Reading

Created
Wed, 16/10/2024 - 07:30
Here’s a story in the NY Times about a phenomenon that should have been investigated long before now. We know there are a bunch of true believers out there who dress up in stars and stripes regalia and deck out their trucks and boats for Trump. But that’s just the hardcore of the Trump base. What about the rest of them? The Times interviewed some of them at Trump’s Detroit economic club interview. They know he’s a liar so they think he’s lying about all the terrible stuff he plans to do in his second term. So they’re fine with him: There were a few hundred people there. They were not the sorts of people one encounters at a Trump rally. They weren’t construction workers or truck drivers or forklift operators; they carried business cards and had very active LinkedIn pages. They did not wear red hats or T-shirts with images of Mr. Trump’s bloodied face; they wore windowpane suit jackets and loafers and rather conspicuous cuff links. They did not want to hear about “one really violent day” or about the deep state or the Marxists or the fascists or any of the other radical or antidemocratic visions that Mr.
Created
Wed, 16/10/2024 - 04:30
For weeks the press was obsessed with Biden’s “age problem,” examining everything from the shoes he wears to his sleeping habits. They demanded that his doctors appear before the media and take questions even after they testified to his good health. They pored over white house logs to determine if a specialist was secretly visiting him. Ok, fair enough. His performance at the debate in June validated the idea that he was no longer the man he once was and that another four years was probably too much. Then the younger Kamala Harris replaced him and they have dogged her mercilessly for failing to give enough interviews feeding the Trump campaign’s theme that she’s avoiding the press because she’s incapable of doing them. Now she’s talking to anyone who will listen, even Fox news tomorrow and possibly Joe Rogan’s podcast. They still don’t seem satisfied.
Created
Wed, 16/10/2024 - 04:26
Sverige står inför en stor underhålls- och investeringsskuld som inte går att möta med nuvarande budgetregler. Arena Idé har i två tidigare delrapporter redovisat de offentliga investeringsbehoven, samt utvärderat de samhällsekonomiska effekterna av dagens finanspolitiska ramverk, med anledning av den parlamentariska översyn som just nu pågår. Nu presenteras den tredje och sista delrapporten där ett […]
Created
Wed, 16/10/2024 - 04:00

Are my hot flashes due to an estrogen imbalance or a rapidly warming planet hastened by unaccountable oil barons who own our elections?

Am I irritable because my progesterone is low, or because social media has turned my prefrontal cortex into a 24-7 whack-a-mole game to sell me Norwegian wrinkle cream?

Do I have hormonal brain fog, or am I just lost in a for-profit insurance company’s updated phone tree?

Is my dwindling libido estrogen-related, or did I get a mid-coitus push notification that democracy might be dead because of Logan Paul’s YouTube?

Is urinary incontinence a symptom of perimenopause, or are my bladder muscles atrophied from too many years wearing diapers on the floor of an Amazon warehouse?

Is my hair thinning, or am I ripping it out because a thirty-four-time convicted, sexually abusive steak salesman with a Hannibal Lecter fetish is five points ahead in Arizona?

Are my migraines hormonal, or am I thinking too hard about how Peter Thiel has more money than all nurses on Earth combined?

Created
Wed, 16/10/2024 - 03:00
Here’s a hunched over, tired Trump looking like he slept in his make-up and just decided to trowel on more doing a “beautiful” job on Bartiromo: That’s the one that got him in trouble saying that he was going to all out the military on “radical leftists.” Then yesterday he held a “town hall” Pennsylvania in an overheated venue, with puppy killer Kristi Noem asking the questions. He took a few and then some people fainted from the heat and they never went back to the questions. The Washington Post wrote this up: The town hall, moderated by South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem (R), began with questions from preselected attendees for the former president. Donald Trump offered meandering answers for how he’d address housing affordability and help small businesses. But it took a sudden turn after two attendees required medical attention. And so Trump, after jokingly asking the crowd if “anybody else would like to faint,” took a different approach. “Let’s not do any more questions. Let’s just listen to music. Let’s make it into a music.
Created
Wed, 16/10/2024 - 01:35
Det går ett monster fram över det svenska utbildningssystemet — utvärderings- och evidensbaseringsmonstret. Med ökad betoning av resultatstyrning följer en strid ström av krav på att redovisa kvalitet och resultat. För att mätta uppdragsgivarnas hunger efter utvärderingsinformation tvingas skolan avsätta mer och mer resurser och tid för denna verksamhet. I stället för att lita på […]
Created
Wed, 16/10/2024 - 01:30
Dear Misleader is running out of time JIMMY KIMMEL: “Just a former presidency suggesting he’ll use the military against his fellow citizens for exercising their freedom of speech. Nothing to worry about, folks. Seriously, when is he going to grow that little mustache already? Because there’s only three weeks left, you gotta get started.
Created
Wed, 16/10/2024 - 00:32

While the world looks on with trepidation at regional wars in Israel and Ukraine, a far more dangerous global crisis is quietly building at the other end of Eurasia, along an island chain that has served as the front line for America’s national defense for endless decades. Just as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has revitalized the NATO alliance, so China’s increasingly aggressive behavior and a sustained U.S. military build-up in the region have strengthened Washington’s position on the Pacific littoral, bringing several wavering allies back into the Western fold. Yet such seeming strength contains both a heightened risk of great power conflict and possible political pressures that could fracture America’s Asia-Pacific alliance relatively soon. Recent events illustrate the rising tensions... Read more

Created
Wed, 16/10/2024 - 00:00
Just what is Kamala’s position on seabed mining? Rachel Maddow last night put the lie to oligarch nonsense about their support for Trump being a business decision. Um, no. Think Elon Musk’s decision to buy Twitter was a sound business decsision? “In the history of modern economics America’s three-decade outperformance is remarkable,” declares The Economist. Why would “business” types hand it over to a felon whose entire economic plan is 19th-century tariffs? Remember those “Nine out of ten doctors prefer” ads for personal care products back when color TV was young? Well, The Wall Street Journal finds that “65% of economists see Trump’s proposed policies putting more upward pressure on the federal deficit” and “68% said prices would rise faster under Trump than under Harris.” No. Oligarchs want to be oligarchs. Their support of Trump is not based on economics, per se. The ruling class wants to rule. As a fringe benefit, writes Brian Klass about billionaires in politics, “Politics is the most straightforward way to get rich in autocracies.
Created
Tue, 15/10/2024 - 22:20

“Musk’s Super PAC Offers $47 to Those Who Help It Find Trump Voters”
New York Times, 10/7/24

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Please help. My brain is like the Cybertruck nav system. I know something’s wrong there, but no one can figure it out.

I’ve read all the psychology books, but none of them address desperately needing the validation of someone named “Catturd.”

Any therapists out there? What’s the name of the syndrome that causes you to turn into the MyPillow guy?

When I watch the movie Tremors, why do I identify with the worms?

Why is there a void in my soul bigger than the debris field of one of my rockets?

Why can’t I ever just shut up? Better to stay quiet and be thought a fool than to retweet #EndWokeness and remove all doubt.

Created
Tue, 15/10/2024 - 21:25
I really liked and admired Agnes Callard’s essay, “Beyond Neutrality: The university’s responsibility to lead” in The Point (September 29, 2024) [HT Dailynous]. My post is, despite some quibbles, primarily about amplifying a point Callard (Chicago) makes. I do so not just because there is considerable overlap between our positions (recall here and here), but also because she advances the discussion on the […]