The Angry Bear

Data for Progress has new polling showing that Social Security is very popular, and that Social Security messaging helps Democrats in a generic ballot poll.     The DFP polling comes on the heels of recent comments from Republican politicians about cutting, sunsetting, or privatizing Social Security. So in theory Social Security looks like a good issue for Democrats, and they may bring a messaging bill up for a vote this fall.  The problem...

Republican: A synonym for Selfishness and Narcissism and Violence Synonym: a word or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word or phrase in the same language; a person or thing so closely associated with a particular quality or idea that the mention of their name calls it to mind. Selfishness: the quality or condition of being selfish. Narcissism: selfishness, involving a sense of entitlement, a lack of empathy, and a need...

The state of inflation There’s no big economic news today (Aug. 22), and as usual very limited COVID reporting over the weekend, so let’s catch up on the state of inflation in the economy. Three of the biggest components of inflation have been gas, housing, and vehicles. Let’s look at each in that order. According to GasBuddy, average US prices as of today are $3.86/gallon: As the above graph shows, that means that almost 80% of the...

“America is the most advanced country in the world.” So we hear. Even if it is so, it is so, perhaps, and only perhaps, on average. Seems the majority of the population does want to progress. Also seems that a significant minority of the population is, has long been, inclined to regress. Moreover, many of this same minority are inclined to want to impose regression on the rest of us. And, while these folk may like technology and all the other...

There are many places where the water has been polluted by something. Ten Bears talks about Bend, Oregon. 1979 and one of the largest environmental complaints was lodged by the Federal government against a major corporation. Acting on behalf of EPA, the Department of Justice filed four suits against Hooker Chemical Co. Hooker Chemical and its parent corporation Occidental Petroleum Corporation were to clean up four chemical waste dumpsites in...

As taken from Infidel753‘s Blog, Infidel, “The raid.” Written not even two weeks ago and accurate as to what took place leading up to the raid, reactions by “wingnuts,” and the blogosphere perspective on what they call an illegal raid. Republicans deceiving themselves is still on going since January 6. Rather than aligning themselves with the rule of law, Repubs are off on another journey of denial. They missed their chance to call it quits and...

Just as some of those first to suffer the consequences of Climate Change were those who had been subsisting on marginal lands; some of the first to suffer the consequences of the most recent round of inflation were those who had been subsisting on marginal incomes. This was a lot of Americans. Before inflation, they were barely making ends meet because too much of their too little income was going towards housing. In a more balanced economy, housing...

Joe Manchin came to the table in agreement with the new IRA provisions. This left Senator Sinema as the only one blocking the Inflation Reduction Act. To reach an agreement, Democrats were forced to narrow a key provision of the recently enacted Inflation Reduction Act because of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz. “We had a senator from Arizona who basically didn’t let us go as far as we needed to go with our negotiations and made us wait two years....

Weekly Indicators for August 15 – 19 at Seeking Alpha My Weekly Indicators post is up at Seeking Alpha. The continued decline in gas prices has been doing some nice things to other indicators as well. Meanwhile, manufacturing as measured by the regional Feds is getting worse. As usual, clicking over and reading will bring you fully up to date, and reward me just a little bit for my efforts. ...