MindMover
MindMover's JournalAn estimated 6 million people—2 percent of the US population—have no income other than food stamps.
"Additionally, welfare reform has led to an increase in the number of people living in deep poverty—living on less than about $11,000 for a family of four—as more families are forced to go without any cash assistance at all. The number of people in deep poverty climbed from 12.6 million people in 2000 to an astonishing 20.5 million people, or 6.7 percent of the population, in 2010."
For two years running Houston has added more millionaires to its population than any other city in the United States. Near-millionaires are enjoying some nice upward mobility, especially those involved in the oil and gas industry.
Low-wage workers, on the other hand, aren’t faring too well in the city. In fact, a recent report from Houston Interfaith Worker Justice (HIWJ) estimates that low-wage workers lose $753.2 million annually due to wage theft. Wage theft can occur in many ways, including: workers being denied the minimum wage or overtime pay; stolen tips; illegal deductions from paychecks; people being forced to work off the clock; or workers getting misclassified as independent contractors so they aren’t entitled to overtime or benefits.
“We’re not talking about a worker here or a worker there, it’s something that has a lot of ripple effects,” says José Eduardo Sanchez, campaign organizer with HIWJ. “It impacts families, communities and local economies.”
Although there are laws on the books against wage theft, there are problems with understaffing, enforcement, and jurisdiction disputes in institutions like the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, the Texas Workforce Commission, and the courts.
http://www.thenation.com/blog/168066/week-poverty-wage-theft-city-millionaires
If the above numbers don't fry your brain, these will.....
Average Monthly Benefit Per Person.....
SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM: AVERAGE MONTHLY BENEFIT PER PERSON
(Data as of April 30, 2012)
State/Territory FY 2007 FY 2008 FY 2009 FY 2010 FY 2011
Alabama 91.80 96.79 119.14 126.90 135.18
Alaska 127.69 137.87 167.77 173.78 170.83
Arizona 98.95 102.56 125.29 129.95 128.70
Arkansas 90.50 95.17 115.53 122.59 123.72
California 104.56 112.43 136.75 146.52 147.12
Colorado 103.24 107.11 131.26 141.62 140.29
Connecticut 99.21 105.31 134.65 141.26 142.47
Delaware 92.69 96.49 118.31 126.77 126.80
District of Columbia 100.12 104.65 128.66 137.77 141.68
Florida 94.65 101.87 126.70 141.40 139.55
Georgia 98.76 104.19 125.95 134.35 135.37
Guam 174.38 179.76 208.47 218.22 216.25
Hawaii 145.55 159.34 199.02 216.01 215.38
Idaho 91.88 96.95 122.90 128.65 131.95
Illinois 104.65 110.19 132.36 141.00 139.15
Indiana 96.10 103.31 126.32 132.29 131.66
Iowa 92.81 98.66 118.56 128.84 126.33
Kansas 88.10 93.86 114.61 124.40 126.34
Kentucky 93.33 97.66 119.00 127.05 127.60
Louisiana 95.60 108.04 128.86 129.77 130.59
Maine 87.42 94.52 121.20 129.17 128.43
Maryland 93.67 100.01 122.69 130.45 129.19
Massachusetts 86.20 96.65 122.90 129.70 132.29
Michigan 94.63 99.89 121.06 131.77 136.18
Minnesota 89.36 93.44 114.18 121.00 115.04
Mississippi 86.79 92.59 113.83 122.54 123.29
Missouri 92.51 96.31 118.16 125.86 127.05
Montana 93.47 97.65 121.29 129.54 129.66
Nebraska 87.36 97.09 111.67 121.60 122.69
Nevada 91.18 97.88 119.04 124.23 124.36
New Hampshire 88.10 93.58 122.40 121.21 119.54
New Jersey 97.19 101.43 125.06 138.03 133.26
New Mexico 88.65 93.48 117.62 126.54 127.07
New York 107.49 109.78 141.90 150.63 148.63
North Carolina 91.77 97.19 119.11 128.24 124.58
North Dakota 95.83 102.02 124.94 132.21 131.25
Ohio 100.04 108.22 133.04 141.72 139.87
Oklahoma 90.77 97.72 117.44 128.71 128.43
Oregon 90.73 96.27 119.21 126.11 128.25
Pennsylvania 92.40 97.30 118.40 123.43 128.40
Rhode Island 97.57 105.77 138.85 142.49 142.91
South Carolina 94.47 99.87 121.42 131.34 132.21
South Dakota 97.67 103.27 125.34 133.80 132.70
Tennessee 96.70 101.95 124.66 133.86 133.82
Texas 93.52 100.98 122.07 127.82 125.57
Utah 89.90 93.75 118.40 123.58 117.75
Vermont 88.16 92.77 114.66 121.11 122.10
Virginia 89.23 93.26 118.00 128.63 129.55
Virgin Islands 131.93 139.91 172.21 176.22 176.11
Washington 93.33 97.65 114.59 120.87 126.62
West Virginia 85.05 91.56 111.25 118.94 119.81
Wisconsin 79.12 84.76 103.42 116.57 116.28
Wyoming 93.20 97.27 115.45 123.75 122.96
TOTAL 96.18 102.19 125.31 133.79 133.85
The following outlying areas receive Nutrition Assistance Grants which provide benefits analogous to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the Northern Marianas. Annual averages are total benefits divided by total annual participation. All data are subject to revision.
Epic Breakthrough: "Insight into How Matter Formed in the Universe"
An international collaboration of scientists has reported in landmark detail the decay process of a subatomic particle called a kaon – information that may help answer fundamental questions about how the universe began. The research used breakthrough techniques on some of the world’s fastest supercomputers to expand on a 1964 Nobel Prize-winning experiment. A new generation of IBM supercomputers now being installed will allow scientists to calculate the decay in even greater detail.
“This calculation brings us closer to answering fundamental questions about how matter formed in the early universe and why we, and everything else we observe today, are made of matter and not anti-matter,” says Thomas Blum, associate professor of physics at the University of Connecticut, a co-author of the paper.
When the universe began, did it start out with more particles of matter than anti-matter? That is the way the question was framed by another co-author, Taku Izubuchi of the RIKEN BNL Research Center and Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, NY. Or, he asked, were the two symmetrical and was there another mechanism that resulted in more matter than anti-matter?
This diagram, provided by Brookhaven National Laboratory, illustrates the wide range of distance scales that must be understood before the kaon decay calculation can be performed. The lowest level is a picture showing the tracks of decay particles. The layer above that provides a "key," showing how the kaon (K) "breaks apart" into two pions. The next layer represents the numerical calculation, and the top layer shows the decay mathematically in what is known as a Feynman diagram.
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/4oqXso/www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2012/05/epic-breakthrough-insight-into-how-matter-formed-in-the-universe.html
New study dispels myth blaming climate change doubt on ignorance
A new study has dispelled the myth that the public are divided about climate change because they don't understand the science behind it.
And the Yale research published today reveals that if Americans knew more basic science and were more proficient in technical reasoning it would still result in a gap between public and scientific consensus.
Indeed, as members of the public become more science literate and numerate, the study found, individuals belonging to opposing cultural groups become even more divided on the risks that climate change poses.
Funded by the National Science Foundation, the study was conducted by researchers associated with the Cultural Cognition Project at Yale Law School and involved a nationally representative sample of 1500 U.S. adults.
"The aim of the study was to test two hypotheses," said Dan Kahan, Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Law and Professor of Psychology at Yale Law School and a member of the study team. "The first attributes political controversy over climate change to the public's limited ability to comprehend science, and the second, to opposing sets of cultural values. The findings supported the second hypothesis and not the first," he said.
http://www.clickgreen.org.uk/research/trends/123544-new-study-dispels-myth-blaming-climate-change-doubt-on-ignorance.html
Bruce's History: The Removal Acts of 1830
"We got off the boat and murdered a civilization."
— Jim Harrison
President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act this week (May 28) in 1830, which led to a number of "treaties" that accommodated land-hungry white settlers by "removing" Native-Americans, in particular The Five Civilized Tribes — the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole — from their native lands in the Southeast through forced emigration and resettlement. I say "forced" because most of the affected tribes never even saw, let alone signed, these "treaties."
The Cherokee are a case in point. Ordered to leave their homeland of Georgia and resettle in what is now Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska, the Cherokee appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and to everyone's surprise the court sided with them, ruling that Cherokee Nation was, legally, a sovereign nation, meaning that U.S. laws, including treaties, did not apply.
Unfortunately, President Andrew Jackson (for all his populist virtues, a racist and rabid Indian hater) ignored the court's ruling, and his chosen successor, Martin van Buren, used the U.S. Army to initiate a series of forced marches that "removed" the Cherokee to the Midwest. One particularly perilous march along the famous "Trail of Tears" caused the deaths of nearly 5,000 Cherokee out of a total of approximately 14,000, and when they finally reached their destination — present-day Kansas and Nebraska — they found it so cold and inhospitable (have you ever weathered a Nebraska winter?) that many more died in the first year alone.
Other tribes with less faith in the sanctity of America's legal system fought a series of wars against this white encroachment. The Seminoles in particular, helped by the fact that much of their homeland was mosquito-infested Florida swamp, held out until the early 1840s, but eventually they too succumbed to the sheer numbers and power of the U.S. Army.
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/articles/bruce-116542-civilization-history.html
If you are overweight and not breastfeeding your baby, chances are going to....
definitely be higher that your baby can be obese...I do not think this study links c-sect to obesity....
"Mums who delivered by c-section tended to weigh more than those delivering vaginally, and the birthweight for gestational age of their babies also tended to be higher. These mums also breastfed their babies for a shorter period."
Taken from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120523200749.htm
Mexico’s two major crime cartels now at war
MEXICO CITY — The two most important criminal organizations in Mexico are engaged in all-out war, and the most spectacular battles are being fought for the cameras as the combatants pursue a strategy of intimidation and propaganda by dumping ever greater numbers of headless bodies in public view — some of the victims most likely innocents.
With the groups no longer limiting themselves to regional skirmishes, the older, established drug-smuggling Sinaloa cartel is now fighting the brash, young paramilitary Zetas crime organization across multiple front lines in Mexico in a desperate battle, according to U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials and security analysts on both sides of the border.
As the number of total homicides in Mexico has been slowly dropping, the sensational violence spikes higher, creating an atmosphere of instability that makes Mexicans and American visitors fear travel in wide stretches of country that even Mexican military leaders concede are not completely under state control.
The two gangs and their surrogates continue to quietly kill each other, but they are also staging public massacres in order to terrify civilians, cow authorities and taunt outgoing President Felipe Calderon, who has made his U.S.-backed confrontation with the cartels a centerpiece of his administration.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/mexicos-two-major-crime-cartels-now-at-war/2012/05/24/gJQAUhKlmU_story.html?tid=pm_world_pop
Do ALL The Members Of The House Financial Services Committee Take Bribes From The Banksters?
"Contributions from parties with an interest in legislation are really nothing but bribes. Sure, it's legal for the most part. Sure, everyone in Washington does it. Sure it's the way the system works. It's one of Washington's dirty little secrets-- but it's bribery just the same"
There are certain committees, congressmembers love getting on-- and sometimes pay to get on-- especially the committees that play a role in regulating big-money industries, like Agriculture, the Military Industrial Complex, Health Care and, most of all, Finance. Finance has paid out bigger bribes to Congress than any other sector-- by far. Since 1989, the Finance/Insurance/Real Estate sector has ponied up $1,710,713,286 in congressional races. This cycle, they've given $135,085,054 so far. The numbers are so big, they're almost incomprehensible. But to the banksters, this kind of cash is an investment, an investment that pays enormous dividends-- like, for example, the repeal of Glass-Steagall, which helped make lots of millionaires multimillionaires and some multimillionaires into billionaires. It was also very lucrative for a number of congressmen, particularly members of the House Financial Services Committee.
I don't think anyone would disagree that members of the Financial Services Committee who take large bribes from the banksters are entitled to a fair trial before they're thrown in prison. And yet, they almost all do take large bribes from the banksters. Among the biggest donors within the sector this year are:
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2012/05/do-all-members-of-house-financial.html?
After Greece Exits The Euro, What's Next? An Illustrated Guide To 5 Possible Scenarios
On the second day of 2012, the government of Greece die-cast 1 million gold-and-silver plated €2 coins, joining the 16 other euro zone members in minting a coin meant to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the euro. Now, not six months later, that same government may well stop accepting those coins as legal tender.
Moving rapidly from the realm of tin foil-hat conspiracy, to a hushed taboo topic in global diplomatic circles, to a bullet point being openly talked about as fait accompli, an exit by Greece from the European common currency union is not unthinkable anymore.
Christened the "Grexit," such an event is now seen as a very possible outcome of three years of bailouts, sovereign defaults, austerity agreements and diplomatic maneuvering.
Last Friday, after months of denials, the European Union said it was working with the European Central Bank on contingency plans should Greece drop the euro. Similar emergency discussions were underway in countries as far away from Europe as Australia and Japan.
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/345354/20120525/euro-crisis-greece-exit-drachma-default-geuro.htm
French banks plan for Greek euro zone exit
Source: Reuters
Reuters) - French banks, which are among the lenders most exposed to Greece, have stepped up their efforts on contingency plans for the debt-laden country leaving the euro zone, sources familiar with the situation said.
The heightened preparations by banks, including Credit Agricole (CAGR.PA), BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA) and Societe Generale (SOGN.PA), come after euro zone sources told Reuters earlier this week that each member of the common currency would have to prepare a plan for a possible Greek exit.
At end-Dec 2011, total French cross-border lending to Greece was $44.4 billion (28.3 billion pounds), higher than Germany's $13.4 billion, according to preliminary Bank for International Settlements data tracking consolidated foreign claims of reporting banks on an ultimate risk basis.
"The banks are doing contingency planning concerning a Greek exit, but you can understand why they wouldn't say so publicly," a consultant to French banks said.
Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/05/25/uk-france-banks-greece-idUKBRE84O0PC20120525
Spanish doctor ordered to pay for upkeep of child after failed abortion...!
Court in Palma de Mallorca tells medic to pay £800 a month for 25 years, and lump sum of £120,000, to mother of boy
An expectant mother having an ultrasound scan at five months pregnant. The mother of the child born in Palma de Mallorca had a scan which she was wrongly told showed the abortion had been a success.
A Spanish doctor has been ordered to pay for the upkeep of a child after a failed abortion operation meant the boy's mother was obliged to see her pregnancy through to the end.
In a unique case, a court in Palma de Mallorca ordered the unnamed doctor to pay almost €1,000 (£800) a month in maintenance for the child until he reaches his 25th birthday.
"There has never been a case like this before in Spain," said Eva Munar, lawyer for the 24-year-old mother.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/25/spain-doctor-failed-abortion?CMP=twt_fd
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