Interesting stuff today, kind of a weekend edition [including Sunday] so slightly longer than normal [the new normal!] ........and lots of good videos.....recommend them all but especially the Bikini Wax....
If you have a chance listen to Bernie Sanders....have a great weekend....
Crushing the middle class
This is what the political game that's being played all around us is all about, and I cannot figure out why the wealthy corporations in this country would want to do this because of the very real risk of social unrest. But they feel so confident and so powerful they plough ahead regardless. And they're greedy....
Three stories on this theme today - read the column from Paul Krugman below first.....he laments Republican policies designed to kill and downgrade jobs....great column....
“Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate.” That, according to Herbert Hoover, was the advice he received from Andrew Mellon, the Treasury secretary, as America plunged into depression. To be fair, there’s some question about whether Mellon actually said that; all we have is Hoover’s version, written many years later.
But one thing is clear: Mellon-style liquidationism is now the official doctrine of the G.O.P.
Two weeks ago, Republican staff at the Congressional Joint Economic Committee released a report, “Spend Less, Owe Less, Grow the Economy,” that argued that slashing government spending and employment in the face of a deeply depressed economy would actually create jobs. In part, they invoked the aid of the confidence fairy; more on that in a minute. But the leading argument was pure Mellon.
The second is a telling article in the business section, which ties into todays jobs numbers which were more than expected - yeay! What they don't mention is the quality of these jobs, which are lower paid with minimal benefits....and not enough for a couple or an individual to have what we call a middle class lifestyle.
Read this one too - it's depressing but you need to be aware of this to counter the BS when they tell you the economy is doing well. It is, for the oligarchs.....
Hard as it can be to land a job these days, getting one may not be nearly enough for basic economic security.
The Labor Department will release its monthly snapshot of the job market on Friday, and economists expect it to show that the nation’s employers added about 190,000 jobs in March. With an unemployment rate that has been stubbornly stuck near 9 percent, those workers could be considered lucky.
But many of the jobs being added in retail, hospitality and home health care, to name a few categories, are unlikely to pay enough for workers to cover the cost of fundamentals like housing, utilities, food, health care, transportation and, in the case of working parents, child care.
The third example of the assault on the middle class is from the evil, disgusting scum in the Florida legislature - in a state with much higher than average unemployment they want to severely cut unemployment benefit.
It's like they want people living in shelters, tents in the woods, destitute....they don't care about safety nets. The only thing our Florida politicians care about are making the wealthy and the large corporations richer. And themselves....
Without charity and his $247 weekly unemployment check, he would lose it all, he said, starting with his mobile home and his car, a lifeline in a county with no public transportation.
“I sold my 9-millimeter gun,” Mr. Dudenhoeffer said offhandedly, after rattling off the possessions — coin collection, gold jewelry — he had sold to stay afloat. “It was too tempting to blow my brains out.” He added, “I am just so depressed.”
For the jobless like Mr. Dudenhoeffer, the outlook does not look immediately brighter.
The Florida House of Representatives approved a bill in March that would establish the deepest and most far-reaching cuts in unemployment benefits in the nation. Like the law signed in Michigan on Monday, the measure would reduce the number of weeks the unemployed could collect benefits from the standard 26 weeks to 20.
But the House proposal in Florida — in a high-unemployment state that already has some of the lowest benefits — takes it one step further by tying benefits to the unemployment rate. If the rate falls, so do the number of weeks of benefits. If the rate dips below 5 percent, the jobless would collect only 12 weeks of benefits, the lowest level.
This has workers worried in Florida, where the unemployment rate, while continuing to inch down, is 11.5 percent, considerably higher than the nation’s rate of 8.9 percent. Michigan’s rate is 10.4 percent.
The House version, which would take effect Aug. 1 if signed into law and affect people who apply after that date, would also make it easier for businesses to fire employees, who would then not be eligible for unemployment benefits.
The bill’s sponsor, Representative Doug Holder, a Sarasota Republican, said creating jobs is pivotal to keeping Floridians off the unemployment rolls. Businesses need the state’s help in doing that, Mr. Holder said.
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“To talk about cutting the maximum number of weeks down to as low as 12 is basically accepting as a certainty that lots more people will run out of benefits before they find employment and that they will go many weeks without any income,” said George Wentworth, senior staff attorney for the National Employment Law Project, which advocates for workers. “It’s cruel as a matter of public policy, and it’s really kind of wrongheaded in terms of the local economy.”
But the business community, led by the Florida Chamber of Commerce, has made passing the House version of the bill a priority, contending that businesses would benefit greatly from relief from the escalating tax to pay for jobless compensation. This year the tax on business owners jumped to $72.10 a year for each employee from $25.20, still relatively low,
Good to see Alan Grayson is still around and as feisty as ever. Here he weighs in on our "Governor" Rick Scott, and is right on target.
Grayson takes on Scott's ties to Solantic, compares the Republican Party of Florida to the Mafia and many more choice sound bites. If you hate big Rick, you wish you were as articulate as Grayson.
Great 3 minute clip....
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is one of the very few US Senators in that less-than-august body with any integrity. He does not take any corporate money for his election campaigns - none. He relies on individual contributions instead.
He is also the only politician of either party speaking out about the gross inequality of wealth in this country, and he coined the comparison of the 400 richest individuals in the US having as much as the bottom 50% of Americans, 155 million people.
He also gave a speech on the Senate floor last December that lasted 8 hours, decrying the extension of the Bush tax cuts for the very rich that the Democrats caved in on....
Anyway he was on NPR for an interview with Diane Rehm last week, and what a great piece of radio it was. Below is the podcast - it's 50 minutes, so run it through your smartphone during your commute, or MP3 it and listen to it at the gym. Or while doing yard work. Or something.
It's not often you get to hear an intelligent, caring and angry "good guy" these days, and in this interview he talks frankly about politics and current events.
You have to seize these rare opportunities to hear intelligent discussion while we still have NPR.....so enjoy.
This is absolutely one of the funniest videos of all time. Rude, but really funny.....
Diane Sawyer on ABC interviews a few Tea Party congressmen from farm states about their family farms, details the federal subsidies they are getting and asks them if they will vote to take away this Government spending.....with predictable results....dancing....
Is the lamestream corporate media getting a spine? We'll see, but in the meantime enjoy this 2 minute clip....
Time for a DDD favourite - Daft Punk with "Around the World"....if there's a more hypnotic video out there I'd like to see it....
Movies opening this weekend....
I'm not putting the NYTimes links in, but copying bits of the reviews.....and including the trailers so you can get a taste of the movie.
"Source Code" with Jake Gyllenhal - great Times review of this classy sci-fi movie...kind of sounds like "Inception", a thinking person's thriller....go see this one....
It doesn’t take long for “Source Code,” a science-fiction thriller with a contemporary twist, to hook you. A smooth diversion directed by Duncan Jones that bats around a few big ideas, the movie opens with a succession of overhead images of Chicago and its environs gleaming in the bright day. Again and again the camera swoops and soars above the doll-like houses, rushing past ribbons of freeway and nearly skimming the tops of silver skyscrapers. And again and again, and closer and closer, it returns to a speeding commuter train, a recurrence that artfully foreshadows the story’s nifty repetition compulsion.
In “Source Code,” thinking is doing, which makes it a nice respite from standard action fare with its guys, grunts and guns (though there’s some of that here too).
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Mr. Jones did lose me at the messy finish, if only on the level of logic (rarely a deal-breaker for me in science fiction), but he makes it easy to follow Stevens as he toggles between realities. Better still, he makes you want to do so. In crucial ways, “Source Code,” written by Ben Ripley, recalls “Moon,” Mr. Jones’s accomplished feature debut about a solitary astronaut played by Sam Rockwell. “Source Code” is bigger, shinier, pricier. Yet both movies hinge on isolated, physically constrained men who are not what they seem, including, importantly, to themselves. And in each Mr. Jones creates a sense of intimacy that draws you to the characters, so that the tension comes from your feelings for them and not purely from plot twists.
This intimacy makes the movie feel more personal than industrial, and that’s also part of its appeal. Other than during the jolts of action when Mr. Jones cranks the volume, the performers speak rather than shout their lines, the default setting in too many thrillers. Just as you lean in to someone talking quietly, you lean in to Stevens and Christina as their chatter gives way to flirtation. The actors are nicely matched, and what a relief to like a new movie with Mr. Gyllenhaal after a run of groaners. In a sympathetic turn, he hits the dark and light notes right, bringing subtle differences to his performance, whether Stevens is questioning reality or riding that train of life and death and angling for what everyone wants: the chance to get it right.
"Rubber"
Low budget horror movie, but cleverly done with a unique premise....sounds like a lot of fun!!! Good review.....trailer below...
It took an entire car to power Stephen King’s “Christine,” a horror novel about a possessed 1958 Plymouth Fury that runs murderously amok. The considerably lower-budgeted “Rubber” wittily makes do with a single — and ferociously single-minded — car tire. It doesn’t just hit the road, it also wobbles and weaves and executes a diabolically jaunty victory lap, leaving a long bloody smear in its increasingly brutal wake. This being a conceptual horror flick, the tire also runs wild while some onlookers play the Greek chorus and in-house audience both, commenting on the movie as it happens. “It’s already boring,” says one. Nope — it isn’t.
Why then does the tire kill? Because it can.
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And so it does, after shuddering to life, or rather to motion. First seen half-submerged in sand, the tire starts to tremble as if newly awakened (or suffering from a seizure) and then struggles upright only to fall repeatedly, bringing to mind the first tentative steps of a newborn foal. But this is no charming, peaceable creature. It’s a totem of American industrial might that having been carelessly or purposely forgotten, has become something more than junk blighting the landscape. And now it’s on the loose (smoothly maneuvered by the off-screen magicians holding the remote control), an uncanny turn of affairs that the tire tests with nimble moves and then — shades of its will to power — by rolling over other refuse.
Evil begets evil, or so it often seems in movies, where bloodlust (that of the monster and filmmaker both) is rarely sated. The villain in “Rubber” is no different, and after taking care of a bottle and a can, the tire next takes out a scorpion and a rabbit, before moving onto bigger, bloodier, more recalcitrant prey.
And this looks really, really, really, really good....opening next Friday - "Hanna".....
New TV series starting tomorrow night, "The Killing", on AMC at 9pm.
Not often we get an intelligent drama series that's worth the time, but this one sounds excellent. I just watched the trailer below and can't wait to TIVO it.....we report, you decide, but have a look at the trailer.....wow....
"The Killing" 3 minute trailer....
Todays Ladies jokes....what women really mean....
(1) Fine: This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.
(2) Five Minutes: If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.
(3) Nothing: This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in fine.
(4) Go Ahead: This is a dare, not permission. Don't Do It!
(5) Loud Sigh: This is actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to # 3 for the meaning of nothing.)
(2) Five Minutes: If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.
(3) Nothing: This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in fine.
(4) Go Ahead: This is a dare, not permission. Don't Do It!
(5) Loud Sigh: This is actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to # 3 for the meaning of nothing.)
(6) That's Okay: This is one of the most dangerous statements a women can make to a man. That's okay means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.
(7) Thanks: A woman is thanking you, do not question, or faint. Just say you're welcome. (I want to add in a clause here - This is true, unless she says 'Thanks a lot' - that is PURE sarcasm and she is not thanking you at all. DO NOT say 'you're welcome'. That will bring on a 'whatever').
(8) Whatever: Is a woman's way of saying...Go to Hell...
(9) Don't worry about it, I got it: Another dangerous statement, meaning this is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking 'What's wrong?' For the woman's response refer to # 3.
* Send this to the men you know, to warn them about arguments they can avoid if they remember the terminology.
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