
ReplyDeleterisky
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteI'm far past Israel. I hate Allen's guts.
risky
What a turd, what a great representative of the Jews.
Allen the IMMACULATE
Just one unread whinny shithole from Atlanta.
risky
FUCK YOU ALLEN
ReplyDeleteWHAT A GREAT REPRESENTATIVE OF YOUR JEWISH RACE
SAYING THAT KIND OF SHIT
risky
What could Obama say on Thursday to create jobs? Nothing...
ReplyDeleteWhat could Obama say on Thursday to create jobs?
ReplyDeleteThat he is creating an effective negative interest rate by adding a 2% cash-out fee at the Fed discount window. No longer can banks make free money by borrowing from the Fed at 0.25% and holding two years, and selling at 1.95%. They will need to push their reserves out as consumer loans and buy corporate bonds.
hee hee ole boobie is losing it yet again!
ReplyDeleteBobal, John Boanerges once said:
ReplyDeleteHe that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.
He that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.
Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.
If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
.
ReplyDeleteWhat Could Obama Say on Thursday to Create Jobs?
Nothing.
What can Obama do to create jobs?
Nothing, at least in the short run.
What can the rest of OZ do to create jobs?
Nothing.
The Wizard and the Munchkins have wasted 3 years talking about jobs but doing nothing about them. The Wizard wasted three years on healthcare, on watered-down finacial reform with Dodd-Frank, a troop surge in Afghan, and a mis-allocated stimulus program. He talked about jobs but did nothing about creating them.
The GOP. They wasted three years trying to regain power. When they got it, they wasted a year trying to guarantee the Bush tax cuts remain in place, cutting entitlements, and protecting their constituency. Jobs? Well they did talk about them. Doing anything about them? Not s0 much.
Nothing can be done in the short run. Whatever Obama offers up, if it make sense at all, should have been started 3 years ago.
Do the boys in OZ really care? Evidently not. They have been on vacation for the last month.
.
.
ReplyDelete"The only vice that cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy. The repentance of a hypocrite is itself hypocrisy."
.
What will Obama say?
ReplyDeleteWith Obama set to lay out his plans in a Sept. 8 address to Congress, the administration is focusing on cuts targeted at middle-income Americans to spur consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
...
“You say you’re the party of tax cuts?” Obama said before the annual Metro Detroit Central Labor Council rally. “Well then, prove you’ll fight just as hard for tax cuts for middle- class families as you do for oil companies and the most affluent Americans.”
While odds are even that Mr Perry will skip the GOP, to the consternation of the pundits.
ReplyDeleteBut he has a fire to deal with, in Texas. It could be unseemly for him to abandon the fire line.
600 homes have been turned to ash, already.
ReplyDeleteHaving 420,000 Israelis protesting in the streets, boobie, it has rocked allen's whirled.
ReplyDeleteThe Palestinians are about to have the UN proclaim the Pali's own legitimate City-State, while the Israeli public has obviously tired of the charades propagated by their government. Which will limit the options available to Bibi.
To conflate allen with either Israel or Judaism, a fools errand.
He is just a character in the fiction, not a representative of anything real.
Those electric cars, so essential to the battery swap plan that our old friend mika told us was the wave of the future, are being built in Turkey.
ReplyDeleteThe Turks, though, are going to be embargoing Israel, soon enough.
Guess it was a good thing that the Israeli electric car project was a bust. They'd not be able to buy the cars, to make the program run.
Putting the cart before the horse, probably cost some investors a dime, or two.
Obama is more interested in speaking with his constituents, finding safe harbor at union gatherings, pandering to the union leader thugs, like Hoffa.
ReplyDeleteHe is more Gore like everyday, having no interest in moving out of his comfort zone. 1 more year of he and his family living it up at the WH, then it's back to Chicago, living the life of an Ex President for the rest of his days.
Not a bad gig if you can get it.
Recall, gag, that Mr Gore won the popular vote, back in 2000.
ReplyDeleteMr Perry giving that effort his all, deep in the heart of Texas.
You can't go back to relying on 70% of the GNP being based on consuming goods made in China. That Pomegranate has been squeezed dry.
ReplyDeleteWe need programs that:
* Is non-consumption oriented.
* Leverages federal dollars at least 4 x 1 with private capital. Tax credits, the most obvious.
* Projects that replace energy imports.
* US labor intensive.
* Re-orient construction away from single homes.
* Prevent contractors from using illegal immigrants for labor.
* Produces facilities that generate income or fees which are economically viable.
* Utilize US sourced and produced goods and services.
* Projects that consider the need to revalue labor input resulting in higher incomes along with higher productivity.
* Programs that can be funded through community banks and not money center banks and not Wall Street.
My first project that would generate fees would be a supermax prison for convicted financial felons where part of their sentence would be to pay for their own incarceration.
The most amazing thing I've seen for awhile was First Solar's announcement that it now costs them $0.72/Watt to build a Solar Panel, and that
ReplyDeletein 2014 they're looking at $0.52/Watt.
This is a good Public Company, domiciled in Arizona, that has always achieved (actually, bettered) what they projected.
One of these days, when the market levels out, we Will install solar farms for $1.00/Watt.
That will change the nature of the World.
The 13 Keys to the Presidency
ReplyDeleteAfter the midterm election, the incumbent party holds more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives than it did after the preceding midterm election. (FALSE)
The incumbent-party nominee gets at least two-thirds of the vote on the first ballot at the nominating convention. (TRUE)
The incumbent-party candidate is the sitting president. (TRUE)
There is no third-party or independent candidacy that wins at least five percent of the vote. (TRUE)
The economy is not in recession during the campaign. (Probably TRUE)
Real (constant-dollar) per capita economic growth during the term equals or exceeds mean growth for the preceding two terms. (FALSE)
The administration achieves a major policy change during the term, on the order of the New Deal or the first-term Reagan “revolution.” (TRUE)
There has been no major social unrest during the term, sufficient to cause deep concerns about the unraveling of society. (TRUE)
There is no broad recognition of a scandal that directly touches the president. (TRUE)
There has been no military or foreign policy failure during the term, substantial enough that it appears to undermine America’s national interests significantly or threaten its standing in the world. (UNCERTAIN)
There has been a military or foreign policy success during the term substantial enough to advance America’s national interests or improve its standing in the world. (FALSE)
The incumbent-party candidate is charismatic or is a national hero. (FALSE)
The challenger is not charismatic and is not a national hero. (TRUE)
If six or more of these statements are false, the incumbent party loses.
Romney on China:
ReplyDeleteWhere President Obama left America's trade interests untended, I recognize the job-creating potential of international commerce. I will create the "Reagan Economic Zone," a partnership among countries committed to free enterprise and free trade. It will serve as a powerful engine for opening markets to our goods and services, and also a mechanism for confronting nations like China that violate trade rules while free-riding on the international system. I will not stand by while China pursues an economic development policy that relies on the unfair treatment of U.S. companies and the theft of their intellectual property. I have no interest in starting a trade war with China, but I cannot accept our current trade surrender.
I don't see how it's possible to "Overstate" the Enormity of this progress.
ReplyDeleteWe'll ignore, I'm sure, that it was Obama/Bush and the Progressives that pushed Solar while the Republicans fought it every step of the way.
Kind of like ethanol.
As anon noted, a while back, ethanol "mandates" might be required to force the oil companies to blend the cellulosic ethanol into the fuel that is available at the pump.
ReplyDeleteHe called this classical Mao.
The past Republican President, GW Bush and HIS administrators at EPA mandated an ethanol blend be used in Phoenix and Tucson, each summer season.
By anon's standard then:
GW Bush = Mao.
I disagree, wholeheartedly.
The rat previously said "no mandates necessary" and now he says "yes, mandates". Interesting change...
ReplyDeleteThe Federal government, while thoroughly Socialist, is not Communist.
ReplyDeleteThere is a difference.
No, I said that they'd not be needed, I think that is true, still today.
ReplyDeleteIf reality were to prove me wrong, mandates are not a new thing, for the Federals to implement.
They'd not be breaking new ground.
They'd not be Maoist.
The Federals would be operating on ratified precedent if they went the mandate route, instead of using import tariffs.
Tariffs being the preferred route, in my mind.
Tariffs being the classical Constitutional technique.
ReplyDeleteMandates, a reliance upon Federal Socialist precedents.
Tariffs would be preferred over mandates. Just as effective, greater Constitutional standing.
The point being, anon, mandates are not Maoism.
ReplyDeleteTo create jobs, Obama could announce he is minting those platinum coins, and that the Treasury will be out of the credit market for the rest of his tenure.
ReplyDeleteYou have 10% ethanol in your gasoline, now.
ReplyDeleteThat is a result of the Mandates passed under GW Bush. If you didn't have those Mandates there is no way in hell that the oil companies would be adding ethanol to gasoline.
And, your gasoline would be a hell of a lot more expensive. Some Academic Studies put it around $0.80/gal More expensive.
The Solar, and Wind Industries are being driven by Mandates from states like California, and Iowa/New Jersy for the utilities to buy a certain amount of "Renewable" energy-gemerated electricity.
ReplyDeleteThe Euros tried a long period of "small government/no mandates/no regulation." It was called Feudalism, or "The Dark Ages."
Headlines now tell US that 1,000 homes have been lost, in Texas.
ReplyDeleteI think Mr Perry will no-show that GOP debate. It is said that debates are not really his "thing", and he is surging ahead of Mr Romney, now.
He has nothing to lose, by skipping the debate and staying on the fire line.
No need for Mr Perry to be risky, now.
It amazing for someone who doesn't read this blog to often, I knew exactly what the answer to that question was going to be before scrolling past the picture.
ReplyDeleteIts like knowing whats going on in a soap opera after being away from it for ten years.
You're right. Those fires are Bad for Texas, but great for Perry's political career. Gives him a perfect excuse to skip that debate.
ReplyDeleteHe would love to skip all debates until Palin gets in the race. He knows that with Palin in, she'll draw the fire, and he'll be able to "slide on through."
He may have just gotten lucky. It might work.
You're just a Bright chick, Melody.
ReplyDelete:)
tis
ReplyDeleterisky
That's the key, Ms Mel, to ...
ReplyDelete... Entertainment.
Which is what this is all about.
Entertaining edification.
She be bright chick, that Melody
ReplyDeleterisky
an' Rat's a fool, like Allen...
ReplyDeleterisky
ReplyDeleteLos Angeles Times -
The prospect of convicting former President Hosni Mubarak in the deaths of hundreds of protesters during last winter's revolution has been complicated by the testimony of four high-ranking police officers that supports the toppled leader.
At least I can set up a user profile, boobie.
ReplyDeleteIt is not a risky thing to do.
ReplyDelete...
“At least one of those killed, Furkan Dogan, was shot at extremely close range.
Mr. Dogan sustained wounds to the face, back of the skull, back and left leg.
That suggests he may already have been lying wounded when the fatal shot was delivered, as suggested by witness accounts to that effect.”
The four-member panel, led by Sir Geoffrey Palmer, a former prime minister of New Zealand, appears with these words to raise the possibility of an execution or something close.
Dogan, born in upstate New York, was an aspiring doctor. Little interested in politics, he’d won a lottery to travel on the Gaza-bound vessel. The report says of him and the other eight people killed that,
“No evidence has been provided to establish that any of the deceased were armed with lethal weapons.”
I met Dogan’s father, Ahmet, a professor at Erciyes University in Kayseri, last year in Ankara: His grief was as deep as his dismay at U.S. evasiveness. It’s hard to imagine any other circumstances in which the slaying in international waters, at point-blank range, of a U.S. citizen by forces of a foreign power would prompt such a singular American silence.
ReplyDeleteIt’s hard to imagine any other circumstances in which the slaying in international waters, at point-blank range, of a U.S. citizen by forces of a foreign power would prompt such a singular American silence.
Entertaining edification
ReplyDeleteNice phrase but our ratto is the dumbest cock to walk the earth's walk
How in the world would our dumbish shit come up with entertaining edification
How???
risky
desert rat said...
ReplyDeleteAt least I can set up a user profile, boobie.
It is not a risky thing to do.
You are a genius.
risky
No, boobie, I am not a genius, but I am not an idiot, either.
ReplyDeleteYou well deserve the prize for which you are named.
“It’s a typical case where coalition considerations trumped strategic thinking, and that’s the tragedy,” Shlomo Avineri, an Israeli political scientist, told me. “Given the Palestinian issue at the U.N., and relations with the new Egypt, we could use strategic wisdom.”
ReplyDeleteThat’s right. Instead, locked in its siege mentality, led by the nose by Lieberman and his ilk — unable to grasp the change in the Middle East driven by the Arab demand for dignity and freedom, inflexible on expanding settlements, ignoring U.S. prodding that it apologize — Israel is losing one of its best friends in the Muslim world, Turkey. The expulsion last week of the Israeli ambassador was a debacle foretold.
Israeli society, as it has shown through civic protest, deserves much better.
“We need not apologize,” Netanyahu thundered Sunday — and repeated the phrase three times. He’s opted for a needless road to an isolation that weakens Israel and undermines the strategic interests of its closest ally, the United States. Not that I expect Obama to raise his voice about this any more than he has over Dogan.
You can follow Roger Cohen on Twitter at twitter.com/nytimescohen.
Back to sleep, not anything goin' on here.
ReplyDeleterisky
All secure, no risks here.
ReplyDeleteYour story line, boobie, is slipping away.
All that is left to fear, nothing.
The Utilities have been fighting Solar, and Wind as hard as possible (after all, most of them own coal-fired/gas-fired power plants.)
ReplyDeleteHowever, Obama's appointee at FERC has won a round against them.
In what has been called the most significant act of reform in years for power distribution in the United States, FERC Order No. 1000 will help solar and wind projects overcome a significant hurdle that has held up the development of more than 25 GW of solar projects and an uncounted number of wind farms nationwide for lack of transmission.
At the end of August, the final day for a rehearing of the controversial rule passed. Despite heated opposition from large non-renewable energy providers, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) ruling, initiated by pro-renewable FERC chief Jon Wellinghof, appointed by President Obama in 2009, is now law.
Source: Clean Technica (http://s.tt/13bY8)
In what has been called the most significant act of reform in years for power distribution in the United States, FERC Order No. 1000 will help solar and wind projects overcome a significant hurdle that has held up the development of more than 25 GW of solar projects and an uncounted number of wind farms nationwide for lack of transmission.
At the end of August, the final day for a rehearing of the controversial rule passed. Despite heated opposition from large non-renewable energy providers, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) ruling, initiated by pro-renewable FERC chief Jon Wellinghof, appointed by President Obama in 2009, is now law.
Source: Clean Technica (http://s.tt/13bY8)
Win on Transmission
What could cause the CEO of Entergy to wake up sobbing?
ReplyDeleteA nightmare about my town, or yours, building their own Wind/Solar Farm.
Solar Panel/Wind Turbine Manufacturers in Arizona/Idaho/Pa selling panels, and turbines to towns/counties in Az/Id/Pa to be owned by local folks, employing local folks, producing electricity for local folks, with the Profits going to local folks, and spent in the local economy.
Yeah, that'll cause nightmares at Entergy/Duke/FPL Headquarters.
Lots of smiles in "your town," though.
.
ReplyDelete...development of more than 25 GW of ...
What does that mean? What is the total US energy consumption in GW?
.
.
ReplyDeleteObama ratings sink to new lows as hope fades
Public pessimism about the direction of the country has jumped to its highest level in nearly three years, erasing the sense of hope that followed President Obama’s inauguration and pushing his approval ratings to a record low, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
More than 60 percent of those surveyed say they disapprove of the way the president is handling the economy and, what has become issue No. 1, the stagnant jobs situation. Just 43 percent now approve of the job he is doing overall, a new career low; 53 percent disapprove, a new high...
Nonetheless, current trends are highly unfavorable for the president. By 2 to 1, more Americans now say the administration’s economic policies are making the economy worse rather than better. The number who say those policies have helped has been chopped in half since the start of the year. The percentage of Americans disapproving of how Obama is doing when it comes to creating jobs spiked 10 percentage points higher since July.
Of the more than six in 10 who now disapprove of Obama’s work on jobs and the economy, nearly half of all Americans “strongly” disapprove...
Words are nice, but eventually people demand action
.
Q, in the real world you would figure that 25GW would yield about 8 GW (Solar and Wind only have about a .30 to conversion factor. Yeah, I know; .30 X 25 = 7.5, but there's no use engaging in false precision, because, depending on location you could be looking at anywhere from .22 (really bad location,) to .38, or higher (really, really good location.) 8 is a nice easy number to work with. :) Also, you can figure that most of the projects, planned at this time are in the more favorable areas, I would think.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, 8 X 24 X 365 would equal 70,080 Gigawatt hours/yr. Or approx 70 Million MWhrs/yr, or 70 Billion KWhrs/yr.
.
ReplyDeleteRomney to unveil plan for jobs, economy
The plan is detailed in a 160-page book published by the Romney campaign titled “Believe in America: Mitt Romney’s Plan for Jobs and Economic Growth.” It includes 10 specific actions he would take on his first day in the Oval Office.
“Each proposal is rooted in the conservative premise that government itself cannot create jobs,” Romney wrote Tuesday in a USA Today op-ed previewing his plan. “At best, government can provide a framework in which economic growth can occur. All too often, however, government gets in the way. The past three years of unparalleled government expansion have retaught that lesson all too well.”
Romney wrote that he would keep marginal income tax rates as well as tax rates on savings and investments low while eliminating taxes on interest dividends and capital gains for middle-income taxpayers. He would overhaul the corporate tax rate as well while peeling back regulations, including eliminating President Obama’s health-care law.
Romney also wants to create a “Reagan Economic Zone,” a partnership among countries committed to free enterprise and free trade as a mechanism to open markets for U.S. goods and services while confronting countries such as China that violate trade rules...
Romney's Jobs Plan
.
.
ReplyDeleteBefore Romney delivered his jobs speech (scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time at a North Las Vegas truck dealership), his Republican and Democratic opponents preempted it by attacking his record of creating jobs as governor of Massachusetts between 2003 and 2007.
.
Electricity Consumption in the U.S. is about 3,800,000,000 MWhrs/Yr.
ReplyDeleteSo, this 25 GW "Capacity" probably translates out to about 2% of our total use.
It's not the size of the present number, but the precedent, I'd think.
They're just removing one very large barrier that the Duke Energies, and Entergies have thrown up to keep their Oligopoly Powers.
.
ReplyDeleteThe article says nothing about GW 'hours'. Is that just assumed?
I'm trying to figure the magnitude of 25 GW in the big picture.
What is "total U.S." annual energy consumption?
[Reason for the question: I have seen statistics showing renewables represent 11-12% of US total energy production. I've seen solar represents 1% or less. Even if it doubles each year for a number of years, it is still coming off a low base. And each year it becomes harder to sustain the doubling process.
What I miss in all of these discussions is a basis of comparison. I have tried googling it a number of times but have been unable to come up with that total US energy consumption number.]
.
.
ReplyDeleteOops.
I posted mine while you were posting yours.
.
Look over your head.
ReplyDelete:)
ReplyDeleteLater. nap time.
.
ReplyDeleteWhere the Jobs Aren’t
...All of this is not to say that the government shouldn’t be doing what it can to promote clean energy. It is to say that the government isn’t very good when it tries to directly create private-sector jobs.
In 2009, Josh Lerner of Harvard Business School published a useful book called “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.” He found that for each instance in which the government has successfully promoted entrepreneurial activity, there is a pile of instances in which it failed.
Lerner details case after case where public investments produced little or nothing. But he also makes an important distinction between government efforts to set the table for entrepreneurial activity and government efforts to create jobs directly. Setting the table means building an underlying context for innovation: funding academic research, establishing clear laws, improving immigration policies, building infrastructure and keeping capital gains tax rates low. Lerner notes that one of the most important government initiatives to encourage innovation was the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, which gave universities automatic title to research paid by the federal government.
These table-setting efforts work. The problem is the results are indirect, the jobs take a long time to emerge and the market may end up favoring old-energy sources instead of shiny new ones. So politicians invariably go for the instant rush. They try to use taxpayer money to create private jobs now. But they end up wasting billions.
We should pursue green innovation. We just shouldn’t imagine these efforts will create the jobs we need.
Do Green Projects Create Jobs?
.
.
ReplyDeleteThe Golden State Is Crumbling
Nowhere was California's old technological ethos more pronounced than in agriculture, where great Californians such as William Mulholland, creator of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, and Pat Brown, who forged the state water project, created the greatest water-delivery system since the Roman Empire. Their effort brought water from the ice-bound Sierra Nevada mountains down to the state's dry but fertile valleys and to the great desert metropolis of Southern California. Now, largely at the behest of greens, California agriculture is being systematically cut down by regulation. In an attempt to protect a small fish called the Delta smelt, upward of 200,000 acres of prime farmland have been idled, according to the state's Department of Conservation. Even in the current "wet" cycle, California's agricultural industry, which exports roughly $14 billion annually, is slowly being decimated. Unemployment in some Central Valley towns tops 30 percent, and in cases even 40 percent...
California's pain is not restricted to farming towns. The state's regulatory vigilantes have erected a labyrinth of rules that increasingly makes doing almost anything that might contribute to increased carbon emissions—manufacturing, conventional energy, home construction—extraordinarily onerous. Not surprisingly, the state has not gained middle-skilled jobs (those requiring two years of college or more) for a decade, while the nation boosted them by 5 percent and archrival Texas by a stunning 16 percent over the same time period.
There is little chance that the jobs lost in these fields will ever be recovered under the current regime. As decent blue-collar and midlevel jobs disappear, California has gone from a rate of inequality about the national average in 1970, to among the most unequal in terms of income. The supposed solution to this—Gov. Jerry Brown's promise of 500,000 "green jobs"—is being shown for what it really is, the kind of fantasy you tell young children so they will go to sleep...
Is the Sun Setting on the Golden Stat?
.
.
ReplyDeleteYes, We Need Jobs. But What Kind?
ON Thursday, President Obama will deliver a major speech on America’s employment crisis. But too often, what is lost in the call for job creation is a clear idea of what jobs we want to create.
I recently led a research team to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, where Gov. Rick Perry, a contender for the Republican presidential nomination, has advertised his track record of creating jobs. From January 2000 to January 2010, employment in the Valley grew by a remarkable 42 percent, compared with our nation’s anemic 1 percent job growth.
But the median wage for adults in the Valley between 2005 and 2008 was a stunningly low $8.14 an hour (in 2008 dollars). One in four employed adults earned less than $6.19 an hour. The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas reported that the per capita income in the two metropolitan statistical areas spanning the Valley ranked lowest and second lowest in the nation.
These workers aren’t alone. Last year, one in five American adults worked in jobs that paid poverty-level wages. Worker displacement contributes to the problem. People who are laid off from previously stable employment, if they are lucky enough to find work, take a median wage hit of over 20 percent, which can persist for decades...
.
Both capitalism and socialism ran short and have been proven wrong in the economical model or social model that became self-destructive; eventually, the economy runs from diminishing demand to diminishing return, or vice versa.
ReplyDeleteIf we use the living standard as the equilibrium position to the supply line of the circuitry of wealth balanced by both of the diminishing return and diminishing demand.
I call my paradigm on the wealth circuitry in economical and social growth that supports and balances both accumulated wealth and consumable wealth; and it created a “Z” shaped development running both on the diminishing demand and diminishing return; which is based on the assumption, the route above the standard of living equal in length with the one below the standard of living is in agreement of its living standard to sustain a viable growth, which contains;
• The base line as the diminishing return where the societies kept peace with its populace that consumable wealth that cause economical displacement like with its negative growth or no growth; it provides entitlement or social programs with non-productive individual citizens for example, 27% of its population on welfare with add-on with subsidies to sustain a standard of living.
• The top line as the diminishing demand that ended with accumulated wealth favors of concentrated wealth owned by individuals that ended with profitless, 1% holds 27% of the global or national wealth, plus those with extra wealth is not in production yields to no growth.
• And the diagonal line that connected to both ends is the support of the price and value in the middle is the standard of living which contains the most of the productive individuals who is moving up and down the ladder of growth.
If more of the wealth accumulated than the wealth consumed, then it causes saturation of the wealth. The diminishing demand under the standard of living agreement made the demand idle because of the shortage of consumption. In the process, the standard of living will go down to meet its demand after the deflationary measure to make it consumable. In reverse, the wealth consumed is over the wealth accumulated, as it is less profitable. Then, it triggers the inflationary measures to aggregate demand to accumulate more wealth in its diminishing return mode; eventually it will balance itself again with the agreement of the standard living with a viable growth.
It is not the supply and demand. It is rather the circuitry of wealth under the spells of the lower living standard that diminishing demand is being part of the deflationary measure. If the accumulated wealth became saturated, then it means the lower living standard that made the demand finite like lesser demand in loan of dollars in ECB.
I am certain I am not being introspective; I may twist the theory a little; but the proof of the lower living standard in Europe made it plausible.
May the Buddha bless you?
We need to Export more.
ReplyDeleteWhile importing less.
ReplyDeleteYep.
ReplyDeleteFunny, we're "Net Exporters" of the Two Things the Republicans hate most - Ethanol, and Solar Panels.
ReplyDeleteAnd, the world's largest "importer" of the thing they luv the most - OIL.
Anon bob posted …
ReplyDeleteFUCK YOU YOU PIECE OF JEWISH SHIT
Tue Sep 06, 08:02:00 AM EDT
Allen’s response was, “Thanks!”
Bob’s comment remains, while Allen’s seems to have been taken down…Hmm
Allen does not care that bob holds this opinion. Allen does care about his response and the appearance of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is a terrible thing to waste on the mundane.
DR,
ReplyDeleteYes, DR, there are marches in Israel. Yet, there is still not a single report of the police or IDF having opened fire on the protestors - much less bringing in foreign mercenaries to do the dirty work.
How are things working out in that regard with your delightful "Arab Spring"?
Germany got almost 21% of its Electricity from Renewables in the first half of 2011
ReplyDeleteThe Israeli fired on civilians, back on 2008, allen, killed about 800 of them, as I recall.
ReplyDeleteThe entire Islamic Arc is currently in turmoil.
Whatever the threat those regimes in the region may have posed to the US, it is now greatly diminished. A good thing, as far as it goes.
The Assad regime is unable to export terrorism, being tied up with internal civil strife, there in Syria.
The Egyptians will have their "change" and be able to eat it, too.
All in all, the "Arab Spring" is serving US interests, well.
Our primary ally in the region, the Saudi Princes, are sitting prettier each day that passes.
ReplyDeleteTheir allies in Syria, the Muslim Brotherhood, are gaining international legitimacy. While the Shiites that make up Assad's are being discredited.
At the same time setting back the exportation of Iranian influences, in Lebanon, Gaza and Syria itself.
While the low intensity strife in Syria shows no signs of abating. Bleeding both sides, definitely in the best interests of US.
While in Bahrain, Saudi troops continue to maintain the social order.
While the Russian immigrants fill the Israeli ranks, much as the Irish did, for US back in 1863.
ReplyDeleteNew Russian immigrants are not only being channeled into the Occupied Territories, but also into the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), since military service is compulsory in Israel. This is occurring at the same time that a growing number of native-born Israelis are refusing to serve in the Occupied Territories. And so these new immigrants are victims as well as occupiers. They cannot leave Israel and they cannot realistically refuse military service.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, they are not really prepared, even linguistically, for the military assignments given them. Consider the Kafkaesque quality of the following exchange between newly immigrated Russians and local Palestinians, as reported by Thomas Friedman, the foreign affairs correspondent of the New York Times:
“I am trying to get to al-Funduk village - 10 minutes from here by car,” Luay Tayyem, a Palestinian aid worker, told me as he stood in line to get out of Qalqilya. “Today it will take me three hours. When I tell the soldiers I am going to al-Funduk they ask me in broken Hebrew: ‘Where is that?’ They speak to each other in Russian. I speak better Hebrew than they do.... I have been here 30 years, they’ve been here two.”
Source: “Israel’s West Bank Wall Won’t Solve Problems,” New York Times
This fellow obviously had no trouble targeting members of the National Guard. Seems that he sought them out.
ReplyDeleteCARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Authorities have released the name of the man who shot five uniformed National Guard members at a Nevada IHOP, killing two of them and another person in a hail of gunfire.
Carson City Sheriff Kenny Furlong says the man was 32-year-old Eduardo Sencion of Carson City. He says Sencion worked at a family business in South Lake Tahoe.
"You're just a Bright chick, Melody."
ReplyDeleteNah...just psychic
Historical circumstances produced the raw material: the deindustrialization and financialization of America since about 1970 has spawned an increasingly downscale white middle class - without job security (or even without jobs), with pensions and health benefits evaporating and with their principal asset deflating in the collapse of the housing bubble. Their fears are not imaginary; their standard of living is shrinking.
ReplyDeleteWhat do the Democrats offer these people? Essentially nothing. Democratic Leadership Council-style "centrist" Democrats were among the biggest promoters of disastrous trade deals in the 1990s that outsourced jobs abroad: NAFTA, World Trade Organization, permanent most-favored-nation status for China. At the same time, the identity politics/lifestyle wing of the Democratic Party was seen as a too illegal immigrant-friendly by downscaled and outsourced whites.
While Democrats temporized, or even dismissed the fears of the white working class as racist or nativist, Republicans went to work. To be sure, the business wing of the Republican Party consists of the most energetic outsourcers, wage cutters and hirers of sub-minimum wage immigrant labor to be found anywhere on the globe. But the faux-populist wing of the party, knowing the mental compartmentalization that occurs in most low-information voters, played on the fears of that same white working class to focus their anger on scapegoats that do no damage to corporations' bottom lines: instead of raising the minimum wage, let's build a wall on the Southern border (then hire a defense contractor to incompetently manage it). Instead of predatory bankers, it's evil Muslims. Or evil gays. Or evil abortionists.
ReplyDeleteHow do they manage to do this? Because Democrats ceded the field. Above all, they do not understand language. Their initiatives are posed in impenetrable policy-speak: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The what? - can anyone even remember it? No wonder the pejorative "Obamacare" won out. Contrast that with the Republicans' Patriot Act. You're a patriot, aren't you? Does anyone at the GED level have a clue what a Stimulus Bill is supposed to be? Why didn't the White House call it the Jobs Bill and keep pounding on that theme?
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - A man with an AK-47 assault rifle shot an entire group of five uniformed National Guard members eating breakfast at a Nevada IHOP on Tuesday, killing two of them and another person in a hail of gunfire.
ReplyDeletePart of a grand conspiracy, or another lone gunman?
The reported content of Mr Obama's upcoming jobs speech, not enough to wad a shotgun.
ReplyDeleteHalf-stepping to the beat of a lonesome drummer.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The economy weak and the public seething, President Barack Obama is expected to propose $300 billion in tax cuts and federal spending Thursday night to get Americans working again.
Last week, Turkey announced that the Israeli ambassador Gaby Levy was being expelled and all bilateral military agreements were suspended as it angrily rejected the findings of a United Nations probe into the deadly flotilla raid.
ReplyDeleteNow in his first official reaction since that announcement, Erdogan went even further.
“We are totally suspending our trade, military, defence industry relations,” Erdogan told reporters.
“Further sanctions” against Israel would follow, he added.
...
Unlike other European countries which regard Hamas as a terrorist group, Turkey has refused to blacklist the Islamists who are the rulers of Gaza and Erdogan said he may pay a visit to Gaza, entering via neighbouring Egypt.
“We are talking with the Egyptians on this matter ... A trip to Gaza is not finalized yet,” Erdogan, who is due to visit Egypt next week, told reporters.
Such a visit would be bound to infuriate Israel but Erdogan seemed in no mood for diplomacy.
"President Obama's strategy is a pay phone strategy and we're living in a smartphone world," Romney said, adding that the president was trying to stuff quarters into a pay phone. "It's not connected any more, Mr. President!"
ReplyDeletePraising business leaders like Apple's Steve Jobs, Romney said that he had the business credentials needed to get the economy back on track.
"I also know how to lead. I was in the business world for 25 years," he said.
DR,
ReplyDeleteIsrael did not fire on its civilians in 2008. Israel may have killed foreigners in 2008, but the liars vary.
Well, they were residents of Israel, living in the Gaza ghetto that were killed while they had no weapons, in hand.
ReplyDeleteWhether you consider them foreigners or Israelis, of no matter, to me.
They were people, civilians, who were abused by Israeli policies of the past 45 years, before they were killed in a military action that was not really vital Israeli interests.
Exemplified that the operation ended when the US withheld the permits for further munitions shipments. The Israeli did not dig into their ammunition reserves, no they went back to their bases.
From DR...
ReplyDeleteSource: “Israel’s West Bank Wall Won’t Solve Problems,” New York Times
Tue Sep 06, 06:16:00 PM EDT
:-D)) Yeah, I know when I'm in a quandary (say like Nurse Bloomberg) I always go to the New York Times.
You have got to be kidding! This is the paper that papered over the murders of millions of Russians at the hands of Uncle Joe.
Once more, DR, according to the UN, the land dispute must be settled peacefully by the parties. The PA has not and will never agree to this; therefore, there will be war. One can only hope that eventually the Israelis will tire of the same old song and dance and make a last call.
The terrorist organization Hamas runs Gaza. When these friendly folk halt their unlawful attacks on Israel and swear to abide by a peace treaty recognizing Israel's right to exist, you come back and make your point. At the moment you are just spewing Arab agitprop.
ReplyDeleteMore than 70 percent of people surveyed said the economy has not yet hit bottom. Most Americans still said the president inherited the nation's economic maladies from President George W. Bush rather than caused them, although that number was slipping.
ReplyDeleteVoters appeared to be looking for a new direction. By 44 percent to 40 percent, Americans now said they were more likely to vote Republican next year than for Obama's re-election.
In June, the president held the edge, 45 percent to 40 percent. The president was losing support from key groups, including political independents, women and Hispanic people.
allen, attempting to dehumanize the victims of Israeli military action.
ReplyDeleteWhile those victims in the Gaza are as dead of those militant Muslims in Syria that are being targeted by the Assad regime in the city of Hama and the surrounding area.
Islamic militants that fire on the legitimate authorities, used as an excuse to violence, by the governments of both Israel and Syria.
Israel runs Gaza, it just subs out the day to day management to Hamas.
ReplyDeletePrison Warden and the Gang.
A symbiotic relationship that serves the interests of both.
DR,
ReplyDeleteI cannot dehumanize non-humans. "People" who commit the vile atrocities so favored by your kith and kin are barbarians. Note: I did not say animals: animals behave better.
You are so blessed to have this site. Stick with it.