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The director of research at one of two cybersecurity companies that monitors disinformation used by the Senate Intelligence Committee to analyze and give reports on the Russian disinformation activities 2014-2017, shares her conclusions. Information from Facebook, Google and Twitter was turned over to the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, which in turn handed it over to the two cybersecurity companies for analysis and reports. The Russian disinformation activities have continued in 2018, according to DeResta. The domestic propagandists and actors have taken these methods and used it to target sub groups, expanding the scope of these activities. The advertising related segmentation provided by these companies gives a ready made tool to easily target subgroups in the U.S. population. The viral activity arising from this means the message is carried over to other groups. As a result many groups are affected, affecting how democracy works through vigorous, yet intelligent debate. Explicit bias happens in election campaigns yet this is not spread through anonymous sources that are not identified and whose interests are known, as in disinformation efforts in a medium that spreads information quickly and without any depth whatsoever. For some minority subgroups the effects as ubiquitous, says the report. This report concludes that it is the responsibility of government, private organizations and individuals, and the tech companies combined to tackle this, as tech companies do not have the resources to deal with it. Its not enough to adjust how you sell advertising as tech companies are doing, says the report. The whole ecosystem of information is being compromised in multiple and still not fully understood ways, making it essential that a comprehensive solution with multiple combined efforts address it effectively. ...

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The broken world economy has hurt the American people, in small communities and towns across the US whose societal fabric was destroyed by a system of world trade with abuses done by China. Japan, European Union, Canada and Mexico since 2000. Shortsighted American leaders and economists allowed this to happen. Robert Lighthizer on the New World Order a new system of world trade that replaces the old in 2026. The old trading system was one in which lip service was made to free trade while all the time the system was used by Japan, Germany, China, Canada, Mexico and other nations to build non tariff barriers and other policies to support their industry  at the expense of the United States leading to disillusionment in the US. The facts are mind boggling- the loss of 5 million jobs, many small communities across the US decimated with loss of jobs. About 20 trillion in wealth transfers to China and other countries over 2000-2020, with foreigners owning $27 trillion more of US assets than the US owns of theirs. US Trade Deficits that went up by 40% in 4 years of the Biden administration from $800 billion to $1.2 trillion. Economists and weak leaders got it all wrong allowing this to happen from Geoge W. Bush to Clinton Bush and Obama. Lighthizer says "shortsighted leaders aided and abetted this process," from 1990 to early 2010. Consider that US had 17.3 million  people in manufacturing, in factories all over the US in 1970, in 1999 we had the same number of jobs, even though there were changes in technology and productivity- the US held its own with the rest of the world. The Bush, Obama years were the worst for the US industry - by 2026 we have 12.6 million - loss of 4.7 million jobs since 1999. And real median household income took a big hit growing from $72,000 to $84,000 about 17% in the last 25 years, compared to twice that in the period 1975-2000 prior quarter century. The result is the fracturing of American society- and dire consequences for healthcare as communities suffered from loss of jobs leading to drug overdoses, alcohol abuse and suicides, which are common in post industrial American communities. Think of this fact: two thirds of America's workforce that does not have a college degree, that is working class people, lives 8 fewer years than college graduates, a gap that was only 2.5  years in 1992. The wars carried on by Bush and continued by Obama in the Middle East also wracked these same communities till Biden and DJT pulled out. One has only to drive across America to see this with one's own eyes. Trade may be an abstract topic for economists and politicians- there is nothing abstract about this. And the economic growth of the US has suffered with the unfair trading system with China, European Union, Japan, Canada and Mexico. From 1945 to 2000 American growth was 3.2% a year. Since 2000 only 2 years of growth over 3%. US has not seen historically normal growth for the last 19 years and at this rate (if we continued along this path) the Congressional Budget Office says 1.8% growth for 2027-2035. There are other factors yet the the major driver of this is our trade deficit of $1.2 trillion dollars a year. It is a story of remarkable persistence in the Nation's interest through 2 adminstrations- this Lighthizer story. Lighthizer fought Japanese commercial interests as Deputy Trade Representative under Ronald Reagan, and as US Trade Representative under DJT in the first DJT administration in 2016-2020. His Deputy at the time is Jamieson Greer who is now the US Trade Representative in the second DJT adminstration in 2025. For 30 years this brave American patriot has fought to reverse the bad actions of presidents and economists that have led to devastating losses in the American countryside. He says any new trading system must be perceived as fair to working people. It will survive only if working people think it is good for them. It cannot and must entrench a small, permanent elite. The benefits going to labour must be at least as great as those going to capital. It should create fulfilling high paying jobs for the vast majority of the American people. This is America's new promise to its people, its new compact with its people. ...

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Peggy Noonan calls the Bernie movement and Hillary Clinton adopting his efforts to improve incomes and condition of working class people, a major development. The most electrifying line in her view is the one made by the father of a U.S. Army Captain who died in Iraq, Khizr Khan, himself an immigrant, who said about Trump at the convention- "You have sacrificed nothing." She cites Bloomberg, a successful businessman in media and former Mayor of New York, who said about Trump: "I'm a New Yorker, and I know a con when I see one."  Bloomberg traced the history of the Trump business through repeated bankruptcies, lawsuits and missteps, and added "Trump says he wants to run the nation like he's run his business. God help us." And Noonan cites Hillary's speech as getting better as it progressed, not her best, but doing the work, especially with the line- "Don't believe anyone who says "I alone can fix it."  Biden and Kaine hit on this point repeatedly, and that "he doesn't have a clue," with the crowd chanting "Not a Clue."  ...

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Efforts by French president Macron to end the alienation of Russia from the Western Alliance by bringing together Ukraine's Zelensky and president Putin of Russia for talks in Paris. The effort is for the negotiations to take place in a new environment that accepts the need to recognize Russian concerns for NATO too close to its borders. President Macron has stated that Russia is not the threat for NATO to focus on as the world has changed with the emergence of China, the changes with the Trump administration policy. By ending the Ukraine conflict and Russian perception of a threat on its borders, Macron is making a constructive effort to bring Europe together and put the Ukraine conflict behind it. His comments about NATO being brain dead have received too much media attention, less attention to the effort to mediate and solve conflicts based on perceived threats Russia thinks it faces.

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This report in DW.com shows the coverage in German media of the election of Droupadi Murmu as the president of India. She is the second woman and the first person from a tribal community to be elected president. She worked as a school teacher and was elected to the state assembly in Odisha (Orissa) in eastern India twice. She served as the governor of Jharkhand a state with a large tribal community in eastern India from 2015. About 27% of Jharkhand population is tribal and much higher in rural areas because over 90% of tribal people live in the rural villages. Murmu is from the Santhal tribe that is spread over several northeastern states. Most of the tribal population of 106 million people in India is in the northeast, east, some in the west, in border states with China and Pakistan, and in these parts of India it makes up as much as a quarter of the population or higher. This is why a new India requires better educated, good governance dedicated tribal leaders who can contribute to development under sab ka vikas sab ka prayas, development for all through everyone's efforts. ...

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Kevin Rudd, a former prime minister of Australia and Asia scholar, gives his interpretation of recent events in China with changes in the Constitution and the important role of Jinping Thought in China. He says the views in western media reflect an inadequate knowledge and understanding of Chinese history and China's perceptions of its role in the world. The three decades of policy progress as China urbanized and modernized its economy after the opening by Deng Xiaoping are now followed by a new phase under Jinping in which the Communist Party sees itself in a new and more important role. China does not see itself in the same way as the West sees it as part of the liberal order. It follows its own interests in the light of Chinese history and its experience in the modern period, says Rudd. As a China scholar and former prime minister of Australia Rudd asks people in the West to look at China as it is rather than with what he calls "preferred imaginings," leading to headlines that say that China has suddenly changed. ...

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British prime minister Cameron says the government will support the call of the Labor party for News Corporation to withdraw its bid for full ownership of BSkyB, the British Sky Broadcasting group. An inquiry will be led by Lord Justice Leveson, into the phone hacking and other activities of News Corporation. The inquiry will have 2 parts, with recommendations to be made in 12 months. The first part will look at the culture of the media, its practices, ethics and its relationship with the police and politicians. The second part of the inquiry will investigate the illegal activities of News Corporation, including alleged payments to police.

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Economist view on how things are changing in Russia, a view on the eve of the G-8 Summit. It is useful in that it presents the view of Russia that Russians are reacting to. Note how this links to Guy Chazan's article on July 13, WSJ, Russian Pundit Sours on the West. It talks about how the Radio Sation Echo Moskvy, part of liberal news media in Russia is airing increasingly critical opinion of the USA. The Economist acknowledges that even the liberal media in Russia which had been favoring the USA and Britain is now critical of these countries. It cautions Western leaders that they should avoid conveying to Russians that what they really dislike to is not a liberal and undemocratic Russia but a prosperous and strong Russia. And liberals in Russia feel the just as strongly as national leaders do about this.

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Simon Jenkins of The Guardian says it is time to clear some of the myths around migrants, tariffs, and NATO and in this way action by the current Republican administration can be a positive step. Jenkins says DJT is moving quickly in the first 100 Days because most presidents get only 2 years to make changes before losing the House or the Senate making legislation difficult to pass. If it appears that things are happening on many fronts too quickly that is just the nature of things under a democratic process where checks and balances mean all three parts of government- executive powers of the president are balanced by powers of Congress and of the Supreme Court. Jenkins points out that action on migrants with the unease about millions of migrants coming in illegally, putting tariff barriers to bring manufacturing back and rebuilding America's forgotten middle class, cutting the bureaucracy and misuse of funds, sending education back to the states, and rethinking NATO bringing Russia back into the community of nations, will have long term positive effects long after the chaotic nature that they appear in the news cycle and the media presentation has passed. He cites China being invited back into the community of nations under Nixon. And today disarmament possible only by working with Russia, when China is moving in the direction of increasing nuclear missiles with trouble spots in Taiwan. He does not mention the sending back of about 1 million people back to Mexico under President Eisenhower in Operation Wetback in 1954, Harry Truman a senator from Missouri who led the effort to cut waste and fraud in government spending in the Second World War, the ED Hirsch graph showing reading comprehension scores of American K-12 headed one way - straight down since the 1960's showing education is failing in the US and needs parents and states to come up with new solutions.   ...

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Rural America has the same percentage of Americans that are prone to fringe views as urban America about 27%, the rest are simply trying to find ways to meet severe health, educational, lack of investment in rural areas by government, and cost of living challenges, that other communities have, says Nicholas Jacobs, professor of Colby College. He knows rural America as he shows in his new book -The Politics of Place and the Disuniting of America. Jacobs lives in rural Maine and has both studied reams of data and himself lives in a rural area. Here is the truth he says- Rural America is suffering from chronic health conditions, health worker and hospital shortages, limited employment opportunities and infrastructure deficits, rural schools suffering from funding gaps and teacher shortages. Similar to urban, yes, yet even worse, and need understanding not recrimination. What JFK rightly called, a policy "to lift all boats," from his speech in Arkansas, saying rural Arkansas was as much the Nation, as Massachusetts. He warns Americans to be careful what they listen to about rural America in talk shows or in books written to get audiences from one segment of the population or the other, with gross mischaracterizations of Rural America and its so called rage, with condescending views about people simply struggling to make sense of all the change some of it for the worse going on around them- in this period of Beaverbrook television or internet media. Beaverbook television is after a press baron in the last century in Britain who saw it fit to take advantage of crises of any sort to sell tons of newspapers for a profit, along the way promoting any bias that he had regardless of whether it was proven right or wrong. At one point UK press barons including Beaverbrook, controlled 13 million circulation the most in the world in 1947. Today instead of newsprint it is in book, television, social media or the internet video formats. This can concoct narratives of people that do not exist by using polls that are inadequate, and superficial understanding, with no effort to look for credible answers to difficult questions, and no effort to look for solutions that "lifts all boats," in America and in the World. ...

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Under Project 2025, a blueprint for the first 100 days of a Trump second term-A middle class family with 100,000 in income a year and two children would pay extra $2600 additional federal income tax, whereas it gives a $325,000 tax cut for a married couple with 2 children making more than $5 million a year in income. On project 2025, the blueprint for the first 100 days in office of a Trump second term, the action items are ones that would jeopardize the safety of American institutions that were set up with so much care by Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and nurtured by the first president George Washington with little attention to himself, and protected by president after president through civil war under Abraham Lincoln, through 2 World Wars and The Great Depression under Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt, through recovery under Harry Truman and Ike, only to falter under a series of mediocre presidents Reagan, Clinton, Bush, Obama and be endangered by a NBC television show and construction business person with support from new social media networks that were unknown throughout America history till 2010 and television networks that had degenerated into recklessly divisive behaviours to win silo audiences.    ...

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UN projections show median age of Chinese citizens will overtake that of Americans in 2020. Yet China's median income is only a quarter of that in the U.S. Life expectancy in China today is 76, very close to that in America. In 1960 a Chinese person born that year had life expectancy of 44 years.  China is aging at the pace of Japan, and a bit slower than South Korea, but wealth per capita was three times higher in South Korea and Japan than China when the aging accelerated. A Chinese woman fertility rate today is 1.6 compared to 4.6 in 1973. A prominent Chinese economist says in a recent report that median age in China in 2050 will be nearly 50 compared to 42 in America and 38 in India. WSJ cites figures showing China will have gone from 9 working age adults per retired person in 2000 to just two by 2050. So how to pay for retirement of all these workers today? Government spending on retirement is a tenth of GDP, about half the level in older wealthier countries, and increase in spending will impact growth. Today this is about 6.2% potential growth rate. It also pushes wages up with a shortage of workers in cities such as Shenzen and X'ian even with the use of new technology and robots in factories.  Solutions are to raise retirement age currently set at 60 years, increasing labor force participation of women as Japan has done, and increasing productivity. China has transferred 10% equity stakes in four state owned financial firms to the national pension fund to shore up its finances as estimates from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences show it running out of money in 2035. Traditionally children supported families in old age but the one child policy leads to situations where the child is working or in another city. In Suzhou near Shanghai, a retirement business sends 1800 helpers to private homes and 130,000 retired people, in a new trend. The city administration of Shanghai plans 400 neighborhood care centres for elderly by 2022, with health clinics, drop in facilities, and homes. 12,000 elderly people use one centrre in central Shanghai area of Changning. ...

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The children's commissioner in the UK says the internet is a powerful and positive resource, but social media is a negative force from which children need protection for mental health that is fast and effective. Anne Longfield was responding to the comments of the NHS head Simon Stevens who stated that the web giants are "fuelling" a crisis and should come under tough scrutiny. Many experts see social media as a negative force, especially for children. Not taken up yet is the crisis in reading and reading comprehension that leaves about half of children in schools and students in high school without adequate reading skills- with about half of school children not meeting the reading comprehension requirements of the ACT test for 2016. Social media and smartphones have cut into reading time in schools, in ways that were never anticipated with iPads for reading not making a difference. The problem is of global dimensions requiring educational leaders across the world to come together in a movement for global literacy.   ...

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This exceptional NYT report by Noam Scheiber describes the impact of the Obama administration's new overtime pay rules requiring time and a half overtime pay for most salaried employees paid less than $47,476 a year. For a long time now firms in publishing, consulting, media, advocacy groups, and other fields have made young people work long hours for low pay without overtime pay just so they have opportunities later. This is especially true for the last decade when jobs were scarce, especially for young graduates. The rule is inspired by a need for better work-life balance, to widen opportunities to beyond the group where affluent parents supported their kids in these jobs, and by the sometimes abusive nature of the overtime work that could extend from 7 am to 7 pm or such hours at what amounted to minimum wage work for well educated but aspiring college graduates.

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James McCauley of the Washington Post looks at the drop in popularity of Emmanuel Macron by August 2017. After winning the election with 66% of the vote Macron appears to have stumbled. Experts attribute the decline to the way he has handled relations with the media by reducing contact, and appearing aloof. He handled the decision to continue with defense cuts for 2017 of $1 billion poorly by avoiding discussion and appearing undiplomatic in his response to the military. Military officials opposed the move, and openly discussed it in the news media, saying the cuts left France less prepared for its global responsibilities and for domestic terrorism. Other problems included the inexperience of newly elected members of parliament during the first session of parliament, leading to administrative chaos.

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Donald Trump fires his campaign manager Corey Lewandoski in June 2016, as GOP advisors prepare for the presidential election. This report in the NYT says family members felt Lewandoski lacked the experience needed for a presidential campaign, was slow to hire new staff, and was at odds with Trump's GOP advisor Paul Manafort. He was also seen as having poor rapport with the press and media covering the Trump campaign. The Trump campaign also lacked fund raising capabilities under Lewandoski, which is now being tackled with fund raising by Trump, and the better image necessary to attract donors.

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Raul Castro of Cuba indicted by the US Justice Department May 20, 2026 for Cuban Americans killed when civilian flights helping Cuban refugees in the waters near Cuba were shot on orders from Raul Castro, as minister of defense. Only towards the end of this news report by Perry Stein and Karen De Young of the Washington Post is it clear that this indictment is on Cuba Independence Day March 20, which in 1902 marks the setup of the Republic of Cuba, at the end of the US military takeover of Cuba from the Spanish during the Spanish American War. Cuba under Castro does not use this day but the day of the Communist takeover in 1959 of January 1, and celebrates as Day of the Revolution, July 26, the day when the attack on the Moncada military barracks started the Revolution against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. Only the Obama administration similar to its failures in addressing the Iran nuclear weapons crisis refused to recognize 1902 date as the Cuban Independence Day, all other administrations before did. Under the Monroe Doctrine of 1824 the US clearly considered Latin America as its neighborhood and would not accept any foreign power in its neighborhood, making the Platt amendment attached to the Cuban 1902 Constitution permitting US intervention simply an addition. That the Monroe Doctrine was proven right in 2 ways is not mentioned by the Washington Post or by the elite media. What it did was to prevent European colonial powers from intervening and restoring colonial type rule to Spanish colonies in Latin America. It was welcomed by the British as it had no such designs, objected to by the Spanish Dutch and the French who had such designs for their colonial Empires. It was resented by Cubans naturally but Cubans did not consider that US is the only power who even when it pushed the Spaniards out of Cuba and Philippines in the Spanish American War of 1900 after centuries of Spanish occupation, the only power who prepared Cuba for Independence within 4 years in 1898. Which European colonial power could do this? The other reason for the Monroe Doctrine is in the Platt Amendment attached to the Cuban Constitution which committed the Cuban government to implement and maintain programs the US introduced to control yellow fever and infectious diseases. In 1934 FDR removed the Platt Amendment under a "Good Neighbor Policy. It is the relaxation of the Monroe Doctrine by future American adminstrations that has brought so much suffering and pain to North America, for the US and Mexico with illegal immigration and drugs, corrupting governance in Mexico and creating social political strife in the US, more deaths from drugs than the Vietnam, Korean and WWI combined. Today's Cuba's economy and the Venezuelan economy that copied Cuba's example has completely collapsed, one fourth of the people left the country taking with them the vitally important skills, and leading to economic hardships for the people. This would not have happened if the Monroe Doctrine implemented under the Good Neighbor ideas of FDR and the Alliance for Progress of JFK was kept in place. This shows that Cuba's Independence happened when the Americans supported Cuban rebels fighting for independence in 1898 just as the Indian Independence was won in 1947 from the British under Labour's PM Clement Attlee in 1945 taking action. Four years of American rule in Cuba to prepare it for independence as a transition is far better than 4 centuries of Spanish rule, and 2 years of British rule as a transition 1945-1947 under Attlee (who replaced Churchill in 1945 and setup the NHS) is better than 2 centuries of British colonial rule. In this sense America is with the Cuban people, just as the average British public and working class is with the Indian people.   ...

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Sorkin talks with Oliver Stone, director of the movie "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps." The movie opens this week in New York and shows life on Wall Street in 2008-2010. Its a sequel to his previous movie on Wall Street and shows the side of Wall Street that has been extensively covered in the media recently.

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Newspapers and media from Argentina to Germany and France praise the effort of the new U.S. Attorney General in prosecuting the case against FIFA, and taking on the challenge of acting in a case that crosses international boundaries. The use by people investigated in the case of the American banking system and the new willingness of banks to cooperate with federal investigations provides Lynch with the basis of building a strong case.

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Jonathan Cheng of the WSJ reports from Seoul that the sense of alarm at the escalating rhetoric between the U.S. president and North Korea seen elsewhere is missing in the South Korean capital. A city of 10 million only 45 minutes from the border with North Korea is within artillery range from the North. There is a sense that North Korea would not attack the South because of long ties of culture and ethnicity. The new government of Mr. Moon was elected with its plan to improve relations with North Korea that had deteriorated under the previous government of Mrs. Park. An effort is made by Rex Tillerson, the U.S. Secretary of State to tamp down tensions from the rhetoric. South Korean officials say recent experience shows the Trump administration is capable of making sound policy even with Mr. Trump's tendency to tweet strong comments. The South Korean government urged the media to present the situation without aggravating tensions. In fact the popular online news portal Naver in South Korea did not show the escalation in its top ten trending topics. An earlier report in the NYT shows the use of underground bomb shelters in drills is ignored by many South Koreans. ...

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Kate Conger NYT looks at working for Google in 2007 vs 2025 how tech or software jobs are not exciting anymore. Many of the so called Tech companies -as technology and science is the very basis of life since the year 1700 in UK, Europe and the US and today's "Tech" is a misnomer in that context- have become huge bureaucratic, and unresponsive. Computer coding is not the profession it once was, not even in India as Indian reports show it has also lost it's glamour there. This kind of "Tech" of Google, Apple, and social media was always a cultural fad that made things look cool so that the highest profit margins could be made and justified, ignoring the essential facts about science and technology over 300 years 1700-2000 in the UK, Europe and the US. Since the early scientific observation in the 18th century in UK and Europe science has underpinned our lives, and with the industrial revolution and machines it has covered every aspect of our lives with new inventions and scientists into the 19th, 20th and 21st century. As a cultural fad of the Google /Apple kind it came on the back of the largest deindustrializing of US and Europe in the late 20th and 21st century, and ignored the fact that science and technological application is part of everyday life, the very meaning of the word modern that Japan, China and India has aspired to, to copy the Europeans and Americans, not the prerogative of any corporation.   ...

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Drop in immigration reduces labor supply keeping the unemployment rate steady even as hiring cools off. Compared to the roughly 1 million in 2019 net migration was about 3 million in 2022 and 2 million in 2024. In 2025 this is now about a negative 250,000 or quarter of million negative migration. Out migration is expected at about 1 million. This means that about 35,000 non farm jobs created between May and July 2025 haven't increased the unemployment rate as fewer new workers join the workforce from illegal migrants. This has to have an effect for wages for the workers in construction and farm work as employers compete for a smaller number of existing workers though economists and the financial media rarely talk about this. This was needed following decades in which the labor supply increases from illegal migrants meant no pressures on employers to pay more than the minimum wage kept artificially low. This means that even well meaning Democrats who clamored for increasing minimum wage were doing exactly the opposite of what was needed for the existing worker base wages in construction, farm work, and household help, because of their sentiments or because of the immigrant wing in their party. Note that about a third of maids, a third of construction workers, and 25% of landscaping workers are not legal migrants. Agriculture Department estimates are for about 40% of farm workers to be without legal work authorization. ...