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Photos of industrial decline in the US with text by Helen Epstein, professor of human rights and public health in The Guardian. This was a period in the early 1980s when America's major industries in steel and other parts of the economy went into decline. Cities and towns across this vast land were left to decline with loss of jobs and with it decline in quality of life, decline in health, education, says Prof. Epstein, as the Democratic Party jettisoned its foundational principles. The term "Reagan Democrats" emerged in the late years of the Carter administration, and again after Clinton, Obama took the shape of the Trump vote. By 2021 the situation has reversed with the Democratic Biden administration putting forward a program for revival with his $1.8 trillion Families Plan for infrastructure and for the benefit of America's workers, students and families. What was a protest vote during 2016 is now taking new shape in the form of this plan for the renewal of America. ...

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Texas under new state law S.B. 4 can  impose criminal penalties of upto 6 months in jail on non citizens who illegally enter Texas from Mexico. It allows state judges to order deportations to Mexico- without Mexico's consent- and allows local law enforcement to carry out the orders. The US Supreme Court upheld the US Court of Appeals 5th Circuit decision that says the law S.B. 4 passed in Texas can be enforced temporarily till it is submitted to the Court for final decision. Both Biden and Trump have visited the Texas border with Mexico. This was after Biden and Schumer passed a immigration bill 70- 30 in the Senate which Jim Lankford  Republican of Oklahoma had negotiated with Democrats. Biden said he would sign it to close the border- it would also change parole and asylum law to stop large illegal migration entirely. The former president intervened to stop passage in the House to keep the issue alive for 2024.

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Pope Francis recalls his days as a boy playing soccer on the streets outside his home in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with a rag ball because they did not always have a leather ball. "There was not always someone with a leather ball so we played with a ball made of rags, a pelota de trapo." Pope Francis was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio to Italian immigrants in Argentina. He calls it a great school of life for him being the goalie and having to take all the shots taken at him. His leadership has shown concern for the marginalized and the poor through the repeated economic crises and the current pandemic. In his talks with world leaders including Trump, Biden, and recently Modi of India he has shown the importance of taking good care of the environment, the downtrodden and the marginalized in society. 

Some of the influences in his life come from his father, an accountant from Asti in northwest Italy, who loved reading to the children and had a library.

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This analysis by Gerald Seib in the WSJ shows the FBI chief Comey reopening the investigation into Clinton's email server just one week before election date November 8, as a move that does not enhance the democratic process because either way it will lead to questions why this was done at this late stage. The emails were found on a laptop used by Huma Abedin, an assistant to Hillary Clinton. Experts say the emails can be processed in a few days, and the FBI, the Justice Department are moving quickly to do this. 

Election experts say most of the decided voters for both parties will not be affected by this especially since most people will have made up their minds by now. Some voters who had questions about Trump might be moved to vote for him, and some undecided voters may be less enthused to come out to vote, though it is not clear at this stage. By mid week a clearer picture is likely to emerge. 

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In a massive intervention last week and again this week the Bank of England cut interest rates from 0.25% to 0.1% and launched a 200 billion pound program to buy UK government bonds and corporate bonds to support the economy and business. Investors sold UK government debt for short term cash holdings and invested in U.S. currency holdings as the safest asset they could find, as the economic effects of the coronavirus epidemic hit capital markets. Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England stated that it was the government's job of preventing temporary "dislocation" becoming permanent economic "destruction." Business failures are expected as a result of the coronavirus impact and also layoffs resulting in a temporary jump in unemployment. The government needs to take steps to mitigate these effects in the UK as is being done in the U.S. by the Trump administration with $1 trillion in direct assistance to business and people affected by the crisis. ...

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In this economy there is wide divergence in the US for upper income people earning well on assets they own at 5%+ for extra income and the lower middle classes wage earners that are struggling even with low unemployment and inflation at 3%. WSJ looks at these two divergent parts of the US economy and what can be done. Inflation could be worse with higher Trump tariffs on imports, says WSJ. The situation is a difficult one for families struggling even with higher incomes, as this one in Michigan in the WSJ, that finds it necessary to take money out of savings with prices higher but not reflected in inflation statistics of 3%. One example is higher housing and apartment rental costs with 25% of families having to spend over 50% of their income on home rental leaving little for food and expenses. President Biden has called for limiting price increases on home and apartment rentals to 5%, and Harris has proposed aid for families spending more than 30% of household income on housing costs. Strong action is needed. ...

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This comes as both president Biden and Republicans under Trump are increasingly wary about the lack of oversight and inability to limit the monopolistic behaviour of tech firms. The investigation of Joshua Wright who defended Facebook, Google and Amazon. After learning about the investigations Amazon acted immediately. Google and Facebook waited before finally acting says this report in WSJ. Joshua Wright, a George Mason University law professor was appointed to the FTC where he had other commissioners dilute the powers of the FTC so that it would benefit Google, Facebook and Amazon from weaker oversight by the FTC. During this period the three companies acquired immense power with monopoly behavior and lack of the necessary oversight from Congress or the FTC. Related to this is the story in this WSJ report of the relations of a GMU law professor with his female students that led to GMU and the tech companies distancing themselves from Joshua Wright as each new story emerged.  ...

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WHite children born in 1992 fared worse in income levels than white children born in 1978. The reverse is true for black children- the income gap narrowing for black children born after 1992 and widening for white children born after 1992. In this unusual twist lies some of the angst about social divisions in America in 2024 where income mobility is a major issue. The Biden administration has achieved a lot with bipartisan legislation such as the Inflation Reduction Act, cancelling student loan debt or reducing it, creating 16 million jobs, bringing supply chain disruption inflation down from 9% to 3%, and yet more action is needed. Inflation in housing that for 25% of apartment renters takes 50% of household income is a challenge. Biden proposed a 5% cap on rent raises, Harris proposed capping rent payment at 30% of household income and  government aid for amounts above 30%. By contrast Trump program promises little to help with housing costs, and economic policy is limited to tax cuts heavily skewed to wealthier households. ...

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Kamala Harris says she will tackle immigration head-on at the Arizona rally August 10, 2024. She said she would Pass the Lankford- Biden Immigration Bill and sign it into law. It is the bill that passed the Senate and was given no chance in the House because of it being opposed by Trump for use as an election issue.

Harris said-

“I was attorney general of a border state. I went after the transnational gangs, the drug cartels and the human traffickers. I prosecuted them in case after case and I won, so I know what I’m talking about.”

“He talks a big game about border security but he does not walk the walk."

“We know our immigration system is broken and we know what it takes to fix it: comprehensive reform. That includes strong border security and an earned pathway to citizenship,” 

 

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Kamala Harris is a lifelong learner, this is how she has overcome different situations that were not favorable to her running for District Attorney, running for Attorney General, and running for president against Biden, then after being chosen VP nominee and VP elect navigating the last 4 years. Each time the effort to learn and always with a sense of belief that one associates with some of the Olympic athletes in cycling and rowing in the recent Paris event. BBC News looks at different events in her career and how there were doubts about her, she was put in unwinnable situations,  yet she continued her work resolutely with determination, keeping her values she gained from her mother and grandfather and learning from each situation to be better. So that when the time came after the first Biden Trump debate one long time Democratic supporter told her "Put on your seatbelt," to which she replied "I was born with a seatbelt."

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Decades of investment in infrastructure and manufacturing have given China a strong grip on manufacturing. China's economy depends on exports with sluggish domestic demand. One economist in Hong Kong says Vietnam is the key, if tariffs are placed on Vietnam it will be tough he says, because Chinese goods enter the US from third countries.

In 2025 China's world trade is imbalanced to an extraordinarily large degree, hurting thriving manufacturing communities around the world, and depends on a concentration of port logistics, manufacturing and lack of fair trade practices, that allow $3.5 trillion in exports while taking in only $2.5 trillion in imports. By 2008 America was waking up to this, DJT actually flagged it a decade later, Biden realized this, in the second term what appears like a whirlwind 100 days is really action on many fronts that is coming one to two decades late. 

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DJT plans to sign an executive order making English the national language of the United States of America. It is move that the founding fathers, Lincoln, TR and FDR/Truman would consider basic to the cultural literacy of the Nation. Over the years under Republican administrations from Bush and Democratic administrations under Clinton, Obama, the US has drifted away from the national language to an extent that is incomprehensible and presents an attack on the national language by allowing the proliferation of languages to languages that people have never heard of. It is destroying the cultural literacy of the US that efforts were being made even in the 1980's to restore after it was felt that it was weakening at that time. “We have languages coming into our country. We don’t have one instructor in our entire nation that can speak that language. These are languages—it’s the craziest thing—they have languages that nobody in this country has ever heard of. It’s a very horrible thing.” JD Vance had introduced a bill with Senator Cramer of North Dakota in 2024 for the English Language Unity Act, for conducting all official business of the US government in English, and for a national testing standard for pathway to citizenship. This is parallel to and follows the effort in the 1980's to bring education in line with cultural literacy in schools and education in the Nation, that is becoming more and more relevant to today.     ...

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Preliminary reports cited by The Times of London say Air Traffic Control was understaffed at the time of the accident, a midair collision of American Airlines jet over Washington National Airport. It says only one person was handling landings departures and communications with helicopters in the vicinity of Washington National Airport.

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DJT's 32% reciprocal tariff on Taiwanese goods including chips is working. When reports under president Biden showed TSMC investing in Arizona it was still a slow process with much foot dragging including articles by TSMC executives about how difficult it was to make in US. Lyrarc commented specifically on this as TSMC founders got their education and training in the US and it sounded a bit too condescending. Now that the Trump administration has its tariffs in place this WSJ report says the factory in Arizona is advancing production by several quarters, and it has started production late in 2024 with quality comparable to TSMC plants in Taiwan. How quickly DJT's approach with tariffs to level playing field and letting Taiwan know it owes defense and its education in semiconductors to the US is working, is shown by this example like others. And the $65 billion investment is now up to $165 billion in the US that TSMC is planning. The extra $100 billion is a commitment made to DJT. TSMC revenue growth is higher now at 30% than 20% it had previously with AI and robotic demand in 2025 so that it needs to make more chips quickly. ...

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Compared to the situation in North Africa in 2016 with emigration to Europe and the migrant crisis happening without any preparation to prevent it in 2015-2016, Germany and France are acting in coordination with Russia and Turkey, Saudis, UAE, to provide stability to the region. Angela Merkel will host leaders Macron, U.S. Secretary of State  Pompeo, and representatives of foreign powers in Berlin to work out a deal for disengagement of foreign powers. Turkey and the United Nations support a government of National Accord in Tripoli which controls the west of Libya, and a Libyan-American Mr. Haftar has a militia that controls the south and east with the help of Egypt, UAE, and Russia. Earlier the U.S. under president Trump had distanced itself from the region, but Mr. Trump and his advisors now see the need to engage in the region to ensure stability, and support the Europeans in the effort to prevent the large scale emigration that threatens European unity. Europe following the 2015 Merkel migrant crisis is acting with the policy of heading off both wars, terrorism and economic dislocation that fuels emigration right at the points of origin, before it even starts. This shows that the French after action in Ivory Coast and Mali and the Germans with aid to Africa are remaining involved in development and stability programs in Africa, lessons learned from 2015. The goal of the Berlin meetings is to arrange high level agreement for foreign powers to withdraw from destabilizing the Arab regions in North Africa particularly Libya by supplying weapons and support to quarreling factions. ...

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US President DJT says about the Monroe Doctrine on the White House site- "The American people- not foreign nations or globalist institutions- will always control their own destiny in this hemisphere."    DJT says about the Monroe Doctrine -"On December 2, 1823, the doctrine of American sovereignty was immortalized in prose when President James Monroe declared before the Nation a simple truth that has echoed throughout the ages:  The United States will never waver in defense of our homeland, our interests, or the well-being of our citizens.  Today, my Administration proudly reaffirms this promise under a new “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine:  That the American people—not foreign nations nor globalist institutions—will always control their own destiny in our hemisphere." The fentanyl crisis with more dead from drug trafficking in the US across all of the neighborhoods and communities of the Nation than the Korean and Vietnam Wars, World War 1 combined, is of very serious consequences for the White House and the DJT administration. It requires nothing less than the assertion of the Monroe Doctrine so that nothing like this happens again, or is exported from countries in this western hemisphere to dangerously affect the wellbeing of the American People. ...