To Die? ‘Tis A Consummation To Be Wished…

Courtesy of Kaiser Foundation

Should you live or die from an accident or life threatening illness? Depends apparently on where you live… If you live in the Blue, you survive. If you live in the Orange, goodbye… Simple, clear, concise.

Served to you courtesy of ALEC and the Republican Party of the United States of America

There IS No Middle Class! It’s Official!

In 2011, 46.2 million people in the US were living in poverty and the nation’s official poverty rate was 15 percent, up from 14.3 percent in 2009, according to the US Census Bureau. That figure appears to be the highest number seen in the 52 years for which poverty estimates have been recorded…

The predominant face of the poor is white.

Economic insecurity among whites is said to be more common than is shown in the government’s poverty data, engulfing over 76 percent of white adults by the time they turn 60..

Economic  insecurity approaching 76%….. How does this end the middle class designation?

Let us review what is the middle class.  It is the class in the middle… Start and stop points and change depending on who want to show what, but for the most part, the middle class would have a center point around the 50% margin… Hence: middle class….

10%     20%     30%     40%     50%     60%     70%     80%     90%      

                            XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 

Sort of what you’d expect… the area above the poverty line and just below the rich……But based on current data now released from the Census Bureau, (and this is no secret to people in public schools) over 80% of America has been at or below poverty levels in its lifetime… It really doesn’t matter when.  You could be financially stable through your whole life and then get termed at age 60.  The effect is the same. You could face 50% age group unemployment right out of college and use odd jobs and part time jobs to stay alive. The effect is the same.  The mark today is that 80% face economic insecurity.  Can we just call that poor?  Isn’t that the definition of poor?  Someone who doesn’t have enough to be secure in today’s society?

Therefore if we take the middle of those from where the poor end at 80%, then we get a middle class graphic looking like this:

10%     20%     30%     40%     50%     60%     70%     80%     90%                                                                                                            XXX

This is the official version of today’s America rendered by the US Census bureau…. Times have changed…

Compare that to where it was under Bill Clinton in 1999 before Republicans took over….

10%     20%     30%     40%     50%     60%     70%     80%     90%     

                             XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 

No offense to my Republican friends but this (which sad to say is exactly what I predicted in 2000), is what you get when you don’t tax progressively. We now have only 2 classes; The 1%  and the 99%.

The fix? Is to tax the top 1% who can well afford even a purely theoretical 100% taxation without hardship, and use that money for jobs…. Just jobs. More government contracts.  This is America’s quick answer… and it must be decided in this election 2014 that we will take it.  Against all odds, we need both chambers in Democrats’ hands., not for Democrats, but for America. It’s the only way is to defeat Republicanism… We are not talking individual candidates.  We are talking about a philosophy that stresses the lazy poor 80% must continue to suffer even more to pay for the one percent’s excesses, and not as it should be, … the other way around…

 

 

 

Koch Brothers Kill Off The American Bald Eagle

If current trends continue, estimates are the Bald Eagle will be extinct by 2020.

It appears that the American Bald Eagle is picking up some type of neurotic toxin in the Athabasca Tar Fields of Canada.  Athabasca Tar Oil is obtained by pumping toxic chemicals into the bedrock to flush out thick oil.  Those toxins can then contaminate wildlife when they leak.  Mercury content in water samples has increased  by 40% from 1979 to 2009.  These  oil fields and methods are  developed by the Koch Brothers, the same organization which funds the our local  Caesar Rodney Institute.  This is the same entity that is currently pushing for the Keystone Pipeline to cross the aquifers of the Midwest thereby enabling the Koch Brothers to sell oil to America’s future enemies, most notably called out by Allan Loudell on his blog  today, as China…..

The bird’s symptoms just showed up.  Utah is the wintering location of Bald Eagles.  Earlier this month, hunters and farmers across five counties in northern and central Utah began finding the normally skittish raptors lying, listless, on the ground. Many suffered from seizures, head tremors and paralysis in the legs, feet and wings…

The Ogden rehab center said all the sick eagles  seen suffered from encephalitis, or swelling of the brain, and many had heart damage.

Currently there are only 9,789 Bald Eagles breeding in the US.

Coupled with the mysterious die off of the Monarch Butterfly, the American Moose, and now the Bald Eagle, this makes 2013 a very cataclysmic year for traditional North American icons.

The  canary has stopped singing in the coal mine….

Delaware Homeland Security Conducts Top Secret Test On New Chase Vehicle

Please read Steve’s reports on Delaware’s offshoot of Homeland Security here, here and here….

We are getting our money’s worth with this bunch, that’s for sure… I wonder when they’ll let civilians drive it? I think the monster mile would be a good test track for civilians to get the opportunity….

Can you imagine seeing this thing pass you on the Delaware Memorial Bridge and at the apex it goes sailing off into the sky? What will they think of spending our money on next…

(I want one btw. )

Full Employment And the kavipsian Economic Theory

Economic theory, which is basically bullshit, is often coached in mathmatical terms to disguise the fact that it is pure bull.  However there are some very simple concepts which make very good common sense, and if one looks at that, instead of how to use current data to justify one’s action politically, one comes up with obvious surprising results.

Labor Demand < Labor Supply

That is why so many people are out of work.  Now here are the players.

1. Workforce Market
2. Corporations
3. Commodity Market
4. Foreign Investments
5. Financial Markets
6. Households
7. Government

Government is our last option.

So our workforce if we compare the same counting today as was during the Great Depression, is running at 85% capacity.  Meaning 15% are unemployed.

Going down the list then,

Corporations are at their best ever. Corporate profit the highest percent of GDP ever.

Financial Markets also are at their best ever.  Dow Jones is at record highs.

Commodities are performing well, all indications are of a long term bull market.

Foreign Investment is at an all time high.  Never have we had this much outside money.

Real Household Income is declining.  We are headed downwards and are currently tied with 1994 as it rose out of the 91 recession, and prior to that, tied with 1984 as we were coming out of the 1982 Recession.

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Bottom line with government out our equation, we have the investment side of our economy all doing spectacularly well, and the household side going down.

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Proof enough that the free market system, or capitalist system does little for the good of any nation, just as little good it did prior to the legislation that became law after the crash of 1929 when Democrats swept the Federal Government.

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Government is the great equalizer.  For a fix, government needs to step up and side with We the people (or households), and as a referee would in any sporting event, make the playing field fair.

It can to it in either of two ways. It can impose necessary restrictions upon businesses which increase their demand for labor at the expense of their corporate profits.  For example, pass legislation to imprison CEO’s for malfeasance. Only then in order to keep their heads out of hot water, they hire environmentalists, social engineers, accountants, and other highly trained personnel whose prime function is to make sure the company is not doing anything shady.

It can also split the corporations into multiple smaller ones, each now requiring a new president, several new vice presidents, new HR’s, new financial planners, etc and with one fell swoop, increase the demand for labor.  This too, comes at the expense of corporate profits, which are currently huge primarily due to economies of scale.

And it can indirectly create demand by raising taxes.  When taxes go up on profit- earned, less profit gets earned by design; less “reported” profit, less money handed over in taxes.. Meaning the bulk of that money is now spent being reinvested into the business just so it can’t be taxed.  Building projects, higher wages, more R&D gets spent into the economy,  This too, comes at the expense of corporate profits on the books.

But that is why higher tax rates are actually the best alternative.  Higher tax rates tend to create less taxes, so government still needs to stay small.  The revenue collected is lower for the simple reason that if there was absolutely no tax, all the money earned would belong to me.  But if more of what I earn goes to you, then I will figure out a legal way to keep more for myself, and report less.  So whereas as tax rates go up, total tax revenue comes down;  the net effect is that more money goes into our economy thereby creating more demand.

The demand for labor then gradually rises to equal the supply and if it continues on its upward path, yes, yes, so there are more jobs than workers, then competition begins pushing the individual wage rates higher.

Which adds to the increased demand.

Using tax rates works best for now instead of the government interfering with day to day operations of all businesses, it actually creates an environment where each business can operate independently to its own best interest, and as they do, the demand for labor rises even more…..

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Anyone who argues for less government input into the economy is in the wrong century and can’t read economic figures that are plain as day.  So how does one interpret the cries for less regulations that are hurting corporate profits?  Easily. One realizes that sooner or later corporate profits have no choice but to fall, so our household income can increase. Loss of corporate profits is a “good thing”.

One should mention in the same breath, that labor’s percent of wages is deteriorating all across the world.  It is a world wide phenomenon.  The answer is simply that deference of all governments over the past decade and a quarter, has been given to those in charge of investment.

Policies favoring Investment must now take a back seat to those which put people back to work, which if done, raise the incomes of all of us… Even those of  the 1% , though not as much as they have been lately been accustomed.  But everyone still benefits.

Raising taxes is where we need to go.

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Oh Brave New World That Has Such People In It….

Courtesy of Transparent Christina

During the 2008 Gubernatorial Debate, Jack Markell expresses the absolute exact opposite of the bill he proudly signed today: HB 165

This YouTube clip shall haunt his future Campaigns Forever.

Shades of Romney?

How Our Government Is Failing Our Students

If any of these are new to you, click and read the links.  Your eyeballs will fall out of their sockets.

Education policies based on standardization and uniformity tend to fail.

Policies based on distrust of teachers tend to fail. 

Judging teachers’ performance by students’ test scores is both substantively and procedurally flawed.

Fails to take into account Campbell’s Law, one of the best-known maxims in the literature on organizational behavior: if you impose external quantitative measurements to judge work performance that cannot be easily and clearly measured, all you will achieve is a displacement of goals 

More people are realizing that many of the organizations involved in “corporate reform” seem to need reforming themselves.

Those in charge of reforms are more interested in reforming their own bank accounts than our student’s education.

People wonder why reformers themselves aren’t held accountable.

Every pilot project has the chance to succeed or fail.  All of us in charge of anything in our lives know that one has to take some risk and explore new venues.  However, it is the dictator who upon finding that the process he planned does not work for anyone else but himself, … insists on doubling down and making things worse.  The crafty executives pull the plug and walk away with tons of respect for doing what was right.

So the outcome is certain.  Parents, students, teachers, and principals will prevail. The question now is how long will it take, and how many children will be done in by  the collateral damage.

Just When You’ve Mastered “The Electric Slide”, Get Ready For “The Global Shift”

We knew this but it  is now being published… and so it is in the news.

The world is getting warmer… and we can now predict our climate by looking at map at 300 miles south and guessing what our weather will be from that…

Just as plate tectonics and  Darwin’s origin of the species were able to lay the groundwork of reason  for explaining puzzling observations, this simplifies what to expect from global warming rather startlingly.

Texas is now  what we alway thought of when we considered the weather of Mexico; Oklahoma is now West Texas; Kansas is now Oklahoma; Nebraska is now Kansas; South Dakota is now Nebraska, North Dakota is now South Dakota: Southern Manitoba is now North Dakota…..

If  West Texas had 3 days of rain, now Oklahoma is getting 3 days of rain;  If it snowed 12  times in South Dakota, it is now doing the same in North Dakota… and so on.

So, to predict our heat, rain, winters, etc, our guide would be North Carolina.  Longer growing seasons,  some winters with no snow, hot summers…

However due to Global warming, the East Coast has a caveat.  An anomaly so to speak  and actually some relief from the North Carolina summer heat we would normally expect….

With the unprecedented melting of the Arctic and Greenland icecaps dumping its excess into the Labrador Current, that cold water drops South hugging the East Coast shoreline all the way down to North Carolina’s Outer Banks where it finally becomes neutralized…   Therefore even though we have hotter air masses, the colder ocean temperatures creates a buffer against Global warming off the entire northeastern US.

Europe, Japan, and Alaska all experience  the same mitigating effect, although with both Greenland and the Arctic Icecaps melting into the Labrador, the US East Coast gets a stronger volume of cold water.  Call it our icy shower effect….

Once melting stops and the currents dry up, we return to the North Carolina scenario of the twentieth century….

Chart Courtesy of NOAA

So, we in Delaware really get the best climate on the East Coast.    Warm winters, little or no snow, and cool breezy summers….. as well as a longer growing period, and… less dependence on fossil fuels for winter heating.

Gee, global warming isn’t so bad for Delaware after all….  Oh, the rising seas?  There you go again… Why did you have to spoil the rosy picture I was painting?

 

Chuck Hagel Passes Committee: Vote Strictly Along Party Lines

With just ten minutes left for one Senator to possibly scramble upstairs and cast a vote that would not change the outcome, Chuck Hagel’s secretary of defense nomination was sent to the Floor….

One of the more surprising moments was the very Senatorial response given by Mazie Hirono, the replacement for Dan Inouye, who passed away after the election.

In a brief statement she noted (at exactly the 2:00 mark) that the national security need for an immediate Secretary of Defense was necessary, and to abort the process and begin anew was irresponsible, for with sequestration, budget reductions, downsizing after Afghanistan, re-pivoting to the Pacific, challenges of North Korea, Syria, North Africa, cyber attacks to our data systems, power grid, infrastructure, all requiring immediate attention. Chuck Hagel exemplified himself in war, as a CEO, and in the chambers of the Senate itself. That puts him as equally qualified as anyone else in that room. Simply put, we need someone now, this man is capable, he has my vote.

Courtesy of C Span
I guess she hasn’t learned to be long winded yet.

Which brings up the Republicans… What on earth is wrong with them? Are they nuts?

Every unbiased report confirms they are nuts.

Republican foreign policy is farce, not even worthy of Shakespeare.

So Republicans have decided that Afghanistan doesn’t exist. At last summer’s Republican National Convention, Mitt Romney never mentioned the Afghan War (that was left up to Clint Eastwood).

During Hagel’s seven and a half hours of questioning by the Senate Armed Services Committee last month, the country where 66,000 American troops are still fighting, and dying, was mentioned 27 times. How many mentions did it receive from the Armed Service Committee’s 12 Republican members combined? Four.

Drones, Zero mentions.

Cyber warfare, two came from Committee Republicans..

China, only one mention came from a Senate Republican. (and that occured when Texas Sen. Ted Cruz asked Hagel if he had traveled to China with Chas Freeman, a former American diplomat known for critical views toward, you guessed it, Israel.)

Israel (178 Republican mentions)

America must help Israel prevent the development of Iran’s nuclear weapon. (171 mentions)

The GOP campaign against him has descended even deeper into triviality. Republicans on the Armed Services Committee are now refusing to vote on Hagel’s nomination until he provides evidence that no organization he was affiliated with received foreign funding over the past decade? WTF? Every Republican on that committed gets foreign political funding from AIPAC….

His answer: no.

Republicans stoop even lower.

Republicans are demanding that he prove that no company or non-profit he has been involved in has received any foreign funding either!

Chuck Hagel’s answer? “That information…is legally controlled by the individual entities and not mine to disclose.”

This is “unprecedented,” as well as “ridiculous and outrageous,” especially since there’s zero evidence that Hagel—a decorated Vietnam veteran—has ever subverted the interests of the United States in service of a foreign power.

One senses Chuck Hagel’s ridiculous farcical hearing process, brought to its knees by these Republicans, has not one iota of relevance to Mr. Hagel’s qualifications, and every bit of relevancy to fending off a potential evangelical Tea Party primary challenger chomping for a run against these Republicans in the next election season….

NRA Has Plan To Eliminate Courthouse Shootings Across America

Photo Courtesy of newshopper.sulekha.com

NRA Says Having Piles Like These Outside Every Courthouse Door Would Have Prevented Today’s Shooting