This is similar to our current government and our NHS. They dare not make massive changes. There is not only the practical value of the system but also the emotional value. Knowing you will not be faced with a big bill if you fall ill or are in an accident. We are also sentimental about it. It is our NHS touch it at your peril. Boris and co are looking at making changes under the bonnet (hub for those in the US). They are treading on unsafe ground.
Remember Donald was taken aback with how we value it
As far as I can tell, Democrats who engage in racism, as with sexism and homophobia, are railed upon by their own side. Think of the blackface scandals last year. Racism is unacceptable in the Democratic Party.
Yes, I think it's safe to say that, at this point in history(but possibly not as recently as twenty years ago), almost anyone harbouring dixiecrat views on race(including the kind of statements often prefaced with "I'm not racist, but...") has gone over to the Republicans. With a similar polarization on other social issues(maybe abortion being an exception, but still, no Democratic presidential contender is gonna be anti-choice anymore).
I agree the main intra-party cleavage among Democrats is over economics. Even centrists who complain about "Bernie Bros" don't really think that Sanders is advocating anti-feminist policies, just that his followers are beholden to a certain macho style.
Trump's emergence is in part about the effects of the 2008 financial crisis and the austerity response, but I'm not sure how much austerity actually happened in a United States where the social safety net has always been fragile, if there at all. As I understand things, Obama pumped money into the economy, first to save huge businesses going under and then to stimulate growth. It worked, in that it avoided a worse financial crisis and began a substantial recovery that has lasted right up to now. BUT, it laid Democrats open to the charge that they were feathering the nests of the very people who were to blame for the crisis and not helping ordinary people enough. Trump exploited that sentiment in 2016, and it got him over the line.
Sort of correct, but incomplete. The Obama administration enacted the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which provided economic stimulus to the flagging economy. It's major problems were that it was a) too small and b) channeled some of its relief in the form of tax cuts, which are less effective stimulus than direct government spending on things like infrastructure. Both a) and b) were attempts to court Republican support, which naturally failed abysmally. The act got zero Republican votes in the House and three in the Senate. When Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives in 2011 funding for the ARRA was severely curtailed. Because of the ARRA the U.S. economy recovered much more quickly than most European economies. Because it was underfunded and cut short the U.S. economy didn't recover as well as it potentially could have.
As far as I can tell, Democrats who engage in racism, as with sexism and homophobia, are railed upon by their own side... Racism is unacceptable in the Democratic Party.
Right up until you suggest integrating their schools. Then all of a sudden it's "parental choice" this and "neighborhood schools" that. Some of the most segregated school systems in the country are Boston, New York City, Chicago and San Francisco, which are all heavily Democratic.
I believe that white liberals want to not be racist, but in general our behavior doesn't match our beliefs. There's still a very strong instinct towards segregated neighborhoods and schools and an assumption that minorities and crime are related.
So that's the future as I see it under a Biden administration that can tackle healthcare.
Unlikely I'd have thought given the power of the lobbies and who pays for campaigns - you may end up with a judge that's only slightly to the right of Merrick Garland though.
Erik Prince, the security contractor with close ties to the Trump administration, has in recent years helped recruit former American and British spies for secretive intelligence-gathering operations that included infiltrating Democratic congressional campaigns, labor organizations and other groups considered hostile to the Trump agenda, according to interviews and documents.
They don't brawl in the streets and beat up the opposition, they spy, do cyber things etc. It doesn't sound good at all.
This is probably expectable. A former mercenary, who owned in infamous private army company called Blackwater is doing things for trump. Apparently his sister is a trump collaborator named Betsy DeVos.
A slight twist to this is that DeVos has been against public schools for most of her life, and Prince's company is now in court for spying on a teaching union.
Disgraced paramilitary leader aligned with regime party pays spies to infiltrate and suppress domestic political opposition on behalf of the head of state
The Really Important Fact About Erik Prince That Everyone’s Coverage Keeps Missing: His Frontier Services Group is Funded By the People’s Republic of China
Who his paymasters are and how they exert control over their assets is the really important piece of information that everyone reporting on Prince’s connection to Project Veritas and commenting on the reporting is missing.
Latest indications are Trump is not interested in pardoning Weinstein since he supported Clinton and vowed to do everything he could to stop Trump. Not going to happen.
Weinstein was convicted in a state court so Trump can't pardon him for that (unless made New York governor).
Latest indications are Trump is not interested in pardoning Weinstein since he supported Clinton and vowed to do everything he could to stop Trump. Not going to happen.
Weinstein was convicted in a state court so Trump can't pardon him for that (unless made New York governor).
That too. I should have remembered that.
I can only hope the NY State Court can take on the Trump Enterprise in the same way,
As a reporter, in general I’m not supposed to say something like this, but: The president’s statements to the press were terrifying. That press availability was a repudiation of good science and good crisis management from inside one of the world’s most respected scientific institutions. It was full of Dear Leader-ish compliments, non-sequitorial defenses of unrelated matters, attacks on an American governor, and — most importantly — misinformation about the virus and the US response. That’s particularly painful coming from inside the CDC, a longtime powerhouse in global public health now reduced to being a backdrop for grubby politics. During a public health crisis, clear and true information from leaders is the only way to avoid dangerous panic. Yet here we are.
There's lots of stuff there about mendacity and openly saying that he wants to impede testing to keep American infection numbers low, but the overall theme is that he (and, by extension, his administration*) keep treating the COVID-19 epidemic like a public relations problem rather than a disease outbreak.
I sat up late and watched his broadcast. He was bad. Clearly reading (badly and hurriedly) from a teleprompter. Not clear to me from the delivery whether his heart was in it or even that he understood it. I'd say probably not. And to my mind a good deal of policy incoherence, particularly in the announced Europe travel ban (partially excluding the UK - why?).
Prediction. The markets will continue to tank. It's not just that he's out of his depth. The White House is out of its collective depth.
It is like trying to close the barn door after the horses are already out. It may be a good sound bite (in his mind), but it will not stop what is already happening. Too bad for transatlantic carriers, though when I flew over to Europe, we went through Canada.
Based on his not wanting cruise ship passengers to disembark here because the number of infected Americans would go up...he may well figure that Americans who go to Asia will wind up on another country's balance sheet.
I heard some of his Wed. corona virus speech on the radio. He sounded in very bad shape, almost like someone was threatening him or holding a gun on him.
The words seemed to take the situation more seriously--which doesn't mean that T takes it more seriously, or even has a clue about it.
He has a germ phobia, so (on some level) he's probably terrified.
That announcement is the scariest one I've heard so far in all this. I've always said the real test for Trump would be when a real crisis came along.
It's worse. He's got rid of all the adults and brave no-sayers amongst his senior advisers and in the process has dangerously reduced competence levels in the White House. He's clearly not up to handling a major crisis and doesn't have the team he needs.
A CNN commentator suggested that his poor presentation of the contents of the talk was not because he was nervous but because he was totally pissed off with the situation. Never mind others, the virus effects, particularly the tanking of the market, put him on the back foot for the election.
The appeal for national unity rang very hollow, coming from the lips of a man whose words and actions have been so divisive. The crisis has found him out and will continue to do so. There are no comfortable alternative facts here. No escape from the hard reality. No scope for bombastic rallies and tweets. It's comeuppance time.
I suppose that China is not completely out of the woods. I'm not sure how persistent this new virus is, what its capacity to evolve and reinfect is.
Of course Trump has done real damage to the US position as world leader but that may be a temporary effect. But one thing is true for sure. The global economy desperately needs China to get back on its feet. That in itself is a sign of how important it has become.
I'll be watching the NYSE. But if Far East and European markets are anything to go by, Trump's speech may even have accelerated the market tanking. The FTSE dropped over 6% in the first half hour of trading. European markets (an hour ahead) are down 7%.
Trump doesn't have an earthly clue (as Ruth observed elsewhere). A bemused French commentator on BBC Radio 4 today programme observed something similar.
If anything, I get the impression from the financiers with whom I work that Trump has accelerated the tanking of the markets. They are very affrighted by his isolationism.
On a separate topic, Trump's fiscal policies have led to a 15% increase in the budget deficit over the first five months of the current fiscal year. It is behind a pay wall (sorry!), but the Wall Street Journal article is here. The important thing to note is that this increase in the budget deficit is occurring BEFORE any COVID-19 remediation measures are factored in. It likely will just balloon from here.
It is the predictable result of Trump's "spend but don't tax" policy and, IMHO, fiscally irresponsible. But it will be ignored because of the COVID-19 crisis, and if it gets mentioned later, Trump's defenders will undoubtedly blame the virus for the deficit--even though right now we see that the virus has nothing to do with his fiscal irresponsibility.
I'll be watching the NYSE. But if Far East and European markets are anything to go by, Trump's speech may even have accelerated the market tanking. The FTSE dropped over 6% in the first half hour of trading. European markets (an hour ahead) are down 7%.
Is it just me, or do stocks fall every time Trump holds a news conference on the coronavirus? It's as if investors need constant reminding of his cluelessness.
Seems like more an indictment of the investor class than Trump.
When the US is at the height of the virus epidemic will tRump’s cries of “it’s not my fault” wash with his base?
I'm not as optimistic as @Barnabas62. Here's a book review that explains the dynamic at work.
Donald Trump is absolutely incapable of managing any crisis. We all know this. But a lot of people are wondering whether this will finally be the disaster that undermines his support among the base. Reading Jonathan Metzl’s Dying of Whiteness is a good way to cure yourself of this delusion. Metzl, a doctor at Vanderbilt, has received a lot of publicity for his book and for good reason. It’s a straightforward exploration into the heart of Trump’s America, where people know that guns kill, where they know that they have terrible medical care, and where it simply doesn’t matter to them because at least the Mexicans and welfare queens aren’t getting any benefits either.
It’s really this straightforward. Metzl goes to hospitals where people simply tell him they would rather die than have Obamacare go to the undeserving. For these people, very much working class whites, race simply means far, far more to them than class. Moreover, it means more to them than their own lives. They are comfortable with their own death. They are not comfortable with Guatemalan migrants receiving health care.
<snip>
Until whites stop preferring to kill themselves rather than admit non-whites as full citizens of the nation, fascism will continue to be a serious threat to the rest of us. And to themselves too, but they will be A-OK with that.
To conclude, all the coronavirus in the world isn’t going to turn Trump’s base away from him. They are already dying of whiteness and will be happy to continue to do so.
The whole review isn't that long and well worth a read.
There is now some concern about how we are going to be able to have a national election in November. Will people stay home?
How about adopting universal vote by mail? Five states (Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, and very conveniently Washington) already hold elections this way and a sixth (California) is already transitioning to this system. A lot more have "no excuse" absentee voting as an option. This seems like a very simple (though not necessarily easy) solution to this problem.
Of course one of the roadblocks is that the Republican party seems to have a quickly diminishing commitment to democracy and having most voters stay home usually works out well for them.
Wow, that book review is scary stuff. It does sound like the psychology of fascism, my own life is less important than the Fuhrer/white rule/black subjugation. It reminds me of the Falange slogan, "down with intelligence, long live death". It also makes Freud's death instinct more credible.
France has local council elections this Sunday, with a second round next Sunday if the first round isn't decisive, and appears determined to maintain them.
France has local council elections this Sunday, with a second round next Sunday if the first round isn't decisive, and appears determined to maintain them.
Three days isn't enough time to implement an alternate polling plan, but it's something that should definitely be addressed for future elections.
Informative as always. I hope the author is wrong. I'd always seen racism as destructive but never as consciously self-destructive. That's counter-intuitive. Doesn't mean it's wrong.
The markets have tanked massively in Europe (10 to 11%) and the Dow Jones looks like its going the same way.
It sounds remarkably like the Ulster Unionist mindset.
Not sure I agree there. Admittedly I'm looking at this from elsewhere. Nevertheless, I think a lot of the problem which the rest of the world has over Northern Ireland comes from assuming everyone there on both sides is irrational and barmy. Much about the Ulster mindset makes a lot more sense if one doesn't start by writing off or ignoring the assumptions and priorities on which its based.
They're already calling today "Black Thursday" on Wall Street. There's even a Wiki page for it already. There's a certain inherent optimism in that name since it assumes tomorrow won't be worse.
At any rate, given that Trump seems to take the stock market as the only real indicator of his success as president* (aside from the size of his rallies) he'll probably go through the roof about this.
Comments
Remember Donald was taken aback with how we value it
Then again, you find the nuts under the hubs.
As far as I can tell, Democrats who engage in racism, as with sexism and homophobia, are railed upon by their own side. Think of the blackface scandals last year. Racism is unacceptable in the Democratic Party.
Yes, I think it's safe to say that, at this point in history(but possibly not as recently as twenty years ago), almost anyone harbouring dixiecrat views on race(including the kind of statements often prefaced with "I'm not racist, but...") has gone over to the Republicans. With a similar polarization on other social issues(maybe abortion being an exception, but still, no Democratic presidential contender is gonna be anti-choice anymore).
I agree the main intra-party cleavage among Democrats is over economics. Even centrists who complain about "Bernie Bros" don't really think that Sanders is advocating anti-feminist policies, just that his followers are beholden to a certain macho style.
Sort of correct, but incomplete. The Obama administration enacted the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which provided economic stimulus to the flagging economy. It's major problems were that it was a) too small and b) channeled some of its relief in the form of tax cuts, which are less effective stimulus than direct government spending on things like infrastructure. Both a) and b) were attempts to court Republican support, which naturally failed abysmally. The act got zero Republican votes in the House and three in the Senate. When Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives in 2011 funding for the ARRA was severely curtailed. Because of the ARRA the U.S. economy recovered much more quickly than most European economies. Because it was underfunded and cut short the U.S. economy didn't recover as well as it potentially could have.
Right up until you suggest integrating their schools. Then all of a sudden it's "parental choice" this and "neighborhood schools" that. Some of the most segregated school systems in the country are Boston, New York City, Chicago and San Francisco, which are all heavily Democratic.
I believe that white liberals want to not be racist, but in general our behavior doesn't match our beliefs. There's still a very strong instinct towards segregated neighborhoods and schools and an assumption that minorities and crime are related.
Corrected quotation attribution. BroJames Purgatory Host
This kind of thing.
Unlikely I'd have thought given the power of the lobbies and who pays for campaigns - you may end up with a judge that's only slightly to the right of Merrick Garland though.
They don't brawl in the streets and beat up the opposition, they spy, do cyber things etc. It doesn't sound good at all.
A slight twist to this is that DeVos has been against public schools for most of her life, and Prince's company is now in court for spying on a teaching union.
Or as one tweet put it:
That's how it would be described if it happened anywhere other than the U.S. And then there's the important context that's missing from most media accounts.
Weinstein was convicted in a state court so Trump can't pardon him for that (unless made New York governor).
That too. I should have remembered that.
I can only hope the NY State Court can take on the Trump Enterprise in the same way,
I'm pretty sure here are many people working on that.
There's lots of stuff there about mendacity and openly saying that he wants to impede testing to keep American infection numbers low, but the overall theme is that he (and, by extension, his administration*) keep treating the COVID-19 epidemic like a public relations problem rather than a disease outbreak.
For those who'd like to see for themselves, Aaron Rupar twitter-threads most of Trump's appearances, complete with videos so you don't have to take Rupar's word for what he says.
Prediction. The markets will continue to tank. It's not just that he's out of his depth. The White House is out of its collective depth.
Because Trump owns golf courses in the U.K. and wants Americans to be able to go there.
Based on his not wanting cruise ship passengers to disembark here because the number of infected Americans would go up...he may well figure that Americans who go to Asia will wind up on another country's balance sheet.
The words seemed to take the situation more seriously--which doesn't mean that T takes it more seriously, or even has a clue about it.
He has a germ phobia, so (on some level) he's probably terrified.
A CNN commentator suggested that his poor presentation of the contents of the talk was not because he was nervous but because he was totally pissed off with the situation. Never mind others, the virus effects, particularly the tanking of the market, put him on the back foot for the election.
The appeal for national unity rang very hollow, coming from the lips of a man whose words and actions have been so divisive. The crisis has found him out and will continue to do so. There are no comfortable alternative facts here. No escape from the hard reality. No scope for bombastic rallies and tweets. It's comeuppance time.
Of course Trump has done real damage to the US position as world leader but that may be a temporary effect. But one thing is true for sure. The global economy desperately needs China to get back on its feet. That in itself is a sign of how important it has become.
Trump doesn't have an earthly clue (as Ruth observed elsewhere). A bemused French commentator on BBC Radio 4 today programme observed something similar.
It is the predictable result of Trump's "spend but don't tax" policy and, IMHO, fiscally irresponsible. But it will be ignored because of the COVID-19 crisis, and if it gets mentioned later, Trump's defenders will undoubtedly blame the virus for the deficit--even though right now we see that the virus has nothing to do with his fiscal irresponsibility.
Paul Krugman observed something similar recently
Seems like more an indictment of the investor class than Trump.
Until they get into the voting booths. It's hard to admit publicly that you've been duped by a billionaire con man.
I'm not as optimistic as @Barnabas62. Here's a book review that explains the dynamic at work.
The whole review isn't that long and well worth a read.
How about adopting universal vote by mail? Five states (Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, and very conveniently Washington) already hold elections this way and a sixth (California) is already transitioning to this system. A lot more have "no excuse" absentee voting as an option. This seems like a very simple (though not necessarily easy) solution to this problem.
Of course one of the roadblocks is that the Republican party seems to have a quickly diminishing commitment to democracy and having most voters stay home usually works out well for them.
Three days isn't enough time to implement an alternate polling plan, but it's something that should definitely be addressed for future elections.
Informative as always. I hope the author is wrong. I'd always seen racism as destructive but never as consciously self-destructive. That's counter-intuitive. Doesn't mean it's wrong.
The markets have tanked massively in Europe (10 to 11%) and the Dow Jones looks like its going the same way.
At any rate, given that Trump seems to take the stock market as the only real indicator of his success as president* (aside from the size of his rallies) he'll probably go through the roof about this.