Rent

I was going to produce a video tutorial on how to build tables like the one here, for Blogger using Microsoft Excel and Adobe Dreamweaver. For the sample data I chose rent statistics from census.gov and for kicks I made some charts, but they screamed at me. Between 1970 and 1980 rents across the United States more than doubled. There is no data from the 2010 census which raises even more questions.

I sorted the data from highest to lowest based on the 2000 rents, so the rent change becomes more extreme as you scroll down:

The first thought that popped into my head was the war on drugs because of a Redacted Tonight segment on the same topic was fresh in my mind. That war was started by Nixon around the same time. Gentrification may have been the intent, I can't help wonder why rents never went down during recessions.

Median Gross Rents: Unadjusted	1940	1950	1960	1970	1980	1990	2000
United States	$27	$42	$71	$108	$243	$447	$602
Hawaii	NA	NA	$72	$132	$311	$650	$779
New Jersey	$36	$49	$80	$126	$270	$592	$751
California	$27	$42	$79	$126	$283	$620	$747
Alaska	NA	NA	$126	$189	$368	$559	$720
Nevada	$26	$47	$91	$141	$310	$509	$699
Maryland	$27	$46	$78	$127	$266	$548	$689
Massachusetts	$34	$47	$75	$117	$255	$580	$684
Connecticut	$34	$45	$77	$127	$260	$598	$681
New York	$39	$48	$74	$111	$249	$486	$672
Colorado	$22	$39	$72	$110	$252	$418	$671
Washington	$22	$43	$71	$113	$254	$445	$663
Virginia	$19	$39	$71	$115	$259	$495	$650
New Hampshire	$26	$41	$65	$99	$251	$549	$646
Florida	$16	$39	$71	$112	$255	$481	$641
Delaware	$30	$46	$77	$111	$247	$495	$639
Oregon	$21	$44	$70	$107	$257	$408	$620
Arizona	$18	$37	$69	$109	$264	$438	$619
District of Columbia	$45	$57	$81	$119	$224	$479	$618
Georgia	$13	$27	$51	$86	$211	$433	$613
Illinois	$33	$47	$85	$124	$246	$445	$605
Utah	$23	$40	$66	$97	$235	$369	$597
Texas	$17	$37	$60	$95	$246	$395	$574
Minnesota	$28	$43	$72	$117	$236	$422	$566
Rhode Island	$28	$40	$62	$93	$222	$489	$553
Vermont	$24	$41	$62	$98	$224	$446	$553
North Carolina	$14	$30	$55	$86	$205	$382	$548
Michigan	$33	$47	$77	$115	$250	$423	$546
Wisconsin	$31	$49	$79	$113	$234	$399	$540
Pennsylvania	$27	$40	$64	$93	$224	$404	$531
Indiana	$24	$42	$70	$105	$218	$374	$521
Idaho	$21	$44	$65	$92	$218	$330	$515
Ohio	$28	$42	$75	$105	$225	$379	$515
South Carolina	$12	$26	$49	$77	$206	$376	$510
Tennessee	$15	$31	$52	$82	$203	$357	$505
New Mexico	$17	$41	$71	$88	$215	$372	$503
Kansas	$19	$38	$66	$94	$218	$372	$498
Maine	$25	$41	$64	$90	$216	$419	$497
Nebraska	$22	$43	$67	$95	$213	$348	$491
Missouri	$22	$36	$65	$96	$211	$368	$484
Iowa	$23	$43	$68	$99	$226	$336	$470
Louisiana	$15	$27	$53	$81	$214	$352	$466
Oklahoma	$16	$34	$57	$82	$215	$340	$456
Arkansas	$12	$28	$47	$71	$185	$328	$453
Alabama	$12	$25	$45	$69	$188	$325	$447
Montana	$23	$41	$66	$89	$200	$311	$447
Kentucky	$16	$31	$55	$83	$198	$319	$445
Mississippi	$11	$25	$43	$65	$180	$309	$439
Wyoming	$22	$41	$67	$87	$252	$333	$437
South Dakota	$21	$42	$67	$88	$188	$306	$426
North Dakota	$21	$43	$71	$97	$206	$313	$412
West Virginia	$17	$28	$53	$72	$195	$303	$401

Looking for an explanation revealed very little, but the data seems to suggest a major policy change on a national level.

Here are some of the links I found:

• In Seattle, the rent is too damn high.
• Inequality.org
• What happened in the 1970's?
• What happened in the 1980's?
• Monthly Median Asking Rent for Unfurnished Apartments in the United States 1980-2014.
• Americans Already Spent A Shocking Amount On Rent, But It Just Got Worse.

News Not Trump

Adicting Info

DOJ Tells Cops To Go Ahead And Start Stealing Money And TVs From The Public Again

Civil Asset Forfeiture

Americablog

How much will Sanders raise your taxes? A lot.

Pro-Clinton, Anti-Sanders propaganda from Vox and the Tax Policy Center. What else won't change much under the Hillary Clinton Administration? Basically everything.

Anonymous

Anonymous Investigate Arizona Election Fraud, “Sanders Was Hacked”

Shenanigans!

Anti-Media

Google To Begin Alerting Users if Gmail Account is Targeted by Government

You may get a warning that someone in another country attempted to sign-in to your account.

The Intercept

Top Privacy Watchdog Suddenly Resigns

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board

Alternet

10 Ways the Media and Political Establishment Have Tried to Orchestrate the Democratic Primary

No. 11 would be the attempt to paint Bernie as unable to reach black voters.

The Center for Public Integrity

Yet another whistleblower alleges Medicare Advantage fraud

Florida Doctor Claims Humana Knew!

Common Dreams

Drilling-Induced 'Frackquakes' Threatening Millions Across Central US

USGS to include Man-Made Earthquakes.

Counter-Current News

New Study Proves Marijuana Helps Depression, PTSD, Immune System and Weight

In my opinion, stress may be engineered to facilitate "Impulse-Consumerism."

Stars and Stripes

Hundreds of military dependents ordered to leave Turkey

Acting on lessons learned from the Tet Offensive?

Dissident Voice

Real America, an Endangering and Endangered Ruination

This pretty much sums everything up.

I thought you should take a news break from Trump's campaign manager being arrested, so I dug up some alternative headlines.

PSYWAR: You Are Living in Learned Helplessness

Wikipedia

Learned Helplessness

A basic description of the term

Yale University

Social Pressure and Voter Turnout: Evidence from a Large-Scale Field Experiment

Mailers sent to voters that threatened to publish to their neighbors whether or not they voted, increased voter turnout.

Harvard University

Free Will and Punishment: A Mechanistic View of Human Nature Reduces Retribution (PDF)

Quote from abstract: "If free-will beliefs support attributions of moral responsibility, then reducing these beliefs should make people less retributive in their attitudes about punishment."
( Studies show that scientific education about free-will mitigates vindictiveness. ) This may also apply to aggravating Learned Helplessness in the public through propaganda.

Wikipedia

Social Engineering AND Manufacturing Consent

Psychological manipulation on a large scale, of attitudes and social behaviors. AND an overview of the book by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky

Wikipedia

Group Dynamics AND Groupthink

The psychological study of small groups and how they often make bad decisions.

Demos

Why Voting Matters: Large Disparaties in Turnout Benefit the Donor Class

You should never let anyone convince you that voting is a waste of time.

Repeat these words as often as you can, no matter what the circumstances:

"Learned Helplessness."

I was feeling beaten-down by blogs and news websites that continue to post crazy gaffs and quotes from politicians, like watching a runaway train carrying crude oil inevitably heading for disaster, disaster for America.

We are being conditioned by demagoguery like "Congressional Obstruction," "Gridlock." "Fascist," "Socialist" and many more. Now I'm beginning to understand why college students are creating "Safe Spaces." They are completely fed-up with such "Trigger Rhetoric."

I think they understand the psychological warfare tactic of conditioning Learned Helplessness through relentless disparaging news reports about politics.

I like Bernie Sanders because he has very clear and unwavering concerns and ideas for us. It would be very easy for me to completely turn off the news and un-follow both the main-stream and alternative media (with one or two exceptions).