Tag Archives: jonesreader

The American Economy in a Nutshell: Flat Revenues, Great Earnings

by Cindy Lin Posted on February 4, 2014

Mother Jones

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The Wall Street Journal reports that American firms are struggling with falling prices due to weak consumer demand:

With about half of companies reporting year-end earnings, Thomson Reuters estimates revenue for companies in the S&P 500 stock index rose just 0.9%—capping two years of lackluster revenue growth and tying the third-weakest quarterly sales growth since the fall of 2009….The persistent weakness in revenue also prompts companies to cut back costs and plow their spare cash into share buybacks instead of investments like new factories and hiring. Fourth-quarter earnings, as a result, are expected to be up 9.4%.

There you have it. Earnings are up nearly 10 percent—because companies are cutting staff—and revenues are essentially flat—because workers have no money. This is the American economy in a nutshell. Solutions welcome.

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The American Economy in a Nutshell: Flat Revenues, Great Earnings

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Report: Guards May Be Responsible for Half of All Prison Sexual Assaults

by CalebMcwhorter Posted on February 3, 2014

Mother Jones

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This story first appeared on the ProPublica website.

A new Justice Department study shows that allegations of sex abuse in the nation’s prisons and jails are increasing–with correctional officers responsible for half of it–but prosecution is still extremely rare.

The report, released today by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, takes data collected by correctional administrators representing all of the nation’s federal and state prisons as well as many county jails. It shows that administrators logged more than 8,000 reports of abuse to their overseers each year between 2009 and 2011, up 11 percent from the department’s previous report, which covered 2007 and 2008.

It’s not clear whether the increase is the result of better reporting or represents an actual rise in the number of incidents.

Allen Beck, the Justice Department statistician who authored the reports, told ProPublica that abuse allegations might be increasing because of growing awareness of the 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act.

“It’s a matter of speculation, but certainly there’s been a considerable effort to inform staff about the dangers of sexual misconduct, so we could be seeing the impact of that,” said Beck.

The survey also shows a growing proportion of the allegations have been dismissed by prison officials as “unfounded” or “unsubstantiated.” Only about 10 percent are substantiated by an investigation.

But even in the rare cases where there is enough evidence to prove that sexual abuse occurred, and that a correctional officer is responsible for it, the perpetrator rarely faces prosecution. While most prison staff shown to be involved in sexual misconduct lost their jobs, fewer than half were referred for prosecution, and only 1 percent ultimately got convicted.

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Report: Guards May Be Responsible for Half of All Prison Sexual Assaults

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Your Rape Joke Is Bad and You Should Feel Bad

by 2lgax8lh Posted on February 3, 2014

Mother Jones

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Pornhub, a hub for pornography on the information superhighway, is a little well known for being snarky and amusing on social media. Chasing that reputation may have just got it into trouble.

Sunday night the Seattle Seahawks defeated the Denver Broncos in a football game. This inspired Pornhub to make the following joke:

So, stop it.

Pornhub, stop it.

Whoever you are, if you’re telling a rape joke, stop it.

It’s 2014. We really shouldn’t have to say this. Just, dear god almighty, stop.

They aren’t funny. You aren’t funny. Stop.

UPDATE: Pornhub has apologized in the comments to this post. Their social person seems like good people:

Alright Ben, you’re right, I feel bad and I’ll stop. The tweet wasn’t intended to offend anyone, you have to realize my target demographic on twitter isn’t the same as say, Mother Jones.

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Your Rape Joke Is Bad and You Should Feel Bad

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Your Weekend PSA: Using Date Ranges in Google Search

by Poppy Hill Posted on February 1, 2014

Mother Jones

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This is a public service announcement about a feature of Google search that few people seem to know about: date ranges. This is useful in a couple of ways. First, I sometimes want only pages that are really recent, and it’s handy to be able to restrict results to the past hour or the past day. Alternatively, sometimes I’m looking for something old, which is hard to find because Google heavily prioritizes recent results. A specific date range fixes that.

In any case, it’s easy to specify a date range. After your results come up, click Search tools at the top of the page. Then click Any time and choose an option from the dropdown list. That’s it.

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Your Weekend PSA: Using Date Ranges in Google Search

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Friday Cat Blogging – 31 January 2014

by PhilomenaJephco Posted on January 31, 2014

Mother Jones

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It rained yesterday here in Southern California. I’d put the total damage at a hundredth of an inch, and wunderground.com says I have it about right. It was more like a heavy fog than real rain. But just like those Atlantans freaked out by two inches of snow, it was enough to send Domino scurrying for the warmth and protection of a blanket, which someone had considerately put right on top of her faux sheepskin pod. It turned out to be a great way to ride out the storm.

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Friday Cat Blogging – 31 January 2014

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Chart of the Day: Everyone Agrees That Iraq Was a Disaster

by JosephFinsch Posted on January 31, 2014

Mother Jones

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A new Pew poll shows that there’s no longer any difference between Democrats and Republicans on Iraq: huge majorities agree that the war was a failure.

What’s interesting is the inflection point in 2008: Democrats became suddenly more optimistic about Iraq and Republicans became more pessimistic. This was before Barack Obama won the election, so it’s not directly because of that. But by mid-2008, negotiations over withdrawal had stalled and it was clear that the end of the US troop presence was near. It was also increasingly clear that Obama was likely to win the presidency. Those two things combined might account for the partisan differences.

By 2012, with US troops gone, those partisan differences started to disappear. By 2014, they were gone. Hardly anyone could fool themselves into thinking that the Iraq War had succeeded in any way: there were no WMDs; there wasn’t much oil flowing; Iran’s influence had increased; and sectarian violence was once more on the rise. A third of the country can still be described as dead-enders on this score, but that’s it. Everyone else has finally faced the facts.

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Chart of the Day: Everyone Agrees That Iraq Was a Disaster

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We’re Still at War: Photo of the Day for January 31, 2014

by VetaLauqcdwznhk Posted on January 31, 2014

Mother Jones

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U.S. Army Spc. Steven Hitchcock assigned to 55th Signal Company (Combat Camera), takes photographs during a mission on Fort Hunter Liggett, Calif., Jan. 22, 2014. Hitchcock’s mission was to document Task Force Training conducted by Rangers from 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment. (U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Rashene Mincy/ Released)

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We’re Still at War: Photo of the Day for January 31, 2014

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Economy Grows Fairly Decently in Q4

by Teofilnpc Posted on January 30, 2014

Mother Jones

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Economic growth slowed down a bit in Q4, but remained fairly healthy. The BEA announced today that real GDP increased 3.2 percent last quarter, due almost entirely to private sector growth. Slowdowns in federal spending actually cut GDP growth by 0.98 percent—about two-thirds due to cuts in defense spending and one-third due to cuts in domestic spending. This is the price of austerity: if federal spending were growing at a normal rate at this point in a recovery, GDP growth last quarter probably would have stood at around 4.5 percent or so.

Everything else was pretty positive:

The increase in real GDP in the fourth quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), exports, nonresidential fixed investment, private inventory investment, and state and local government spending that were partly offset by negative contributions from federal government spending and residential fixed investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.

Consumer spending increased decently, and inflation was extremely subdued at 1.2 percent. All in all, a decent report, if not a spectacular one. Now we all get to wait and see if it’s good enough to offset all the turmoil in emerging markets that’s got everyone so jittery.

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Economy Grows Fairly Decently in Q4

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The No-Fly List Takes Another Hit

by LilianW64evhn Posted on January 27, 2014

Mother Jones

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Two federal judges have recently ruled that the government’s no-fly list has some serious constitutional problems:

This follows on a federal court decision in August that travelling internationally by air involves “a constitutionally protected liberty interest.” While that case still has a way to go before it reaches a conclusion, the implications of a constitutionally protected right are that any limits on it must involve due process. Simply slapping names on a list because they’re allegedly suspected of the definition-of-terrorism-of-the-week and leaving people stranded won’t cut it.

The more recent decisions would seem to follow on that logic, recognizing that arbitrary limits on travel really do impair people’s ability to exercise their rights and such limits—especially when they involve official screw-ups—have to be fixable through some formal process.

It’s taken more than a dozen years to get to this point, and that’s a disgrace. The federal government certainly has the right to prevent foreigners from entering the country, and it doesn’t owe them due process when it makes those decisions. But preventing citizens and legal residents from flying overseas—or, even worse, allowing them to fly but not allowing them to return home—is police state territory. Ditto for the steady conversion of the Immigration Service into an extraconstitutional agency to harass and search citizens who can’t be legally harassed or searched by ordinary law enforcement.

The federal government simply doesn’t—or shouldn’t—have the right to unilaterally hound and persecute people based on the mere suspicion of a bureaucrat. Arbitrarily constraining travel is a favorite tactic of oppressive regimes, and it has no place in the United States. The faster this stuff is ended, and the faster that due process once again becomes more than just a nice idea, the better.

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The No-Fly List Takes Another Hit

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Fox News Just Can’t Get Americans to Buy Into Benghazi Conspiracy Theories

by SuzanneBl Posted on January 24, 2014

Mother Jones

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Steve Benen alerts me today to this hilariously loaded question in a recent Fox News poll:

Do you know what’s most hilarious about this? Even with question wording that practically demanded the answer they wanted, only 49 percent of respondents played along.

Give it up, guys. If you’re looking for evidence that the American public just doesn’t buy the cover-up conspiracy, this is it.

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Fox News Just Can’t Get Americans to Buy Into Benghazi Conspiracy Theories

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