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Ed Balls Report for Harvard and Kings College says "the combination of Burnham, Healey and Rayner, is the best moment we had for this agenda" of regional productivity of Britain. It is the gap between regional productivity of southeastern Britain and the rest of Britain that has led to two economic growth in Britain. Underneath the "breathing room" for cost of living, Andy Burnham has put together the kind of team that in combination with the experience gained in Manchester gives the right start for Britain and the British people, an opportunity to hope knowing that all the right tried and tested basics are being put in place one by one.

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UK wealth tax could raise 10 billion pounds a year- what if it was entirely allocated to Defense Spending reaching 3% as a special contribution till wealth inequalities are fixed, so that measures can be taken on cost of living relief. 

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On the 30th anniversary of this Interview with Norman Borlaug, of Iowa, Minnesota and Texas, with Mary Gray Davidson for Common Ground, a point of reflection of where we were including China and India, Africa, where we are now in 2026, and where we are headed if we have the right bearings. What has been accomplished under Deng and successors to Xi Jinping, under Nehru and successors to Modi, and in different parts of Africa, the path ahead, and the challenges in the deindustrialization of the US and Europe that is being reversed day by day. Borlaug never lost his faith in education. "Some of the greatest satisfactions I've had is to see little boys-and girls too, for that matter-that have dropped out of school in the third grade. They've got bright, shiny eyes. You give them a job scaring the birds out of your plots. And together with your colleagues you say, "Let's put a little few pennies together and get that little person in school and get them back." And they go through primary school. And then get them into high school You may have to move them to another village because there's no school like that. And I've seen some of them become Ph.D.s; some of the best scientists. And Master Technicians. They're tremendous. There's lots of unpolished stones out there that never got a chance. And a little stimulation. You have to identify them. You can't do that all at the same, we don't have enough pennies to start them all up. But if that happens to some of these, other kids start saying, "Look what happened to that person." That's all part of the game. You've got to reach for the star. You'll never get the star, or never reach it, but if you stretch yourself enough, I always tell the students, you'll get some stardust on your hands. And if that happens you'll be surprised what happens in your ability to do something for yourself, your family, the community, the state, the nation, and the world." ...

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If Labour had defended the working class and if Conservatives had acted responsibly in the public interest Britain would have been much better off. Britain's economy and standard of living has suffered from the long drawn out austerity years under the Tories followed by the Brexit issue raised by the Tories. Behind Brexit were Nigel Farage of the Reform party and Boris Johnson of the Tories. Nigel Farage was brought out of retirement by the lack of effective leadership of Labour under Starmer even after winning a majority in parliament for Labour. Andy Burnham is trying to put Britain's house in order coming in as the man from the North, Mayor of the Manchester region. He has served in positions including at Treasury under Blair and Brown. Compared to every prome minister of the last three decades he brings both the experience and the knowledge of how to implement efforts to improve public services from experiments done in the Manchester region that he can use for the whole of Britain in transportation, infrastructure, delivery of water, electricity, and other essential services in a better way than the privatized companies of the Tories. He pushed back against Reform's revival in the Makerfield by-election. And it is crucial for Britain's economic future that it not waste more years like it did under Cameron and Johnson with a extension under Reform that only delays Britain's economic recovery. ...

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UK Reform Party has taken large donations from cryptocurrency companies. Reform leader Nigel Farage has received a 5 million pound gift from a cryptocurrency firm. What does this mean for cryptocurrency regulation in the UK as a world financial center, if Reform wins a general election and appoints the next Governor of the Bank of England when Andrew Bailey retires in 2028. This is discussed in The Guardian. The banking system of the US, UK and large countries was set up over many years and currency is only issued by a central bank with the financial backing of the nation. Cryptocurrency cannot on the basis of technology take that role without posing risks and destabilizing the financial system. The gradual splitting of society by the information economy, neglect of infrastructure, pharmaceutical pricing, banking speculation as in 2009 crisis, have been eroding some of the basic structures of democracy for the last two decades from within.  The wars in the Middle East policies, and the open borders migration policies, were effects from outside. What this has led to is counter to what one would expect. To fight open borders and the marginalization of some parts of the working class DJT Republicans have used whatever resources were available at the time in the 2024 presidential election. The cryptocurrency firms used this in opportunistic fashion to affect regulation of this currency by supporting the reelection bid of DJT in 2024 by making large donations. This has led to less regulation of cryptocurrency firms. Is this in the best interests of the Nation? Will this destabilize the banking system in ways that have happened before in the deregulation of banks before the 2009 financial crisis? In Britain a new Bank of England governor will be appointed after Andrew Bailey's term expires in 2028. Reform party in UK if elected as government would appoint the next Governor of the Bank of England. Reform's growing popularity is a result of Conservatives and Labour failing to take action on open borders, asylum hotels, and migration policy, following an ECHR code of rights that is inappropriate to such migration. What this means is that unexpected things happen as a result. Cyrptocurrency risks of destabilizing the banking system increase as a result of failure of parties on migration. This could be more destabilizing for Britain because of its role as a financial centre than the industrialized  economies such as Germany, China, and industrializing economies such as India. It poses risks in the US yet Federal Reserve Governor Walsh can exercise his own judgement about cryptocurrency and Congress can exercise oversight, the large banks can act to show the risks of destabilizing that cryptocurrency can pose. For Britain it is particularly dangerous as the US is also an industrialized power compared to Britain's focus on finance alone. Andrew Bailey can ignore lobbying by Reform Party in 2026 (Farage met with the Governor of the Bank of England), yet what happens if Reform appoints the next Governor in 2028? These are questions Britain needs to ponder. It is also why Andy Burnham is Britain's last chance to get things right on migration to the point that the British people feel good and proud of their heritage and history, British neighborhoods across the country feel safe and secure, and Britain shifts to reindustrialize its economy with partners in China and India, the European Union, and the US. A former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, Sir Charlie Bean told the BBC about donations of Christopher Harbonne, who has a 13% ownership interest in cryptocurrency firm,Tether. "Stablecoins are only stable if they have the appropriate regulatory environment… But there is right now an unsurprising regulatory race to the bottom amid the potential for greater profits." He added: "When funds are coming from major shareholders of such large financial institutions, there is a clear potential conflict of interest here, for example, in the appointment of a new Bank of England governor. Transparency is one solution." ...

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"If you outsource your learning (your human knowledge then why exist?" asks Nadella, head of Microsoft. After all he says a company is a learning system. We at Lyrarc with our skepticism of the value of  robots and AI by themselves without the driving human component, thoroughly agree with Nadella of Microsoft. Nadella says the best thing is to have as many AI models as companies- hundreds of thousands of companies as learning systems keeping their individual human knowledge bases intact alongside AI supplements. The industry jargon for this is "open weight models" which is to take a basic core of AI and add your own individual learning component for an individualized learning system. To enable this Microsoft is offering multi models including cost effective Deep Seek and Cohere in its Azure AI Foundry, Amazon doing the same with Bedrock and Google following the same path. In an interview with Yash Patil cited in Business Insider, Nadella Explains, saying-  "My simple thing is there should be as many models in the world as firms in the world. Because after all, what is a firm? A firm is a learning system." "I don't want to be locked into any one model. I want to be able to use my own context, my own data — in fact, my own traces to maybe even take a much more open-weight, cost-efficient model or a fine-tuned model." "It can't be, 'Hey, look, I have two frontier models or three frontier models' or whatever, some finite set that have learned everything that is differentiated today in the economy because then it collapses.'" "You can always buy a tool, you can even outsource a task or even a job, but you can't outsource your learning. If you outsource your learning, then why exist?" ...

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Spain Win World Cup 1-0 as Argentina struggles - Spain 17 shots on goal, Argentina 0. Without brilliant goal keeping by Argentine goalkeeper, Emiliano Martinez, with 11 saves, Spain would have been far ahead. Ferran gets the goal in overtime from a pass by Williams Jr. Other goals by Spain were disallowed for offside and foul. Spain's coach Luis de la Fuente said the win was because of Spain's footballing training discipline and its long tradition of training. As Sergio Ramos brought the trophy out Spain's new World Cup team connected with the team that won the World Cup in 2010. Xavi, Iniesta, Casillas and Ramos were from that team in 2010. Rodri, Ferran and Olmo, Unai Simon showed Spanish football at its best. In terms of fans having the game of their lives in this World Cup the third place finish game was a classic that surpassed every other game. England played France in a 6-4 game in which England put up 4 goals in the first half and France responded with its own 4 goals in the second half, Saka got a hattrick, Bellingham 2 goals, and Mbappe added 2 goals for France to become the leading goal score of this World Cup. Declan Rice, Saka and Bellingham played well for England, Mbappe, Barcola and Dembele for France. Because of Argentina fizzling out and poor performance in the final it appears as though England which surrendered its lead in the 86th minute of the game with Argentina when coach Tuchel pulled out Declan Rice and made some questionable decisions, were the better team than Argentina. Its almost as if it is Spain No, 1, England No. 2, Argentina and France tied for third place if one went by the quality of the game played. With Brazil out early it appears that world soccer is returning to its roots in England, France and Spain, with newcomers as Egypt. ...

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Unions and Labour's Starmer in local elections in 2026. With Labour shown in You.gov polls as losing half of its voters from the last general election with that lost voter scattered among Greens at 20% of it and Liberals getting 14%, the rest to other parties. Unions may look for an alternative if local elections lead to problems for Labour.

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What impresses most about Tuchel is his calmness and reassuring his players, taking the pressure off them so they can concentrate on the game on their skills and do better. In the half time talk for the game against Croatia he tells his players - “Even if we lost, it will not change my perception of you from the last 17 days, but let’s do it our way.” Players did not have to think of their self-worth, a load was taken off their backs, so they could concentrate on the task itself and use their skills effectively, says Cath Bishop in The Guardian. There are 10 articles on this German coach Tuchel one each for how he managed each game, with DRC, Croatia, Panama, and with Mexico, in The Guardian, and others on his approach, rare to find so many concentrating on the coach for England. Showing Tuchel has something of a rare quality- calmness plus confidence, and connection with his players.

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Congress has an obligation to fund the Transportation Security Administration that screens passengers at airports. TSA falls under Department of Homeland Security DHS. Democrats and Republicans are at loggerheads on immigration issues and are holding up funding for DHS and TSA agency. For 1 month now TSA officers at airports have not received their paychecks. About 25%- 40% have called in sick at some major airports slowing down security lines in rush hours of the morning. Congress goes into recess March 27th and if no funding has been passed by then the situation could get a lot worse, with many passengers missing flights, flights taking off without passengers.

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Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves dropped to $2.9 billion in February 2023, says this report in the WSJ, enough to cover 2 weeks of imports and a fraction of debt servicing requirements. Under an IMF agreement that is being negotiated $1.1 billion will be given by the IMF, which would lead to further lending by other countries and banks based on IMF oversight. This includes putting $630 million in  additional taxes and increasing the price of electricity. Successive governments have decided to avoid the IMF conditions of increasing taxes and price of electricity. Donor countries such as Saudis and Qatar, UAE, would step in once IMF oversight is in place and invest in airports, power plants, oil and gas companies, and make loans to Pakistan once the IMF oversight is in place, says WSJ.   Sri Lanka faced a similar situation after it delayed an IMF program and loan, leading to financial crisis. The situation is now stabilized with the IMF on the verge of making a $2.9 billion loan and other banks making loans on the basis of IMF oversight. In Sri Lanka's case India is a serious donor, investor and supporter of Sri Lankan recovery. ...

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Federal Judge voids $1.8 billion settlement of DJT with the IRS. US Districgt Court Judge Kathleen Williams said  the DJT $10 billion suit against the IRS was filed for an improper purpose and refereed the DJT lawyer to state authorites to see if ethics rules had been violated. Many Republicans opposed this kind of settlement in which the president DJT was doing the settlement by being on both sides as being highly unusual. Using the $1.8 billion for helping the protestors at the Capitol against the election in 2020 made this a partisan infighting affair, and even more controversial. In fact this was one of the most unusual parts of what has been a bitter battle between Democrats determined to oppose DJT in every way possible and DJT Republicans responding to these attacks since 2016. Ten years later fatigue is setting in in the Nation with this behaviour of Democrats and DJT Republicans alike. "The DJT lawsuit was never about a party seeking judicial resolution of a legal issue or a factual dispute." Judge Williams described the $1.8 billion settlement as a bid to "provide some legitimacy to an agreement to confer immunity to people and entities affiliated with the President and to earmark billions of dollars from American taxpayers to redress grievances not defined in the law." ...

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After delaying taking a loan from the IMF, a multilateral lender known for setting austerity conditions for its loans, Pakistan finally accepts a IMF loan of $6 billion over 3 years. In August 2018 Pakistan turned to Saudi Arabia for $3 billion loan and deferring oil payments of a similar amount, UAE for $3 billion, and China adding another $2.2 billion. A sharp drop in the country's currency reserves left Pakistan little choice. Other problems were a overvalued exchange rate that hurt exporters under the previous government and fiscal spending on needed infrastructure that could not be matched with changes in tax collection. Pakistan has some of the poorest tax collection in Asia, depriving the government of the funds needed to finance infrastructure.  The IMF loan is a smaller loan so that Pakistan would feel less compelled to comply with the difficult conditions often imposed by the IMF that has made it unpopular in developing countries, particularly in Latin America. This is the 21st IMF loan to Pakistan. Only Argentina has had to turn to the IMF for 21 loans. For example the IMF conditions to Pakistan require increasing the electricity and gas prices. Under the IMF plan Pakistan must cut its budget deficit before debt service to 0.6% of GDP next fiscal year starting in July 2019 from the deficit of 1.7% expected this year.  To do this tax breaks of 350 billion rupees or $2.5 billion next year have to be removed. The central bank autonomy was also promised and with this 2 former Pakistani IMF officials now head the central bank. Because widening the tax collection base and better tax collection are promises made in the past to IMF which have not happened, this report in the Economist magazine says implementation in this IMF plan will also be lax, more so as the IMF loan is small and supplemented with funds from other countries. A cartoon in one magazine critical of the IMF shows the IMF officials from Pakistan negotiating for the Pakistan central bank with the IMF head Christine Lagarde. Increasing the Pakistan tax base is essential for Pakistan's development to invest in infrastructure similar to what is happening in India. Releasing funds for infrastructure, roads and railways, hospitals and education, requires a larger tax base in all South Asian countries. Without this internal capital and showing results of spending -with successful infrastructure implementation with least or no corruption or overspending- countries risk falling behind.  ...

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This 40 minute IMF Video looks indepth into how far the Paris Agreement on Climate Change of 2015 has moved the world to address 1.5 degree change in climate? What is the situation in 2023 as we move towards 2030? NIcholas Stern of LSE says the peak of emissions will be reached by 2024 however the curve will not be pretty as the drop in the curve will be a small dip in emissions not steep drop that we need. Action is needed to accelerate.. Pilita Clark of the Financial Times conducts a discussion with Nicholas Stern of the Grantham Institute at London School of Economics, Bo Li Deputy Managing Director of IMF, and Zhou Xiaochuan who heads China's Boao Forum and formerly was Governor of the Bank of China.

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140 billion euro loan to Ukraine being considered by UK and Germany with Russian frozen assets in Belgium to support the loan.  Drone sightings over Belgian airports at Liege and Brussels with RAF experts sent by Britain to counter drones over Belgian sites.

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About 90 countries are seeking help from the International Monetary Fund, the IMF. And 60 countries are seeking help from the World Bank. The IMF has about $1 trillion to lend. The World Bank has $160 billion to give out. 

The World Bank headed by Mr. Malpass has given India $1 billion for screening, contact tracing and lab diagnostics, to produce personal protective equipment, and set up isolation wards. 

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India was the first to offer financing assurances on behalf of Sri Lanka for a loan of $2.9 billion from the IMF. Written financing assurance from Japan will follow soon. A similar assurance from China will help Sri Lanka get the IMF loan of $2.9 billion. India's External Affairs Minister Jaishankar will visit Colombo on Jan. 19 and 20.

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These 2 steel plants date back to Scunthorpe 1861, and Port Talbot 1905, when they were first built, when Britain led the world's industrial revolution. The two plants were modernized in the 1950's. British Steel and Tata Steel Port Talbot only two remaining steel plants in UK- retaking the UK steel supply chain move taken Labour in July 2026 as Andy Burnham takes the premiership. British Steel was privatized in 1988. In Asia British Steel and US Steel were revered during the colonial period to the 1950's and 1960's. In the US and UK strangely economic theories took hold that did not see the importance of steel and other basic industries in the life of a nation and its people. About 40 years later the lessons of outsourcing your main supply chains has been learned at great cost to the US and the UK. Note that in today's WSJ an Exclusive report shows the success US steel has become with government help and American tariff protection agiainst dumped steel from China and India. US Steel has grown till it is now the third largest steelmaker in the world. The UK government is nationalizing Scunthorpe plant now given name British Steel under the Steel Industry Nationalization Act. UK has set aside 2.5 million pounds for subsidies to the Scunthorpe and Port Talbot plants for modernization of old pre-1960's plants. This is the right move, if US Steel is a success story with DJT tariffs and government support, British Steel will be a success story with the same kind of support. And contrary to bad economic theory purveyed by some economists the US and UK can now have their own modern steel industries and supply chains at home. ...

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New 12.5% and 10% tariffs under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 on 60 countries starting July 24 2026 when earlier tariffs expire. The earlie tariffs were struck down by the Supreme Court as not legally valid because of the statute used. Even though a lot of new media attention was placed on that tariffs move in 2025 and 2026, the same tariffs are back in place. Most if not all of the major trading nations, knew that the best policy was to negotiate an agreement on tariffs with the DJT administration. Countries like Switzerland that were late to negotiate were hit with higher tariffs and opted to sign agreements.  US seeks to get back the supply chain it ceded to China through mistakes made by previous administrations over 30 years. Was the US Supreme Court in a position or inclined to set this back. It simple said use another statute. Congress supported the US president in his action to bring Make in the USA back particularly in the 250th year of the Declaration of Independence. Now Jamieson Greer, head of the Office of the US Trade Representative has reset reestablished the tariffs under a legally valid Section 301. He has also conducted the Investigations on each country required under Section 301 to show that these countries had not met US standards for fighting forced labor. There is likely to be no further media attention to be critical of this move- was all the time attacking a tariffs move without considering the importance of returning supply chains to the US, returning manufacturing to the US? It appears to be when seen at the level of the US economy as a whole. ...

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The devastating floods have increased the urgency of securing financing for Pakistan to avoid any risks of debt default. This report in WSJ says Pakistan has negotiated $4 billion for the current fiscal year that began in July 1, 2022 with the IMF Board meeting to approve it on Monday Oct. 29, 2022. The IMF required Pakistan to secure the remaining additional funding for the fiscal year. For this part of the deal China has rolled over $10 billion in debt, Saudi Arabia $3 billion and UAE $2.5 billion. Saudis will provide $1.2 billion for oil on deferred payments basis. Saudis will invest $1 billion in Pakistan, and Qatar will invest $3 billion in Pakistan.

Finance Minister Ismail says Pakistan is not in danger of default now but it depends on the viability of the IMF program. The heavy monsoon floods have put a reported half of the country under water, and the economic impact says Ismail is about $10 billion.

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$469 million in immediate access to Bangladesh from the IMF and $221 billion for climate change action agenda in Bangladesh as part of $4.7 bailout by the IMF. This plus an addition $1.3 billion from development partners such as India gives Bangladesh time to sort out problems in exchange rate management, manage remitttances from overseas, and increase exports. Import compression and other action helped Bangladesh to generate a $2 billion surplus in the first half of the 2023-2024 fiscal year after large current account deficits in two previous years of the pandemic. 

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Ian Jack asks if Johnson's Conservative party can deliver for Britain, can deliver for women, can deliver for climate change, can deliver for health, education and infrastructure, can deliver dignity for workers, deliver for families and children, by looking at the roots of one of its leaders. He looks at Jacob-Rees Mogg and how he sees himself in the bewildering mix of English social classes in St Pancras neighborhood of London where he comes from.

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Some of the statements on the IMF Blog on Inclusive Growth raises the question-Does the IMF, the International Monetary Fund, as an American institution funding developing countries, and economists, grasp what people find troubling in 2022? One of the lessons of the economic crises for families and workers in the US and other countries is that wisdom, a grasp of the soul of a country and its people through the thinking of its founders, and common sense, should drive managing of economies, with a knowledge of how economies work- not economists. Some of that is already happening. America's central bank is headed by Jerome Powell who has wide experience and has knowledge of how the economy runs, is not an economist. He was chosen by president Trump and continues to have the confidence of president Biden for this very reason. Some of the statements on the IMF economic blog are- "Why jobs are plentiful and workers are scarce" Jan 2022 "In the US and UK recent labor market the puzzle, can be partly explained by mismatch, the pandemic's effect on women and older workers leaving the work force." The Reality Wages for teachers are depressed compared to workers in the financial and economics industries, in a frighteningly disproportionate way. When it comes to logistics, hospitality, leisure and restaurants industries workers were paid poorly for what is hard work and long days. In case the IMF economists, and economists at companies, missed this it was called the Great Resignation, people simply choosing to reject the conditions that were handed down to them by the financial industry and economists who built the economic structures of recent decades. Women leaving the workforce are faced with issues of mental health coping with added responsibilities of children at home for the two years, loss of income and widespread mental health problems. The word mental health may be beyond the grasp of economists and the financial industry, yet it is the one of the biggest problems for people. Another pernicious effect noted on the pages of the WSJ is that young white men are dropping out after school because they cannot afford college in alarming numbers. Leading to the kind of discontent for workers and families that president Biden is struggling to address. On IMF Blog- "IMF Podcasts: The Year in Review" Dec. 2021 "The past year has brought us new challenges even as the old ones persist. If anything, the ongoing pandemic has taught us to think differently abut tackling the challenges and questions when it comes to thinking about big issues such as climate change, gender equality, inflation and economic measurement." The Reality Climate change lumped in with economic measurement and inflation. The floods, fires, river and reservoir water levels affecting access to basic life supporting water, drought, all over the world are of a magnitude that is missed entirely.The response to a challenge of this type requires the kind of leadership that president Biden has provided for the world with his $360 billion climate change bill as just the first step of many, and  comprehensive policies covering all aspects of the climate crisis. ON IMF bog- "How Domestic Violence is a Threat to Economic Development." "Stopping violence against women is not only a moral imperative, new evidence shows it can help the economy." The Reality Domestic violence hurts children growing up in such households. It is not so much a moral imperative as it is bad for men, women and children. So many things are wrong about it and it is made worse in conditions of low wages and poor working conditions in poor neighborhoods lacking education. These neighborhoods are also affected by lack of healthcare and the opioid crisis and mental health issues. Not investing in education and healthcare in these communities is what is simply wrong, and which the founders of America as a nation, particularly Lincoln, would find appalling.   Relationship between Capital (the Financial Industry) and Labor (Workers and Families) On the basic issue of the relationship between capital and labor, the IMF and the financial industry, economists, and the economic structure they built in recent decades, have simply got it wrong. It violates both common sense and wisdom, and violates the spirit of the founders particularly Abraham Lincoln. This is what Abraham Lincoln had to say on Upward Mobility, the ease with which each generation can do better than the one before it, as critical in the fight to save the Union. This is from the Annual Message to Congress Dec. 3, 1861, at the start of the Civil War. That upward mobility has been lost in the US with ideas that "place capital on an equal if not above labor, in the structure of government," for the last three decades in the US after the early post war period of Truman and Eisenhower, Kennedy-Johnson.  And Lincoln says this about a hired laborer being fixed in that condition for life, or of future generations of that hired laborer facing disabilities and burdens, similar to the loss of upward mobility for the people today. "Now there is no such relation between capital and labor as assumed, nor is there any such thing as a free man being fixed for life in the condition of a hired laborer. Both these assumptions are false, and all inferences based on them are groundless." "Labor is prior to, and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed, if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are worthy of protection as any other rights." "Again: there is not, of necessity, any such thing as the free hired laborer being fixed to that condition for life. Many independent men everywhere in these states, a few years back in their lives, were hired laborers. The prudent penniless beginner in the world, labors for wages awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself, then labors on his own account another while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him. This is the just, and generous, and prosperous system, which opens the way to all- gives hope to all, and consequent energy, and progress, and improvement of condition to all." Lincoln even offers this warning- No men living are more worthy to be trusted than those who toil up from poverty- none less inclined to take, or touch, aught which they have not honestly earned. Let them beware of surrendering a political power which they already possess, and which if surrendered, will surely be used to close the door of advancement against such as they, and to fix new disabilities and burdens upon them, till all of liberty shall be lost." US president Biden has these ideas in mind as he struggles with one piece of legislation after another to restore what once was, to open the door of advancement, to remove these disabilities and burdens that Lincoln speaks of, and in so doing restoring liberty.   ...