Friday, May 13, 2016

SAR #16134


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:

Gegner said...

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?

Charles Kingsley Michaelson, III said...

I assume, George, that you mean "besides me and thee."

ckm

Gegner said...

Correct, you know the score, I didn't mean to imply otherwise!

Unknown said...

Reference: Pause
"the lies the people want to hear." Just in time for the conventions.
P.S. The image is wonderful today.
wm