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HughBeaumont

HughBeaumont's Journal
HughBeaumont's Journal
March 3, 2017

Rust Belt Voters Made Trump President. Now they Want Jobs.

Stories that Make Me Want a Meat Thermometer Lobotomy Dept:

West grew up in a blue collar family in Lapeer, Michigan, a city about an hour from the U.S.-Canadian border. She admits she "got in the wrong crowd" in high school and never finished. She didn't worry about it at first. She just walked into a temp agency and landed a manufacturing job.

She worked at a GM parts plant and then on the assembly line of Lesley Elizabeth, a company that makes cooking oils and spices. She figured manufacturing would be her life.

But those jobs paid minimum wage -- barely above $8 an hour in her state.

"I was only bringing home $960 a month," the soft-spoken mom, now 28 and the mother of three young boys, told CNNMoney. "Daycare alone was almost $400 to enroll my kids in."

About a year ago, she moved back in with her mother and went back to school to get her GED through a state program. Her family also receives Medicaid to cover health care. She hopes to retrain to be a nurse.

West and her mother are Trump supporters. They see him as an "action president." They especially like what he's doing on trade and immigration.

"I'm not racist at all, but I do believe in building a border [wall] to protect our country," West says, referring to Trump's promise to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border. "We can't even take care of our own people right now."


Ballsacks. It's CRINGE-inducing to listen to these people. Let's elect a billionaire to solve problems created by millionaires and billionaires by employing solutions that dropped the middle/working/poor into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Great job, media. Keep the hate narratives flowing and cry "Not Guilty!" as we get divided further.
March 2, 2017

I fully expect Putingate 2016 . . . .

. . . to have as many Republicans in prison, resigned, investigated or leading less comfy lives as Iran-Contra, the S & L Crisis, the 2000 Election shenanigans, the WoT war crimes and the Great Recession did.

#IOKIYAR

February 22, 2017

In Once Thriving Jefferson County, Voters Look to Donald Trump For Economic Turnaround: Ohio Matters

. . . . . what do I DO with this?



And before anyone chimes in with "Learn from it", learn WHAT???

That people are STILL getting away with blaming Democrats for Conservative capitalist businessmen failing them?

That I should try and "understand" people who have abandoned reason?

That cutting public education leads to faith-based decision making such as this?

Or perhaps understand why we're not touching the biggest neon elephant in the room . . . why everyone is so ashen-skin petrified of addressing the failures and distribution problems of Re-branded Feudalism in fear of undeserved venom.

"How . . . DARE you criticize Capitalism!!!! Everyone KNOWS it's either this or Totalitarian Warsaw Pact Police States and why do you HATE America, Reagan and Lady Liberty???"


February 21, 2017

How do we continually lose to people . . .

who are

* morally in the Bronze Age
* economically in the Gilded Age
* culturally in the Antebellum South

and

* technologically in the mid-1990s???

February 16, 2017

Does this idiot realize that, as far as Congress goes, Democrats haven't been in charge since 2011?

What in THE hell is he talking about - "Democrats have screwed things up royally"??

WHERE??

The center-left President who tried to work with the batshit Republican Insanos in Congress yet got obstructed every time?

The Conservative majority Supreme Court until Scalia's death?

The Senate under Republican control since 2015?

The majority of state governorships and state legislatures under Republican control?

Corporate America? Religion? The Media?

WHERE ARE THESE DEMOCRATS, ASSHOLE?

Lock. Him. UP.

February 12, 2017

Incredibly Stupid Trumpkin Letters to the Editor Dept: Income Inequality - it's just the way it is!

Fucking moron.

It's mind-numbing listening to the elite discuss income (wealth) inequality which has existed since societies exicsted. I'm unaware of a society where disparity didn't exist. Equality of outcomes is unnatural and utopian. Each human is uniquely gifted translating into unique and at times unequal outcomes. Government should ensure that its norms, laws, rules and regulations allow all citizens to pursue their uniqueness not their equality.

The Declaration of Independence acknowledges this: "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

Fixating on income inequality is divisive and unproductive. America's economic, religious and social liberties have captured the imagination of the world. Economic mobility is magnetic. The ability to pursue your dreams with limited intervention is intoxicating. The focus must be on the elements of opportunity like culture, education, laws, regulations and the enforcement thereof. The Constitution balances individual uniqueness with societal need for tranquility and "general welfare."

Inequality relates most to access to quality education, cultural and family factors and commercial scale meaning globalization contributes to this disparity.

Wayne L. Dancie Sr.

South Euclid


What do you DO with that?
February 8, 2017

How do you construct a simple economic message without pandering or lying?

To prepare for 2018 and beyond, we're supposed to be canvassing, getting out the vote . . . (snicker) constructing a dialogue with the opposition to try and get them on your side . . .

OK, I'm all ears.

* What is our plan to communicate with the upper-middle and above regarding income inequality and Capitalism's glaring distribution flaw? Are we going to try and persuade the wealthy to ignore lower-costing workers? Are we going to try and persuade them to say no to event-driven algorithms that can replace hordes of workers in one fell swoop?

* How do we tell the wealthy that their greed is ultimately self-destructive without them crying "CLASS WARFARE!!!"??

* What are some realistic solutions for the worker who is going to be replaced by automation/right to work/offshore outsourcing? Expensive-as-hell college (while trying to pay bills in unemployment)? Relocate with no guarantee of a permanent, living-wage job? Try and make do with low retail wages and bad benefits in the face of soaring living/necessity costs? Have them try their luck at the self-employment casino?

* How do we tell the well-conditioned Fox-watcher that pretty much everything that station has taught them about economics is false? Do we have charts and stats at the ready? Do we tell them tax cuts are not a substitute for a living wage and are one of the worst and least effective forms of economic stimulus? How do we say THAT mouthful in one or two words?

* What is our plan to combat the one-sided "Free Trade" deals that leave American workers worse off economically?

If we're talking "reasonable Americans" and not "Batshit racist hyper-fundie wingnuts" (sorry, that's a disease requiring a long-term cure), you might be with them on foreign policy and domestic rights issues.

Economics is quite a different story. As we've seen, people without hope need someone to tell them everything is going to be OK . . . even though it's painfully obvious that more than a few things regarding labor issues, benefits and future employment prospects for them and their children are NOT OK. People without hope rely on faith . . . even if that faith is with a labor-stiffing real-estate billionaire.

I'm at a loss as to what to tell those without hope. I don't know what to tell them. Forget brevity; I know how corporate America (that corporate America that now fully runs our country, public AND private) IS. They were never about doing what's right for their employees.

That's the challenge: An economic message that allows them to remain complacent, doesn't blame Republicans or the rich, gives them hope for the future and doesn't bore them within one minute's time.

Anyone got a road map to that pot of gold?

Profile Information

Member since: Fri Aug 13, 2004, 03:12 PM
Number of posts: 24,461

About HughBeaumont

If anyone's wondering why I haven't been here much lately, it's because I feel no one is learning anything from 2016. Neoliberalism is a thing and it doesn't win elections in the 21st Century. People want a candidate that's going to take strong, non-waffling stands on human rights the rest of the world enjoys. Enough living in the goddamned Reagan 1980s. Enough taking solar panels off the roof. Enough introducing more rightwingedness into American economics. Enough medical bankruptcies. Enough governing by mythology. Enough science denial. Enough of spitting on women, children, veterans and the LGBTQI community. Enough kicking the can. ENOUGH. America needs to move past it's "everything has to be about making a buck" bullshit. I'd prefer a candidate not born during the FDR/Truman administrations. No offense, but you had your time . . . and you got us Trump. Plus, I can't take another one of these still-Capitalist Boomer codgers yap on about "bootstraps" when college now costs a mortgage, necessity costs have been outpacing wage growth for 20 years and automation promises to kill more jobs than it creates. I don't want to hear what is or isn't "politically achievable". Kick-the-Can economics was never asked "How is it going to be paid for?". Tax Cuts for the rich were never given a spending limit. Folly wars were never asked "Why is this necessary?". Corporate Pork by the billions was and is always approved. America's safety net needs to be greatly expanded and retirement age needs to be drastically lowered. This country throws out far too many people that still have a decade or two of prime contribution left. If life doesn't get fairer for you or I pretty goddamned quickly, we aren't going to have much of one.
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