This actually has been going on a lot longer than the Trump era.
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revelette1
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Sun 14 Oct, 2018 12:15 pm
Another issue I agree with edgar about is the democrats and the republicans are both and always have been equally responsible for most of the wars since my adult memory, most I am talking in the ME. For instance, today I am thinking of Yemen, after reading the reporter who may be killed and Trump wanting to sell the Saudis military arms. But then I thought, Obama supported the Saudis war on Yemen too which has turned into a huge humanitarian crises. We continue to support Israel, blindly even though Palestinians have been suffering for so long under the yoke of Israel. I wish we had more doves in the democratic party even if it isn't mainstream.
Obama supported the Saudis war on Yemen too which has turned into a huge humanitarian crises.
The Saudis are not waging war on Yemen. They are helping the legitimate government of Yemen defend itself from aggressors who wish to destroy Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and the United States.
revelette1 wrote:
We continue to support Israel, blindly even though Palestinians have been suffering for so long under the yoke of Israel.
There is nothing blind about our support for Israel.
The Palestinians are not under Israel's yoke. Their suffering is the result of their own aggression and refusal to make peace.
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edgarblythe
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Mon 15 Oct, 2018 11:11 am
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edgarblythe
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Mon 15 Oct, 2018 05:06 pm
I keep hearing that although Donald Trump is a scoundrel or worse, at least he’s presiding over a great economy.
As White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow recently put it, “The single biggest story this year is an economic boom that is durable and lasting.”
Really? Look closely at the living standards of most Americans, and you get a very different picture.
Yes, the stock market has boomed since Trump became president. But it’s looking increasingly wobbly as Trump’s trade wars take a toll.
Over 80 percent of the stock market is owned by the richest 10 percent of Americans anyway, so most Americans never got much out of Trump’s market boom to begin with.
The trade wars are about to take a toll on ordinary workers. Trump’s steel tariffs have cost Ford $1 billion so far, for example, forcing the automaker to plan mass layoffs.
What about economic growth? Data from the Commerce Department shows the economy at full speed, 4.2 percent growth for the second quarter.
But very little of that growth is trickling down to average Americans. Adjusted for inflation, hourly wages aren’t much higher now than they were forty years ago.
Trump slashed taxes on the wealthy and promised everyone else a $4,000 wage boost. But the boost never happened. That’s a big reason why Republicans aren’t campaigning on their tax cut, which is just about their only legislative accomplishment.
Trump and congressional Republicans refuse to raise the minimum wage, stuck at $7.25 an hour. Trump’s Labor Department is also repealing a rule that increased the number of workers entitled to time-and-a-half for overtime.
Yes, unemployment is down to 3.7 percent. But jobs are less secure than ever. Contract workers – who aren’t eligible for family or medical leave, unemployment insurance, the minimum wage, or worker’s compensation – are now doing one out of every five jobs in America.
Trump’s Labor Department has invited more companies to reclassify employees as contract workers. Its new rule undoes the California Supreme Court’s recent decision requiring that most workers be presumed employees unless proven otherwise. (Given California’s size, that decision had nationwide effect.)
Meanwhile, housing costs are skyrocketing, with Americans now paying a third or more of their paychecks in rent or mortgages.
Trump’s response? Drastic cuts in low-income housing. His Secretary of Housing and Urban Development also wants to triple the rent paid by poor households in subsidized housing.
Healthcare costs continues to rise faster than inflation. Trump’s response? Undermine the Affordable Care Act. Over the past two years, some 4 million people have lost healthcare coverage, according to a survey by the Commonwealth Fund.
Pharmaceutical costs are also out of control. Trump’s response? Allow the biggest pharmacist, CVS, to merge with the one of the biggest health insurers, Aetna – creating a behemoth with the power to raise prices even further.
The cost of college continues to soar. Trump’s response? Make it easier for for-profit colleges to defraud students. His Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, is eliminating regulations that had required for-profit colleges to prove they provide gainful employment to the students they enroll.
Commuting to and from work is becoming harder, as roads and bridges become more congested, and subways and trains older and less reliable. Trump’s response? Nothing. Although he promised to spend $1.5 trillion to repair America’s crumbling infrastructure, his $1.5 trillion tax cut for big corporations and the wealthy used up the money.
Climate change is undermining the standard of living of ordinary Americans, as more are hit with floods, mudslides, tornados, draughts, and wildfires. Even those who have so far avoided direct hits will be paying more for insurance – or having a harder time getting it. People living on flood plains, or in trailers, or without home insurance, are paying the highest price.
Trump’s response? Allow more carbon into the atmosphere and make climate change even worse.
Too often, discussions about “the economy” focus on overall statistics about growth, the stock market, and unemployment.
But most Americans don’t live in that economy. They live in a personal economy that has more to do with wages, job security, commutes to and from work, and the costs of housing, healthcare, drugs, education, and home insurance.
These are the things that hit closest home. They comprise the typical American’s standard of living.
Instead of an “economic boom,” most Americans are experiencing declines in all these dimensions of their lives.
Trump isn’t solely responsible. Some of these trends predated his presidency. But he hasn’t done anything to reverse them.
I doubted at first whether Warren is considering running in 2020, but CNN thinks all this documentation and the video she produced from various professors responsible for hiring her, said she was listed as a white woman and her heritage claim had zero role in her hiring gives a broad hint she is considering running for President. I hope so, I would vote for her in a heart beat. She has what it takes to go against Trump.
Would you like to sit in at a Mosque and listen? They(Islam) wrote the book on hate and supremacy.
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edgarblythe
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Tue 16 Oct, 2018 07:21 pm
Michael Moore has been trying to get Tom Hanks to run for president. I don't know zip about Tom's political persuasion, so have no opinion as of now.
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revelette1
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Wed 17 Oct, 2018 08:30 am
There is probably a hurricane thread somewhere. But since this is a progressive thread...sorry. Anyway, I was reading the other day in some random article about a whale washed up on shore, underweight because it was filled with plastic water bottles and other trash. And then I saw on the news about all the bottled water being donated to the Hurricane victims. I thought to myself, surely there is an alternative to donating all those plastic bottled water which will end up in the Oceans making the problems of Hurricanes worse and killing the Ocean sea life. So looked up alternatives, I came across a video of a guy making canned water to donate to Hurricane victims. At least cans are recycled.
