Ours is an economy....

"that’s become profoundly unequal and families that are more insecure.

Since 1979, when I graduated from high school, our productivity is up by more than 90 percent, but the income of the typical family has increased by less than 8 percent

Since 1979 our economy has more than doubled in size,

but most of the growth has flowed to a fortunate few.

The top 10 percent no longer takes in one-third of our income; it now takes half.

Whereas in the past, the average CEO made about 20 to 30 times the income of the average worker, today’s CEO now makes 273 times more."

for more see

2013 USA DEFICIT

From CHINA DAILY   One Chinese dead in US marathon blasts

Updated: 2013-04-17 08:03

An official at the consulate's press section, who was not authorized to give

his name, said thatone Chinese student was injured and another died in the

blast.

The official said a work group from the consulate was in Boston to investigate the situation andassist relatives of the victims.

The official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that relatives have

requested that thedeceased not be identified.

Zhou Danling, the Chinese student injured in the Boston Marathon blasts,

is out of danger.Zhou was injured in the stomach and was sent to a local

hospital.

She is now in stable condition. The Chinese Consulate General in New York

went into emergency mode after the blasts, sending staffers to Boston and getting casualty informationabout Chinese nationals

From: 

David Suzuki Foundation <subscribers@davidsuzuki.org>

Science Matters : Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 9:02 AM

Access to information is a basic foundation of democracy. Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms also gives us "freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication."

Culture of the United States

Press to see the entire article

American culture is a Western culture, largely based on British culture with influences from other parts of Europe, the Native American peoples, African Americans and to a lesser extent Asian Americans and other young groups of immigrants. Due to the extent of American culture there are many integrated but unique subcultures within the U.S. 

From:  Washington Post

President's 2014 Budget

2013/04/10

Read the full text of Obama's 2014 budget proposal

President Obama unveiled a 10-year budget blueprint Wednesday that calls for nearly $250 billion in new spending on jobs, public works and expanded pre-school education and nearly $800 billion in new taxes, including an extra 94 cents a pack on cigarettes. But the president’s spending plan would also cut more than $1 trillion from programs across the federal government — for the first time targeting Social Security benefits — in an effort to persuade congressional Republicans to join him in finishing the job of debt reduction they started two years ago.

From Goldenline (a Polish publication)

IS AMERICA A CLASSLESS SOCIETY? DESCRIBE THE SOCIAL STRATIFICATION IN THE US.

From Goldenline (a Polish publication)

WHAT ARE THE BASIC AMERICAN VALUES AND BELIEFS?

Sociologist Robin Williams attempted to offer a list of basic values in the United States:

 
Achievement, efficiency, material comfort, nationalism, equality and the supremacy of science and reason, over faith. 

There are certain ideals and values, rooted in the country’s history, which many Americans share. These are: FREEDOM, INDIVIDUALISM, PRAGMATISM, VOLUNTEERISM, MOBILITY, PATRIOTISM, PROGRESS, AMERICAN DREAM.

From the Opinion Page of New York Times

For the whole article

The European Union is considering far-reaching privacy regulations that would give the citizens of its member countries significant control over how Web sites and marketing companies collect and use data about them. Years in the making, the effort stands in stark contrast to the much slower pace of discussions about online privacy laws in Washington.

Why do middle-class blacks have far less wealth than whites

at the same income level?

The answer is in real estate and history.

By Thomas J. Sugrue

Washington Monthly

It's gelivable! The whole world's speaking Chinese

By Jules Quartly (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-11-17 09:45

Published on Friday, July 13, 2012

by Common Dreams 

From Reader Supported News
The US War on Latin America
By Noam Chomsky, Nation of Change  12 May 12

Though sidelined by the Secret Service scandal, last month’s Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, was an event of considerable significance. There are three major reasons: Cuba, the drug war, and the isolation of the United States.

A headline in the Jamaica Observer read, "Summit shows how much Yanqui influence had waned." The story reports that "the big items on the agenda were the lucrative and destructive drug trade and how the countries of the entire region could meet while excluding one country – Cuba."

From Reader Supported News

By Noam Chomsky, AlterNet

05 June 12

In his penetrating study "Ideal Illusions: How the U.S. Government Co-Opted Human Rights," international affairs scholar James Peck observes, "In the history of human rights, the worst atrocities are always committed by somebody else, never us" - whoever "us" is.

Almost any moment in history yields innumerable illustrations. Let's keep to the past few weeks.

From delanceyplace.com 5/25/12 - fraud, bloodshed, and votes

Excerpt from Two Americans: Truman, Eisenhower, and a Dangerous World

by William Lee Miller by Knopf Hardcover

Release Date: 2012-04-10

In today's excerpt - the long, hard road to democracy. Decades ago, and for most of its history, political corruption was endemic in America. And not just in Boss Tweed's old New York and the venal corridors of Tammany Hall, but also the towns of America's heartland. And although Harry Truman was as decent and fair as any American president, he got his start in the rampant fraud and bloodshed of Tom Pendergrast's Kansas City political machine:

Escaped dissident said to be under protection of U.S. diplomats in China

Washington Post By Keith B. Richburg, Updated: Friday,April 27, 11:47 AM

BEIJING — Chen Guangcheng, the blind, self-taught lawyer known for his outspokenopposition to China’s forced abortion and sterilization policies, has escaped from house arrest and posted a dramatic YouTube video calling on Premier Wen Jiabao to investigate his case and protect his family.

Levin, McCain: GAO report shows China is failing to crack down on bogus electronic parts Monday,

March 26, 2012

WASHINGTON – A government investigative report released today provides further evidence that China is failing to crack down on the flood of bogus electronic parts making their way into U.S. military systems and endangering the safety of U.S. troops and U.S. national security.

Zolmax.com

Posted by D Anicetti on Apr 5th, 2012 

The City Council of Detroit on Wednesday passed a financial consent accord with a vote of 5-4. The agreement gives Detroit the power to slash costs and void contracts but not to provide state loans or funding to relieve the city of its financial problems.

By signing the agreement, state and city officials avoided a deadline set for Thursday to save the city that is being threatened by financial insolvency and the possible takeover of the city government by the state of Michigan.

In the years of conscious, self-inflicted decline at home, “losses” continued to mount elsewhere.  In the past decade, for the first time in 500 years, South America has taken successful steps to free itself from western domination, another serious loss. The region has moved towards integration, and has begun to address some of the terrible internal problems of societies ruled by mostly Europeanized elites, tiny islands of extreme wealth in a sea of misery.  They have also rid themselves of all U.S. military bases and of IMF controls.  A newly formed organization, CELAC, includes all countries of the hemisphere apart from the U.S. and Canada.  If it actually functions, that would be another step in American decline, in this case in what has always been regarded as “the backyard.”

Significant anniversaries are solemnly commemorated -- Japan’s attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, for example.  Others are ignored, and we can often learn valuable lessons from them about what is likely to lie ahead.  Right now, in fact.

In a rebuke to the United States Supreme Court, the Supreme Court of Montana has held that Citizens United does not apply to Montana campaign finance law.

Last Friday, the Montana Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of a 1912 voter initiative - the Corrupt Practices Act - that prohibits corporations from making contributions to or expenditures on behalf of state political candidates and political parties. In 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that a similar federal prohibition was unconstitutional, prompting a wave of bills and court rulings that erased prohibitions on corporate and union political expenditures around the country.

Ambiguous UpSparkles From the Heart of the Park and other articles as well as videos all related to and reporting on the Protests on WallStreet.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eve-ensler/ambiguous-upsparkles-from_b_1003908.html

"We Are the 99 Percent" Creators Revealed  

Mother Jones Fri Oct. 7, 2011 3:00 AM PDT

It began as a simple little idea, just another blog among millions. The Occupy Wall Street protest was scheduled to begin on September 17, and launching We Are the 99 Percent on Tumblr seemed like a good way to promote it. Its creator had no clue that it would go viral and become a touchstone for a protest movement soon tospread nationwide.

NEWS ALERT FROM THE HEALTHCARE IS A HUMAN RIGHT CAMPAIGN

BuzzFlash Blog

Montpelier, VT -- Statehouse -- On Wednesday, March 23, members of the grassroots Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign cheered on as the Vermont House of Representatives voted 92 - 49 to pass the universal healthcare bill, H.202.  The House bill passed as a result of thousands of Vermonters speaking out and demanding that healthcare be treated as a human right and provided as a public good.  

"This bill puts Vermont on a path to a system in which every Vermonter can get the healthcare they need when they need it, and the financing of that system is shared equitably by all.  This is a huge step forward," says Peg Franzen, President of the Vermont Workers' Center. 

Why Almost Everything You Hear About Medicine Is Wrong

Map: A visual comparison of China vs the USA 

In today's excerpt - in the wake of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, folk singer Woody Guthrie wrote the song "This Land is Your Land," a satire and protest against what he saw as the unrealistic vision of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America." It was originally titled "God Bless America for Me," and the original chorus used that line instead of "this land was made for you and me." Guthrie eventually deleted two verses, perhaps because he knew he couldn't get the song published otherwise - one that lamented the lack of help provided by America's churches for the poor, and the other his protest against the idea of private property (read those verses after the author credit below):

In today's excerpt -H.L. Mencken comments on the impact of crowd psychology. Mencken, known as "The Sage of Baltimore," was a popular journalist, essayist and satirist, and is regarded as one of the most influential American writers of the first half of the 20th century. A caustic critic of American life and culture, Mencken was one of the first in the U.S. to popularize such writers as Friedrich Nietzsche and Joseph Conrad.

I was chatting with Lisa on English Share and we spent a minute commenting on the size of USA and China.  I was sure that China was much bigger.  I was sure wrong.

Photostream: September in Full

Check out behind the scenes photos from September 2010.

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama walk along the Colonnade of the White House, Sept. 21, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

.

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. State Department issued an alert warning Americans traveling to Europe to be vigilant about possible terrorist attacks.

Household incomes plunged for the second year in a row in 2009, as fewer families earned over $100,000 a year and the ranks of the poor rose, according to census statistics released Tuesday.

From email received: info@messages.whitehouse.gov which contains the President's daily schedule.  The important parts are marked in red.  Are they connected with thread: China Takes a Sharper Tone in Its Dispute With Japan?

From the Los Angeles Times.

On Sunday (September 19,2010), the BP well that fed the largest offshore oil spill
in America's history was officially pronounced "dead," with no chance of further leaks. While we are happy to report that a single drop will never again leak from this well, we find it appropriate to break down the Gulf oil spill by the numbers.

Times of Oman

Reuters 01 September 2010 09:46:56 Oman Time

WASHINGTON: As U.S. companies shed millions of workers during the recession, the CEOs who laid off the most people brought home pay that was significantly higher than that of their peers, a study released on Thursday found.

Time Magazine  By Adam Cohen Wednesday, Sep. 08, 2010

Mike asked me to post this (Roger).

Daniel Millis, a volunteer with the faith-based organization No More Deaths, was arrested in 2008 for littering. His crime: leaving bottles of drinking water on trails near the Arizona-Mexico border so immigrants walking through the desert would not die of thirst.

Q: What does "Third World America" mean?

From The Huffington Post.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/24/what-is-third-world-ameri_n_693444.html

A third world country is one characterized by poverty, political instability and low standards of living. In a third world country there is no middle class, only an elite upper class living off the fat of a predominant lower class.

Still Striving for MLK's Dream in the 21^st  

By Martin Luther King III
Wednesday, August 25, 2010; A19

FROM THE WASHINGTON POST

Forty-seven years ago this weekend, on a sweltering August day often remembered simply as the March on Washington, my father delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial.

A county is a political area which is much smaller than a state but larger than a city.

One of the first two movie tapes that Martha and I bought after we were married was It's a Wonderful LIfe.  Both have to do with a philosophy of life, but are approached quite differently.  Lost Horizon, the other one, is written up separately. Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed and Lionel Barrymore are in this picture.  Most of Stewart's movies are excellent. When you combine Stewart's acting with Hitchcock's plots and directing (like Vertigo or Rear Window) you are sure to have a great movie.

One of the first two movie tapes that Martha and I bought after we were married was Lost Horizon.  The version we like is a black and white film from 1937. It is non-musical, black & white staring Ronald Colman, Jane Wyatt.  Each of these are excellent actors.  The director is Frank Capra who made many excellent movies.

People frequently ask me which movies I like.  It is hard to form an answer to that question, because I like a lot of movies, but most of them are older ones (to me, older ones means 50 or more years ago).  But there are some specific movies that I like and some "blocks" of movies I like.  For example there are a lot of Hitchcock that I like, or a lot of Jimmy Stewart or Tracey-Hepburn movies that I like.  These are blocks.  And there are some individual movies that I like.

Something on the BP Oil Spill, if you are following it at all.

I found this news article interesting - but it is a little long.  Maybe you would just want to skim it and see what you think.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Kemp’s ridley sea turtle lay belly-up on the metal autopsy table, as pallid as split-pea soup but for the bright orange X spray-painted on its shell, proof that it had been counted as part of the Gulf of Mexico’s continuing “unusual mortality event.”

The New York Times  

July 4, 2010

Punishing the Jobless

By PAUL KRUGMAN  

There was a time when everyone took it for granted that unemployment insurance, which normally terminates after 26 weeks, would be extended in times of persistent joblessness. It was, most people agreed, the decent thing to do.