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HUMANITY DOOMSDAY CLOCK - Moves forward to 2125 due to election of US President trump.

Estimate of the time that Humanity will go extinct or civilization will collapse. The HUMANITY DOOMSDAY CLOCK moves forward to 2125 due to US President trump's abandonment of climate change goals. Clock moved to 90 seconds to doom at December 2023. Apologies to Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists for using the name.

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Specific Country Economic Policy Analyses - More Than 50 Countries from Argentina to Yemen [https://miepa.net/]




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Thursday, May 28, 2020

How Biden WINS the 2020 Election


Eligible voters who did not vote in 2016 will decide the election.

Democratic leaning swing states went for trump in 2016 because  non-voters trend toward non-white and younger demographics leaving the election to be won by GOP voters.

Six states where 45 won the electoral numbers that had gone Democratic in 2012 decided: Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

Probably they felt left out and helpless. Now, tell them we need and value them with Get Out the Vote events targeting younger and minority populations. Online 'telethons'  targeting Black and Hispanic younger voters  on hip-hop and Hispanic media in each of the six swing states - Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. 



- YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOU NOW - I NEED YOUR HELP TO BEAT TRUMP
  • Events are FREE ONLINE, 
  • Presidents speak, answer questions from audience like press conference Cuomo and Newsom style – Obama, Clinton, Bush, Carter, even 45 himself can be invited

  • Candidates speak,answer questions from audience like press conference Cuomo and Newson style – Romney, Clinton, Harris, etc., etc.

  • Sports celebrities speak, answer questions from audience like press conference Cuomo and Newson style

  •  Hip Hop, Hispanic and other musicians perform

  • Local elected officials speak, answer questions from audience like press conference Cuomo and Newson style 

  • Voting Registrars speak, offer registration help

Tuesday, May 26, 2020

UPDATE May 28, Biden 100 Day Plan: - Part 3



Specific Policies for 2021

This post may be updated from time to time with new thoughts at top of page.

UPDATE - Biden campaign needs to establish an election security team in each swing county whereby voting security can be ensured. the GOP WILL tamper with the system. 

The pandemic highlights our flaws; here's suggestions on redesigning the USA system.


  • Rebuild the Infrastructure and stimulate the economy: create a panel to approve state and local projects and then fund those projects.


  • Secure the front line: Fund state and local governments for police, first responders, teachers and essential workers.


  • Restore respect for law in the government: Fire every trump appointee, Every. Single. One. Offer interested Obama appointees reinstatement. AND, Reverse all executive actions. Every. Single. One.


  • No pardon for trump. Evict him in handcuffs if needs be. Let the Legal process proceed.

  • Take charge of Pandemic:  Nationalize the PPE, ventilator and vaccine efforts. Adapt CDC guidelines on re-opening as national directive. Make sure that the public sees all decisions. Ask county health officers to designate needed hospitals and care homes, then nationalize the ones which are in financial danger.


  • Make health care available to ALL residents; we are as healthy as the poorest among us. No recommendation on how, except this: profit must be removed from medicine. Profit means lower costs and higher prices - that may be acceptable in business but not when the costs are people's lives.


  • Justice for all - real campaign finance reform: When laws cater to the rich, we are unjust. We can have some really rich people OR we can have a democracy with ZERO really rich people: we CANNOT have both.

  • Real bank and corporation regulation: these actors have bought our legislation system. Prosecute law breakers. Jail the felons. Obey the law.


  • Jail felon Bankers: They deserve special attention since some have committed felonies with no personal consequence. Even bankers say that some must serve time in jail. 


  • Rent and loan freeze: Suspend all rent and residential loan payments until a vaccine is approved by the FDA. When the economy recovers banks can add the missed payments onto the end of the loan. Borrowers receive an option to renegotiate or sell their property. Homeowners whose houses have declined in market value can start with a new loan at the lowered market value. Their original down payment applies to the new loan and the new loan will be for the new value. Banks will lose some income but their principal remains since they retain a lien against the property. When prices decline they will retain their relative purchasing power with no real loss.


  • Reduce Inequality: our economy is 'hollow' because real wages have declined steadily for 40 or 50 years. The middle class does not have extra money to buy new products. The other day I saw an ad for LAYAWAY ON A PAIR OF LEVI's jeans. So: Raise Fed Min wage; tax rich at pre-Reagan levels; bail out states and cities for first responders; prosecute monopoly laws; make labor unions stronger; beef up NLRB; and, prosecute employees who fire union organizers.


Monday, May 25, 2020

A New Deal – Part 2


History is clear: we need to give a shot of adrenaline to wages and the economy with spending everybody knows we need - infrastructure. That's where FDR went.

Then, we can fix the economy, as seen in Part 3.

Income taxes helped pay for it. 30’s New Deal had higher taxes on higher incomes but MUCH lower taxes on low incomes than we do now:




Federal spending went up during the New Deal, but down as percentage share of GDP after Reagan lowered tax rates in 1984. Overall spending stayed about the same share.



We need a New Deal to keep incomes to households up so they don’t starve and can actually buy some things. Some European countries keep incomes at 80% of pre pandemic. We do not.

What happened: Effects were to create a class of super rich oligarchs.

History

“…During the late 1920s, federal spending on public works construction averaged $200 million annually. This amounted to about 2 percent of the total public and private spending on new construction. By 1932, the last year of the Hoover administration, the federal amount had increased to nearly $400 million. Until 1930, state and local governments had been spending $2.4 billion annually on public works. By 1933, they were reduced to spending only $700 million…

The Depression brought the private construction of new factories and homes to a virtual standstill. Public works construction on the part of state and local governments also collapsed. To meet this challenge, the New Dealers vastly increased the federal funding of public works construction. This funding, however, was increased only enough to cover the amount state and local governments had been spending…

The central feature of the New Deal public works program was to provide federal support for state and local public works projects, rather than to substitute federal projects in their place.

According to Donald C. Stone, founder of the American Public Works Association and a key figure in developing the administration of New Deal programs:

'projects at the local level where people were unemployed had to be the kinds of projects that would put the kinds of persons who were unemployed to work. We couldn't just have some scattering of federal projects around and meet the unemployment problem in the country . . . You had to take the work to where the people are. (Rosen and Pudloski 1992, 45)

New Deal public works programs combined the short-term goal of unemployment relief with the long-term goal of regional economic development: As FDR himself put it, there was an obvious two-fold objective of public works policy: "to relieve unemployment (and) to develop great regions of our country in the future for the benefit of future Americans." (Daniels 1975, 4)”

[Howard Rosen is Managing Director of Program Development and Director of the Public Works Historical Society for the American Public Works Association in Kansas City, Mo.]

Infrastructure Today, 2021

Americans know that our country is literally falling apart. Voters accept paying for needed changes.
‘…America’s infrastructure is more than just a network of roads, bridges, tunnels, ports, railroads and airports connecting our towns, cities and states. It serves as a backbone of economic growth and preserves our safety, quality of life and prosperity. The United States has long been a global leader in innovation, transportation and smart fiscal policies, yet the infrastructure that keeps our country open for business is now far out of date.

According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, the current condition of our infrastructure earns a grade point average of D+, and there is an estimated $2 trillion funding gap to bring it to a state of good repair by 2025. While we have benefited from past centuries of building, neglect has befallen our once greatest achievements – in the 1930s, 4.2 percent of the country’s GDP was spent on infrastructure investment, but by 2016, that number fell to 1.5 percent. In other words, our nation’s infrastructure is crumbling, and we need real, sustainable investment – and we need it now…’
[https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/435562-what-we-need-to-do-to-fix-infrastructure-in-the-us]

But Americans know we need more than just roads, dams and bridges:

‘Monthly Stimulus Check

According to a recent poll from OnePoll, 82% of Americans believe that a one-time stimulus check of $1,200 from the CARES Act is not enough to pay for living expenses in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of a one-time check, the majority of respondents say that stimulus checks should continue through the end of lockdowns. The poll, which was conducted in late April with 2,000 of individuals, also found several other results about public sentiment, including:
Universal Healthcare: 76% of self-identified Republicans and 84% of self-identified Democrats believe the U.S. should consider universal healthcare.
Mortgage and Rent Payments: 55% say that mortgage and rent payments should be frozen during COVID-19.
Student Loans: 63% says that student loans should not have to be paid now.
Unemployment: 79% say the federal government should do more to help those who are unemployed, but only 58% said that government should provide more financial support.’
[https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2020/05/19/stimulus-check-monthly-poll/amp/?fbclid=IwAR2kO4ax8HVzC2apKZB2z9myAw_LIKo_n3_0RDw64bp1BjdMTID6ODoEjV4]

Re-Imagining America 2021- Part 1



The American system is broken. Most Americans want changes and better outcomes.

This post has three parts

Public opinion supporting change – Part 1

A New Deal – Part 2

Specific Policies for 2021 – Part 3


Public opinion supporting change – Part 1

This first section provides evidence of Americans’ longing for real changes. It’s the same longing trump used in 2016. The evidence below is specific but the underlying malaise is broad based. Americans know we are living in a bad system. We will accept changes formerly thought impossible.

Health Services



While such a plan is supported by almost all Democrats and two-thirds of independents, most Republicans don't think it is the government's responsibility to provide access to affordable health care, and most oppose this type of plan. [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/2020-polls-national-health-care-plan-favored-by-most-americans-cbs-news-poll-finds/]

Environment:

Even Republicans want the EPA to stay: Some 39 percent of Americans would like to see the EPA, the nation’s top environmental regulator, “strengthened or expanded,” while another 22 percent hope for it to “remain the same,” according to the poll. Just 19 percent said they would like to see the agency “weakened or eliminated” and the rest said they “don’t know.”

Among Republicans, 47 percent wish for the EPA either to “remain the same” or be “strengthened or expanded,” while 35 percent want it “weakened or eliminated”.

The online poll of 9,935 people was conducted Dec. 16 to Jan. 12 and has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 1.1 percentage points. [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-environment/unlike-trump-americans-want-strong-environmental-regulator-reuters-ipsos-idUSKBN1511DU]
Voters Favor EPA Reduction in CO2 Emissions; Rassmussen: January 2020

Business Regulation:

“Big Corporations Have Too Much Power and Should Be Strongly Regulated” — 84% of Democrats, 72% of Independents and Nearly Half of Republicans Agree
Center for American Progress & GBAO: December 2019

‘Time and again, American voters voice their support for strong and effective regulations. Americans see the need for clear rules of the road that protect workers and families from reckless corporations that cut corners and put profits ahead of people.’
https://sensiblesafeguards.org/polling/

Over 60 Percent of Voters Think Facebook Has Too Much Power
Fox News: June 2019

Privacy:

Americans and Privacy: Concerned, Confused and Feeling Lack of Control Over Their Personal Information
Pew Research Center: November 2019

Americans Oppose Political Campaigns Using Their Personal Data for Targeted Ads
The Knight Foundation & Gallup: March 2020

Americans Generally Believe the Biggest Tech Companies Have Too Much Power and Ought to Be Split Up
The Verge: March 2020

Voters Overwhelmingly Want More Regulation on Corporate Use of Personal Data
The Hill & HarrisX: January 2020

Global Poll Shows 71% Support Regulation of Tech Giants to Protect Data Privacy
Amnesty International: December 2019

Social Media:

Poll Finds Majority Want Government to Play Role in Moderating Social Media
Morning Consult: October 2019

Guns:

Most Pennsylvanians Want More Regulation of Gun Ownership
Franklin & Marshall College: October 2019

Illinois Voters Support More Statewide Gun Regulation
NPR Illinois / University of Illinois Springfield: October 2019

     ##############################

These specific polls suggest the depth of our dissatisfaction. We will support drastic public action to stabilize the country as suggested in the following post:  A New Deal – Part 2