The Political Thread

Oct 11, 2018 14:00:03 GMT -5 michcusejoe5 said:

There is a reason why many people take the alarmism of climate change cultists with a significant grain of salt or dont take it seriously at all. The climate change alarmism cult has effectively become a quasi-religion largely subscribed to by those who mock traditional religion (the foundation of Western Civilization - to quote a drunk bird, "GO FIGURE!") and yet they dont even see the parallels. Consider the God-like nature assigned to an enlighted group of so-called "experts" in which you are putting your faith in, that they could literally control Mother Nature and save all of humanity (a reading from the Gospel according to Gore...glory to you, oh Leftist Lord). Quite remarkable.

Global cooling shifted to global warming before being fully hedged to just "climate change" so that it could go in any direction the alarmists deemed appropriate and beneficial at any given moment in time. We have been being told for decades that we all only have a few years to live (pretty sure the experts said we were all supposed to be dead by 2014). We are going to usher in an ice age or we were going to burn up and melt. Sea levels to rise, sea levels to shrink, there will be more storms, there will be less storms, harvests to increase, harvest to decrease, etc. etc. etc. Prediction after prediction that either contradict one another or havent played out.

Additionally, all the alarmist climate claims always tend to reference "recorded history" or whatever they call it, which is about 150 years. This is a sample size of 0.0000033% of the Earth's lifespan (assuming the Earth has existed for 4.5 billion years). The equivalent of that in baseball terms is using a sample size of 1 pitch on 7.5 million total plate appearances to draw your conclusions.

But putting all that aside...all the inconsistencies and wrong predictions...the thing that is most telling and of most concern is that its become increasingly obvious that, in the church of climate alarmism, the only acceptable proposal to "fix" climate change is to dismantle capitalism. This is, of course, the real end game and the climate cultists think we are too stupid to realize it. People must forfeit their god-given rights and liberty in order to "save the planet" and we must consolidate control of the economy under a socialistic world government or else WE WILL ALL DIE! And if you dont agree then you dont care about the planet and your children and grandchildren's future. This has been one of the great propaganda success stories of our age.

I think very very very few people believe that human activity doesnt have an affect on the environment or think a changing climate is a "hoax." But if you want to completely upend the world economy and basically get rid of all of the things that have been the main catalysts to alleviating most of the poverty in the world over the past century or so (its those already worse off in the world who will suffer the most from this)...then you are going to have to do a much much much better job of illustrating that human activity is the primary driver by an overwhelming degree and it is what is in fact tipping the scales (as opposed to a small or even de minimis factor, largely outweighed by normal cyclical changes a planet endures over the billions of years that it has been hurdling through space), that your predictions (most of which has been wrong so far) have a reasonably high likelihood of coming to fruition, and that your proposed solutions will actually work. The cost benefit analysis here does not seem to pass that test.

MICHCUSEJOE5:  WE have a LOT of Names for you...but now, WE agree with Inger = Mr. Conspiracy.

This post of yours it so LAUGHABLE, that is actually, well,  So Sad & So Stupid.

So first off, 'Thanks for the Morning Giggles & Laughter'.  You sooooooooooooooooooo Funny.

However, WE know you are smarter than this (at least you claim to be???); so We are TRULY worried about you.  Maybe you should:

1. Stop spending so much time in your basement (Man's Cave???); playing on the Net searching for MORE & MORE Wild Conspiracy Theories. YOU are NOW an Adult & Married, so stop acting like a Child.

2. You need to learn what these words MEAN = Truth, Facts, Reality. You can find the definitions in a Dictionary; if you do not know what a Dictionary is, ask your wife.

3. Get out of your basement & experience The Real World & the Reality of what is happening, outside of your basement.

4. Start being a Role Model with Common Sense; do you really want your future Children to grow-up, to be LIKE YOU?

5. Starting Reading More.  Reading is Spelled R-E-A-D-I-N-G. That should help you, to look it up in the Dictionary.

6. Stop watching Fox News (two words that should never be used together).

7. Change your DIET.  Maybe your Diet is making you so STUPID?

8. Maybe you have allergies to the = TRUTH, FACTS, REALITY. You might want to see a Doctor. There is a Stupid Virus that has been sweeping America for a couple years now; maybe you are infected with it?

9. Play more GOLF to relive you & to treat your need for ________________(fill-in-the-blank)

10. Become a Stand Up Comedian; for truly you are really funny.

We hope the ABOVE helps you.  There will be No-Charge for OUR Services.

TWO DIFFERENT TOPICS:

The HATE has just increased since Donald has been in Office. The Increase in HATE includes:
1. Hate Events/Crimes against Jews, Muslims, Asians, Women, Blacks, Hispanics/Latino’s, etc.
2. Hate Groups have increased their Memberships.

3. ETC.

--10-12-18: www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/10/09/far-right-neo-nazis-racists-hail-brett-kavanaughs-elevation-supreme-court-open-season-women  

SO VILE, EVIL & DISGUSTING…SO MUCH HATE!!!

Anglin, who has been known to post crude hyperbole to draw a reaction, posted a list of reasons rape would become legal soon and how it would work.

“In many cases, this will be as simple as driving up next to a woman jogging, wrapping her with duct tape, tossing her in the trunk and taking her to your home’s rape room,” Anglin wrote.

The reaction on the far right to Kavanaugh’s contentious confirmation — which was marked by allegations of sexual assault, Kavanaugh’s behavior during the hearing and his attitude toward women and drinking when he was younger — was harsh, ugly, misogynistic and Anti-Semitic.

In its banner, the neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer featured a photo of bound and gagged women, including one being tossed over the shoulder of a man, with an exploding Planned Parenthood clinic in the background.

The banner also features a photo of Elliot Rodger, who murdered six people and injured 14 in Isla Vista, California, an act he said was retribution for sexual rejection by women.

Rodger has become an icon among the incel (involuntarily celibate) community, male supremacists and the far right.

“The logical conclusion to this is that they secretly desire to be raped.

Not only is being raped sexually fulfilling for many women, but in our existing societal order, women who are raped are showered with additional attention,” Daily Stormer contributor Lee Rogers wrote.

“So in essence, these women want to fulfill their rape fantasies while simultaneously having access to extra attention that this ‘victim’ status provides them.”

Anglin, in a post studded with pictures of women with duct-taped mouths and bound hands and feet, laid out five things people need to know for “The Upcoming Legalization of Rape in America.”

Anglin’s theatrics aside, he’s riffing on very real concerns about the future of women’s and LGBTQ rights. For some on the racist “alt-right,” Kavanaugh’s ascension is seen as part of a larger culture — and race — war in America, with the alt-right and white people on one side against minorities, women and Jewish people.

And with Kavanaugh in office, the alt-right thinks it’s winning.

While he writes these over-the-top satires to draw a reaction, Anglin frequently follows up these posts with calls for the violent extermination of entire groups of people. Anglin’s writings on Kavanaugh reflect the attitude on the far right toward Kavanaugh and women.

The Daily Stormer has also aggressively pushed an anti-Jewish story line about the Kavanaugh accusations, alleging they appeared as part of a plot orchestrated by Jewish senators and Hungarian American philanthropist George Soros. (The Soros conspiracy has even been echoed in the mainstream by GOP lawmakers and pundits on Fox News).

The self-described intellectual force behind the alt-right, Richard Spe­­ncer, views Kavanaugh’s confirmation as the latest shot in an ongoing battle in America.

“Underlying it all is simply an attack on Kavanaugh as a White male," Spencer tweeted Saturday. "The ‘culture war’ isn’t about ‘hot button’ issues like abortion or the death penalty. It is a ‘race war,’ which is mostly non-violent but extremely impactful.”

On the podcast “Fash the Nation,” co-host “Jazzhands McFeels” claimed that non-white men want to remove white men from power because of their race and gender. The fight against Kavanaugh’s nomination was just the latest representation of that, McFeels said.

“We’ve been saying for the past couple of weeks that the fight against Brett Kavanaugh has been a proxy war on white men,” McFeels said. “White heterosexual men in America and now it is pivoting into a war on white women.”

Not all were thrilled with Kavanaugh after one day on the court.

On his first day, Kavanaugh hired an all-female crew of law clerks, a slightly surprising development given his recent history with women and sexual-assault allegations.

“Brett Kavanaugh just hired the Supreme Court's first all-women law clerk team What a fucking faggot. Already cucked on day one,” GAB user stripe_tobor wrote Monday.

On the most extreme end of the spectrum sits Gadsden at “The Green Pilled Perspective” on Radio Wehrwolf. The main issue, Gadsden said in a podcast, is Kavanaugh’s tenure in the Bush administration.

“He’s a piece of shit because he was a Bush lawyer. He also wrote the Patriot Act and he pretty much supports anything the Republican Party supports,” Gadsden said.

“That’s enough in itself to say that he’s a piece of crap. That he supports the neocon GOP. Well, both parties are neocon. It’s Coke versus Pepsi. Either way you’re getting poisoned.” READ MORE…

WELCOME TO THE NEW AMERICA = DEBT & LITTLE TO NO SAVINGS!!! Plus Related Articles…

--09-02-18: www.msn.com/en-us/money/personalfinance/the-american-dream-is-getting-smaller/ar-BBMdY8e?li=BBnbfcN&ocid=U147DHP  
The “American Dream” is starting to look a lot different.

Gone are the days when Americans aspired to own a house with a white picket fence. Some 82% of Americans now say their “American Dream” is simply financial security for themselves and their family.

That’s according to Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, which commissioned a survey of more than 3,200 people during January and February 2018.

Three quarters of respondents said part of their “American Dream” is owning a home, the traditional definition, but 71% said it is achieving financial independence.

More worrying, perhaps: 33% of those surveyed said they think that dream is disappearing.

Some 64% of those surveyed said they have a mortgage, 56% said they had credit-card debt and 26% said they have student-loan debt.

Many surveyed said they don’t feel financially secure. More than a quarter said they wish they had better control of their finances.

It makes sense that debt is on Americans’ minds. Collectively, Americans have more than $1 trillion in credit-card debt, according to the Federal Reserve.

They have another $1.5 trillion in student loans, up from $1.1 trillion in 2013.

Motor vehicle loans are now topping $1.1 trillion, up from $878.5 billion in 2013.

And they have another nearly $15 trillion in mortgage debt outstanding.

“I don’t get any more why owning a home is essential to the American Dream,” she said. “It’s a really bad idea if that is going to cause you to buy a home you can’t afford, which could jeopardize your dream of ever reaching financial independence.”

Some 18% said they had less than one month of expenses saved for an emergency. Another 26% said they have one to three months’ expenses saved. And 21% said they had three to six months’ expenses saved.

“That may not mean owning a home, at least for some time, and I think that’s OK,” she said. “Maybe it just means financial independence, living comfortably within your means and being able to build wealth.”

--09-01-18: www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/opinion-the-economy-may-be-booming-but-nearly-half-of-americans-cant-make-ends-meet/ar-BBMHmdi?li=BBnbfcN&ocid=U147DHP  
By virtually any yardstick, the U.S. economy is doing great. Unemployment is near a two-decade low. The stock market is strong. Corporate profits are at record highs.

Yet a report out this week finds that almost half of Americans are having trouble paying for basic needs such as food and housing.

"It's certainly surprising and disconcerting that so many people are having difficulty meeting their basic needs," said Michael Karpman, a research associate at the Urban Institute and coauthor of the report.

"What we found is that a lot of people have to devote much of their income to fixed expenses like rent or healthcare," he told me. "If they're hit with a large, unexpected expense, they simply can't cover it."

The stats become more troubling the deeper you drill down. More than 35% of families with at least one working adult reported difficulty meeting at least one basic need last year.

Almost a quarter of Americans experienced food insecurity, which is to say they didn't always know if they'd be able to eat if they were hungry.

A staggering 18% faced issues paying medical bills, and nearly as large a percentage reported skipping treatment for an ailment because they couldn't afford it.

--09-13-18:
www.architectmagazine.com/practice/one-third-of-boomers-have-no-retirement-savings_s?utm_source=newsletter&utm_content=Brief&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=AN_091318%20(1)&he=  
One-Third of Boomers Have No Retirement Savings

More than 70 percent of older Americans plan to delay retirement and tap into Social Security in order to pay the bills.

In the wake of various federal government program cuts in the past year, and the potential for more entitlement and retirement program cuts in the future, The NHP Foundation has conducted a survey of 1,000 non-retired Americans aged 50-plus to determine the status of their retirement plans, savings, and reliance on the availability of federal entitlement programs such as Social Security.

According to The NHP Foundation, a non-profit provider of service-enriched affordable housing, about 10,000 of the estimated 78 million Baby Boomers hit retirement age each day. However, according to their survey findings, 73 percent of Baby Boomers expect to delay retirement for some period of time.

In addition, 31 percent say that they have not prepared any retirement budget or savings, and 62 percent of those who have a retirement budget say that they expect Social Security Income to contribute to at least half of their monthly income.

A majority of survey respondents—65 percent—say that they have not budgeted for unforeseen health-related expenses. Among respondents with no retirement budget that expect SSI to account for at least half of their income, the majority is even higher at 72 percent. READ MORE…

--09-14-18: www.cnbc.com/2018/09/13/watch-out-gop-the-economy-is-roaring-but-most-americans-arent-feeling-it.html  
From a distance, the 2018 midterm election campaign poses a mystery: With the economy so good, why are prospects for President Donald Trump's party so bad?

But a closer look solves it. "The economy" may be roaring, but for most voters their economy is not.

The difference between those two things reflects the income inequality that has defined America's modern economy. The positive news Wall Street savors — robust corporate profits, rising stock prices, surging output growth — deliver the greatest rewards to a relatively modest share of more affluent Americans.

The rest don't feel it all that much.

"Fifty-one percent of the electorate lives paycheck-to-paycheck," explains David Winston, a strategist for GOP leaders battling to save their House majority. "Their issues are wages and the cost of living. Ultimately for those folks, the question is, are those paycheck-to-paycheck dynamics getting better?"

"When you talk about 'the economy' writ large, that is an abstraction for people," adds Geoff Garin, a pollster assisting Democratic efforts to recapture the Senate. "When you talk about getting to the end of the month and being able to pay your bills and set some money aside, that's not an abstraction."

The recent rise in oil price illustrates the divergence.

Good for capital investment, job creation, and stock values in the energy sector; bad for average families as higher gas prices erode their wage increases.

That's why Democratic candidates more than Republicans emphasize steps Congress and the Trump administration have taken to roll back Obamacare. Those steps fuel health insurance premium increases that further erode wage gains.

In a recent survey for the Democratic Senate campaign, Garin asked voters across 13 Senate battleground states which set of economic facts is most important: big increases in jobs and middle-class tax cuts, or wages not keeping up with inflation and health costs.

A 62 percent majority — including 91 percent of Democrats, 72 percent of independents and 34 percent of Republicans — chose the latter.

"If the Republicans had a compelling economic story to tell, they'd be telling it," Garin observes.

"It's not because they haven't thought of it. It's because it doesn't work." READ MORE…

--09-17-18: www.cnbc.com/2018/09/17/the-top-source-of-financial-stress-in-florida-isnt-debt-or-housing.html     
In Florida, the median price for a home is nearly $300,000, according to real-estate website Zillow, and the median rent is $1,800.

That's compared to the national median of $278,000 and $1,695, respectively.

And in the expensive ZIP code of Boca Grande, housing prices go dramatically higher: It can cost more than $1.6 million to buy the typical home.

Still, while residents must contend with some of the most expensive real-estate prices in the country, residents of the Sunshine State say their top source of financial stress isn't housing. It's the cost of living overall.

That's according to financial site GOBankingRates, which conducted a survey of more than 2,000 people from every state and Washington, D.C., "to pinpoint what's causing the worst financial fears and stress among Americans."

Respondents could choose: "debt," "education," including things like college expenses, "everyday costs," including groceries and utilities, "family," including child care and divorce, "health care," "housing," or "taxes."

Almost a third of residents "are stressed about paying for everyday living costs," says GOBankingRates. "The median household income in the state is $50,860, which is about $7,000 below the national average."

But Floridians aren't alone in wrestling with everyday expenses. The No. 1 cause of financial stress in the country overall is also everyday living costs, according to the survey. About 32 percent of all respondents chose everyday costs as their top financial stressor, including those in notoriously pricey states like New York and California.

Nearly 30 percent chose debt, followed by 13 percent who chose housing, 9 percent who chose health care, 7 percent who chose education, 6 percent who chose family and only 4 percent who chose taxes. READ MORE…

ON THE OTHER HAND:
--09-29-18 BRILLIANT: www.msn.com/en-us/money/personalfinance/this-couple-saved-dollar600000-in-four-years-%e2%80%93-and-they-want-to-teach-you-how-to-do-it-too/ar-BBNFISz?li=BBnbfcN  
When Matt and Alli Owen learned about the FIRE movement online, he said he was making $150,000 a year and she was making $100,000. They were both engineers. Over time, they managed to save around 70 percent of their income.

Of course, that's more feasible when you're making six figures than if your household income is closer to $60,000, which is the median reality for Americans.

Between the two of them, they contributed around $36,000 a year to their 401(k) plans, before their employers' match. The rest of their savings went into index funds through investing apps and a Vanguard account.

The couple cut back on their food costs by only eating out once or twice a month. Matt said he learned downgrading didn't need to mean loss. "We found we made substitutions, and it didn't reduce our joy at all," Matt said. "In many cases, it improved it.

"We switched to cooking, and we got to spend a lot more time with each other and we built a new skill."

Matt sold his car for a cheaper one with better mileage, pocketing thousands more. When the couple traveled, they used credit card rewards and other strategies to keep down the bills. Their week-long honeymoon in Mexico cost them just $800 each, for example. They write on their blog about how they pulled that off.

They bought a four-bedroom house in Bakersfield, California, for $275,000, but didn't have to pay their mortgage out of their own paychecks because they rented out three of the bedrooms. Now that their home is a van, they have no housing costs, and they rent out all four bedrooms of their house, making a profit while the property appreciates.

For health insurance, they both use Medi-share, a Florida-based costs-sharing ministry in which members pay for each other's medical expenses as they come up each month.

Their initial plan was to retire with $1.2 million. But dissatisfied with their jobs, and finding their labors had left them with $650,000 saved, they pulled the trigger. "We had gained so much confidence in our skills from saving so much money," Alli said.

From their van, they've developed an 11-part online course with worksheets, spreadsheets and videos to help people build a budget and bring down their expenses, as they've done. (The course costs around $150 and will be available this fall.)They also plan to meet with people over Skype as they travel, sharing their financial lessons face-to-face.

They acknowledge they don't have any official credentials to give people financial guidance, and they don't offer any specific tax or investment advice. Still, they believe they have wisdom to spread to the three-quarters of millennials in debt, including saving tips and strategies to pull themselves out of the red.

"Our expertise is our own lives and what we've been able to accomplish there," Matt said. "We're trying to share that story."

---10-05-18: www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/the-disappearing-middle-wage-job/ar-BBNYitM?li=BBnbfcN  
Employers will add 8.3 million jobs over the next five years, but those new positions may add to the hollowing out of the middle class, according to a new study.

Most of the jobs that are projected to be created are in low-wage or high-wage industries, according to the CareerBuilder study, which is based on historical and current labor market trends. One-fourth of new jobs will be in middle-wage jobs, and the study found that 369,879 jobs will be lost over the same time period, with the majority in mid-pay fields.

Job growth will be seen in roles that have a service or tech element, with the latter providing better pay.

The findings suggest that the struggles of many middle-class families aren't going to disappear any time soon, given job losses due to automation -- such as the elimination of some office jobs -- and stagnant wages.

"Workers across all job levels will need to continually pursue opportunities to upskill in order to maneuver around accelerated shifts in labor demand," said Irina Novoselsky, CEO of CareerBuilder, in a statement.

"This is a particularly pressing issue for middle-wage workers who are at greater risk for becoming displaced and workers in general who want to move up into better-paying jobs."

High-wage and low-wage occupations will both grow at a roughly 5.7 percent rate over the next five years, compared with 3.8 percent for middle-wage jobs.

In terms of numbers, both high-paying and low-wage jobs will add about 3.1 million new positions, compared with 2.1 million new jobs for mid-wage workers.

Here are three fastest-growing jobs for each wage level through 2023, according to CareerBuilder.

High-wage jobs
Registered nurses: 255,000 new jobs, median hourly earnings of $33.55

Software developers, applications: 143,000 new jobs, $48.49 per hour

Post-secondary teachers: 111,000 new jobs, $33.52 per hour

Middle-wage jobs
Customer-service representatives: 120,673 new jobs, $15.88 per hour

Medical assistants: 102,274 new jobs, $15.62 per hour

Construction laborers: 92,182 new jobs, $14.73 per hour

Low-wage jobs
Home health aides: 207,732 new jobs, $11.17 per hour

Waiters and waitresses: 146,281 new jobs, $10.01 per hour

Retail salespeople: 108,229 new jobs, $11.29 per hour. READ MORE…

----10-05-18: www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/employers-are-courting-less-educated-workers-%e2%80%94-finally-%e2%80%94-but-they-aren%e2%80%99t-offering-pay-increases/ar-BBNRZ6J?li=BBnbfcN  
Federal Reserve Bank of New York economist Gizem Kosar may not have cracked the Case of the Missing Wage Growth yet, but she has found a promising lead.

In the July release of labor market data from the bank’s Survey of Consumer Expectations, Kosar and analyst Kyle Smith noticed something surprising: Workers without a bachelor’s degree are switching jobs at the highest rate since the thrice-yearly survey began in 2014, but their salaries have fallen slightly in the past year.

Their earnings should be rising. If less-educated workers are in demand, employers should be forced to lift wages to poach outsiders and retain their employees in the face of rival offers. That has started to happen for workers with bachelor’s or advanced degrees.

During the labor market’s nine-year crawl back from the Great Recession, employers grew accustomed to a seemingly endless supply of experienced, educated Americans who were desperate for work.

Now, the market is heating up. The unemployment rate for workers 25 and older with at least a bachelor’s degree sat at 2.1 percent in August. It has hovered around that number for a year and doesn’t have much more room to fall.

As competition for their services intensifies, the average full-time salary for college-educated workers in the survey rose about $5,800 over the past year.

Over the same time, the comparable salary for less-educated workers in the survey has declined by about $4,700.

Those trends raise another question: Why are less-educated workers switching jobs? It’s apparently not because they’re chasing the money.

Here, the New York Fed survey’s utility becomes clear. It follows a rotating, representative panel of about 1,000 U.S. households and asks questions about worker motivations and job satisfaction that we can’t get from our usual sources. Because it follows workers for a year, the survey can provide additional insight into things such as job-switching and earnings growth.

Supplemental surveys like this one won’t beat the Labor Department at its own game. They won’t produce Unemployment Rate 2.0. But when done right, they fill in gaps and suggest answers to some of the job market’s more bewildering mysteries.

The first clue is that employers are being forced to cast a wider net. Poaching a college-educated worker is costly and, thanks to that salary surge, getting more so.

On average, respondents with a bachelor’s degree or higher said it would take an annual salary of about $81,900 to pry them from their current job, up from about $76,600 a year earlier.

In that context, experienced workers with less than a bachelor’s degree seem like a bargain. On average, they said they would leave their job for about $47,300, virtually unchanged from a year earlier.

But how are employers luring these workers, if not with cash?

It’s not benefits. The share of less-educated workers who say they’re satisfied with their benefits has remained essentially unchanged over the past year, at about 63 percent, compared with a record high of 74 percent for their educated peers.

So what’s the culprit?

“There is a significant rise in the proportion of respondents without a college degree who are satisfied with the career progression opportunities at their current jobs,” Kosar told us.

The share of less-educated workers who are satisfied with their opportunities for promotion has soared more than 10 percentage points in the past year. At 51 percent, it’s now five percentage points higher than that of college-educated workers.

“Less-educated workers might be finally moving to firms with higher productivity and with better opportunities for themselves,” Kosar said. In the absence of an immediate salary bump, they are likely counting on raises or more lucrative offers in the future. READ MORE…