Today is Thursday, March 31, 2016. I've walked 44 miles in March and weighed 165 pounds.
My quote today is from Tyler Burdick of NYC: "A person who feels appreciated will always do more than what is expected."
My topic today is the Supreme Court vacancy: I get a kick out of the TV announcement supporting Senator Grassley on why he should continue to block the Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court. What makes me shake my head is they say they do not want a "liberal" on the Court.
Well, I tell you what! If we had had a liberal majority on the Supreme Court we wouldn't be suffering through the Citizens United decision which is a disaster for our democracy. That decision has opened the floodgates to the unlimited number of dollars corporations (the ONE %ers) can now pour into our elections. They are corrupting our whole system of electing government leaders.
The other decision the conservative Supreme Court made was to gut the VOTING RIGHTS ACT of 1965. As soon as the conservative Court made that decision the GOP controlled state governments starting passing voter suppression laws. In particular making it more difficult for African-Americans, Latinos and college students to vote - all of which tend to vote for Democrats.
Aren't "conservatives" the most wonderful Americans? They really care about fairness and justice and democracy in America!!!!! They make me sick!!!!
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
Jones County Iowa GOP voters have onle one candidate to vote for
Today is Wednesday, 2016. I've walked 42.5 miles in March and weigh 165.2 pounds.
My QUOTE for today is from actress. Viola Davis: "I've never determined my value based on my looks or anything physical. I've been through a lot in life, and what has gotten me through is strength of character and faith."
My topic today is the Jones County GOP party platform. On March 12, 2016, the Jones County Republicans and Democrats had their county conventions. On March 24 their platforms were published in the Anamosa Journal-Eureka. The GOP platform caught my attention and that is what I'm writing commenting about today.
The first entry in the GOP platform was entitled STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES. Here is what it said: A half-truth is a whole lie. We must expect honorable behavior from leaders. We need a system to remove from leadership those who are untrustworthy. I agree with the statement but who are the GOP voters going to vote for?
I don't think they can vote for either Trump or Cruz. Trump calls Cruz "Lying Ted." And one political analyst said Trump tells one lie every five minutes. If either one is elected they would have to be removed because they accuse each other of being untrustworthy. That definitely is not "honorable behavior."
Another Republican named Georg W. Bush lied the U.S. into invading Iraq in 2002-2003. He lied when he said Saddam Hussein was trying to buy nuclear material from Niger. He lied again when he said Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. He lied again when he famously said "Mission Accomplished."
The result of this unnecessary, ill-advised and idiotic war are as follows:
1. 4486 dead American soldiers;
2. estimates of the Iraq War dollar costs are - around $2 trillion plus $490 billion in benefits owed to war veterans we'll be paying for many decades - so it could grow to $6 trillion over the next four decades.
My QUOTE for today is from actress. Viola Davis: "I've never determined my value based on my looks or anything physical. I've been through a lot in life, and what has gotten me through is strength of character and faith."
My topic today is the Jones County GOP party platform. On March 12, 2016, the Jones County Republicans and Democrats had their county conventions. On March 24 their platforms were published in the Anamosa Journal-Eureka. The GOP platform caught my attention and that is what I'm writing commenting about today.
The first entry in the GOP platform was entitled STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES. Here is what it said: A half-truth is a whole lie. We must expect honorable behavior from leaders. We need a system to remove from leadership those who are untrustworthy. I agree with the statement but who are the GOP voters going to vote for?
I don't think they can vote for either Trump or Cruz. Trump calls Cruz "Lying Ted." And one political analyst said Trump tells one lie every five minutes. If either one is elected they would have to be removed because they accuse each other of being untrustworthy. That definitely is not "honorable behavior."
Another Republican named Georg W. Bush lied the U.S. into invading Iraq in 2002-2003. He lied when he said Saddam Hussein was trying to buy nuclear material from Niger. He lied again when he said Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. He lied again when he famously said "Mission Accomplished."
The result of this unnecessary, ill-advised and idiotic war are as follows:
1. 4486 dead American soldiers;
2. estimates of the Iraq War dollar costs are - around $2 trillion plus $490 billion in benefits owed to war veterans we'll be paying for many decades - so it could grow to $6 trillion over the next four decades.
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Trump and Tariffs
Pete's BLOG: Today is Tuesday, March 29, 2016. I've walked 40,5 miles and weigh 165.8 pounds.
QUOTE from James Barber: "Age is inevitable but growing old is optional."
My topic today is about DONALD TRUMP and his intention to raise tariffs.
While watching the GOP Comedy Shows (aka debates) my mind keeps coming up with questions. Most all the GOP candidates make me scratch my head but Donald Trump makes me scratch the most. He needs to read some history books so he doesn't repeat the same mistakes the GOP made many years ago. What I'm talking about is his idea of imposing a 45% tariff on goods coming from China and other trading partners. Here is what happened when we tried something similar from 1929 to 1934.
On June 30, 1930, President Hoover signed into law the Smoot-Hawley Act. It had been debated for all of 1929 and passed the Congress when the GOP majority voted overwhelmingly in favor of it. Smoot was a GOP Senator from Utah and Hawley was GOP representative from Oregon. What the new law did was impose high tariffs (aka taxes) on thousands of goods imported into the U.S. - it's goal was to protect American jobs and American farmers from foreign competition. It is the same thing that Donnie is proposing today.
I guess Smoot and Hawley were not smart enough to figure out that if we imposed higher tariffs on their goods they would retaliate and do the same to us. That is exactly what happened. Trading partners like Canada, Britain, France, Germany and many others increased their tariffs on American goods. The result was that from 1929 to 1934 U.S. IMPORTS DECREASED 66%, while U.S. EXPORTS DECREASED by 61% in the same time period - costing us billions of dollars and made unemployment rise to 25%. The worldwide "tariff war" decreased world trade by some 66% from 1929 to 1934.
So Donnie, I would suggest you do some studying about raising tariffs. The results were disastrous in the 1930s. And Donnie there are going to be a lot of people pissed- off at you if they have to pay 45% more for the many goods Walmart imports from China and other Asian countries.
In fairness to President Hoover he was against the Smoot-Hawley bill - he favored higher tariffs on agricultural goods but not on industrial goods. - but the bill had both. Hoover actually called it "vicious, extortionate and obnoxious." Over 1,000 economists asked Hoover to veto it. Henry Ford called the bill "an economic stupidity" and begged Hoover to veto it. The CEO of J.P. Morgan called it "asinine." But Hoover yielded to pressure from the Republicans in Congress and from business leaders and signed the bill on June 30, 1930. When he signed he had already received "protest notes" from 23 of our trading partners and all 23 threatened to raise their tariffs if he signed it - and they did. I think the results would be the same this time - so Donnie, you better give it some serious thought.
The Smoot-Hawley law was not the only cause of the Great Depression. But most economists agree that it was counterproductive and contributed to the depth and length of the Depression. And most they agree it was responsible for cutting our imports and exports by more than half.
QUOTE from James Barber: "Age is inevitable but growing old is optional."
My topic today is about DONALD TRUMP and his intention to raise tariffs.
While watching the GOP Comedy Shows (aka debates) my mind keeps coming up with questions. Most all the GOP candidates make me scratch my head but Donald Trump makes me scratch the most. He needs to read some history books so he doesn't repeat the same mistakes the GOP made many years ago. What I'm talking about is his idea of imposing a 45% tariff on goods coming from China and other trading partners. Here is what happened when we tried something similar from 1929 to 1934.
On June 30, 1930, President Hoover signed into law the Smoot-Hawley Act. It had been debated for all of 1929 and passed the Congress when the GOP majority voted overwhelmingly in favor of it. Smoot was a GOP Senator from Utah and Hawley was GOP representative from Oregon. What the new law did was impose high tariffs (aka taxes) on thousands of goods imported into the U.S. - it's goal was to protect American jobs and American farmers from foreign competition. It is the same thing that Donnie is proposing today.
I guess Smoot and Hawley were not smart enough to figure out that if we imposed higher tariffs on their goods they would retaliate and do the same to us. That is exactly what happened. Trading partners like Canada, Britain, France, Germany and many others increased their tariffs on American goods. The result was that from 1929 to 1934 U.S. IMPORTS DECREASED 66%, while U.S. EXPORTS DECREASED by 61% in the same time period - costing us billions of dollars and made unemployment rise to 25%. The worldwide "tariff war" decreased world trade by some 66% from 1929 to 1934.
So Donnie, I would suggest you do some studying about raising tariffs. The results were disastrous in the 1930s. And Donnie there are going to be a lot of people pissed- off at you if they have to pay 45% more for the many goods Walmart imports from China and other Asian countries.
In fairness to President Hoover he was against the Smoot-Hawley bill - he favored higher tariffs on agricultural goods but not on industrial goods. - but the bill had both. Hoover actually called it "vicious, extortionate and obnoxious." Over 1,000 economists asked Hoover to veto it. Henry Ford called the bill "an economic stupidity" and begged Hoover to veto it. The CEO of J.P. Morgan called it "asinine." But Hoover yielded to pressure from the Republicans in Congress and from business leaders and signed the bill on June 30, 1930. When he signed he had already received "protest notes" from 23 of our trading partners and all 23 threatened to raise their tariffs if he signed it - and they did. I think the results would be the same this time - so Donnie, you better give it some serious thought.
The Smoot-Hawley law was not the only cause of the Great Depression. But most economists agree that it was counterproductive and contributed to the depth and length of the Depression. And most they agree it was responsible for cutting our imports and exports by more than half.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
