Okay --- so WHAT ARE THE NEXT STEPS?

a reply to: TheRedneck

I have been unemployed or under-employed since 2008, Buzzy.

SO. HAVE. I.
And I'm pretty much like 97% certain I have said that on ATS.

I think I recall being attacked about it not adding up.....I haven't had a solid job since 2008. I have an advanced degree. In SOCIAL WORK.

Yeah.

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

Yes, I remember you saying that. You were unemployed during the Obama Presidency.

How did that help you?

TheRedneck

Love all the cultural exchange, but am coming back in add info re infrastructure.

And THIS is why the Republican Party was so anxious to have as much power in Washington as they could.... turn govt into simply an army, a court, and an ATM for corporations. Make govt small enough to drown in a bath tub.

Chao Pitches Private Infrastructure Investment in Confirmation Hearing

Chao said getting private capital flowing into infrastructure projects will require “incentivizing” equity firms, pension funds, and endowments to invest in “a bold new vision” for building highways and other infrastructure.

haha yep, go after the little man's retirement. It will not be 401K, it will be 4zero1K when the funds are looted by the corporations.


Trump’s Infrastructure Plan Is a Full-on Privatization Assault

Trump wants private investors to basically direct $1 trillion in infrastructure projects nationwide through a “revenue neutral” financing plan, which banks on financing from private investors, allegedly to control deficit spending (which the GOP generally deems wasteful, while promoting tax breaks as a wiser redistribution of public funds into corporate coffers). To draw some $167 billion to jumpstart the $1 trillion, 10-year infrastructure plan, Washington would grant a giant tax break “equal to 82 percent of the equity amount.” The goal isn’t fixing bridges so much as fixing the corporate tax codes to promote privatization and unregulated construction with virtually no public input. Moreover, whereas effective stimulus plans aim to fill infrastructure gaps that big business has ignored, Mike Konzcal observes in The Washington Post, that the developers Trump is courting would follow the money and “back profitable construction projects. These projects (such as electrical grid modernization or energy pipeline expansion) might already be planned or even underway.”

Activists now fear that Trump’s job plan will yield relatively substandard jobs by mowing down longstanding regulatory protections, including environmental review process (a critical tool activists use to challenge developments that involve public-health threats) and prevailing wage regulations. While private business partnerships on federal construction projects are routine, Trump’s camp is distinctly poised to launder corporate money through federal coffers at workers’ and taxpayers’ expense.

Corporations will take public money and build things, using foreign labor brought in and conveniently housed in "man camps" and allowed to pay sub-standard wages. Welcome to the deregulated world of the New Republican Party. Open borders on labor and no more "Buy American". It's all about what more can we take from govt and the little man's wallet, and convince the little guy that it is a good thing for him. That's the scam.

Talk about highway robbery!

a reply to: TheRedneck

How did it help me?

I left work to help my mom take care of my elderly father. Right after he died in Aug two years later, my husband nearly died from a pleural empyema and collapsed lung and broken rib; he was in critical condition and in the hospital for 11 days. Then he began a slow recovery, and I take care of him. I've been fixing up my house which was in need of serious maintenance repairs, and continuing to take care of my husband, who is a veteran.

It helped me that I was able to do those things while my husband works at his IT job (which pays him enough that I don't really HAVE to work). I am the executive housekeeper, case manager, nurse, remodeler, contractor, and administrative head of this household.

So now 8 years later, I have a home that is not needing any major repairs and some part-time money-making entrepreneurial type stuff going on. My husband is doing better, but not 100%. He had other medical issues as well that needed serious attention.

So - how did it help me?
It helped me attend to my loved ones, rather than continuing to work for an unethical giant hotel chain that overworks, underpays, and neglects the health and well-being of its employees. Penny Pritzker is a name you might look up.

a reply to: desert

ugh

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

Great! I'm glad you were able to do all those things. But I have to point out, you could have done them even if a job was available to you. There is no law that says one has to work, if one is willing to forego the paycheck.

I am caring for an elderly mother. Same situation. But there's one big difference. I don't have a husband with a good job. That makes a huge difference.

I now ask you: would it not be preferable to have the choice to work at a good job or not?

TheRedneck

Let Them Call Us Rebels .....We are the heirs of Thomas Paine — let's remember his words and spirit of resistance against injustice at the dawn of the Trump era.

As the Tories in Congress and state legislatures around the country move against the democratic achievements of generations — Social Security, the National Labor Relations Act, Medicare and Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, consumer protections and a woman’s right to choose — stand up and pronounce the very words that Washington’s troops heard as they boarded longboats and crossed back over the icy Delaware to surprise and defeat the King’s troops at Trenton: “Let it be told to the future world, that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it.”

Let them call us rebels, for we are all the heirs of Thomas Paine.

And, above all, Get Big Money Out of Politics and Restore Democracy

Only appoint Supreme Court justices who will make it a priority to overturn Citizens United and who understand that corruption in politics means more than just quid pro quo.

Fight to pass a constitutional amendment making it clear that Congress and the states have the power to regulate money in elections. I have been a proud sponsor and leading champion of such an amendment in the Senate.

Fight for a publicly financed, transparent system of campaign financing that amplifies small donations, along the lines of the Fair Elections Now Act that I have been pleased to co-sponsor, and an effective public financing system for president.

Insist on complete transparency regarding the funding of campaigns, including through disclosure of contributions to outside spending groups, via legislation, action by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Election Commission, and Federal Communication Commission, and an executive order requiring government contractors to disclose their political spending.

Fight to eliminate super PACs and other outside spending abuses.

Work to aggressively enforce campaign finance rules.

a reply to: TheRedneck

Of course if a person wants to work they should be able to find work. And IT SHOULD PAY ENOUGH FOR THEM TO LIVE ON!
I am in no way saying Americans should not have jobs -- I am actually AGAINST globalism, and open-trade arrangements. I think the minimum wage should be RAISED, and unions formed. I think corporate captains of industry should be REQUIRED to pay their employees a living wage.

I am ALSO against corporate tax-dodging, and now the bloody GOP wants to "not tax the profits earned from dealings overseas"??????????

WHat?

So - tax havens become legal. And they want to lower taxes too, even for profit gained on our own land.
WHO IS GOING TO FOOT THE BILL FOR THE PEOPLE LIKE YOU?

And just to state again ---
I do NOT think we should be supporting Israel in any way.

They are old enough to be on their own.
And if they AREN'T able to survive without OUR money and OUR weapons then they should, like any other company/bank, BE ALLOWED TO DIE.

The Middle East would be WAY less chaotic if Israel was dismantled. Am I alone in thinking that? The US would be WAY better if corrupt corporate thieves weren't allowed to get away with the plundering they now manage.

Trump is one of them. Now he's filling the entire top echelon of the government with OTHER 1%ers and CORRUPT CORPORATE THIEVES.

And you are FINE with that, Trump fans? Apparently.

a reply to: desert

The Spy Who Wrote The Trump-Russian Memos

This is some really wild stuff.

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

Of course if a person wants to work they should be able to find work. And IT SHOULD PAY ENOUGH FOR THEM TO LIVE ON!

We completely agree on that issue then. But it's not like that now. Right now, there are not enough jobs for everyone who wants to work to have one. Of the jobs that are available, the vast majority do not pay well. I see that as a problem too, so can we agree that we agree on this one issue? That we need more, better jobs in this country?

I am ALSO against corporate tax-dodging, and now the bloody GOP wants to "not tax the profits earned from dealings overseas"??????????

So am I. I have not heard such an action proposed. Where did you hear that?

TheRedneck

QUESTION: In CA (not sure about other states), there are restrictions on how many can live in a home or apt.

Such as: You can only have 2 people to a bedroom in a 2 bedroom apt. I live with my daughter and 2 kids. If she wants to move her boyfriend in to help pay expenses - - I have to leave.

I know the purpose of these laws (so you don't have flop houses), but IMO they are harming families during hard times who need to pool their resources.

(Consider this an example. I'm not going to argue exact laws).

EDIT: I was tagging this on to needing to find jobs, and living wages.

a reply to: Annee

How many people follow that law?
I bet it's not that many.

originally posted by: thesaneone
a reply to: Annee

How many people follow that law?
I bet it's not that many.

There are lots of laws on the books.

All it takes is one complaint.

And I think its unrealistic in hard times.

a reply to: TheRedneck

so then WHY are you supporting a man and his crowd that want to DO AWAY WITH THE MINIMUM WAGE? AND they want to strip you of insurance AND any social security you have earned AND unemployment compensation/assistance for needy families AND social services AND worker protection regulations ..........???

Why are you okay with this arrangement?

a reply to: TheRedneck
Trump's Tax Plan (Source: Forbes)

The bond market duly had a hissy when Trump was elected. Trump is being called the inflation president, with the name-callers forgetting that inflation isn’t serious until there’s wage inflation—of which there is no indication.

Trump’s tax cutting will be accomplished in a hurry. House Republicans, who have a bill in concept, and plan to take action within the first 100 days of a Trump administration. This makes strategic sense; the president’s first months are the window for getting things done. Presidents don’t get much else done after their first two years in office.

Trump’s plan, which has huge tax cuts for business and the rich, emphasizes growth. It would inject $4-6 trillion into the economy over 10 years, mostly by means of business tax cuts. This would be supply-side economics, which you can do with your own currency. Two problems:

First, tax cuts would have to be enormous to have any macroeconomic effect on a $16-18 trillion economy. His first plan proposed even larger cuts, and the deficit hawks swooped. Think of it as the tax version of QE. But consumption has fallen, and newly subsidized businesses would still need customers in order for investing to make sense.

Second, even if enhanced growth were achieved, it would not be evenly distributed.

And then there's this:

What he did for our state, he will do for this country!!

Re Scott Pruitt, who is supposed to head the EPA. You really need to read it and check the verifiable sources.

OH god and now we have to worry about Trump undoing vaccination laws too?

Oh, just incidentally here, I am now watching on Netflix "The Borgias". Very interesting. About greed, and treachery, and intrigue, and murder, and power.....but back in 1492-ish.


yeah.

That is (always) my next step: continue to educate myself about our past.