A bit of a rewrite and the addition of more information. Poverty and ruralness have been with us forever. Food deserts were discovered around the late 1980s. The later has a connection to the former. Prior to 1980, small towns and poor neighborhoods could generally count on having a grocery store, perhaps even several. It […]
How the world looks at what happens in the United States. Fast reporting on US events and tragedies. We are faced with a tragedy at a university, Mass shooting happens so many times that even foreign news picks it up quickly. “Gunman kills two, wounds nine at US university,” Bangkok Post, 11:45 PM AZ time […]
This is not about baby boomers although it should include them. I believe too many of us are backing Trump. The younger citizens are getting it. They should find all of this despicable. “Nearly Two-Thirds of Young Americans Are Thinking About Getting the Heck Out of Here” (Vice) Kareem Takes on the News SUMMARY: America’s […]
An interesting piece by Paul Krugman. Never really looked closely at the Foundation. Too busy with other issues I have worked with over the years. Things such as supply chain, transportation, manufacturing, throughput analysis, etc. Not sure I would call the Foundation a fraud; but then, I do not have the bandwidth to make such […]
Book Review of “The Dictators Handbook by The One Handed Economist David Zetland. How can you resist a book with a title like this?! — and a subtitle of Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics?! Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith (B&S) published this book in 2011, but I only got around to it recently. The […]
In an earlier commentary (a partial take from TPM), we posted about how the arrests being made by the present administration’s masked avengers are not holding up in the courts. Prosecutors and Grand Juries are refusing to take action. How do you bring a case claiming a physical assault with no weapon, against a seventy-year-old […]
Another brief read. This time as a partial take from TPM’s, “Chicago Protestors Reel After Fending Off Federal Charges,” TPM Josh Kovensky piece. Again, referencing my experience in 1971. 4th Bn 10th Marines trained for riot control in Washington D.C. No special loaded weapons. Just stock M-14s with no rounds passed out to us. Probable […]
An interesting column by The Washington Post‘s Alex Horton and Ellen Nakashima. “Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: “Kill them all.” The longer the U.S. surveillance aircraft followed the boat, the more confident intelligence analysts watching from command centers became that the 11 people on board were ferrying drugs. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave […]
In The Theory of the Leisure Class, Thorstein Veblen coined a number of terms that have become terms of art: conspicuous consumption, conspicuous waste, pecuniary emulation, invidious comparison, and invidious distinction. He introduced the latter term as it pertained to different kinds of employment in a “higher barbarian culture”: …the distinction between exploit and drudgery […]
Scenes from the very tardy September jobs report – by New Deal democrat An opening comment: it is an abomination that the US government treated its statistical agencies as doing expendable work. Thus, after over 85 years of continuity, there will never be an unemployment rate, nor a consumer inflation reading, for October. Which means we […]