LyrArc Article Gist
NYT fails to see the importance of delivering on infrastructure building in scale, reshoring, wages and jobs for workers, and climate change action that president Biden is achieving to build a better America. NYT looks at the 2023 and the midterm elections and points out a well known fact that women (and men) in the suburbs care about legalized abortion rights for women, and this extends to states that vote Republican in the south. No attention is given to the importance of infrastructure building, increasing wages and jobs for working class and middle class Americans, bringing factories and investment back to the US, three issues that brought Mr. Trump into office in 2016 coming out of nowhere. Mr. Biden is old is the refrain. Yet it is president Biden who has delivered on infrastructure where Mr. Trump merely talked about it -Building America Better- as Biden pointed out in the State of the Union address in 2023. Biden has delivered in support for wage increases for workers, even joining the picket line at the UAW auto workers strike in Detroit. He was able to do this because he has spent more years in Congress than any other senator, and like Lyndon Johnson for the Great Society programs and desegregation in the 1960's was able to win support from moderate Republicans. Being older, having the wisdom and experience was and is indispensable in the American project started by Washington and sustained by Lincoln, who nurtured wisdom, experience, fully comprehending the people's problems, and mindfulness in the way Mr. Biden does. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
See how dysfunctional today's politics have become in the way the Speaker in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. president expressed utter disdain for each other and their opposite political parties at the State of the Union gathering in the U.S. Congress. Trump focussed on the economic gains for the U.S. in trade and the economy, and sees impeachment efforts as unfair as not rising to the level of high crimes and demeanors defined for that in the U.S. Constitution. Pelosi and Democrats see Trump's style and manner as violating norms for politics followed earlier.  Harry Truman, a president in the fifties never got much respect from Republicans who saw his style and manner as too rustic and Missouri farmlike. Andrew Johnson a Republican during the early post Civil War period after Lincoln, without the education of the upper class was treated with disdain by Democrats. Interestingly both were chosen by icons Roosevelt and Lincoln. This time the focus of attention is a president who comes from outside, motivated to run in politics as he said in his speech in Congress by the wrongs the U.S. suffered from other nations in business and trade. Truman got attention from Roosevelt through the hard work to cut the extensive cost overruns and mismanagement in production for the war effort. Johnson for his loyalty to the Union from a Southern state, Tennessee. All seemed to shrug off the disdain without much discomfort and Truman was known to say- "The Buck Stops Here." ...

LyrArc Article Gist
“Getting gas from America is always a good thing.” Alaska's governor Dunleavy tells Japanese and South Korean, Taiwanese investors. Japanese PM Shigeru Ishiba says the LNG from Alaska is "wonderful for us." It takes just 7 days to get this LNG to South Korea or Japan.  Mike Dunleavy's plan, called Alaska LNG, is for a 800-mile pipeline from Prudhoe Bay that would feed gas to a to be built liquefied natural gas terminal at Nikiski near Anchorage. What was once just a hope as investors pulled out is now a reality with DJT telling Dunleavy, "lets get it done, let's not just talk about it." Note that something similar is likely to happen for car investments by Japanese and South Korean companies. Already Hyundia Kia has announced a $21 billion investment. For Alaska LNG pipeline South Korea has said this has "infinite possibilities for growth." US Navy is rebuilding for protecting the Asia-Pacific, Japan and South Korea know the importance of the actions of the new Republican administration for Asia-Pacific and the Indian Ocean region, and tariffs can be a time to invest more in American manufacturing and show restraint in pricing. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
This is not just offering something to every group, it is rebuilding the middle class when seen in the larger context of rebuilding America's industrial base and taking  it to new heights after losing it to China under Bush-Obama 2000-2016. Under MAGA Trump inequality is tackled just differently from the way Democrats tackled it under Biden. The tax break for auto loans, interest on auto loans is deductible for taxes, is part of the new Tax Bill to appeal to auto workers. It is only applicable to US made cars and this promotes US made cars over foreign factory made cars such as the Germans and Koreans and some Japanese auto makers did before 2025. Reagan scrapped this tax break, it is back under Trump as the Republican base now includes auto workers and the now back to growth mode middle class. The deduction in local and state taxes increases to 30,000 to benefit small business owners. There is also the tax on tips which is removed. Retired people get an added $4000 deduction and not elimination of taxes on social security benefits entirely because of the Bryd rule that prevents changes to retirement with a simple majority vote not the 60 votes in the Senate.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Michael Gerson of the Washington Post reflects on billionaire property developer Donald Trump's campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. He says Trump's temperament could make or break his campaign, citing the disparaging remarks made by Trump when Megyn Kelly brought up the issue of denigrating women to Trump in a presidential debate. Roger Ailes, head of Fox News, and Rupert Murdoch head of the parent company, refused to disqualify Kelly from the seventh debate on Jan. 28, 2016, as Trump had insisted on for his participation. Gerson cites a little incident at a Pensacola, Florida Trump rally, with a microphone malfunctioning Trump uses strong language, according to Gerson. He compares this with a similar situation when he was with George Bush in the family theater practicing his first address to Congress, where he apologized to a teleprompter assisting him for being blunt and walking out. Gerson says it is time to take a deep breath and reflect on where we are today after many weeks of a campaign where the public discourse has deteriorated in unimaginable ways....

LyrArc Article Gist
In a forceful speech at George Washington University, on April 14, 2011, President Obama outlined his proposal for addressing the U.S. budget deficit. His plan includes a mix of tax increases and spending cuts. His plan is for a $4 trillion deficit reduction over 12 years, with $1 trillion coming from revenue increases, $2 trillion from spending cuts, and $1 trillion from savings in interest because the U.S. would borrow less. Obama's plan would end the Bush-era tax cuts for people earning more than $250,000 a year and eliminate a number of tax breaks. Spending cuts would include cuts in Medicare costs, discretionary spending, and defense. Obama's plan would commit to automatic, across the board spending cuts and tax increases if an initial target is not reached by 2014. Obama said the Republican plan proposed by Paul Ryan presented " a vision that was less about reducing the deficit than it is about changing the basic social compact in America....The's nothing courageous about asking for sacrifice from those who can least afford it and don't have any clout on Capitol Hill."...

LyrArc Article Gist
Sanger, Erlanger and Rudoren describe in detail the differing interests of Congress, the Obama administration, the Iranian hardliners around Khamanei, the Israelis, the Europeans, and the Russians each quietly pushing its own interests. Beyond the physics of a deal, a Republican Congress, Democrat Obama and Iranian hardliner Khamanei, each are trying to get their own narrative to look right with public opinion they face, that they have not backed down. The Israelis find any deal unacceptable and reject even a small lifting of sanctions, because of the "existential" threat. Add to this Sunni Saudi Arabia which says it will match Shiite Iranian capabilities with their own uranium enrichment facilities if Iran is allowed to retain capabilities. And economic interests also figure into this- Russian interest is in keeping Iranian oil off the market as long as possible so that oil prices do not fall further in 2015, which means delay an agreement as long as possible. The French see the Obama administration as likely to give too much away for an agreement and want tougher terms....

LyrArc Article Gist
President Obama will nominate Jacob Lew for Treasury Secretary to replace Timothy Geithner. In making this decision Obama stayed within his close advisors. Lew has held firm in budget negotiations, at one point walking out, and at another point in negotiations of the last two years saying flatly Medicaid is off the table. This signals Obama is not going to give in to Republican demands without a fight. In picking the 57 year old Lew, Obama is choosing someone who has substantial experience in budget matters and in working with Democratic leaders, all the way back to working with Speaker Tip O'Neill from the Reagan days. He was head of the Office of Management and Budget, and is currently White House Chief of Staff. He was chief operating officer of Citi Global Wealth Management and Citi Alternative Investments for 2 years, which suffered large losses in the 2008 financial crisis, but was not closely involved in the way decisions on investing were made. He was brought to Citigroup by Robert Rubin, a former Treasury Secretary under Clinton....

LyrArc Article Gist
Japan's new LDP government will follow France and the U.S. by increasing the tax rate on top income tax brackets from 40% to 45%. Currently the top rate applies to those making above $200,00. The U.S. top rate of 40% applies at $450,000. It is hoped that this will make the increase in the sales tax to 10% more acceptable to the public and keep a sense of fairness in tax policies. Tax exemptions on estates will also be reduced with the figure at 30 million yen ($340,000) instead of 50 million yen. The U.S. has a figure of $5 million per individual. Tax increases on the wealthy will bring in about $2.3 billion a year. Japan is a more egalitarian society than the U.S. and is closer to Europe in this respect. Higher taxes are supported by the conservative LDP party compared to the Republican party's strong opposition to tax increases in the U.S. It is also a more homogenous society with fewer immigrants and closer to Europe in this respect than the U.S.

LyrArc Article Gist
At the closing stages of the primary season Obama is seen as bringing an advantage in terms of bringing in new voters to the electoral process especially younger people. But more significantly and this may be the difference in the calculations of superdelegates is their own future and the future of the party. First their own future is helped if a nominee of the party cn energize new voters. Second its seen by a growing and significant number of people in the party that a nominee in 2008 has to put all 50 states in contention. This 50 state strategy may hold the critical insight to the nomination process in its final stages by superdelegates. This stems from frustration among Democrats at two elections in which Gore and Kerry went down in a blue states and red states division almost identical in both elections to a large degree. Any candidate thatcan bring Republican fringe voters to vote for a Democratic nominee may be the one to win the 2008 election and most of the Democratic superdelegates will be thinking of this....

LyrArc Article Gist
The moderate positions of both parties in political life in Australia and New Zealand compared to the U.S.

LyrArc Article Gist
A short biography of Wisconsin Congressman and Romney's vice presidential pick, Paul Ryan.