ANTONIN SCALIA - AN IDEA

(This post was held up until after Justice Scalia's funeral)

Off the court, and I guess sometimes on it, Justice Scalia seemed like a affable fellow.  Republicans are hungry for heros* so they are quick to deify him.  They were quick also to say that the seat should be left open for the next president to fill, and I've heard that the Chief Justice has ordered a black cloth to be put over his chair out of respect.**

I've got an idea.  Let's not replace Antonin Scalia and retire his seat on the Supreme Court.  We can have a plaque put on the chair something like " In memory of Antonin Scalia, America's greatest Jurist" or some such superlative.  Better yet lets have a likeness figure made.  Let's see, wax doesn't sound permanent enough as sometimes there are heated discussions on the Supreme Court.  Bronze might be better.

Of course this leaves the Supreme court with only 8 members.  Most decisions are not close so there wouldn't be many ties that would leave the lower court decision intact.  But in cases where the lower court ruling is wildly undemocratic (like Citizen's United that said that corporations are people*** and such), the court would lock at 4 and 4 leaving the lower court ruling intact, just like now isn't it?  So no change from how the court operated while Justice Scalia was still alive, a fitting honor for the late Antonin Scalia.

But Republicans better be careful as there are more Democratic appointed judges than Republican.  Already they have had a case where the Supreme court locked 4 - 4 leaving the lower court decision in tact, but I understand only for that district.

On to the next problem.

* Consider the deified President Ronald Reagan who never came close to balancing a budget and left the government with more employees than he started with (The first president since Lyndon Johnson to do so.).  He had two embassy bombings, each much greater than the Benghazi affair and "cut and ran" when the marine barracks in Lebanan was bombed killing 241 American service men, emboldening terrorists that America would cave in if they were hit hard.  He did achieve an ill considered great reduction in taxes for the wealthy, but once he realized what he had done, he instituted more than 10 tax increases taking back about half of the tax reduction.  But Reagan had a spiritual attraction for Republicans which was what was important, I guess..
** https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/02/16/supreme-court-drapes-black-cloth-over-scalias-seat/
*** Just think, the CEO and Chairman of the Board (often the same person) not only gets to make a political donation for themselves but an even larger donation from their company, and they don't even have to tell their owners (stock holders) what they, the stock holders, donated for.

REPUBLICAN PARTY HAS A PROBLEM

So the Republican Party has a problem.  For a couple of decades, the party has enjoyed the support of the white working class without giving them anything except to say in election years that they are "The Real Americans."  As the working class wages have stagnated and losing purchasing power through inflation, the aristocracy of the Republican Party has really felt the working class is overpaid.   Even Donald Trump has said this on at least two occasions (He later said that he was talking about the minimum wage, but a depreciating minimum wage keeps all wages down.).*  But now they are hopping mad and see a chance to take over the Republican Party through Donald Trump who talks like they do.

Particularly over the last 7 yrs, Republicans have stirred up a hate pot with the majority leader of the Senate saying first that his aim was to prevent Obama getting a second term and, when Obama did, instituted a "scorched Earth policy" of refusing to pass bills that even the Republicans want.  The latest is that he will not take up a nomination to the supreme court, supposedly because it is the final year of the Obama administration.  It should be left to the next president which means that the supreme court will have to get along with eight members, probably at least for two years if Hillary is elected President. The House has been even worse.  Both have egged on this hatred, and now they are feeling the "Revolt Of The Great Republican Unwashed" along with a wealthier Republican contingent that likes to say things like "Sit Down And Shut Up" (the Chris Christy wing).**  Donald Trump has come along who speaks their language and now the Republican Party is having to "stew in their own juices" that they fomented.

Chris Christy has now even endorsed Donald Trump.  One wonders what he wants to get out of his endorsement.  Secretary of Defense is not a good fit and Secretary of State is out for someone who "tells it like it is."  I've got it, Secretary of Transportation where he has lots of experience.  OK, joking aside, how about Chief of Staff?

* http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-wages-are-too-high-2015-11
** http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2016/01/revolt-of-republican-great-unwashed.html

GDP 2010-2015

I don't know about you, but I don't recall such good GDP numbers as shown in the GDP figures below; yet the Dept. Commerce has been pretty consistently saying so (see second figure below):

There were minor downward revisions to consumer spending, which accounts for more than two thirds of U.S. economic activity. Consumer spending rose at a 2.0 percent pace rather than the 2.2 percent rate reported last month.
Unusually mild weather hurt sales of winter apparel in December and undermined demand for heating through the quarter. But there are signs consumption picked up in January with the return to more normal winter temperatures.
With gasoline prices around $2 per gallon, a tightening labor market gradually lifting wages and house prices boosting household wealth, the fundamentals for consumer spending remain very strong.
Business spending on nonresidential structures contracted at a 6.6 percent rate rather than the 5.3 percent pace the government reported last month. Government spending contracted at a 0.1 percent rate instead of rising at a 0.7 percent rate.*

 (
 (Click on figures to enlarge))

* http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/26/us-q4-2015-revised-gdp.html  (includes first figure)
Second figure reference:
 (http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/04/29/another-year-another-weak-first-quarter-for-gdp-what-gives/?mod=djemRTE_h)

THE PART-TIME JOB MYTH - 2016

A recent article by Vanguard once again disputes the myth that most jobs that are created are part-time.*

Between 2008 and early 2010, 11 million full-time jobs were lost in the U.S. economy. Nearly six years after the end of the global financial crisis, part-time workers still make up 18.5% of the labor market, above the prerecession level of 17%.
Nevertheless, claims that job growth since the recession has been fueled by part-time work are off-base. Official labor statistics indicate that nearly all net jobs created since early 2010 can be classified as full-time positions.

(Click on figure to enlarge)

* https://personal.vanguard.com/us/insights/article/gmm-us-labor-market-062015

CELL PHONE SECURITY

Why should cell phones be the only secure thing?  Showing probable cause to a judge, officials can get permission to bug your home, tap your land line phone, get your bank records, open safe deposit boxes, look at your mail, and others.  What is it about cell phones that they should be the lone exception to government intrusion?

BUILD BRIDGES, NOT WALLS

Pope Francis gave a reprimand to America at the Mexico-U.S. border for giving only attention to building "walls" rather than "bridges" that is not Christian.*  This has broadly been taken as a reprimand to Donald Trump who took offense as the implication he is not a Christian, but think about it for a little.  Donald Trump only made this promise because he knew there were millions of white Republican workers plus the "Sit Down And Shut Up" Republican crew who are for this (and deporting illegal immigrants as well).  And a wall is just a fence that you can't look through.  Every Republican candidate for President (and maybe the Democratic candidates as well) is at least for completing a double fence on our Mexican border.  John Kasich, however, expressed something worth considering:

Kasich is telling viewers of a CNN town hall to "put me down in the pro-Pope column."
...............................................................
Kasich says: "We have a right to build a wall. But I gotta tell you. There are too many walls between us. We need bridges between us if we're going to fix the problems in Washington 'cause all they do is have walls."

 A men, John.


Kasich's attitude of not speaking ill of his challengers is starting to take hold and he is appearing more and more on TV news programs for interviews of just comments.

And it may bare repeating that by law there is no such thing as a Cuban illegal immigrant.  Any Cuban who can step on American shores is legal (if they are caught at sea, however they are returned to Cuba).


* http://www.northjersey.com/news/at-gop-town-hall-kasich-says-he-s-pro-pope-in-battle-vs-trump-1.1514403 

JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA -- RIP

I think it best at this time to let the Republican Party morn the death of one of its most important political leaders - Antonin Scalia; however, I give a neutral reference to a compendium of his sayings with one quote below:

“The interpretive philosophy of the ‘living constitution’ – a document whose meaning changes to suit the times, as the Supreme Court sees the times – continues to predominate in the courts, and in the law schools. Indeed, it even predominates in the perception of the ordinary citizen, who has come to believe that what he violently abhors must be unconstitutional.”
— Antonin Scalia, Forword to Originalism: A Quarter-Century of Debate, 43 (Steven G. Calabresi, ed. Regnery Publishing 2007).

* http://websage.us/law/scalia.htm