Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – Campaign Finance Summary • OpenSecrets
Fundraising profile for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – New York
— Read on www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/summary
The money behind the socialist
Fundraising profile for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – New York
— Read on www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/summary
The money behind the socialist
This week Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez released a preliminary summary of her grand vision for a Green New Deal. Prior to its unveiling, the youngest rising star of the Democratic Party had already managed to get the support of leading members of Congress, including all of the party’s current leading Presidential candidates. Unfortunately for Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, the document was met
— Read on mises.org/power-market/aocs-green-new-deal-absolutely-absurd-thats-washington-status-quo
The theater of the absurd
You pay more for medicine because hundreds of generics aren’t for sale.
— Read on arstechnica.com/science/2019/02/drug-companies-are-sitting-on-generics-43-of-recently-approved-arent-for-sale/
Big pharma again.
Big tech is out of touch – UnHerd
— Read on unherd.com/2019/02/big-tech-is-out-of-touch/
A huge disconnect and a huge amount of money to buy politicians into their self created realities. A reality that is not concerned with the working class. JohnBarleycorn
The motto for the U.S.–South Korea alliance isn’t “We go together, if I get enough money as reimbursement,” one analyst observed.
— Read on www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/02/us-south-korea-reach-initial-military-cost-sharing-deal/582301/
Good idea to renegotiate the cost of our troops there. JohnBarleycorn
We are approaching 31.4 months this February from the original Brexit referendum on June 23, 2016.After such a period, the British government’s incompetence is shining through. The EU wants a hard border in Ireland all because they fear that goods could creep from the North to the South without them getting their hands on taxes. Meanwhile, Scotland keeps pushing for a separatist movement because the politicians there are also brainwashed to believe leaving the EU is somehow bad. Yet, most of their trade in the UK represents such a small portion of GDP. If Scotland took such a step, the EU would also demand a hard border for taxes. It always boils down to money for politicians. They can’t help it. Government creates ZERO wealth and are called “public servants” because they live off of the private sector who creates national wealth.
— Read on www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/britain/breixt-pi/
The bottom line in this article is the crux of the biscuit. JohnBarleycorn
The reality these days are that more than 50% of older workers are pushed out of their longtime jobs before they choose to retire. The major factor in this trend is their pension. Pensions are bankrupting both private and public sectors for the entire idea is showing impractical economic stress. Before FDR and the great New Deal, people would marry and have 4 or 5 kids and the wife stayed home and took care of the family. Back then, those who had no family did not fare very well. Hence, the Social Security Act was passed in 1935. This is a clip from the Philadelphia Inquirer dated June 19, 1935. It was supposed to be assistance for old age, not the beginning and end to all. It also was amended to allow private pensions, which under the first draft could have been interpreted to prevent companies from offering pension plans. But the idea of pensions was inspired by the Great Depression and then personal income tax entered with the payroll tax. Today, most families cannot afford to allow the wife to stay home and raise the children and they often have only two children or less due to the expense. The women’s liberation won the right to work, but they lost the right to raise their family staying at home. It now requires two salaries to pay for all the taxes where it once was sufficient for one salary to support a family. Of course, economically, with women entering the workforce, the economy has grown to accommodate them. Many younger girls in their 20s comment that they are not interested in having children anymore. So while the profile of the workforce has changed, many workers over 50 are also experiencing multiple job losses because they are not familiar with the new technologies. Now people in their 30s are already falling behind the technology curve as teens tend to run circles around them. The trend is becoming anti-college. It is increasingly obvious that higher education itself is way behind the technology curve. The old saying, “Those who can’t do teach,” is the same in other fields as those who can’t play sports professionally just teach gym. Google, Apple, and 12 other companies no longer require employees to have a college degree in the United States. The careers that are rapidly moving into not requiring college degrees are Marketing Designer, Publicity Assistant, Senior Manager of Finance, Production Assistant, Senior Editor, Production Editor, Art Director, & more. Even at IBM they no longer require a college degree for positions as a Financial Blockchain Engineer, Lead Recruiter, Contract & Negotiations Professional, Product Manager, Entry Level System Services Representative, Research Staff Member, Client Solution Executive, & more. The movie “Vice” showed the rise of Dick Cheney to the effective VP of the United States had no such degree. The examples are endless. They cannot teach entrepreneurship in college. Even being an investor or trader is not something one can learn in college. There are no degrees in Hedge Fund Management. Ernst & Young stopped requiring degrees to be an accountant. Younger Americans became deeply indebted for a degree, especially after the Clinton’s made student loans non-dischargeable in bankruptcy, and it has profoundly harmed the economy. Many kids are living at home with their parents into their 30s because they cannot buy a house due to their indebtedness for degrees that are becoming hopelessly worthless in many fields. The older workers into their late 40s to 50s are facing an increasingly difficult working life in their later years. Workers are being asked to finance their own retirements, age discrimination laws are blunted by U.S. courts in favor of employers, and the dreams of retirement are evaporating rapidly. Now 56% of Americans in their 50s working full-time in long-held jobs are getting laid off or pushed out on their way to retirement. Some companies are at least offering a buy out for early retirement to cut costs. Many just find an excuse to lay them off to escape pensions. Only a smaller portion is able to find similar work, but only one in 10 ever make what they did before their employment career. This is where their household incomes show signs of the profound damage even years after the fact. Then we have those who leave due to health or having to take care of a family member. Add all these groups together and we arrive at a frightening number — almost two-thirds of Americans retire involuntarily. The reality of the worker today is by no means sailing on a yacht and traveling the world. Most people face nothing of the sort, glued to a TV in their home frustrated by all the commercials and fake news. Then every government, desperate for money, demands taxes from their retirement. California was even going after people who earned a pension in California but moved to Florida where their pension is not taxed. Socialism has merely converted the government into one giant sucking machine. They pretend to care for the people, but they come first. Their own pensions are destroying the pensions of everyone else. The technology curve is far too great for even universities. Their teachers are also behind the times and incapable of teaching cutting-edge developments. This is why Google & Apple no longer require college degrees.
— Read on www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/pension-crisis/getting-old-risk-of-job-loss-thanks-to-socialism/
Public pensions for government workers are out of control because politicians can kick the funding issue down the road long after they retire on their fat pensions. JohnBarleycorn
Corporate America will suddenly discover that the Democrats are moving substantially to the left and will do whatever they can to further that goal. The Democrats are becoming the new party of anti-corporation/business. They embrace the misguided ideas of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who has been joined by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. This new agenda is being endorsed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Schumer would like to outlaw corporations from buying back their own shares unless they pay workers at least $15 an hour, offer paid time off, and health benefits. They try to force the minimum wage higher and act as if companies are the sole source of the problem. Why not eliminate taxation, both state and federal, for people under $15 an hour. Governments never take into account the cost of government itself. You have riots in France when government taxation consumes 46% of total GDP. Schumer has come out and said this is all Trump’s fault because he lowered taxes. So in other words, if Trump never lowered taxes to get companies to bring back money from overseas, then there would not be buybacks. The money would remain overseas instead of being reinvested in America. They buy their own stocks back and the shareholders then reinvest in other companies. They act as if the money vaporizes. They blame Trump for everything as if buybacks just appeared when Trump took office. So where are the fact checkers on this one? Oh, they only fact check Trump. Sorry. Didn’t understand the one-sided new free press rule that allows them to freely report only what they want to.
— Read on www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/govt-incompetence/the-democratic-socialist-party-going-after-corporations/
They will go after the corporations that they don’t like. The big pharma, tech, and media giants will get a pass. JohnBarleycorn
Cuomo says he will have to revise his proposed budget as personal income tax collections drop $2.8 billion.
— Read on www.newsday.com/news/region-state/state-budget-revenue-decline-1.26892647
Vote with your feet. JohnBarleycorn
The latest on the global warming front is a UN report on the “emissions gap” that admits the Paris Accord would never work. The UN has admitted that the environmentalists have made dire forecasts that assumed whatever trend was in motion would remain in motion. They ignored all other evidence and cycles. Even if every country did 100% of the UN mandates, the Paris agreement will provide only a third of the cuts in greenhouse gas that environmentalists claim are needed to prevent catastrophic warming. The assumption is cycles do not exist and only humans are responsible for everything. They admit that even if every country involved in those accords complied with their pledges between now and 2030, temperatures would still rise by 3 degrees celsius by 2100. The goal of the Paris agreement was to keep the global temperature increase to under 2 degrees. This is the problem when they make such bogus forecasts to try to scare people into their way of thinking. They want to end industrialization, prevent driving, flying, and watching TV because creating electricity is a problem. Kill all the cows and anything else that eat grass (which may include vegetarians) and go back to just hunting and gathering. However, they also want us to eat things raw and not cook because fires also create CO2.
— Read on www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/climate/un-admits-paris-accord-will-never-work/
These countries have spent their way into a vortex of debt that can never repaid. Now the politicians are hunting for tax revenue, and a carbon tax is the Trojan Horse. The yellow vest movement in France has figured this out. JohnBarleycorn
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