1. The housing market, in 50 of the top 50 U.S. markets, is now improving the best it has in many years.

2. The United States dollar has remained strong in the United States, and overseas.

3. The United States auto industry is now back to being the number one auto industry in the world.

4. Our United States inflation/cost of living rates remains at the lowest rates they have ever been for any administration in our lifetimes.

5.  The United States is experiencing it’s 63 straight month of economic growth, one of the strongest runs for any presidential administration ever.

6.  The United States is currently experiencing the longest run of private sector job growth (54 straight months) that is the longest in American History.

7.  The unemployment rate has gone from 10.1% to 6.1% since President Obama has been in office.  A conservative estimate is that it may likely be at 5.4% by the summer of 2015.

8.  The United States Stock Market has fully recovered from the near depression and continues to set historically record highs on a very regular basis.

9.  The United States Federal Deficit continues to shrink.  It is now at levels that put it at 2/3 of what it was in 2009.

10.  Spending increases at the Federal level, under President Obama, is the lowest it has been since the Eisenhower Administration.  It is currently at 1.4%, annually.

11. Income taxes under the Obama Administration are lower than they have been in 50 years, for 95% of American citizens.

12.  Domestic oil production is at all-time record highs, while fuel efficiency standards are the best they have ever been, resulting in the least dependence in foreign oil in decades.

13.  Over 7 million Americans now have health insurance compared to 5 years ago.

14.  Children with expensive medical concerns can no longer be refused health care coverage.

15. The life of Medicare has been extended by 13 years thanks to the Affordable Health Care Act, while health care costs are seeing the slowest rise in costs since the 1950’s and 60’s.

GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL. IT IS EXPENSIVE. IT WILL GET WORSE! IT MAY NOT BE TOO LATE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! We should not leave this situation to our children and grandchildren. It will be a legacy that none of us can be proud of: "Grandpa/Grandma, why didn't you do anything to stop this?" We should be embarrassed that it has gotten this bad before we forced our leaders to act. This is one of the best sites that can be used to help people understand why the carbon cycle is so important: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/CarbonCycle/
It is a bit detailed but it is critical that everyone, particularly our political leaders, gets a handle, at the very least, on understanding that rising temperatures, and rising carbon dioxide levels, are no hoax. It is no joke! It is not science researchers trying to stay employed. The information is overwhelming! It is real. The data for this graph comes for ice core samples taken from the tops of Hawaiian mountains and is correlated with other data from around the world.
This graph is a compilation of real data. It is information taken over a fairly short period of time, compared to the climate changes that involved past ice ages. The water levels will rise, have been rising, due to melting ice because it is ice that was not floating in the oceans. Some still use their ice cubes floating in their drinks as an example for why melting ice should have no impact on rising sea levels! The added water is from ice that was on land.

Big oil, and big energy, corporations, multi-international corporations, are still out there trying to keep us hooked on fossil fuels. They have billions of tax payer subsidy dollars to use to make their case that the jury is still out, to convince us that all of the evidence to the contrary is trumped up....very similar to the way cigarette companies used to operate in the United States and still do operate around the world.....but...I'll give it a go anyway..........................WHAT EVIDENCE DO YOU HAVE OF GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE? If someone were to ask you that question, you could answer: "Sea level rise, global temperature rise, warming oceans, shrinking ice sheets, dramatically increasing carbon dioxide levels, declining Arctic sea ice, glacial retreat, extreme weather events, and ocean acidification are happening, not just predicted, but have already happened! The best source I have found for the support of this information, that details each of these events, is at:http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/

This is just the way our new system of government works. It used to be a government of, by, and for, the people, a democracy/representative republic. It is now an oligarchy/corporatocracy, a government of, by, and for, the muti-international corporations of the world. This only took a matter of weeks to happen but the 41 senators who blocked a raise in the minimum wage will have to wait to get another automatic raise until January 1, 2015! We don't even get to vote for those who are actually in control of our government. We don't get to vote for the lobbyists, the CEO's, the banking industry, the Super PACs, that are now handing out the money and controlling who gets elected, and what legislation gets passed. Just listen to the ads to try find out who is now controlling the election process. You can't always tell because they can hide behind the name of their Super PACs. htpp://movetoamend.org

One of the best ways to see what the general public is feeling about how things are going is to ask them! That is, precisely, what the Harris Poll does. The Harris Consumer Confidence Poll has been done every quarter, of every year, for decades and decades. That poll is nearly off the charts for how much confidence people are having in the current administration compared to the past, even compared to a magical 100 rating. Here is a summary of that Harris Poll, from a couple of days ago:

The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index® Improves Again
26 Aug. 2014
The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index®, which had increased in July, improved further in August. The Index now stands at 92.4 (1985=100), up from 90.3 in July. The Present Situation Index increased to 94.6 from 87.9, while the Expectations Index edged down to 90.9 from 91.9 in July.
The monthly Consumer Confidence Survey®, based on a probability-design random sample, is conducted for The Conference Board by Nielsen, a leading global provider of information and analytics around what consumers buy and watch. The cutoff date for the preliminary results was August 14.
Says Lynn Franco, Director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board: “Consumer confidence increased for the fourth consecutive month as improving business conditions and robust job growth helped boost consumers’ spirits. Looking ahead, consumers were marginally less optimistic about the short-term outlook compared to July, primarily due to concerns about their earnings. Overall, however, they remain quite positive about the short-term outlooks for the economy and labor market.”
Consumers’ appraisal of current conditions continued to improve through August.
The Source:
August 2014 Consumer Confidence Survey®
The Conference Board
This shouldn't be so surprising, as Democratic Presidential administrations, going back to 1947, have always done better than Republican administrations.

FIREWORKS AT THE MINNESOTA STATE FAIR! ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,We plan to visit the MN State Fair again this year. It sounds like one must stop should be the Republican State Fair Booth! The fireworks at the GOP booth continues. In recent years past, it has been Former Republican Senator Rudy Boschowitz, Former Republican Senator David Durenburger, Former Republican Governor Arnie Carlson, and former Former Republican Governor Elmer L. Anderson who were uninvited to their own Minnesota State Fair Booth or their own Republican State Convention. The Republican Party, as it is today, is a far cry from what it once was. They have become a wing of the Tea Party/FOX Party. In Minnesota history, 25 or our governors have been from the Republican Party compared to only 6 for the Democratic Party but the new Republican Party is such a right wing faction of what it used to be! You can bet your money that indicted U.S. Congresswoman, Michelle Bachman, is more than welcome in the Republican MN State Fair Booth! Fireworks at the Minnesota State Fair is something you won't want to miss!

THIS YEAR IN FAIR POLITICS: GOP vs. GOP
By Don Davis Today August 22nd, 2014
ST. PAUL — Political challengers proposed debating incumbents. Incumbents pared down the challengers’ lists. The governor sat motionless as two buckets of ice were dumped on him.

It was a typical opening day at the Great Minnesota (Political) Get-Together, except, that is, that the State Fair also featured Republican officials banning their endorsed Supreme Court candidate from the party’s fair booth.

Michelle MacDonald tried twice to get into the booth, between a radio station’s remote studio and the 99-year-old Ye Old Mill ride.

MacDonald had announced her plans to campaign at the fair booth each day of the fair, but two volunteer security guards greeted her and tried to keep her out of the booth. Elected party officials, including chairman Keith Downey, were not there.

While she eventually was allowed in twice, it was just to look briefly, not to campaign.

MacDonald said Downey told her of the decision by party officials Wednesday to ban her, but she said those officials have a duty to either support their endorsed candidates or resign from party leadership.

The ban came a month before MacDonald faces a trial on a drunken-driving charge and after being ticketed this month on a charge of violating her limited driver’s license.

Michael Brodkorb of politics.mn, a former GOP official, reported that one Republican Executive Council member said the panel would “fully support” MacDonald being arrested if she attempts to enter the Republican Party booth.

She was not arrested Thursday, although law enforcement officers were nearby.

MacDonald told Forum News Service that she plans to return to the booth each day.

Republicans meeting in Rochester, Minn., this spring overwhelmingly endorsed MacDonald to challenge Justice David Lillehaug, who Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton appointed to the high court.

Sen. Scott Newman of Hutchinson, who Republicans nominated for attorney general, announced Thursday that he will support Lillehaug instead of MacDonald.

Longtime politics-at-the-fair observers said they never have seen anything like the MacDonald incident.

More traditional fair politics were also plentiful, especially debates about debates. Fireworks are in the air!

So, economically, how are things going? GREAT!....if you are in the right group!