Part 3 – On the Economy & the GOP…

Let’s Get Real about the Real Economy…Further on below are commentaries & links exposing the corrupt, tyrannical & ridiculous GOP.  There is also our selected song about Trump.  But as always in Part 3, we start with the state of our economy.  It’s not nearly as good as purported.  As seen in some posted articles below, our nation’s wide divides are growing, with roughly about half the population doing great & the other half struggling while falling further behind.  The GOP continues to fully back large multinational corporations at the expense of much of the working class.  As their argument goes, those wealthy corporations provide the jobs.  But at this stage of modern-day capitalism, the pendulum has swung wildly in favor of these corporate giants utilizing an economic model enabling oligopolistic practices, where free-market competition is generally suppressed while workers are exploited, being unwilling pawns in this high-stakes corporate game of maximizing profits & shareholders’ value.  Besides a stacked deck in favor of big biz giving them enormous economic advantages, their wealth & influence also help them manipulate our politics. 

 

Please peruse all the links here, which also include topics like false economic perceptions, the partisan divides, regions in economic distress, manufacturing in recession, counterproductive tax cuts, the under-taxed wealthy, fiscal irresponsibility & trade war with China.  There’s also important reports on distressed Americans such as poor families, working moms, farmers, students, the young & the old.  The economy today is basically no different than the trend we’ve been on for the past decade, but the Trump party & media have defaulted into such a false & rosy narrative that somehow the economic conditions magically got better from the moment Trump took office.  Trumpeters believe what they want to believe based on allegiance to their tribal leader, not from actual conditions on the ground.  In fact, we can make the case the economy has gotten worse based on expanding deficits & income inequality between the haves & have-nots.  Furthermore, GDP & jobs gained are no better than Obama’s years.  The economy is by no means terrible, but we’re doing a terrible job of addressing our chronic structural problems afflicting working Americans.  See the real economy unveiled inside these articles:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A great trend for the world economy has been declining poverty rates.  The concern has been widening income, wealth & opportunity gaps.  Here in America, a tight labor market & regions raising minimum wages have finally sparked some wage growth at the very bottom & not just at the very top, but the stagnant middle class continues to fall further behind:

 

 

 

 

The factors really sustaining economic growth are deficit-fueled spending & ill-conceived tax cuts, producing a temporary sugar-high without regard to the long-term consequences, along with advanced technologies essentially leading to energy independence that’s keeping gas/energy prices stable (although war with Iran would upend that equation):

 

 

 

 

There was so much bellyaching by the tea party when Obamacare was enacted.  Now here we are years later & the GOP has still failed to come up with anything better.  So we’re stuck in this unsatisfactory middle ground where coverage is not expanding & costs are not being contained:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No, I’m not running for office & will NEVER run for office.  But I had this dream over the holidays, so here are the main details the best I can recall.  I was at a campaign event for my GOP U.S. rep Dave Joyce, whom I consider a friend & once upon a time he considered me a friend.  We were standing around in a kerosene lamp-lit tent room full of Joyce supporters when his golden retriever Winston came over to greet me (dogs rise above partisanship).  Joyce said he was sorry I no longer vote Republican, from which I said it’s not so much his fault, it’s the president & all the extremists who’ve taken over the party.  I then emphatically said in a loud voice for all in the room to hear, I will not vote for any Republican & NEVER vote Republican again until they return to their values & sanity!  Then I woke up.

 

I’m sticking by that promise I made in the dream.  The only Republican I voted for in 2018 was Sarah LaTourette, since I revered her late dad Steve & remember how proud he was when his daughter announced her run for the Ohio statehouse.  Steve preceded Joyce as our U.S. rep for 9 terms, retiring in 2012 & became as the NY Times described one of the top generals in the establishment Republicans’ war against the Tea Party.  Fast-forward to today, Steve must be looking down upon us with sad disdain over what’s become of his party, while Sarah has been assigned to a new position by the Ohio governor.  My GOP state senator whom I also know is being term-limited, & our former governor Kasich doesn’t have a lane to run in for the GOP presidential primaries with the Trump cult hijacking the party.  So in 2020 there’s no Republican in the world that I, a lifelong GOP supporter, would still vote for. 

 

As bad as Trump is (hear song at the bottom), he’s really more a symptom of the bigger problem.  We must first break the GOP’s radical/corrupt swamp fever that’s a remnant from the tea party & the echo, in the hopes we can someday consider that party legitimate again.  Although they won’t admit it, Republicans know their party is in trouble, with an unpopular president, dwindling party affiliation & changing demographics.  Since they can’t win legitimately, the GOP must cheat to win.  And that’s exactly what they’re trying to do as they willingly exchange democracy for their preferred wish of fascism in keeping themselves in power.  They’ll readily solicit & accept foreign interference to illegally steal elections, along with pulling off other underhanded stunts like these: 

Polling for or against conviction/removal is still hardened & split down the middle along partisan lines.  But those still supporting Trump, in essence it means they favor a leader with no discernible moral code.  They favor a leader who’s lied to us more than 15,000 times while in office.  They favor a disastrous foreign policy agenda lacking diplomacy & favoring dictatorships.  They favor a domestic agenda which has done nothing constructive on health care, drug costs, DACA/immigration, gun safety, infrastructure, greenhouse gases, minimum wage, income inequality or deficit reduction.  They favor a demagogue who’s installing loyal henchmen in positions of power, forming his own Americanized version of the gestapo in attempting a coup to take over our government & attack political opposition.  They also favor corruption at the highest levels, which from all available evidence are running a criminal enterprise from the White House.  Other than all that, the GOP might be fine.  

 

So with polling not moving much, we’re still seeing that irrational GOP base who don’t share our moral code are 90% against removing this criminalized presidency.  The rest of America by an overwhelming percentage know Trump needs removed from office for the sake of our country.  It is all us true patriots who need to rally & mobilize against this evil presence which has invaded our nation, as it’s essential we join forces to advance & preserve truths, freedom, the rule of law & our constitutional democracy.  The GOP has aligned with this corrupt Trumpian demagoguery, figuring they’re too far into it so they might as well go all in by fully supporting their captain, since if he goes down they’ll all be at risk of going down with the ship.  Let’s all get involved by helping their ship go down.

 

As seen in links below, we have another poll showing a majority want Trump removed from power for his crimes.  Even should Trump survive the Senate trial with a jury rigged in his favor, see other links below which speculate on where the race may stand come November.  We also saw Trump’s Q4 fundraising haul was quite impressive by riding the wave of his anti-impeachment sentiment, but the collective fundraising of his Dem presidential challengers was more than double what Trump brought in.  The bottom line is, words cannot adequately describe the critical importance of America finding a new president sometime during this next year: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This article describes Elizabeth Warren as a dream candidate: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/31/2020-dream-candidate-elizabeth-warren-democrats.  But she faces the very same challenges I wrote about a year ago when she announced her candidacy.  In fact, these 50 reasons are the same problems any of the Dem presidential hopefuls are up against when running against Trump: https://www.thevoracs.com/elizabeth-warren-decides-to-run/.

 

 

And this hit song is a fitting description for President Trump: