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US president Joe Biden says he will allocate $80 billion additional funding to the IRS in the US so that it can get $700 billion owed by the wealthiest in the US. This is part of his "American Families Plan,' increased funding of health, education, improving upward mobility, and opportunity for the American people.

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Indian prime minister Modi meets president Putin in Sochi, Russia. India is seeking to maintain its ties with Russia even as Russia seeks a new relationship with Pakistan including sales of military transport. Putin and Modi support a multi-polar world order in their discussions. India has 62% of defense imports from Russia in the last 5 years, as it shifts to a relationship of jointly developing arms systems and technologies, and shifting purchases to other countries. India joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization with Russian support. Russia is also active in building Indian atomic energy plants.

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Section 230 is a law passed in 1996 that makes the Social Media Companies and Media companies such as Meta and Google and others to have no liability for content posted on their sites. This has allowed these companies to grow and develop monopolies on the internet. Here CSPAN covers the hearings in the US Senate today December 9  with the following US Senators speaking at a Senate hearing on Online Safety for Children. Senator Whitehouse of Rhode Island describes the biggest problem as being the Section 230 which needs to be removed. The following mothers who are Senators and mothers or grand mothers of children were very vocal on this point- Katie Britt-Alabama, Martha Blackburn-Tennessee, Ashley Woody-Florida (former Attorney General of Florida).  Senators who are fathers or grandfathers of children speaking are-Josh Hawley-Missouri,      Whitehouse-Rhode Island, Bluementhal-Connecticut, Corbyn-Texas, Chuck Grassley-Iowa. Senator Whitehouse says-  "I understand Senator Graham was with respect to getting rid Of Section 230 Um, I strongly believe that Section 230 has long outlived its use, and it is now a real vessel for evil. That needs to come to an end. Um, the laws that Section 230 protects these big platforms from are very often laws that go back to the common law of England. that we inherited when this country was initially founded. I mean, these are long lasting, well tested. Important Legal constraints that have They've met the test of time, not by the year, by the decade, but by the century. And yet because of this crazy Section 230, these Ancient and highly respected doctrines just don't reach these people. And it really makes no sense that if you're a Internet platform you get treated one way. You do the exact same thing. And you're a publisher, you get treated a completely different way. And so I think that the time has come. I think it's pretty widely known that there were a core 4 of us. Ready to proceed with a bipartisan bill 2 and 2. And a A lot of work, important work, good work, valuable work has gone into making sure that other members of the committee and other members of the Senate have a chance to look at that and decide whether they want to join or not. And I'm at the stage right now where I think we just need to go." The Online Safety Act passed overwhelmingly in the US Senate recently still languishes in the House of Representatives. Ostensibly because of free speech but really because of monopolies and campaign contributions, and beyond this because of the idea that rapid internet growth gives the US economic and business leadership in the world. That is not how it has turned out instead by weakening the education of the children of the Nation this has created the idea in China and other nations that the US's period of world leadership has passed. In the overall scheme of things social media has weakened education in America as children of the Nation spend countless hours away from classroom education on their smartphones. Australia and other countries including China regulate the use of the smartphones and internet social media for children under the age of 14. This regulation strengthens education in these countries at the same time that the absence of limits weakens education competitiveness in America, and creates the idea that America's days of leadership in education have passed.The loss of this leadership means the loss of American leadership in the world in a decisive way. ...

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A one page resolution takes the place of the Republican party platform for 2020 in the U.S. It says "the party has and will continue to enthusiastically support the president's America-first agenda."

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Business looks for taxes to be tackled first before tariffs. DJT policy sets it the other way in second term tariffs first, then taxes. Tariffs are about fentanyl flows and stopping illegal migrant drug trafficking, for investment in US manufacturing and fair trade, in the DJT second term. To get a sense of what discussion is taking place. Former VP Pence and officials in the DJT first term debate with Scott Bessent at Treasury on policy- Former VP Pence says trade has lifted America's standard of living, but it ignores the loss of manufacturing base America needs for supply chain security and for its national security, and for jobs that maintain the standard of living. Treasury's Scott Bessent said in a podcast- "VP Pence's  ‘let them eat flat screens economic policy’ isn’t what people want. They don’t want baubles from China.” "The American dream is more than the access to cheap goods."   ...

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It has happened before- the issues and the tactics. This article is from the Washington Post March 10, 1985. The 2016, 2020, and 2024 US campaign for president most resembles the 1952 campaign between Dwight Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson. In that campaign Senators Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin and Senator Jenner of Indiana made unfounded statements and criticism of of candidate Adlai Stevenson, of Gen. George Marshall, of NATO and aid to war ravaged Europe under the Marshall plan, and by 1958 of Eisenhower for "ruining the party," according to the Washington Post. Edward Jenner, Senator from Indiana 1952-1958, conducted Senate hearings in which he made spectacular criticism of public figures and US policy from 1953 to 1955. Eisenhower was elected as president in 1952 and after considering running as an Independent reluctantly accepted when New York Governor Dewey asked him to do on the Republican party ticket. What is similar is that the issues and tactics used now are reminiscent of issues and tactics in those days in the 1950's, that this is not happening for the first time- it is not new. Both Senator Taft who headed the Republican party at the time and president Eisenhower felt uneasy about this type of criticism. Then as today it was about aid to Europe and NATO. Jenner said America could not afford it and it "would bankrupt America." Jenner also called the US Supreme Court "the most powerful instrument of the communist global conquest by paralysis," and introduced a bill to limit the SC jurisdiction. Jenner said in 1951 on the Senate floor, according to the Washington Post-  "the only choice is to impeach Truman," as "this country is in the hands of a secret inner coterie directed by agents of the Soviet Union." Today's differences are not new, the rhetoric familiar, about NATO, Europe funding, about the SC, about this and the former president, and about isolationism and about extended costly foreign wars, all after a pandemic and climate change in an uneasy atmosphere about the threats to American leadership then from the Soviets now from China. ...

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US president Biden makes a pledge that the US will send vaccine doses overseas to other countries after it has met American needs. This is hugely important because the US has contracted with pharmaceutical companies for a major part of the world's vaccine supplies. It is part of the humanitarian assistance the US will soon be in a position to provide to African, Asian and Latin American countries. It is also in the American interest to reduce the potential for new variants and new sources of the virus entering the US through airline travel by helping vaccinate a large part of the world's population in 2021-2022.

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Even though Denmark is trying to portray this as about 60,000 people on an island almost the size of Canada, Denmark was a colonial power when it acquired the terrritory through merging with Norway and later in Treaty of Kiel in 1814 during the Napoleonic Wars it retained Greenland. In these European Wars lands were exchanged based on success of armies fighting the French. It is "completely useless" for Denmark and it has not invested in Greenland which is backward with poor standard of living, no infrastructure. The US alone can change that. For the US it needs to own the island to make the Eastern Seaboard of the US secure from foreign powers, a point Seward made when he sought to acquire it in 1867 along with the purchase of Alaska from Russia, Every American government since and including Truman has sought to do this. Denmark is in Greenland only because of its colonial power rivalry with Sweden and the British Empire, when it was exchanged or retained for other territories as was the practice of the Europeans in the 19th century wars. It is not there to develop the island, its infrastructure and improve its quality of life, and has never done this. ...

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Impact of $100-$138 a barrel oil prices from Iran War on US economy is modest - stable unemployment inflation at 2.9% instead of 2.7% and decline by 4 tenths of a percentage point in GDP growth. This is the view of 50 economists at banks, companies and research consulting gorups surveyed by WSJ March 16-18 cited in both the WSJ and her inthe NYT. NYT says unless the prices reach $200 which is unlikely, there won't be a recession. The reason is that the US is self sufficient in oil needs and exports oil and gas to Europe, and now to India and Japan. In fact in the domestic economy oil producing states in the Permian Basin including Texas, Wyoming, New Mexico and state of Alaska will actually see more growth. US will also generate more revenue from oil exports. US will also be able to leverage the situation to bring Venezuelan production with additional investments in upgrading the Venezuelan oil fields from American oil companies. This will be more attractive at higher oil prices and revenue generated will be sent to benefit the Venezuelan people. What it does affect lis ow income people with long commutes to work in the US. ...

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US actions to conduct investigations on 18 countries under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 - March 12 2026 after the Supreme Court asks DJT to use another law for tariffs. A key focus of the investigation is to show how industrial overcapacity is deliberately built through subsidies to push product into US markets and destroy American competition. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said March 11- "Our view is that key trading partners have developed production capacity that is really untethered from the market incentives of domestic and global demand." The US and DJT have repeatedly shown how this has been done over two decades to destroy the US industrial base. Another focus is on the used of forced or underpaid labor working in substandard working conditions and excessive hours. Greer says he will have the investigations results ready by mid-July when the presidents new tariff of 15% (after the SC ruling) expires. Other probes or investigations will also be conducted. All trade agreements signed with Germany, EU, Japan, UK, India, China, and other countries will remain in place. These countries have expressed a desire to keep them in place as that offers key benefit of removing uncertainty in making business decisions. ...

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In 2018 China, India, and America are Africa's largest trading partners. India is building 18 new embassies in African countries. Greater openness to trade and investment is leading to GDP growth in Africa, 40% higher than in 2000, which is still low by comparison with Asian countries. The Economist says African countries can benefit by drawing investment from all sides and all countries, so that Africa benefits the most. Chinese investment, and Indian investment can happen side by side with investment from America, Britain and France.

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Various aspects of the Biden plan to tackle the problem of 1.5 trillion dollars in federal student debt in America.

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WSJ Editorial talks about so called "spending blowouts" of the Democrats in 2024. Are Republicans saying let the roads, bridges, airports, built in the 1940-1960's heyday of American industrialization as China and India's is now, let them crumble? What do the educated minds of the WSJ Board say about coal in China and India and their effects on their massive use multiple times that of US and EU in history, is it not damaging to the environment? And why the Chinese realized the health in North China with coal winter use was worse than in South China cut their coal use. Are they saying lets burn fossil fuels and ignore, and if investment has to be made in solar who is going to do it? Is it OK for Republicans that we just import from China all our solar panels indefinitely into the future? "Green New Deal" is just a perjorative term, policy has to be made thoughtfully and without prejudice or bias of any sort for the best that we can do for the American people, ignoring so called "right" or "left." Doing what is right, what makes sense, is a lot harder.   ...

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"What did it do in Green County?" this is the question voters are asking in counties across Wisconsin, and also in Michigan and Pennsylvania. These are states with lower number of minority voters and a higher number of white working class voters without college degrees. Even in rural areas around Madison voters remember their fathers and mothers voted for Kennedy, grandfathers and grandmothers voted for Roosevelt. The Washington Post looks at the white voters without college degrees in Wisconsin . How does one take the visionary actions in the Biden bipartisan Infrastructure laws and show what happens at the micro level? Lyrarc.com shows how the laws are changing America bit by bit every week in the Movement for Renewal of America as covered in NYT, WSJ, Washington Post, and other media.

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The British Energy Institute shows how countries are doing in fighting climate change by reducing fossil fuel use. 

Poland is poor at 88% fossil fuels in energy mix. Algeria, Singapore, Bangladesh, Oman at 98%.

In Europe Norway leads at 72% for renewqble energy in the mix. Brazil at 50% keads SOuth America, Nw Zealand 43% and Vietnam at 23% in Asia Pacific. 

Of 6525 coal fired power plants China has 3168, India 845 plants and US 408. Older plants are being retired.

Planned construction of new coal power plants 707 in China, 165 in India, 2 in the US, 23 in eastern Europe, 0 in Northern Europe and 4 in Southern Europe, 0 in Western Europe, Latin America is 6.

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See Ann Telnaes cartoon in the Washington Post on Aug 15, 2025 news conference by Donald Trump from the Bedminster New Jersey golf club and repetition of oldies, oldies and more oldies for a America fatigued from fact checking.

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Bridgeport, Connecticut, an old American manufacturing town that is getting back its manufacturing prowess. Bridgeport was home to Remington, to divisions of Westinghouse and General Electric, Bryan Electric. During the allied effort in WWII it made half a million Thompson submachine guns. After the deindustrialization of the 1980's and 1990's and the period of stagnation since, the city is now making a resurgence in manufacturing using a talented workforce and education system. A resolute effort to revive American manufacturing can be seen everywhere. Newer companies are different from the past using new technologies, highly trained employees, these businesses are smaller, cleaner and more expensive to operate, say city planners and new business owners.

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Jenny Medina looks at America's Biden 10 months into his presidency. Biden compared his presidency to that of FDR in his first years in office in 1933 with America in the depths of the Great Depression.  This report says FDR was better able to communicate how the New Deal would help families and workers in the face of distrust. Biden needs this today. During the ten months of the presidency Biden has already taken the tough decisions that are needed. For the vaccination drive, for the vaccine mandate on the coronavirus pandemic. On Afghanistan Biden took a similar tough decision to step away after learning the lessons of that conflict. He has quietly moved forward to build the alliance with Europe. On the infrastructure plan he has made the tough decision to make certain the essential components of spending on healthcare, education, childcare, support for mothers and older Americans are put in place, so that one bill for infrastructure is not passed without the bill for healthcare, childcare, mothers, elderly and education. Only this can provide the needed credibility for Republicans in states such as Tennessee who support community college open to all to come behind the overall Biden families and workers plan, and for working families throughout the whole country to support further spending for renewal of America.  ...

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When you compare the US to the European Union or India one can see how America is failing its people in offering basic public services that other countries do routinely. Jennifer Pahlka is the author of- Recoding America: How America is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better. Pahlka points out the problem in the US where private companies obstruct the delivery of basic services that the government can provide, just for their own profit. They throw in a carrot so that there is an excuse for not doing anything about this. For example tax preparation companies tell the IRS not to develop a simple tool available to all taxpayers to file their own taxes easily which is already filled with basic details. The carrot so that no one complains is that they will offer free tax preparation services to low income people. In the EU and many other countries tax preparation is done using tools offered by the tax agencies for easy preparation. In India it was possible to make it through the pandemic for large parts of a population of 1.4 billion because checks could be deposited directly into people's bank accounts. Digitization is used in India to make certain there is delivery of public services directly to each person. ...

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The progress of efforts to be inclusive as seen in the UC University of California system of colleges over 25 years has increased the representation of Hispanics to 36%, blacks marginally to 2.5%, and reduced the presence of white Americans to about 18%, while allowing Asians to increase representation to above 40%. As white communities declined with the outshoring of manufacturing the loss of income opportunities was accompanied with less access to education. In this sense it has created problems of negatively impacting non-minority access as it worked to solve a problem of minority representation. The other problem the Supreme Court noted in its decision to stop race based admission or affirmative action was its stereotyping students into groups not treating them with respect for individual character. The bigger problem that has emerged that now overshadows others in its effect on America is the poor access to college for white people particularly white men, over three decades in which manufacturing shipped overseas has destroyed the middle class incomes in manufacturing with whole manufacturing  based communities erased off the map of America. Restoring college opportunity for all Americans, including black people, and including the sons and daughters of generations of white Americans and settlers who built America is the task of this generation, so badly has it been eroded. ...

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The experience of Michael Winston, a former executive of Countrywide Financial. Winston acted as a whistleblower at Countrywide warning of the actions that led to crazy lending at the peak of the subprime mortgage boom. He was fired when Bank of America acquired Countrywide. He recently won a lawsuit for wrongful temination, the jury awarding him $3.8 million in damages.

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Germany's DW.com says in this report- "However, economists have pointed out that the US benefits from having large trade imbalances with the rest of the world, as the dollar is used in most trade, and offers major tailwind effects to the US economy." Which economists one must ask? Most of these economists had turned their back on the working people in factories in America, on their wages turned into a downward spiral, on their jobs, their factories lost for three decades. Today the American people have a sense of the true cost of this colossal failure to protect American workers and small towns across America depending on manufacturing. The pandemic exposed the risks of supply chain shocks and inflation by overly concentrating manufacturing in China.  The US has 1 trillion in trade deficits each year and it is completing the destruction of manufacturing in the US. Half of this is with China as China exports through Vietnam and Mexico, third countries, in addition to 295 billion dollars of trade imbalance the US has with China. China, Mexico, Canada and Vietnam are the largest offenders. No country can long endure with such a loss of its manufacturing base. The US Navy itself is in danger without the manufacturing to compete with China that has taken up over 50% of shipbuilding, and soon will not be able to protect the free world if these types of economists and self serving German or other foreign interests drive a false narrative. Without the US Navy in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans no one is safe, not Germany, not the EU, not India or the rest of the world. ...

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Russia invades Ukraine on multiple fronts, across Belarus, across its western border with Ukraine, on the pre dawn hours of February 24, 2022. Russian foreign minister Lavrov says "tense and detailed discussions" with US and NATO are still taking place. In talks with the US, president Putin of Russia had demanded that Ukraine commit to not joining NATO. The US insisted that this was upto Ukraine and that the territorial integrity of Ukraine had to be respected. Interventions by Macron of France and other leaders failed to bring the two sides closer. The US and Europe with a reluctant Germany looked at sanctions as a deterrent. This proved to be wrong. Mr. Putin has a passionate view of Ukraine and Kviv's historical role in the formation of the Russian state, evident in his televised address only 48 hours before the actual invasion. Ukraine has shifted between Poland and the Baltic states, Germany on one side and Russia on the other in its thousand year old history. The shift away from Bolsheviks and Communists under the Soviet Union after 1990 changed the relationship of Ukraine with its neighbors once again as Ukraine became closer to Poland and the Baltics, and Germany. Germany remains reluctant to revert to the relationship with Russia that led to 2 World Wars. During the leadership of Willy Brandt and successive German SPD leaders, as well as with Konrad Adenauer and CDU leaders, the goal was to build a good relationship with Russia. Merkel of the CDU went as far as accepting dependence on Russia for 40% of its gas supplies, after shifted out of nuclear energy and supporting a new Nordstream undersea pipeline for gas supplies.  The early reaction on DW.com and German television was one of shock as no one really expected that this would lead to a full scale invasion. Scholz of the SPD the new chancellor in 2022 was not active in forging anew consensus allowing NATO's Stoltenberg who is a former Norwegian prime minister 2005-2013 to frame the response of Europe. Norway's role in European security was marginal for most of the twentieth century. Other events had detracted from bringing active German and American participation in coming up with a framework of dialogue to address concerns of both sides and still build a common ground for peace- Afghanistan, the pandemic in its third year, China's deteriorating one sided trade relationship with America that hurt American workers and manufacturing. As a result China and Germany were essentially absent in building the framework for peace. Afghanistan hasty withdrawal made it harder for president Biden to come up with new approaches to build a common framework. President Macron made some faltering efforts on the fringes even as president Putin focused on the US response and its intentions with NATO on European soil, and declared that it was directly US Russia negotiations that needed to work. With this the whole framework of relations since the presidency of Reagan and the relations with Russia and China come to a close. And a new framework needs to be constructed that draws in India already or soon to be the most populous nation in the world, in an effort to build an enduring new framework. The voices of Eastern Europe need to be heard, yet balanced with the voices from India, China, Germany, Russia, and other countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa that are affected by world events. ...

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The difficulties the new U.S. Treasury Secretary faces as she tries to navigate the politics in Congress and the tries to reach out to moderates and progressives within the Democratic party. All have different views on spending, and where stimulus money should go in a second stimulus. Her long experience with the Fed is seen as not preparing her for the political role of evaluating different opinions that are described by some experts as ten times more political than anything going on in Fed meetings. As a student of Prof. Tobin Yellen sees government intervention as needed in times of economic crises. Twice in ten years the U.S. and the rest of the world has been struck by economic crises- the bank leveraging behaviours and poor lending practices that induced the 2009 financial crisis and in 2020 the coronavirus pandemic. Lessons learned Yellen says about the 2009 recession are that not enough stimulus was provided after the initial stimulus to get a strong enough recovery. Democrats are eager to spend over $2 trillion in a second stimulus. Republicans much less so particularly with a new president. Even under Mr. Trump spending was set at under $700 billion by Republicans for a second stimulus. Another economic crises is one of the U.S. strategic economic position in the world. On this issue of trade Yellen's husband George Akerloff, also a economist is more skeptical of the value of free trade. The failure of the World Trade Organization to ensure a level playing field as China subsidized key industries, and the loss of America's manufacturing advantage over three decades is now the defining issue in American politics. It takes the shape of manufacturing communities that were once a part of Democratic party support shifting away after devastated local economies from the loss of manufacturing plants to China. It takes the shape of a Republican party that is committed to bring back American manufacturing, and a Democratic party that under Biden is seeking the same result. How much each party will invest in terms of making things happen to get this done is one of the issues facing all parties, Congress, the administration, Ms. Yellen, and the new president. Economics does not have the answers. As economists could not have predicted the increase in women participation in the workforce, the drop in Black and Hispanic unemployment rates under the Trump administration. The lack of moral will to get trade to work for the American worker was more of an issue under Democratic and Republican administrations for the last 2 decades, so that issues of growing inequality were never better addressed by any party. It depended more on focus of the president elected to help American workers, and to avoid the cost and distraction of foreign wars when American interests could be protected in other ways. Yellen was not able to make a difference at the Fed because of these reasons and low interest rates have both helped and hurt the middle class, as low interest rates meant Americans were less able to accumulate savings for retirement since 2000. Determination and action counts for more than ideology or policy is the lesson learned in building strong economies and manufacturing.   ...