Tuesday, August 20, 2024

Are you ready to fight for Kamala's economic plan

Isaiah's latest THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Miss Sassy Puts Junior On Blast."



misssassy



As I noted last week, I'm 100% on board with Kamala's economic plan -- especially the housing aspect.  Alena Botros (FORTUNE) writes:


In an election year, it’s always the economy. And by way of that, it’s housing. Democratic presidential nominee and vice president Kamala Harris recently shared her housing plan, and Smith is into it. He likened it to Singapore’s housing policy. 

“In Singapore, the government controls the supply of housing, because it owns about 90% of the land, and can decide how much to build,” [macroeconomics expert Noah] Smith wrote. “Singapore’s Housing Development Board increases supply slowly and steadily over time, so that everyone has a place to live, and so that housing—at least, theoretically—earns a modest but predictable financial return.”

And “it gives lower-income first-time homebuyers a government grant to help them buy houses,” he said, through a wealth redistribution system. In 2023, the homeownership rate among Singaporeans was close to 90%.

Some key components of Harris’s plan are: up to $25,000 in downpayment assistance for first-time homebuyers and a $10,000 tax credit for first-time buyers; tax incentives for builders who build starter homes and affordable rentals; a $40 billion fund to build housing; a repurposing of some federal lands for housing; a ban on price-setting tools used by landlords; and, a removal of tax benefits for investors buying a substantial number of single-family homes.

There’s a lot there, but Smith focused on the credits to first-time homebuyers, tax incentives for builders, more money to build, and the repurposing of federal lands. He called the latter three “supply expansion,” and labeled the plan for federal lands, “very Singaporean.”  

Supply is something the Biden administration has mentioned in its policy announcements and plans, too, which as Smith points out is the basis of the YIMBY, or yes-in-my-backyard movement: the need for more homes and the ways we can build more homes. Harris is beginning to embrace that, it seems.


It's a great plan.  And it's threatening a lot of people.  Brett Arends (MARKETPLACE) notes the hysteria around the proposal which he's not on board with, by the way.


But this is why we can't have nice things.

We don't fight for them.

We should, all on the left, be able to get behind the housing issue.  This is a country with a huge homeless population.  Post baby boom populations have often been screwed out of the housing market with huge and excessive student loans.


But if we're not going to fight for policies that will help us when a politician actually proposes them, we're never going to get anything.



Donald Trump told voters during a speech last week that he would bring prices back to pre-COVID levels if elected, drawing heavy skepticism from economists who have studied his proposals.

“Prices will come down,” Trump said last week. “You just watch: They’ll come down, and they’ll come down fast, not only with insurance, with everything.” 

The GOP presidential candidate claimed he’d cut the price of gasoline, cooling bills, and electricity across the economy — “Prices will come down and come down dramatically and come down fast,” he promised.

Justin Wolfers, an economist at the University of Michigan, told CNN that while this is probably exactly what the American wants to hear it is not possible. “Unquestionably, this is what people want to hear. And unquestionably, this is unrealistic,” he said.

He explained that Trump isn’t trying to slow the rate of inflation by increasing prices at a gradual, and possibly realistic pace, which is something that the Federal Reserve has already been successfully executing over the last two years. What Trump seems to be describing is, instead, deflation. 

“The way to bring about deflation would be to create a massive recession. That would cause businesses to start cutting prices,” Wolfers said. “This is extremely dangerous and feeds on itself."

First of all, if Americans know that their purchases will be cheaper next month, then they will refrain from buying items today. And the consequent widespread price plunges would cause a negative feedback loop — “It’s very hard to get out of a deflationary spiral,” Wolfers said.

Conversely, Kamala Harris’ economic plan also promises to lower high costs, like fighting price gouging on food, lowering the cost of insulin, and combating the housing shortage. However, the vice president has refrained from promising voters a widespread price drops, which would be unrealistic according to economic experts. 


"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Tuesday, August 20, 2024.  This snapshot we focus on the first day of the DNC convention -- Kamala's surprise appearance, Joe's speech, the four who spoke on reproductive rights and much more -- including winding down with an update on MAGA queen Naomi Wolf's sad and troubled reign as she continues her grift.



That's Barbra Streisand explaining that despite all of the lies Donald Trump tells, America actually is great and doesn't need a petty dictator to destroy it and destroy democracy.

Kamala Harris is the candidate who can lift all boats and lift us all.  And the Democratic Party's holding their convention in Chicago this week.   The slogan when "We Fight We Win."  And Monday's biggest moment?  US President Joe Biden passing the baton to Kamala Harris.



Joe was probably the best speaker last night.  However, United Auto Workers' Shawn Fain was another strong one.





UAW has endorsed Kamala and Shawn had done so proudly.  It's a stark contrast between the leader of the Teamsters Sean O'Brien.  O'Brien is now on the sidelines and a wounded leader for a union.  He went to the RNC convention and sucked up to power while betraying the rank-in-file.  He had the added misfortune of embarrassing himself shortly before Convicted Felon Donald Trump got busy with Elon Musk and in a struggling Twitter broadcast in which both, forgetting a (small) audience was watching or just wanting to dry hump one another in public, celebrated strike breaking and firing workers.  That's who O'Brien elected to stand by.  

By contrast, Shawn Fain was in Chicago, calling out the Convicted Felon, talking about the need to be pro-worker and as opposed to being an anti-worker-pro-corporation shill.    He said it to loud applause, "Trump is a scab!" -- a phrase those present immediately began chanting,  and he also wore the statement on his t-shirt.

 
It was a powerful speech so you-know-who didn't show it.


It doesn't fit with the con job FOX "NEWS" tries to put over on their viewers, so they didn't air it. 

CNN offers these highlights from day one.



Also speaking last night was 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton:

The Constitution says the President's job is to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." Those are the words our founders used: "Take care."   Just look at the candidates. Kamala cares about kids, families, and America. Donald only cares about himself.  On her first day in court, Kamala said five words that guide her still: "Kamala Harris, for the people."  That's something Donald Trump will never understand.


Another powerful moment was delivered by Amanda and Josh Zurawski who traveled from Texas to speak of the very real harm Donald Trump did to reproductive rights. 






Three women — Amanda Zurawski, Kaitlyn Joshua and Hadley Duvall — spoke about their experiences with abortion, miscarriage and pregnancy on the opening night of Democratic National Convention. 

All three speakers have emerged as key surrogates for the Democratic Party, campaigning in support of Vice President Kamala Harris. Zurawski’s husband Josh, who has also campaigned for Harris, spoke alongside her.

Zurawski, who rose to prominence after suing the state of Texas over its abortion ban, was a guest at President Joe Biden’s February 2023 State of the Union address; she also shared her experience in an April ad on behalf of what was then the campaign to re-elect Biden. Joshua, of Louisiana, has been a regular presence at Harris campaign events and appeared in a June ad for the Democratic presidential campaign. Duvall, a Kentucky resident, appeared in a campaign spot for Gov. Andy Beshear last year, and in a July ad backing Biden.

“A second Trump term would rip away even more of our rights: passing a national abortion ban, letting states monitor pregnancies and prosecute doctors, restricting birth control and fertility treatments,” Zurawski said on Monday night. “We cannot let that happen. We need to vote as if lives depend on it — because they do.”

Abortion is a core component of Harris’ election pitch. Other expected speakers this week — including former Planned Parenthood leader Cecile Richards, current leader Alexis McGill Johnson, and Mini Timmaraju of the advocacy group Reproductive Freedom for All — are also likely to use their time to draw a contrast between Democrats, who largely support abortion rights, and Republicans, who generally back bans and restrictions on the procedure. 

Abortion has not historically received this much attention at the party’s national gathering. But it reflects the fact that this year the party views abortion — an issue on which they generally poll better with voters than do Republicans — as one that could help them retain the White House, and potentially even win control of Congress. 

 
Here's a video of all four speakers who addressed reproductive rights last night.






  On Monday, amid speeches from celebrities and some of the biggest names in Democratic politics, four everyday Americans took the stage to speak about how the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade — and the slew of state-level abortion restrictions implemented in its aftermath — have impacted their lives. 

Perhaps the most gut-wrenching testimony of the night came from Hadley Duvall, a young woman from Kentucky who at age 12 became pregnant and miscarried after being sexually assaulted by her stepfather. Duvall, now 21, shared her story for the first time on Facebook in 2022 following the demise of Roe. 

“At age 12 I took my first pregnancy test, and it was positive,” Duvall told the DNC audience. “That was the first time I was ever told ‘you have options.’ I can’t imagine not having a choice but today, that’s the reality for many women and girls across the country because of Trump’s abortion bans.” 

“He calls it a beautiful thing,” Duvall said of Trump’s bragging of his role in overturning Roe. “What is so beautiful about a child having to carry her parent’s child?”    


Exactly.  And that is MAGA -- they don't want progress and they don't want freedoms.  They want a time that we thankfully moved on from -- a time when only a few wealthy men (usually White and straight or closeted) had rights worth being respected by the courts.  Screw the rest of us, we don't matter -- that is the message MAGA wants people to embrace.

Pregnant by your step-father?  It's a gift!  It's a gift of life!  "You dirty whore," is implied but usually left unsaid.  Because it doesn't matter to them that you were raped.  You were the female -- even if you were only 12 -- so it's your fault.  That's MAGA thinking and it's why we've seen so many -- including that Ohio state senator -- backing Donald get arrested in the last years for raping children.

That is what's at stake in this election.  Do we have our rights or don't we?

Ron DeSantis didn't try to outlaw studying about the effects of slavery because he wanted students to devote more time to calculus.  He tried to outlaw it because he doesn't want it known.  He doesn't just avoid accountability, he avoids reality.  He wants to strip the majority of us of our rights.  That's what MAGA's about and that's what Project 2025 is about.  It's an assault on Civil Rights, reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ rights, workers rights, children's rights (including the right not to be slave labor) and much more.

It's about destroying democracy and re-creating what we once had in this country -- two classes of people.  One group had full rights.  The other group had whatever rights those in power would let them have.  Lincoln (and Harriet Tubman and John Brown and many others) fought to free the slaves.  When the crooked Supreme Court embraced and favored Colorado liar Lorie Smith, the spat on that legacy and they created a two-tiered class of citizenship.  

I don't know, was the country distracted by Lorie's massive arm fat and the hideous tattoo that she slapped on it?  That ruling says straight people have rights and gay people have the rights that others are comfortable giving them.  It says Lorie can't refuse to design a website for straight people but when it comes to a same-sex couple, their rights are not as important as Lorie's supposed religious beliefs.  There's nothing in the Bible about websites or, for that matter, whom vendors can take on as clients.

But that's the world MAGA wants to bring about.  And they already control the Supreme Court.

This is a US issue.  And it's going to determine the fate of the country.

Maybe it doesn't seem that way from Brazil where Glenneth Greenwald lives?  

But this is bad.

How bad?

Need something to cheer up your morning?  Professional crazy Naomi Wolf.  "Dr" Naomi -- a doctorate bestowed for writing that she then turned into a book that the publisher had to pull off the market when it turned out that she got everything in her dissertation wrong.  Oxford refuses to pull the doctorate because her failures are also a reflection on the dissertation committee that issued her that doctorate for shoddy scholarship. 

We could take this back to THE BEAUTY MYTH which also started as a work for Oxford and which was also garbage scholarship since she repeatedly stole from Judith N. Shklar (specifically the lecture series Shkalr gave at Oxford).

But let's not get too bogged into the weeds.  Go over to THIRD if you're new to creepy Naomi -- Ava and I have called her out since 2006 and documented her racism, her college days of standing with rapists and ignoring the women her friends raped, and so much more.  


Naomi has become the poster elderly girl for MAGA.  And it's a ride she's enjoyed as a fresh group of people who don't know her have embraced her.  But Naomi's spent weeks recoiling.  She reached out over the weekend to a friend of mine -- I've already stated the left should never let her back in -- and lamented that she might have gone too far.  She's trying to lead the MAGA to a better place, a place where they won't use sexism to rip apart Kamala.  She's even tried to explain to them that sexism against Kamala won't play well with non-MAGA voters.  But they don't listen to her.  Wah-wah.  

They loved her so much and embraced all her crazy ideas about vaccines and how airplanes were seeding the clouds and controlling us and how Santa Clause was probably a Zionist control device (I'm joking on that last one, but give her time, give her time) but when she tries to speak about sexism, and she sobbed over the phone at this, they call her SOB "a bitch."

Oh, poor thing.  Guess what, Namoi?  You are a bitch.  And you're a useless bitch whose sold out the people to grift.  You knew what was at stake and you betrayed everything you supposedly stood for.  You're on your own bitch and if MAGA tears you apart limb by limb?  You begged for it and I won't shed a tear.




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