Violent protests in China

When the bubble officially bursts, expect a lot more of this. CNN:

A rash of violent protests in China continued over the weekend as migrant workers and security forces clashed in a rural city about 60 miles northwest of Hong Kong, local government officials and witnesses said.

The protest erupted in Zengcheng over what witnesses described as rough handling of a pregnant street vendor by security guards Friday. Local government officials said the protests involved hundreds, while other unofficial reports estimated tens of thousands of protesters.

The demonstrators hurled bottles and bricks at government officials and marched to the local police station, where they damaged several cars, according to the local government officials. Protests continued Saturday and Sunday, according to local officials.

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US students know little about US history

Of course they don't or else they would stop voting for the same idiots in Washington who fail to learn US history and repeat the same stupid mistakes such as economic policy and non-stop wars. Even though we know the lack of regulation that Clinton and the GOP implemented led to the recession, we still can't figure out that our political leaders back in the 1930's were onto something when they created regulations. It's almost as though the political class would prefer students to know nothing about history and grow up to be ignorant. Go figure.

U.S. students don't know much about American history, according to results of a national test released Tuesday. Just 13 percent of high school seniors who took the 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress, called the Nation's Report Card, showed solid academic performance in American history.

The two other grades didn't perform much better, which just 22 percent of fourth-grade students and 18 percent of eighth-graders scoring proficient or better.

The test quizzed students on topics including colonization, the American Revolution and the Civil War, and the contemporary United States. For example, one question asked fourth-graders to name an important result of the U.S. building canals in the 1800s. Only 44 percent knew that it was increased trade among states.

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Scientists re-engineer cell to produce laser light

Cool, and creepy.  BBC:

The technique starts by engineering a cell that can produce a light-emitting protein that was first obtained from glowing jellyfish.

Flooding the resulting cells with weak blue light causes them to emit directed, green laser light.

The work may have applications in improved microscope imaging and light-based therapies.

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Two gay men with disabilities kicked out of KY swimming pool: Told "gay people" not allowed to swim, per the Bible

And they even had the audacity to tell them outright that "gay people" weren't allowed in their public pool.  And there were witnesses. Read the rest of this post...

ABC: "Gingrich’s Charity Paid Money to Gingrich’s Business"

The Atlantic Wire:

A charity founded by Newt Gingrich paid Gingrich's for-profit company $220,000 over two years, ABC News reports. The non-profit, Renewing American Leadership, was meant to spur conversation about restoring Christian principles in Washington, and mostly did that through letters seeking donations. The list of people who responded to those letters with checks was given to Gingrich--something that would be very valuable to a potential presidential candidate building support early in the campaign. ReAL, as the non-profit is called, also paid full-price for Gingrich's books and DVDs. ABC News asked Gingrich for comment ahead of a speech in New Hampshire, but the candidate would only respond, "I'm not concerned about that. The American people aren't concerned about that. Try covering the speech."

Yes, enough about corruption. The American people want to hear a thrice-married adulterer talk about other values he also doesn't have. Read the rest of this post...

Housing crisis even worse than during Great Depression

Tax cuts for the rich and handouts to banks won't fix this problem.

Prices have fallen some 33 percent since the market began its collapse, greater than the 31 percent fall that began in the late 1920s and culminated in the early 1930s, according to Case-Shiller data.

The news comes as the Federal Reserve considers whether the economy has regained enough strength to stand on its own and as unemployment remains at a still-elevated 9.1 percent, throwing into question whether the recovery is real.

"The sharp fall in house prices in the first quarter provided further confirmation that this housing crash has been larger and faster than the one during the Great Depression," Paul Dales, senior economist at Capital Economics in Toronto, wrote in research for clients.

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British PM disses American healthcare system, promises UK won’t replicate it

That would be Britain's conservative prime minister. Funny, but I'm not hearing much "envy of the world" in his comments. LA Times:

Ask a Briton to describe “American-style” healthcare, and you’ll hear a catalog of horrors that include grossly expensive and unnecessary medical procedures and a privatized system that favors the rich. For a people accustomed to free healthcare for all, regardless of income, the fact that millions of their cousins across the Atlantic have no insurance and can’t afford decent treatment is a farce as well as a tragedy.

So frightening is the Yankee example that any British politician who values his job has to explicitly disavow it as a possible outcome. Twice.

“We will not be selling off the NHS, we will not be moving towards an insurance scheme, we will not introduce an American-style private system,” Prime Minister David Cameron emphatically told a group of healthcare workers in a nationally televised address last week.

In case they didn’t hear it the first time, Cameron repeated the dreaded “A”-word in a list of five guarantees he offered the British people at the end of his speech.

Krugman links to an earlier Giuliani comment about how if Democrats won the 2008 presidential election, American health care might become like France!

We can only wish.

In France, visits to the emergency room cost around 27 euros a pop (around 40 bucks), whereas in the US the average ER visit costs $1000. Doctor visits in France are set at around 22 or 23 euros ($32 or $33). My chest x-ray a few years back, which I was warned was going to be "really expensive," was around 45 euros or $65. And expensive surgery, like my retinal detachment surgery, which would have cost $20,000+ in the US, came to a whopping 1600 euros ($2300) in France. But, you're wondering, are there long waits? Not for the emergency room - I waited between 20 minutes and 3 hours, just like in the US. For my retina surgery I had to wait 3 days because my doctor was busy doing other surgeries until then. For the chest x-ray, I just called them and walked right over - I waited a whopping 1 minute in the office, got the x-ray, and within 20 minutes the doc had already consulted with me about my results and I was done.

But the quality of care? Our medical system is better right? Well, my American specialist was so impressed by the job the French did on my eye, he asked, "who did your surgery, this is amazing!" - not knowing I had it done in France.

We're number one. Read the rest of this post...

CREW files ethics complaint against Boehner over spending on DOMA legal defense

The defense of DOMA has already caused major headaches for the GOPers. Remember King + Spalding? Now, there's another problem -- an ethics problem.

Signing that $500,000+ contract to defend DOMA may have violated the law, specifically The Antideficiency Act. So, CREW has filed an ethics complaint against Boehner. More at AMERICAblog Gay. And, more from CREW here. Read the rest of this post...

US in secret talks to keep presence in Afghanistan for decades

And where is this money coming from? Washington needs to admit that we simply can't afford these adventures.

American and Afghan officials are locked in increasingly acrimonious secret talks about a long-term security agreement which is likely to see US troops, spies and air power based in the troubled country for decades.

Though not publicised, negotiations have been under way for more than a month to secure a strategic partnership agreement which would include an American presence beyond the end of 2014 – the agreed date for all 130,000 combat troops to leave — despite continuing public debate in Washington and among other members of the 49-nation coalition fighting in Afghanistan about the speed of the withdrawal.

American officials admit that although Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, recently said Washington did not want any "permanent" bases in Afghanistan, her phrasing allows a variety of possible arrangements.

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Obama says Weiner should resign

USA Today:

President Obama suggested today that Anthony Weiner should resign from Congress, saying his "highly inappropriate" behavior is distracting lawmakers from efforts to rebuild the economy.

"I can tell you that if it was me, I would resign," Obama told NBC's Today show.

Obama also said: "When you get to the point where, because of various personal distractions, you can't serve as effectively as you need to -- at the time when people are worrying about jobs, and their mortgages, and paying the bills -- then you should probably step back."

Posted without comment.

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Re-cap of the GOP presidential debate last night

From Matt Ortega over at AMERICAblog Elections: The Right's Field:

Mitt Romney wins by simple nature that nobody hit him hard enough.

Tim Pawlenty was a huge loser because he proved himself to be an utter coward. He took big swipes at Mitt Romney recently with "ObamneyCare" and shrunk with Mitt Romney standing right next to him. He embarrassed himself with being too scared to do it to his face.

Herman Cain also lost because he failed to repeat his prior performance against the JV squad last month. He proved himself king of the second stringers but can't get the job done as QB1.

Also noteworthy: who announces their presidential candidacy at a debate? Michele Bachmann. Truly bizarre but she'll get the press for it tonight and will lead the media by the nose when she "formally" announces. The media will simply just play along as they always do.

Personally, I was bored to death. Best part of the evening was when Herman Cain explained why he wouldn't be "comfortable" hiring Muslims in his administration. You see, when asked the question the first time, Cain's mind immediately went to the Muslims who want to kill us, not the "good" Muslims. So naturally he said "hell no."

The Muslims who want to kill us? That's the first thing that came into his mind - Osama bin Laden? - when asked a question about Muslims.

Racist much? Read the rest of this post...

Greek bonds dropped to lowest level by ratings agencies

It's not entirely fair to Greece in a situation like this because the ratings agencies have so often been wrong that their information should be considered worthless, but it's not. This now means the Greek government has to pay top margins for investors which will only force a new economic crisis faster. Bloomberg:

The move to CCC from B reflects “our view that there is a significantly higher likelihood of one or more defaults,” S&P; said in a statement yesterday. “Risks for the implementation of Greece’s EU/IMF borrowing program are rising, given Greece’s increased financing needs and ongoing internal political disagreements surrounding the policy conditions required.”

Greece’s government, which plans to sell 1.25 billion euros ($1.8 billion) of 26-week Treasury bills today, said that the downgrade overlooked “intense” talks between European officials to address the nation’s financing needs. Credit- default swaps on Greece, Ireland and Portugal surged to records yesterday on concern governments’ struggles to resolve the turmoil will threaten their ability to pay their debts.

“Greece will default -- it’s a question of when, rather than if,” said Vincent Truglia, Managing Director at New York- based Granite Springs Asset Management LLP in New York and a former head of the sovereign risk unit at Moody’s. “It’s a basic solvency issue rather than a liquidity issue. Only a debt writedown will do.”

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Military action in Libya unsustainable beyond summer

They've already sent in the attack helicopters, so what's next? If the anti-government forces don't turn things around quickly, there will be more calls for troops on the ground. At the moment, they are holding their ground (at best) and struggling to win new territory. This is yet another war and another cost that nobody in the "rich" countries can afford.

The head of the Royal Navy has warned that the fleet will not be able to continue the current scale of operations around Libya beyond the summer unless ministers take tough decisions about what they want to prioritise.

Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, the First Sea Lord, said the navy had planned for a six-month commitment but that the government would have to make "challenging decisions" about what it wanted to do thereafter.

Stanhope also conceded that if the aircraft carrier Ark Royal and its Harrier jump jets had not been mothballed last year, they would have been deployed to the Mediterranean.

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Facebook users on the decline

Pity, because it seemed like such a great bunch of people who always respected others privacy. The Guardian:

The number of people using Facebook has dropped in the UK for the second month in a row, mirroring similar falls in the US, Canada and Norway, giving the first signs that the social network's popularity may be waning in the west.

The website continued to grow worldwide, hitting an all-time high of 687 million users, according to data from the tracking company Inside Facebook, which uses Facebook's own advertising tools to determine the number of people using the site every month. Growth slowed however, having risen by 13.9m accounts in April and then just 11.8m in May. Typically in the past year it has grown by 20m a month. That slowdown could thwart founder Mark Zuckerberg's ambition to reach 1 billion users worldwide, despite his prediction last June that "it is almost a guarantee that it will happen".

Growth in Facebook use seems to peak in any country once the site is used by roughly half of those who have internet connections – though with more than 2 billion people online worldwide, the site could still reach the 1 billion figure. However, it would need people who have joined the site to stay with it – and that hasn't been happening in some countries.

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