Stories of the Fall 0
Der Spiegel interviews two economists, Angus Deaton and Anne Case, in an attempt to figure out what the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed about health care in the United States.
They are not optimistic.
Here’s a bit:
DER SPIEGEL: Is it possible to identify the point when things started to go wrong in the U.S.?
Deaton: One great question to ask is: Why doesn’t America have a strong federal welfare state with health care like other European countries do? One answer is the issue of race. In the middle of the 20th century, it was the southern senators of the Democratic party who blocked any consideration of publicly funded health care. People don’t like to pay for services that go to people that don’t look like them, especially when they are black.
It’s a tough read, but a worthwhile one.
“Reconstruction Required” 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Lawrence Samuel argues persuasively that American school textbooks present an unbalanced view of American history and of black persons’ role in and contributions to it.
I’m not going to try to excerpt or summarize his piece; it has too many moving parts. Just go read it for yourself.
Addendum:
That was certainly the case with my elementary and high school text books at my all-white schools under Jim Crow. Realizing that as I got a broader view in college was one of the factors that led me to pursue a degree in history with a focus on U. S. Southern.
The Voter Fraud Fraud 0
The voter fraudsters aren’t who Republicans want you to think they are.
The report goes on to explain that, through some strange Alice-through-the-Looking-Glass reasoning, this is apparently legal in Indiana because that was their last residence of record in the state. Or something.
Aside:
Many years ago, in my road warrior days, I was sitting in the bar of my favorite hotel in Chicago. At a table close to me, three young whippersnappers in three-piece suits from what was then called the Sears Tower, which was about two blocks away, were discussing impending layoffs at their outfit.
Finally, one of them, as he took a sip (or maybe it was a gulp) of his whiskey, said, “Well, I know one thing. I’m never going back to Indiana.”
I think I now understand why.
“Bad Apples” 0
Writing at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Elijah Todd-Walden finds that the “few bad apples” notion regarding rogue cops is of little comfort. A snippet:
Perhaps the most apt comment I’ve heard about “the few bad apples on the police force” theory of police brutality came in a recent episode of The Bob Cesca Show (I can’t remember precisely which one).
Suppose, asked one of the participants, that, after a pilot flew an airliner into the side of a mountain, the airline announced that it was just one of a few bad apples among its crews?
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Protect yourself from those bedridden hospital patients.
During the investigation, the man suspected of the shooting returned to the hospital and was interviewed by detectives.
Following the above-referenced interview, this responsible gun owner was–er–detained.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
Monumental mayhem in the Tar Heel state. Here’s a bit from the report:
Competing demonstrations over a Confederate monument in Alamance County ended after two supporters of the statue were arrested for assault and disorderly conduct, according to police and media reports.
Police said one of the men, 39-year-old Christopher Overman, hit Elon University professor Megan Squire, who was protesting a statue in Graham, about 55 miles northwest of Raleigh. Squire researches online right-wing extremism at the university, according to the school.
And, in more news of still rising again . . . .
It’s Always All about Him 0
Warning: Farron gets a little heated in this commentary.
Tales of the Trumpling: Snapshots of Trickle-Down Trumpery (Updated) 0
Addendum:
Apparently, the noose had been there for some time without having been remarked on.
That doesn’t make it any less disgusting. A hangman’s noose is a complex knot; it doesn’t get tied by accident.
The Art of the Con 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, David Kyle Johnson explores “the Galileo gambit,” which enables charlatans to con themselves and others into thinking they are onto something. A snippet:
“In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.”
(snip)
The Galileo Gambit engages in many mistakes, but the main one is this: it’s a faulty analogy. The fact that two persons have one thing in common does not mean that they have everything in common—or even, another thing in common. Yes, the authorities thought Galileo was wrong, and they also think that you are wrong—but the fact that he turned out to be right doesn’t mean that you are.