Monday Link Encyclopedia

Dreidel

March 21, 2017

“The poliyics of rich people.”

So all rich people are actually LIBERALS, even when they vote Reupblican??? Sure they are! 🙂 🙂 🙂

LikeLike

Reply
adrianaurelien

March 21, 2017

http://www.dailyprogress.com/starexponent/news/in-sw-va-drug-to-help-addicts-attacked-as-part/article_d317f8f0-5dc2-11e6-868a-a7b72f83a47b.html

LikeLike

Reply
1. Clarissa
  
  March 21, 2017
  
  Thank you for the link. It’s great to have somebody here who shares concern about this tragic issue.
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply
  1. adrianaurelien
    
    March 21, 2017
    
    This is the county my dad is from. And I of course live in the heroin overdose capital of America, Ohio (in absolute numbers; West Virginia is number one in OD rates per 100,000.) Everyone in Ohio knows at least one heroin addict, and I’d guess most people know more than that (I certainly do.)
    
    I’m tired of bringing up heroin to friends in other states and they just wanna talk about “this compassion wasn’t there for black crack addicts in the ’80s!” Yes, that was wrong and is racist, but can we productively address the problem we have now? I’m tired of seeing headlines about coroners running out of places to store dead bodies.
    
    Random thought: if the Democratic party would’ emphasize that the ACA is the only reason many addicts have access to treatment, maybe they could appeal to some people who voted Trump this time around. Then again, it probably would’ve been more helpful to hammer that point home years ago.
    
    LikeLike
    
    Reply
    1. Shakti
      
      March 22, 2017
      
      Random thought: if the Democratic party would’ emphasize that the ACA is the only reason many addicts have access to treatment, maybe they could appeal to some people who voted Trump this time around. Then again, it probably would’ve been more helpful to hammer that point home years ago.
      
      Possibly. But if your ethos is”fuck those people” and you voted for a guy and a part with that ethos, well it’s just as possible that hearing “addicts lose access to treatment if the ACA is gutted” makes you like the guy more. I suspect that’s way more Trump voters than you want to admit. Good luck reaching out to them.
      
      What are your governor and state reps saying about this issue? Are they battling for that provision?
      
      LikeLike
      
      Reply
      1. Clarissa
        
        March 22, 2017
        
        “What are your governor and state reps saying about this issue?”
        
        I know the question is not for me but I see the words “your governor” and go off. My governor wants to increase our healthcare payments threefold. For the same healthcare we are not getting. I’m literally counting days until I can switch to private insurance (40 days).
        
        LikeLike
        
        Reply
      2. adrianaurelien
        
        March 22, 2017
        
        Our governor went against his party and fought to expand Medicaid under the ACA, and this greatly increased his popularity. Our Republican senator is popular largely because of his efforts to combat the heroin epidemic, and he’s undecided on the Republicare bill because he says he doesn’t want anyone to lose their Medicaid. Both of these politicians are more popular than Trump (Kasich won our primary, Portman heavily outperformed Trump on election day.) Every politician here at least pays lip service to heroin.
        
        I can’t speak for other states, but in Ohio heroin addicts aren’t “those people” for almost anyone. It’s you, or it’s someone close to you. Even if you only care about yourself, you care about this issue.
        
        LikeLike
        
        Reply
    2. Clarissa
      
      March 22, 2017
      
      “I’m tired of bringing up heroin to friends in other states and they just wanna talk about “this compassion wasn’t there for black crack addicts in the ’80s!” Yes, that was wrong and is racist, but can we productively address the problem we have now? I’m tired of seeing headlines about coroners running out of places to store dead bodies.”
      
      Same here! I have students who tell me about their small towns being devastated by heroin, listing the high school friends who have addict parents or are addicted themselves. This is one of the biggest problems this country faces right now, and I truly wish it were more discussed and more things were done to address it.
      
      “Random thought: if the Democratic party would’ emphasize that the ACA is the only reason many addicts have access to treatment, maybe they could appeal to some people who voted Trump this time around.”
      
      True! But it’s not an issue that Democrats like to bring up for some mysterious reason.
      
      LikeLike
      
      Reply
      1. cliff arroyo
        
        March 22, 2017
        
        ” Democrats like to bring up for some mysterious reason.”
        
        Consumerism? Democrats and Libertarians both tend to come at the issue of illegal drugs from a consumerist perspective. Admitting there’s a problem suggests that consumerism isn’t the ultimate state of being and that is just too painful.
        
        LikeLike
        
        Reply
        
        Clarissa
        
        March 22, 2017
        
        True. I only recently noticed how deeply the rhetoric of consumerism has infected the discussions of this issue. And I’m horrified.
        
        LikeLike
        
        Reply
Reed

March 22, 2017

I’m sorry, but David Brooks piece in the NY Times is a bunch of recycled, old-school, hogwash. His theme is the old chestnut:

“For most of the past 400 years, Americans did have an overarching story. It was the Exodus story. The Puritans came to this continent and felt they were escaping the bondage of their Egypt and building a new Jerusalem.”

And yes, that’s the grade-school version of American history that most of us over a certain age were taught as children. But it’s only part of the story. The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth in 1620 and established their own fundamentalist Protestant theocratic colony, no Baptists, no Catholics, etc., allowed.

But the first permanent English-speaking settlement in the future USA was Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. It was a capitalist business venture. Men, women, livestock and supplies were sent by the Virginia Company of London to establish a permanent English foothold in the New World, find gold and make money for the stockholders. It was, as historian Bill Kelso has remarked, “where the British Empire began.”

The reason Brook’s fairytale no longer dominates the historical discourse is that it elevates a true, but partial, sliver of American history to the dominant narrative that suites modern conservative politics. Let’s not resurrect this old nonsense as “The Unifying American Story.”

LikeLike

Reply
el

March 22, 2017

\ Why is it so shocking that conservatives vote against their financial interests when that’s exactly what every liberal does as a matter of course?

I do not understand why liberals vote against their interests in your opinion.

You said rich people with trust funds tend to vote for Trump, including rich professors you know.

\ David Brooks wrote something interesting. Yes, really.

Thank you, I loved this. Examples of stupidity may be a little entertaining, but I mostly love such good posts in your Link Encyclopedias.

As I was reading about the self-perception of the Puritans – “a chosen people with a sacred mission” debating “what that covenant meant” – I kept thinking it fits us Israeli Jews to a T. 🙂

I have additional interpretation for what he describes as:

“American history is taught less as a progressively realized grand narrative and more as a series of power conflicts between oppressor and oppressed.”

I do not think the academic left (or right) is the main cause. Rather, the grand narrative used to fit the age of nationalism, helping to create national unity despite horrible discrimination against some groups. By contrast, today’s world with its mobile elites and powerless (increasingly former) workers has no need for national unity and is all about power conflicts. Therefore, the teaching of the past is influenced by the present Zeitgeist.

LikeLike

Reply
1. Clarissa
  
  March 22, 2017
  
  Both Bernie and Hillary would have raised my taxes. I know that and I’m fine with it. In fact, I welcome it. When Illinois’s Democratic governor Pat Quinn raised our state tax, I was all for that, although it means I lose money. But there are more important things for me, so what? Why is this so shocking?
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply
2. Clarissa
  
  March 22, 2017
  
  I love posting good articles but I don’t see them often, that’s the problem.
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply
el

March 22, 2017

Just read about a new terrorist attack in London:

3 dead, 20 injured in UK parliament ‘terrorist incident’

LikeLike

Reply
1. Clarissa
  
  March 22, 2017
  
  Jesus, what????
  
  I missed everything.
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply
Shakti

March 24, 2017

Trump Troubadour,’ who attended 45 Trump rallies to honor his late son, feels ‘betrayed’ because of health care

Beginning in January 2016, Kraig Moss traveled to 45 rallies, belting out songs in support of Donald Trump and telling the story of his late son, Rob, who died three years ago from a heroin overdose. In this way, the musician earned the title of “the Trump Troubadour,” a true believer said to symbolize “the voice of unheard America.”

He stopped making his mortgage payments and sold the equipment for his construction business to stay on the campaign trail, galvanized by Trump’s promise to help young people — like Moss’s late son — who struggle with drug addiction. Trump, Moss thought, was the candidate most capable of bringing an end to the heroin epidemic sweeping the nation.

Trump made this promise to Moss personally at a rally in Iowa in January 2016. Speaking through a microphone to the crowd, he addressed Moss directly: “The biggest thing we can do in honor of your son … we have to be able to stop it.”

“I know what you went through. And he’s a great father,” he said of Moss to the crowd. “I can see it. And your son is proud of you.”

…The proposed health care bill, slated for floor vote in the House Thursday night, would eliminate a requirement that Medicaid cover basic mental-health and addiction services in states that expanded it, a mandate that covered nearly 1.3 million people.

“This bill is just the absolute opposite,” Moss told The Washington Post. “I felt betrayed. I felt let down.”….

Moss said he initially supported many of Trump’s other promises as well, such as his pledge to build a border wall with Mexico. But lately he has been upset hearing the stories of families being separated by deportations.

“If I contributed to anything like that I’d be ashamed of myself,” he said.

LikeLike

Reply
el

March 24, 2017

Uri about the latest Israeli kerfuffle:

http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1490371350/

LikeLike

Reply
el

March 27, 2017

Two girls barred from United flight for wearing leggings
…
The airline’s passenger contract says for the safety of all passengers and crew members, the airline can refuse to let a passenger board if the passenger is “barefoot or not properly clothed.”

The airlines, however, does not define “properly clothed.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr-gridlock/wp/2017/03/26/two-girls-barred-from-united-flight-for-wearing-leggings/?utm_term=.a86ea9e6ae06

LikeLike

Reply
1. Clarissa
  
  March 27, 2017
  
  I agree with the airline that people with vivid psychological problems shouldn’t go on a plane.
  
  Yesterday, there was a clearly disturbed woman on my flight. It’s good that was a short flight because it was no joy to have her there. I don’t understand the airline’s decision to take her on board.
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply