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Created
Tue, 25/06/2024 - 00:30
GOP attacks on immigrants comes to prime time Historian Jon Meacham told ABC’s “This Week” that the rules Joe Biden has won for this Thursday’s presidential debate means he has “childproofed” the debate for the child challenging him. That’s naive, of course. The child has signaled his plan to tag Biden with every violent crime committed by an undocumented immigrant. If Biden is defending that accusation, he’s losing. He has to reject the premise and “out” what Trump is really doing. Trump means to collectively punish 11 million undocumented migrants with mass roundup at the hands of the military, and to deport the lot using isolated isolated migrant crimes as a pretext. Perhaps pointing out Trump’s penchant for demonization and collective punishment of human beings he’s branded “vermin” is a more evocative counter. The subtext speaks for itself.
Created
Mon, 24/06/2024 - 23:03
Beyond the significant financial expenses required to conduct RCTs … critics have raised concerns about considerable opportunity costs associated with their privileged status in programme and policy assessment. These costs result from how an over-emphasis on experimental evaluations in evidence generation systematically undermines alternative research methods potentially better equipped to answer questions about causal mechanisms (or […]
Created
Mon, 24/06/2024 - 23:00
Whose values are those? Power is a drug. An addictive one, potentially. Like other medications, it can heal, soothe, and harm if misused. From the first time a two-year-old says, “I want to do it myself,” or starts acting out or running away from parents to taste some personal freedom, they are expressing a human need for autonomy, for control. Power is so visceral that it’s why I resist the impulse simply to brand as racism the reactionary views and actions of people who feel threatened by changing demographics and cultural norms. It’s not that racial animus is not a component. It’s that skin color is too convenient a shorthand for sizing up a crowd and knowing who’s who in the pecking order. IIRC (someone will correct me), one of Cyril Northcote Parkinson’s lesser known “laws,” allowed one to identify the most important person in a ballroom because they’d be found at a certain grid point at t+n minutes from the start of the event. And knowing that would be of interest why? Power.
Created
Mon, 24/06/2024 - 22:00

THEM: Are you the Dan Kennedy who has written all about how to make millions of dollars? You sell a program of some sort to people and say they can get rich with this program if they buy your books and stuff?

ME: Oh, god, no. I’m really glad we’re meeting. That’s a different Dan Kennedy. No, I’ve written three books, comedy books, and humor. I’m not asking anyone for money.

[I start a goddamn nervous laugh that suddenly feels like the kind of nervous laugh someone would use if they were trying to swindle you out of something or convince you that they’re not lying. It’s a terrible laugh. I have three of them, and this is the worst one that could’ve come out of me. The other two are terrible, but only because they sound stupid and deep.]

THEM: Take Their Money and Leave Them Laughing. You didn’t write this book?

ME: I did not, No. See that’s another Dan Kennedy. Some get-rich-quick guy. I would never write about taking people’s money—I’m super glad we’re meeting to clarify this.

Created
Mon, 24/06/2024 - 20:58
I veckans avsnitt av Starta Pressarna  fortsätter debatten om det finanspolitiska ramverketoch behovet av stora framtida investeringar i infrastruktur, bostäder, försvar och energiomställning. Medverkande i det här avsnittet är — förutom Daniel Suhonen — Per Molander och Max Jerneck. Som alltid på den här podden — intressant, slagkraftigt och tankeväckande!