[W]e need to do more than upgrade the powerlines or stage a public takeover of the utility companies. We need to rethink the ideologies that govern how we plan and build our homes. ... The valorizing of homeownership and property rights results not only in increased exposure to climate-change-fueled fires, but also in our inadequate responses to them. ... This is the Jeffersonian agrarian ideal, transmuted through the urban, petrochemical century. Cheap energy—both the monetary price of subsidized gasoline and the hidden costs of fossil fuels—and the idealization of individual homeownership have created the scorching landscapes we face today. Cheap energy is untenable in the face of climate emergency. And individual homeownership should be seriously questioned. ... Even with the threats of climate change and rampant fire looming, the ideals of the American dream that have been instilled for more than 150 years will be difficult to dispel. ... We need another kind of escape route—away from our ideologies of ownership and property, and toward more collective, healthy, and just cities.
Thursday, December 26, 2019
Wednesday, December 25, 2019
Democrats are worried that Americans will interfere in the 2020 elections
Wry humor from a caller to Mark Steyn yesterday.
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
A Catholic America is a supine America
Catholicism breeds incapacity for rebellion. The American Revolution wasn't called the "Presbyterian Rebellion" for nothing.
Monday, December 23, 2019
Pay increases for the bottom 80% of workers under Trump still lag those under George W. Bush at 2.9% vs. 3.2%
Average increases year over year through November 2019 and all of 2017 and 2018 average just 2.9% vs. Bush 43's 8-year average of 3.2%.
Yet all we hear is how this is the greatest economy ever, the greatest economy in decades, yada yada yada.
It's all BS.
It's the best economy in about eight years for your average worker, but still not as good as it was under Bush 43.
It's the best economy in about eight years for your average worker, but still not as good as it was under Bush 43.
Sunday, December 22, 2019
Horsecrap from The Washington Free Beacon: "The economy is gangbusters" when it's actually underperforming the post-war by over 50%
Here.
Through 3Q2019 the US economy over the last ten years as measured by the compound annual growth rate from 3Q2009 and using the government's own gross domestic product measure known as GDPC1 is underperforming the previous 62 year period from 3Q1947 until 3Q2009 by 29.39%.
We're growing at 2.33% now vs. 3.3% then, and that calculation removes the worst of the 2008 debacle from the now column and puts it in the then column.
If we measured as we really ought to from the previous peak in 4Q2007 and included the downturn in the now column, the picture is much much worse.
To keep it simple the full 12 years from 3Q2007 through 3Q2019 (third estimate just reported) comes in at a miserable 1.67% vs. the previous 60 year period at 3.47%. In other words, this so-called gangbusters economy is really underperforming the post-war by 51.87%.
We're not even half as good as we used to be.
We're growing at 2.33% now vs. 3.3% then, and that calculation removes the worst of the 2008 debacle from the now column and puts it in the then column.
If we measured as we really ought to from the previous peak in 4Q2007 and included the downturn in the now column, the picture is much much worse.
To keep it simple the full 12 years from 3Q2007 through 3Q2019 (third estimate just reported) comes in at a miserable 1.67% vs. the previous 60 year period at 3.47%. In other words, this so-called gangbusters economy is really underperforming the post-war by 51.87%.
We're not even half as good as we used to be.
The only thing that is going gangbusters right now is Trump cheerleaders from Andy Puzder to Rush Limbaugh and all the usual idiots in between trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
Thinking Americans are not fooled.
Thinking Americans are not fooled.
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