Don’t
worry, the recession’s over and everything’s better now. They
say.
Unsettling
but not definitive: Unemployment
claims increased 20,000 to 294,000 last week, after a 17,000 increase
the week before. This is the highest rate since February 2015, and
the steepest increase since 2005. Economists say this doesn't mean
anything and is mostly due to spring break.
Globalization:
It's not just in the US; a Catholic Diocese in India has reinstated
a priest
who has admitted to previously sexually abusing children.
Working,
Or Not, On the Railroad:
Freight shipments on US railroads continue to fall m/m, as they have
been doing for well over a year. Sure the US doesn't make much
anymore, but even the imports have to get to Walmart somehow.
Quota
System:
“Workers in plants
run by the largest U.S. poultry producers are regularly being denied
bathroom breaks and as a result some
are reduced to wearing diapers while working.”
Over
Here: About a
third of the handful of manufacturing jobs that haven't been shipped
to Bangladesh or Pakistan or such pay so little that the workers have
to rely on welfare for food and healthcare. Freely traded, of
course.
Pause:
A US District Judge has ruled that Obama does not have the
Constitutional authority
to spend billions of dollars on ACA subsidies without the approval of
Congress through the appropriations process. This would cripple the
ACA if upheld on appeal.
The
Quiet
Misery
of the Unnecessary:
Americans are killing themselves in large numbers – an epidemic
bigger than AIDS and just as deadly. In large measure it is
middle-aged
white Americans – once the most privileged group on the planet
– are dying much sooner than they used to. Many are killing
themselves, either directly and intentionally, or just a
bit less intentionally and directly with booze and opioids and
illegal drugs. They have no jobs and no future. They find themselves
superfluous, unnecessary, unwanted and ignored by their government.
America has become a place where a significant part of the population
has been rendered unnecessary. And they know it. Unsurprisingly,
those
with the highest rates of drug overdose, suicide and alcoholism are
also the most likely to be supporters of Donald Trump. These are the
same people who, in another life, elected Adolf Hitler.
As
Is:
The
United Nations Security Council has passed a resolution reminding its
members not
to kill doctors or bomb hospitals.
A
Parting Shot:
4 comments:
Oh Happy Friday the 13th with a full moon kicker! Yet another factor missing from our national dialogue is the rising suicide rate...which is directly connected to the rise in the 'death-by-cop' rate. (How sad is it that people don't READ their life insurance policies...then they'd see the exclusion for being killed while committing a crime!)
The 'redundancy' thing is a huge problem and a cruel way to deal with the worker/job imbalance...but it's 'easier' than readjusting the whole economy.
Which is what needs to be done. [and it's not nearly as difficult as it sounds. I could do it in a few minutes but there's the whole ignorance thing to fix first...which takes quite a while longer.
Are any of the candidates even talking about this?...is anybody?
I assume, George, that you mean "besides me and thee."
ckm
Correct, you know the score, I didn't mean to imply otherwise!
Reference: Pause
"the lies the people want to hear." Just in time for the conventions.
P.S. The image is wonderful today.
wm
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