I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

Glenna - hope you're feeling better.  Kids are germ machines, much as we love/adore them, they ARE germ machines!  Hope all works well for your son.  

Such a perilous time for people looking for work. Don't think anyone has any "answers" for this situation, just know how difficult it is for so many.

TOPIC of discussion around here, natch, is the Blizzard we're expecting this afternoon - lighter snow now, but when the temps go below 0 and the wind is 40 MPH, all sorts of "warnings" about "wind chill" and dangers of the cold.

Hope all are safe, and WARM, and enjoying the beauty of the snow from a warm inside.

Wow !!!! A beach would feel really great right now.  We had a couple inches of snow overnight and just spits stuff since them.  Nothing accumulating.  It looks great till you walk out the door and the then the wind just whips up and you are drawing into yourself to compensate.  Ick....we are still going from warm to cold in very short time periods.  Too quick to suit  me.

Hooray for E.  Can't wait to hear her news.   

Jackie

Here in Jersey, waiting for the snow to start, and finishing some legal work so I can get back to noveling.

Hi All:  It's been snowing here in Niagara since noon yesterday and the wind is causing lots of snowsqualls/whiteouts and accidents.  It's supposed to move on some time after midnight, on its way to the northeast US and maritime provinces.  We'll be delighted to see the end of it, but really do not wish it upon you folks.....

I like winter, BUT I hate too much snow!  Not really a cocooning-type person!

Blue, I saw that segment on the Ed Schultz show a couple of hours ago.  Loved the last line of the link: " The arrogance is breath-taking " .  There is something I think about jack-ass and hypocrite being synonymous isn't there????

Jackie  

Hoping all you Easterners are staying safe, warm and dry.  Take care.

Just finished digging out.  It is beautiful, but very, very cold.

-29C here.  But the sun is shining.  Beautiful day if you don't HAVE to go anywhere and can just it enjoy it....like me. 

Scary weather! And I hear another massive cold front is going to blast down next Monday! 

Something I just finished reading....great reading for me sitting here and wondering what 'game plan comes next from the GOP -- extremist side, for trying to derail this Presidency.  Unless something horrid were to happen, I think in years to come how sad to look back at the enormous waste of this time in history.  Something akin to how I felt over the Clinton impeachment travesties.....so much time, efforts and money wasted. 

Obama May Be Best Economic President Ever

Obama May Be Best Economic President Ever

By Froma Harrop[img src="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/dev/mt-static/images/expand_down_40w_v2.png"> - December 31, 2013

Email

Print

Comments

Lend me your ears. I have come to praise President Obama and bury the myth that Republican presidents are better for the economy than Democratic presidents. Not only do Democrats produce superior economic results but they blow Republicans out of the water in the comparisons.

Let's turn the mic over to Bob Deitrick, a principal at Polaris Financial Partners in Westerville, Ohio. Deitrick crunched 80 years of numbers. Politically, 1929 to 2009 were exactly divided -- 40 years under Republican presidents and 40 under Democrats.

He put his extraordinary findings in a book, "Bulls, Bears and the Ballot Box."

Because President Obama was in office for only three years at the time of the writing, Deitrick and his co-author left him out. But Deitrick now has enough of an Obama track record to have recently declared in a Forbes interview, "By all measures, President Obama has outperformed every modern president."

His findings were so lopsided in favor of Democrats I had to ask him whether he is one. He said no. "I really was apolitical until 2000," start of the George W. Bush era. That's when he saw massive mismanagement of the economy at the expense of his middle- to upper-middle-class clients.

"The average retail investor got slammed, where hedge funds were allowed to take advantage of everyone else," he told me.

The best overall economic performance pre-Obama was that of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson (whom Deitrick put together because of Kennedy's early death). No. 2 was Bill Clinton, with Franklin D. Roosevelt in third place.

The top six included two Republicans. Dwight Eisenhower ranked fourth, and Ronald Reagan sixth, edged out of fifth place by Harry Truman.

Were it not for Herbert Hoover, George W. would have ended up last.

Reagan was a "stimulus addict," in Deitrick's view. His economic growth came through massive spending on defense and deep tax cuts. The price was a tripling of the national debt.

Ordinary Americans did better under Clinton, who also left behind a budget (SET ITAL) surplus (END ITAL). Thanks to a growing economy and higher taxes on the rich, Obama has lowered the deficit to 4 percent of gross domestic product, down from over 10 percent at the end of the Bush years.

Here's an interesting calculation: Suppose that in 1929, you put $100,000 in a 401(k) fully invested in stocks. Under the 40 years of Republican presidents, you would have ended up with only $126,000. Under the Democrats, you would have amassed a retirement nest egg of $3.9 million!

If you added Obama, the Democrats' number would be much bigger.

Deitrick believes that presidents largely control the economy -- through the bully pulpit and the power to appoint leaders, enact executive orders and issue vetoes. (Not everyone agrees they hold most economic cards.)

Deitrick is a disciple of Marriner Eccles, the rich Republican banker whom Roosevelt named Federal Reserve chairman. Eccles held that putting more money in middle-class hands is key to recovery and that trickledown economics helps mainly those providing the trickle.

Speaking of income inequality, the gap between the top 1 percent and bottom 99 percent widened 20 percent in the 40 years Republicans ran the Oval Office. In the Democratic presidential years, it narrowed 16 percent.

Obama's greatest successes, Deitrick says, are the auto rescue plan and the Wall Street reforms, which revived faith among investors. The annual compound return on stocks has averaged between 25 and 30 percent (depending on the index) since the lows of March 2009.

Deitrick says he's perpetually shocked that Democrats don't trumpet their economic triumphs. You don't have to be a Democrat to wonder why.

Another very interesting read to begin this yr.

http://act.prospect.org/page/m/1093c81d/182e93d8/201d7d0b/44112d31/4074655494/VEsE/

Bren - I'm so sorry. I'm hearing more and more stories like yours everyday.  Let's hope that this economy turnaround soon helps out your situation.  As far as dental insurance, I don't think most of us have it, but if they do, the pay outs are pretty bad - making it not worth purchasing.  I only recently had access to employment linked dental and eye insurance.  I've run the numbers; it just doesn't wash.

E- I don't know much about what trial you are getting on, but I'm so glad that it worked out for you.

Blue - "cryoseims,".....does it sound eery?  Very interesting.

So, was wondering for all of you dealing with the snow and the cold, do you ever have power outages?  Do most have generators and/or wood stoves?   How do you deal with this??   Usually when we get power busting weather, it is not that cold, but even at 32, my house got down to 42 inside after 2 days without power.  I can't imagine if I had gone any longer.  (I know have a generator.)  Stay safe!