The National Center for Health Statistics has published a provisional report stating that the birth rate in the United States dropped 1% in 2016 from last year to a record low. The birth rate has been below the replacement level for some time, but the country’s population continues to grow as a result of immigration. The world’s population also continues to grow, although birth rates have dropped; see this CIA web site for authoritative figures by country. A Worldbank graphic shows the dropping birth rate since 1960, when there were roughly 5 births per woman; there are now roughly 2.46 births per woman. The Worldbank website also has graphs for life expectancy, infant mortality, and so on.
Another graph on the Worldbank website is of interest: the crude death rate in the United States. After dropping from 9.5 per 1000 in 1960 to a low of 7.9 in 2009, the rate has increased to 8.2 in 2013, then levelled off. It seems that the Great Recession has killed a few people in this country (0.3 people per thousand per year, or 300 in a million: roughly 100,000 people a year over the whole US died because of the Great Recession, and are continuing to die.)
This comment was attached to a NYT op-ed titled, “The Hijacked American Presidency”:
David J.
Massachusetts 5 hours ago
Mr. Blow, your assessment is on point, though I would contend that it is not simply the Presidency that has been hijacked but all three branches of government in some measure. Gerrymandering, voter ID laws, the rampant influence of money (courtesy of Citizens United), etc. have all combined to ensure that Congress is less a body of representatives and more a body possessed by a wealthy few. This directly led to a Supreme Court that now has the arch-conservative Neil Gorsuch occupying a seat rather than the moderate Merrick Garland.In short, our democracy is under siege. Trump is merely the thug behind the wheel. The GOP owns and controls the vehicle.
1125 Recommended
American government is, ideally, by the people, of the people, and for the people. The wealthy have an increased standing in life already, but they have become greedy and are attempting to wrest control of government away from the people. Democracy, ideally, is not in the personal best interests of wealthy people, because they are obliged to pay significant amounts of money to support the government which is controlled by democracy. The wealthy would prefer an oligarchy or monarchy, something which resembles the way a private company is managed.
In order to mend our society, we need to organize to counter the unjust demands made by the wealthy and place a check on their power. It is not wise to claim that the wealthy should have no voice in the way things are run because that would produce an unstable situation and society as a whole would suffer. It is better to demand equal time for the voices of the poorer but wiser people who have not been heard. We must organize to add our individual voices together and produce a louder voice that can be heard over the amplified voices of the puppets of the wealthy.
To produce a loud enough voice, our message must be synchronized– we must say something as one. We need not all agree on everything, or even on most things, but we must agree on one or two critical things.
The most critical thing right now is jobs for everyone. I know that sounds too basic; some of us would even say, where are the LGBT rights? But a lot must be just assumed right now in order to combat the basic problem, which is the tyranny of wealth. To do that, we need jobs for everyone to lift everyone out of poverty.
To achieve jobs for everyone, ideally we should have the government take over the task. Since we do not control government, we need to do it ourselves. First, we need to set up a computer application that will coordinate the process. Inputs will be people and things that need to be done, and outputs will be jobs matched to people. To make it work on a private basis, we need some people who have money and need things to be done. That’s my 500 words for today.
Facebook: Look At Patribotics.Org for News on Don the Con’s Collusion with Vlad “the Impaler”
Just go to this website and read everything you need to know about the criminal Don the Con and his collusion with Vlad “the Impaler” Putin. In fact, this website makes it unnecessary for me to write anything further about this criminal and his behavior. It’s all there, with signals intelligence and confidential information from our security agencies and the agencies of multiple other countries. It’s disgusting, criminal, and cringe-worthy, and everyone around Don is implicated in this conspiracy. I couldn’t believe my eyes; the mainstream media simply is not reporting the inside facts about the culpability of everyone from Don to his vice president to the entire Republican Party. They have even been laundering Russian government money into the Republican Party’s coffers to supplement their fundraising and compete with the Democrat’s money advantage.
Go to the site, read it, and weep: https://patribotics.blog/
Just go to this website and read everything you need to know about the criminal Don the Con and his collusion with Vlad “the Impaler” Putin. In fact, this website makes it unnecessary for me to write anything further about this criminal and his behavior. It’s all there, with signals intelligence and confidential information from our security agencies and the agencies of multiple other countries. It’s disgusting, criminal, and cringe-worthy, and everyone around Don is implicated in this conspiracy. I couldn’t believe my eyes; the mainstream media simply is not reporting the inside facts about the culpability of everyone from Don to his vice president to the entire Republican Party. They have even been laundering Russian government money into the Republican Party’s coffers to supplement their fundraising and compete with the Democrat’s money advantage.
Go to the site, read it, and weep: https://patribotics.blog/
Don the Con: Bankruptcy for the Government!
Don the Con has a plan, a radical conservative plan, to bankrupt the federal government in order to be able to destroy all federal employee unions and take radical steps to impose “austerity” on Social Security.
The bankruptcies of state governments like that of Kansas under a radical Republican governor, and the impasse in the Illinois legislature, are small examples of what Don the Con wants to do to America.
This plan is perfect for Don’s expertise: corporate bankruptcies. It is common knowledge that he has ruled over six corporate bankruptcies and has come up richer every time. He started with the erection of a second casino in competition with a first marginal casino in Atlantic City, and the inevitable bankruptcies that occurred (the only way to lose money on a casino is to lose customers while paying out cash in laundered money to assorted anonymous partners) left him better off financially than before, when he only had his father’s hundred-million dollar inheritance to work with.
His most spectacular project in the free world, the third tallest building in Canada, was erected in Toronto with his encouragement a few years ago. It has suffered from poor sales of office space, low occupancy of the hotel rooms, and poor maintenance, although the staff is uniformly cheerful. Don has just sold off the naming rights and the management contract to another company. The original owner of the building, Talon, had defaulted on its three hundred million dollar loan; JCF Capital acquired the defaulted loan, but could find no bidders when it put the building up for sale. Bloomberg reported a few days ago that JCF Capital paid the Trump Organization at least six million dollars to exit its management contract and remove the Trump brand name from the building. Marriott has purchased the building and will renovate it under a different name.
The web of ownership of the Toronto hotel is complex: Talon International Development is a Markham, Canada-based “real estate management” organization which has no listed officers of any kind, according to Bloomberg, but it is apparently owned by the Midland Group, an “international trading and investment holding” company founded by two people, a Russian-born Canadian national, Alex Shnaider, and a Ukrainian-born resident of London. The Midland Group has extensive trading relationships with companies and banks owned or controlled by the Russian government.
There is no logical explanation for the bankruptcy of a company wholly owned or controlled by a much larger company which is in turn owned by a still larger company. Why is the larger company not held financially responsible for the deficits of the smaller company? Issues such as this make it possible for such companies to be secretly corrupt and to corruptly influence or control politicians. Don the Con is a willing colluder with the corrupt, Russian-government infiltrated Midland Group, the brainchild of Alex Shnaider.
There is a reason why the dozen-and-a-half Republican candidates for President last year folded up when they realized that Don the Con was such a formidable adversary: they found out he has a plan, a radical conservative plan, to bankrupt the federal government in order to be able to destroy all federal employee unions and take radical steps to impose “austerity” on Social Security.
The bankruptcies of state governments like that of Kansas under a radical Republican governor, and the impasse in the Illinois legislature, are small examples of what Don the Con wants to do to America.
This plan is perfect for Don’s expertise: corporate bankruptcies. It is common knowledge that he has ruled over six corporate bankruptcies and has come up richer every time. He started with the erection of a second casino in competition with a first marginal casino in Atlantic City, and the inevitable bankruptcies that occurred (the only way to lose money on a casino is to lose customers while paying out cash in laundered money to assorted anonymous partners) left him better off financially than before, when he only had his father’s hundred-million dollar inheritance to work with.
His most spectacular project in the free world, the third tallest building in Canada, was erected in Toronto with his encouragement a few years ago. It has suffered from poor sales of office space, low occupancy of the hotel rooms, and poor maintenance, although the staff is uniformly cheerful. Don has just sold off the naming rights and the management contract to another company. The original owner of the building, Talon, had defaulted on its three hundred million dollar loan; JCF Capital acquired the defaulted loan, but could find no bidders when it put the building up for sale. Bloomberg reported a few days ago that JCF Capital paid the Trump Organization at least six million dollars to exit its management contract and remove the Trump brand name from the building. Marriott has purchased the building and will renovate it under a different name.
The web of ownership of the Toronto hotel is complex: Talon International Development is a Markham, Canada-based “real estate management” organization which has no listed officers of any kind, according to Bloomberg, but it is apparently owned by the Midland Group, an “international trading and investment holding” company founded by two people, a Russian-born Canadian national, Alex Shnaider, and a Ukrainian-born resident of London. The Midland Group has extensive trading relationships with companies and banks owned or controlled by the Russian government.
There is no logical explanation for the bankruptcy of a company wholly owned or controlled by a much larger company which is in turn owned by a still larger company. Why is the larger company not held financially responsible for the deficits of the smaller company? Issues such as this make it possible for such companies to be secretly corrupt and to corruptly influence or control politicians. Don the Con is a willing colluder with the corrupt, Russian-government infiltrated Midland Group, the brainchild of Alex Shnaider.
There is a reason why the dozen-and-a-half Republican candidates for President last year folded up when they realized that Don the Con was such a formidable adversary: they found out he has a plan, a radical conservative plan, to bankrupt the federal government in order to be able to destroy all federal employee unions and take radical steps to impose “austerity” on Social Security.
The bankruptcies of state governments like that of Kansas under a radical Republican governor, and the impasse in the Illinois legislature, are small examples of what Don the Con wants to do to America.
This plan is perfect for Don’s expertise: corporate bankruptcies. It is common knowledge that he has ruled over six corporate bankruptcies and has come up richer every time. He started with the erection of a second casino in competition with a first marginal casino in Atlantic City, and the inevitable bankruptcies that occurred (the only way to lose money on a casino is to lose customers while paying out cash in laundered money to assorted anonymous partners) left him better off financially than before, when he only had his father’s hundred-million dollar inheritance to work with.
His most spectacular project in the free world, the third tallest building in Canada, was erected in Toronto with his encouragement a few years ago. It has suffered from poor sales of office space, low occupancy of the hotel rooms, and poor maintenance, although the staff is uniformly cheerful. Don has just sold off the naming rights and the management contract to another company. The original owner of the building, Talon, had defaulted on its three hundred million dollar loan; JCF Capital acquired the defaulted loan, but could find no bidders when it put the building up for sale. Bloomberg reported a few days ago that JCF Capital paid the Trump Organization at least six million dollars to exit its management contract and remove the Trump brand name from the building. Marriott has purchased the building and will renovate it under a different name.
The web of ownership of the Toronto hotel is complex: Talon International Development is a Markham, Canada-based “real estate management” organization which has no listed officers of any kind, according to Bloomberg, but it is apparently owned by the Midland Group, an “international trading and investment holding” company founded by two people, a Russian-born Canadian national, Alex Shnaider, and a Ukrainian-born resident of London. The Midland Group has extensive trading relationships with companies and banks owned or controlled by the Russian government.
There is no logical explanation for the bankruptcy of a company wholly owned or controlled by a much larger company which is in turn owned by a still larger company. Why is the larger company not held financially responsible for the deficits of the smaller company? Issues such as this make it possible for such companies to be secretly corrupt and to corruptly influence or control politicians. Don the Con is a willing colluder with the corrupt, Russian-government infiltrated Midland Group, the brainchild of Alex Shnaider.
Check out this website: https://www.healthcare-now.org/… they are trying to organize to advocate single-payer and it looks like organized “pressure groups” like this are the only way to get the attention of politicians and get the approval of the opinion polls so that some action will be taken.
A Word About Don the Con and Collusion
What collusion really means, in the context of the Russians and Don the Con, is that Don has provided the Russians with something they value in exchange for their help in trying to win the Presidency. The thing the Russians most value (other than money) is information, and that is the first object of their intelligence work (the second object is “active measures.”) If Don has been providing information to the Russians, that constitutes collusion. I guarantee you that Don has been informing the Russians on a regular basis, and that there exist tapes of him or people working for him providing the information.
Thus, it follows that the FBI investigation at least centers around the issue of how much information was provided to the Russians and who provided it. The fact that key members of Don’s inner circle have been talking to the Russians means that the FBI must attempt to learn the contents of as many of these conversations as possible. This will take time.
In addition, investigators must probe Don’s business dealings to determine if Don received significant financial help from the Russians. It is fairly obvious that many of Don’s deals are structured to hide potential payoffs– deals such as the sale of luxury properties to Russia-connected individuals. The fact that Don has been highly complimentary to Putin since at least 2007 strongly suggests the conclusion that Putin has been helping Don with money in the form of sweet business deals. These deals have been disguised through intermediaries who are either Russian nationals or have strong business connections to Putin.
If Don did receive help, and I’m pretty sure he did, then the FBI will conclude that Don was a witting or unwitting agent of Russia, because he gave them information freely. Whether he gave them classified information is an open question, but it is unlikely that he was privy to any such information before he became President, and it is easy for him to claim that it is perfectly legal for the President to unilaterally declassify such matters and reveal them to the Russians. However, if he did it in return for their help in attaining that office, that constitutes collusion.
The FBI will also inevitably conclude that Don attempted to impede the investigation of these issues. As to Michael Flynn, there exists a strong possibility that he provided the Russians with some of the vast quantities of classified information that he was privy to as a military man– and he is already subject to considerable suspicion because of the cash payments he received from Russian sources that he didn’t report to his former employers in the US government. If that is the case, the fact that Don tried to impede the investigation of Michael Flynn fits in perfectly.
Whether collusion with a foreign power is against the law or not, trying to impede a federal investigation is probably illegal, as Richard Nixon found out.
As a famous Washington person has been saying for a while: Tick, tick, tick.
Almond Trees on June 30, 2017
