Signs the economy is bad: July 20, 2018 edition

Welcome to another edition of "Signs the Economy is Bad" here at The Itinerant Librarian. This is the semi-regular (as in when I have time and/or feel like doing it) feature where I scour the Internet in search of the oh so subtle hints that the economy is bad. Sure, pundits may say things are getting better, but what do they know? And to show not all is bad, once in a while we look at how good the uber rich have it.

We made it to another Friday, and here we go again. Let's see what has been going on:

The Pendejo In Chief, the Party of Stupid, and the Bad Economy, or how are those guys fucking up things this week:

•  They got the IRS to basically no longer require political nonprofits to disclose their donors, making it harder to follow the money. Via AlterNet. 
• The Pendejo In Chief is crying poverty as he says the U.S. cannot afford to take care of its veterans, unless there are more tax cuts for the wealthy. Story via The Daily Intelligencer.
• The Pendejo In Chief's tariffs means others retaliate, like the Chinese. Yet another example, the Chinese retaliated with their  own tariffs on U.S. pork. One part of the pork that was very good for the U.S. was selling offal (things like snouts, pigs' feet, hearts, entrails, etc., which Americans usually do not eat but the Chinese love to eat) to the Chinese. Well, with  tariffs, all of a sudden those offal sellers, many of whom were likely very happy to vote for the Party of Stupid, are now up the creek trying to find where to sell their wares.  Story via Reuters.
• By the way, the Chinese are also putting in  tariffs to energy imports from the U.S. Via The Rural Blog.
• In more federal Party of Stupid fuckery, Ben Carson, the Pendejo In Chief's HUD secretary, wants to raise rents for people in public housing, including the elderly and disabled, because. . . fuck 'em, that's why. Story via  Boing Boing.
• Meanwhile, back in the U.S. colony, FEMA is rejecting thousands of appeals for housing aid in Puerto Rico. Reason? Many people cannot prove they owned a home. Gee, that  would not  have anything to do with  that hurricane, would it? Oh, and by the way, a year later, it is hurricane season again. Story via The Week.
• The GAO reports that summer food programs face challenges, especially  in rural areas. Story  via The Rural Blog.

The bad economy in education:

• Odds are good kids in your schools have lead in their water. According to this story via Mother  Jones, nearly 2/3 of American schools have no idea if their water has lead or not. As usual in the U.S., there is  not exactly a sense of urgency about this. 
• Meanwhile, the Vermont Law School basically canned most of their tenure track faculty, and the one or two remaining may not be there  much longer. Oh, and did we mention they gagged the faculty  with  a non-disclosure agreement? Story via Lexington Herald-Leader. If I was looking for a law school, Vermont would not be my destination. 

The bad economy in health and medicine:

•  As usual, Americans get gouged by the health care system as well as  by health insurance companies. Meanwhile, those same companies' priority is to make profits for their shareholders. Story via Salon. If a few people need to die to make a buck or two, hey, it is the American way. Americans firmly believe they cannot have universal health care  because it would mean having to  help some poor person who is less fortunate. We can't have that shit happening. Fuck that deadbeat Americans say. 
• And if you want to complain about bad service from a doctor or hospital, well fuck you too. Doctors and hospitals do not want that, and they will sue you if you dare post a  negative review online. Story via USA Today.
• Not only are  health insurance companies ripping you off, they are scooping  up all the private data and personal information on you they can find anywhere from social media to your shopping habits. Why? So they can better discriminate against you in terms of health coverage later. Story via AlterNet. 

The Bad Economy in the business world:

•  Apparently, the latest fuckery is businesses deciding they want to go cash-less. It is a blend of laziness, discrimination, not caring about the poor or those who have no access to credit or  debit cards all combined with fuckery. Well, in Washington D.C., they are trying to pass legislation to prevent this discrimination. Story via Big Think.
• Amazon keeps growing as a monopoly. Its share of e-commerce in the U.S. is almost at 50%. That is right, they are getting close to controlling half of every online commerce transaction. Story via The Daily Intelligencer.
• Meanwhile, Dairy Queen is closing locations all over Texas, especially in rural areas. Story via The Rural Blog.
• In yet more reasons to avoid flying, United Airlines just found another way to get get their flight attendants to annoy you more. Story via Inc.
• However, business is not all bad. For U.S. weapons makers and sellers, business is good. In fact, arms makers recently praised U.S. weapons export policies. Story via Reuters.

Finally, a couple of Bad Economy trivia items:

• Did you know that testosterone makes guys buy more luxury and fancy products? It's their way of preening basically. Story via The Washington Post.  So the bigger the car, the watch, the jewelry, likely the bigger the douchebag. I must not have inherited that gene because personally I do not give a shit about luxury goods. 
• And finally, turns out that the group least likely to use the Ashley Madison philandering service are liberals. Who is MORE likely to use it? Conservatives, with Libertarians ranking the  highest. Imagine that. Story via Pacific Standard.