They’re proud, he’s just as clueless as them! Who needs to know anything about anyone else when Amurka First?!
Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran
And it looks like a bit in Armenia. But history is full of nationalist overreach.
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It seems to me VPs are also “elected” to executive office, or we’d have President-elects only announcing VPs after the general elections in November. But regardless of the position, I think the 22nd Amendment as intended applies to all influence over the executive branch, so there shouldn’t be a “first man” or “VP” that seems a run-around of the two-term limit. It’s an element of my opposition to any HRC+(Bill Clinton)+VP ticket.
That is not what I’d call a ‘recovery’.
Look, I’m not trying to come down on ya like a ton of bricks—okay,
maybe a half-ton if I’m being honest—but this is a misperception that
the media seems so eager to push that I am done letting this kind of shit slide.
100% agree. I’m sure parts of the country are doing well, parts of the economy are strong-ish, but it’s not like that all over. I’m still a full time employee but we are down to 32 hours per week. Everyone I know toes the company line for fear of getting let go because jobs, good jobs, are not in abundance.
Nope I wasn’t happy with it then, but I think a lot of the early 2000 issues stemmed from the tech sector bubble popping not something the government had much of a hand in. My problem? My problem is I don’t see anyone presenting a viable plan to fix the economy. I know Hillary will muddle it along just like Obama, there is no reason to believe she won’t. Trump, god only knows… But I don’t see any president fixing it (why would they), I’m not even sure it’s possible if they tried. What I do see is an inevitable economic collapse and chaos. To me voting in Hillary just pushes out that collapse a few more years, with Trump it’ll just get here sooner. Either way I expect it to be in my lifetime.
Personally I like to see a law passed that says something to the effect that new laws or changes have to go into effect no later than one year after the current presidential term ends. That or a forced, legally binding, long term plan (economic, social, international, ect.) that the President, Senate, and House have to review and agree on every 2 years.
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How would that work any better (and without sabotage) than what we have now? How would that force a working solution?
No, a slapdash “anything but what we have now” is not “better than what we have now”.
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Every time I see the Trump + babies pict, all I can think is: “Three of a kind,” because they even look the same. (Which, granted, isn’t fair to the babies.) But I suppose I think that because I know Trump behaves like a baby…
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Reading my post again, I feel it’s a tad more abrasive than I’d have liked it to have been. @quorihunter is correct that the U.S. economy (again, that’s us) has recovered somewhat, but only to the extent that someone with a PhD in macroeconomics could call it a recovery. Geithner played a critical role in turning that sinking ship around and deserves credit that’s well overdue from someone other than a historian.
Going further, perhaps quori’s point was that the U.S. has made a structural recovery—that is, while the numbers don’t yet reflect it, the U.S. is in position to come back from the brink stronger than before. @quorihunter, if that’s what you meant, I’d like to hear more from you because honestly, I have far, far from a PhD in macroecon and would be happy to learn more.
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“I am Groat”??
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True, but what we have now amounts to a power struggle. What one side builds up the other tears down. I’d like to see something that, lets say president Trump just can’t come in and start is dismantle the ACA, he could work to ratify it, but not end it outright. Or set long term economic plans that go into affect years after his term ends, which inevitably will be changed by a future president without ever going into affect. I think if you had a way limit the changes, or at least the rate of changes, you could create a better long term plan and outlook for the country. I mean what we have no creates some semblance of a power balance, but it is much less efficient than I think it could be.
Here’s an anecdotal example: My mom verges on Tea Party levels of conservative… For her the ACA amounted to pure socialism, I’m sorry I mean pure EVIL. Many years ago she was a nurse, which is ironic as hell. After a long discussion and asking lots of straight forward and yes/no questions she did cave to a central idea. It would be in this country’s best interest to have healthy citizens. That doesn’t mean she was okay with full blown free health care for all, oh god no, EVIL…but the idea of preventative care and basic levels of health care were doable for her. I present this because I see both sides wanting the extreme side of the same coin. However communication has never been good on either side.
*I just used Trump here because he’s the conservative nominee vs. Obama being our democratic president…
-along with term limits for House and Senate would be nice.
Maybe in some sectors, maybe. I work for a company that builds construction equipment. The largest sector we sell to is energy, and with coal being pushed out and oil being imported on the cheap our sales have dried up. Now if you want to end coal mining and coal as an energy source fine, but just hammering it out of existence hurts a lot of people directly and indirectly. Again, is there a plan to help energy companies transition to other fuel sources or help those workers who have been hurt by governmental policy? (Obviously mining in that location won’t exist forever, but still.)
I know that Duke Energy has an oil fired power plant that effectively runs 24/7 just because the cost of trucking in fuel vs. the regulation to build a new plant is cheaper… When I heard that I had a, “Say wut?” moment.
If I didn’t see the market fluctuations compared to the level of speculation going on I might believe it, but my confidence is not high.
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I have been working in Financial Services now for 15 years. I do not have a PhD in anything let alone Macroeconomics, and even if I did ever pursue a PhD anything related to math would be the very last thing I’d get it in. That said…the firm I work for can easily see when we are in a down turn or up turn. I agree with your comment that “we” are the economy because it is partially dependent upon us as consumers to buy the goods and services that then create corporate profit.
Thing is…that’s happening. The GDP is way up from 6-8 years ago. Consumer spending is way up. Corporate profits are way up. WAYYYYYY UP.
When jobs in the private sector are not well earning enough or there doesn’t see to be enough of them available. It is not a reflection of the economy today as it is…it is a reflection of the economy from years past. Corporations loose money in down cycles as a result they are slow to hire and slow to increase wages during the following years to increase their own revenue stream and essentially make up what was lost.
Is it right? I’d say no. Is it smart? Again, not in my book it isn’t. I bet an economist would argue differently though.
My issue will and always be around the incredible compensation gap that grew since the 80’s. Back in the 70’s an average house cost $30k, a car $3k, and the average worker made around $15k while the average executive made around $150k. Today the average home costs $300k, the average car $30k, the average worker makes $45k and the average exec is making $10mil.
THAT is where the problem lies. Its so easy to see. And companies whose CEOs make hard choices to cut their own pay to redistribute to their work force (Mulally did this to help save Ford) find not only does their company survive…they thrive. Workers understand and appreciate the sacrifice a leader like that makes.
The economy as a whole is strong, even if the average person doesn’t feel it. That isn’t the economy causing that. What they are feeling the impact of is themselves being pushed out of the middle class and into the poverty class. Most of us are doing jobs where if compensation had kept up with inflation, we would be making $150k a year. Instead we make $50k and it simply isn’t enough.
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Not fair to our favorite plantimal; he’s capable of self-sacrifice and empathy, unlike Pence.
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The argument isn’t about their neoliberalism, it’s about their knowledge base. One can be a neoliberal and still be knowledgable about a region/country.
And if you were here and actually read the comments of the vast majority of people here, most of us aren’t neoliberal and we fully acknowledge her political/economic leanings. We also see Trump for what and who he is. Many of us are Bernie supporters, many plan to vote for Stein.
so how about, before you sweep in here acting all superior you get to know the crowd and our political leanings (which is quite varied, actually).
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To be fair, it was to stop them from massacring Kosovar Albanians.
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First off, these are great ground-level observations. Share more if you have them.
I completed two-and-half years of nursing school before I decided it wasn’t for me. In that time, I’d say about pretty much every member of the nursing instructing faculty (all RNs or NPs) supported universal health care (UHC), many supported a hybrid solution à la Germany, and at least a few advocated for a single-payer system. Why? Because their entire reason for being a nurse was to protect, restore, and ensure the health of people. Literally on Day One of the first professional-course semester, they tell their students that they’re signing up to be not only practitioners but also advocates of more accessible, more effective health care.
And yet, I encountered fellow nursing students adamantly against even UHC, many of whom conflated it with single-payer because that’s how little they knew about health care systems. If this were just a random sample of 18-20 year-olds, I’d be more lenient. (I was in my 30s when I enrolled.) Americans at this age know very little about health care systems that actually work efficiently, an ignorance further ingrained by our myopic media and public officials.
But these young people wanted to be nurses and therefore be a part of this system. Neither myself nor the instructors were willing to let willful ignorance of this system slide. You say you want to help others? F—king prove it. Learn about the U.S. health care system, how it works, how it can be improved, and if you find that your ideological hang-ups keep getting in the way of achieving your claimed objective then it’s time to introspect on whether this is really the career for you.
And yet, despite this rigorous education, I knew one nursing student who not only supported further privatization of the U.S. health care system but was also an anti-vaxxer. I can only hope that the next several years of service as an RN will eventually beat those views out of him.
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Piles of manure is a vital part of a healthy plant’s existence. Pence definitely qualifies as that.
Now I see what I’d started to sense which is that we agreed all along—I was just a bit blinded by my own frustration. I apologize for my tone and give you kudos for being so graceful about it.
Great post here, by the way. Thanks for sharing.
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The thing that takes my breath away is not how ignorant Trump is - it’s that his followers don’t give a shit.
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Maybe that’s exactly what that asshole needs, to have serious people burst out laughing while trying to maintain a professional demeanor. Not making fun of him, of course, just failing to maintain composure in the face of such ridiculousness. I would love to see the blowhard’s reaction.
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thank you. no apology needed as we are all frustrated over the lack of understanding and support from the decision makers. In the end we as citizens feel a complete lack of control over our own destinies and it is maddening.
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I wore
