This week's offerings: rust belt snake oil; defense spending; 2008 and 2020; vacationing in America; 1787, again?; heels are optional; a nice story to end the week.

21st century snake oil. Columnist David Ignatius correctly notes that "Trump is selling snake oil to the rust belt," where he was very popular. The majority of the lost manufacturing jobs will not return, at least not in their past form; workers will have to retrain or continue to be un- or under-employed with lower, stagnant wages. There was no mention in the President's speech about retraining. Even if an American manufacturer keeps products and jobs in place, they will use whatever new technology is available. Too, jobs may shift as American cities, counties, and states vie for manufacturing jobs by offering "better deals," incentives to move an upgraded plant.

      The President's invocation to the contrary is "a palliative that has raised false hopes. He implies that a few good trade deals will refurbish the Rust Belt and restore the good old days of manufacturing. It won’t happen, and to pretend otherwise is a hoax...Trump campaigned on a false argument that global trade was taking away American jobs...but the major reason is automation, not trade. Robots, not foreign workers, are taking most of the disappearing American jobs....Despite the Great Recession, [US] manufacturing grew by 17.6 percent, or about 2.2 percent a year, from 2006 to 2013. That was only slightly slower than the overall economy. But even as manufacturing output was growing, jobs were shrinking. The decade from 2000 to 2010 saw “the largest decline in manufacturing employment in U.S. history,” the Ball State economists concluded. What killed those jobs? For the most part, it wasn’t trade, but productivity gains from automation.

Money vs savvy. In a recent column Fareed Zakaria noted a statement on the Iraqi situation, one that still plagues the region. David Petraeus: “I wish we had more Foreign Service officers, aid professionals and other kinds of non-military specialists....The heart of the problem the United States was facing in Iraq, he noted presciently, was a deep sectarian divide between Shiite and Sunni, Arab and Kurd. “We need help on those issues. Otherwise, we’re relying on 22-year-old sergeants to handle them.

2008 and 2020, Democrats' future. It looks as if the tables have been turned and unless something very untoward occurs, the Republicans will "lengthen their lead," i.e. capture even more governorship and state legislatures.

Vacation at home. It might be a good thing to plan your next few vacation trips here at home. If the Trump budget produces the proposed cuts in funding for the EPA and National Parks Service, relatively "clean and pristine" may not be all that applicable to many of our out-of-doors locations. Not unless a lot of civilian money and effort are applied. The government might want to consider a 21st century CCC-like employment program.
     Interestingly, the new head of the EPA and his assistant, Gina McCarthy, are not all that thrilled with his boss's announced cuts. A fight may well loom on the horizon: EPA vs OMB. From the HCN story: "The Western governors’ unanimity is striking in an era of intense partisanship and reflects the commitment they have to work together through the Western Governors’ Association. The breakfast was an annual event of that group, a rare hub of bipartisanship and consensus building in a polarized nation."

Another French revolution? There is an presidential election scheduled 23 April 2017, one with the potential to shake France's Fifth Republic,; indeed, the entire European Union. "The revolution’s proximate cause is voters’ fury at the uselessness and self-dealing of their ruling class....One poll last year found that French people are the most pessimistic on Earth, with 81% grumbling that the world is getting worse and only 3% saying that it is getting better....A victory for M. Macron [leftist] would be evidence that liberalism still appeals to Europeans. A victory for Madame Le Pen [rightist] would make France poorer, more insular and nastier."
    As the election approaches, France's economy and society are both badly strained, the citizenry very much on edge after repeated terrorist attacks and strident political parties on both the left and right. Stay tuned.

Ladies, find your "flats." As noted in an earlier blog, the British parliament was "petitioned" (i.e. forced) into considering, "Can an employer's dress codes force women to wear high heels?"

 Monday’s debate was triggered by the experience of Nicola Thorp, who was told in December 2015 that her smart flat shoes were unacceptable for a temporary assignment in London with finance firm PwC....Her employment agency, Portico, had a dress code specifying that female workers must wear non-opaque tights, have hair with “no visible roots,” wear “regularly re-applied” makeup — and appear in shoes with a heel between 2 and 4 inches high. For Thorp, that was a step too far.

The answer from Britain's august House of Commons: "No way!" One wonders, if word spreads to the White House, will we see a Donald Tweet on this bashing of an employer's prerogative?

PBS and PP&M. It is pledge week on KRMA, Denver's PBS station and during this money-raising period, one of their audience-attracting shows is "Fifty years with Peter, Paul, and Mary." Somehow, with all the planned and unplanned chaos in Washington, many of their songs of the earlier protest days seemed appropriate and, strangely, calming. Content aside, PP&M just sound good! Just three good voices, two guitars, and a minimum of on-set distractions.
     The nation survived the tumult of the late 1970's Johnson/Nixon/anti-Vietnam era. Hopefully, the same will be said in 2077 about the Obama/Trump/Middle East times. Find some PP&M songs online, sit back, enjoy, and, by all means, sing along!

Thank you for reading. Get out into your community. Walking, protesting, supporting, because as the 2017 Nobel Man said, "The times they are a'changing."