We have a lot of stories this week. Very often I have to keep looking to find a few things. For this post, things practically fell on my lap, so let's get it on.
We start this week with:
Education News
- Another cheating asshole plead guilty to bribery charges in the now infamous college cheating scandal. This one paid $400K at least. Via USA Today.
- Meanwhile, a former college admissions counselor spills the beans on how elite college admissions "really" works. Some of this is basically obvious, and some of it seems more like a guy getting a pang of conscience late in life and trying to justify his actions, some of which can be seen as questionable at least, or, you know, it is not illegal but. . . . Via Vox.
- In broader news, the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) reports that in a decade the federal student loan program will be running a deficit. Story via Inside Higher Ed.
- Here is the CBO report document if you really want to dig in.
- Above the Law has a story and list of the law schools with the most unemployed graduates in 2018. Three of Puerto Rico's law schools are among the top. Now, unlike other schools in the US mainland that may or may not be of questionable quality, Puerto Rico's law schools may have a very important reason they got on this list: "For what it’s worth, we suspect that all three Puerto Rico law schools landed on the list due to the fact that the island was devastated by Hurricane Maria and has since been in 'recovery.' You apply to jobs without electricity." And before any of you gringos whine that the hurricane is long gone, keep in mind your president, The Pendejo In Chief, is still throwing tantrums and denying federal assistance to the US colony for hurricane relief and recovery.
Rural News
- The Sage of Omaha recently said that rural newspapers are "toast." Naturally, some editors from small local news
ragsnewspapers took exception in the pages of theirbarely readdistinguished publications. Buffet's rationale is "due to the internet sucking away advertising revenue." Story via The Rural Blog. That scenario is not inaccurate. The editors went with the usual pap about how "rural newspapers provide a service to communities unmatched by any other resource" even as major newspapers are abandoning rural areas in droves making them vulnerable to fake news and partisan influence, at least 1/5 of newspapers have closed down nationwide (which makes it worse for rural areas, many of which are basically news deserts), and even newsprint tariffs are hurting the newspapers that are left. By the way, those other stories I presented in previous editions of "Signs the economy is bad" here on this blog. The tariff story is so bad it even got one of our local rags recently when the newspaper in the town over made a big deal that they were significantly reducing pages and content due to high costs, including costs of news print paper. So let us be perfectly honest here: Warren Buffet is not so much a genius; he just sees what the rest of us willing to see reality and pay attention already see, and then has an uncanny ability to make a shit ton of money out of it. Rural newspapers are not just toast: they are BURNT toast. Regular toast you can at least put butter on it and consume. Burnt toast gets tossed out for the most part. - In fact, in another story I found for this week, again, here we have a piece on small towns without a local newspaper. Those news deserts just keep getting bigger. Via The Daily Yonder.
- Meanwhile, as if things weren't bad enough for the press in rural regions, turns out the locals don't even want to talk to the press most of the time. They don't trust them. I wonder why. Story via The Rural Blog.
- According to a new poll, farmers are seriously stressed and have to deal with mental health issues. Story via The Rural Blog.
- Part of what stress may come because they are having difficulty finding workers to pick the actual crops because they refuse to pay decent wages for the hard work (not to mention consumers who want cheap fruit no matter what, but that is another story). One example is in Pennsylvania, where the farmers are so desperate they are basically turning to any cheap and (almost) slave labor they can find just to not have to pay a decent wage and so their crops don't rot. Such "creative" ideas to replace the immigrants they so gladly exploit include: ". . .inmate work-release programs, organizations that help the visually impaired find employment, and others that help veterans find work. . .". That story via The Rural Blog. So they are hoping to find a new pool of (barely) slave labor with prison inmates, the visually impaired (who may already struggle to get employed to these farmers are hoping desperation will get them to pick crops), and veterans (hey, they are not working send them to the farm. Better than that other farm). But hey, as long as those fruit stay cheap in the grocery store. . .
- In rural health, the signs of the bad economy are there too. The diabetes mortality gap is widening in rural areas. Story via The Daily Yonder. They are basing the story on a new study in an article from the Journal of Rural Health (pay article but you can see abstract and conclusions. If you really want to see the full text, your local library may have access to it or the ability to do an Interlibrary Loan request for you). So you may be asking what is the big deal? The big deal is this: “'Rural America in general, and the rural South in particular, has seen little improvement in its diabetes mortality rate over the past two decades,' according to the report."
- Meanwhile, what started with good intentions in Kentucky to build one of those "information superhighways" has become a serious boondoggle of lost money, incompetence, inefficiency, and nothing delivered. Via Pro Publica.
- In the end, rural areas are pretty much fucked, for various reasons, including a good amount of reasons that boil down to them shooting themselves in the foot regularly. So, no matter how often those butt kissing candidates go to Iowa first every four years or so, rural areas like Iowa are just on the way down. Story via UPI. It boils down to this, as the story states: "The facts are clear and unarguable. Most of the nation's smaller urban and rural counties are not growing and will not grow." The news piece looks at various analysis resources including Department of Commerce data (resources linked in the article).
Government News
- The Pendejo In Chief always provides signs that the economy is bad. No, I do not mean he does so by losing millions of dollars as a business man and then claiming it was a stroke of genius. Oh no no. We got a couple of good ones this week from his Royal Orangeness:
- He launched a new assault on the poor. . . again. Story via TruthDig. So what did Cheetolini do this time? "The Trump administration on Monday moved to change the definition of 'poverty' in the United States in a proposal which combines the president’s attempts to portray the U.S. economy as strong with his repeated attacks on the working poor and their access to government services."
- And he just said he'd be fine if military academy graduates who play football put off their actual military careers (you know, the actual shit they got a coveted appointment to and a US service academy and a free education and that they agreed to serve upon graduation) so they can go play sportsball. By the way, while you may be struggling to pay off college loans because you did not want to or could not get into a service academy, you still pay taxes for those kids who DO go to a service academy only to go slack off and go play sportsball instead of doing the military duty they agreed to by contract when they accepted said free education. Story via USA Today. Feel free to queue up the patriotic sportsball enthusiasts who will be happy with Mar-A-Lago's Caudillo statement (bonus if they are gung ho Party of Stupid military vets who themselves would have never been able to get into a military academy or better yet local militia guys).
- The military industrial complex in the United States keeps marching on. Their latest budget request (as of this post) is almost a trillion dollars. According to the story from TruthDig, "If passed by Congress, it will, in fact, be one of the largest military budgets in American history, topping peak levels reached during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. And keep one thing in mind: that $750 billion represents only part of the actual annual cost of our national security state."
- And how is the US military often able to secure such obscene amounts of money? Well, fearmongering is one way. And these days, raising fears about rising Chinese power works really well to get Congress to approve money for defense fast. A former U.S. army colonel looks at a new Department of Defense report on Chinese military power and explains why it is fearmongering more than accuracy. Story via The Canary. If interested, you can see the actual Department of Defense document on the Chinese military in 2019 here (PDF document).
- In regulatory news, apparently the administration of the Pendejo In Chief, in their zeal to deregulate anything and everything no matter how silly or seriously dangerous is now targeting cherries in your frozen pie. I am not making this up. See the story, including link to the actual FDA report, at Food Politics. Not even Ace Rothstein was this anal about regulating fruit in a pastry.
Health and Medical News
This week, in Health and Medical News, let's play: "Did you know?" By the way, this week's edition of Health and Medical News here at the Itinerant Librarian is brought to you by Wilford Brimley.
- Did you know that over 137 million people in the United States are stressed seriously over medical bills? Story via Big Think. I am sure that has nothing to do with the shitty for profit exploitative health care and insurance system this shithole country has that is a shame compared to what most civilized countries have. No siree, no way, no how, right?
- Did you know that pregnancy deaths are up in the U.S.? It is specially bad for minorities. Story via TruthDig.
- Did you know that diabetes hospitalizations are going up among young teens in the United States? Story via UPI.
- Did you know that U.S. citizens are actually driving up to Canada in caravans so they can buy insulin at a cheaper price because U.S. Big Pharma and insurance companies keep ripping them off on price preferring profits over the health of people? Story via Boing Boing. Seriously, they can save around 90% on the price by buying their insulin, which is an essential drug (if you are a diabetic on insulin you need it or die, it is that simple), up in Canada.
- Did you know that hackers are helping diabetics in need by hacking a discontinued insulin pump model that can be reprogrammed by the hack to make an artificial pancreas? Story via Boing Boing. This is a fucking big deal, and it is something that Big Pharma could probably make, but again, since they choose to fleece vulnerable sick people because profit is the only value they know, patients need to do what they can. I know that I often say if the Revolution comes, and I am in charge, that hackers along with scam artists, spammers, phone bank scammer and their ilk are first against the wall, but these heroic hackers will get an immediate pardon and put to work on behalf of citizens' health.
The Bad Economy Around the World
- In the Philippines, they are turning to China to help build infrastructure. This is part of the continuing story about the Chinese Belt and Road initiative we have written about here in the blog before (see last week's edition of "Signs the economy is bad"). This week's story via The Atlantic.
- India: economic inequality is an issue as the richest, in a country known worldwide for its poverty, are the beneficiaries of local growing economy. Story via Al Jazeera. On the one hand, "India is home to the third-highest number of billionaires in the world, including Asia’s richest person." But on the other hand, India has "some of the poorest people in the world"
- Great Britain: Things are so bad that many parents who have a baby in the hospital can't afford to take it home (or at least take it home right away). Why? They can't afford things as basic as a car seat to be able to carry the baby home. Story via The Canary.
- The World: According to a new United Nations report, 1 million animals and plants are in imminent risk of extinction due to human activity. Story via NPR. Keep in mind that is 1 million of an estimated 8 million, and a lot of those could be lost within a decade.
In Other News of the Bad Economy
- If you work at a company that says you can have unlimited vacation, beware. It is a scam basically. Read the details over at Inc.
- Pew Research reports that even though adoption of tech among low income Americans is up the digital divide is STILL a problem. Hat tip to Infodocket.
- In local neighborhood news, want to buy a house? Apparently now a lot of people check Facebook to see if they find groups and pages of local neighborhoods, subdivisions, etc. People tend to speak freely, for good or ill and sometimes way too freely, on said forums. For some home sellers it can be a problem if their neighbors air all the dirty laundry when potential buyers are coming around. Story via WKYT.
- In something to actually help folks out, here is a piece on 6 items you need to be prepared to replace over time. Basically things like your car (it ain't going to last forever no matter how much you love it) and how to plan for when you need to replace. Via Wise Bread.
Sometimes you need to up your game, use a little ingenuity and creativity in the bad economy to make a buck or two. So that's why we look at. . .
Hustlin' in the Bad Economy
- Food waste is a huge problem. However, three Stanford University graduates figured how to make an opportunity out of it that can make them money and help reduce food waste. Story via Inc.
- If you enjoy adult entertainment, specially cam girls, you can likely find a cam girl that will cater to pretty much any fetish as long as you got the currency to pay for her services. In a field where it can be very competitive, cam girls need to get creative to stand out. Well, one cam girl over in Florida noticed there was a serious need to serve a special clientele that few people even consider when it comes to adult entertainment: the deaf and hard of hearing. So our entrepreneur got herself a good education in ASL, and now she can sign dirty talk and communicate with deaf and hard of hearing people. That is just genius. We tip our pimp hat here at The Itinerant Librarian to this young creative entrepreneur who saw a need and moved to serve it and make a buck or two. Story via Metro (UK).
- Speaking of the Internet, maybe you cannot make a living as a cam girl. But you still want to make a living working on the Internet. After all, you can do flexible hours, mostly in front of your computer, you got good computer skills, effort can be minimal, and you still get paid without having to take your clothes off. Well, you may to consider becoming a professional internet troll. If your politics are very flexible or lean right wing, the Russian government is willing to pay for your services doing things like posing as pro-Trump Americans on social media, websites, so on. Story via Business Insider.
- Jacob Silverman, in The New Republic, writes a good piece worth a read about the plight of the freelance journalist. Freelance journalists and writers do share common plights and pain with adjunct professors and even adjunct librarians (yes, those do exist, and I am fortunate not to be one of them so far).
This week, we open a new regular feature here in "Signs the economy is bad." There are stories I come across that are honestly the lowest of the low. They are so low in things like overall stupidity, cruelty, viciousness, insensitivity, indifference, negligence, and just plain fuckery that I decided to give them their own feature. I hope not to bring this feature out often, but in this bad economy, you never know. So. . .
Hold My Beer
(Serious fuckery in the bad economy)
- Delta Airlines, often known for their overall fuckery as an airline, decided to do some union busting. It did not go well for them. Story via The Washington Post. Additional commentary via P.Z. Myers at Pharyngula.
- In fuckery that you just have to read, read the tale of a school district that sent a kid's lunch bill to a collections agency. By the way, we need to mention the reason the bill came to life is because the school royally fucked up, what they called "a clerical error", and they STILL fucked over the poor parent anyhow. Because heaven forbid they admit their mistake. And there is more. Story via Yes! Magazine.
This week we get to award another award. This week's award goes to Warren Buffet who stated not one but two statements of the obvious:
- One, the statement above that rural newspapers are "toast."
- Two, a statement that college is not for all, and it may even be a terrible decision for some people. Via Inc.
Thus, this week, we award
The "No Shit, Sherlock" Award for Stating the Obvious
To Warren Buffet, the Sage of Omaha.
Congratulations.
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