Tag Archives: politics

Spending soars, income stagnates, savings sink like the Titanic  – by New Deal democrat Real life intruded yesterday, so I didn’t put up any information about the Q3 GDP report. I’ll write in detail next week, but in the meantime there were 4 basic highlights: 1. Obviously it was an excellent report overall. 2. The long leading metric of real residential fixed spending also rose slightly, although as a share of real GDP it fell, so...

Not to put too fine a point on it, the recent chaos in the GOP-controlled House isn’t a bug, it’s a feature for the modern GOP. There isn’t any daylight between Gym Jordan and Mike Johnson, politically, but policy no longer matters to the GOP. It’s just optics, and Jordan has (so far) mastered the avuncular optics necessary to win the speakership. But since the point is chaos, Johnson will preside over chaos, with the hope that voters will decide to...

The Supreme Court declined to hear the case, Texas v. Pennsylvania. December 20, 2020. Two days ago, during a press conference Rachel Scott drew the ire of Republicans as she asked a question of newly appointed House Speaker Mike Johnson. Representative Mike Johnson (R-LA) was instrumental in the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election.  ABC News congressional reporter Rachel Scott began to ask Johnson whether he stands by his role in...

Late on the draw here . . . Missed this over the last week. Been too busy doing other things with Angry Bear and looking for a Word Press expert who can help Angry Bear solve some issues. You have to wonder what Fed Chief Jerome Powell is going to do next. If you have been reading New Deal democrat (Richard), it appears we are on the edge of a recession of some type. I am hoping he waits. The returns or values on my funds are decreasing so what...

Just got done exchanging a couple of emails with Steve about Suzanne’s and his latest commentary about the growing privatization of the VA. Looks like the VA is farming out more of the veteran’s care to contractors which will come at a much higher cost. Outsourcing to for-profit entities is not a good practice. We can see how Medicare Advantage plans are costing far more than Medicare and depleting Medicare funding. Similar is happening with the VA...

The USPS is an entity on to itself and is called out in the U.S. Constitution. For years it has functioned quite while even with Congress (Senator Collins) placing requirements upon it to fully fund parts of no commercial business in the US is required to do. The USPS is not a commercial business. It is an entity serving the population of the United States with the delivery of mail anywhere in the US regardless of cost. Somewhere along the way,...

This is an inspiring article, but one sentence makes me sad “Israel’s massive democracy movement is ready for war” The general inspiring story is that the massive movement trying to protect the Israeli judiciary from Netanyahu has temporarily shifted to protecting Israel from Hamas and helping internally displaced Israelis. “ a logical evolution, said Bressler, who now visits victims around the country and finds herself “at too many...

First if my obsession with sharing ideas based on my almost total ignorance is getting to be a nuisance please tell me (can’t hurt – might get me to stop – no promises). Second, many commenters (on my pointless posts below) claim that the USA could prevent Israel from killing even larger numbers of Palestinians in the near future. I am not sure that this is possible, but in any case it is a hope not a plan. The USA acting together as actually...

The useful content of this post on a topic where I have no expertise is this link to a Twitter thread by Gen Mark Hertling (retired) who has a whole lot of expertise and is also very smart and reasonable. The thread is brief. I suggest reading it. I also quote one tweet here: “There will be an IDF incursion. Hamas will prove better than many expect in repelling the IDF advance. Unfortunately, I also believe the fight will last a long time, will...

Who is willing to die for diesel ? There is an extreme crisis in the Gaza strip and at the Rafah crossing from the Gaza strip to Egypt. *Finally* Israel is allowing food, bottled water, and medical supplies to enter the Gaza strip. However, they refuse to allow fuel in (claiming they are worried that Hamas will seize it). This is a crisis as Hospitals are running on backup generators and about to run out of fuel. Yesterday The UN Relief and Works...