Report: Half of U.S. Families Live on the Edge of ‘Economic Chaos’
by Imara Jones
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.” That’s the shocking conclusion of a report released today by The Hamilton Project.
+++
Is Pope Francis Leaving Vatican At Night To Minister To Homeless?
…A knowledgable source in Rome told The Huffington Post that “Swiss guards confirmed that the pope has ventured out at night, dressed as a regular priest, to meet with homeless men and women.”
+++
Is Wall Street Too Giddy?
The stock market reaches record highs as incomes stagnate. Tech companies with no revenue are valued in the billions of dollars. More analysts are seeing something unpleasantly familiar.
Are we in a stock market bubble that could soon burst?
+++
‘TipsForJesus’ Is Leaving Thousands Of Dollars For Servers
By Mark Memmot
…TipsForJesus has been chronicling its good deeds on Instagram, saying its mission is “doing the Lords [sic] work, one tip at a time.” Gawker estimates about $54,000 has been handed out in the past several months.
+++
Third Way’s Anti-Populist, Anti-Warren and Deceptive “Dead End”
By Richard Eskow
An almost palpable air of desperation clings to the anti-“populist,” anti-Elizabeth Warren editorial by Jonathan Cowan and Jim Kessler of the corporate-funded Third Way organization. If they’re worried, they’re right to worry. The world is changing.
+++
Rumsfeld’s War and Its Consequences Now
By Mark Danner
A review of:
The Unknown Known
a film directed by Errol Morris
Known and Unknown: A Memoir
by Donald Rumsfeld
Sentinel, 815 pp., $36.00
By His Own Rules: The Ambitions, Successes, and Ultimate Failures of Donald Rumsfeld
by Bradley Graham
PublicAffairs, 803 pp., $18.95 (paper)
+++
’Tis the Season to Be Food-Insecure
BY: EDWARD WYCKOFF WILLIAMS
It is a strange and ironic truth that in the world’s richest democracy, many Americans are going to work in the morning, but they and their families are going to bed hungry at night.
+++
Homage to the Idols of Idleness
By JESSICA KERWIN JENKINS
…What could be gained from a single day set free from the clock’s tyranny, one spent wandering or daydreaming the hours away?
+++
The Stem and the Flower
By DAVID BROOKS
…How much emotional and psychic space should politics take up in a normal healthy brain?… politics should take up maybe a tenth corner of a good citizen’s mind. The rest should be philosophy, friendship, romance, family, culture and fun. I wish our talk-show culture reflected that balance, and that the emotional register around politics were more in keeping with its low but steady nature.
+++
The Families We Invent
By FRANK BRUNI
…As good as we humans are at division, we’re better still at connection.
+++
The Pope and the Right
By ROSS DOUTHAT
…This Catholic case for limited government, however, is not a case for the Ayn Randian temptation inherent to a capitalism-friendly politics. There is no Catholic warrant for valorizing entrepreneurs at the expense of ordinary workers, or for dismissing all regulation as unnecessary and all redistribution as immoral.