They say they’re “bringing back jobs,” but what they really want is a desperate, powerless workforce with no healthcare, no unions, and no future — just the way Wall Street likes it…
I know. I hate all of them as well. I know that the midterms are coming, but I don't know if we will last until then. I'm 70. I've never owned a gun, have no idea how to shoot one. Feeling powerless right now is not what I wanted.
Powerless is exactly how they want us to feel. As individuals we are indeed powerless but as a group the more people we have the stronger we become, just like what happened with the labor unions. Our current problem is that we have no unifying core identity, no sense of shared need sufficient to meld us into a functional whole which would empower us to drain the MAGA swamp (and, while we're at it, the neoliberal one as well).
You’re right, of course. I’ll keep on writing my representatives and calling out the lies and machinations of the MAGA group. Also, I looked up the definition of neoliberal. Once again, I agree with you.
Writing them is good as a stopgap but without sounding too radical, in thee end most of Congress is part of the problem as well: we couldn't be in this mess without them.
Although I relish the idea of Trump's demise. At this point however, were he to die, MAGA would blame us, no matter how absurd the connection, while raising Trump up to martyred sainthood. Safer to let him live and physically and mentally decompose before the world's eyes.
I agree that the idea that tariffs will bring back manufacturing jobs is not only absurd it is a flat out lie. Tariffs will only raise the price of what we wish to purchase. We also no longer have a Detroit that was filled with factories making cars as in American cars. We also don't have as many foreign factories in the States making their cars either with American labor.
That renaissance is flat out not going to happen. Only way it could is to pay what they pay in China, or other foreign nations. Unions will be banned. It's so odd as unions do so much more than get pay hikes but assure working standards, hours, time off, all that is crucial to a worker and their safety. Tariffs make the rich richer and the poor poorer and put the middle class further on the brink of extinction.
DOL used to publish a Dictionary of Occupational Titles. (DOT). Once upon a time, most factory jobs fell into the "heavy" labor category. Appendix c laid out how jobs fit into strength and skill requirements. https://occupationalinfo.org/appendxc_1.html
The guys I knew from high school worked double shifts at steel mills, lifting and carrying heavy tools and in some cases working around exteme heat, required to wear asbestos clothing. The jobs were dangerous. They paid well -- in some cases high school dropouts made more than my dad -- then a DA, or my neighbor- a physician.
Over time, most jobs, even in manufacturing, now fit within the light and sedentary category.
That's because technology has transformed jobs.
"S-Sedentary Work - Exerting up to 10 pounds of force occasionally (Occasionally: activity or condition exists up to 1/3 of the time) and/or a negligible amount of force frequently (Frequently: activity or condition exists from 1/3 to 2/3 of the time) to lift, carry, push, pull, or otherwise move objects, including the human body. Sedentary work involves sitting most of the time, but may involve walking or standing for brief periods of time. Jobs are sedentary if walking and standing are required only occasionally and all other sedentary criteria are met."
The rate of modern technology has been so fast that the DOT is now obsolete.
If anyone was at the lead on this subject, it was Joe Biden. Biden signed the historic and bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act into law investing nearly $53 billion in funding to bring semiconductor supply chains back to the U.S, create jobs, support American innovation, and protect our national security.
"To date, [last December] the Commerce Department has announced over $30 billion in proposed CHIPS private sector investments spanning 23 projects in 15 states. These projects include 16 new semiconductor manufacturing facilities and are expected to create over 115,000 manufacturing and construction jobs across the country. Commerce is on track to allocate all remaining funds with CHIPS grantees by the end of 2024.
“As a result of the CHIPS and Science Act, we’ve made huge strides over the past two years in implementing the program and amassing private sector interest and enthusiasm,” said Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. “Under the leadership of President Biden and Vice President Harris, we’re creating good-paying jobs and bringing semiconductor manufacturing back to the United States.”
"With these CHIPS investments, America will be home to all five of the world’s leading-edge logic and DRAM semiconductor manufacturers. No other economy in the world has more than two. As a result, the U.S. is expected to manufacture nearly 30 percent of the world’s leading-edge chips by 2032 – up from zero percent when President Biden and Vice President Harris took office.
"CHIPS—or semiconductors—power our lives, including everything in America including smartphones, new cars, and medical devices. They are essential building blocks of the technologies that will shape our future, including artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and clean energy."
Excellent post Barbara! My father, a greek immigrant, had worked on the Ford assembly line for 35 years. He had made his money in the stock market when he took the $10,000 he had stowed under the mattress during the depression and bought American Cash Register. He loved his union. He continued working until retirement so he could get his pension. Ford also paid for my undergraduate tuition! Those were the days of realizing true American dreams.
Right on Thom! But you didn't mention if women will be allowed to work in the factories since they will be paid to stay home and keep having babies....
National Cash Register Company (NCR), initially a dominant player in cash registers, evolved into a broader technology company, eventually being acquired by AT&T, then spun off again, and finally split into two separate companies, NCR Voyix and NCR Atleos. NCR's journey involved innovation, market leadership, diversification into computers and other technologies, and eventual restructuring through acquisitions and spinoffs.
Talking of Philly,. I put Philly in my rear view mirror in 1956, returned in 1960 to marry and for certain when my Step Father died. I came back for mom, not him.
I was watching Food that made America great,and they told the audience that the hoagie (sub, whatever) was invented in the 1960's, bull shit. It was invented in WWII, by a vendor who serviced workers at the defense plant on Hog Island, hence the name Hoagie. In 1950, I would stop at corner Frankford Unity grocer and buy a Hoagie (half hoagie, for $.35.
I still miss those soft pretzels made in South phillie, that come in sheets.
When I lived in North Phillie with my aunt back in 1947, there was this Italian guy on a trike, with a box, who came through the neighborhood, sometimes he would be selling soft pretzels, other times fresh ground, before your eyes horse radish, and in summer ice cream.
There is only one way to eat a hoagie, olive oil, maybe vinegar, may, mustard, ketchup is blasphemy. a ticket to Hades. I make my own, Italian cold cuts and provlone. thin sliced onions, tomatoes and shredded lettuce and hot peppers
You are absolutely correct. This is the way to serfdom. No upward mobility, no healthcare, dangerous work conditions, and working longer for less money.
Thank you as always. Keep up your great work and watch your six.
This is absolutely the plan. Get ready to live in shanty towns outside the gilded castles of Trump, technocrats and right wing Christian fanatics.
Greedy corporations and their Republican lackeys eagerly sent all your manufacturing jobs to third world countries, to decrease their costs and increase profits. Now they are blaming those countries for trade deficits, after turning America into a purely service driven economy. It's a typical Trump and Republican ploy to create the problem and then expect praise for trying to fix their fuck ups.
The problem of capitalism is that it destroys itself through the competition it fosters. The winners of the competition have concentrated capital to prohibit further competition and to extort the government. Ultimately, it seeks to establish a piratical, exploitative dictatorship. This is what we are facing now. Corporate capitalism is antithetical to democracy, because democracy is about dispersed power and capitalism is the concentration of power.
This administration is a kleptocracy that wants a neo-feudalist america. They have been setting us up for decades to be a "caste" society of peasants-serfs with a minority of skilled-educated people and them royalty-oligarchs. They started the export of our middle class with Reaganomics. Too bad the MAGA crowd voted against their own interests...we need a progressive social, economic and political revolution!
Thank you, Thom, for your important article. I, too, came from a union family, in New Orleans. Unions were very strong back in the ‘60’s, and union workers did most of the major construction that happened in that city— both bridges and buildings, and they trained workers and took care of safety.
My dad was a crane operator and hung steel up in the air and also drilled piling into swampy low land so that large construction didn’t sink into the ground.
I’m grateful to unions that supported my dad for 40 years.
My father had a serious injury falling from a speeding train when he was young and had to work very hard as an adult in very hot closed cabs high above the city in brutal heat, while in pain most of the time. However, It was skilled, steady work that paid well, thanks to the union fighting for good wages, proper training, and medical benefits—a God send for a poorly educated person who was willing to work hard to make a living for his family.
Today, there are few opportunities or outlets for the poorly educated in this world. I truly feel sorry for those struggling to support themselves in the fast food industries, it must be next to impossible. However, not everyone has a college degree, but big business and the uber-wealthy are not interested in this class of people, at all. It’s as if they don’t exist, yet, they may be in the majority. Someone needs to fight for them, and unions and collective bargaining are the logical answer.
Trump does know he must abide the Constitution, and he took an oath to do so twice. He cannot accept his court-proven failures to honor the Constitution. So he “Don’t know!”
Trump lies. We know that is true. He is taking this country into financial ruin as he steals left and right. We watch him do it. We can stop some of the carnage with a sound, balanced budget, and a law that nixes deficit spending.
Trump's idea of valuable is to make Alcatraz operable again. LOL! The only thing funnier is picturing him, his family, and confederates filling-up the cells. Let's make sure the guards are in a good union like AFSCME.
Gutting the child labor laws will provide some tiny fingers to put the final touches on the Christmas dolls we will be making for the beautiful little girls he is obsessed with talking about. CREEPY!
Trump's only real goal is chaos. He has already filled the jobs he needs to help him achieve THAT. Meanwhile the small business owners that create the majority of our jobs will have their supply chain disrupted; they'll suffer price hikes and so will we. The Tariff Dictator will be picking all the winners and losers. He has no value---he truly is worthless.
UNION is a good rally sign, just like in Norma Rae. See you in the streets!
Trump and his sponsors goal is the Federation of America.A version of the Russian Federation Yesterday the White House posted an AI picture of Trump with the red light saber of a Sith lord, but behind him were two eagles pointed left and right,like the Russian eagles, there is symbology there.
There is only One Economy that will work, and the only One we must create - right now. That is the Rescue, Recovery and Renewal of our Ecology, planet-wide.
All this talk and bluster about manufacturing and making 'things' is just nonsense. As someone said, the renaissance is NOT going to happen. Do we all now just close our eyes and ears and noses and believe all will be well if we just REPEAT the past 240 years?
The corporate cabal knows this, which is WHY they are moving heaven and earth to obliterate ALL MENTION of climate, weather, extinction, ecology, science and de-growth.
Just like soft porn, the new/old meme is Soft Eugenics - starve and neglect the elderly, steal their life savings, bury them cheaply, export all non-whites to some other hellhole, get rid of the rest of First Nations and Black African 'murkans and 'Mexicans' by any means necessary. Ill health, starvation, diseases, accidents, addictions, evictions, jailing, killings, poisonings via toxic substances, etc. etc.
Stockholm Syndrome. The tariff fiasco is a HOAX. It is nothing but massive THEFT. How many times must it be said? We are not people, we are 'marks.' Once conned, a nose goes around our necks, and we beg to be let go so we can worship our captors.
De-growth MUST occur, and at light speed. Now the elites also know this, so they want AI and robotics to take the place of all but farm workers, gardeners, trash collectors, etc.
Ecology is our only hope, if that word can even be used. We are guilty of being irresponsible. Let us not make the same mistake one LAST TIME.
Well said, though not every manufacturing job can be returned. The steel industry, for example, has been shrinking for decades in part because there is less demand here. And the interrelationships of products, such as cars with many parts manufactured around the world, would be hard to unwind (another reason why meat axe tariffs are a stupid approach). Then too this reorientation can't be effectively done in pieces; Biden's idea of manufacturing chips here was excellent, but to be worthwhile their output needs phones, laptops and so on.
We also need trained workers or, in the case of industries like coal that aren't coming back, the facilities to retrain them, or give early retirement to those who can't make that jump. Essentially all this comes down to a New Deal scale plan to revitalize what we can, create what we must, and help those left behind. (Which brings us to free education and a national health care system.) This is exactly what the Democrats could develop as a vision and a program to really make America great.
Those at the bottom have been ignored for far too long, and except for some slight efforts by Obama the only one who connected with them has been Trump. But I don't see those who have a strangle hold on the party ever seriously pushing such a program forward. Perhaps change can come from the bottom up, but organizing people who are just trying to hold on to what they have isn't easy. We were lucky with national visionaries like Lincoln and the Roosevelts, but given the marginalization of Bernie it is difficult to know how the next one will get such a platform short of another real national emergency.
The Cato Institute, a conservative think tank, has criticized the effectiveness of the Head Start program, arguing that it is a waste of taxpayer money and offers little lasting benefit. They cite studies suggesting that by the end of first grade, Head Start participants are indistinguishable from children who did not attend the program, and that any initial academic gains tend to fade over time. Those studies have been discredited...but that doesn't make any difference to Trump/Musk and his Muskovites.
Krasnov is bidding his time with all three branches of government in hand and his maga complain that nobody likes him. The inability to get things done is not the Dems fault or because nobody in the opposition cares for his style of traitor. If the GOP fails to get things done, that is the problem of the GOP and NOBODY else. If the administration puts out a valid trade deal, the progressives would support it because that is good business. But of course the Repubs will put in poison pills or whatnot to make the opposition not vote for it. Anytime they want something to not be voted for they put the unnecessary crap in so it will not pass. Then like magic it is the oppositions fault that Repub policies fail. Drump is a failure in too many ways to point out. It takes too much time.
This is why capitalism needs to be put on a leash. It used to be that every 20 years it would work itself into a recession or depression. It’s the nature of the beast. Capitalism by itself is not a viable basis for a society, it brings out the worst in people by rewarding greed.
I know that this might get me in trouble, but how long do we put up with this bullshit? He needs to die. Policitally, physically, and historically.
If only he didn’t have the whole GOP and project 2025 behind him.
I know. I hate all of them as well. I know that the midterms are coming, but I don't know if we will last until then. I'm 70. I've never owned a gun, have no idea how to shoot one. Feeling powerless right now is not what I wanted.
Ditto, 71 and not what I had in mind for this part of my life. No gun either. I hate what they’re doing to our country.
Check out Matt Kerbel In Wolves and Sheep today. He seems to think pain in the electorate will be his undoing. We can hope.
Thank you, I will.
Not what I had in mind either at 73.
Powerless is exactly how they want us to feel. As individuals we are indeed powerless but as a group the more people we have the stronger we become, just like what happened with the labor unions. Our current problem is that we have no unifying core identity, no sense of shared need sufficient to meld us into a functional whole which would empower us to drain the MAGA swamp (and, while we're at it, the neoliberal one as well).
You’re right, of course. I’ll keep on writing my representatives and calling out the lies and machinations of the MAGA group. Also, I looked up the definition of neoliberal. Once again, I agree with you.
Writing them is good as a stopgap but without sounding too radical, in thee end most of Congress is part of the problem as well: we couldn't be in this mess without them.
Any gun store can link you up with a gun safety class that will teach you to shoot, once you walk through it a couple times it's very easy.
Although I relish the idea of Trump's demise. At this point however, were he to die, MAGA would blame us, no matter how absurd the connection, while raising Trump up to martyred sainthood. Safer to let him live and physically and mentally decompose before the world's eyes.
Agree, I wake up in the morning hoping a “ breaking news “ announcement is featured on the networks
You and me both!
Time for a coup
I agree that the idea that tariffs will bring back manufacturing jobs is not only absurd it is a flat out lie. Tariffs will only raise the price of what we wish to purchase. We also no longer have a Detroit that was filled with factories making cars as in American cars. We also don't have as many foreign factories in the States making their cars either with American labor.
That renaissance is flat out not going to happen. Only way it could is to pay what they pay in China, or other foreign nations. Unions will be banned. It's so odd as unions do so much more than get pay hikes but assure working standards, hours, time off, all that is crucial to a worker and their safety. Tariffs make the rich richer and the poor poorer and put the middle class further on the brink of extinction.
Maybe.
DOL used to publish a Dictionary of Occupational Titles. (DOT). Once upon a time, most factory jobs fell into the "heavy" labor category. Appendix c laid out how jobs fit into strength and skill requirements. https://occupationalinfo.org/appendxc_1.html
The guys I knew from high school worked double shifts at steel mills, lifting and carrying heavy tools and in some cases working around exteme heat, required to wear asbestos clothing. The jobs were dangerous. They paid well -- in some cases high school dropouts made more than my dad -- then a DA, or my neighbor- a physician.
Over time, most jobs, even in manufacturing, now fit within the light and sedentary category.
That's because technology has transformed jobs.
"S-Sedentary Work - Exerting up to 10 pounds of force occasionally (Occasionally: activity or condition exists up to 1/3 of the time) and/or a negligible amount of force frequently (Frequently: activity or condition exists from 1/3 to 2/3 of the time) to lift, carry, push, pull, or otherwise move objects, including the human body. Sedentary work involves sitting most of the time, but may involve walking or standing for brief periods of time. Jobs are sedentary if walking and standing are required only occasionally and all other sedentary criteria are met."
The rate of modern technology has been so fast that the DOT is now obsolete.
If anyone was at the lead on this subject, it was Joe Biden. Biden signed the historic and bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act into law investing nearly $53 billion in funding to bring semiconductor supply chains back to the U.S, create jobs, support American innovation, and protect our national security.
"To date, [last December] the Commerce Department has announced over $30 billion in proposed CHIPS private sector investments spanning 23 projects in 15 states. These projects include 16 new semiconductor manufacturing facilities and are expected to create over 115,000 manufacturing and construction jobs across the country. Commerce is on track to allocate all remaining funds with CHIPS grantees by the end of 2024.
“As a result of the CHIPS and Science Act, we’ve made huge strides over the past two years in implementing the program and amassing private sector interest and enthusiasm,” said Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. “Under the leadership of President Biden and Vice President Harris, we’re creating good-paying jobs and bringing semiconductor manufacturing back to the United States.”
"With these CHIPS investments, America will be home to all five of the world’s leading-edge logic and DRAM semiconductor manufacturers. No other economy in the world has more than two. As a result, the U.S. is expected to manufacture nearly 30 percent of the world’s leading-edge chips by 2032 – up from zero percent when President Biden and Vice President Harris took office.
"CHIPS—or semiconductors—power our lives, including everything in America including smartphones, new cars, and medical devices. They are essential building blocks of the technologies that will shape our future, including artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and clean energy."
Trump didn’t eliminate the chips act?
No. He directed Congress to kill it, but there's pushback. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H56SVooVpy0
Excellent post Barbara! My father, a greek immigrant, had worked on the Ford assembly line for 35 years. He had made his money in the stock market when he took the $10,000 he had stowed under the mattress during the depression and bought American Cash Register. He loved his union. He continued working until retirement so he could get his pension. Ford also paid for my undergraduate tuition! Those were the days of realizing true American dreams.
Right on Thom! But you didn't mention if women will be allowed to work in the factories since they will be paid to stay home and keep having babies....
My home town is, among other things, the hot dog capitol of the world, thanks to the ingenuity of Greek imigrants.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Castle,_Pennsylvania#:~:text=New%20Castle%20is%20known%20both,restaurants%20along%20with%20their%20homes.
In Detroit, the most thriving area is Greektown.
National Cash Register Company (NCR), initially a dominant player in cash registers, evolved into a broader technology company, eventually being acquired by AT&T, then spun off again, and finally split into two separate companies, NCR Voyix and NCR Atleos. NCR's journey involved innovation, market leadership, diversification into computers and other technologies, and eventual restructuring through acquisitions and spinoffs.
Thank you for the NCR correction.
I remember Greek town vividly. My father would hang out in the coffee shop with his buddies....
Here in Philly Greeks own all of the diners and pizza shops.
Talking of Philly,. I put Philly in my rear view mirror in 1956, returned in 1960 to marry and for certain when my Step Father died. I came back for mom, not him.
I was watching Food that made America great,and they told the audience that the hoagie (sub, whatever) was invented in the 1960's, bull shit. It was invented in WWII, by a vendor who serviced workers at the defense plant on Hog Island, hence the name Hoagie. In 1950, I would stop at corner Frankford Unity grocer and buy a Hoagie (half hoagie, for $.35.
I still miss those soft pretzels made in South phillie, that come in sheets.
When I lived in North Phillie with my aunt back in 1947, there was this Italian guy on a trike, with a box, who came through the neighborhood, sometimes he would be selling soft pretzels, other times fresh ground, before your eyes horse radish, and in summer ice cream.
There is only one way to eat a hoagie, olive oil, maybe vinegar, may, mustard, ketchup is blasphemy. a ticket to Hades. I make my own, Italian cold cuts and provlone. thin sliced onions, tomatoes and shredded lettuce and hot peppers
Home of the Philly cheeseseak, Philly scrapple, water ice, tomato pie..
Oh yeh, when I was young, the cheesteak had tomato sauce, we were raised on scrapple, withMaple syrup of all things.
Japanese and Korean companies don't make cars in America, They assemble them.
Thom,
You are absolutely correct. This is the way to serfdom. No upward mobility, no healthcare, dangerous work conditions, and working longer for less money.
Thank you as always. Keep up your great work and watch your six.
Steve Dundas
This is absolutely the plan. Get ready to live in shanty towns outside the gilded castles of Trump, technocrats and right wing Christian fanatics.
Greedy corporations and their Republican lackeys eagerly sent all your manufacturing jobs to third world countries, to decrease their costs and increase profits. Now they are blaming those countries for trade deficits, after turning America into a purely service driven economy. It's a typical Trump and Republican ploy to create the problem and then expect praise for trying to fix their fuck ups.
The problem of capitalism is that it destroys itself through the competition it fosters. The winners of the competition have concentrated capital to prohibit further competition and to extort the government. Ultimately, it seeks to establish a piratical, exploitative dictatorship. This is what we are facing now. Corporate capitalism is antithetical to democracy, because democracy is about dispersed power and capitalism is the concentration of power.
You got that right Mr. Hobbs.
John Davidson Rockefeller: "Competition is a sin"
This administration is a kleptocracy that wants a neo-feudalist america. They have been setting us up for decades to be a "caste" society of peasants-serfs with a minority of skilled-educated people and them royalty-oligarchs. They started the export of our middle class with Reaganomics. Too bad the MAGA crowd voted against their own interests...we need a progressive social, economic and political revolution!
Thank you, Thom, for your important article. I, too, came from a union family, in New Orleans. Unions were very strong back in the ‘60’s, and union workers did most of the major construction that happened in that city— both bridges and buildings, and they trained workers and took care of safety.
My dad was a crane operator and hung steel up in the air and also drilled piling into swampy low land so that large construction didn’t sink into the ground.
I’m grateful to unions that supported my dad for 40 years.
My father had a serious injury falling from a speeding train when he was young and had to work very hard as an adult in very hot closed cabs high above the city in brutal heat, while in pain most of the time. However, It was skilled, steady work that paid well, thanks to the union fighting for good wages, proper training, and medical benefits—a God send for a poorly educated person who was willing to work hard to make a living for his family.
Today, there are few opportunities or outlets for the poorly educated in this world. I truly feel sorry for those struggling to support themselves in the fast food industries, it must be next to impossible. However, not everyone has a college degree, but big business and the uber-wealthy are not interested in this class of people, at all. It’s as if they don’t exist, yet, they may be in the majority. Someone needs to fight for them, and unions and collective bargaining are the logical answer.
Trump does know he must abide the Constitution, and he took an oath to do so twice. He cannot accept his court-proven failures to honor the Constitution. So he “Don’t know!”
Trump lies. We know that is true. He is taking this country into financial ruin as he steals left and right. We watch him do it. We can stop some of the carnage with a sound, balanced budget, and a law that nixes deficit spending.
https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/where-ya-going-dems?r=3m1bs
Trump is a fool This is another opportunity. Ask every Congressional Republican whether Trump and they are bound by the Constitution.
https://jerryweiss.substack.com/
Hmmm---Making things of value.
Trump's idea of valuable is to make Alcatraz operable again. LOL! The only thing funnier is picturing him, his family, and confederates filling-up the cells. Let's make sure the guards are in a good union like AFSCME.
Gutting the child labor laws will provide some tiny fingers to put the final touches on the Christmas dolls we will be making for the beautiful little girls he is obsessed with talking about. CREEPY!
Trump's only real goal is chaos. He has already filled the jobs he needs to help him achieve THAT. Meanwhile the small business owners that create the majority of our jobs will have their supply chain disrupted; they'll suffer price hikes and so will we. The Tariff Dictator will be picking all the winners and losers. He has no value---he truly is worthless.
UNION is a good rally sign, just like in Norma Rae. See you in the streets!
Trump and his sponsors goal is the Federation of America.A version of the Russian Federation Yesterday the White House posted an AI picture of Trump with the red light saber of a Sith lord, but behind him were two eagles pointed left and right,like the Russian eagles, there is symbology there.
You are exactly right and you are seeing their plan exactly right. You are a rock star. I never miss your posts.
I have read most of project 2025 and they are all working to get those policies implemented. School vouchers is before the sup ct right now.
There is only One Economy that will work, and the only One we must create - right now. That is the Rescue, Recovery and Renewal of our Ecology, planet-wide.
All this talk and bluster about manufacturing and making 'things' is just nonsense. As someone said, the renaissance is NOT going to happen. Do we all now just close our eyes and ears and noses and believe all will be well if we just REPEAT the past 240 years?
The corporate cabal knows this, which is WHY they are moving heaven and earth to obliterate ALL MENTION of climate, weather, extinction, ecology, science and de-growth.
Just like soft porn, the new/old meme is Soft Eugenics - starve and neglect the elderly, steal their life savings, bury them cheaply, export all non-whites to some other hellhole, get rid of the rest of First Nations and Black African 'murkans and 'Mexicans' by any means necessary. Ill health, starvation, diseases, accidents, addictions, evictions, jailing, killings, poisonings via toxic substances, etc. etc.
Stockholm Syndrome. The tariff fiasco is a HOAX. It is nothing but massive THEFT. How many times must it be said? We are not people, we are 'marks.' Once conned, a nose goes around our necks, and we beg to be let go so we can worship our captors.
De-growth MUST occur, and at light speed. Now the elites also know this, so they want AI and robotics to take the place of all but farm workers, gardeners, trash collectors, etc.
Ecology is our only hope, if that word can even be used. We are guilty of being irresponsible. Let us not make the same mistake one LAST TIME.
Well said, though not every manufacturing job can be returned. The steel industry, for example, has been shrinking for decades in part because there is less demand here. And the interrelationships of products, such as cars with many parts manufactured around the world, would be hard to unwind (another reason why meat axe tariffs are a stupid approach). Then too this reorientation can't be effectively done in pieces; Biden's idea of manufacturing chips here was excellent, but to be worthwhile their output needs phones, laptops and so on.
We also need trained workers or, in the case of industries like coal that aren't coming back, the facilities to retrain them, or give early retirement to those who can't make that jump. Essentially all this comes down to a New Deal scale plan to revitalize what we can, create what we must, and help those left behind. (Which brings us to free education and a national health care system.) This is exactly what the Democrats could develop as a vision and a program to really make America great.
Those at the bottom have been ignored for far too long, and except for some slight efforts by Obama the only one who connected with them has been Trump. But I don't see those who have a strangle hold on the party ever seriously pushing such a program forward. Perhaps change can come from the bottom up, but organizing people who are just trying to hold on to what they have isn't easy. We were lucky with national visionaries like Lincoln and the Roosevelts, but given the marginalization of Bernie it is difficult to know how the next one will get such a platform short of another real national emergency.
In order to do that, we have to control the government.
Biden was the most pro progressive since LBJ. Most pro-union.
Agree, we need a new Great Society vision, and make it stick. Somehow I don't think that's what The Donald meant when he said "Great".
LBJ had the vision. But as soon as he was replaced by Nixon, the potential to do it was undermined.
The symbol for it is Head Start. https://vtdigger.org/2025/05/05/morgan-crossman-head-start-is-at-risk-and-there-is-vital-need-for-proactive-funding-solutions/
The Cato Institute, a conservative think tank, has criticized the effectiveness of the Head Start program, arguing that it is a waste of taxpayer money and offers little lasting benefit. They cite studies suggesting that by the end of first grade, Head Start participants are indistinguishable from children who did not attend the program, and that any initial academic gains tend to fade over time. Those studies have been discredited...but that doesn't make any difference to Trump/Musk and his Muskovites.
Krasnov is bidding his time with all three branches of government in hand and his maga complain that nobody likes him. The inability to get things done is not the Dems fault or because nobody in the opposition cares for his style of traitor. If the GOP fails to get things done, that is the problem of the GOP and NOBODY else. If the administration puts out a valid trade deal, the progressives would support it because that is good business. But of course the Repubs will put in poison pills or whatnot to make the opposition not vote for it. Anytime they want something to not be voted for they put the unnecessary crap in so it will not pass. Then like magic it is the oppositions fault that Repub policies fail. Drump is a failure in too many ways to point out. It takes too much time.
I haven't, and won't vote for Republicans ever again. They seem to have lost any glimmer of decency.
As always, you hit the nail on the head.
This is why capitalism needs to be put on a leash. It used to be that every 20 years it would work itself into a recession or depression. It’s the nature of the beast. Capitalism by itself is not a viable basis for a society, it brings out the worst in people by rewarding greed.
It has to be regulated in the public interest.