Infrastructure Projects

The Crux Of The Matter: Barack Obama’s Speech In Cleveland Sets The Standard!

Ronald 1 Comment

President Obama today gave a rousing speech in Cleveland, making clear that he was not willing to give Mitt Romney a massive tax cut, along with other millionaires and billionaires, and that much more important was to give basic security to the elderly, the sick, and those seeking work and suffering from the Great Recession for the past four and a half years!

In a nation in which the average family has suffered a drop in assets of 39 percent in the past few years, including on retirement savings, housing, jobs, and ability to provide college education to one’s children, Obama said the only way to grow the economy was the creation of a strong middle class, based on education, investment in infrastructure projects, and the utilization of technology to find new methods of economic expansion, including energy projects that plan for a world less dependent on oil and coal.

Instead of returning to deregulation and massive tax cuts for the rich, Obama said government can be good and productive and helpful in bringing back the American economy, and that if we are all to be only thinking about ourselves, that will not revive the American economy.

The election is a clear cut choice between two philosophies, and Obama declared that it was a crucial, turning point election that will determine the long term direction of the country.

If one uses common sense, and realizes that the way to move forward is to think of ourselves as “WE”, instead of “ME”, then Obama will win the election in November!

Ohio (John Boehner) And Kentucky (Mitch McConnell): Ground Zero Of Fight For Infrastructure Projects To Fight Poverty And Joblessness

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The Republican leaders of Congress come from states that border each other–Ohio (Speaker of the House John Boehner) and Kentucky (Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell).

Both states have lots of poverty, particularly Kentucky, and lots of joblessness, and lots of infrastructure projects that need to be funded!

President Obama was in Cincinnati (southern Ohio near Kentucky) today, emphasizing the need for the rebuilding of the Brent Spence bridge which connects Cincinnati to northern Kentucky, as an example of what the American Jobs Act would do to create jobs and improve infrastructure of the nation.

Of course, both Boehner and McConnell are very irritated that Obama is pushing this issue into their faces, but this is the precisely proper thing to do, as it is despicable that both GOP leaders have done NOTHING to promote jobs to help their OWN constituents, let alone others around the nation!

This is a strategy that is a winning strategy for the Democrats, and the more that it is protested by the Republicans, the more it should be utilized!

The Growing Danger Of Social Media, Social Networking: Growing Discontent Among Young People Who Are Unemployed Leads To Potential Violence And Revolution!

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Social Media such as Facebook and Twitter have brought people together in all kinds of great causes and crusades, including the “Arab Spring” in many Middle East nations that are autocracies.

At the same time, social networking has also been leading to the ability of crime gangs to promote chaos and anarchy, as has been occurring recently in Philadelphia; to demonstrations interfering with freedom of movement in the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) system in San Francisco; and to authorities attempting to shut down social media and cell phones to prevent such confrontations and violence, but in the process interfering with civil liberties, and the ability to communicate for law abiding citizens.

When one realizes that a lot of what has happened in the “Arab Spring” is not just based on politics, but also on the inability of many young people in the Middle East to find work or make an adequate living even with those who have educational attainment, one must also realize that millions of young Americans, who would never be ordinarily considering being lawless, MIGHT with growing unemployment and frustration help to cause some firebrands to incite people to rise up in violence and bloodshed in opposition to the lack of federal and state governments doing what they can to promote job creation. Whether with business assistance or through public works projects, as during the Great Depression, when millions of people contributed to the growth of infrastructure through the Works Projects Administration and other agencies, giving them faith in the future and a steady paycheck, it is ESSENTIAL that actions be taken immediately to prevent such an occurrence!

The fact that the US government under Republican House leadership has done NOTHING to promote job growth, and that state governments are cutting employment at the same time, means that unemployment is likely to grow, apparently part of the plan of the GOP to make Barack Obama look bad. But in the process, it is likely to provoke eventual violence and bloodshed, which can be fueled on the internet through Facebook and Twitter and other social media!

The potential for trouble is alarming, and the events in the Middle East, Philadelphia and San Francisco should ring alarm bells in our government at all levels, that we CANNOT allow widespread unemployment to grow and claim there is nothing that government can do, as they indeed did a GREAT DEAL during the New Deal years of Franklin D. Roosevelt and saved the country from revolution!

It is time for Congress and the states to stop the politics, and start promoting job opportunity, whether privately inspired or publicly created, and not later, but NOW!

The Need To Build And Reconstruct Infrastructure For The Future Of America

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America is at a crossroads, and it is essential that America understand the need to rebuild much of our infrastructure, as well as expand our technology to meet the demands of the future, and compete with other world nations, including China, India and Brazil, all emerging powers.

Our highways, tunnels, bridges, train systems, power grid, energy supply, internet networks, and all other infrastructure need a commitment equivalent to the building of the transcontinental railroad system during and after the Civil War; the urgency to the building of the atomic bomb during World War II; the building of the interstate highway system beginning in the 1950s; and the competition with the Soviet Union in the space program to go to the moon in the 1960s.

Millions of jobs could be created in these infrastructure projects, and could help America to compete in the world economy and keep the excellence that America is noted for. But instead, there seems to be no imagination or creativity to look to the long term future in the midst of the present economic crisis.

This requires strong presidential leadership, to move beyond the pettiness and the politics of the minute, and think long range!