2016 archive
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Still under 300k.
(snip)
The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure than the weekly claims numbers, decreased to 265,000 last week from 266,500.
The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits fell by 18,000 to 2.17 million in the week ended April 2, the lowest since the period ended Oct. 17. The unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits held at 1.6 percent. These data are reported with a one-week lag.
The four-week average of continuing claims dropped to 2.18 million, the lowest since November 2000.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
Shorter John Cole: General Sherman was correct.
The Old Shell Game 0
Reporter shows how easily a shell company can be created in Delaware.
Via C&L, which also provides more detail.
Tax Relief 0
My tax returns are done and mailed and I won’t have to use MS Windows again for another year.*
Afterthought:
If Microsoft succeeds in foisting Windows 10, Spyware Edition, on me, I’m buying a Mac just to do my taxes.
__________________
*Commercial manufacturers of tax return software support only Windows and MacOS. Excellent FOSS accounting software exists, but not tax prep software.
“Because the Bible Tells Me So” 2
Tony Norman looks into his spam folder and explores emails from those who exhort him to base his voted on “Christian values.” What he finds troubles him.
Here’s a bit:
On the other hand, American Christians have the unambiguous example of a penniless, itinerant rabbi who exalted the poor, denounced the rich, healed the sick, embraced society’s outcasts and modeled a new way of relating to women, tax collectors, children, foreigners, religious authorities, lepers and those in prison.
None of these biblical values, as far as I can tell, is supported in the rhetoric of either Mr. Cruz or Mr. Trump. Both candidates embrace the politics of fear, the demonization of undocumented immigrants, rabid suspicion of foreigners, the expansion of the military for the sake of national pride, an unregulated economy that allows market forces to determine what’s best, a society where being armed with as many guns as one’s pride allows is the norm, a denial of environmental responsibility and a social ethic that exalts the rich while brutalizing the poor.
It has been my experience that those who most loudly proclaim their “Christianity” are the least to be trusted with anything. Trust them, and you end up hoisted on their Elmer Gantry.
Republican Family Values 0
Honest to Pete, you can’t make this stuff up:
And Now, a Musical Interlude 0
Just for grins and giggles, try playing “Count the Stereotypes” as you watch this.
Systematizing the Game 0
At the Bangor Daily News, Steven Barken wonders what would happen if Monopoly imitated the American economic system. For example . . .
If Monopoly were more like real life, here’s what would happen.
Let’s assume there are five players, and instead of each player receiving $1,500 at the start, the $7,500 they share to begin the game is instead allocated according to the distribution of wealth among Americans. In this scenario, the wealthiest player, Player A, would begin with about $6,668, because the top fifth of Americans hold about 89 percent of the nation’s wealth. Based on the proportion of wealth held by the next fifth of Americans, Player B would begin with $705. Meanwhile, Player C, representing the middle fifth of Americans, would begin with $195, while Player D would begin with $15. Finally, Player E, representing the bottom fifth of Americans, would begin the game $90 in debt.
Follow the link to see how the game plays out.
I Want To Teach the World To Sing
In Perfect Hegemony Reprise
0
Harry Shearer interviews Andrew Bacevich about Bacevich’s new book detailing the America’s four decade misadventure in the Middle East.
It is a must-listen. The interview starts about five minutes in.
Hit ‘Em Where It Hurts 0
This is poetic justice writ large: internet porn site cuts off North Carolina and comments on Tarheels’ taste in porn in the press release in reaction to North Carolina’s “it’s okay to hate the gay” bill.
The cutoff will continue until North Carolina repeals HB 2, which excludes LGBT citizens from civil rights protection and blocks cities and counties from passing civil rights guarantees. Charlotte had enacted such an ordinance.
(snip)
A spokesman told Huffington Post: “Back in March, we had 400,000 hits for the term ‘Transsexual’ from North Carolina alone. People from that state searched ‘Gay’ 319,907 times.”