"If you want to understand how people will remember the Obama climate legacy, a few facts tell the tale: By the time Obama leaves office, the U.S. will pass Saudi Arabia as the planet's biggest oil producer and Russia as the world's biggest producer of oil and gas combined. In the same years, even as we've begun to burn less coal at home, our coal ( Read more... )

Apocalypse, New Jersey: A Dispatch From America's Most Desperate Town
"No jobs, no hope - and surveillance cameras everywhere. The strange, sad story of Camden."

"Think about that. It's remarkable that we're even asking 'Does high inequality hurt growth?' Hurt it! This shift in our default assumption represents huge progress. After all, if the answer is yes, it's one more reason to favor policies that reduce inequality. But even if the answer is no, all it means is that growth is independent of inequality. ( Read more... )

"There are great reasons for why The Stream triumphed. In a world of infinite variety, it's difficult to categorize or even find, especially before a thing has been linked. So time, newness, began to stand in for many other things. And now the Internet's media landscape is like a never-ending store, where everything is free. No matter how hard you ( Read more... )

"You still get the same K-Mart and Kohl’s and Old Navy. Strip malls and chains have diminished local cultures. The cultures are still there, obviously - it’s just that you don’t really have to engage with them if you don’t want to, the same way you don’t have to engage with facts or opinions you don’t want to engage with. We can stay in our ( Read more... )

FRIDAY FIVE:
* "Half of all families in the United States are poor, near poor or face economic insecurity where 'one major setback in income could push them into poverty.'"
* Conuterpoint: the historical viewpoint on income inequality.
* Turns out the Yellowstone supervolcano is more super than previously estimated ( Read more... )

THURSDAY NEWS:
* Top read: "The world's next Mandela is rotting in jail somewhere."
* The essential reader on the Volcker rule.
* Gun lobby lawyers target small towns nationwide.
* "A cave on the northwestern coast of Sumatra holds a remarkable record of big tsunamis in the Indian Ocean."
* So, how often do you actually wash your jeans?
* Racial ( Read more... )

SOME NEWS:
* Budget cutbacks lead to smarter defense strategies.
* Good read: David Atkins on conservatives confronting inequality.
* Very few people believe in the myth of 'the American Dream' anymore.
* "Conservatives haven't wrestled With Mandela's legacy because they haven't wrestled with the Cold War* Yes, Disney is trying to buy up all ( Read more... )

FRIDAY FIVE:
* Rethinking Mexican drug cartels. "They aren't just about Mexico or drugs anymore."
* Nice! On saying 'ax' instead of 'ask'.
* On payola at Politico.
* No, superheroes aren't fascist by nature.
* Surprisingly good read: "An unexpected celebrity death is the greatest single betrayal of the entire system upon which movie stardom is ( Read more... )

I have now been on Livejournal for twelve years.

Twelve.

(This year, I can definitely say my posting rate has faltered. Virtually all news now, although I have a couple movie reviews to drop in when I find the time. On the other hand, I think there's been a slight uptick in the number of people coming back here. Who can say.Well, onward to the ( Read more... )