The Economy

It continues to slide, with jobless claims up, and home sales down:

The US Labor Department reported Thursday that there were 640,000 new claims for unemployment compensation last week, up 27,000 from the previous week. The US economy has been hemorrhaging jobs at a rate of well over 600,000 per month since January.

The report noted that the number of people re-applying for unemployment benefits reached 6.13 million, setting a new record for the 12th consecutive week.

Miscellaneous.

For 47 million you can buy this monstrosity at Incline Village, Nevada.
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As many as 10,000 could be dead as a result of a cyclone centered in Burma, also called Myanmar by those who want the rest of us to look it up on a map. The current death toll is around 4,000.
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Republicans

were banking on increasing home ownership as a way to guarantee the party's own future (besides rigging elections, of course).

Unfortunately, that dream went awry.