This is some very interesting reading about the dog fight between Hillary and Bernie.
Check it out:
One of the objections to Bernie Sanders’s candidacy that I keep reading on social media is that “he’s not even a Democrat.” People who say this appear to believe that it’s vitally important to be loyal to the institution of the Democratic Party as the last and only bulwark against the rising tide of insanity… – Source: Why the Dems Need Bernie More Than Bernie Needs the Dems | The Mahablog
This is the late, great, Joe Sobran on C-SPAN in 1986.
I too have been accused of the very same stuff myself. Which is why this blog’s traffic is not that great.
As I just wrote, the world economy is in the dumper.
Well, this here might be why; via HotAir.com:
Looks like the 2015Q4 GDP results told a broader story than some credited. The Associated Press called the results from today’s Bureau of Labor Statistics report “a sharp deceleration from recent months” (later removing “sharp” from that description), paralleling the sharper deceleration of production. The US economy added only 151,000 jobs, a miss on expectations and barely enough to tread water on population expansion:
Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 151,000 in January, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 4.9 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in several industries, led by retail trade, food services and drinking places, health care, and manufacturing. Employment declined in private educational services, transportation and warehousing, and mining.
Numerous news services heralded the a drop in U-3 rate of unemployment to 4.9%, but the number of people not in the workforce also rose by 360,000 people from last month (table A-16). That follows an increase of 284,000 the previous month. Those not in the labor force who want a job increased by 461,000, and that follows an increase of 379,000 in the previous month. The latter measure had been falling in 2015, but has reversed itself by 840,000 in two months — both in the 0.7%-growth-rate Q4. [see update above]
Needless to say, this leaves the workforce participation rates near their historic lows:
After accounting for the annual adjustments to the population controls, the civilian labor force and total employment, as measured by the household survey, were little changed in January. The labor force participation rate, at 62.7 percent, was little changed. The employment-population ratio (59.6 percent) changed little over the month but was up by 0.3 percentage point since October.
The U-3 rate dipped down to 4.9%, but that appears to be a rounding issue more than a significant shift. The broader U-6 rate remained at 9.9%, where it has been for three straight months after briefly dipping down to 9.8% in October. For comparison, October was the first time since May 2008 that U-6 scored under double digits, and the U-3 rate in May 2008 was 5.4% while the workforce participation rates were 66.1% and 62.5%, respectively.
My apologies to the gang at HotAir.com for quoting the crap out of their article. But, this is warranted. There’s more:
Update (Steve Eggleston): I have a couple quick points. First, on the “not in labor force” front, it is a seasonal phenomenon related to year-end retirements, and in the case of January, the implementation of new population controls. While the 360,000 additional people not in the workforce compared to December (on a not-seasonally-adjusted basis) is a larger add than the last couple years, it is actually lower than the average December-to-January change since 2000.
The future isn’t very bright. The January Challenger report released yesterday noted that announced job cuts surged to 75,114, the highest monthly total since July 2015 and the highest January total since 2009. The report also noted that there were 8,362 announced hiring plans last month, the 2nd-lowest January total going back to 2011.
Donald Trump might be a bit too populist for some and might be seen as a loose cannon by many. However, there is one thing that he is absolutely right about and that is that we are not on a good path as a Nation and because of that, we are dragging the World economy down with us. Something has to change and there are many disagreements about what is to change and how it is to change. However, the one clear fact that I believe everyone can and will agree on is that the path that we have been on, in this Country, for these may years, dating back to the beginning of the George W. Bush Administration and maybe even the Bill Clinton Administration; cannot continue. Otherwise, the United States of America is going to find itself in a very bad place.
Here is hoping that there are people elected that can figure this out and make the needed changes, without causing many innocent people to suffer as a result.
Oh joy… 🙄
The global economy seems trapped in a “death spiral” that could lead to further weakness in oil prices, recession and a serious equity bear market, Citi strategists have warned.Some analysts — including those at Citi — have turned bearish on the world economy this year, following an equity rout in January and weaker economic data out of China and the U.S.”The world appears to be trapped in a circular reference death spiral,” Citi strategists led by Jonathan Stubbs said in a report on Thursday.”Stronger U.S. dollar, weaker oil/commodity prices, weaker world trade/petrodollar liquidity, weaker EM (and global growth)… and repeat. Ad infinitum, this would lead to Oilmageddon, a ‘significant and synchronize – Source: Citi: World economy trapped in ‘death spiral’
Makes you want to go right out and spend a bunch of money, doesn’t it? 🙄
I do not think that I can ever properly convey, how happy I am that this theocrat is out of the race to the White House.
The Video is at CNN and the story:
(CNN)Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is ending his presidential bid, two Republican sources told CNN.
He is expected to make the announcement Wednesday night and will endorse a candidate.
Santorum won the 2012 Iowa caucuses and ended that race with the second-most number of delegates to eventually GOP nominee Mitt Romney. But he was unable to capture any momentum this year, despite extensive barnstorming efforts in Iowa.
He is the third Republican presidential candidate to drop out after Monday’s caucuses. Mike Huckabee ended his campaign that night, and Rand Paul suspended his campaign Wednesday morning.
The Santorum sources did not say whom Santorum would endorse. When asked about a possible endorsement, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said he hasn’t spoken to the former Pennsylvania senator on Wednesday.
“I think he’s fantastic,” Rubio told CNN’s Dana Bash.
Santorum faced a drastically different landscape this year than he did in 2012. A crowded field of 17 Republicans and lackluster early polling kept him off the main debate stage for each of the GOP debates. He also faced competition for the hearts evangelical voters, particularly from Ted Cruz.
See ya bye!
I think I should remind everyone about Santorum and some of his comments:
and his defense of Government spending:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=441DKQU2EFw?rel=0
I’m glad he is out. Go back to serving the pope and leave the politics to the adults. One less Christian Statist and Christian Dominion buffoon. One down, one to go.
Others: Yahoo Politics, Vox, The Atlantic, American Spectator, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Right Wing Watch, The Stream, Mashable, Talking Points Memo, WBAY-TV, The Week and Outside the Beltway
Sad thing, but, I knew it was coming.
The Video is at CNN.
The Story via Politico:
Rand Paul dropped out of the 2016 president race on Wednesday, short on cash and support, two days after finishing with under 5 percent in the Iowa caucuses — less than one quarter of the support his father had drawn four years earlier.
The Kentucky senator, who pitched his libertarian-infused brand of conservatism as transformational for the Republican Party, will exit the national stage and instead run for reelection to the Senate. His moment in the 2016 campaign never materialized.
“Brushfires of Liberty were ignited, and those will carry on, as will I,” Paul said in a statement.
Paul told senior staff about his decision on Tuesday. Other staff were notified Tuesday evening and the entire Paul campaign was told via a conference call on Wednesday morning at about 8:45, according to a campaign source. In that call the Kentucky senator talked about smaller government, continuing his fight for “liberty” and the Fourth Amendment.
For months, Paul struggled to gain traction or garner attention in a race that has been dominated by Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. Paul hadn’t registered in double digits in any national poll since May, after he had led some surveys in 2014 and had been declared the “most interesting man” in Republican politics.
Paul had initially been viewed as a stronger contender than his father, former Rep. Ron Paul, who ran for president in 2008 and 2012 on a narrow libertarian appeal. The younger Paul had hope to build on the libertarian grassroots base that had poured tens of millions of dollars into the elder Paul’s campaigns and expand it to more mainstream Republicans.
In the end, he was able to do neither.
Rand Paul’s biggest problem is that he is not his Father and because of that hardcore Ron Paul supporters are leery of him. Paul also tended to flip-flop a bit. He also was very anti-trump and that did not help him one bit.
Other Blogs: American Spectator, Advocate, Morning Consult, Shot in the Dark, Outside the Beltway, addictinginfo.org, Business Insider, CNN, Maryland Scramble, Vox Popoli and New York Times,
This was done at the last minute, so please forgive the amateur look about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdpIErQGPB4?rel=0
Drudge is promoting this one big time. Looks like Microsoft is helping out in Iowa.
Anyhow, here’s the story via the Hill:
Microsoft volunteered to provide the technology to help tally up the results of Iowa’s caucus, free of charge. Now it will be put to the test Monday night.The contests in both parties are expected to go down to the wire. And the spotlight will be on precinct officials who have been trained on a new Microsoft app, which is meant to cut down on human error and speed up the reporting process.
Both the Republican and Democratic parties in Iowa have expressed strong confidence in Microsoft, dismissing late suspicion of corporate influence from the campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) early last week.
Party officials have said no errors have been spotted in caucus dry runs. But the Sanders campaign has created its own backup reporting system, as has the Hillary Clinton campaign.
“It will be interesting to see what happens if and when there are discrepancies between the Microsoft system and either Democratic or Republican campaign tabulations,” Iowa State University professor Mack Shelley said.
Some would say that this smacks of corporate influence in elections. But, I really don’t see that, I mean, it would be worse. It could be the Government involvement. We all know what a disaster Mitt Romney had with that software he used. So, this might be a plus.
The first step of the 2016 election starts today.
Video:
The Story via Fox News:
As Iowans prepare to cast the first votes in the presidential nominating process Monday, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders hoped to defy the polls and pull off upset victories in Monday night’s caucuses.
After months of campaigning and more than $150 million spent on advertising, the race for supremacy in Iowa is close in both parties.
Among Republicans, the latest polls show real estate billionaire Donald Trump holding a slim edge over Cruz. Cruz, who became the first major candidate from either party to enter the presidential race 315 days ago, has pinned his hopes to a sophisticated get-out-the-vote operation. Cruz has also modeled his campaign after past Iowa winners, visiting all of the state’s 99 counties and courting influential evangelical and conservative leaders.
“If you had told me 10 months ago that the day before the Iowa caucuses we’d be in a statistcal tie for first place I would have been thrilled and exhilarated,” Cruz told Fox News late Sunday.
The Republican caucus is also the first test of whether Trump can turn the legion of fans drawn to his plainspoken populism into voters. The scope of the billionaire’s organization in Iowa is a mystery, though Trump himself has intensified his campaign schedule during the final sprint, including a pair of rallies Monday.
I predict that Trump will come in first, with Cruz second and Rubio third on the Republican side. On the Democrat side, I think that one could be a surprise. Sanders has a good deal of support, while Hillary has the name and the money. So, that one is a toss. It will be interesting to see to say the least.
When I saw this headline, I literally laughed out loud. 😆
If you are anything like me, you most likely read that headline and went “huh?”
Well, here’s some of the story:
The NAACP’s mission of political correctness and equality careened off the rails this week when a local president complimented a TV reporters breasts during an interview.Don Harris, the president of the Maricopa County Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, had just finished an event at Tempe Union High School District to discuss an incident at the school in which several girls wore black t-shirts bearing the letters “N-I-*-*-E-R” on them.The outrage was instantaneous.“The six students in question pulled ranks to spell out NI**ER on their own, smiling gleefully to pose for an Instagram picture. Their punishment was 5-days suspension,” a petition demanding their expulsion reads, EAGnews reports.“This hurtful use of a racial slur is a complete disregard for the dignity of the black community in Arizona and across the nation and the punishment does not fit the total ignorance and cruelty of the crime.”Harris was on hand to accept apologizes and demand action.But after the meeting, while participants were speaking with the media, he was caught on camera saying Channel 12 reporter Monique Griego had “nice tits.”
Click the link above and read on, it gets worse. Ever hear of the term, “Stop digging!” Someone needs to tell this guy, to do so or better yet, just tell him to shut up. 😛
