Tag: Trump

Are Trump and Pence “Making America Great Again” with Carrier Corporation?
Clean Recycled CO2 Refrigeration sold in Europe

Built on Willis Carrier’s invention of modern air conditioning in 1902, Carrier is the world leader in heating, air-conditioning and refrigeration solutions. Their corporate websites informs us: “We create comfortable and productive environments, regardless of the climate. We safeguard the global food supply by preserving the quality and freshness of food and beverages. We ensure health and well-being by enabling the proper transport and delivery of vital medical supplies under exacting conditions. We provide solutions, services and education to lead the green building movement.” Carriers Corporation is one of the United Technologies companies which employs 197,200 Employees, brings in an adjusted net sales volume of $56.5B*, pays out $6.3* an adjusted diluted earnings per common share from continuing operations $3.9B. UTC’s Total R&D investment includes company- and customer-funded around the world. The US government and other governments around the world are included in these pre-sales earnings.

From what we can tell the company is doing great work in India for instance. They are working hard on assisting companies reduce their food waste, which is a worldwide issue indeed. Food Waste is a major issue in a world where so many people go hungry every day, and it is also known to be a major contributor to Green House Gases. Pence and Trump who don’t believe in protecting the environment, are planning to donate even more money to United Technologies, Carriers Corporation.

Let’s celebrate the positive when we can.

We know that United Technologies has “supported” to create a study that will allow Carriers Corporation sell their products in India. BIO Intelligence Service for the Global Food Cold Chain Council (“GFCCC”) with support from United Technologies (“UTC”). This Report presents an assessment of the potential of the cold chain sector to reduce GHG emissions through food loss and waste reduction. The report educates:
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"In monetary terms, the most recent global food loss estimate is a staggering $1 trillion in retail value, or about twice the gross domestic product of Norway 2 , equivalent to the Gross Domestic Product of Switzerland. Further, such loss aggravates food insecurity and malnutrition in a context of growing population and increasing food demand3 . And finally, this food wastage represents a missed opportunity to mitigate environmental impacts and use of resources from food chains. The carbon footprint of food produced and not eaten is estimated to be 3.3 Gtonnes of CO2 equivalent: food loss and waste would rank as the third top GHG emitter after USA and China if it were a country. This amount is more than twice the total GHG emissions of all USA road transportation in 2010."
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United Technologies, and by extension Carrier, seemingly is doing a great job reducing food waste in India. Full Report

How is support of this international conglomerate “Making America Great Again?

Every day at United Technologies, nearly 200,000 people across the globe help move the world forward. In Europe they are quite competitive in the aerospace industry and in environmentally refrigeration units.

United Technologies and their brands Otis, Pratt & Whitney, UTC Aerospace Systems and UTC Climate, Controls & Security have recently initiated a $1.5 billion multiyear restructuring plan to improve our competitiveness in the global market. In 2015 they returned approximately $12 billion to shareholders in dividends and share buyback, including a $6 billion accelerated share repurchase program. In February 2016, Carrier announced it would close its Indianapolis factory due to ongoing cost and pricing pressures and to take advantage of and Carrier’s existing infrastructure and a strong supplier base in Mexico. They also initiated a $1.5 billion multiyear restructuring plan to improve competitiveness in the global market. They already operate out of Belgium, Canada, China, Israel, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, Taiwan, Turkey, UK aside of their seven corporate offices in the US. The UTC companies conduct operations in more than 160 locations in 26 countries. Most of the manufacturing and parts businesses are outside the US already. Location

In the letter to the shareholders UTC President and CEO elaborates on his commitment to partake in the Middle Class growth in China, India and the Middle East. He is particularly interested in aviation as the middle class in Asia will nearly double the air travel industry in terms of carriers. Letter Aside of making air travel in Asia great again, UTC is a major supplier and repair contractor for the US Military. The company has enthusiastically agreed to a commitment to reduce greenhouse gases and is in the process of moving their core business to the aviation industry. Otis is still and will stay involved with elevators and escalators.

Announcement of Carriers plant shut down in February 2016.

In July Carrier and the United Steelworkers (USW) came to a generous agreement that the any of the 1,400 people who may be loosing their jobs, as they closed down old technology manufacturing lines. They would get a severance package and support with a scholarship fund to get retrained. It seems the company is planning to get out of the HVAC business as they have had lot’s of trouble with leaky freon. The CDC explains that the colorless, odorless gases released when freon leaks cause problems to skin, heart, central nervous system, cardiovascular system. The symptoms include: irritation skin, throat, drowsiness, dermatitis; central nervous system depression; In Animals: cardiac arrhythmias, narcosis.

Consumer Affairs is full of costumer reviews who are not at all pleased with the damage caused by Carrier products, i.e.: “I have two top of the line Carrier Furnaces. Both have been serviced annually. Both crapped out requiring major repairs after 6 years. Both were sold with 10 year parts warranties as they were high-end models. Now however, Carrier refuses to honor the warranty – even for parts. They claim a legal technicality buried in tiny fine print. Customer service was not responsive in any way. Both for reliability reasons and because of their unwillingness to honor their warranty, I would join the chorus of voices suggesting to avoid Carrier.” And another: “I replaced 13 year old Trane units that performed flawlessly for two Carrier Inverter units top of the line for top efficiency with the promise of quiet and reliable and an overall install cost of 50K. In year two one unit’s outdoor inverter caught fire and was backorder for nearly a month. While they paid for the part I had to pay $1200 of labor not covered and was without AC for a month. Then the second unit failed who was installed a year later with some freeze thermostat malfunction and a bill of 1400. Again labor not covered and a month delay on getting parts. So all the energy savings and huge investment barely pay for the repair bills. Clearly Carrier does not stand behind its products and I would never buy their units again. Additionally seeing the pictures of how the unit was burned to a crisp was very troubling and when the dealer said it happens sometimes, I lost faith in Carrier. The people who invented air conditioning forgot that customers have choices. Our family will never buy Carrier again.”

According to a July 2016 article Carrier was planning to eliminate 2,378 jobs as well as 1,400 jobs during a plant closure. “The decision to cut 2,100 manufacturing jobs across the state was financial, according to a statement from Carrier, which will begin eliminating its Indianapolis workforce in 2017 and continue the layoffs through 2019.” Full Article

According the recent reports there will be 1,000 jobs “saved” in 2017. What exactly does that mean? Does they mean they will be laid off in 2018 and 2019 as was already planned anyway. Or, will the jobs be saved for good and the long term? Neither the Trump/Pence team, nor Carrier have been very precise in their reports. If indeed manufacturing jobs would be saved for good at the current payment level that would be a major win for the Trump team. Service sector jobs pay an average of $39,338 a year, compared with $59,029 in manufacturing. Or it may be a misinformation campaign. The provide millions of free dollars to a multi-billion dollar company that moves forward anyway with the lay-offs as negotiated with the Steel Workers Union in July 2016. And, unless the quality of the furnaces improves and/or they are redesigned, it may just be a PR stunt for both the company and the new governmental administration, who are counting on the short memory of the public and the media alike. Perhaps the company may be doing it primarily to hold on to those Boing contracts. This is an exciting story to watch unfold. So far it sounds more like a PR stunt.

KTLA reported: “United Technologies collects about $5.6 billion in annual revenue from U.S. government contracts, according to company filings, which is equal to about 10 percent of its overall revenue. The government also pays for nearly $1.5 billion of the company’s annual research and development spending.” full story

All that said, the retraining programs that United Technologies offers their ex-employees are exemplary. Carrier offers their own private HVAC “University.” They donate money to their ex-employees (tax write-off) who are able to sign up online with their non profit company (low to no taxes) for a fee and instead of having the multi-billion dollar company pay for training, they charge the soon to be or already laid-off employees. Now if they could update the curricula to more modern and usable jobs that would be great. A well managed multi-billion dollar operation now receives even more money for keeping out-dated jobs that create unpopular products that leak toxic gases. (Consumer Affairs)

Their government sponsored (see paragraph above) commitment to move into new technologies that are environmentally friendly should not go unnoticed. Even though they help Europe, Singapore, India and China more than the US. We are going to stay tuned and report on how the Trump / Pence team will “Make America Great Again.” They get an A for media relations so far. Hope real jobs will follow in a verifiable way soon.
December 2, 2016

What is the Trump phenomena about?

Why do rural blue color workers and rural college educated people love Trump?

The Guardian’s Thomas Frank, pointed out on March 7, 2016: “..what motivates the supporters of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump? I call it a “mystery” because the working-class white people who make up the bulk of Trump’s fan base show up in amazing numbers for the candidate, filling stadiums and airport hangars, but their views, by and large, do not appear in our prestige newspapers. On their opinion pages, these publications take care to represent demographic categories of nearly every kind, but “blue-collar” is one they persistently overlook.” Full Article

The Atlantic Monthly received letters from a range of people who support Trump for president in August 2015. The reasons they quote are similar:

A self proclaimed Liberal who voted for Obama wrote: “Rather, I genuinely believe that Trump feels the need to fight for the country he loves. There once was a time when people could actually feel proud to be Americans, and Trump comes from a generation that experienced that feeling. Now, many are embarrassed to be associated with this country. Jobs are being outsourced with reckless abandon and this country is literally being hollowed out. Economic statistics do no justice to this reality, and the average American knows this to be true.”

An undecided voter writes: “..the preeminence of political correctness among the culture class indicates a momentous shift away from formerly prominent middle-class cultural values and towards something entirely different. Even if Donald Trump were to accomplish little in his presidency, I think there is a hope that were he president, he could in some way alter that prevailing Washington/media culture and set a new cultural tone. Many would probably question why, of all people, a decadent, rude, and pompous billionaire should be trusted to meddle with American culture? I think it comes down to a perception that America has already drowned in a post-modernist nightmare of moral relativism, from which extreme political correctness and protest culture stem. Trump, on the other hand, is all absolutes.” Full Article

Kathy Kramer shared with Kevin Drum in an interview for Mother Jones, November 8, 2016, that her political science study showed this:

“What I was hearing was this general sense of being on the short end of the stick. Rural people felt like they not getting their fair share. That feeling is primarily composed of three things. First, people felt that they were not getting their fair share of decision-making power….Second, people would complain that they weren’t getting their fair share of stuff….And third, people felt that they weren’t getting respect….So it’s all three of these things — the power, the money, the respect. People are feeling like they’re not getting their fair share of any of that.” Full Article

So let’s take a close look and let’s see if what they feel is true.

The Brookings Institute states that Republican States have more entrenched poverty than Democratic States. Republican districts have more poor residents overall: 25.1 million poor people lived in red districts in 2010-14 compared with 22.7 million in blue districts.

Between 2000 and 2010-14, the poor population grew faster in red districts than blue. The number of people living below the poverty line (e.g., $24,230 for a family of four in 2014) in Republican districts climbed by 49 percent between 2000 and 2010-14 compared with a 33 percent increase in Democratic districts. As a result, Republican districts accounted for 60 percent of the increase in the nation’s poor population during that time. At the same time, poverty rates rose by similar margins in both red and blue districts (3.3 and 3.2 percentage points, respectively).

Table 1. Congressional Districts with the Fastest Growth in Poor Population, 2000 to 2010-14

Party	State	District	Representative	Percentage Change in Poor Population	Share of Poor in Suburbs
R	NV	3	Heck, Joseph J.	268.4%	51.0%
R	GA	7	Woodall, Rob	223.6%	100.0%
D	GA	13	Scott, David	213.1%	100.0%
R	AZ	8	Franks, Trent	188.5%	93.5%
R	AZ	5	Salmon, Matt	177.7%	50.4%

Source: Brookings Institution analysis of decennial census and American Community Survey data

Hunger in Rural Communities is higher than Urban

According to the United States Department of Agriculture report, Household Food Security in the United States in 2014, 14% of U.S. households were food insecure at least some time during the year. The prevalence of food insecurity was higher in rural areas than metropolitan areas.

Source: Household Food Security in the United States in 2015, page 14.

The Digital Divide created by lack of Internet Access

55 percent of people living in rural areas have access to the speeds that currently qualify as broadband, while 94 percent of the urban population does. As of 2015, 74 percent of households in urban areas of the U.S. had residential broadband connections, compared with only 64 percent of rural households. This gap has persisted over time. Research reveals that broadband adoption can help improve the economy in these rural areas (including increasing income, lowering unemployment rates and creating jobs). In addition, we know that roughly 40 percent of the rural-urban adoption gap is because rural areas don't have the same level of broadband access. This is because large providers are not interested in serving these communities and in some instances have refused Federal Subsidies to get rural communities connected.

Source: http://phys.org/news/2016-06-technology-rural-broadband-access-problem.html#jCp

Suicides in Rural Areas are double of those than in Cities

A study by the JAMA states that Suicide is a serious public health problem. For youths between the ages of 10 and 24 years, suicide was the third leading cause of death in 2010 behind only unintentional injuries and homicide.¹ Males are at higher risk, accounting for 81% of suicide deaths in the 10- to 24-year age group. Suicide risk increases with age, with 6% occurring in individuals younger than 15 years, 34% in those between 15 and 19 years, and 60% in young adults aged 20 to 24 years.¹

Rates of suicide also vary by rural-urban residence, with higher rates in rural compared with urban areas. Suicide rates among rural men were higher than those of urban men, with rural-urban differences widening over time. Higher rates of suicide attempts have also been reported⁸ among rural compared with urban adolescents. The studies conclusion stated Although low population density per se may be operative, efforts to improve access to mental health services and offer social support at the local level could narrow the gap in risk for youths in rural as opposed to urban settings. Additional study is warranted and of potentially great public health significance. Full Article

Rural communities as our research shows are genuinely struggling with problems that are not adequately addressed by neither the major political parties nor the major media outlets. It seems that one of Trump’s appeal is that at least give this audience the feeling they are seen and heard. While this does not qualify him to do anything about the issues he has succeeded in mobilizing millions of Americans to vote for him to “stick it to the elite.” Rural people are angry for having been ignored as their lives have grown ever more depressing. Trump has pulled them out of this feeling of helplessness and he has unleashed their anger.

Next we will investigate why a supposedly educated people would vote for Trump.

November 9, 2016