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It’s this upcoming 2014 one.. It sets the national stage on whether anything will get done for the next four years. The next president will be powerless to exercise the will of the majority, if the majority party of voters do not vote in their full capacity…
Especially for those under 30. Many of you have parents who are facing retirement and wondering how they will survive. Many of you have parents who are still benefiting of the legacy of your grandparents, who may have left their ample resources to them when they died…
The Grandparents benefited from the New Deal. Your parents were victims of the raw deal. The raw deal which said that if we became conservative, everything would be just rosy.. No details on how, it just would…
Your parents big battle was in 1980… Carter versus Reagan which was a battle not between two men, but over which group of men would get to chart the next 30 years… That thirty years corresponds to your parents from their 20’s to their 50’s…
The two groups of men were the same as the two who battled for dominance under George Washington and have been contentious ever since… The investors versus the People…. When you really benefit the people, you hurt the investors. When you benefit investors, you hurt people… We are currently in an investment-favor phase that began with the election of Reagan in 1980. There are times when both groups benefit accordingly, but moderately. But soon someone always battles to push their side into dominance, and due to the frailty of most politicians, it is usually the moneyed interests which attempt it first…
In your parent’s defense, they’d only seen the New Deal. To them, Reagonomics sounded new, bold, daring and inspired. Little did they think to look at the track record leading up to the New Deal to see how it would unfold. There WAS a reason the New Deal was enacted… Investors care little about people’s woes.
So probably right now, you are looking for work in your field. That field which you put your hard work and dreams into pursuing, only now to be employed waiting tables, or sloshing drinks, or calling up deadbeats in late hours hoping someone picks up the phones… What you are experiencing is the woe felt by countless people across history since the powerful first realized that life at the top is great, only if you suppress those underneath. While you suffer, their investments have made over 100% or more over the past 5 years…
This election is yours… This election settles for YOUR 30 years whether the investors get to keep control, or whether they finally can allow those programs to go forward which cost them money but at the benefit to millions of fellow citizens. Ironically, if America gets richer, they do to, but not as fast if if we give everything to them now…
If you don’t vote, or vote to keep the investors to continue blocking progress, you are setting yourself to 30 years of the same. It doesn’t have to be that way. Your grandparents chose Democrats and Franklin Roosevelt based solely on his promise to better their future with government programs, which the investors forced to foot the bill.
There was nothing wrong with that plan. At the time of Carter’s last years in office, the 1% held their least amount of national wealth EVER. Meaning of course it was split among everyone else… Coal Miners who before the formation of the Union, owed their souls to the company store, literally, were now buying RV’s and boats and taking their kids on vacations across the country… It’s all about who gets the money….
If you don’t vote, and investors win, this will never happen to you. But if you vote in force, and all of your generation, in every state, votes your frustration, you dreams, and your hope for the future, and put thier faith into the party that is there for the people, … then you will succeed over the next 30 years as did your grandparents.
Your grandparents who had nothing, are now sitting pretty. Your parents who had the best any generation has ever had, are now struggling… It was all in their choice of choosing who should lead, between the investors and the people..
The Republican party is there at the behest of the investors. The Democratic party is there for the people… Right now, a minority of investors is stymieing all progress for you and your fellow citizens. Only you can change that…
It’s your grandparents choices versus your parent’s choices…. but it is .. your choice.
Courtesy of AP/Nati Harnik
This is the DOT 111…. It is called the traveling nuclear bomb. This rail car was deemed unsafe in 1990… it still carries 65% of the crude across North America…. It is these cars that blew up La Magnetic in Quebec. It is these cars that blew up Casselton, North Dakota. It is the cars that blew up in Lynchburg, VA just last week…
Here is the explanation via video.
The National Transportation Safety Board has been urging replacing or retrofitting the tank cars since 1991 (George H.W. Bush was president), but the most recent federal effort to write tougher regulations for new cars didn’t get underway until 2011…. You can rightly blame the oil presidency for that delay. New rules are to be out by this upcoming December….
Though these cars look nice, they are easily ruptured in an accident, spilling out their contents. With US oil production being up 70% over 2009 levels, increasing per day production from 5 million barrels to 8.5 million barrels per day, these cars are getting a heavier workout than at any time in their history. Increased exposure means increased potential for a harmful accident….
U.S. freight railroads transported about 415,000 carloads of crude in 2013, up from just 9,500 in 2008, according to government and industry figures. That is an increase of 4200%…. So yes, that translates to having 4200 times more of a chance at a spill, 4200 more of a chance at an explosion, or 4200 more chance of a death or maiming….
The rail and chemical industries have committed to a safer design for new tankers but are pressing regulators not to require modifications to tens of thousands of existing cars, despite a spike in the number of accidents… It is modifications to these cars that will save lives..
Essentially we and regulators are being asked to trade in our lives for their money…. In other words they can fix the problem, but it will cost them money to do so, and they don’t want that. Since if a train explodes not that many people will die, that is an acceptable loss society should bear they say, so as not to invest any money into a tank car that will soon be scrap metal once newer safer cars are available…..
After last years explosions Canada has moved forward on making their railroads safer… The US has gotten as far as a Congressional Hearing.
Then 2 months ago, the NSTB issued an emergency order. The order requires all crude oil be properly tested before being transported. And all crude that travels by rail must be carried in these DOT-111 tank cars. The older DOT-111 tank cars were deemed inadequate by the National Transportation Board more than 20 years ago.
Some crude from the Bakken region, including the oil in the tragic Lac Megantic derailment, was misclassified. What that means is that potentially explosive crude oil was being shipped in rail cars even less safe than the DOT-111’s. The so-called misclassification has resulted in $93,000 in fines.
So if you are driving through Bear, and a train is crossing your path, look up and see if the rail cars look like the one above, If so, make U turn and get out of there… quick! The extra few minutes your drive may cost you, could mean a lifetime of thank-yous….
This kind…
Doesn’t he have an election coming up soon? If so, how can anyone expect to make a credible run for Attorney General IN THIS STATE, AFTER BEAU BIDEN’S TERM, and be guilty of keeping a tiny little bill, which has no harm but opens all board meetings to being recorded and accessible on line?
Only Simon Barsinister could be against something so inane… Or…. Hmmmmm…. Somebody … With… Something…. To …. Hide….
Hmmm. Now… Why would the surprise future attorney general, be sooooo adamant, even to the point of losing an election over blocking legislation so inane, that all it does is open school boards of all things, open to the public as a service… Anyone can walk into a school board and hear exactly the same thing they’d hear on tape… But sometimes… a diaper needs changed. But sometimes, a family meal needs prepared. Sometimes extra work for the office must be done for deadline the next day…. Darn we say now….I guess we won’t get to know what happened…
So why? Why is HB 23 being put on ice as my compatriot Kilroy is found of saying. Who is soooooo scared someone will find out what is really going on in school board meetings? Is it Charlie Copeland? Is it Mark Murphy? Is it… Darryl Scott? Is it Pete Schwartzkoph?
Hmmm. I wonder if it has any sponsors in the General Assembly right now?
HOLY MOLY!!!!!! LOOK AT THIS!!! Sponsors: Hudson, Sen. Peterson, Reps. Dukes, D. Short, Miro, Peterman, Wilson, Baumbach, Bennett, Mitchell, K. Williams; Sens. Hocker, Lavelle, Simpson, Townsend….
Is Pete Schwartzkoph there?….. No…… Is Bryon Short there? ….. No…… Is Melanie George Smith there?….. No…… Is Valarie Longhurst there?……. No…… Is Darryl Scott there? … No….Is Earl Jacques there?…… No Is Patty Blevins there? …… No…… Is Quentin Johnson there? …. No…. is John Viola there?…… No…. Is Ernie Lopez there?….. No?
Hmmmmmm… What do those all have in common…… 🙂 Hmmmmmmmmmmmm…. Do they all drink their coconut milk imbibed with lime? …. No….. Do they all call each other up and wear the same color of underwear each daily session?…… No…… Ummm. Do they all have the same Delaware extension tatoo’d to their buttocks?….. Ummmm…..M a y… b e…….
It is someone with a lot to hide; that is for sure… And it is nobody from here:
Red Clay, Christina, Capital, Delmar, Brandywine and Colonial currently already voluntarily record their board meetings! As well as the Delaware State Board of Education records their meetings!
So why is this something that has to be kept secret, and never brought to pass?….. Because we are not talking about individuals VOTING on a bill…They could vote YEA or NEA and it wouldn’t matter! What concerns us and you, is the pure morality of KEEPING A BILL FROM BEING VOTED FOR YOU BECAUSE IT WILL PASS….
So according to its sponsor, Deborah Hudson, Matt Denn is sitting on this bill…. He is doing it to protect someone else, to whom perhaps he is loyal…. How seriously then, were a procedural crime to be committed requiring a judicial investigation, can he be trusted to dig and search for the truth instead of whitewashing the whole affair to protect this same someone, when he can’t even be trusted to get a vote for heaven’s sakes….on a voice recording of school board meetings, out on to the floor for a vote? Let that sink in for a second…. Really?
Put all else aside….. Really?
IS that really the kind of attorney general we want after Beau Biden…. a crony?
Really? He’s going to throw his whole career away …. on that?
Really? Why would he do that? But it is definite a campaign issue, like blocking the GW bridge, one that resonates and will stick, because EVERY parent has a child in school….Whether they would ever listen themselves or not, this concerns them now… They too will question: why is Matt Denn, who is running for Attorney General, trying so hard to keep information regarding my kid and his friends, from ever being made public??? Hmmmmm….
Seriously, this blemishes his entire pro-family image he developed while serving as our insurance commissioner. This makes him one of the snakes….. with those evil eyes…..
Although it is too complex to delineate here, after crunching numbers and possibilities there is dominant weight towards the idea that more Russian intrusions are planned for Ukraine…
In the terms of pure power, a language Russia understands, sanctions will not do the trick…Sanctions didn’t work on Saddam. Sanctions didn’t work on Syria. Both were under Russian influence. Therefore in language they understand, we will need boots on the ground in Ukraine.
- It is time to pull the A-10’s back out of retirement and put them in place inside of Ukraine.
- As soldiers return from Afghanistan, we will need to extend their tours a little longer and put them in Ukraine.
- We need to be clear our armies are defensive and not offensive. We can do that thorough our logistics which they can read.
- We need Americans on the ground inside those Russian territories most prone to invasion, and they will need to be on their best behavior to win friends and influence people…. Since they will no longer have to abide by Shari Law , I don’t think that will be a problem…
If the orders or plans have not yet been drawn, they need to be done ASAP.
This should be seen as a non aggressive force, but a deciding one. Sort of like how bouncers gather around a shouting match in numbers to help convince both parties that they really, really, really, really, don’t want to come to blows….
But if left alone as two voices in a vacuum, the fight will break out and it becomes much harder to then establish the peace.. Which is why , right now, we need boots on the ground somewhere in Ukraine’s Russian Territories… It is past time to realize the verbal assurances we have been given simply could be a stall for time… That is usually how it is done when you hear words but fail to see the actions accompanying them, in this case, the backing down of troops along the border.
As with a bar fight, the fastest and quickest way to ensure a lasting peace, is to have a solid physical threat close at hand, very visible to the perpetrators, so the fallout from their actions is readily assessed both scaring them and giving them the will to back down…Bringing in the Chinese would again, be the smartest thing. It is time for China to become a world player and with their future economic status briefly on shaky ground, I imagine they would appreciate the gesture and opportunity….
Plus it would take their eye off the China Sea for a while as well.
Finally, we can use this as a reason to ram higher taxes past the Republicans, by appealing to the patriotism of the American people, they won’t pay, the top 1% will… We earmark the tax increase to the military, and we paint all those Republicans who balk as being weak and unpatriotic Americans, willing to squander our troops in the face of a Russian threat…. If we play our cards correctly, we can pass that high rate of taxation, by calling it a war tax, sunset it after 10 years, and slip in marginal rates as high as up to 90 or 100%… We did the last big war… Tell America that this time, they won’t have to fight a war on a deficit. Our wealthy will happily pay our way in advance….
Domestically we should see great economic movement as we race to restaff defense plants, and get those contracts passed and rolling to upgrade our defense force, perhaps before October of this year…
But it all starts with boots on the ground in Ukraine… This we must do quickly.
It’s a job for Dad. The girls are upstairs fighting over who knows what but it is in the stand off stage and like little girls, no blows have been thrown. But the bigger, older sister has taken the stuffed animal and is holding it,… You walk into the room….
That is Obama’s predicament. How do you solve, diffuse, absolve a pie fight without far more serious ramifications stretching as far as the eye can see, from bubbling out from your best attempts?
Like a Dad, you have to realize they are just kids. They are looking at you to solve the problem…
Like a Dad, it is what any dad of girls has to do from time to time……
A) First take control… Ok, Give me the bear….
Obama with the world community behind him, needs to take temporary control of the divisive issue. In this case, it is Crimea, or more particularly, who controls Crimea. The US and international arbitrators need to take control over Crimea. It can be handled like this… We put a neutral nation’s troops between the Ukrainians and the Russians. Second step is we ask both sides to stand down. Russians to their side of the room, Ukrane’s to theirs.
B. Now we begin the talk… Ok, Russia, you go first, Ukraine, you’ll have your chance, Don’t interrupt.
Russia talks…
Now, Ukraine. Your turn, Russia? You got to say what you wanted without interruption, Now it’s Ukraines turn. If you have questions we will discuss them later… Go Ukraine.
C. Ok. we say.. Here is a list of what you disagree upon.
Recognize you agree on a lot, This is a small list. Looks like we can do something here….
D. Discussion.
Are we agreed now on rules to keep the bear?
Yes? OK, here it is…. follow the rule.
E. If I have to come here the next time, neither one of you are going to like it ….
==
There are certain ways things should be handled. Even then, they don’t always work out to plan. But if you execute the plan, knowing the plan works 95% of the time, and they still spiral beyond you, you did everything you could…
That is all that matters… If it spirals outward, we then will deal with it, consequences be what they may….
In any regards, the absolutely wrong approach is to barge into the room screaming and yelling, throwing out idle threats with pure abandon, pointing fingers before anyone has a chance to talk, or picking sides without finding facts and feelings out first. Yet a lot of parents act like this. It is sadly why we have so many kids who act that way as well. The United States should not be taking directions from our Conservatives and act like Ghetto mom. The United States needs to continue to act like the Super-Dad it is….
Photo courtesy of the EPA.
That would be my advice. Truth is, we quickly make Russia into a demon. They do the same to us. If there is anything we have learned over 100 years since the Great War started in August 1914, it is that going to war, should be the last resort…
Back in the early ’90’s upon being given the privilege to look over the Soviet’s intelligence when Communism fell, we were shocked that all their aggressive actions were seen in their eyes as defensive moves against possible aggression being planned by us….It is best represented by a young officers story from the cold war. I’ve long forgotten the source, if it comes up later I’ll tag it in…
But a young officer was in charge of a section of the German fence, and on his first shift, received a request for orders and told the reconnaissance brigade to go 5 more miles along the fence past where they usually turned around. They called back to say they’d stumbled on fresh movement of troops being maneuvered to that gap on front line we never had bothered to inspect.. After finding our troops were now outnumbered by their new response, this young officer ordered another brigade to move up from the south. That brigade also discovered another large number of troops moving in from the eastern reserves to that same point… The officer began to sweat. Was he witnessing on his watch, in his territory, the beginning of the long-feared invasion of Western Europe by the Soviets? He called up two more brigades and ordered them to dig in around that point. The Soviets brought up tanks, and lined them up for an invasion… The young officer then picked up the phone… Far away, the head of command looked over all the evidence… Finally he gave this advice… Pull your troops out, by ten miles…. he did, and the Soviets pulled theirs back as well. Ok, came the next order. Resume normalcy. And soon, everything again was routine….
For those that don’t understand war, the point of the story was, that the young officer caused the crises. The whole Russian buildup, was because of him. He made a move the Russians didn’t understand, and since they didn’t understand, they prepared for an attack. As we brought up more, so did they. They were simply matching our moves… Fortunately someone wise enough to understand that he Russians really didn’t want to go to war, stepped in and averted a possible WWIII start-up incident…
As if on cue, already dumb John McCain is rattling swords and demanding we nuke Moscow. Soon Lindsey Graham will follow as Tweedle Dumb always follows Tweedle Dee… Likewise, Putin will also have his exact same crowd (probably riding Harleys), his group of idiots, clamoring for war as well…
The Western press has already begin its war talk, leading with the condemnation of the Russian Government… But really, isn’t that a bit premature? No one has died. Far less than anything that happened in Kiev earlier this week….
Let’s wear Putin’s shoes for moment….
What if the predominantly Mexican population of San Diego wanted to be aligned with Mexico instead of the USA, all because we couldn’t get Republicans to pass immigration laws.. What if they gathered en masse in San Diego to protest, stayed, burned down government and private buildings. What if we tried to make them stand down, and it roused up even more Mexicans to their defense. What if the Mayor fled to Yuma, and camped out in a sanatorium. … …
What would the US do. OUR entire Pacific Fleet rests in San Diego… We would probably act prudently. and move outward to expand our perimeter. We would probably commander all airports and ship docks in that area in order to be able to land reinforcements if necessary. We would probably park a couple of gunboats facing the city as an intimidating force reminding the Mexicans we had forces they couldn’t get to, so their behavior should keep that in mind. We’d probably block access roads leading into the port, so an invasion army wouldn’t be able to charge in unannounced…
Just to play devils advocate, what might happen if we took no action to defend ourselves? As most Americans are asking the Russians to do? We saw the Mexicans had little respect in town for law and order. There are a lot more of them than there are of us… What if 10,000 of them just walked on to the base, armed with shotguns, hunting rifles, and a few semi automatics. What if they boarded all our ships, our subs, and put our sailors at gunpoint into the brig, and announced they were in charge of the Baja Mexican Navy… Now the 2nd largest navy in the world. What would the US do? Would we sail into our own harbor as did the Free French and blow what used to be our own ships up out of the water?
Of course the Mexicans would say we are invading their new country. Of course every Spanish tonged nation South of our border would be condemning us for invading Mexican California… despite the fact that a lot of gringos, maybe even a majority, live around San Diego and support our American troops being there and keeping the masses of Mexicans from turning on them….
Point is, we would ourselves, do what Russia just did...
So how can we condemn them, when we have contingency plans to do exactly the same thing?
There is further evidence this is not like Sudetenland, . One, no one has died. It was a smooth peaceful quiet takeover, textbook by American Standards. Two, action is isolated to the port and Crimea. Three, all evidence points to these actions solely for the purpose of controlling access to the base.
As Americans we would laugh at Europe, Russia, and China telling us to abandon San Diego. There are a lot of similarities between that and the Russian base. The number one move now appears to be: for the Kiev Ukraine government to insist that the base will forever stay Russian, and guarantee the safety of all Russians living on Crimea… Second, it should state that the current administration insists there will be no change for those who like having Russians close by. For that select group, there will be only two options. Life goes either goes on the same; or it gets better. The third option that it may get worse, is forever off the table.. .
It would be the equivalent of that American young officer calling off his men, and telling them to retreat backwards 10 miles.. it would be the opposite of what happened 100 years ago, where threats begot threats and soon rigid plans took effect and not one leader had the chutzpah to stop it from going forward. 6 million soldiers died, 15 million civilians died, and a whole generation of young men was wiped out. Girls had to marry men their father’s age.. and in the end Western Europe’s borders were right back where they were before the whole event started.
Cool heads must prevail. Of course the McCains will spout off. They don’t matter. What matters is that we treat the Russians with respect just as we would like them to do for us, if the shoe were on the other foot and we were fighting the battle of San Diego…..
Cons
Raises tax on gasoline by 10 cents per gallon. If gas costs $3.33 today, with tax it will cost $3.43.
Does not tax the wealth as much a percent of their income, as it would tax those on the lower levels.
Takes consumer’s money away from discretionary spending on other items.
Could cause truckers to fuel up in other states.
At a drive rate of 25,000 miles per year, at an mpg of 20 miles per gallon, the number of gallons used would be 1,250. A ten cent tax on each of those gallons amounts to $125 per year… Per month that would be .. $10.41… Per day…$ 0.32… If one drives less, or has higher mpg, one pays less.
Gasoline tax has lost its value over the past decade. Changes in fuel-saving automotive technology and driving habits are resulting in less revenue to repair crumbling bridges, repave highways or upgrade buses and trains.
Pros
Jobs, jobs, jobs, with funding highway construction can get into gear.
Solidifies the Transportation Trust Fund, which has been robbed to simply run government. That’s been squeezed and squeezed and squeezed, and specifically what has been squeezed out of it is the ability to build more capacity to deal with congestion. All that’s left, pretty much, in the capital budget at the state level (for roads), is maintenance and repair.
DelDOT’s capital budget would increase from $128 million this year up to $192 million next year.
Opens door of super high tax rate on the super high wealthy in this state. Those who should be paying 15%.
Encourages people to use less petroleum. Smaller cars, higher MPG’s, more public transit, less pollution, get bumps when gas rises higher.
Allows state to tap in on all those people using 95 who pull into the best service center on the East Coast, perhaps the nation.
County and local roads which have also have suffered, may now finally receive repair.
The current poor condition of roads costs drivers in Delaware cost $2,500 per person per year in extra fuel, wear-and-tear and lost time. This cost must be balanced against the cost of an additional 10 cents per gallon. (Compared to the $125 per year cost of the tax.)
We paid more in the past. Driving the same 25,000 miles back when cars ran on 10 mpg, the same mileage would have generated. $250 dollars… Fuel efficiency has cost state transportation funds half of what they once used to receive….
The tax was last raised in 1995… Since then, what we could once buy for $250.00, we would now need $382.00. The money we collect does not go half as far….
States with lower gas taxes actually pay more for the gas in the pumps because the market will bear it. Sam’s Gas (Walmart) in Athens, Georgia, where there is a 7.5 cents Georgia state tax on gasoline…. sells gas for $2.99…. Putting the price of the cheapest Athens, Georgia gas today is $2.915… In Delaware, Wawa has $3.23 up on their sign, (as of a couple of hours ago.) Today Delaware’s tax is 23 cents per gallon… The cost of the gas minus taxes is $2.99…. some may say… aha! Georgia is cheaper. But that would be comparing Sam’s Club to Wawa. One would expect Sam’s Club to be cheaper… It is a “club”… is it not? The lowest priced national brand in Athens, Georgia is the Shell Station on Atlanta Ave. near Trade Street. It’s pump cost is $3.19… Deduct the 7.5 cent gasoline tax, and Georgians are paying $3.115 per gallon for gas; the comparative Delawarean price with Delaware’s tax tacked on, would be… $3.35…. Today that is 8 cents higher than most stations sell in Delaware today….. Point is… consumers don’t absorb the gas cost… The $4 billion dollar gas companies do!
—–
The benefits outweigh the cost.
——
With so many great benefits, it seems senseless to halt them all for a price jump that can occur on it’s own at a moment’s notice… No more difference from driving past a gas station in night checking the price, and doing it again in the morning and cursing you didn’t fill up the night before…
Thus, are the pros and cons of raising a gas tax…. if the poor and middle class are being asked to sacrifice, come later, THE WEALTHY HAD BETTER BE FORCED TO DO THE SAME…. IT’S AN ELECTION YEAR YOU KNOW…… Pass this minor tax on the poor, then raise state income rates where they should be… As a reminder I’ve included them below…….
Recommendations for 2014:
Go to multiple tiered tax rates:
15% on $1 billion or more
10% on $100 million to $1 billion
9% on $10 million to $100 million
8% on $1 million to $10 million
7% on $500,000 to $1 million
6.75% on $60,000 up to $1 million
The principle statement supporting the implementation of Common Core, has always been that we need a better educated workforce to do tomorrow’s jobs….
Governor Markell said it in his state of the state address on the day the DOW fell 176 points….
This has been a reoccuring theme of his; “the education of today will not bring us the jobs of tomorrow..”
Although that sounds good in soundbyte form, it is not grounded too well in reality. In reality, the wages of jobs have declined as the demand for work rose to become greater than the supply. In other words, unemployment is too high… and that suppresses the cost of labor.
When one’s boss can hire one cheaper to do the same job, that is not the best time to ask your boss for a raise…..
Today, our minimum wage is being paid to college graduates and high school graduates. It used to be paid to those who were either still students, or never did graduate….
Image Courtesy of Economic Policy Institute
Today! Across the minimum workforce almost 5 out of every 10 have a college experience; and almost 8 out of 10 graduated high school or have a GED.
We are already educating our lowest level of workers far above what the job market requires… There are no jobs to be given to those who will soon emerge college or career ready (SAT score over 1550), unless they first fill in the minimum wage jobs these poor blokes working now, give up when they get bumped up into real jobs….
If you bump your newly trained graduates directly into those high paying jobs, then you will be freezing the current generation into these minimum wage level jobs at which they are currently stuck…
One cannot bootstrap a educational process into producing high quality job applicants, when there are no high quality jobs taking applications…
We already have a high quality educated work force; we call it our minimum wage crowd….
So Governor. What are you going to do?
As I see it here are your options….
You have to create an industry here in Delaware. Here is one: wind power infrastructure and solar power grid efficiency. You just make it up and go after it, hoping it doesn’t implode like Fisker and Bloom… The difference is that with Fisker and Bloom, you said “here is some money, do something”; you left it up to them. With this, you get Federal funding and we go government control all the way involving public-private partnerships. We have the land, we have the technical expertise, we have a scientifically educated work force; all we need are capital and someone to direct it.
Secondly, the government needs to create high labor-intensive industries. Areas where humans will not be replaced by robotics. Health care comes to mind. Personal care of senior citizen in their homes, is another. Food inspection is a third. Why can’t we have a public-private enterprise here in Delaware which performs the FDA food inspections for the entire East Coast? Environmental inspection industries is a fourth avenue of opportunity; testing and verification, done by the state to insure compliance of air, water, and soil standards…
As one can tell, these require more taxes. Those who have benefited from the bounce-back of the financial markets, should be the ones to carry the rest of us forward. That would be the 1%. There are two ways to fund our future growth… A) We can borrow and spread the cost over time by increasing our debt and pay it back later, or B) we can pay as we go by assessing more from those in real time, who can afford it without denting their lifestyle…. Being a fiscal conservative, I fall into taxing now, paying now, and keeping our debt levels low.(B).. It makes too much sense to do it any other way….since we currently have an abundance of cash in the hands of the 1% from which to draw.
The point being made through all these wishful plans, is that employment in the private sector is now full. It will not grow more jobs on its own. It is now required of government to prime the pump; we need it more than ever. Most of those currently unemployed will need government jobs to get back to work. There is much to be done to our infrastructure; we have cut government for so long, that many things are close to being broken….
We have an educated work force ready and able. It is our college and high school educated minimum wage earners.... We need to first give them the opportunity to move up into jobs for which they are qualified to do,.. in order to make them better citizens. Playing with education again and again to make more minimum wage workers who are overqualified, is not going to do anyone any good at all… it is just circling money around where it is not needed.
Courtesy of the Economist (since removed)
There is an old saying I’m fond of repeating….
It takes great courage to stand up to one’s enemies. It takes even greater courage to stand up to one’s friend….
Chris Coons, Delaware’s Junior Senator who happens to be up for election this year, apparently lacks that amount of courage. (The Senior Senator, with more experience, does not seem to lack that courage (maybe from all those flights in a C-135…))
The bill known as the Schumer-Kirk-Menendez Bill is a poison pill designed to break the sanctioned negotiations with Iran. It was written, paid for, and lobbied by Israel. It has only one purpose and one purpose only; to put limitations on the President and Secretary of State in their negotiations over Iran’s non-proliferation….
(It is now dead btw. It does not have enough votes to override a Presidential veto…)
Sadly it shows we have kooks in our Senate running our foreign affairs, and unfortunately for Delaware, one of ours is one…. By kooks, I mean people who sign on to a bill without reading it, (probably not one’s regular definition of kook).
But a kook he is….
Benefit for signing on? A) money for campaigns and B) protection from the whacky Christian right (think O’Donnell)… If the bill were dead in the water, if it were just for a show, I could see some sensibility in trying to look good to a certain “whacky” constituency. After all, sad to say, that is political reality. One has to do, what one has to do….
But this bill would do severe damage. This bill would allow the nuclear process of Iran to continue. This bill would keep the sanctions in place, ensuring the nuclear process would indeed be the only option Iran would have at its disposal.
We have been cold enemies with Iran a long time. This negotiation is the equivalent of Ronald Reagan’s reaching out to Gorbachev earlier in our lifetimes. Imagine if upon Ronnie’s return from Reykjavik, the US Congress bought and paid for by then Communist China, had passed a resolution saying that no thaw could occur until the Soviets dismantled everyone of their nuclear missiles and silos, and destroyed everyone of their Atomic submarines…. We’d still be at war with Russia.
That is the equivalent stupidity of what this piece of legislations does. AND CHRIS COONS SIGNED ON TO IT! HAS HE LOST HIS FREAKING MIND?
Many of you may not remember but when Ronnie came back, there were a few hawks in the Senate who said exactly what I mentioned above. BUT WE ALL KNEW THEY WERE KOOKS….
Like the pontifications of Ted Cruz today, nobody, nobody, nobody of any import, took them seriously. Reagan was instead encouraged by the majority to go forward and meet with Gorbachev again…
Unlike those fine statesmen of the 80’s, our Senate is bought and paid for and according to Diane Feinstein, has apparently sworn to AIPAC put the cause of Israel above our own interests! And it is not to all of Israel’s interests they subscribe … it is strictly the war-mongering Conservative Hawks in Israel to whom they subscribe… Close to fifty percent of Israel is not Conservative!…. Simon Peres who recently passed, once led the other half of Israel, the half which sees progress involving cooperation and diplomacy. Israel’s Conservatives only get power when there is a crises involving war. That is behind their drumbeat for war with Iran. If in the middle of constant conflict, they can keep their hold of the Knesset. But once cooperation appears fruitful…. oops… out they go….
And so somehow they get Chris Coons to sign on to derailing the negotiations…. They got all the Republicans and a number of Democrats. At one point they gloated they had 77, a veto proof majority….
The bill argues for the US to declare war on Iran, if Israel attacks it..
REALLY CHRIS COONS? YOU SAID WE WRONGLY WENT TO IRAQ FOR 9/11. NOW YOU COMMIT US TO ANOTHER, VERY MAJOR, AND AGAINST A SMART ENEMY, A 1000 TIMES MORE POWERFUL THAN THE AFGHANISTAN TALIBAN, JUST IF ISRAEL SENDS A MISSION INTO IRAN?
If Chris had not listened to AIPAC, and listened to Allan Loudell of WDEL he probably would have known that Iran is at the negotiation table because the Iranian people demand it, by voting for the one candidate who promised to try to end their isolation. They want to be on more friendly terms with the West. A more cooperative Iran could yield any number of real benefits, including help in stabilizing Afghanistan (which we will need on the way out), the possibility of tamping down the civil war in Syria, and perhaps above all as positive role model of a modernizing and democratizing Islamic state—something of clearly global historical significance. Not to mention economic benefits for U.S. companies…..
SO CHRIS COONS… WE HAVE A BREAK-THROUGH FOR PEACE WITH VERY TANGIBLE BENEFITS BECAUSE A DEMOCRATIC NATION THREW OUT THEIR TOTALITARIAN, AND WE GET LOCKED INTO GOING TO WAR IF THE CONSERVATIVES OF ISRAEL FEEL THE NEED TO CHALLENGE IRAN, THEN STEP BACK WHILE WE GO IN TO DO ALL THE FIGHTING? AGAINST A DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED REGIME?
What was it I said above? Yes. ARE YOU FREAKING OUT OF YOUR MIND?
Lots of love back at you. Just don’t let it happen again, ok?
In a recent piece I did on Biden, as I read over his biography I was reminded of his plagiarism incident in 1988. He dropped out of running for the presidency because he forgot to attribute an Irish speaker before quoting him on one of his hundreds of stops that day… The “uproar” caused him to drop out of the race.
He dropped out for that little thing?
Today we have Ron Paul plagiarizing every line said this past legislative session. As if to reward that, he is now considered a top contender for the Republican presidential nomination. Today we have Fox News blatantly lie through careful edits, and no one cares. We have CBS create a fake story about Benghazi, and no one cares…. We are fed daily lies in the House of Representatives; no one calls them out anymore… Our own News Journal publishes gross misstatements by our Secretary of Education, and only bloggers call them out.
But Biden was ridiculed and totally forced out of the race for forgetting one time to mention Kinnock before he borrowed a line from him…
The big difference is the uproar… It started deteriorating after 1994.
I remember Newt Gingrich throwing irrational after irrational accusations out against Clinton. I asked an old politico what he was doing… ” Sounds like he is just throwing mud to see what will stick.”
It hasn’t stopped sense. Ridiculous claims get emailed to the press. The press puts them up, and others talk about how ridiculous such accusations are. Then someone finds a similarity to something that may have really happened and suddenly a scandal is born. The crime is solely in the similarity, not the actual action… Next the press is talking about how much damage these items will cause the person being accused. The person himself gets asked, and we all will then judge his guilt by his demeanor in giving back his rebuttal… If his eyes shift, we discuss his guilt. If he misses a point, we discuss how he missed his point….and whether or not both show weakness in their leadership…
Yet it was all over something absolutely ridiculous originally said by someone making things up out of thin air and throwing mud…
Today, when I hear news from any of the main media, my first response is not to believe it…. “yeah, right I say”.
Isn’t that terrible? I’m just like those Soviets reading the Pravda. The assumption being made by me is that the story is reported only after being edited by the propaganda officer of the news corporation. No matter whether that media is grounded from the right or left, if it comes from any commercial media, it can’t be believed. I’m not sure how your mind works today but to borrow from computer technology, I tend to put all main media stories into a nebulous cloud, a purgatory of thought so to speak. As more nuggets get offered, I let them settle them into either columns of pros or cons supporting or denying the original nugget, and then have to use my guessing powers to determined which story of the pro or con is the more truthful….
It’s a lot of work.
The point is, our society has moved past telling the truth....
Truth is not what is important anymore.. Making you believe what they want, is the sole purpose of messaging… It is not about telling you that such and such happened… Absolutely almost all of our messaging system is set up to tell us that such and such a thing happened … because of this reason….
Hate Liberals! Because this thing happened.
Hate Conservatives! Because this thing happened.
Hate Communists and Socialists! Because this thing happened.
Hate Corporate America! Because this thing happened….
And the erosion of telling truth is huge…. Our courts for the most part have determined political discourse does not have to be factual, certainly not the ads. A new industry has developed to test the truth of political statements, because the press fell down on the job. Our courts have determined for the most part, that lying shall not to be punished. Whenever our government speaks today, it is not believed.
“We have nor will ever have any means or desire to collect American’s metadata and store it so we can go back and look through it” said May 2013 by the head of the NSA; Snowden released the truth just over a month later.
Truth no longer relates to the science of what happens; truth has become the art of stretching belief up to the edge of the envelope without going too far.
Our real lives are always fret with uncertainty, of intrigue, of mistrust. Which is why it was reassuring to have laws on the books regarding the truth being told by our media. We could trust it as being true to the best of their knowledge, because they would be incarcerated if it were not so….
It freed our minds considerably.
So in a proper frame of mind, in a world of truth, Obamacare would be framed as thus:
Obama had a mandate through the electoral process to improve the health insurance system for everyday citizens, but Republicans sought to represent the Large Insurance Companies all who would make less profit if they had to fairly pay out claims… Every little fight was then laid out in that context.
What is sad, is that our children as were those children once of Communist China, Soviet Russia, East Germany, Albania, and Bulgaria, are growing skeptical of all official pronouncements.
Slogans saying “capitalism is corrupt” ring hollow when you have to stand in line for a daily loaf of bread, and you see Americans shopping in supermarkets lined with products. Our news media is now in the same boat.
When was the last time you saw a major media state we seriously need to raise taxes on the top one percent if we are ever going to have a strong America again?
Never?
When you do, stick close to that source. They are close to telling the truth….
kavips 