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November 2012
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George Rebane

Not that there was any chance of doing that during the last thirty years or so.  Huffingtonpost.com summarizes it –

State Democrats have won a supermajority in the legislature (at least 54 Assembly seats and 27 Senate seats), which means they can now reach the two-thirds majority vote needed to overcome filibusters and pass crucial tax revenue laws. It also empowers the party to overturn vetoes handed down by Gov. Jerry Brown.

CaliforniaLegislatureThe certifiable idiots are now fully in charge of the asylum known as the California Legislature.  I believe that Californians are again first in the nation, this time to demonstrate that we are not capable of governing ourselves.

Dear reader, if you thought that AB32 (aka the cynically named ‘Global Warming Solutions Act’) was a disaster when passed, you were among the state’s few prescients.   Today no one will get much credit for predicting the dystopia that now faces our once Golden State.  All I can advise is to keep women, children, and the infirm away from the exits.  We don’t want any more injuries as the rush of the state’s emigrants turns into a torrent.

And then, just when you thought things were already going to hell in a handcart, they upgrade that to high speed rail.

[9nov12 update] The world of liberty and enterprise is beginning to take note of the other disaster that befell our country last Tuesday.  Today’s 9nov12 WSJ observed our state’s calamity with these words.

For Republicans unhappy with Tuesday’s election, we have good news—at least most of you don’t live in California. Not only did Democrats there win voter approval to raise the top tax rate to 13.3%, but they also received a huge surprise—a legislative supermajority. Look out below. … The main check on Sacramento excess has been a constitutional amendment requiring a two-thirds majority of both houses to raise taxes. Although Republicans have been in the minority for four decades, they could impose a modicum of spending restraint by blocking tax increases. If Democratic leads stick in two races where ballots are still being counted, liberals will pick up enough seats to secure a supermajority. Governor Jerry Brown then will be the only chaperone for the Liberals Gone Wild video that is Sacramento.

Noting the ongoing rise in union power in the state that promises to swamp the already unserviceable fiscal burdens, unfunded liabilities, and growing municipal bankruptcies, the WSJ states that “now Californians will experience the joys of one-party, union-run progressive governance.”

However, there is a possible upside for America in this regional storm of electoral dumbth.

The silver lining here is that Americans will be able to see the modern liberal-union state in all its raw ambition. The Sacramento political class thinks it can tax and regulate the private economy endlessly without consequence. As a political experiment it all should be instructive, and at least Californians can still escape to Nevada or Idaho.

Posted in , , ,

109 responses to “Dems Supermajority – there’s no stopping them now (updated 9nov12)”

  1. Bob Hobert Avatar
    Bob Hobert

    I wonder what/who they will blame now.

    Like

  2. Russ Steele Avatar

    Katy Grims writing at the CalWatchDog has some insight HERE.
    Democrat view
    Steve Maviglio, a seasoned Democtatic stratigist who has worked for former Gov. Gray Davis and former Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, said to expect not much will change. But he was very happy with the results.
    A Democratic supermajority in the California Legislature is 54 Democrats in the 80-member Assembly; and 27 Democrats in the 40-member Senate. It renders the minority party almost irrelevant. And a supermajority can override the governor’s veto.
    Maviglio said that Assembly Democrats did not expect to win a supermajority this election, but it was expected in the Senate. He added that California’s recent redistricting may have played a role.
    This majority win caught many people off guard in the state.
    But even within the Democratic Party, there are smaller blocks of groups, Maviglio explained. The Latino Caucus and the Black Caucus are two of the more influential Democratic caucuses that haven’t always agreed with party leadership on issues.
    Maviglio also said he expected to see more of the moderates from each party work together more often on contentious issues.

    Like

  3. George Rebane Avatar

    RussS 405pm – Nice sentiments about moderation and all that. But I’ll believe those rock apes reaching across the aisle on “contentious issues” after they demonstrate that accomplishment. From here on the Republicans will be firing blanks on issues they want to contend; what are their negotiables. Maviglio is blowing old smoke as a cover for what’s to come.

    Like

  4. Scott Obermuller Avatar

    re: ‘I wonder what/who they will blame now.’ Same as always – some one else! They’ll start with Bush and then the Koch brothers. After that maybe the Tea Party and finally white racists. The press and the LSN media will fall in line and repeat word for word what ever the Dems claim is the problem. In the end, it’ll be the Jews and the banks and then the box cars will roll. The fascists always have to find some one else to blame. History does have a way of repeating itself. As they say after serving your food – ‘Enjoy!’

    Like

  5. Jeff Pelline Avatar
    Jeff Pelline

    You guys hate California so much, why don’t you move to a state that better reflects your extreme views? The voters in California have expressed their views. It must be stressful for you to live here.

    Like

  6. Russ Steele Avatar
    Russ Steele

    George@05:34
    I agree. Ellen asked why all of sudden are the Democrats on the left seeking all this cooperation from the Republicans if they have the majority. My answer, they still need someone to blame when crap happens. They are just setting up the Republican to blame. Even thought they have the majority, they still need some one or some organization to blame, it is never their fault when things turn into crap.

    Like

  7. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    So the purple man thinks the right bloggers are extreme while his buds have a super majority and can do anything they want. I think Mr. purple is a loon regarding logic. He is better off in SF.

    Like

  8. Steve Wynn Avatar
    Steve Wynn

    Face it guys…. California is the bell-weather for the direction that this country is going.
    No more of these angry old white guys running this country as the election showed that the time for change is now, as in 2 more Presidental elections (at the current pace) the Republican party will consider it a gift to win the election for dog catcher.
    The Republican leadership better learn from the recent election otherwise the only thing that will be happening is crying about how they represent the true American;s while the actual true voting American will throw the old white guys views in the kamode!

    Like

  9. D. King Avatar
    D. King

    “…while the actual true voting American will throw the old white guys views in the kamode!”
    Why the hate for old white guys Steve Wynn?

    Like

  10. D. King Avatar
    D. King

    Jeff Pelline | 08 November 2012 at 07:03 PM
    Jeff,
    You and the Steve Wynn guy have me worried. You may want to seek some help!

    Like

  11. Jesus Betterman Avatar
    Jesus Betterman

    I’m glad to see that al the folks who called the election for Romney so well are now predicting gloom and doom for the state. That bides well for the rest of us.

    Like

  12. D. King Avatar
    D. King

    Boy, talk about old white guys! Who gave Kharis, (Jerry Brown), Tana leaves?
    http://anubis4_2000.tripod.com/Kharis/pages1/legend.htm

    Like

  13. George Rebane Avatar

    It is a bit humorous that the new progressive elements who will replace the old white guys haven’t figured out how to create the wealth to support their socialism. If they move as requested, the socialists will run out of other people’s money sooner because all they know how to do is tax the rich.

    Like

  14. Scott Obermuller Avatar

    Who’s angry? It ‘s always the left that are out burning buildings and trashing cars and looting and saying how angry they are. The further left the govt goes, the angrier the left get. Now the left have total control of the state govt and the first thing they get pissed about is that the R’s won’t cooperate.
    BTW FUE, I don’t hate California, I’m just so sorry to see it sink into a morass.
    And Doug – we conservatives have been proven completely correct as to the dismal state of California. Our unemployment is far above the other larger states, we are constantly in debt. Cities are going bankrupt. Conservatives predicted all of that and it’s now happening. The gloom and doom is here. Maybe you should talk to some retired Stockton city employees. Tell them how wonderful everything is.

    Like

  15. D. King Avatar
    D. King

    Windmills and solar panels George, then tax the crap out of energy. Yeah, that’s the ticket!
    I have found their thought process George; it is here:
    http://flamesnation.ca/uploads/Image/wandering-in-desert.jpg

    Like

  16. D. King Avatar
    D. King

    Well, the left really won this one!
    Boeing announces layoffs in defense division
    Boeing has announced a major restructuring of its defense division. Along with the announcement came news that the firm will cut 30 percent of management jobs from 2010 levels. The company will also close facilities in California and consolidate several business units to cut costs.
    http://suyts.wordpress.com/2012/11/08/the-layoffs-we-voted-for/

    Like

  17. MikeL Avatar

    D. King 1:06AM
    Thanks for that video. Like ya know, women issues are so important, like. Like I’m for making like mandatory suicide and gay marriage equal like.

    Like

  18. earlcrabb Avatar

    While it may be the cantankerous old white men who are complaining now, it will be the young ‘uns who will be marching in the streets in the future. It’s Jeff’s son who will bear the brunt of the new realignment after we’re dead and gone. He’ll no doubt get a good education and a good job somewhere, but most of his earnings will go to support his new “family” and the trillions in debt we leave behind.

    Like

  19. JeffPelline@mac.com Avatar
    JeffPelline@mac.com

    George, Earl et al,
    I’m glad you’ve acknowledged this “old white man” thing. You just left out the word “angry.”
    Our family (including our son) is confident of our nation’s future. We love our country and will work hard to help make it succeed. In fact, we have done that our whole lives: creating wealth, helping to create a new business or two, helping to take care of our parents in their declining years (we were the “caregivers”), donating money to nonprofit causes, etc.
    To us, America is the same melting pot that it was when it accepted “naturalized” citizens such as George; honored veterans who post here with low-interest VA loans from Uncle Sam; tolerated the youthful foibles of Earl (which I suspect gobbled up some taxpayer funds with “unintended consequences”), even tolerated mean-spirited people such as Todd Juvinal (and helped him out with what allegedly was a foreclosed “spec” home).
    We’re OK with the melting pot thing. And we accept the concept of “leverage.” In fact, America, as Mikey D should know, was BUILT on leverage.
    There’s no doubt we will have to work together to reduce our deficits — and will.
    It’s going to be a real challenge, though, if you refuse to generate any revenue while you’re cutting costs (and creating costs from unemployment) and cutting into the profits of companies who depend on government contracts (like Cisco).
    It’s going to be a long, slow, painful process. And I applaud Jerry Brown — of all people — for tackling it with the “prudence of joseph.” Come to think of it, Jerry is an “old, white man” too. But he’s not angry.

    Like

  20. George Rebane Avatar

    The notions of hate and anger when characterizing opposition to the insane policies of collectivism are off the mark and remind me of the ‘small’ tactics used by Team Obama in the just ended campaign.
    Collectivism as the basis for governance has never been stable in any of its forms. As it bankrupts the people who adopt it, it also compels them to eventually convert their idealistic democracy into calcifying forms of autocracies that end in tyranny with governments killing millions of their own citizens.
    I don’t recall too many people marched to the wall by those who hold dear the principles of our Founders as summarized in the Bastiat Triangle. The opposite cannot be said for those whose ideologies violate those principles.

    Like

  21. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    Pelline, Mao, etal,
    We are not angry, we are disappointed. America has squandered its place on the planet as the last best hope and is now morphing into France. As a person who does not like snails or red wine, this is an unacceptable move. So, all you silver spooners, the purple folks and his minions, can rest assured your little stash of money hidden somewhere in the Caymans will be the next target. I’ll laugh my toosh off when you go to get the money and find it went to a Chicago Community Organizer who then distributes it to a single woman for her condoms. What a hoot!

    Like

  22. Ryan Mount Avatar

    What’s wrong with anger? Anger is good. Anger is simply a call for change. Perhaps we mean “rage” which is an entirely different and destructive emotion. I see no evidence of rage anywhere.
    The only problem with anger, are the people who don’t know how to deal with it. And, as your career councilor (I’m not really one, but I play one on TV), I would recommend not taking a job in customer service of any type if one has trouble with anger.

    Like

  23. earlcrabb Avatar

    Jeff P. 6:52am – I’d like to know who in this comment stream doesn’t love their country? Or added to the common cause? If we didn’t care, we would be watching American Idol instead of beating the keyboards day after day. I have plenty of arguments with the right, but just as many with the left, and I intend to hold their feet to the fire. Let them prove me wrong.
    I just don’t see where a government dominated by union bosses and attorneys is any better than one dominated by corporations and Mr. Burns.

    Like

  24. Steve Enos Avatar
    Steve Enos

    The below story link provides the basics about what has happened to the R’s and where they are headed with out real change. Condi Rice gets it as do a lot of other R’s like Mike Murphy.
    A number of very experienced and thinking R’s are saying the R’s… “need to attract more people than grumpy old white guys.” This isn’t the D’s or the left saying this, it’s smart folks on the right saying “grumpy old white guys”.
    Mike Murphy is no lib, D shill. He gets it and demograpics matter.
    “Conservatives’ stance against immigration reform and gay marriage is “a recipe for extinction,” said analyst Mike Murphy, a one-time adviser to prominent Republicans including Arizona Senator John McCain, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, former New Jersey Governor Christie, Todd Whitman and Romney, a former Massachusetts governor”.
    Mike Murphy said…“The question is whether or not we’re going to have an adult conversation inside the party about our need to attract more people than grumpy old white guys,” Murphy told MSNBC. “Demographically, our time is running out.”
    Worth reading what some R’s have to say on this matter:
    http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/11/09/gop-clearly-losing-important-segments-of-the-electorate-condoleezza-rice-says/

    Like

  25. JeffPelline@mac.com Avatar
    JeffPelline@mac.com

    Well said Steve. My lovely wife, who is a registered “R,” would sure agree with that!

    Like

  26. Ryan Mount Avatar

    It’s not a recipe for extinction, no more than the Greens or whatever. It’s a recipe for marginalization. But so what? If they want to ban abortion, then they need to stick to their guns, pardon the pun.
    There is no reason to moderate their positions other than to become more Democratic-like. Why? So we can have two dominant parties that look exactly the same?
    Oh wait…

    Like

  27. Russ Steele Avatar
    Russ Steele

    If only “angry white guys” vote for Republicans and we need to change our principles and our message to win more minority votes one has to ask, how come Tom McClintock a hard core conservative got 61% of the vote for his reelection in 2010 and 2012. Do only “angry white guys” live in his districts? No women, no Hispanics, no disaffected Democrats? Really?

    Like

  28. Todd Juvinall Avatar
    Todd Juvinall

    I read an article on RCP this morning and it was the comparison between 2004 Bush v Kerry and Tuesday. Bush won by 2.4 percent. There was no angst and gnashing of teeth telling the D’s they needed to go get those “white guys”. The similarities are amazing in the two races. So, I again say it is not a call to R’s to become what the D’s want us to be.

    Like

  29. Ryan Mount Avatar

    The similarities are amazing in the two races.
    Exactly. Swift Boat anyone? It’s just that this time around, the Democrats got to play the incumbent, we’re-gonna-be-the-nastier-ones-this-time game. Got rape? Got a GM/Chrysler job in a swing State?
    So, I again say it is not a call to R’s to become what the D’s want us to be
    Exactly. Unless you want to be a Democrat, which then you should just join their party. Problem solved.
    Please note two things:
    1) I’m not apart of Todd’s “us”
    2) I am agreeing with Todd on two things.

    Like

  30. Gregory Avatar

    As perhaps the fattest man in Nevada County, Pelline has a real target on his back in this brave new world. Obesity will be the scapegoat for runaway costs in Obamacare, because there really won’t be anything left standing, and there must be scapegoats. I’ll be a target, too, but I can hide behind Jeff for the moment.
    Last I looked, 49.6% of the country’s voters voted against Obama, 49.3% if you toss out the Green vote that thought Obama/Biden wasn’t far enough to the left. That isn’t a mandate. Boehner has more R’s in his caucus than before, and the Benghazi hearings behind closed doors in the House and Senate next week aren’t likely to make his supporters in those bodies all that happy.
    We live in interesting times.

    Like

  31. Todd Juvinall Avatar

    Ryan, you are a part of the “us”, you are just a rebel. So was I.

    Like

  32. Ryan Mount Avatar

    You are a part of the “us”, you are just a rebel.
    Oh crap. I swear I don’t want to be a part of any club that would have me as a member.

    Like

  33. Todd Juvinall Avatar

    George, on your update today. Three democrat Senators were picketing with the union thugs against Raley’s yesterday. Darrel Steinberg, Roger Dickinson and one other goon. The downside to the union victory is Raley’s goes away, and their jobs too, and it will be back-filled by Walmarts, a non union shop. Ah those unintended consequences.

    Like

  34. JeffPelline@mac.com Avatar
    JeffPelline@mac.com

    Gregory,
    I venture to guess that your family has outspent mine in taxpayer-funded health care costs over the years. What a jerk.

    Like

  35. Ken Jones Avatar
    Ken Jones

    As neither an R nor a D, I must say the angst from the right is funny. This BS coming from the Rs that for years trashed Clinton. The same group that had “Impeach Obama” bumper stickers PRIOR to his inauguration in 2009. This coming from the party that defended Bush’s illegal war against a sovereign nation based on false premises. Both Rs and Ds own the debt and the dysfunction that has become our government. President Obama is hardly going to be the Satan, Socialist, Muslim, Serpent, Communist, Kenyan, whatever label du jour you prefer. I think both parties suck. The only difference is the level of suckage and that depends on where you fall within the bell curve. I don’t see the disaster of CA that the far right does. Maybe because the far right has tunnel vision and are myopic. The Rs have got to be more inclusive or they will eventually become moot. The Ds have to be more realistic and less Pollyanna. The world is dynamic, adapt or become extinct.

    Like

  36. Gregory Avatar

    Like most of your guesses, you’d probably be wrong, Jeff.
    Let’s settle the issue in an appropriate trial by combat. I hereby challenge you to a footrace from City Hall on NC’s Broad Street down to the National, a standing barefoot start but with putting on shoes and socks first, without assistance. Shoes must be laced and tied; no velcro or slipons.
    Do you feel lucky?

    Like

  37. Russ Steele Avatar
    Russ Steele

    Obama Elected and Unemployment Rate Jumps in December. Here is the list of companies that are laying off employees, or just closing up shop HERE.
    Here some samples:
    Energizer –
    The St. Louis-based company said Thursday that it expects to shed about 1,500 employees. When finished, the restructuring should lead to $200 million in pretax yearly savings, Energizer said. It aims to have most of its restructuring steps finished by the end of September 2014.
     
    • Exide Technologies –
    Exide Technologies announced Thursday that it will be idling its lead-recycling operations in Laureldale and laying off 150 workers, effective no later than March 31.
     
    • Westinghouse –
    Westinghouse Anniston, the contractor responsible for shutting down Anniston’s chemical weapons incinerator, has reduced its workforce by another 50 employees.
     
    • Research in Motion Limited –
    Research in Motion Ltd., the maker of BlackBerry smartphones, laid off about 200 people at its U.S. headquarters in Irving on Wednesday, according to a source close to the company who did not want to be named.
    • Lightyear Network Solutions –
    More than one dozen employees at a Pikeville company lost their jobs this week. Officials with Lightyear Network Solutions said they are consolidating offices in Louisville and Pikeville to save money.
     
    • Providence Journal –
    The Providence Journal Co. laid off 23 full-time workers Wednesday as part of a cost-cutting effort, including 16 members of the Providence Newspaper Guild and 7 non-union employees.
     
    • Hawker Beechcraft –
    The company says 240 employees will lose their jobs with the closing of Hawker Beechcraft Services facilities in Little Rock, Ark.; Mesa, Ariz.; and San Antonio, Texas.
     
    • Boeing (30% of their management staff) –
    Boeing Co. said Wednesday it plans to employ 30% fewer executives at its Boeing Defense, Space & Security unit by the end of 2012 compared to 2010 levels.
     
    • CVPH Medical Center –
    CVPH Medical Center has handed pink slips to 17 employees. The layoffs — nine in management and eight hourly staffers — are part of an effort to “help bolster the hospital’s financial position in 2013 and beyond,” a press release said.
     
    • US Cellular –
    The move will result in 980 job cuts at U.S. Cellular, with 640 in the Chicago area, according to a spokeswoman. The cuts are slightly under 12 percent of the approximately 8,400 total employees U.S. Cellular had at the end of the third quarter.
     
    • Momentive Performance Materials –
    About 150 workers at Sistersville’s Momentive Performance Materials plant will be temporarily laid off later this month, officials said this week.
     
    • Rocketdyne –
    About 100 employees at Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, most of whom work in the San Fernando Valley, were laid off Wednesday in response to dwindling government spending on space exploration, the company said. The layoffs were effective immediately, and 75 percent of them came at the facilities on Canoga and De Soto avenues, which employ about 1,100 people. The company has six sites across the Valley.
     
    • Brake Parts –
    The leader of an automotive parts plant in Lincoln County has told state officials that there are plans to lay off 75 workers starting in late December…The layoffs are expected to start Dec. 28 and continue in the first quarter of 2013
    • Vestas Wind Systems –
    Vestas Wind Systems A/S (VWS) is seeking to sell a stake of as much as 20 percent and said it’s reducing headcount by 3,000 to raise the staff cuts by the biggest wind turbine maker to almost a third over two years.
     
    • Husqvarna –
    Husqvarna AB (HUSQB), the world’s biggest maker of powered garden tools, plans to cut about 600 jobs in a move that will save 220 million kronor ($33 million) a year by 2014.
     
    • Center for Hospice New York –
    The Center for Hospice and Palliative Care plans to temporarily lay off as many as 40 employees next year as it embarks on a major renovation of the inpatient unit at its Cheektowaga campus.
     
    • Bristol-Meyers –
    Bristol-Myers Squibb is following up its lackluster third-quarter results with almost 480 layoffs. As Pharmalot reports, the company notified the New Jersey government that it would scale back in Plainsboro, which means the cuts will hit its sales operations.
     
    • OCE North America –
    Trumbull printer- and scanning-equipment provider Oce North America, Inc. will lay off 135 workers in three Connecticut communities, including East Hartford, according to its notice with the state Labor Department.
     
    • Darden Restaurants –
    The company, which was among those who had received an Obamacare waiver in the past, is looking to limit workers to 28 hours per week. A full time employee that is required to have health insurance (lest the employer pay a fine) works 30 hours per week, as defined by the Obamacare law.
     
    • West Ridge Mine –
    In its statement, UtahAmerican Energy blames the Obama administration for instituting policies that will close down “204 American coal-fired power plants by 2014″ and for drastically reducing the market for coal.
     
    • United Blood Services Gulf –
    United Blood Services Gulf South region, the non-profit blood service provider for much of south Louisiana and Mississippi, will lay off approximately 10 percent of its workforce. It was a hard decision to make according to Susan Begnaud, Regional Center Director for the Gulf South region.
    Election has consequences. Here are some of the economic consequences!

    Like

  38. JeffPelline@mac.com Avatar
    JeffPelline@mac.com

    Gregory,
    I know this has been a really tough week for you — from the Business Week cover mocking global warming deniers to the Elections — so I forgive you. I think I’ll send you an unwanted magazine subscription to Business Week and Time! LOL.

    Like

  39. Ken Jones Avatar
    Ken Jones

    Russ
    During the first three years of the Bush administration, the layoff rate reached 8.7 percent for workers over 20 years old, one of the highest rates on record, according to the New York Times.
    The survey also recorded the highest layoff rate ever for long-tenured workers — those who held their job for more than three years. Employers laid off 5.3 million, or 6.3 percent of all long-tenured workers between 2001 and 2003.
    In the past, layoffs peaked during recessions and declined during economic booms; but a new survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the layoff rate is increasing regardless of the state of the rest of the US economy.
    “No one should be surprised by the increasing frequency of layoffs,” James Glassman, senior US economist for the investment firm J. P. Morgan Chase, told the New York Times. “It is the echo of globalization. Companies are shifting production around more frequently to take advantage of low-cost centers.”
    Is Bush responsible for these layoffs any more than Obama for the ones you cited? Please.

    Like

  40. Gregory Avatar

    I didn’t vote for Romney, Jeff. Sorry to burst your bubble, and I didn’t post here until checking your echo chamber, and I found the cheap shot you posted against me there, giving me license to respond in kind. Tabloid Climatology in a tantrum by Bloomberg really doesn’t sting, especially since there aren’t any good and reputable meteorologists who agree with him.
    I’d have responded there, but you edited my last post in your sandbox to make your point, not mine. So we have to chat here.
    Jeff, if the waddle down to the National is too far for you, we can just make it from the City Hall steps to Cirinos, the third door down from City Hall. Can you handle that?

    Like

  41. JeffPelline@mac.com Avatar
    JeffPelline@mac.com

    Gregory,
    That cover made me think of you — in spades! I figured by now you’d be demanding the curriculum vitae of the editors, writers, even the printer. Thanks for the chuckle.

    Like

  42. Gregory Avatar

    Ken Jones, there are about 5 million fewer jobs in the USA compared to 4 years ago, and the recession that started at the end of the Clinton administration, triggered by the dot com crash on Clinton’s watch, was slowly turning around until 9/11/2001 when the World Trade Centers collapsed, taking about a trillion dollars out of the US economy. That was what Bush II had to deal with in his first years. Not that Bush did an admirable job dealing with it, but the outcome was arguable better than what we’ve had after 4 years of Obama.
    Is GTMO still in operation?

    Like

  43. Russ Steele Avatar
    Russ Steele

    KenJones@12:05
    The Bush ira layoffs came over multiple years as businesses took advantage of personal productivity enabled by computer and Internet technology. The Obama jobs losses were the direct result ObamaCare costs and those layoffs came with in days of his re-election, not over years. We can expect more layoffs as businesses seek to do more with fewer people. They do not have to pay health care cost on machines and robots. Cloud technology, broadband and AI technology will continue to reduce the workforce, regardless of who is in the White House. However, in this case these businesses were very clear why they were laying off people, they had to reduce the cost of doing business to pay the coming taxes and health care costs. Boeing depart California, again to reduce the tax burden on the company.
    This is just the tip of the iceberg there will be more layoffs in the coming weeks, more companies will be moving off shore where they can find cheaper labor, and more reliable low cost power. We are headed for another recession and the starting point will be the most recent election. Stay Tuned!

    Like

  44. JesusBetterman Avatar

    So Raley’s closes it’s doors, and all the folks in GV/NC who shopped there suddenly no longer need food? What a concept! Nope, it simply means other stores will be hiring more folks, and some company will buy up the fixtures and the lease, and start a new store. That is the life cycle of a business, and the great invisible hand of capitalism moving towards owners who will probably have a bit more respect for their employees. What’s not to like?
    If Raley’s or any other business really wanted to make the case to their employees that they would go broke, they could open up their books and prove it, but you know, I’ve never heard of that happening. It must be a “good old boy’s club” rule. I noticed on KFBK they trotted out the Big Bad Boy of Walmart, that delightful firm that gave it’s employees handbooks on how to scam the California and Federal welfare systems, rather than pay them more money. With a super majority in the CA leg, I would look to see more laws regarding and regulating Walmart style businesses. Why are we exporting profits from Californians to company headquarters located in other states?

    Like

  45. JesusBetterman Avatar

    See you on the slopes, Greg, any day of the week, and you obviously are unaware that Jeff lives in the opposite direction from your proposed route.

    Like

  46. Gregory Avatar

    Jeff,
    That cover made me think of famed environmentalist James Lovelock’s interview at The Guardian in 2010:
    “The great climate science centres around the world are more than well aware how weak their science is. If you talk to them privately they’re scared stiff of the fact that they don’t really know what the clouds and the aerosols are doing. They could be absolutely running the show. We haven’t got the physics worked out yet.”
    Your favorite source of climate science facts in Nevada City, when asked what “temperature” was, couldn’t go beyond ‘it’s the number on the thermometer’ when asked. And she didn’t remember ever taking a class in physics, going back to high school.
    I see your profile still doesn’t even list what your bachelor’s was in. Let’s remind everyone it was Rhetoric, as empty as ever.

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  47. JeffPelline@mac.com Avatar
    JeffPelline@mac.com

    Gregory,
    Quick. Let us know about the curriculum vitae of the editors, writers, even the printer at Business Week! Hurry, hurry. What a boob.

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  48. Gregory Avatar

    Name calling is the emptiest of rhetoric, Jeff. Your “valet” is spinning in his grave.

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  49. JeffPelline@mac.com Avatar
    JeffPelline@mac.com

    Gregory,
    As is yours.

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