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HughBeaumont

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HughBeaumont's Journal

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Member since: Fri Aug 13, 2004, 03:12 PM
Number of posts: 24,461

About Me

If anyone's wondering why I haven't been here much lately, it's because I feel no one is learning anything from 2016. Neoliberalism is a thing and it doesn't win elections in the 21st Century. People want a candidate that's going to take strong, non-waffling stands on human rights the rest of the world enjoys. Enough living in the goddamned Reagan 1980s. Enough taking solar panels off the roof. Enough introducing more rightwingedness into American economics. Enough medical bankruptcies. Enough governing by mythology. Enough science denial. Enough of spitting on women, children, veterans and the LGBTQI community. Enough kicking the can. ENOUGH. America needs to move past it's "everything has to be about making a buck" bullshit. I'd prefer a candidate not born during the FDR/Truman administrations. No offense, but you had your time . . . and you got us Trump. Plus, I can't take another one of these still-Capitalist Boomer codgers yap on about "bootstraps" when college now costs a mortgage, necessity costs have been outpacing wage growth for 20 years and automation promises to kill more jobs than it creates. I don't want to hear what is or isn't "politically achievable". Kick-the-Can economics was never asked "How is it going to be paid for?". Tax Cuts for the rich were never given a spending limit. Folly wars were never asked "Why is this necessary?". Corporate Pork by the billions was and is always approved. America's safety net needs to be greatly expanded and retirement age needs to be drastically lowered. This country throws out far too many people that still have a decade or two of prime contribution left. If life doesn't get fairer for you or I pretty goddamned quickly, we aren't going to have much of one.

Journal Archives

Funny thing is, "The United States of America" are just words to Conservatives.

With all their bluster and blather about "Rah Rah Rah Rah USA! Honor, dignity, respect for the law, courage, something you libs know nothing about, etc" . . . the reality is, they couldn't be less united if they were paid.

They yap about "loving their country" while hating 75% of the people in it.

They live in some supposed high school world where a pecking order is in place . . . with them on top, of course. The notion of "most and least deserving of the spoils" applies; the "least" reserved for people who aren't them.

They have no problems flaunting their "Protestant work ethic" on their sleeves while putting in place a hierarchy (public and private) run by mostly rich, white male third-basers. Oh, and they also do this while ripping the living hell out of an actual hard working Christian while making the man that sent this country on a treason-flecked rocket ride to hell into an untouchable legend.

These supposed lovers of the disciplined and brave military and police elected Donald Trump, a haphazard, undisciplined, labor stiffing, serial bankrupter of a sole proprietorship CROOK who continually had to get bailed out/coddled by the Saudis, China or Russian Oil-igarchs with mob ties.

THIS is DISCIPLINE? Your president is a fucking JOKE. An EMBARRASSMENT. A DISGRACE. A vote cast out of SPITE and HATE. A reflection on your corroded values and jaundiced view on your fellow citizens.

There isn't any notion of "United States". They're either on the "Politically Isolated and Heavily Armed Republic of Jack Shitkicker" or "The Fortified Basement War on Ideas of Archie AnCap".

"Union", "United States" and "America" . . . . are nothing but WORDS to them.

Oh, and by the way, conservatives NEVER get to Red-Bait ANYONE EVER again.
Posted by HughBeaumont | Fri Mar 31, 2017, 09:54 AM (3 replies)

U.S. workers face higher risk of being replaced by robots. Here's why:

Still don't see any positives for our economy as long as the lords that oversee Re-Branded Feudalism are in charge of how the wealth is distributed.

The U.S. and U.K. labor markets are both dominated by services jobs, and roughly the same share of workers are employed in key sectors including finance, transportation, education, manufacturing and food services.

But PwC found major differences in the nature of the work done within these sectors that explains why more U.S. jobs are at risk.

Take financial services as an example. In the U.S., 61% of jobs in the sector are at a high risk of being replaced by robots. The same is true for only 32% of finance jobs in the U.K.

John Hawksworth, PwC's chief economist in the U.K., said that many workers in the U.S. financial sector are focused on domestic retail operations -- think bank tellers in small towns.

The U.K.'s finance sector, meanwhile, is much more focused on international finance and investment banking -- functions that require significantly higher levels of education and expertise.

Workers at risk in the U.S. "would be doing more routine tasks that are easier to automate than that of, say, an investment banker in London," Hawksworth said.

Posted by HughBeaumont | Fri Mar 24, 2017, 01:07 PM (0 replies)

The "Greatest Generation" are in nursing homes.

The older "Baby Boomers" fall in a few financial categories; Retirement, but not a comfortable one, Near Retirement, but having to take care of their "Greatest" parents due to benefit cutting, or Unable to Retire due to their own ongoing medical expenses/kid's student loans/investments not panning out/general financial difficulties.

Generation X and the younger Boomers are in their earning years, but are now both wide targets for ageism-driven firing or automation (which, unlike the industrial revolution, takes labor OUT of the equation entirely). And good luck trying to get a job after 40. Or starting your own business when your competition is Amazon or WalMart and your potential customer base lacks discretionary income. Their spending is going to be halted at the slightest hint of corporate "rightsizing" or political tumult . . . say, for example, a cadre of labor-hating, tax-cuttin', social safety net-gutting billionaires taking over Washington D.C.

Millennials cannot buy big ticket items like homes, cars, appliances, etc. because they're already financing 1/2 to 3/4 of a mortgage for the crime of wanting to develop a skillset or an education beyond High School. IF they get hired in this shoddy job market, their pay is not even near what it needs to be in order to successfully pay their debts down and purchase products or services, let alone homes and cars.

For all of these groups, any social safety net that can assist them promises to SHRINK, not expand like it desperately needs to.

With each generation, how does retirement happen? How does the next generation get any sort of fiscal start?

Someone PLEASE tell me how this is a healthy and sound long-term plan for America's economy.
Posted by HughBeaumont | Tue Mar 21, 2017, 12:11 PM (6 replies)

Cleveland PD: Black men seen as larger, more threatening than white men.

The Cleveland PD actually printed this article. This isn't just a dog whistle, it's a dog alphorn -


Citing the shootings of Cleveland's Tamir Rice, Florida's Trayvon Martin, and Wisconsin's Dontre Hamilton, the study released Monday by the American Psychological Association found misperceptions of young black men's size may play a role in their being viewed as threats.

Cleveland police shot and killed Rice in November 2014 as he played with a toy gun outside Cudell Recreation Center. The head of Cleveland's police union later described Rice as "menacing" and "a 12-year-old in an adult body."

Authors of the study said that perception fits with their findings.

"Unarmed black men are disproportionately more likely to be shot and killed by police, and often these killings are accompanied by explanations that cite the physical size of the person shot," said a statement from the study's lead author, John Paul Wilson of Montclair State University in New Jersey. "Our research suggests that these descriptions may reflect stereotypes of black males that do not seem to comport with reality."
Posted by HughBeaumont | Mon Mar 13, 2017, 10:33 AM (5 replies)

Two questions:

1. Is absolute black and white thinking politically advantageous over a fragmented "big tent"?

2. Are constant reminders/articles directed at people who are completely on your side that they're "not doing enough" and treating them as arms-length allies an effective strategy in unity?

One statement:

1. Psssssssssst . . . "Lockstep" is still winning elections.
Posted by HughBeaumont | Thu Mar 9, 2017, 10:29 AM (0 replies)

Rust Belt Voters Made Trump President. Now they Want Jobs.

Stories that Make Me Want a Meat Thermometer Lobotomy Dept:

West grew up in a blue collar family in Lapeer, Michigan, a city about an hour from the U.S.-Canadian border. She admits she "got in the wrong crowd" in high school and never finished. She didn't worry about it at first. She just walked into a temp agency and landed a manufacturing job.

She worked at a GM parts plant and then on the assembly line of Lesley Elizabeth, a company that makes cooking oils and spices. She figured manufacturing would be her life.

But those jobs paid minimum wage -- barely above $8 an hour in her state.

"I was only bringing home $960 a month," the soft-spoken mom, now 28 and the mother of three young boys, told CNNMoney. "Daycare alone was almost $400 to enroll my kids in."

About a year ago, she moved back in with her mother and went back to school to get her GED through a state program. Her family also receives Medicaid to cover health care. She hopes to retrain to be a nurse.

West and her mother are Trump supporters. They see him as an "action president." They especially like what he's doing on trade and immigration.

"I'm not racist at all, but I do believe in building a border [wall] to protect our country," West says, referring to Trump's promise to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border. "We can't even take care of our own people right now."


Ballsacks. It's CRINGE-inducing to listen to these people. Let's elect a billionaire to solve problems created by millionaires and billionaires by employing solutions that dropped the middle/working/poor into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Great job, media. Keep the hate narratives flowing and cry "Not Guilty!" as we get divided further.
Posted by HughBeaumont | Fri Mar 3, 2017, 02:33 PM (41 replies)

I fully expect Putingate 2016 . . . .

. . . to have as many Republicans in prison, resigned, investigated or leading less comfy lives as Iran-Contra, the S & L Crisis, the 2000 Election shenanigans, the WoT war crimes and the Great Recession did.

#IOKIYAR
Posted by HughBeaumont | Thu Mar 2, 2017, 12:48 PM (5 replies)
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