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Trump's infrastructure plan: $40 billion in private funding already lined up ... Thanx to Fox Business
This posting will be Part 12 of the "How to Privatize America" series of this journal/ blog ... to look at some of the infrastructure talk that been getting alot of play on Capitalism Hill (Capitol Hill). I wanted to open with the above video with Norman Anderson, informal adviser for the Trump infrastructure task force, to show how hungry investors are to a deal, and been waiting with anticipation for a moment like this ... again, these folks are ready to roll at the drop of a hat ... and I would bet, that there are more informal advisers to this administration and President, than you can shake a stick at. But it's importante to slow down a minute before we all jump ... jumping too fast into this, can be more like an "art of the con" ... than an "art of the deal", that even the President himself wont have much control over ... any more than President Obama had as far as creating the ACA/ Obamacare ... a plan that was not created by Obama, and against his proposed idea and vision, for a partial public option ... the people who helped "create and draft" ObamaCare ... are the same people in the GOP/ Republican side right now at high speed, ready to condemn it and abolish it, as their No#1 priority at that, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh {:-) ... just to show an example of how fucked up politics can be when applied without thinking of nothing besides corporate interests ... and Obama's fellow key Democrats, just trashed what President Obama proposed as well. Yeah, I could come up with an even quicker way to pay for infrastructure while still giving some tax incentives to wealthy folks, I'd cut half the damn defense budget, paying that shit off in less than 5 years, by winding down our policing and asskissing for the Saudi's and Middle East, and cut a bunch of unnecessary subsidizing to overbloated corporations and banks, that dont even need it. For me, we need public funded infrastructure more, that EVERY American OWNS, not just a handful of profiteers. I chose a few pieces to highlight below out of several I read, to get to the point of questioning ... after below, I'll add a few views of my own.
***** NATION OF CHANGE: Trump's infrastructure 'plan' is really just a privatization scam ... (newsread)
***** BUSINESS INSIDER: How will Trump's infrastructure plan be paid for? || It's already fairly obvious where Trump's infrastructure push will turn into a dogfight ... (newsread/ audio clip)
***** www.documentcloud.org: Priority List- Emergency and National Security Projects 121416 ... (50 priority projects circulated in congressional and business communities, to look through)
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***** PD/ RCJ: "HOW TO PRIVATIZE AMERICA" PART'S 11 THRU 1
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Thomas Hudson Pickering/ Ranch Chimp
First of all, what's going on in Washington with this big hot- rush Trumphrastucture gig is getting about as ridiculous as that bloody damn "Great Wall of Trump" on the southern U.S. border. Dont misread me here, I been whining about infrastructure upgrades for years, we damn sure need some, but we also need to think before we act, this is as nonsensical as the trillion dollar war to nowhere we jumped into back in 2003, the bailouts, and other overspending failures. I'm glad at least the Democrats with Schumer and Sanders jumped in right away and proposed their trillion dollar plan to ask Trump to work with them, just to create a left/ right obstacle over who's paying for it ... sure, it was political, but needed, someone needs to throw a wrench into the gears right away, or else it will be a one way street, or some grand bipartisan bargain, with faults all through it, while the majority Republicans will let all their informal advisers ONLY orchestrate this, and tell the Democrats "it's this way or no way". Infrastructure plans were even key topics and proposals in the Obama administration ... and they all opposed him on every step ... now ya'll are all for it? ... and many Republicans dont even want any of it, regardless if Trump wants it or not ... they want to know how were going to pay for it? ... no, Trump's not a politician, but he's a builder, hustler and businessman, who wants to put his name on everything. Well, if it wasnt for all you in Washington wasting money for years on both sides, we would have already done and paid for all we been in need of, so dont highside now about, what you're gonna do, when you havent done a goddamn thing to begin with in the past except drain our budget for your special interests ... then tried to blame that shit on food stamps or whatever. But what I see happening here with this new infrastructure plan, frankly, I hope it runs into every obstacle in the book, despite how bad we need infrastructure upgrades. All I see here is another spending rush of desperation with too much politics and too many people hungry to get what they can get ... like a bunch of sweating dope fiends in a dry area waiting for a fix/ bump, and will settle for watered down dope, stepped on 10x times. Another thing we need to be cautious of, is with the extended deregulation coming, added to the deregulation from every administration left and right since Ronald Reagan, we will be very vulnerable to another major financial crisis, whether it come from the banking, mortgage, insurance, defense/ corporate manufactured war, technology, or energies sectors ... Americans will get tagged with the bill of losses, due to the legislation already in place before the Trump administration, forcing us the American taxpayers to bail out those at fault, and driving us into way more debt even.
Robert Reich: Trump's infrastructure scam ... Thanx to MoveOn
Whether a scam is intentional on President Trump's part or not, isnt the issue here, it will end up a scam looking at what we have going into this ... because everyone else on the playing field out of extreme greed, and will shut Trump out if they have to. Yeah, it will create jobs, and probably a good majority of minimal wage contracting jobs too ... which we have plenty of those jobs now being created as it is, despite increases in recent jobless claims. I dont feel, regardless of how long this planning been in the worx, we are at the right time and place to rush through an infrastructure plan like this, using this way proposed to pay for it ... nor do I feel because of political and social desperation, that we have a level headed Washington politics to jump into this, without screwing the American people out of something again. I also dont feel like there is a one way approach to this, or think that simply taxing the shit out of the rich will pay for it, without outright robbing them, the same way many of them rob us ... and you know that aint gonna happen while they control a large portion of our legislation as it is. This damn border wall, that been priority is another big waste of money, and stupid to think that Mexico cant wait to please us and pay us back for it ... that's about as dumb as asking them to pay for our Medicare programme ... what does it have to do with them and their interests? ... are they asking for a damn wall? ... it's our move, they didnt ask for it. Even more stupidity and hypocrisy, is having to hear Washington politicians from Trump on down and their wealthy constituents bitch about border security and stopping illegal immigration flow (and this wall wont stop it), they made a fortune off illegal and legal immigration, whether it's for your privatized detention centers, your share holders, or your businesses ... many of these corporate establishment politicians in Washington, never even go to the border, live there, or anything related, what in Hell would you know about wetbacks/ border jumpers using your property as a hangover squat stop for rest, or degrading your property in the process? Besides, all ya'll's buddies, when doing this infrastructure boom, will be contracting to 3rd parties to cut costs, and paying bonuses to them that will be using these immigrants for work.
This grand infrastructure plan as is, is more like a grand illusion ... some folks are comparing this to what President Eisenhower done a half century ago (Federal Highway Administration) ... this is NOT the economic climate of a half century ago, and damn sure is not like Ike. Slowly over the last few decades we been losing our country piece by piece, not just our rights, at the rate were going, it will be pointless to even invest in a damn house in the near future, we dont even own as much as we think now. This is nothing but more privatization, and this time for critical infrastructure ... it's bad enough damn near every major sports and entertainment facility coast to coast has some sorry ass name on it, like "Quicken Loans", "AT&T", "Staples", "Bank of America", "NRG", etc ... a damn NFL football team these dayz cant even kick a damn field goal hardly, without the radio sports announcer yelling something like "... it's GOOD!!, a 53 yard CitiGroup field goal!! ... ". Look around your local towns, the increase in things like toll roads all over America ... back in the past, when a toll road paid itself off with tolls, it went to a freeway, like the old DFW Turnpike here in the Metroplex (I-30, now the Landry Freeway) ... these public/ private partnerships, you will never get paid off, the investments will turn it off the minute their profits decline, or not invest in what doesnt look worthy to them, whether it's needed or not, nor will they want to keep up with maintenance ... and will only try to soak more local/ state and federal revenues whenever they feel a pinch, their goal is to make a profit, not to serve the public. What's next? ... libraries?, Post Office? (lord knows they want that as much as Social Security) ... what is left for the majority of citizens/ public? ... what kind of damn partnership is that? ... that's not a business partnership, that's a fools partnership. Folks like Trump or politicians that say they want to cut taxes ... for who? ... do you think were gonna get any cuts, when we have to constantly subsidize them? What about all the interstate highway repairs that need to get done, or roads and water worx across American towns and cities, large and medium size? ... projects that are not priority to these investors or their pre- paid politicians.
The priority private infrastructure investments for most of these entities in this era of neoliberalism ... (still a democracy by Constitutional law, and in the hearts/ minds of 10's of millions, but, much overshadowed, from being invaded by corporate communism and neoliberalism), the focus is in large metro areas, to also use eminent domain and gentrification where needed, to where they can only make a buck with sky high real estate and costs of living off the "new" middle classes, keeping them in the central part of the cities instead of their previous suburban environments ... and moving out working classes, because of real estate increases, to the suburbs or rural areas, making the suburbs and rural areas, the new poverty areas of the future, while milking money from the new middle classes in the urban areas of software engineers, IT specialists, Wall Street crowd, or whoever with enough to get milked for. Do you Trump supporters in small city middle America think that these investors want to do any damn thing for your areas? ... well, you can wait and hope, but from what I see now, dont look like it much ... if it wasnt for the taxpayers and federal government, that ya'll hate, you'd still be using dirt roads in some of your towns as major thoroughfares. Look, in all fairness, I'll give President Trump the benefit of the doubt on his intentions for change or whatever, but, regardless of what his intentions are, if he gives a green light for folks in Washington and Wall Street to take advantage of, they damn sure will, especially the crew he been choosing for key positions, and they will not give a shit in how they have to do it. Jumping head on into this out of desperation will alwayz backfire on you someway ... in time ... so it may look good now, but, may bring us more misery in the future without careful review. Look at China as an example, they invested (their government at that) so much in infrastructure, much past due, and really the top of the line, looks absolutely great too what they done, but look how many bridges to nowhere they have now, or how many vacant areas of new real estate that didnt sell too. From milking our tax money, to pushing austerity, to ripping off homeowners, and you name it, this has been in the worx for years, as I point out all through these series on related issues, to make us more desperate and depending on them in the major corporate/ banking world to save us from the damages they contributed to creating. Taking your time on some things this critical is better ... desperation can burn you ... and I hope that the bitching breaks out across America on how this is being orchestrated and planned.
Word Out ....
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***** RANCH CHIMP JOURNAL "WELCOME" POST
***** RCJ MUSIC/ ART'S HONOUR ROLL SOCIETY (my hand- selected music/ arts picks)
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