Category: News and Politics
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Republican attacks against labor unions
Yesterday Pennsylvania labor unions became the latest to suffer a legislative setback Labor unions are under attack. Newly elected Republican governments around the country went to work this past month to weaken the unions exactly as they announced in the campaign season. While labor unions normally support Democratic pro-labor platforms, this year many unions and their…
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My 2017-2018 economic and political forecast
“It’s still the economy, stupid” My fundamental forecasting premise is that the current federal administration’s fate and effectiveness in this divided country ultimately lies in the direction of the economy. Given the basic current macroeconomic factors: high stock market low interest rates high level of entitlements, and the low level of unemployment, I conclude that current…
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Pocahontas empowered
Senator Elizabeth Warren solidified her leadership position of the nation’s political opposition force this week. Even the president acknowledged that in one of his insult-hurling tweets “Pocahontas is now the face of your party”. Warren, like me, says that has voted Republican for most of her life before assuming positions of Democratic party leadership. Yet she…
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Update on 2017 tax reform
There is no easy button for tax reform. Republicans tax reform plans have changed since my last report on tax reform about six weeks ago. The Republican Senate agenda that was based on using the reconciliation process instead of needing 60 votes in the Senate, the republicans only need a simple majority of 51 votes for…
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Who do you trust?
“Who do you trust?” was a television series hosted by Johnny Carson that ran during the years around when I was born. It might be called a precursor to reality TV since it was filmed live and Carson was known for his ability to react to the unexpected. The words come to mind today as…
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The problem with change in government
The problem with change in government is that it presumes that the new guy can do better than the collective input from all prior human minds that combine years of public process by all widely varied viewpoints. It says “we are not happy with the result so let’s throw it out and start over”. It…
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Consumer boycotts are working
This post was updated on February 8 after Nordstrom dropped the Trump product line and share price rebounded by 5 percent. Uber also abandoned support for the administration last week and donated $1 million to the resistance movement. Consumer boycotts seem to be picking up more steam this week against a handful of companies like Amazon, Yuengling,…
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Civil protest is always ugly and sometimes deadly
Civil disobedience is ugly and inefficient. It is uncomfortable, costs us property and sometimes even lives. But civil protest is by far the most powerful force that exists in society. Certainly the United States would not exist today as a nation if small groups of drunken colonialists had not engaged in shameful behavior of…
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New approach to break the health care reform impasse
Patient Freedom Act of 2017 A new bill to break the health care impasse is introduced today. WSJ reports “Sen. Collins, a Maine Republican, will answer that question publicly Monday when she introduces a bill with Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy aimed at breaking the party’s logjam over the repeal of the Affordable Care Act…
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Propaganda tools
A commenter wrote “the NY Times is basically the propaganda arm of the Democratic party, in the same way Fox news is the propaganda arm of the Republican party“. I see it quite differently: Science, data, educational institutions , intellectuals, and investigative journalism are all part of the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party. Religion,…