MindMover
MindMover's JournalThis map shows America’s real unemployment problem
Every month, the Bureau of Labor Statistic releases their latest cut at the jobs data. And every month, we dutifully report the national unemployment rate, as if unemployment is a singular national phenomenon.
But it's not. America has one flag. But it doesn't have one unemployment rate, as this map from the BLS shows: Twmcort
What you're seeing there is average unemployment over the last year broken out by county. The differences between states and counties are tremendous. There are states in America that are enjoying genuinely good times. And then there are states with unemployment rates that, nationally, would be considered an emergency.
In Nebraska, for instance, the unemployment rate is 3.7 percent. That's lower than the national unemployment rate ever got during the roaring 90s.
http://www.vox.com/2014/5/2/5675238/this-map-shows-america-s-real-unemployment-problem
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"Alabama’s chief justice: Buddha didn’t create us so First Amendment only protects Christians
Speaking at the Pastor for Life Luncheon, which was sponsored by Pro-Life Mississippi, Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court declared that the First Amendment only applies to Christians because “Buddha didn’t create us, Mohammed didn’t create us, it was the God of the Holy Scriptures” who created us.
“They didn’t bring the Koran over on the pilgrim ship,” he continued. “Let’s get real, let’s go back and learn our history. Let’s stop playing games.”
He then noted that he loves talking to lawyers, because he is a lawyer who went to “a secular law school,” so he knows that “in the law, just isn’t politically correct.” He claimed that this is why America has “lost its way,” and that he would be publishing a pamphlet “this week, maybe next” that contained copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, thereby proving that all the people “who found this nation — black, white, all people, all religions, all faiths” knew that America was “about God.”
Chief Justice Moore later defined “life” via Blackstone’s Law — a book that American lawyers have “sadly forgotten” — as beginning when “the baby kicks.” “Today,” he said, “our courts say it’s not alive ’til the head comes out.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/02/alabamas-chief-justice-buddha-didnt-create-us-so-first-amendment-only-protects-christians/
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and we wonder how could GW steal one election and win another .... only in America
How Scientists, Car Companies, And The Military Are Creating The Smartest Energy Solution
Back in February, Tesla Motors sent a shock wave through the energy technology world when it announced plans to build the globe’s biggest battery factory.
The sheer scale of the proposed “gigafactory” is enormous. “[Tesla's] goal by 2020 is to be producing 500,000 cars — 500,000 battery packs — out of that gigafactory,” said Steve LeVine, a journalist for Quartz who’s writing a book on batteries and their potential to transform energy as we know it. If Tesla hits that target, it would literally double global production of lithium-ion batteries.
For anyone concerned about climate change, this is big news. Making every vehicle electric would reduce carbon emissions by moving cars off a pure oil diet and onto an electricity mix of coal, natural gas, and some renewables. But we need to move that electricity mix fully onto clean energy as well — and do it fast — to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
That will require dealing with the intermittency of green energy sources like wind and solar. Electricity is relatively unusual in that we don’t make it until we use it — and if we don’t use it right when it’s made, we lose it. So fossil fuels like coal and natural gas have an advantage in that we control when we burn them. But the sun shines and the wind blows where and when they will, limiting renewables to a supplemental energy source at best. To change that, we need to be able to store renewable electricity when it’s made, and then release it when we need it.
And that means batteries. Lots and lots of batteries.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/05/01/3429627/batteries-smartest-energy-solution/
A life in the day of a weed delivery service ... Speed Weed ...
Speed Weed is a marijuana delivery service chain in southern California. Amanda Lewis of LA Weekly rode along with a delivery driver and wrote about it
4:20 p.m.: Next stop: a new customer in Encino, who ordered $40 of Granddaddy Purple and $60 of Pineapple Express. The packaging for the latter says, "Seth Rogan [sic] avail for additional fee." Covington writes all of the descriptions; he says a lot of people call and ask, in all seriousness, how much it would cost to get the movie star to come over.
4:24 p.m.: "We have a ton of porn star clients," Joyner says. "Porn and weed definitely go hand in hand. They're usually very good tippers."
4:59 p.m.: We get off the 101 and pull up to a row of freeway-adjacent, hideous condos. Joyner calls the customer and says he will meet her in front of the lobby.
5:07 p.m.: Two girls with dyed blonde hair come out of the building, one in studded jorts and the other barefoot, in yoga pants. "I just moved here from Chicago, like, a year ago," says the barefoot girl, marveling at the fact that she can get weed delivered. "Like, is this real life?" She pays in cash and doesn't tip.
http://boingboing.net/2014/05/01/a-life-in-the-day-of-a-weed-de.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
More Than A Million Young People Enrolled In Obamacare Last Month
Source: Think Progress
Obamacare experienced a surge in enrollment last month, as nearly 3.8 million people selected a plan through the exchanges, including 1.2 million young people, administration officials announced on Thursday. The rush represented “an 89 precent increase in the cumulative number of individuals” who enrolled in a health care plan through the exchange between March 1 and April 19.
Cumulatively, more than 8 million people have enrolled in an Obamacare plan though state or federal marketplaces since the beginning of open enrollment. 2.2 million of those people — or 28 percent — are between the ages of 18 and 34.
The administration also confirmed that 4.8 million people enrolled in Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), 5 million enrolled in coverage outside of the marketplaces, and 3 million young people were able to remain on their parents’ health care plans.
Officials did not say how many of the new enrollees were previously uninsured, however, or what percentage paid for their premiums. The report notes that insurers have indicated that “90 percent to 90 percent of the people who have selected a Marketplace plan have made premium payments.”
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Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/05/01/3433258/more-than-a-million-young-people-enrolled-in-obamacare-last-month/
and Republicants said it wouldn't work ... and are still trying to make up shit to say it doesn't work ... LMAO
EXCLUSIVE: Here's The House GOP's 'Incredibly Rigged' Obamacare Survey
The survey that House Republicans used to conclude that only 67 percent of HealthCare.gov enrollees had paid their first premium appears designed to yield an unfavorable result -- at least that's the perception of one of the people whose company was asked to respond to it.
"The survey was so incredibly rigged to produce this result, it was a joke," a source, whose company received it and who provided it to TPM, said. "Everyone who saw it knew exactly what the goal was."
The survey included language that explicitly left out the fact some people would still have time to pay their premium after April 15, which is when the House Energy and Commerce Committee asked companies to return their answers.
The GOP survey simply asked companies for the number of enrollees who paid their first premium and the number who have not -- but it did not account for the fact that some people in the latter group could still pay until at least April 30.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/house-gop-rigged-obamacare-survey?utm_content=buffer4c3ba&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Elizabeth Warren: What happened to the middle class?
CNN) -- A great crack in America's middle class came to light recently: While our country continues to lead the world as the richest nation, our middle class, once the most affluent in the world, has fallen behind. According to an analysis by The New York Times, Canada's middle class is now the wealthiest, and working families in many countries have seen their incomes rise much faster than those in the United States.
The hollowing out of America's middle class has been years in the making, but it wasn't inevitable that working families would fall further and further behind. Instead, it was the direct consequence of deliberate choices Washington has made over the past generation to put the rich and powerful first and to leave working people to pick up whatever crumbs were left behind.
It didn't have to be this way. America knows how to build a middle class that is the envy of the world. After the Great Depression, America made two critical decisions.
First, it put in place strong rules to level the playing field for families, putting more cops on the beat to monitor financial markets and passing basic safety rules to temper the boom-and-bust financial cycle.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/01/opinion/warren-middle-class/index.html
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30+ years in destroying the middle class ...
Seattle Announces $15 Minimum Wage, Highest In The U.S.
Source: Think Progress
Seattle will raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour over the coming years under a deal brokered by Mayor Ed Murray and blessed by labor and business groups alike, city leaders announced Thursday afternoon.
The new pay floor will phase in at different speeds for businesses of different sizes, but all employers will have to meet the $15 minimum wage by the end of the decade. Businesses with more than 500 employees nationwide will have a three-year phase-in period, while smaller employers get five years to ratchet up their payscales.
After reaching $15 an hour, the city’s minimum wage will automatically climb by 2.4 percent each year regardless of the rate of inflation. Even among states with relatively strong minimum wage laws, automatic increases are uncommon. Thursday’s deal will make Seattle the national leader on municipal minimum wage laws. Washington currently has the highest pay floor of any state at $9.32 per hour.
The deal was a long time coming, with Murray first indicating he wanted to establish a $15 floor back in September during the mayoral campaign. Murray created the 24-member advisory group that crafted the compromise package back in December, and the group of local business owners, restaurateurs, and labor leaders has been grinding toward an agreement for the past four months.
Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/05/01/3433227/seattle-15-dollar-minimum-wage/
Can somebody say FINALLY ....
Donald Sterling banned from Bunny Ranch brothel following 'racist' rant
American brothel owner Dennis Hof has banned disgraced LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling from his Nevada sex clubs out of respect for his "smoking hot" African-American prostitutes and NBA players.
Mr Sterling found himself the subject of an outcry in the US last week, after he was allegedly recorded making racist remarks in an explosive conversation with girlfriend V. Stiviano.
In the recording obtained by gossip website TMZ, Sterling allegedly told her not bring black men to basketball games or post photographs on her Instagram account associating herself with black people.
The sports mogul has been banned from the National Basketball Association (NBA) for life and will have to pay a $2.5 million fine, the most severe punishment ever handed down to a team owner, for his "deeply offensive and harmful" remarks.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-sterling-banned-from-bunny-ranch-brothel-following-racist-rant-9312812.html
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LOL, only in America ...
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