Book Review: Aid State

Jake Johnston, Aid State: Elite Panic, Disaster Capitalism, and the Battle to Control Haiti. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2024.  ISBN: 9781250284679.

Genre: current affairs, Haiti

Subgenre: history, politics, international affairs

Format: hardcover

Source: Eastside Branch, Lexington (KY) Public Library 

This is a good book to help readers understand the Haitian collapse recently and the history that led to this point. The book mainly covers from the 2010 earthquake to the assassination of the most recent president, at the time, President Jovenel Moïse. The book features extensive research. The author draws on extensive interviews with politicians, NGO officials, and Haitians. He also adds from his extensive journalistic experience covering Haiti, and he even provides materials from sources obtained via FOIA requests, request that the U.S. Government was often reluctant to provide. 

Soon we learn that it is not so much that Haiti is a "failed" state. It is more that it was a state that never had a fair chance to succeed. From the French imposing onerous reparations after Haiti became independent to American interventions to foreign interventions, Haiti never really had a chance to chart and make its own destiny. Local elites, corrupt local officials, NGO's, and foreign governments all colluded at various times to promote their own interests at the expense of the Haitian people and country. This is a book where very few come out looking well. For the most part, foreign nations, business interests, and NGO's are basically running, or trying to run, Haiti to further their own agendas. A particularly nefarious way they do so is through money and aid, making Haiti into an "Aid State" dependent on aid funding. This also means at times that if Haiti does not fall in line, funding can be cut. If you've ever donated money to a Haitian relief effort, you may want to consider who you are giving the money to; some of these relief organizations may not be as virtuous as you think. 

The book is well researched with extensive notes for documentation. However, it is a dense book at times, and it can be heavy reading. The narrative is full of details and a lot of minutiae at times. It may not always be easy to keep track of what happens when and who does what. Yet the book exposes an extreme neocolonialism strangling a small nation where people still struggle and hope for the best. 

At this time, this book is a pretty good overview of what is happening in Haiti and how it got there. It also exposes the role of the United States, its government, private enterprise, and NGO's, such as the Clinton Foundation,  in trying to mold Haiti to their wishes. Add in other international players, and it is a neocolonial game all over again. Want to learn more about U.S. foreign policy? This book shows you how the U.S. applies it to Haiti, which can serve as an example of what they do elsewhere. As the author writes, learning about U.S. foreign policy is a way of "confronting the hypocrisy at the core of our own origin story" (9).

I recommend the book for public and academic libraries. Readers of current events may be interested in this one. Book may also be of interest for readers in political science, current affairs, and Latin American and Caribbean history. As I said, it is not an easy read, upsetting at times, but worth it to learn more. 

3 out of 5 stars.

Book qualifies for the following 2024 Reading Challenge: 

 

Holiday Post 2021: What the heck happened?

Welcome to the last of my holiday posts series for 2021. This is the one where I take a look back at what the heck happened last year. I almost considered not writing this post given that 2021 was not exactly any improvement over 2020, but tradition dictated I did it anyhow, so here we are. Besides, I already found some good things in my RSS feed to include, so it would be a waste not to share them. In addition, yesterday was Three Kings Day back home in Puerto Rico (and in Latin America), so we are still in festive mood around here, plus if we add las octavitas the party keeps going a bit longer. 

News and what happened

 

  

First, let's see what actually happened in 2021. These are the broad overviews:

 

• From UN News, the United Nations looks at "2021 in Review."  Naturally, the big deal in 2021, same as in 2020, was the coronavirus pandemic. There is a popular saying that states "what does not kill you, makes you stronger." I've actually modified that and adopted the following: "what does not kill you, mutates and keeps trying (to kill you)." By now we have moved from the initial alpha variant to the delta variant to the omicron variant, and as I am typing this a new variant has been identified in France just this week. The longer COVIDIOTS keeps refusing to vaccinate and the longer nations overall take to get the "Global South" vaccinated, the more variant mutations we are going to see. The virus is not going anywhere. Meanwhile, all I can do is be vaccinated, get my boosters, keep wearing that mask, and staying away from as many people as possible. 
• UPI presents their top stories of 2021. Highlights, beside the virus, include: 
• That coup attempt on January 6th. 
• The 2021 Summer Olympics took place. 
• A variety of very bad natural disasters. 
• The Guardian looks at their 2021 coverage, which also happens to be their 200th year.  
• In politics: 
• Al Jazeera looks U.S. foreign policy in 2021. 
• Congress.gov has their 2021 Top 10 and year in review. This includes a list of the top bills in Congress people viewed the most on the site. 
• In the environment, turns out there was a lot going on in 2021.
• The Guardian has "2021: a Year of Climate Crisis in Review."  
• VICE offers "15 Bleak Photos from 2021 that Sum Up the World's Climate Crisis." Highlights here include wildfires, droughts, toxic foams, and hurricanes.
  
• Public News Service has "Extreme Weather Events in 2021 Highlight Climate Change's Effect."  Article mainly focuses on Idaho and Northwest to highlight.
  
• BBC News offers "Wildlife's Winners and Losers of 2021." This one is more UK focused. 
• At least Al Jazeera has some good news environmental stories to reassure us not all has gone to hell yet. 
• In technology:  
• Electronic Frontier Foundation has their year in review 2021.
  

 

News summaries from around the world. 

• Nanjala Nyabola, writing for Al Jazeera, argues that 2021 was a year of failed political leadership. 
• Meanwhile, military coups return to the stage in Africa, via Al Jazeera. This is the kind of news that people in the United States mostly ignore if they are even aware news like this happens at all.
• The BBC has a nice compilation of photos from the African continent in 2021.  
• The Moscow Times offers "Russia 2021: the Year in Photos." 
  
• Al Jazeera has a compilation of photos from around the world. 
• From Global Voices: 
• "2021 in Retrospective." Looking at authoritarian threats to journalists and to freedom of the press in South Asia.
• "2021 in Review, from a Caribbean Point of View."
  

 

Film and Television

 

 

Film and television these days are not areas I keep up with very much. I do read about them in articles like these so I can be aware and have a sense of what the pop culture conversations are. However, I do not really have much interest in most current film and television (there may be an exception or two), so I tend to favor binge watching older things I either missed the first time or that I enjoyed in days past. That, and I read books (chance here to remind you to come back and check my annual end of year reading report later this month). So to remind myself what is going on in film and television as well as for reference, here are some lists from the past year.

 Film: 

• Via Rolling Stone: 
• "20 Best Movies of 2021." Dune got a new reboot/remake, but this year was just part one. I think I will wait til the whole movie series is done then watch it in a binge session. Meanwhile, I am thinking it may be a good time to reread the novel. The Green Knight is a retelling/re-envisioning of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Given that I did not care much for the original poem when I read it as an English major, I am likely to skip the movie. From the list Summer of Soul is the one film that looks intriguing enough for me to go find.
  
• "The 10 Best Horror Movies of 2021."  Candyman was remade/rebooted/whatever they call it these days. To be honest, when I saw the original, I did not think it was the big deal so many people make it out to be, so the remake is not a priority for me to see. A detail I found interesting from the film was learning it is based on a Clive Barker short story. Also it seems there was yet another entry in the Purge movie franchise. Meh.
  
• Via The Root: 
• "Best Black Female Performances of 2021." 
  
• "Best Black Male Performances of 2021." Why they put the females in a nice article you can read down and the males in a damn slideshow I will never know. 

Television. I will note a lot of these hip things are things from streaming services like Netflix or Disney+, which are things we do not subscribe nor have any interest to subscribe. These are things that, if I am interested in any, I just wait for the DVD compilation and borrow from my local public library (and/or buy the set after previewing it if it is worth it): 

•  Via Rolling Stone: 
• "The Best TV Shows of 2021." 
• "The Best TV Episodes of 2021." A bit more specific here. 
• The Root has a "2021 Catch-Up" of 10 TV shows they argue you should binge and catch up on. I apologize for sharing a second slideshow (I really try to avoid doing that). 
• Via Reality Blurred, which looks at reality TV. That is a genre I pretty much do not give a fuck about (except for one or two documentary series and a cookery show or two), but Reality Blurred is a great resource to get coverage of the genre. 
• "Best Reality TV of 2021." He also highlights the scripted TV he enjoyed (kind of a digression in the post). 
• Favorite reality TV stories from 2021. These are news related to reality television.
  

 

Books and Reading

 

This is mainly items I saw after I posted the holiday post about books and reading. 

 

•  Kotaku offers a list of "11 Best Manga of 2021." I need to look up some of these and catch up on my manga reading.
  

 

Music

 

Another area I really do not keep up with is modern music. So to keep aware, here are some lists from the year.  

• Via Rolling Stone: 
• "20 Best Hip Hop Albums." 
• "10 Best Metal Albums of 2021."  I do like some metal, so I may need to look at this.
  
• "Best Spanish-Language and Bilingual Albums of 2021." This is a category I should catch up on a bit. 
• The Guardian has a list of "10 Best Global Albums of 2021."  
• BBC lists their 21 best albums and songs of the year.
• On something that may be relevant to the Hard Times we are living in, Cosmopolitan offers a list of the "15 Best Sad Songs of 2021."
  

 

 

Adult/Risque  

 

  

News and trivia in adult entertainment and other risque topics. Some may be NSFW.

• Pornhub has published their 2021 Year in Review which looks at things like most searched terms in their site and other Internet and website insights. Whether you are into porn or not (I do enjoy a bit of porn), if you find trivia and statistics interesting, this is an interesting report to look over. A hat tip to XBiz News, which had a bit of commentary on it.
• Not as risque but very important, Electronic Frontier Foundation's 2021 Year in Review: Sex Online. This report looks at "a tiring and non-exhaustive list of the ways Internet platforms have taken it upon themselves to undermine free expression in this way in 2021." If you are concerned about your First Amendment rights (in the U.S.) and your freedom of expression online overall, this is worth a look. 

Miscellaneous Trivia 

 

 

 

 

This is everything else that does not fit in any of the above, plus some curious and odd things.  

• Merriam-Webster, the dictionary people, have announced that "vaccine" is their 2021 Word of the Year. 
• Google offers their 2021 Year in Search report. See what people have been searching the most on Google. You can watch it as a video or click and explore the trends. 
• Abbie Richards's Conspiracy Chart has been updated for 2021, via Boing Boing.
• From the world of libraries: 
• The Law Library of the Library of Congress presents their most viewed posts in their blog.
• Publishers Weekly features their top 10 library stories of 2021. The massive and very organized effort by conservatives and right wingers to censor any books that basically hurt their feelings (also known as teaching accurate and true history) is their top story, and I would say it is a top story in our field as well. 
• Time magazine, in one of their not so bright moments, named Elon Musk as their Person of the Year for 2021. Yes, I am aware the designation is not an award or such, but still, there were others who were a lot more worthy than him. Belen Fernandez argues the designation sums up what is wrong with 2021, via Al Jazeera.
• Time magazine may have done goofed in their 2021 selection of Person of the Year. However, they sort of redeem themselves by naming Simone Biles as their 2021 Athlete of the Year. Since Time may be paywalled, you can read about it here via The Root.
• From the business world, Harvard Business School's blog Working Knowledge has their list of 10 most popular articles of the year. 
• In higher education, Steven Mintz at Inside Higher Ed gives us 10 takeaways from the fall 2021 semester.
• In investigative reporting.
• Type Investigations has their must-read investigations of 2021. There are some interesting, serious, and important stories here you may have missed if you only read or watch the mainstream media. 
• Fairness and Accuracy in Media (FAIR) features the best stories from their CounterSpin program in 2021. Highlights here include conversations on gun violence, deficient media coverage of COVID, and climate change.
• In a different track, Nieman Lab provides their 2022 predictions for journalism.
• Via NPR, some big archeological finds from 2021. 
• Leafly features the weirdest weed news stories of 2021. Highlights here are their Doobius Achievement Awards. Heck, President Biden was runner up for one of the awards, and he does deserve it. 
  
• Meanwhile, turns out 2021 was a weird year in space too. Gizmodo offers this list of space stories to remind us of things from leaky toilets in space to William Shatner going up on one of those expensive space tourist flights. 
• In video game news, Kotaku lists the most broken games of 2021. Apparently, this was not a good year for video games. Kotaku decided to look at Metacritic to find the five worst reviewed games of 2021.
• Some happy moments. Yes, miraculously we had some of those in 2021.
• Via Rolling Stone, moments that made us smile in 2021. For cat lovers, the highlight is the saga of Jorts the Cat. 
• Yes! magazine presents 10 of their stories that gave readers hope.
• Native News Online presents their favorite and most uplifting stories of 2021.
• 2021 also and certainly was a Year of Stupid. 
• VICE looks at the stars of a very stupid year. Remember Bean Dad? How about the I Am Not A Cat Lawyer?
• David Corn, at Mother Jones, bids farewell to 2021, a very stupid year. 
• Salon calls out the saddest sacks (idiots) of 2021.
• And because what is a year of stupid without some penis injuries, have a laugh or two at this list of stories of penis injuries from ERs in 2021 via Cosmopolitan. 
• Other entertainment and pop culture.
• Here are UPI's top images in entertainment for 2021.
• Naturally, any end of year retrospective has to look at those we lost in 2021. The gut punch at the end of 2021 was certainly the passing of beloved actress and comedian Betty White, at the age of 99. In addition, we lost many other great ones last year. 
• The Reprobate has a pretty good list. Here is the A-L part of the list and the M-Z part of the list.
• In a more specific list, Animation Magazine looks at those we lost in the fields of animation and VFX. In case you wonder, some of these folks, like Jack Angel, did voice work for many of the cartoons and comics we grew up with. Jack Angel, for example, did voice acting for The Smurfs, Super Friends, Voltron: Defender of the Universe, and Monsters, Inc. movie among others. In addition, some folks who did work outside this field (or you may know them better for works outside of animation), such as Ed Asner and Ned Beatty made the list for their roles in animated works. 
• To wrap up here, some notes from the Rude Pundit, a favorite blogger and writer that I also look up to. 
• He looks at the year that was 2021 in "The Year of Unmagical Thinking."
• He also has a tradition at end of year that is a favorite of mine, and that is his haiku's end of year reviews, where readers send in their haikus, he compiles them, and we get a pretty good summary of the year that was. He starts it off here, then follows up here and here. 

Great Debates of Our Time

Today's debate, via The Washingtonian: Was 2021 worse than 2020? Read their take on it, then feel free to comment and tell me if you are Team 2020, Team 2021, or neither. Feel free to keep the debate going. 

 

 

Signs the Economy is Bad: March 7, 2020 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.




This week the big news is pretty much anything related to the Coronavirus/COVID-19. So naturally there are some stories related to the coronavirus this week. However, I did manage to find some things that have nothing to do with the virus. Let's see what's going on.

Education News

• San José, California is one of those seriously expensive places in California, part of the Silicon Valley. Homelessness there has been on the increase, and this includes students of the California State University System, that includes San José State. How bad? Well, for example, "early last year a student group asked the San José State administration, among other requests, to set aside 10 parking spots for students who sleep in their cars." This gives a new definition to campus housing, maybe we call it mobile campus housing. It is also bad for faculty and staff, which I am sure also makes it difficult for the school to recruit new workers. So, one option they are trying is "investing heavily in building subsidized housing for faculty and staff." Story via Inside Higher Ed. On a side note, my current workplace used to have a somewhat robust faculty housing set up that has mostly declined to three or four houses or so used mainly as transitional housing to attract new faculty (you can rent the house for up to three  years while you get your own place). Not a bad deal but certainly not what it used to be. The rationale back then, according to old timers I have spoken to, for having good faculty housing was to encourage more faculty to live in town (instead of commuting) and thus integrate to the community. I can only imagine how bad it can be if you have to commute two hours or more to get to your campus on a daily basis. 
• You know things are bad in a workplace when others warn you to stay far far away from said workplace. That is what just happened at Texas Southern University, which recently fired their college president. The situation is so bad that the college president of a neighboring school is warning potential job candidates to stay away. Story via Inside Higher Ed. I admire this gesture because I think if you are fortunate enough to escape a toxic workplace, or they fire you, it is more than fair to warn others way from said toxic place. If you can do not let anyone walk into the hell hole that you just left.

Government News

•  The hysteria about the coronavirus is in full swing. People are rushing supermarkets and grocery stores like it's hurricane season in the Caribbean. People are hoarding basics like toilet paper and hand sanitizer. This behavior is getting some government officials worried, and one legislator has gone so far as to urge Amazon to tamp down on price gouging for things like hand sanitizer. Story via Reuters. LOL. Like Amazon would honestly give a shit; they probably figure the more money they can make off those hoarding suckers the better. 
• When people in the U.S. love to whine and bitch that we cannot get Medicare for All or any form of universal care, it's interesting to note that they never once question how much the Pentagon and the Department of Defense love to waste money. Story via TruthDig. It is so bad that you need to "keep in mind that the Defense Department remains the only major federal agency that has proven itself incapable of even passing an audit." But I guess Americans prefer to make sure their military has the latest doohickeys in the quest to kill more people rather than making sure Americans can be healthy and alive. It's a matter of priorities. 
• Meanwhile, the government also failed their job to keep coal companies accountable, and as those companies went bankrupt they also conveniently abandoned their responsibilities to their workers. They just shifted the workers disability claims for things like black lung to taxpayers (i.e. most of you and me).  Story via The Lexington Herald Leader based on a GAO report. Here is a link to the actual GAO report if interested.

The Bad Economy  Around the World

• Speaking of the Caribbean, area nations are increasingly concerned the coronavirus may affect tourism. Story via Global Voices.
• Down under, the Australian Associated Press, the country's main wire service is going out of business and closing. Story via Nieman Lab.

In Other News of the Bad Economy

•  In more travel news, the International Air Transport Association, which is the major trade group for the commercial airlines, is already claiming they will lose as much as $133 billion as a result of the coronavirus. Story via UPI.
• However, not all trade groups feel the coronavirus may bad for business. Learn how funeral directors are preparing for coronavirus  in this article out of VICE.
• Over at Juanita Jean's, they explain how barely literate books by politicians reach the bestseller list. Often, it is because a political party, in this case the Party of Stupid, buys a lot of copies of a book like Donald Trump's Jr. book to give away at events and so on. Those sales do elevate the numbers, but is anyone reading those books? LOL, highly unlikely. This is a pretty common practice when it comes to those mostly ghost written screeds that politicians "write" and often put out around campaign time. To say the practice is shady is to speak mildly. This is the nice thing about public records; you can find out shady details like this, and the post includes a list of such sales. 
• Apparently, there are more and more old people in the U.S., and that is becoming a serious problem, especially in rural areas. Story via Route Fifty. For example, "the South was one of the region’s hardest hit by the last recession. Should another downturn strike and drive up unemployment, the report adds, it could present budget difficulties for states in the region with higher populations of seniors." They also tend to have a higher population of geriatric voters who keep voting for the Party of Stupid even as said party's platform includes cutting things like Medicare and Social Security. I guess that can be a problem too. 
• As if you did not have enough reason to hate Amazon, let's be honest, the company is mainly focused on eliminating as many jobs as possible to enrich their billionaire asshole owner. Story via Forward Kentucky. Enjoy your packages and prime two day shipping, well, as long as you still have a job that pays you enough to buy said packages.
• Oh, and also feel free to enjoy your coffee at Starbucks or if you buy Nespresso. Those 8 year old kids picking it barely make a living so you can overpay for your coffee. Story via Telesur. According to the story, "The investigation found that the children spend eight hours a day and six days per week picking coffee in backbreaking conditions for wages depending on the weight of beans they manage to gather. A child earns less than US$6 a day on a good day, though much of the time the wage is much lower. " 

And finally for this week, today's public service announcement

• Tito's Homemade Vodka, that fine Texan vodka, would like to inform their customers and friends that you CANNOT use their product to make hand sanitizer. Story via CNN. Yes, they are aware that with people hoarding hand sanitizer due to the coronavirus hysteria that some folks may want to make their own at home. And you can make your own at home as long as you are using ethyl alcohol of at least 96% alcohol to work according to the World Health Organization (link to their recipe and guidelines, PDF). Here is another simpler recipe via 12 Tomatoes (the recipe comes from a PhD in biomedical sciences). Bottom line is to wash your hands with soap and water as your best option, then a good alcohol based hand sanitizer if you must. Feel free to drink the vodka if you need to calm your nerves a bit.

 

Signs the economy is bad: May 3, 2019 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.

Education News

•  We start the news this week with a new finding that there are discrepancies in the measurements about food insecurity of college students. Yes, they are still food insecure and hungry. Apparently the agencies measuring it can't quite get their act together to be consistent in how they measure it. Via Inside Higher Ed. 
• Meanwhile, across the pond in Great Britain, they found that almost a third (1/3) of college graduates are "overeducated" for their jobs. Via BBC.

Government News

•  In new fuckery that you can thank the Pendejo In Chief and the Party of Stupid for: "The bureau will unveil proposed rule changes that are likely to include explicit permission for debt collectors to contact people via text and email (and maybe social media)." The bottom line is this: "In other words, more rights for debt collectors, fewer rights for consumers."  Via The Los Angeles Times. You can thank your local MAGA moron for this kind of bullshit. That idiot will likely be hailing this as a way  to get those "deadbeats" (until he realizes he likely is one of those "deadbeats").  Keep in mind that payday lenders and debt collectors are already notorious (link from Consumer Reports) for skirting rules, trying to violate consumer rights, and overall unethical bad behavior. The Party Of Stupid is just basically further facilitating the fuckery. 
• Meanwhile, how bad are things if you happen to have a medical emergency or catastrophe? Well, did you know that one of every three GoFundMe campaigns go to medical costs? This was one of various revelations when the House Rules Committee had their first hearings on Medicare for All. And that is not all. The story highlighted in the GQ article is just heartbreaking. Not that the Party of Stupid gives a shit about deaths they likely view as lowering the surplus population (as long as it does not affect them). 
• Meanwhile, taxpayers like you and me get to pay for Trump staff drink tabs. And that is not all. How does that happen? Read this investigation on that and other shenanigans at Mar-A-Lago and how the Pendejo In Chief and his business interests make money on taxpayer's dime. Via ProPublica. 
• So you don't say I just pick on the Party of Stupid. Here is an example of corruption on the Democrats, further proof they are nothing more than Republican Lite. Via ProPublica, the tale of George Norcross and his company grabbing tax breaks left and right in New Jersey. Did we mention he is a big Democratic donor? He is not the only one, but he is the  most prominent.

Meanwhile back in the US colony

•  Hurricane Maria hit the island in 2017. New study reveals that Puerto Rican students are showing serious PTSD symptoms as a result of the hurricane. Meanwhile, "Congress is at a stalemate in passing an aid bill that would send more resources to Puerto Rico and other areas affected by natural disasters. President Donald Trump has expressed his reluctance to provide more money to the island." Because the racist colonial overlords including the Pendejo In Chief could not care less. Via TruthOut. 
• And if the hurricane was not bad enough, another study finds that odds are against students in Puerto Rico going to college, especially if they want to go to college in the states. The reason? Well, there is more than one factor, but a big factor that stands out is incompetent and poor high school counseling. Then there is that pesky college admissions exam in Spanish big in the  island that mainland colleges just do not give a shit about and do not accept. Read on for other details. Via Hechinger Report. I still remember having to take "el College Board" (the test is run and made by the College Board, you know, the big racket company that runs basically every admissions test), which while OK to enter a university in Puerto Rico, if you were going to the US like I was it was mostly useless. And while my high school counselor was not too bad, looking  back, there were a lot of things I am sure he missed. Oh well. At least I managed to get to college. Many others did not.

In Other News of the Bad Economy

•  Speaking of food insecurity, turns out Kentucky is among the top states for food insecurity. In fact, it's food insecurity rate is higher than the national average. Story via WKYT. Yay! Kentucky Proud! For children in Kentucky, gets worse as the study shows "the food-insecurity rate for Kentucky children is 18%." You can see the full report as well as see how your state did on the interactive map and report from Feeding America here. 
• The story gets even worse. Forward Kentucky picked up the story, added some more analysis. How much worse?  According to their article, "Jamie Sizemore, executive director of Feeding America, Kentucky’s Heartland, says families working minimum-wage or low-income jobs are struggling the most, because many do not qualify for federal food assistance or SNAP benefits." But hey, Kentucky Proud! Yee haw!
• Here is another example of the fuckery that happens when you privatize something that should be a public service. The dumbasses in a suburb of Toronto decided to eliminate public transportation to save a few bucks. What did they replace it with? Uber. I shit you not. That soon became a disaster. Story via City Lab.
• You may have heard of some recent comics superheroes movie that made billions at the box office and had nerd fans crying because it was the end (well, for now. In comics nothing really ends or dies). Anyhow, while those movies make oodles and oodles of money, comic books shops are struggling to stay open and often closing. Story via The Guardian. A bit from the article, but the full article is worth reading, which also includes some additional links that may be of interest: "So why are so many going out of business? Like other retailers on the high street, comic shops must factor in rents, business rates, staff wages, insurance – but the profit margins on comics are so narrow as to make this a very delicate balancing act."
• Is buying a house overrated? NPR recently posed that question. It often depends on who you ask, but it does seem that very often it is overrated.  
• Did you know most restaurant workers don't earn enough to feed their families? Story via Truthout. Meanwhile, privileged assholes who eat out love to whine when someone suggests they should tip their waiters properly due to the low pay they are happy to allow restaurants to keep paying said waiters. If you are not willing or able to tip your waiter, then stay the fuck home and cook your own damn food. Same goes for those who love to eat fast food and look down on fast food workers. If you are not into paying fast food workers a living wage, again, stay the fuck home and cook your own damn food, you lazy bratty bums.Workers like Tucker highlighted in the story ask for something basic, humane, and simple: "Tucker emphasizes that she works extremely hard and believes that she deserves to be compensated fairly and treated with respect, free from the economic exploitation and sexual harassment that are rampant in the industry. And she is not alone in voicing these basic demands." Oh yea, if you are a female worker in food service, you also often have to put up with sexual harassment from chauvinistic assholes. 
• An emerging story, or rather a story that has been going on for a while and you notice if you pay attention, is China's economic influence around the world. Unlike U.S. imperialism, Chinese economic power and influence tends to be a bit more subtle at times, patient, and often looking at the very long game. We are getting a few recent stories looking at this economic influence and asking if it is good or not. Well, good depends on who you ask. For example, China's Belt and Road Initiative. This story looks at whether Kenya ended up being a victim or not. Via Africa Stand. Worth a read. This is the kind of story you do not see often in U.S. mainstream media. In addition, when you think about it, the U.S. also owes a lot of money to the Chinese, and they do have investments here. Imagine if they started calling back certain debts and suddenly the U.S. had to surrender, say, a major shipping port to pay off said debt. 
• And speaking of long term news, here is news that most people will find happy and reason to rejoice. Demographics show that the U.S. White majority is going to vanish, and it will vanish soon. Via Latino Rebels. OK, maybe White people are not so happy about that, but let's be honest, the real reason they are lashing out, embracing white nationalism, racism, so on is because they are scared as fuck that we, People of Color that is, will do to them the fuckery and oppression they have been doing to us for centuries. They can try to stop it somehow, but the bottom line is this: "White nationalists want America to be white again. But this will never happen. America is on its way to becoming predominantly nonwhite." 
• In other words, if this was a Tarot reading for White people, their spread probably has The Wheel of Fortune, Justice, and maybe the Five of Pentacles and/or Ten of Swords. Fortune has turned, Justice is at hand, and consequences are about to be handed out to the oppressors.

 

 How are the uber rich doing this week?

•  The budget for the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 has gone up in the latest revision. I do not see anyone batting an eye over it much, so I am guessing there is money to burn for that boondoggle. Via USA Today.
• So how is the military industrial complex doing? Well, the United States keeps doing great as it is still the top in the world for defense spending. Meanwhile, Russia fell out of the top 5 in that spending. Tough luck comrades. You still got good vodka, and you did give the world the AK-47, so there is that. Via UPI.