turbinetree
turbinetree's JournalFour in 10 Americans can't cover a $400 emergency expense, Fed finds
Four in 10 Americans are unable to cover an unexpected expense of $400 or more without resorting to borrowing money or selling some of their possessions, a Federal Reserve annual economic survey has found.
At the same time, the Fed’s fifth annual Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking found that in 2017 one in five Americans knew someone who was addicted to opioids or painkillers.
The grim statistics come against a backdrop of a low 3.9% unemployment rate and an economy widely seen as performing strongly – though largely failing to tackle inequality. The stock market, too, has been on a boom in recent years and many corporations are reporting strong profits.
“Even with the improvement in financial outlook, however, 40% [of Americans] still say they cannot cover a $400 emergency expense, or would do so by borrowing or selling something,” said Federal Reserve Board governor Lael Brainard in a statement.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/may/22/federal-reserve-emergency-expense-economic-survey
But 1.5 trillion tax cut went to the grifters...............and the 40% will still vote republican, that can't afford to find $400.00 dollars to cover emergency expenses .............
Striking teachers show that cutting education to fix it is a neoliberal myth
For decades we have been told that the way to fix education is to fire people but red-shirted marchers across the country have shown the power of solidarity
What I like best about the wave of teachers’ strikes that have swept America these last few months is how they punch so brutally and so directly in the face of the number one neoliberal educational fantasy of the last decade: that all we need to do to fix public education is fire people.
Fire teachers, specifically. They need to learn fear and discipline. That’s what education “reformers” have told us for years. If only, the fantasy goes, we could slay the foot-dragging unions and the red-tape rules that keep mediocre teachers in their jobs, then things would be different. If only some nice “tech millionaires” would step in and help us fire people! If only we could get a thousand clones of Michelle Rhee, the former DC schools chancellor who fired so many people she even once fired someone on TV!
Now just look at what’s happened. We’ve seen enormous teacher protests in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Arizona, with more on the way. Actions that look very much like strikes by people who, in some of these states, are legally forbidden to strike. It was the perfect opportunity for education “reformers” to fire people, and fire them en masse. It was the politicians’ chance to show us what a tough-minded boss could do.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/21/teacher-strikes-schools-neoliberal-fantasy-debunking
National Die-In Day: US high schoolers to protest inaction on gun control
Source: The Guardian
American high school students are organizing a National Die-In Day on 12 June to protest continued government inaction on gun control laws. The action will take place on the second anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, and will include a die-in at noon in front of the Capitol in Washington DC and another in Orlando. The teenage organizers are hoping to spark additional die-in protests at state capitols and town halls across the country – “anywhere with lethal legislative inaction”, as one tweet put it.
The founder of the die-in day, Amanda Fugleberg, is an 18-year-old high school senior from Orlando who previously organized a walkout to protest gun violence at her high school in March. Fugleberg said the die-in in Washington would last 12 minutes.
That is about one second for each of what she says have been approximately 700 mass shootings in the US, defined by the not-for-profit Gun Violence Archive as incidents resulting in at least four wounded, since the Pulse attack.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/may/21/us-gun-control-protest-high-school-die-in-day
Wonder what the NRATV will say about this...................I know they will have some lackey come out and say..................this Bullshit, since young adults cannot have the "ability to cope with it...................Fuck the NRA
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210642515
NRATV host blames 'progressive culture and media' for school shootings
"A generation of kids with an inability to cope with anything."
PATRICK SMITH MAY 21, 2018, 6:54 PM
Days after a school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas claimed the lives of eight students and two teachers, NRATV released a video claiming mass shooters are “a creation of our so-called progressive culture and media.”
In the video, host Colion Noir criticizes media coverage for supposedly turning mass shooters into inspiration for other would-be shooters to turn guns on their classmates.
Noir also claims in the video that progressives have confused children with “safe spaces” and “participation trophies,” and by telling “young boys that their masculinity is toxic.”
The result, Noir says, has created “a generation of kids with an inability to cope with anything.”
https://thinkprogress.org/nratv-host-blames-progressive-culture-and-media-for-school-shootings-e0e79d554837/
So exactly what are saying here Noir............“a generation of kids with an inability to cope with anything.”
I guess when you hear the popping sound of gun fire in your school your suppose to do what exactly
"Cope with it".....................
After erasing all mentions of climate change, National Park Service releases uncensored report
The study's lead scientist said she was "extremely happy" that mentions of climate change were restored.
KYLA MANDEL MAY 21, 2018, 10:42 AM
In the face of mounting scrutiny over attempts to scrub all mentions of climate change from a report about sea level rise, the National Park Service (NPS) has finally released its long-awaited report.
The uncensored report was quietly released on Friday with no mention by the NPS, the Department of Interior, or its Secretary Ryan Zinke’s Twitter accounts.
The report highlights the climate risks at 118 coastal national park sites. While the impact will vary depending on the location and how much global temperatures increase, the report finds that parks in North Carolina’s Outer Banks are at the greatest risk from sea level rise.
In contrast to the Trump administration’s tendency to ignore or deny climate change and its risks, the report begins: “Global sea level is rising. While sea levels have been gradually rising since the last glacial maximum approximately 21,000 years ago, anthropogenic climate change has significantly increased the rate of global sea level rise.”
https://thinkprogress.org/national-park-service-releases-uncensored-sea-level-rise-report-33a92e585aa1/
And then there is one Mo Brooks and rocks making the oceans higher...................
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142061447
Buried in SCOTUS's upcoming assignments is an ominous sign for gerrymandering opponents
It's beginning to look like Chief Justice John Roberts will write the opinion in an important election law case; if so, woe betide.
IAN MILLHISER MAY 21, 2018, 1:35 PM
Last October, when the Supreme Court heard a landmark challenge to Wisconsin’s gerrymandered state assembly maps, there appeared to be a real danger that the state’s lawmakers would soon have to compete in a free and fair election. More than half a year later, the fate of partisan gerrymandering appears even more uncertain — and the Court just gave a new sign that such gerrymandering may yet survive.
The Court ordinarily tries to distribute work equitably among its members. If it hears nine cases in a particular month, each member of the Court will typically be assigned one majority opinion from among those nine — rather than having some justices write two opinions and some write none. For this reason, it is often possible to predict which justice will write a particular case based on who has not yet written a decision from a particular month.
Which brings us to the chart on the left, which comes to us from SCOTUSBlog.
Before Monday morning, every member of the Court but two — Chief Justice John Roberts and Neil Gorusch, who occupies the seat Senate Republicans held open for a year until Donald Trump could fill it — handed down one opinion from the Court’s October sitting. Then, on Monday, Gorsuch handed down a 5-4 decision in Epic Systems v. Lewis.
https://thinkprogress.org/john-roberts-partisan-gerrymanderers-055f06e55c4c/
And he Roberts wrote for the majority on voting, Shelby vs Holder......................hold on
https://www.oyez.org/cases/2012/12-96
Breakthrough solar panel can harvest power from raindrops -- day or night
In another advance, Chinese deploy two-sided solar panels to boost efficiency.
JOE ROMM MAY 21, 2018, 1:06 PM
In a truly remarkable feat of innovation, scientists have figured out how to create “hybrid” solar cells that generate power not just from sunlight but also from raindrops. This means we may soon see all-weather solar panels that work when it is cloudy and even at night, if it’s raining.
Solar has soared in recent years, as panel prices have dropped so fast that solar keeps crushing its own record for the cheapest power “ever, anywhere, by any technology” — even without a subsidy.
But scientists and engineers around the world keep innovating, looking for ways to make solar panels more efficient and less expensive. Much of this innovation is now coming from China, the world leader in both manufacturing and deployment of solar energy.
For instance, China has developed “double-sided” solar panels that can generate power from light that hits their underside. That can enable a 10 percent boost in output, especially if you put the panels on a roof or other area that is painted white to help reflect the suns rays. Bloomberg New Energy Finance projects these panels could capture a remarkable 40 percent share of the market by 2025.
https://thinkprogress.org/breakthrough-solar-panel-can-harvest-power-from-raindrops-day-or-night-3a2ce74f9060/
While on this continent called North America....................the country has a sexual predator in the white house calling for coal.................and thousands of people that will be out of work................... 
Harvesting Mechanical Energy.....................
Neil Gorsuch's first major opinion is a decision allowing bosses to steal wages from their workers
Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee is exactly who you think he is.
IAN MILLHISER MAY 21, 2018, 11:01 AM
The Supreme Court held on Monday that employers can force their employees to sign away many of their rights to sue their employers. As a practical matter, Monday’s decision in Epic Systems v. Lewis will enable employers to engage in small-scale wage theft with impunity, so long as they spread the impact of this theft among many employees.
Neil Gorsuch, who occupies the seat that Senate Republicans held open for a year until Donald Trump could fill it, wrote the Court’s 5-4 decision. The Court split along party lines.
Epic Systems involves three consolidated cases, each involving employment contracts cutting off employees’ rights to sue their employer in a court of law. In at least one of these cases, the employees were required to sign away these rights as a condition of starting their job. In another, existing workers were told to sign away their rights if they wanted to keep working.
Each contract contained two provisions, a “forced arbitration” provision, which requires legal disputes between the employer and the employee to be resolved by a private arbitrator and not by a real court; and a provision prohibiting employees from bringing class actions against the employer.
Writing with his trademarked smugness, Gorsuch presents Epic Systems as a simple application of a legal text. “The parties before us contracted for arbitration,” he writes. “They proceeded to specify the rules that would govern their arbitrations, indicating their intention to use individualized rather than class or collective action procedures. And this much the Arbitration Act seems to protect pretty absolutely.”
It’s the sort of statement someone might write if they’d never read the Federal Arbitration Act — the law at the heart of this case — and had only read the Supreme Court’s decisions expanding that act’s scope.
https://thinkprogress.org/neil-gorsuch-to-allow-bosses-to-steal-wages-from-workers-a0f2171a257f/
I hate being blackmailed to get a job...................and this "decision" basically is blackmailing employees or individuals looking for work.
Maybe Gorsuch and other right wingers should revisit the Constitution where it says that citizens have a right to sue, and have there day in a court, this ruling eviscerates that part of the Constitution...............
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