WE need to scoot out of this sickening/boring and extremely divisive partisan thinking and blaming partyline tenets as the culprit for whatever ails society. This government is still bipartisan. For example, not all GOPs are pro gun or anti gun regulation. Let me quote an openly-anti Trump or pro Democrats publication, Rolling Stone: "Republican presidents from Richard Nixon – who wanted a federal ban on handguns – to Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush all voiced support for gun control. George H.W. Bush was so furious at the National Rifle Association's extremism that he renounced his lifetime membership during his term in the White House."
Also there are Democrats who are against gun control, like Sens. Max Baucus (Mont.), Mark Begich (Alaska), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) and Mark Pryor (Ark.) I would appreciate it as well if discussion goes beyond rant and accusations, and instead let us cite historical facts and what do we think about them (than links). Then we can have a fine conversation. Lest dogmatic partisans (sic!) forget, look back. Andrew Jackson, Democrat, ushered Indian Removal. Abraham Lincoln, Republican, authored Emancipation. Richard Nixon, signed EPA. Etc etcetera. When people simply spit out anti partyline or anti president, tendency is they don't really know what they're ranting about. Google it. It's easy. And read. Quit the Russian links, please.
NEWS. "Who Wants to Run That Mom-and-Pop Market? Almost No One." Across the country, old-fashioned grocery stores are among the most endangered of small-town businesses. This runs in consonance with people's unswerving romance with "healthy" albeit transported foods, of course. "Better" health-conscious groceries, that are owned by the big guys, snuff out the mom and pop store or farmers' market although most local produce/products also abide by organic (farming) principles. And then when your neighborhood deli or vegetable stand lose profit, which they are bound to anyhow, here comes the smiley rep of the 1 Percent with a sweet offer. Mergers and/or buyouts. That's how things are.
NEWS. "SpaceX Is Now One of the World's Most Valuable Privately Held Companies." Elon Musks's rocket company raised $350 million in new financing, raising its valuation to about $21 billion. Whoa! The rich are really investing in more technology. Apple Inc. and Volkswagen's individual fiscal year R&D bankrolls are higher than the annual budget of Trinidad and Tobago, and other smaller countries. According to UN, 805 million people go to bed hungry each night. Figure that one out. Feed them electronics?
NEWS. "Linking Public Works to Local Hiring Faces a Trump Challenge." The administration is reviewing an Obama initiative allowing cities and states to force infrastructure projects to give preference to their residents. I get it. Maybe some cities/states do honor such an initiative. But in Asheville? I don't know. There's a construction boom alright in my home-city. Like hey 3 or 4 buildings in town being erected, nonstop, on rotation. Not including subdivisions. But who mostly work on those infrastructures or projects? I read in local papers that most contracts (from outside outfits) also bring in their workers. Meaning, non-locals. I am not talking Obama or Trump administration. I am talking about it's always been that way since I got back from Los Angeles in 2009.
NEWS. "When Foreign Companies Are Making, Not Killing, U.S. Jobs." The Chattanooga region has become a magnet for investment from overseas, helping drive Tennessee's unemployment to a record low. In Chattanooga and the surrounding region more than two dozen companies from 20 countries have set up shop, generating billions of dollars in investment, employing thousands of workers and helping drive Tennessee’s jobless rate to 3.6 percent in June, a record low for the state.
But political and business leaders here in Hamilton County, a conservative stronghold where Trump won a majority of the votes, worry that the president’s attacks on trading partners and exhortations to “Buy American” could set off a protectionist spiral of tariffs and import restrictions, hurting consumers and workers. BTW the #1 foreign employer in Tennessee is not the Chinese. Nope. It's the Japanese, with 185 firms, employing 50,900 this year. China isn't even in the top 10. Number 2 is Germany. Meantime, Tennessee leads the nation in the number of workers employed by a foreign-based company, with 136,000.
NEWS. "Political Donors Put Their Money Where the Memes Are." Funding is flowing into social media, where partisan organizations are specializing in creating viral messages to reach voters. Did you just share a meme? Someone that I know who's based in Napa Valley earns loads of dough working on these meme etc contracts in his basement. Doesn't matter if it's Democrats, GOP, or whatever. As he says, "I don't give a f*** about politics. But this work pays good!" Oh well. That is why I am so poor, I guess.
NEWS. "Questions Emerge Over What Wisconsin Must Give for Foxconn Plant." Critics raise doubts over state subsidies and loosened environmental rules for the plant, but Gov. Scott Walker says thousands of new jobs outweigh the costs. There you go. A very gut issue that mattered a lot in the last elections. A new liberal/progressive stand on how the world should be as per climate change against a conservative working class position of how's life right here right now in front of a measly dinner table. Both have compelling points. Yet the heart of the matter was: How to translate those into votes.
Foxconn invests $10 billion to build a plant in Wisconsin. That'd be an equivalent of at least 3,000 jobs. Wisconsin initially dangled a lavish come-on worth $3 billion in tax subsidies to the Taiwan-based electronics contract manufacturing company. Foxconn Technology Group (a.k.a. Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.) is the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer, and the largest private employer in China where 12 of the its largest plants are located. Look back in history, 2001, when China entered WTO. Guangzhou and other provinces promised the same (and much more) to US companies. How the world tilts, isn't it?
NEWS. "1 in 7 New York City Elementary Students Will Be Homeless, Report Says." A new report details the daunting challenges faced by children and schools as homelessness increases in New York City. Meantime, North Carolina has one the highest percentages in the United States of children under 18 years of age who are food insecure on a regular basis. Almost 1 in 4 or 24.6 percent. Tell me, what or where your political passion is pointing at?
NEWS. "To Stay Sane, Read More Celebrity Gossip." Enough with the news alerts on North Korea. Give me a Kardashian Twitter war instead. See, I told you New York Times and The Guardian columnists agree with me. Why ruin a day's delicious Homard Etouffee dinner just because the TV remote went to MSNBC or CNN or Fox. Pretty angry people in there. Hey, do you know that Kourtney Kardashian is seeing Che Guevara's long lost great grandson who lives in Macau? Uh huh.
NEWS. "Fiat Chrysler Is at a Crossroads. It's Looking to China for a Solution." Even before one suitor's interest emerged this week, the automaker had been in talks for months on Chinese investments or other deals, officials say. Okay. Let's talk about car business moolah. Do you know that the #1 foreign employer in Tennessee is not the Chinese. Nope. It's the Japanese, with 185 firms, employing 50,900 this year. China isn't even in the top 10. Number 2 is Germany. Meantime, Tennessee leads the nation in the number of workers employed by a foreign-based company, with 136,000. And what business mostly? Automotive.
NEWS. "America's Risky Nuclear Buildup." It's not just North Korea. Don't mention Iran. Uhh Russia? Washington's plans to upgrade its nuclear arsenal are also contributing to global instability. American nuclear advances threaten to start a new arms race and change the logic of mutually assured destruction, which has undergirded nuclear stability since the 1950s. Washington’s defensive capacity is centered on the deployment of batteries of missile interceptors, most notably the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense and the Aegis systems. Pentagon's commitment to missile defense, coupled with an aggressive improvement of offensive capacity, is bound to shake other nuclear-armed states, particularly Russia and China.
NEWS. "Trump Can't Stop Trade With North Korea. But He Does Have Options." With about $650 billion in U.S.-China trade on the line, Washington must tread carefully if it wants to pressure Beijing to take a tougher line on Pyongyang. Why can't we talk peace, compromises and negotiations, and do business instead? I mean, come on! The US got nothing to gain from North Korea except a fondling of macho cowboy ego. Let the Chinese work it out since it's obvious Kim Jong-un needs Beijing. North Korea boasts of a self-reliant (economic) development strategy which assigns top priority to developing heavy industry, with parallel development in agriculture and light industry.
But following fall-out with Russia, Pyongyang has found refuge from Chinese help. Beijing's economic assistance to North Korea accounts for about half of all Chinese foreign aid. NK trade with China represents 57 percent of North Korea's imports and 42 percent of its exports. The Chinese control 90 percent of North Korea's trade and as the Times of India recently puts it, "It is in the Chinese government's hands to exercise economic pressure on Kim Jong-un to achieve the diplomatic resolution needed to de-escalate tensions in the region."
NEWS. "With Rupert Murdoch's Help, Tab Media Targets Young and Cheeky on Campus." The youth-oriented media company, which describes itself as "anti-establishment and a little subversive," compiles breaking news from unpaid student writers at 40 American colleges. Connect dots. Unpaid. Millennials. "Anti-establishment and a little subversive." Murdoch. This is how the Future's media is swallowed by the 1 Percent in Present time. And you are still telling me to read links and memes? Commonfreakinsense.
NEWS. "If You Build It, the Dutch Will Pedal." Utrecht, the Netherlands' fastest growing city, is one of the world's most bike-friendly places in one of the world's most bike-friendly countries. You see, things can be worked out. Per city. Per county. Per locality. Bike lanes, pedestrian walkways, and public bus system that works 24/7. Yet we focus our protest on generalities and huge terms and universal idealism/s. How are we supposed to take care of global environment's health if we can't or we don't pressure our local City Council to uhh well just google the Dutch example.
NEWS (you may add updates). "Median U.S. Household Income Up for 2nd Straight Year." Household income rose by 3.2 percent in 2016 as the recovery delivered growing prosperity. Health coverage broadened and poverty declined. Yet economists say bump in incomes doesn't erase 50 years of misery. Recent trends have produced positive statistics, but forces undermining the middle class may reach back farther than many economists have thought. It takes more than your preferred president, including the current one or the ones that were defeated, for the US to return to `50s economic comforts. Says Mark Rank, a professor of social work at Washington University in St. Louis: “Over the past five decades, Middle America has been stagnant in terms of its economic growth." In 1973, the inflation-adjusted median income of those working full time was $54,030. In 2016, it was $51,640 — roughly $2,400 lower. A big chunk of that group formed a critical core of support for Mr. Trump, not really because it was Trump. It was because they spoke of their real economic anxieties felt through the years. Hence they bought into promised changes in trade, immigration and tax policies as a solution/s as they bought in past administrations' campaign rhetoric.
