U.S. Economy Flashes Signs It’s Downhill From Here

Truth hurts, doesn't it?

Especially when it's complicated ...

 

Yes and no. Less spending on the DoD, and shift the money to education and healthcare.

Lets shift the spending to two values that actually bring benefit to the American people: National Healthcare and Free (or nearly free) Post-secondary Education.

It's dead simple politically ... but almost Mission Impossible:
*The Dems take both houses.
*The Dems take the next presidency
*BUT, the Supreme Court will resist any and all changes to gerrymandering because that is what the Replicants paid-for in order to seat them!

 

No, as I wrote in good-English.

Not necessarily LESS but DIFFERENTLY!

The American people deserve real-services that affect their lives, and not a massive military that is of no real necessity in the world today.

We do not lower our guard, but we do shorten our punch ...

 

Less, much much much less. Way less.

 

Let's cut the federal government down to what the founders set up - defense, state, treasury and justice. The rest of it should go to the states, the private sector or the trash can. New federal programs are a non starter.

 

No, it was simply nonsense. What is complicated is figuring out how to have less goverment and greater freedom.

 

It is all right wing hog wash he writes. It is from a chair of a guy that is doing fine, so he has no worries, but preaches the right wing stuff... All Govt can have debt, blah blah.. The RICH, right wing, and many Democrats, Obama included have screwed up this country. They could pound the rich with taxes and leave the working class alone, it will still take 20 years. They are now past the point of no return.
Russia, China, India and others are and have been moving away from the dollar. it is only propped up by the bankers and politicians NOW until it fails which will happen in the next 2 years. I thought this could go on for 10 more, but not now.
Trump has forwarded the CHINA/Russia agenda by his personality defect and via default, they have moved away from the buck. It will happen very fast, a reset and or whatever, GOLD and SILVER will skyrocket. Go listen to lynette zang, she has it all figured out.

 

The states have proven amply over the past half century their inability to educate our youth! (Particularly in Civics as this forum has shown many a time.)

Barely 45% of our high-schoolers go an to obtain a Tertiary-level degree.

The responsibility for Tertiary-education should be given over to the Dept. of Education at the Federal level and all comers (within the state) are able to undertake at minimum cost ($1K a year) any educational level from Vocational to Associates to Bachelors to Masters to Doctorate level.

This, an only this, will prepare the bulk of our fellow citizens with the credentials to pursue a decent remuneration in this Brave New World of ours called the "Information Age" ...

 

Even better would be to close the education department and save whatever money it costs.

 

The Dept. of Education spending is a pittance compared to the DoD, which is the one we should cut in half.

And with the money, the DoE could spend it on state-schools offering Tertiary Education free, gratis and for nothing. Then, and only then, will we get the kids who need it most into and out of a Post-secondary Schooling Program with a degree that will find them a decent salary with which to bring up a family nowadays ...

 

I agree with bringing all the troops home and cutting the DOD in half as well. The federal government continues doing things that are beyond its appropriate goal so free college is a non starter for me.

 

What kind of freedom? Can you list a few examples of "greater freedom" that we should hope for?

 

Your military costs basically the same whether they're located in South Carolina or Afghanistan. IMO wars and military fighting are signs of complete failure in our government! A better question to debate is what we can do to avoid military responses? We should be debating why the US is involved in wars it cannot win? Someone made the decisions to start these wars and sustain these wars...are they too stupid to end these wars? Or are they motivated by other factors? You cannot begin to reduce military spending until the US makes better decisions...

 

I agree, except for the statement about the complete failure of our government. I.would suggest that our government is basically corrupt and incompetent but it does do a few things well. Let's call it a partial failure.

 

No. I've done that so many times on this forum that I'm tired of it. I'll let you look up information on lost freedoms.

 

Every state has a department of education. There's no need for a federal DOE.

 

Well, Ok. Here's my list:

The freedom to vote.
Freedom from fixed elections
Freedom from discrimination is reversing
Freedom for women to have equal rights ...and the right to chose what she can do with her own body.
Freedom from other people’s religions in schools and public buildings and political speeches.
Freedom to unionize
Freedom from government intervention into our private lives
Freedom from health privacy invasion
Freedom from corporations dominating government
Freedom to realize the American Dream
Freedom from unreasonable search and seizure
Right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" (infant mortality is increasing and is among the worst)

That's enough for now.

 

Freedom to vote is still there
Freedom from fixed elections. I think we have this basically - not everywhere or in every instance but it is a minor issue
Women have the privilege of engaging in abortion. Not a lost freedom
Freedom of religion is included in the bill of rights. It appears your desired freedom is in the minority. Otherwise it would be overturned.
Freedom from government intervention in our lives. I agree that it is a lost freedom. We agree on the importance of this one.
I don't understand what health privacy invasion is. No comment
Corporations do not dominate government so that is not a lost freedom.
We all enjoy the freedom to achieve the American Dream. Not all of us have the talent to achieve it.
The Fourth amendment is still in force. Government likes to ignore it from time to time but it is not a lost freedom.
Infant mortality is among the worst. Certainly you don't believe that propaganda.

 

Time to close this thread...

Market Indicators Turn Bullish After Flashing Red Last Year
https://www.wsj.com/articles/market-indicators-turn-bullish-after-flashing-red-last-year-11549801801

A number of technical signals used by analysts to gauge the health of the stock market have flipped to positive from negative, a shift that is buttressing some investors’ faith in the 2019 rebound despite last week’s volatility.

 

We've seen repeating attempts by states (red states) to reduce voter turnout by discouraging or denying the vote to select categories of citizens. A freedom or right that is not protected and enforced is a freedom or right that is lost.

With requirements for notification to relatives to requirements for a waiting period, access to abortion is being hindered in different states. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/maps-of-access-to-abortion-by-state/

Recently it came to light that the law allowing prisoners who are having their death sentence carried out to have a religious leader at their side at that time only provides for a Christian leader.
Politicians have argued for and won the "right" to have framed, publicly displayed, bible quotes installed in government buildings.
We've seen Trump attack Muslim leaders and citizen practitioners on TV and in public.
We hear calls for classes teaching the bible in schools but none for Hindus or Buddhists or Jews or Muslims.

Read the disclosure from your doctor about what they do with your HIPAA information.

Citizens United. A.L.E.C. The predisposition of politicians to give corporations advantages and subsidies and tax breaks thinking it will cause them to create more jobs and pay better wages has failed, but they keep trying. This puts corporations in a favored position, politically. Just look how we subsidize wages for Walmart workers!

Think about unaffordable education, a stagnant real median wage for 40 years, and our poor performance on healthcare.

I was once so violated. My apartment was raided by police with a bogus search warrant and no evidence they were looking for was found but they said some was, and they arrested me and held me for trial where the judge said I never should have been arrested and he threw the case out of court. But who was going to compensate me for an $1,800 legal expense? And we have seen this same kind of abuse of the law and of our "guaranteed" freedoms repeated across the country for decades. A freedom or right that is not protected and enforced is a freedom or right that is lost.

Do you agree with asset seizure upon arrest and auctioning or selling of the seized property prior to trial and conviction? It has been going on for years.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr63/nvsr63_05.pdf

 

You probably don't understand recent economic history:
*Bush the Younger gifted Obama the Great Recession
*When Obama took office, unemployment had jumped to 10%, the highest in a long, long time.
*Obama and a Democrat HofR passed ARRA, a stimulus spending bill of around $830B which effectively spiked the unemployment rate, whereupon it began it's slow reduction - which took some time.
*When Obama asked for more stimulus spending, the HofR (which had become Replicant i, 2010) decided to forbid any further stimulus spending.
*Which was the reason no further jobs were created by the economy from 2010 to 2013. See that corroborated by the BLS employment data graphic here.

Obama was no magician, and the Congressional Replicants are wholly responsible for the long wait for the economy to finally start creating jobs again in February of 2014. For which Donald Dork would very much like to take the credit, but he can't ...

 

There are bad people doing bad things every day. Not the same thing as a general loss of freedom.

And you need a license to drive a car. The left is trying to get rid of the second amendment. These are government adding inconvenience to our lives, not a loss of freedom.

You can't lose a right you never had.

And this has hurt your freedom in what way?

His right to free speech is the same as yours. No freedom lost.

They can call for the same thing, can't they?


Read the disclosure from your doctor about what they do with your HIPAA information.

Corporations don't vote.

I once hired a young black woman who had a masters degree in mechanical engineering. Interestingly she was born and raised in one of the worst public housing projects in Chicago to a single mother. It was dangerous to walk past the place, let alone enter it. She worked hard in public school with a goal to go to college. She earned scholarships from that hard work and achieved her goal. I am godfather to her son. Like I said, not everyone has the talent to get there.

I agree but you could have sued the city for the false arrest and your story represents the small minority of cases. Your case is an aberration.

Of course not. That is an example of government corruption. I'd like to have government that isn't corrupt also.

I'm willing to the CDC's numbers for the U.S. The other countries? Well........

 

Whatever parts of government, including the president, that are responsible for failure to manage away from wars and fighting, are to blame.

 

Fair enough. Now if we could only manage away from politics.

 

The states are totally incompetent at generating sufficient funding for better Secondary Schooling! This past recession has proven how state education budgets plummeted at the first sign of reduced income taxation.

What planet do you live on .... ?