Look, you do that and you’re going to make the French actually try and have people visit their country…
In the “US is on the road to ruin” department, people who haven’t listened to this Fresh Air interview on “How Democracies Die” should do so post haste:
Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt are experts in what makes democracies healthy — and what leads to their collapse. They warn that American democracy is in trouble:
Just a quick reminder that we now barely blink at headlines which, if you went back in time and showed them around, would have been laughed out of the room:
As with everything these days, let us remember that this IS the Republican Party. This is not some one-off. This is what our dumb as shit countrymen have brought us to.
Huzzah.
Since the President controls this, we can blame him for it right? /s
Ah shit. I guess Eric Trump won’t be able to retire now.
President Trump is personally responsible when the Dow goes up, even if only by a point.
But of course if it goes down, it’s due to a massive conspiracy by the FBI, the DOJ, Hillary Clinton, and Obama. That’s just common sense.
(It actually closed down 666 points … hmmm … or 2.5%.)
While we’re bitching, can I bitch about people conflating the Dow with the economy in general?
Please do. Whenever the growth rate of the DOW exceeds the growth rate of median wages, inequality increases.
Hey, if those minimum wage workers can’t be bothered to set up a 401(k) and drop a couple hundred grand in it, that’s on them.
You can, but I’ve got Kai Ryssdal doing that pretty elegantly on an ongoing basis, so you’re going to have some competition on the message.
Let me get you started:
Hell, at this point I don’t know that the stock market is really all that much about the companies being traded on it, especially with the rise of algorithmic trading.
It is to a degree, but so much is about gaming the market these days Like trying to make billions from HFT as opposed to sound investment.
The stock market absolutely has its place, but it’s not the same market as it was 20 or 30 years ago.
I’m guessing a lot of the money can be traded just as easily overseas, if corporations feel things are getting inhospitable here. I don’t mean Switzerland, but many places in Asia too.
Truly, we’re making America great again!
Doctors floored by epidemic levels of black lung in Appalachian coal miners
An epidemic of severe and rapidly progressive black lung disease is emerging among coal miners in Appalachia. Case counts from just three clinics in the region reveal the highest disease levels that doctors have ever reported, according to a study published in JAMA this week.
Between January 2013 and February 2017, researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health documented 416 coal miners with the condition. Prior to the discovery, researchers largely thought that black lung cases were a thing of the past. Diagnoses have been rare since the late 1990s
“Beautiful clean coal!”
I don’t think we can blame Trump for black lung cases that occurred prior to February of 2017.
Thanks Obama.
True, but we can blame coal mining, which will never be clean or safe for miners*, but which this Administration is always flapping its gums about as some magic bullet solution to everything but the common cold.
*Especially when major A-Holes like that ex-CEO of Massey Energy are in charge.