Missile development and enrichment capacity in Iran is President Trump's accomplishment.

June 4, 2018
By Robert Windrem and Courtney Kube

Iran's supreme leader (click here) said Monday that Iran will not relent to U.S. pressures on its nuclear program, ordering Iranian scientists to get ready to increase uranium enrichment capabilities if necessary and vowing that Iran won't give up its missile program. 

 In a speech and series of tweets marking the 29th anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said "the Iranian nation and government will not stand being under both sanctions and nuclear restrictions. … The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran must immediately make the preparations for achieving [increased enrichment.)" 

But Khamenei, speaking at Khomenei's tomb in South Tehran, was careful to note the proposed increase in enrichment capabilities would still fall within the limits specified in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, and that Iran plans to stay in the deal.

Via Twitter, Khamenei called for the atomic energy organization to begin preparations "tomorrow."..

Peaceful use of nuclear power is allowed under the Non-Proliferation Treaty. But, Iran wasn't interested in even that much of a wrinkle to the agreement. Iran wanted to be a good partner.

Donald Trump returned Iran to nuclear enrichment.

DON'T FORGET IT!

25 May 2018

According to AirFleets website, Dena Airways operates only one aircraft, an Airbus A340-300.

The United States has imposed new sanctions (click here) against an airline company, which routinely transports Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

In a statement on Thursday, the US Department of the Treasury said Dena Airways is being designated for sanctions based on a 2001 presidential order designed "to impede terrorist funding".  

Dena Airways handles flights for the government of Iran. In November 2017, a previously US-sanctioned airline, Meraj Air, transferred its "VIP flight operations" to Dena Airways, the US statement said.

According to Trita Parsi, executive director of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), Dena Airways operates only one aircraft, which is being used by President Rouhani.

"So what's Trump's aim? Humiliate Iran's moderates and strengthen its hardliners," Parsi wrote on social media....

My answer to that would be, "Yes." It is easier to find fault to enter war with hardliners rather than moderate peace makers. The sanctions go back on and this is what happens. Ahmadinejad is a Holocaust denier.

Is the picture becoming more clear?

Iran needs to work with the P4+1 and not play into the hands of hardliners and war mongers from the USA and Israel. Iran must avoid the temptation to move backwards rather than forward. President Rouhani is Iran's future, not Ahmadinejad.

June 1, 2018

Iran’s former hardline President Mahmud Ahmadinejad (click here) says it was his “agile foreign policy” that led the Obama administration to begin negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program.

Speaking in Tabriz in Eastern Azarbaijan province on Thursday, May 31, Ahmadinejad repeated a recent remark, saying that he had warned Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that “it was not the right time for negotiations,” reported a Telegram channel Dolat-e Bahar, close to Ahmadinejad.

Ahmadinejad delivered his speech despite warnings from the vigilante group Ansar-e Hezbollah not to go to Tabriz; and state officials told him that he cannot deliver a speech as he did not apply to the Interior Ministry to get a permit for the gathering.

Nevertheless, Ahmadinejad spoke to a few hundred of his supporters at a hotel in Tabriz.

In a shift from his tactics during the past year when his harsh criticism mainly targeted Khamenei, in this speech Ahmadinejad pointed his criticism at President Hassan Rouhani, although he did not spare his usual political rivals Majles Speaker Ali Larijani and Judiciary Chief Sadeq Amoli Larijani....

I would rather the unions address this problem. The American worker is not earning enough. Just that simple.

Unions put people to work in a safe work environment with pay that sustains not just the employee, but, their family and THE COUNTRY'S TREASURY.

State legislators should be making their economic climate "Safe for Unions." I don't see that cookie cutter legislation coming out of ALEC (click here). Alec will put guns in the hands of anyone that wants one, but, not food in people's stomach or homeownership.

The Supreme Court decision regarding lawsuits demands unions protect workers. They can right such measures into their contracts and provide for higher worker respect and safety. 

Everyone wants a pleasant work environment as well as a safe one and unions have lead the way for workplace safety for nearly a century. There is no reason to believe the aesthetics of the work environment can't be handled within a union contract.

Senator Brown is right and tired of hearing the rhetoric and quite frankly the lack of moral content in large family run corporations such as the Kochs and the Waltons of Walmart. Never did I think I would hear Walmart has a corporate office that directs it's workers to seek food stamps and Medicaid. That is shameful and the billionaires simply don't have any shame.

Take the Trump Company and the fact it's President, also now President of the USA, has declared bankruptcy on a regular basis which cheats the contractors and subcontractors of income that will provide for their employees. This is America? Wow. Not the one I know.

When food stamps, Medicaid and bankruptcies become a way of life for family run corporations, it is time to look at the real issue. If legislation will correct the course of the country, then so be it.

May 18, 2018
By Dylan Scott

Sen. Sherrod Brown (click here) has a plan to tax corporations that don’t pay their workers enough.

Republicans in Congress just failed to pass a bill that would impose harsher work requirements for federal food stamps as part of the so-called farm bill, but there’s no sign they’re giving up on the idea anytime soon. Their argument is that, particularly with the Great Recession behind us, poorer Americans could and should be doing more to get into the workforce and off federal assistance.

The GOP’s plan raises all sorts of bigger questions, but an alternative plan by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) asks a pretty straightforward one: Is the problem that people aren’t working enough? Or is it that they don’t receive a high enough wage or generous enough benefits from their employer?

Brown thinks the latter is the real problem, and wants to charge corporations a “freeloader” fee if their employees depend on government aid like food stamps.

His proposal implies that a big overarching problem in America isn’t that poor people aren’t working hard enough; it’s that their wages aren’t high enough, their jobs and hours can be unpredictable, and their employers don’t provide robust enough benefits for them to live without support.

The bill has no chance of becoming law anytime soon. But it still underscores the divide between Democrats and Republicans over the real purpose of social welfare programs. Republicans see a workforce that could be doing more; Democrats see a system where the free market hasn’t done enough to lift up people who have the least....

Forty-two of Louisiana households earn less than $48,000 per year.

That is just plain shameful.

May 31, 2018

By Mark Ballard

...Working families (click here) that bring in less than $50,000 a year – about half the state – pay about 10 percent of their income in local and state taxes, which is roughly double the percentage paid by more well-off families, said Susan East Nelson, executive director of Louisiana Partnership for Children and Families.

For the constituents of the Ways & Means committee members, increasing the state’s earned income tax credit would put an average $141 – about $43 more than the $98 received now -- into the pockets of the 97,333 taxpayers taking advantage of the credit on their annual tax returns, said Jan Moller, director of the Louisiana Budget Project, which advocates on behalf of those with low and moderate incomes.

That extra money will be spent, mostly in the representatives’ districts, on necessities like clothing and car repairs, said Rob Tasman, executive director of the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops....               

Legislators in every state need to examine the percentages of residents that achieve the American Dream and if not, why not.

The American worker is not receiving the wages they deserve and when legislators look at the information and honest assessment of the cost of living in the USA, they will find the wage labor needs to be strengthen. No American wants to live on subsidies, they want their hard earned paycheck to mean something.

May 21, 2018
By Nicole Leonard

...“It is morally unacceptable and economically unsustainable for our country to have so many hardworking families living paycheck to paycheck,” John Franklin, president of the project and CEO of United Way of Northern New Jersey, said in a statement. “We are all paying a price when ALICE families can’t pay the bills.”...

More state residents (click here) struggle to afford basic expenses such as housing, food, transportation and health care, according to new national data, indicating life in New Jersey is becoming less affordable for many people.

United Way’s ALICE Project, a grassroots initiative that collects and analyzes data to study the magnitude of financial hardship in America, released new data Thursday showing more than 1.3 million households in New Jersey in 2016 lived below the ALICE — Asset Limited, Income Constrained Employed — threshold, including those under the federal poverty level....

...While New Jersey’s rate of households below the poverty line and ALICE thresholds — 41 percent of all state households, up from 37 percent in 2014 — falls in the middle of all states, rates vary greatly among counties....

New Jersey in 2018 has counties with good incomes and some with poor performance for household income. This state is a clear illustration why ALICE is provided on a county and municipal breakdown.

...Nearly two-thirds of all households in Cumberland County live below either the federal poverty level or the ALICE threshold, which was calculated to be about $64,000 for a family of four in 2014. It was the highest rate in the state in 2016, data show.

Meanwhile, only 27 percent of households were below poverty or ALICE income ranges in Hunterdon County.

Project analysts said ALICE households often contain working residents whose income is above the federal poverty level — and therefore they do not qualify for many federal and state assistance programs — but they do not make enough money to afford basic needs out of pocket....

Unions must fight "Time Poverty" and return the 40 hour week with increased jobs that pay well.

"Take Back Your Time" (click here for free content from Google)

Time Poverty is the plague of the Working Poor in the USA. Families lose children to social workers because parents are not available to be parents.

...Poverty (click here) is determined by the U.S. Census Bureau’s poverty thresholds. These thresholds, updated annually, determine how much income a household requires to meet basic needs, such as food and shelter. In 2016 in a household of two adults, a single full-time worker at minimum wage will earn only 94 percent of their poverty threshold of $16,070. A single parent with one child will earn 91 percent of their poverty threshold.

This means that in order to have earnings above their poverty threshold, a single parent with one child, for example, would have to earn at least $7.95 per hour working full-time. At the current federal minimum wage of $7.25, this single parent would have to work at least 2,282 hours during the year, or an average of about 43.8 hours each week....

There is an article  by Tim Neville (click here), a Colorado Repuglican state senator who actually believes the tax cuts will help the working poor. He is also Vice President of Neville Insurance Associates.

ALICE (click here) is a United Way acronym that stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed.

This ALICE website has information taken within the paradigm of the global economic collapse of 2008. The surveys were conducted in 2007 (as the collapse began) and 2010. There is also a 2017 survey that has as high as 40% of households failing when it comes to a livable wage and accumulating assets to achieve the American Dream.

The 2017 reports are mostly published according to state without a comprehensive federal assessment. The United Way wants to encourage change and their approach this time is to focus on states, counties and municipalities. Evidently, Mr. Neville has seen a country wide assessment and I have not.

June 1, 2018

In the United States today, (click here) essentially anyone who wants a job can get one. Friday's jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the unemployment rate is at a historic low of 3.8 percent and there are a record 6.6 million available jobs. Things are even better in Colorado, where the unemployment rate is a mere 2.9 percent....

...Yet a new survey by United Way suggests that nearly half of households in the country still can't afford basics like rent and food. It finds that nearly 51 million households don't earn enough to afford a monthly budget that includes housing, food, child care, health care, transportation and a cell phone....

Number of households in the U.S. from 1960 to 2017 (in millions) (click here) There are approximately 126.22 million households in the USA. According to Mr. Neville there is about 51 million households suffering under the USA economy. That means of all the households in the USA there is more than 41% failing the promise of America. 

More than 41 percent of American households are failing to achieve the promise the USA has made to them as there birthright.

But was does the United Way know, right?

...Recently passed tax cuts are giving these hard-working Americans some relief. An ordinary household earning $75,000 a year will see more than $2,000 in tax savings as a result of tax reform. This is as a result of breaks such as the doubling the standard deduction, and eliminating the 15 percent tax rate in favor of a vastly expanded 12 percent one....

Ordinary American households do make $75,000 per year.

September 12, 2017

...America's middle class is booming. (click here)

Between 2015 and 2016, US median household income rose 3.2% from $57,230 to $59,039, according to a new report released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Tuesday.

It's now the highest income year on record, beating the previous high of $58,655 in 1999 (all numbers are adjusted for inflation)....

These are the 2018 federal taxes due on $55,000 in income. This comes from a tax calculator site (click here).

This tax can be effected by tax credits such as the child tax credit. The child tax credit is supposed to double for 2018, however, there are eligibility requirements and depending on income all of the credit may not apply.

While the income in a Child Tax Credit can return up to $2000 per child to the household budget, that doesn't mean this is such a help it removes the Working Poor from their plight. The tax home pay of a couple earning $55,000 per year is about $43,000 to $46,000 per year depending on state taxation. When adding $2000 to that take home pay there isn't a whole lot of improvement to monthly cash flow for that family. Even at $4000 per year, that is a monthly increase of about $333. That can improve the chances of accomplishing what in the years to come? A better rental? A chance at a new car? Paying for braces? 

The point is while Colorado Repuglican Neville touts appreciation for the tax changes for 2018, it isn't all that. And, unless a couple has children there isn't anything that radically improves the tax structure from 2016, 2017 or 2018.

THE DAMN WAGES ARE TOO LOW and the American worker in more than 41 percent of the households hasn't got a chance at a House, two cars, a secure retirement and college for the kids.

The unions of the USA have to improve their penetration into the numbers of working Americans. The Working Poor is unacceptable and has been unacceptable. The country needs real change not TRICKLING change. 

Americans are losing and there is every indication according to The United Way, more than 41 percent of Americans have lost their quality of life. They need good wages, JOB SECURITY, the best health care the country can provide and a future for their children. They need vacations and holidays full of joy. 

The American Dream has been compromised and the tax changes by the Repuglicans are not going to return it. Americans need to understand who the backbone of this American economy is and it is them. When a backbone breaks crippling follows and that is where Americans in more than 41 percent of the households are, they are crippled and have a very poor outlook for their future.

The unions have to give back good pay AND time home with family and friends, especially those children. Children need their parents and they don't get it when a parent is working 43.8 per week to simply stay above the poverty line.

America also needs it's brain trust back and that only happens when parents spend time with their children and have the money to send them onto higher education. It's time the USA stand up and demand what is rightfully theirs.

Neville plays Americans for fools when it rants on and on about companies that have increased wages. Those companies are in the minority and ARE FINALLY PAYING THE WAGES AMERICANS SHOULD HAVE BEEN GETTING FOR DECADES!