Tag Archives: interactives

Why Are Fast Food Workers Walking Out Again?

by y32nmet Posted on August 29, 2013

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

On Thursday, fast food workers around the country will walk off their jobs in what is expected to be the largest strike the $200 billion industry has ever seen.

Workers at McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, and KFC will strike in 50 cities—from Boston to Denver to Los Angeles—demanding a wage increase to $15 an hour. They will be joined by retail workers at stores like Macy’s, Victoria’s Secret, and Walgreens, and members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

The strikes follow a massive walkout by fast-food workers in July, and are the latest in an escalating series of strikes hitting the industry.

As we noted last month:

Many fast-food workers are paid at, or just above, the minimum wage. The federal minimum wage is $7.25, though it’s higher in 18 states and the District of Columbia. Fast-food wages have fallen 36 cents an hour since 2010, even as the industry has raked in record profits.

This is part of an economy-wide problem; the bottom 20 percent of American workers—some 28 million employees—earn less than $9.89 an hour, or $20,570 a year for a full-time employee. Their income fell five percent between 2006 and 2012. Meanwhile, average pay for chief executives at the country’s top corporations leaped 16 percent last year, averaging $15.1 million…

The mobilization of fast-food workers is a pretty new thing, because the industry has traditionally had high turnover. But the slow economic recovery, which has been characterized by growth in mostly low-wage service sector jobs, has resulted in a growing population of adult fast-food workers who can’t find other work.

Many fast food workers are forced to rely on public assistance just to get by.

Use our calculator to get a better sense of what fast-food workers are up against.

How many people are in your household? One Adult No Children
One Adult One Child
One Adult Two Children
One Adult Three Children
Two Adults No Children
Two Adults One Child
Two Adults Two Children
Two Adults Three ChildrenWhich state do you live in? Which area do you live in? (Area data not available for households without children.)How much do you make in a year? $

In order to make $___ a year, the typical fast-food worker has to work __ hours a week.

A household like yours in ___, ___ needs to earn $__ annually to make a secure yet modest living. A fast-food worker working full time would have to earn $__ an hour to make that much.

The average fast-food employee works less than 25 hours a week. To make a living wage in ___, ___ at current median wages, s/he would have to work __ hours a week.

In __ hours, McDonald’s serves __ customers and makes $__. That’s about __ Big Macs.

var median_fast_food_worker_wage = 8.94; // Source: National Employment Law Project, July 2013; http://nelp.3cdn.net/84a67b124db45841d4_o0m6bq42h.pdf
var work_weeks_per_year = 52;
var months_per_year = 12;
var average_fast_food_worker_hours_per_week = 24.4;
var average_weeks_in_a_month = 4.348;
var hours_worked_at_full_time = 40;

var days_in_2012 = 366; //leap year
var McDonalds_customers_per_day_in_2012 = 69000000; // Source: McDonalds 2012 Annual Report
var hours_in_day = 24;
var mcD_systemwide_restaurants = 34480;
var mcD_served_per_hour = McDonalds_customers_per_day_in_2012 / hours_in_day;

var mcD_earnings_in_2012 = 27567000000; // Source: McDonalds 2012 Annual Report http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/content/dam/AboutMcDonalds/Investors/Investor%202013/2012%20Annual%20Report%20Final.pdf
var mcD_earned_per_hour = Math.round(mcD_earnings_in_2012 / days_in_2012 / hours_in_day);

var cost_of_big_mac = 4;

var first_state = ‘AK’;
var first_locale = ‘Anchorage, AK HUD Metro FMR Area’;
var state_abbr =
‘AL’ : ‘Alabama’,
‘AK’ : ‘Alaska’,
‘AS’ : ‘America Samoa’,
‘AZ’ : ‘Arizona’,
‘AR’ : ‘Arkansas’,
‘CA’ : ‘California’,
‘CO’ : ‘Colorado’,
‘CT’ : ‘Connecticut’,
‘DE’ : ‘Delaware’,
‘DC’ : ‘District of Columbia’,
‘FM’ : ‘Micronesia1’,
‘FL’ : ‘Florida’,
‘GA’ : ‘Georgia’,
‘GU’ : ‘Guam’,
‘HI’ : ‘Hawaii’,
‘ID’ : ‘Idaho’,
‘IL’ : ‘Illinois’,
‘IN’ : ‘Indiana’,
‘IA’ : ‘Iowa’,
‘KS’ : ‘Kansas’,
‘KY’ : ‘Kentucky’,
‘LA’ : ‘Louisiana’,
‘ME’ : ‘Maine’,
‘MH’ : ‘Islands1’,
‘MD’ : ‘Maryland’,
‘MA’ : ‘Massachusetts’,
‘MI’ : ‘Michigan’,
‘MN’ : ‘Minnesota’,
‘MS’ : ‘Mississippi’,
‘MO’ : ‘Missouri’,
‘MT’ : ‘Montana’,
‘NE’ : ‘Nebraska’,
‘NV’ : ‘Nevada’,
‘NH’ : ‘New Hampshire’,
‘NJ’ : ‘New Jersey’,
‘NM’ : ‘New Mexico’,
‘NY’ : ‘New York’,
‘NC’ : ‘North Carolina’,
‘ND’ : ‘North Dakota’,
‘OH’ : ‘Ohio’,
‘OK’ : ‘Oklahoma’,
‘OR’ : ‘Oregon’,
‘PW’ : ‘Palau’,
‘PA’ : ‘Pennsylvania’,
‘PR’ : ‘Puerto Rico’,
‘RI’ : ‘Rhode Island’,
‘SC’ : ‘South Carolina’,
‘SD’ : ‘South Dakota’,
‘TN’ : ‘Tennessee’,
‘TX’ : ‘Texas’,
‘UT’ : ‘Utah’,
‘VT’ : ‘Vermont’,
‘VI’ : ‘Virgin Island’,
‘VA’ : ‘Virginia’,
‘WA’ : ‘Washington’,
‘WV’ : ‘West Virginia’,
‘WI’ : ‘Wisconsin’,
‘WY’ : ‘Wyoming’

var selected_state = jQuery(“#selected_state”);
var selected_locale = jQuery(“#selected_locale”);
var selected_household = jQuery(“#selected_household”);

for (var state in bfjo)
var option = jQuery(” + state_abbrstate + ”);
selected_state.append(option);

var fill_locale_selector = function(state_object)

selected_locale.html(“”);

for (var locale in state_object)
var option = jQuery(” + locale.replace(/,.*$/, ”) + ”);
selected_locale.append(option);

}

fill_locale_selector(bfjofirst_state)

selected_state.bind(“change”,
function()
var state = $(“#selected_state option:selected”).val();
var state_object = bfjostate;

fill_locale_selector(state_object);

)

/*
var fill_household_selector = function(locale_object)
var selected_household = jQuery(“#selected_household”);

selected_household.html(“”);

for (var household in locale_object)
var option = jQuery(” + household + ”);
selected_household.append(option);

}

fill_household_selector(bfjofirst_statefirst_locale)
*/

selected_locale.bind(“change”,
function()
var state = $(“#selected_state option:selected”).val();
var locale = $(“#selected_locale option:selected”).val();
var locale_object = bfjostatelocale;

//fill_household_selector(locale_object);

)

enable_disable_locale = function()
var household = $(“#selected_household option:selected”).val();
if (household === ‘1P0C’ else
selected_locale.attr(‘disabled’, ”);

}
selected_household.bind(“change”,
function()
enable_disable_locale();

);
enable_disable_locale();

jQuery(“#calculate_this”).bind(“submit”,
function()

var state = $(“#selected_state option:selected”).val();
var locale = $(“#selected_locale option:selected”).val();
var household = $(“#selected_household option:selected”).val();
var salary = parseInt($(“#input_salary”).val());

var annual_living_wage = bfjostatelocalehousehold;
console.log(state);
console.log(locale);
console.log(household);
console.log(annual_living_wage);
var hourly_for_living = annual_living_wage / months_per_year
/ average_weeks_in_a_month / hours_worked_at_full_time;

var hours_to_live_per_month = annual_living_wage / months_per_year / median_fast_food_worker_wage;
var weeks_to_live_per_month = hours_to_live_per_month / hours_worked_at_full_time;

var salary_monthly = salary / months_per_year;
var hours_to_salary_monthly = salary_monthly / median_fast_food_worker_wage;
var weeks_to_salary_monthly = hours_to_salary_monthly / hours_worked_at_full_time;

var hours_living_a_week = hours_to_live_per_month / average_weeks_in_a_month;
var hours_salary_a_week = hours_to_salary_monthly / average_weeks_in_a_month;

var commify = function(number)
while (/(d+)(d3)/.test(number.toString()))
number = number.toString().replace(/(d+)(d3)/, ‘$1’+’,’+’$2′);
}
return number;
}

var salary_string = commify(salary);
var yearly_living_wage_string = commify(annual_living_wage);
/*
while (/(d+)(d3)/.test(salary_string.toString()))
salary_string = salary_string.toString().replace(/(d+)(d3)/, ‘$1’+’,’+’$2′);

while (/(d+)(d3)/.test(yearly_living_wage_string.toString()))
yearly_living_wage_string = yearly_living_wage_string.toString().replace(/(d+)(d3)/, ‘$1’+’,’+’$2′);

*/

jQuery(“#calculated”).show();
jQuery(“#fast_food_calculator_hours”).text(Math.round(hours_to_live_per_month));
jQuery(“#fast_food_calculator_state”).text(state_abbrstate);
jQuery(“#fast_food_calculator_state2”).text(state_abbrstate);
if (household === “1P0C” || household === “2P0C”)
jQuery(“#fast_food_calculator_locale”).text(”);
jQuery(“#fast_food_calculator_locale2″).text(”);
else
jQuery(“#fast_food_calculator_locale”).text(locale.replace(/,.*$/, ”) + ‘,’);
jQuery(“#fast_food_calculator_locale2″).text(locale.replace(/,.*$/, ”) + ‘,’);

jQuery(“#salary”).text(salary_string);
jQuery(“#fast_food_calculator_time”).text(Math.round(hours_to_salary_monthly));

jQuery(“#living_hours_per_week”).text(Math.round(hours_living_a_week));
jQuery(“#living_hours_per_week2”).text(Math.round(hours_living_a_week));

jQuery(“#salary_hours_per_week”).text(Math.round(hours_salary_a_week));
jQuery(“#fast_food_calculator_living_wage_annual”).text(yearly_living_wage_string);

jQuery(“#mc_d_customers_served”).text(
commify(
Math.round(
Math.round(hours_living_a_week) * mcD_served_per_hour
)
)
);
jQuery(“#mc_d_money_earned”).text(
commify(Math.round(Math.round(hours_living_a_week) * mcD_earned_per_hour))
);

jQuery(“#big_mac_count”).text(
commify(
Math.round(
Math.round(hours_living_a_week)
* mcD_earned_per_hour
/ cost_of_big_mac
)
)
);

console.log(hourly_for_living);
var hourly_for_living_clean = Math.round(hourly_for_living * 100)
.toString().replace(/(d+)(d2)/, ‘$1’+’.’+’$2′);
jQuery(“#living_wage_hourly”).text(hourly_for_living_clean);

return false;

}

)

Link to article: 

Why Are Fast Food Workers Walking Out Again?

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Why Are Fast Food Workers Walking Out Again?

Quiz: All The Words That Aren’t Fit to Print in the New York Times

by Prokippxv Posted on August 29, 2013

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

(function($)

$.quiz = function(quiz_data, options)
var container_elem;
var self;
var answer_tracking = [];
var correct_answers_element;

var quiz =
defaulting_behavior_on : true,
defaulting_flag : ‘!default’,
container : ‘quiz_container’,
possible_display_elements : this.name) return ”;
return jQuery(”
);
}
},

name : ‘topimage’,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
create_element : function(slide)
if (!slidethis.name) return ”;
return jQuery(
”
);
}
},

name : ‘topvideoembed’,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
needs_aspect_ratio : true,
create_element : function(slide)
//check aspect ratio
if (!slide.topvideoembedaspectratio) return ”;
return jQuery(”
+ slidethis.name + ”
);
}
},

name : ‘title’,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
create_element : function(slide)
if (!slidethis.name) return ”;
return jQuery(‘

‘
+ slidethis.name + ”
);
}
},

name : ‘middleimage’,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
create_element : function(slide)
if (!slidethis.name) return ”;
return jQuery(
”
);
}
},

name : ‘middlevideoembed’,
needs_aspect_ratio : true,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
create_element : function(slide)
//check aspect ratio
if (!slide.middlevideoembedaspectratio) return ”;
return jQuery(”
+ slidethis.name + ”
);
}
},

name : ‘subhed’,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
create_element : function(slide)
if (!slidethis.name) return ”;
return jQuery(”
+ slidethis.name
+ ”
);
}
},

name : ‘text’,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
create_element : function(slide)
if (!slidethis.name) return ”;
return jQuery(”
+ slidethis.name
+ ”
);
}
},

name : ‘bottomimage’,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
create_element : function(slide)
if (!slidethis.name) return ”;
return jQuery(”
);
}
},

name : ‘bottomvideoembed’,
needs_aspect_ratio : true,
finder: function(container)
return container.find(‘.’ + this.name);
,
create_element : function(slide)
//check aspect ratio
if (!slide.bottomvideoembedaspectratio) return ”;
return jQuery(”
+ slidethis.name + ”
);
}
},
],

init : function(quiz_data, options)

self = this;
if (options)
for ( var option in options )
selfoption = optionsoption;

}

if (typeof(quiz_data) === ‘string’)
//is a google spreadsheet
self.make_quiz_from_google_spreadsheet(quiz_data);
return self;

self.calculate_aspectratios(quiz_data);

self.quiz_data = quiz_data;

self.create_cover();

for ( var i = 0; i < self.quiz_data.length; i++ )
self.append_question(i);

self.append_how_you_did_section();

return self;
},
append_how_you_did_section: function()
correct_answers_element = jQuery(‘0’);
var how_you_did_element = jQuery(”);
how_you_did_element.append(jQuery(‘You got ‘));
how_you_did_element.append(correct_answers_element);
how_you_did_element.append(jQuery(‘ correct answers out of ‘ + self.quiz_data.length + ‘ questions’));
cover.append(how_you_did_element);
,

make_quiz_from_google_spreadsheet: function(spreadsheet_id)
Tabletop.init(
key: spreadsheet_id,
proxy : ‘https://s3.amazonaws.com/mj-tabletop-proxy’,
callback: function(data)
var quiz_data = self.make_quiz_data_from_spreadsheet_data(data);
self.init(quiz_data, options);
,
simpleSheet: true
});
},
calculate_aspectratios: function(data)
for (var i = 0; i < data.length; i++)
var row = datai;
for (var k = 0; k < row.possible_answers.length; k++)
var answer = row.possible_answersk;
self.find_aspectratio_for_each_type_of_video_embed(answer);

self.find_aspectratio_for_each_type_of_video_embed(row.question);
}
},

find_aspectratio_for_each_type_of_video_embed : function(slide)
for (var i = 0; i < self.possible_display_elements.length; i++ )
var display = self.possible_display_elementsi;
if ( display.needs_aspect_ratio && slidedisplay.name )
slidedisplay.name + ‘aspectratio’
= self.find_aspectratio(slidedisplay.name);

}
},
find_aspectratio: function(videoembed)
var height = videoembed.match(/height=”d+”/);
if (!height ;
height = parseInt(height0.replace(/height=”/, ”).replace(/”/, ”));

var width = videoembed.match(/width=”d+”/);
if (!width || !width0)
console.log(‘Your video embed code needs a width.’);
return ”;
;
width = parseInt(width0.replace(/width=”/, ”).replace(/”/, ”));

return (height / width)*100;
},
pull_answer_value_from_spreadsheet : function(row, value, wrong_number, correct)
var correct = correct ? ‘right’ : ‘wrong’;
if (rowcorrect + wrong_number + value && rowcorrect + wrong_number + value !== self.defaulting_flag)
return (rowcorrect + wrong_number + value);

if ( (self.defaulting_behavior_on && rowcorrect + wrong_number + value !== self.defaulting_flag)
|| (!self.defaulting_behavior_on && rowcorrect + wrong_number + value === self.defaulting_flag)
)
return (rowcorrect + value && rowcorrect + value !== self.defaulting_flag
? rowcorrect + value
: (row’answer’ + value && row’answer’ + value !== self.defaulting_flag
? row’answer’ + value
: row’question’ + value
)
);
else
return ”;

},
get_possible_answers : function(row, is_correct)
var possible_answers = [];
var right_or_wrong = (is_correct ? ‘right’ : ‘wrong’);
if (rowright_or_wrong)
possible_answers.push(self.make_possible_answer(row, ”, is_correct));

for (var i = 0; i < 10; i++ )
if (rowright_or_wrong + i)
possible_answers.push(self.make_possible_answer(row, i, is_correct));

}
return possible_answers;
},
make_possible_answer: function(row, row_number, is_correct)
var right_or_wrong = (is_correct ? ‘right’ : ‘wrong’);
var answer =
answer: rowright_or_wrong + row_number,
correct: is_correct
;
for (var i = 0; i < self.possible_display_elements.length; i++ )
var display_element = self.possible_display_elementsi.name;
answerdisplay_element = self.pull_answer_value_from_spreadsheet(
row, display_element, row_number, is_correct
)

return answer;
},
make_quiz_data_from_spreadsheet_data: function(data)
var quiz = [];
for (var i = 0; i < data.length; i++)
var row = datai;
var possible_wrong_answers = self.get_possible_answers(row, false);
var possible_right_answers = self.get_possible_answers(row, true);

var right_answer_placement = [];
for (var j = 0; j < possible_right_answers.length; j++)
right_answer_placement.push(
Math.round(Math.random() * possible_wrong_answers.length)
);

// IMPORTANT TO SORT THIS. rather than check if a value is in, we only check the first
right_answer_placement.sort();

var possible_answers= [];
var right_answers_placed = 0;
for (var j = 0; j <= possible_wrong_answers.length; j++)
while (j === right_answer_placementright_answers_placed)
//push right answer
possible_answers.push(possible_right_answersright_answers_placed);
right_answers_placed++;

if (j === possible_wrong_answers.length)
continue;

possible_answers.push(possible_wrong_answersj);
}

var question =
question :
,
possible_answers : possible_answers,
rowNumber : row.rowNumber – 1
};
for (var j = 0; j < self.possible_display_elements.length; j++)
var display_value = self.possible_display_elementsj.name;
question.questiondisplay_value = row’question’ + display_value;

quiz.push(question);
}
return quiz;
},
append_question : function(question_index)
var question_data = self.quiz_dataquestion_index
var question_container = jQuery(‘<li class=”question_container row-fluid question_’
+ question_index
+ ‘”>’
);
question_container.append( self.build_question_element_from_row(question_data) );
question_container.append( self.build_possible_answer_elements_from_row(question_data, question_index) );
container_elem.append(question_container);
,
build_question_element_from_row: function(row)
var question_container = jQuery(”);
for (var i = 0; i < self.possible_display_elements.length; i++)
question_container.append(
self.possible_display_elementsi.create_element(row.question)
);

return question_container;
},
build_possible_answer_elements_from_row : function(question, question_index)
var answers_container = jQuery(”);
for (var i = 0; i < question.possible_answers.length; i++)
var answer_data = question.possible_answersi;
var possible_answer = jQuery(”
+ answer_data.answer
+ ”);
(function(question_index, answer_index, possible_answer)
possible_answer.bind(‘click’, function()
// was it the right answer?
var was_correct = self.quiz_dataquestion_index.possible_answersanswer_index.correct;

// Add correct classes to possible answers
answers_container.find(‘.selected’).removeClass(‘selected’);
$(this).addClass(‘selected’);
$(this).removeClass(‘possible_answer’);
answers_container
.find(‘.answer_’ + answer_index)
.addClass(
was_correct
? ‘correct_answer’
: ‘wrong_answer’
);

//track how many you got right the first time
if ( typeof(answer_trackingquestion_index) === ‘undefined’ )
answer_trackingquestion_index = was_correct;
self.update_correct_answers_element();
cover.find(‘.question_’ + question_index).addClass(
‘first_guess_’
+ ( was_correct
? ‘right’
: ‘wrong’
)
);

//show new slide
self.display_answer(self.quiz_dataquestion_index, question_index, self.quiz_dataquestion_index.possible_answersanswer_index);

// track that this was selected last
self.quiz_dataquestion_index.previously_selected = self.quiz_dataquestion_index.possible_answersanswer_index;
});
})(question_index, i, possible_answer);
answers_container.append(possible_answer);
}
return answers_container;
},
add_display_in_correct_place: function(container, place_in_display_elements, slide)
for ( var i = place_in_display_elements; i > 0; i– )
if (self.possible_display_elementsi – 1.finder(container).length )
self.possible_display_elementsi – 1.finder(container)
.after( self.possible_display_elementsplace_in_display_elements.create_element(slide) );
return;

}
container.prepend(
self.possible_display_elementsplace_in_display_elements.create_element(slide)
);
},
display_answer : function(question, question_index, answer)
var displayed_slide = question.previously_selected
? question.previously_selected
: question.question;
var slide = container_elem.find(‘.question_’ + question_index + ‘ .question’);
slide.addClass(‘revealed_answer’);
for (var i = 0; i < self.possible_display_elements.length; i++)
var display_value = self.possible_display_elementsi.name;
if ( answerdisplay_value != displayed_slidedisplay_value )
if ( !answerdisplay_value )
self.possible_display_elementsi.finder(slide).remove();
else if ( !displayed_slidedisplay_value )
self.add_display_in_correct_place(slide, i, answer);
else
self.possible_display_elementsi.finder(slide).before(
self.possible_display_elementsi.create_element( answer )
).remove();

}
}
},

create_cover : function()
cover = $(‘#’ + self.container);
container_elem = jQuery(”);
cover.append(container_elem);
container_elem.addClass(‘quiz_container’);
container_elem.css(‘padding’, ‘0px’);
,
update_correct_answers_element: function()
var right_answers = 0;
for (var i = 0; i < self.quiz_data.length; i++)
if (answer_trackingi)
right_answers++;

}
correct_answers_element.text(right_answers);
}
};
return quiz.init(quiz_data, options);
};

$.fn.quiz = function(quiz_data, options)
options = options ;
options.container = this.attr(‘id’);
this.quiz = $.quiz(quiz_data, options);
return this;
};
}(jQuery));

The Gray Lady has her standards, at least. For as long as anyone has kept track, the New York Times has enforced a strict policy of avoiding language it deems offensive while jumping through hoops to explain why. While cursing is permitted in excerpted works of fiction, in the paper’s news sections, f-bombs, s-words, racial slurs, and off-color terms such as “screw,” are strictly non grata. (The one exception: The 1998 publication of the NSFW Starr Report.)

No one—even Joe Biden—is exempt. In the hands of the Times copy desk, “cocksuckers” becomes “Offensive Adjective Inappropriate for Family Newspaper“; “fuck you money” is “forget you money“; and “slutbag” is euphemized as just one of “several vulgar and sexist terms” uttered by New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner’s spokeswoman. If—to borrow a trope that really ought to be banned—the Eskimos have 100 words for snow, the New York Times has at least 100 ways to say “fuck.” None of them use the word “fuck.”

Can you read between the lines to figure out which words the Times copy desk considered unfit to print in the quotes below? Give it your best fucking shot:

var quiz = jQuery(‘#quiz_container’).quiz(‘0AswaDV9q95oZdDlmanhkZDd0TVhVcGRSQjlqdzQwNUE’); //your published spreadsheet key or URL goes here
Like this quiz? Wanna build your own? Check out our open-source quiz builder here!

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Quiz: All The Words That Aren’t Fit to Print in the New York Times

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PHOTOS: Meet Groundswell’s Major Players

by rakill23 Posted on July 25, 2013

Mother Jones

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A cadre of conservative activists, journalists, and aides has been meeting privately to coordinate messaging in a fight against progressives and the GOP establishment, according to documents obtained by Mother Jones. Groundswell’s participants include DC power players like Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, wife of US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and John Bolton, former US Ambassador to the United Nations, along with journalists from Breitbart News, the Washington Examiner, and the National Review. Meet some of them below.

jQuery(function($)
$(‘#slideshow’).slideshow(‘0AswaDV9q95oZdGVLXzlfYkJmalVEczNtTGhzZTBqcEE’);
);

View this article – 

PHOTOS: Meet Groundswell’s Major Players

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MAP: America’s 21 Most Vulnerable Rivers

by johnsmithwindows Posted on July 1, 2013

Mother Jones

If you’re one of 142 million Americans heading to the outdoors this year, there’s a good chance you’ll run into one of at least 250,000 rivers in the country. Much of the nation’s 3.5 million miles of rivers and streams provide drinking water, electric power, and critical habitat for fish and wildlife throughout. If you were to connect all the rivers in the United States into one long cord, it would wrap around the entire country 175 times. But as a recent assessment by the Environmental Protection Agency points out, we’ve done a pretty bad job of preserving the quality of these waters: In March, the EPA estimated that more than half of the nation’s waterways are in “poor condition for aquatic life.”

Back in the 1960s, after recognizing the toll that decades of damming, developing, and diverting had taken on America’s rivers, Congress passed the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act in 1968 to preserve rivers with “outstanding natural, cultural, and recreational values in a free-flowing condition.” Unfortunately, only a sliver of US rivers—0.25 percent—have earned federal protection since the act passed.

In the interactive map below, we highlight 21 rivers that, based on the conservation group American Rivers’ reports in 2012 and 2013, are under the most duress (or soon will be) from extended droughts, flooding, agriculture, or severe pollution from nearby industrial activity. Find out which rivers are endangered by hovering over them (in orange). Jump down to the list below to read about what’s threatening the rivers. For fun, we also mapped every river and stream recorded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It was too beautiful not to.

Endangered Rivers, 2012-13


Continue Reading »

View the original here: 

MAP: America’s 21 Most Vulnerable Rivers

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Bachmann’s Right: The Founders Would "Hardly Even Recognize" America Today

by testdonekAQW Posted on May 29, 2013

Mother Jones

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Michele Bachmann has said some crazy things over the years. When her goodbye speech today warned that America is “becoming a nation our founders would hardly even recognize today,” we had to agree.

Original post: 

Bachmann’s Right: The Founders Would "Hardly Even Recognize" America Today

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See How Citigroup Wrote a Bill So It Could Get a Bailout

by Delores Crane Posted on May 24, 2013

Mother Jones

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On Friday, the New York Times reported on the front page that Citigroup drafted most of a House bill that would allow banks to engage in risky trades backed by a potential taxpayer-funded bailout. The Times notes that “Citigroup’s recommendations were reflected in more than 70 lines of the House committee’s 85-line bill.” Special-interest lobbyists often play a role in writing legislation on the Hill, but such sausage-making is rarely revealed to the public. In this instance, members of Congress and a band of lobbyists have been caught red-handed, and Mother Jones has obtained the Citigroup draft that is practically identical to the House bill. As you can see in the side-by-side comparison below, the lobbyists for Citigroup really earned their pay on this job.

The bill, called the Swaps Regulatory Improvement Act, was approved by the House financial services committee in May and is headed for a vote on the House floor soon. It would gut a section of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform act called the “push-out rule.” Banks hate the push-out rule, which is scheduled to go into effect on July 13, because this provision will forbid them from trading certain derivatives (which are complicated financial instruments with values derived from underlying variables, such as crop prices or interest rates). Under this rule, banks will have to move these risky trades into separate non-bank affiliates that aren’t insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and are less likely to receive government bailouts. The bill would smother the push-out rule in its crib by permitting banks to use government-insured deposits to bet on a wider range of these risky derivatives.

Here is the key section of the legislation that Citigroup cooked up compared to the same section of the final bill:

The bill is sponsored by Republican and Democratic members—Randy Hultgren (R-Ill.), Jim Himes (D-Conn.), Richard Hudson (R-NC), and Sean Patrick Mahoney (D-NY)—and its passage would be great news for Citi and other financial titans. Five banks—Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo—control more than 90 percent of the $700 trillion derivatives market. “The big banks support the bill because it means that they’ll get to keep the public subsidy”—FDIC insurance and the implicit promise of a taxpayer bailout—”to their derivatives-dealing business,” explains Marcus Stanley, the policy director at Americans for Financial Reform.

The origins of the Citigroup proposal date back to 2011, when several large banks fought to repeal the push-out rule entirely. When it became clear that full repeal couldn’t pass, Citigroup pitched an alternative: allow banks to use FDIC-insured money to bet on almost anything they wanted. It proposed letting banks keep most types of derivatives trading in-house, requiring only that derivatives based on certain pools of assets, such as mortgages, be moved into separate entities. Citigroup was not able to get the measure passed before the end of the last Congress, but its allies on Capitol Hill reintroduced it this year.

Citi’s move to expand the types of derivatives it can trade comes as banks have increasingly been shifting derivatives out of their investment banking divisions (which aren’t backed by FDIC insurance) and into taxpayer-backed entities. “The rule is needed more than ever,” says Mike Konczal, an expert on financial reform at the Roosevelt Institute. The financial services committee passed the Citi-written bill on a 53-to-6 vote; all the no votes came from Democrats.

This is certainly not the first time that the financial industry has shaped financial reform laws for Congress. Citigroup was a central player in the 1999 repeal of the Depression-era law called the Glass-Steagall Act that forced banks not to engage in investment activities. Its lobbyists flooded Capitol Hill for that fight. “Citigroup was of course the bank that administered the coup de grace to Glass-Steagall,” says Stanley.

Citigroup’s drafting of the anti-push-out measure fits into “a long history of things being written by industry—and that generally has not worked out very well,” says Konczal. “This is very bad news.”

See how the Citigroup proposal allows more risky dealings by taxpayer-backed banks:

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See How Citigroup Wrote a Bill So It Could Get a Bailout

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We’ve Hit the Carbon Level We Were Warned About. Here’s What That Means.

by pwh63qn7 Posted on May 13, 2013

Mother Jones

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This interactive explainer originally appeared on the Guardian website and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

Over the last couple weeks, scientists and environmentalists have been keeping a particularly close eye on the Hawaii-based monitoring station that tracks how much carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere, as the count tiptoed closer to a record-smashing 400 parts per million. Thursday, we finally got there: The daily mean concentration was higher than at any time in human history, NOAA reported Friday.

Don’t worry: The earth is not about to go up in a ball of flame. The 400 ppm mark is only a milestone, 50 ppm over what legendary NASA scientist James Hansen has since 1988 called the safe zone for avoiding the worst impacts of climate change, and yet only halfway to what the IPCC predicts we’ll reach by the end of the century.

“Somehow in the last 50 ppm we melted the Arctic,” said environmentalist and founder of activist group 350.org Bill McKibben, who called today’s news a “grim but predictable milestone” and has long used the symbolic number as a rallying call for climate action. “We’ll see what happens in the next 50.”

We could find out soon enough: With the East Coast still recovering from Superstorm Sandy and the West gearing up for what promises to be a nasty fire season, University of California ecologist Max Moritz says milestones like these are “an excuse for us to take a good hard look at where we are,” especially as the carbon concentration shows no signs of reversing course.

Scientists first saw the carbon scale tip past 400 ppm last summer, but only briefly; the record reported today by NOAA is the first time a daily average has surpassed that point. For the last several years concentrations have hovered in the 390s, and we’re still not to the point where the carbon concentration will stay above the 400 ppm threshold permanently. But that’s just around the corner, said J. Marshall Shepherd, president of the American Meteorological Society.

“It’s clear that sometime next year we’ll see 400 consistently,” he said. “Avoiding the future warming will require a large and rapid reduction in greenhouse gases.”

Most scientists, environmentalists, and climate-conscious policymakers agree this will require, at a minimum, slashing the use of fossil fuels, and in the meantime, taking steps to adapt for a world with higher temperatures, higher seas, and more extreme weather. For example, according to Hansen, the world will need to completely stop burning coal by 2030 if returning to 350 ppm is to remain possible. What’s the holdup? Texas Tech climatologist Katherine Hayhoe blames “the inertia of our economic system, and the inertia of our political system.” But she, like most of her peers, believe it can—and must—be done: “We have to change how we get our energy and how we use our energy.”

Original link: 

We’ve Hit the Carbon Level We Were Warned About. Here’s What That Means.

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Quiz: Can You Diagnose America’s Sickest Presidents?

by kx93z6g Posted on February 17, 2013

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All in all, America’s presidents have been a sickly lot. Yet John Sotos, a California cardiologist who has spent more than a decade investigating and posthumously diagnosing their infirmities, from ague to Alzheimer’s, has found that a long medical history isn’t necessarily a barrier to making history. “The three best presidents we’ve had—Washington, Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt—were all visited by serious illness,” he says. “I wonder if there is something in that experience which humbles a man, and raises his decision-making to a higher plane.”

Ready to play doctor? Take this short quiz on some notable presidential afflictions.

var quiz = jQuery(‘#quiz_container’).quiz(‘0AqqLuNX4MRr1dERSOGd4YjJoZDlJdjhrb3FIeHJKR0E’); //your published spreadsheet key or URL goes here
Like this quiz? Wanna build your own? Check out our open-source quiz builder here!

Taken from:

Quiz: Can You Diagnose America’s Sickest Presidents?

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US Mass Shootings, 1982-2012: Data From Mother Jones’ Investigation

by Myrna Posted on December 28, 2012

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Since we began our investigation into mass shootings following the attack in Aurora, Colorado, in July, we’ve heard from numerous academic researchers, legislative aides, and others wanting access to our full data set. Here it is below, including links to sources where available online. You can also download this data in CSV, XLS, or TXT formats, or click here for the Google spreadsheet view. (Unfortunately, the embedded version below does not support expanding the cells to see the full text in some places, but you can access it these other ways.) For more context, and the series of stories from our five-month investigation, click here.

Source – 

US Mass Shootings, 1982-2012: Data From Mother Jones’ Investigation

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