Labor Day Open Thread
Happy Labor Day everyone! I hope you’re all enjoying the last hurrah of summer (although I doubt the summer temperatures are done with us). What’s on your mind today?
Just days after Arizona Governor Jan Brewer was finally forced to admit there’s been no headless bodies in Arizona, Pinal County Sherriff Paul Babaeu says that Mexican drug cartels control part of Arizona.
“Mexican drug cartels literally do control parts of Arizona,” Babeu told the Times. “They literally have scouts on the high points in the mountains and in the hills and they literally control movement. They have radios, they have optics, they have night-vision goggles as good as anything law enforcement has.”
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Sheriff Babeu’s office did not return calls for comment from TPM, but the sheriffs of Santa Cruz and Pima counties (which both border Mexico, unlike Babeu’s Pinal) told TPM the cartels do not control any territory. Neither disputed the seriousness of the problem posed by the cartels, or the fact that drug smugglers operate in Arizona. But they did reassure TPM that the cartels are not on an annexing spree.
“They do not have control of any territory,” Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada told TPM. “That would be like saying we are useless and we’re not here and we’re out of the way.”
“They do have sophisticated technology and scouts and all that, that’s been known for years,” he said.
I find the whole Arizona immigration fear-mongering quite bizarre. You have the top officials of a state saying that their state is dangerous and scary, despite statistics saying the opposite. How much are Jan Brewer & John McCain hurting Arizona tourism by presenting their state this way?
Here’s some good news – the White House is going to push for a $50B infrastructure improvement package. It’s desperately needed. Republicans will probably say no but Democrats desperately need to pick a fight.
Seeking to bolster the sluggish economy, President Barack Obama is using a Labor Day appearance in Milwaukee to announce he will ask Congress for $50 billion to kick off a new infrastructure plan designed to expand and renew the nation’s roads, railways and runways.
The goals, according to the White House: “Rebuild 150,000 miles of roads — renewing our commitment to the backbone of our transportation system … . Construct and maintain 4,000 miles of rail — enough to go coast-to-coast … . Rehabilitate or reconstruct 150 miles of runway — while putting in place a NextGen system that will reduce travel time and delays.”
The measures include the “establishment of an Infrastructure Bank to leverage federal dollars and focus on investments of national and regional significance that often fall through the cracks in the current siloed transportation programs,” and “the integration of high-speed rail on an equal footing into the surface transportation program.”
“To jumpstart job creation, this long-run policy front-loads — through a $50 billion up-front investment — a significant share of the new infrastructure resources,” the White House said in a fact sheet. “As with other long-run policies, the Administration is committed to working with Congress to fully pay for the plan.”
There’s also rumors about a possible Elizabeth Warren appointment. She’s changed her Harvard teaching schedule at the last minute. Keep your fingers crossed!
Tags: Open Thread
Patriot group demands truth! If it takes photoshopped pics to prove it, they’ll do it. (It’s for your own good)
While this bill will create construction jobs in the short term, it is just digging ourselves deeper in the long run. This 50bn would be better going into incentives for manufacturing. This 50bn will just filter its way through the economy into international hands; then we pay interest on it.
It’s like the trickle down effect into china, mexico, india, and other cheap manufacturing bases. If not manufacturing, I would like to see this money go into the building of military bases near cities along the border. At the same time as this, closures of bases in other countries. Kinda like a 2 for 1 deal. Pull out of other people’s backyards, and have our military serve a defensive capability. It would also send money into the local economies of the towns nearby.
If people were in a mood to consume stuff, manufacturing incentives might make some sense. Manufacturers are making stuff — but mostly with streamed down processes that don’t need as many workers. And they would make MORE stuff if they thought they could sell it. No manufacturer just cranks up the line because there is now money to do it.
Infrastructure building employs construction workers –perhaps the hardest hit segment of workers we have. The trickle down is enormous — steel manufacturing, concrete, asphalt, heavy equipment — and it leaves behind infrastructure better suited to serve the economy when it starts thriving again. Think of the plan to redo the I-95/Rt 1 interchange. That kind of project is exactly the idea. Or runway expansion at PHL. Or (it won’t happen) the transformation of Amtrak’s Northeast corridor into a *real* high speed rail corridor. Every last one of those projects is a real investment in future commerce.
Hey Sheriff Joe, make the Federal Government and the Narco/bankster State of Mexico produce the Treasonous secret trade agreements signed by Bush and Fox and Obama and Calderon.
NAFTA was illegally planned and implemented and was not ratified by Congress and it can not “legally” supersede our Constitution.
The U.S Justice department is part of the Traitor criminal organization of World Banksters and Big Oil who have overthrown, by corruption, our American Independence, Constitution and Freedom.
Not one Bankster was brought to Justice for the world’s greatest mortgage fraud (15 trillion), yet the Justice Dept. go after Arizona for enforcing a Federal law that the Feds refuse to enforce.
The illegal and Fascist Federal government wants to implement the secret trade agreements and open the borders to the North American Union. The political appointed Fascist Justice Department is there to deliver for them and crush any state that gets in their way.
The corrupt Fascist Federal Government and the corrupt Justice Dept is the back door criminals who refuse to honor our American Constitution which they have overthrown; they are the Treason criminals to our Democracy who someday will be brought to real Justice.
Ask yourself why the Narco/bankster state of Mexico has kept the Mexican people down to starvation wages and live in third world poverty when their country is so rich. Cheap slave labor is why, by design, by the multinational corporations who corrupted the elite Mexican government.
The Feds is prosecuting and harassing Arizona because Arizona wants to enforce the law that employers verify legal immigration before hiring an employee. The Feds refuse to enforce the laws that are on the books or even collect income tax or employer tax from the employers or the illegal workers.
Federal Illegal aliens are a freebee for multinational corporations at states expense.
Racial Profiling is a Joke. If a white man stole my car, I wouldn’t be looking for a Mexican or a Negro! Get real!
I stand with the Sheriffs and the State of Arizona to fight for our Constitutional Democracy, Independence and Freedom.
It is still legal in Arizona to buy a gun and to join a state militia.
It is a citizen’s responsibility to defend our Constitution that embodies our Freedom, Independence and Democracy.
I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night
Alive as you or me
Says I, But Joe, you’re ten years dead
I never died, says he
I never died, says he
In Salt Lake, Joe, says I to him
Him standing by my bed
They framed you on a murder charge
Says Joe, But I ain’t dead
Says Joe, But I ain’t dead
The copper bosses killed you, Joe
They shot you, Joe, says I
Takes more than guns to kill a man
Says Joe, I didn’t die
Says Joe, I didn’t die
And standing there as big as life
And smiling with his eyes
Joe says, What they forgot to kill
Went on to organize
Went on to organize
Joe Hill ain’t dead, he says to me
Joe Hill ain’t never died
Where working men are out on strike
Joe Hill is at their side
Joe Hill is at their side
From San Diego up to Maine
In every mine and mill
Where workers strike and organize
Says he, You’ll find Joe Hill
Says he, You’ll find Joe Hill
I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night
Alive as you or me
Says I, But Joe, you’re ten years dead
I never died, says he
I never died, says he
We need the SPIRIT of JOE HILL to awake in our fair nation NOW,more than ever.
Written just before he was executed on by the state of Utah in the face of world wide protests.
My will is easy to decide
For there is nothing to divide
My kin don’t need to fuss and moan
“Moss does not cling to a rolling stone”
…My body? Ah, If I could choose
I would to ashes it reduce
And let the merry breezes blow
My dust to where some flowers grow
Perhaps some fading flower then
Would come to life and bloom again
This is my last and final will
Good luck to all of you, Joe Hill
I found a lonely flower at Carousel Farm early this morning.I said a few prayers for sainted JOE HILL and a few more for my struggling friends and all the innocent others victimized by this brutal economy.
In response to Glenn Beck’s looney Whitestock event, there are people now calling for Steven Colbert to hold a Rally to Restore Truthiness to America.
There’s a Facebook group, too.
True, it is a real investment in future commerce, I am not debating that at all. People are still consuming constantly, they are buying the everyday products to run their households, and improve them when they can. The problem is that these items (plastic forks, cups, kitchen utensils, drapes, towels, clothes, most back to school products, you name it) are made in a country other than the US.
These construction jobs that are created, and much needed, will allow our service based economy to turn for a little while longer, but will not stop the problem. Our trade deficit continues to grow with no signs of stopping. This will continue to suck money out of our economy and force us to print more money to cover our expenses. We need to pull wealth from outside of our own economy to become prosperous.
I know exactly what you’re talking about cass, and you are almost exactly right. We just need goods to be created here, and then carried along this newly created infrastructure to be consumed here and internationally. If Germany can do it, and pay their workers a lot more than we pay ours, we can do it too.
Glenn Beck is a misinformationist master. Just enough truth to get you to listen, then he slams the BS down your throat right afterwards. It’s sad most people can’t see that. THey need to learn not to blindly follow; take the wheat, but leave the chaff.
Phil: Manufacturing is the 19th-century answer to our 21st-century problem. Manufacturing is no longer labor intensive. Try doing the math on how many cars are now produced by how many workers putting in how many hours. Or are you suggesting we go back to making things by hand, or scrapping the assembly-line robots in favor of more human hands?
I think we need to make things rather than just consume things but I think we can’t just go back to the old models. We need to move to new technologies and new industries – ones that aren’t easily outsourced.
Well, one thing is that you are only looking at big items. Cars, trucks, boats, whatever. We need to start producing to continue. There isn’t one nail made in america anymore. Scratch that, there is one, it’s a specialty finishing nail that isn’t used in many applications.
The dot com boom brought lots of prosperity to the US while it lasted, why? It was a good that was produced, serviced, and consumed here and abroad. Go to wallmart, or almost any store, and take a look at all of the things made in china alone. Just count the amount of manhours it would take to create all of those goods even with machines and assembly lines.
Stop thinking about manufacturing in the terms of henry ford and the model t, but in terms of everything that is in your own home.
UI, you are dead on. We also need to remove the incentives for importing cheap sub-par junk and paying for it with borrowed money.
Exactly, Phil. The push paper around and buy real estate economy has only created fake wealth. I really would love to see some sort of national investment in new technologies – perhaps biotech, alternative energy – the new stuff. I would also like see the tax incentives for off-shoring disappear and new tax incentives to keep jobs in the U.S. appear.
Cassandra, Thanks for that link. “Restoring Truthiness” 10.10.10
Just count the amount of manhours it would take to create all of those goods even with machines and assembly lines
Then count how much it would cost to pay an American worker to make this same stuff. The reason nails aren’t made here is because it is way cheaper to make them in other countries. You will *never* recreate an economy where we manufacture all of our own stuff anymore. Not as long as there are people in the world who will do this work for pennies an hour.
The place that Americans have always excelled at are new technologies — and the current new technologies are around renewable energy and efficient transportation technologies. It is way easier to set up a manufacturing base early in a technology’s life — so starting to own ground on turbine technologies, new battery technologies, grid energy *storage* technologies is the kind of thing that would employ more of our neighbors and to help reduce the trade deficit. Looking backwards to nails won’t do it. Because there is no value added that we bring to it.
The paper can be wiped out in a moments notice. All of this money borrowed from banks to bail out banks when their horse didn’t come in can vanish. It’s time to stop treating the symptoms, and go after the disease.
Cass, like I said earlier, Germany produces a wide range of goods, and they are #2 (just passed by china) in exports in the world. Their workers, receive more pay and benefits by far than the standard american factory worker.
I like that Coons can use this to point out Castle’s stimulus hypocrisy. “I want to fix our bridges and put Delawareans back to work building high speed rail lines and a modern electrical grid. Mike Castle doesn’t.”
Castle is trying to move left. Perhaps he’ll vote for the $50B. Of course the teabaggers will scream in agony if he does.
Germany produces a wide range of goods
Germany produces automobiles, automobile parts, optics, engines, chemicals — get the drift? This is high-end manufacturing that supports high-end manufacturing throughout Europe and they *are* making investments in renewable energy technology. They aren’t chasing the making of plastic forks and knives just to keep people employed.
Eric Bodenweiser is not giving up. He has taken out half-page ads in the Cape Gazette touting his website and asking people to vote for Joe Booth.
“Stop thinking about manufacturing in the terms of henry ford and the model t, but in terms of everything that is in your own home.”
I used cars alone because I don’t feel like writing an economics lesson for you — but it’s worth noting that cars are No. 1 on the list of exports for Germany.
Stop thinking about the economy in terms of stuff. The example you cited, the internet, isn’t anything that’s “produced” in classical economic terms — it’s intellectual capital. The U.S. runs an enormous surplus in export of services. It is also, by far, the No. 1 manufacturer in the world, even though it doesn’t export as much as China and Germany (and what we do export is, in large part, agricultural products).
Yes, manufacturing makes up a relatively small percentage of our economy compared with other industrialized countries. More stuff will be produced in this country when it becomes cheaper to produce it here than elsewhere. But it’s not going to change, given our historic reluctance to finance and/or protect industries. One of Germany’s biggest and fastest-growing industrial products is alternative energy. How’s that been working for us?
Really, you could look up all this data yourself if you want to disabuse yourself of your simplistic notions of what ails our economy.
The simple fact geezer is that we are reaching unsustainable debt levels by borrowing to fund consumption of imports. I also know that this isn’t the only thing that is damaging our economy, this is just one problem which I responded to the news of another stimulus.
It can be cheaper to produce here if we got rid of offshore incentives and damaging free trade aggreements.
By the way, I have yet to see your economic genius put to work. Where is any of you ideas at, or do you think that everything is on the road to recovery?
Oh yeah, Germany’s number 1 export is machinery. Cars are its number one export to the US.
Now you’re talking trade deficit, not exports. And face facts, pal, they aren’t asking any of us commoners for our ideas. One thing’s for sure — protectionism isn’t coming back, or at least it isn’t if we’re smart.
BTW, Germany’s No. 3 export is chemicals/pharmaceuticals. Like many American products, American companies produce them overseas. We get the profit while other countries take on the risk (think Bhopal). One way to level the playing field would be to put tariffs on products based on the health and safety standards of the countries producing them. But, as I said, they ain’t asking us for ideas. I’m describing the situation, not prescribing solutions.