Racism/White Supremacy

Starting down the path to embracing our history of White Supremacy

Several years ago, I participated in a reading group at the Hudson Area Library that worked through a range of writings by James Baldwin. Since he is an author I had not read in several decades, I was intrigued at how resilient and on target his comments about race and —>> read more –>>

Politics

Our Supreme Ethics: A Painting of Clarence Thomas, Leonard Leo, Harlan Crow, et al.

The egregious ethics violations and probable law-breaking by our Supreme Court justice are explored in depth in this article from ProPublica: Clarence Thomas and the Billionaire by Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott, and Alex Mierjeski (4.6.2023) It is not terribly long but much worth a read. We normally expect that judges will —>> read more –>>

Briefly Noted

Wealth & Poverty course from Robert Reich – UC Berkeley

Reich is offering an online course, “Wealth & Poverty”, that started today. I watched the first lecture, “What Happened to Income and Wealth?” Looks like this will be worth some ongoing effort. I suggest being ready at the fast forward button for the parts of the class when Reich is —>> read more –>>

Technology

Evaluating ChatGPT & AI Systems – Apply Our Social Skills

ChatGPT and its many competitors are now flooding the market. Prognosticators, bloviators and professors are wagging their tongues at top speed full-time. This headline appeared in the NYTimes two days ago, “Elon Musk and Others Call for Pause on A.I., Citing ‘Profound Risks to Society’“. Leaving aside the ironies of —>> read more –>>

Briefly Noted

More on our status as Number One in Incarceration – Jon Stewart

Another few minutes with a comedian. This time it’s Jon Stewart. Prison Is America’s Real Cancel Culture | The Problem with Jon Stewart Here is a screen grab: Drop over to the Prison Policy Initiative for an in-depth look at the state of incarceration in America. Especially troubling are the —>> read more –>>

Capitalism

Time to admit that US health system is 3rd rate, or worse

We’ve argued here numerous times that the state of the US healthcare system is an outrage. We spend almost double per capita what every other developed country spends, except Switzerland, which comes in at 70% of our per capita spending. An NPR report this morning (3.29.2023) (‘Live free and die?’ —>> read more –>>

Capitalism

Private Equity, Housing, and the Extraction Economy

In the last couple of years articles have begun to appear with titles like: When Private Equity Becomes Your Landlord Where Have All the Houses Gone: Private Equity, Single-Family Rentals, and America’s Neighborhoods Meet the Latest Housing-Crisis Scapegoat Wall Street has purchased hundreds of thousands of single-family homes since the —>> read more –>>

Security State

Tik Tok, Surveillance, and Short Memories

The recent ruckus about the likelihood that the Chinese government might access data from American TikTok accounts is perhaps well-placed. They might also use their access to TikTok to spread propaganda and other malicious information. Certainly, the simple solution suggested by TiKTOk of storing all US user data on servers —>> read more –>>