Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Alabama Pushes Through a Change in Voting Districts and SCOTUS Says Ok

Rather than saying no, SCOTUS allows Alabama to realign voting districts thereby disenfranchising minority Americans “Shame and the Supreme Court” Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance Tuesday was primary day in Alabama. There were contested races in both parties. The marquee gubernatorial race drew significant interest, with more than five candidates competing on the Democratic side, […]

A “rail”pike should be built by the government.

Letter to Congressional Representative Seth Moulton by Sanuel Walker . . . “Just as a turnpike provides time and place utility for product and people, a railpike would also. And, just as a turnpike does not provide pick up and delivery of product and people, likewise a railpike would serve to provide transport service from […]

May jobs report: a solid positive report, with the important (likely) exception of wages

– by New Deal democrat My Big Theme for the past few months has been that the AI Boom (or possibly bubble) is counterbalancing a stagnant or even shallowly recessionary rest of the economy. The bottom line is that the May report was the third in a row that not only confirmed that, but suggested […]

Where’s the beef?

Thanks to climate change, which the Trump Administration is actively promoting, and the Trump Administration defunding of USAID and a project dedicated to monitoring and containing New World screwworm in Central America, screwworm is back in the US after decades of successful containment. What is screwworm? “New World screwworm is a fly that lays its […]

$Trillions for Tax Breaks, etc. to the wealthy. But we Can Not Fund Social Security?

“No Unauthorized Spending: The U.S. Constitution dictates that no money can be drawn from the Treasury except through an act of appropriation. Without a funded budget, paying wages is unconstitutional.” “Office Hours: How Do We Deal with the Inevitable Loss of Good Jobs to AI?” Anthropic — the artificial intelligence company behind the chatbot Claude […]

Jobless claims virtually screaming for lower unemployment rate; is post-pandemic seasonality making a return?

– by New Deal democrat We are – maybe! – finally seeing some of the unresolved post-pandemic seasonality reasserting itself as to initial jobless claims. For the record, initial claims rose 13,000 to 225,000 last week, the highest number since early February. The four week average rose 6,500 to 214,750. With the typical one week delay, […]