A Few Recent Headlines Re- the Economy

. . . that should have appeared prominently in your local corporate media, but mostly didn't:

Republicans Confirm: $30 Billion for Unemployed Would Bankrupt Us, but We Should Extend $600 Billion in Tax Cuts for the Rich (Paul Krugman, "Redo that VooDoo," NYT).

It's All About the Wages: Economy Would be Fine if Everyone Made Their Fair Share (Robert Reich, Alternet). See also 22 Statistics that Prove the U.S. Middle Class Is Being Systematically Wiped Out (Business Insider).

Corporate Media Abet Banksters' Lie that Corporate Communisim Is Working ("Lies Divide, Truth Unites," Dylan Ratigan, The Big Picture).

Goldman Gets Off with Fine Worth One Week of Its Trading Income and a Small Fraction of the $16 Billion It Paid in Bonuses Last Year ("Wall Street: The Banks Are Still the Boss," The Guardian).

Unequivocal, Real-time Evidence of Illegal Stock Market Manipulation (Karl Denninger, Market Ticker, starting about half-way into the video).

The New Finance Bill: A Mountain of Legislative Paper, a Molehill of Reform (Robert Reich).

(And speaking of market manipulation, I hope you've heard of the gummint's Plunge Protection Team?)

The Sandin Analogue Image Processor

In this 1971 video, Dan Sandin gives an overview of his invention, which was part of the early research that resulted in the the EVL Lab.

Based on the hat alone, you know it's gonna be good.



More info at EVL.

Charlotte Moorman Plays Nam June Paik's TV Cello

(1984), from a tv special Paik did for PBS's Good Morning Mr. Orwell; this is some of the more appealing footage I've seen of Moorman playing one of Paik's cellos (don't forget to thank public tv with your donation!)



That's George Plimpton with her, sounding uncomfortable. He should have seen Moorman's performance of TV Bra for Living Sculpture -- or maybe he'd heard about it.

TSA to Block Sites that Contain "Controversial Opinion"

. . . per CBS News.

And Now for Something Really Important:

Story here.

US Prohibits Photography Within 65 Feet of Spill's Effects

I'm kidding, right? But this isn't per The Onion, but CNN:



As Cooper explains, the rule seems to have no reasonable relation to safety. Guess we didn't realize the "Constitution-Free Zone" extends into surrounding waters.

Meanwhile, the AP just reported US Sec. of State Hillary Clinton's statement last Saturday that "[i]ntolerant governments across the globe are 'slowly crushing' activist and advocacy groups that play an essential role in the development of democracy . . . ." She cited Venezuela et al.; but see my previous post (and you can find the AP's story here.)

Nothing to Fear if You've Nothing to Hide?

"American Civil Liberties Union has issued a report chronicling government spying and the detention of groups and individuals 'for doing little more than peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights.'"

"'Our review of these practices has found that Americans have been put under surveillance or harassed by the police just for deciding to organize, march, protest, espouse unusual viewpoints and engage in normal, innocuous behaviors such as writing notes or taking photographs in public,' Michael German, an ACLU attorney and former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, said . . . ." More at Wired.

And people haven't just been surveilled and harassed; they've been pre-emptively prevented from exercising their rights in such a way as to make their views heard.

Here's a tip for the authorities: I hear there might be some felonies going down in some board rooms. And the Gulf.

More Re- the Decline of the Middle Class

Great article at rationalrevolution.

And if you haven't already seen it, don't miss Elizabeth Warren's presentation, here.

UPDATE: Just came across this at Who Rules America (apparently based on a recent paper {here} by Edward N. Wolff at Bard's Levy Economics Institute):

In the United States, wealth is highly concentrated in a relatively few hands. As of 2007, the top 1% of households (the upper class) owned 34.6% of all privately held wealth, and the next 19% (the managerial, professional, and small business stratum) had 50.5%, which means that just 20% of the people owned a remarkable 85%, leaving only 15% of the wealth for the bottom 80% (wage and salary workers). In terms of financial wealth (total net worth minus the value of one's home), the top 1% of households had an even greater share: 42.7%.

and

So far there are only tentative projections -- based on the price of housing and stock in July 2009 -- on the effects of the Great Recession on the wealth distribution. They suggest that average Americans have been hit much harder than wealthy Americans. Edward Wolff, the economist we draw upon the most in this document, concludes that there has been an "astounding" 36.1% drop in the wealth (marketable assets) of the median household since the peak of the housing bubble in 2007. By contrast, the wealth of the top 1% of households dropped by far less: just 11.1%. So as of April 2010, it looks like the wealth distribution is even more unequal than it was in 2007.

B.t.w., happy 4th.

FURTHER UPDATE: Here are 22 statistics from FinanceMyMoney.com that "Prove the Middle Class Is Being Systematically Wiped Out of Existence in America" (via Business Insider).