Children are being adultified because our economy is depending on them to make purchasing decisions. So they’re essentially the victims of a marketing and capitalist machine gone awry. You know, we need to expand, expand, expand. There is no such thing as enough in our current economic model and kids are bearing the brunt of that….

So they’re isolated, they’re alone, they’re desperate. It’s a sad and lonely feeling…. The net effect of all of this marketing, all of this disorienting marketing, all of the shock media, all of this programming designed to untether us from a sense of self, is a loss of autonomy.

You know, we no longer are the active source of our own experience or our own choices. Instead, we succumb to the notion that life is a series of product purchases that have been laid out and whose qualities and parameters have been pre-established. –Douglas Rushkoff ☀

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Listen live or later: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/virtuallyspeaking/2013/05/24/dean-baker-virtually-speaking-with-jay-ackroyd

Follow @deanbaker13 @jayackroyd @ceprdc

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Many of the small businesses battered by Hurricane Sandy are still waiting for U.S. government assistance, raising concerns among some about Midwest businesses hit by devastating tornadoes.

The U.S. Small Business Administration has approved loans to one out of every four business owners who applied for assistance after Sandy hammered the East Coast in October, according to analysis of data the agency submitted to Congress.

In addition to the low approval rate, which included employers who submitted but eventually withdrew their applications, the agency has been slower to process applications and disburse funds than in the aftermath of hurricanes Ike in 2008 and Irene in 2011. Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez (D-N.Y.) noted the comparison in a letter sent to the U.S. Government Accountability Office asking for further examination of the disaster loan program.

“After natural disasters, local economies are often decimated and it is vital that the small business sector be revitalized quickly,” Velázquez said in a statement. “For a business struggling after a hurricane, getting an immediate infusion of emergency capital can make the difference between staying in business or going under.”

Disaster recovery funding became an issue this year when Congress approved a deal to avoid the “fiscal cliff” without approving an aid package for states hit hard by Sandy. Facing backlash from governors in the Northeast, lawmakers passed the $50 billion package a few weeks later.

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The U.S. Federal Drug Administration in late April approved a study to examine whether the drug ecstasy could help autistic adults suffering from social anxiety. But the first-of-its-kind study still has some hurdles to jump over before it can begin.

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So why aren’t there storm shelters in every school? Certainly Oklahoma, which boasts the 5th largest oil production in the United States, could afford to do it. They’ve claimed that they couldn’t afford the cost and that they’ve applied for grant money from FEMA to do it, but when the state gives over $200 million in breaks to the oil companies, there’s no excuse why they couldn’t supply every school and government building with a shelter that could survive the worst of twisters. It’s not that they can’t, it’s that lobbyist money has bought and paid for legislators who will advance the profits of the 1% over the lives of the residents of Oklahoma and their children.

Forcing these companies off corporate welfare isn’t going to cause them to pack up and leave. You can’t pick up an oil field and move it to a state with a lower tax rate. So what if it causes the price I pay at the pump to go up a few cents because the multi-billion dollar drilling businesses have to play by the same rules as the small business owners? Local communities should be able to provide something as common sense as a storm shelter, and the fact that this hasn’t been done is not only mindboggling, but absolutely tragic.

H/t to medical malpractice attorney Terry Gaffney.

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Apparently, creating a special hamburger to honor Charles Ramsey was just the beginning.

Now, the hero in the rescue of four kidnap victims held captive on Cleveland’s West Side for roughly 10 years will enjoy free burgers for life.

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A must-see documentary, written by Jeremy Scahill, war correspondent and investigative reporter.

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This is why people need to stop celebrating our rapidly falling deficits. Our deficits aren’t dropping because we’re doing something right. They’re dropping because we’re doing everything wrong. We’re cutting deficits much too quickly in the next few years — that’s what Bernanke’s testimony is about. We’re letting them rise (albeit modestly) between 2016 and 2023. We’re doing basically nothing about long-term deficits, which is where the problem actually lies. And we’re using policies, like sequestration, that most everyone agrees are bad policy — so we’re cutting spending by cutting the wrong kind of spending.

No wonder Bernanke’s irked.

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