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Links 11/11/2021

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Woolly soldier memorial unveiled as Armistice Day tribute by ‘Knitting Banksy’ Largs & Millport

Here’s why on Remembrance Day politicians should be kept away from the commemorations Guardian

The Way Out of the Fly-Bottle: Wittgenstein’s “Tractatus” at 100 Los Angeles Review of Books

The Artist Behind the Bowler Hat Literary Review

Whither the Plain Female Protagonist? On “Great Beauty” in Literature Literary Hub

Heels: A New Account of the Double Helix Los Angeles Review of Books

How 12th-century Genoese merchants invented the idea of risk Psyche

Captured on video: Bees pipe out alarms to warn of “murder hornet” attacks Ars Technica

The Journey of One Southwest Plane Explains the Misery of Travel Now Ars Technica

Thanksgiving disaster on the horizon The Hill

The Question We’ve Stopped Asking About Teen-Agers and Social Media The New Yorker

Inside the machine that saved Moore’s Law MIT Technology Review

‘So Bad, It’s Hilarious’: Hollywood’s Biggest Duds Finally Find Fans WSJ

‘Historic and Momentous Day’ as Judge OKs $626 Million Flint Water Crisis Settlement Common Dreams

#COVID-19

What would the public health experts do? STAT asked 28 about their holiday plans amid Covid-19 Stat

The Cost of COVID Hospitalization Is on the Rise Capital & Main. Calling all grifters! Profits to be made.

California Scrutinizes Doctors as Parents Seek Exemptions From School Covid-19 Vaccine Mandate WSJ

Maharashtra: No fuel or groceries for unvaccinated citizens, says Aurangabad collector Scroll

Germany coronavirus: Record rise prompts warning of 100,000 deaths
BBC

Coronavirus: Hong Kong may restrict movements of quarantine-exempt aircrew in light of Cathay pilots’ infections South China Morning Post

Julian Assange

Julian Assange was refused permission to marry in jail to ‘break him psychologically’, says fiancée Independent

What’s Next for Julian Assange? Consortium News

Sports Desk

South Asian Politics Takes the Field at the Cricket World Cup The Diplomat

NASA delays Moon landings, says Blue Origin legal tactics partly to blame Ars Technica

Our Famously Free Press

Kristof’s Moralistic Journalism Was Often Full of Holes Fair

Groves of Academe

A Planned University ‘Dedicated to Truth’ Will Welcome ‘Witches Who Refuse to Burn’ Chronicle of Higher Education

Class Warfare

US food banks struggle to feed hungry amid surging prices AP

The last drugstore: Rural America is losing its pharmacies WaPo

Rare Starbucks union vote set to begin in Buffalo AP

Starbucks Employees at Three More Upstate New York Stores File for Historic Union Elections Eater NY

Pharmacists and the Picket Line BIG. Matt Stoller.

David Graeber’s Possible Worlds New York Magazine

Public-Private Partnerships Are Quietly Hollowing Out Our Public Libraries Truthout

Manhattan Billionaires’ Row Homeless Shelter Opens After Years-Long Legal Battle The City

They Wanted to Foster Their Great-Grandson. Why Did New York Say No? NYT

A new recruitment tool for employers — paying workers every day CBS

Biden Administration

Inflation has taken away all the wage gains for workers and then some CNBC

Bidenflation splits the nation: GOP heartlands are being hit hardest by Joe’s rampant rises in the cost of living compared to Democrat coastal elites Daily Mail

Biden’s next inflation threat: The rent is too damn high Politico

Why Jerome Powell Must Go Project Syndicate. Joseph Stiglitz.

Justice Department Sues Uber Over Charging Wait-Time Fees for Disabled People WSJ

At 28 percent approval, say goodbye to Kamala Harris being Plan B to an aging Biden The Hill

COP26/Climate Change

India ‘Deeply Disappointed’ at COP26 as Developed World Defaults on Money Promise The Wire

A Coal Mine for Every Wildfire London Review of Books<

The World Is Failing To Rid Itself of Coal Der Spiegel

COP26 deforestation deal could be a win for climate, but Canada needs to address true impacts of forest loss The Narwhal

How to Make Decarbonization Economically Sustainable Project Syndicate. Jim O’Neill.

China and US announce deal to boost cooperation on climate change Al Jazeera

Old Blighty

The Corruption of the Political Class Counterpunch

Sleaze shambles holds warning for Boris Johnson’s next Brexit battle FT

Waste Watch

Research Aims to ‘Flip the Script’ on Single-Use Plastics in Hollywood Treehugger

Tracking the future of US recycling policy in Congress Waste Dive

Supply Chain Crisis

Big Brother IS Watching You Watch

Cultural Revolutions Continuing Ed (flora). Edward Snowden. Hoisted from comments.

Fun fact: US special ops are in 33 of 44 countries in Europe today Responsible Statecraft

Myanmar

Myanmar military accused of blocking aid to displaced civilians Al Jazeera

India

India’s Coming ‘Rocket Force’ The Diplomat

India, WHO in quid pro quo to resume vaccine exports Asia Times

Congress’ attack on BJP over the failures of demonetisation doesn’t present the full picture Scroll

China

Universities tell stranded international students to prepare for return to campus in China South China Morning Post

Syraqistan

India, Russia, six other countries reiterate support for ‘peaceful, stable’ Afghanistan Scroll

Ex CIA analyst on hidden realities of Syria war and new novel ‘Damascus Station’ Grayzone

Raising the bar on Nagaland’s annual Hornbill Festival Nagaland Post

Antidote du Jour (via):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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127 comments

    1. cnchal

      Meanwhile the exploitee beatings continue.

      From your link, a vacuous comment.

      The descriptions of the poor working conditions and mistreatment of workers in the manufacturing, trucking, and distribution centers of the world brings to mind the novel ‘The Jungle’ a 1906 book by American journalist and novelist Upton Sinclair (1878-1968), portraying the inhumane treatment and unsanitary practices in the American meat packing industry during the early 20th century, which greatly contributed to a public outcry leading to reforms benefiting the workers and passage of the Meat Inspection Act. Hopefully the efforts of modern day journalist and writers like Christopher Mims to bring the same kind of attention to present day working conditions will lead to similar reforms.

      Hopefully, eh?

      Corporations that shipped production to China and then import the crapola back import something else too. The slaveocracy of China.

      The MSM will never touch this subject. Their venality is bought and paid for by the corporations that slather their Bernays sauce onto the brains of clownsumers.

      Amazon shopper = whip cracking sadist

      1. saywhat?

        Then everyone who works for Amazon = a whip loving masochist? See how that works?

        I would greatly prefer that Amazon had come about under an ethical economic system but we don’t have that. Therefore the sadists are not Amazon shoppers doing the best they can under the circumstances but those who support the current economic system, including the current fiat creation and use system and our inherently unjust banking model.

        And from experience, I know many at NC DO support the current unjust economic system and only wish that, via regulation, it were tilted to favor them, not justice.

        1. FluffytheObeseCat

          Thank you. This cutesy phrase (used way too often here) is slick and pretentious. The opportunity to post comments here should be used to bring information to others. And to question baloney, not to dispense it.

          1. cnchal

            Yes, I have used that phrase a number of times for the simple reason that it is true.

            Care to reconcile an annual churnover rate of 150% that Amazon sports for the warehouse victims? That is equivalent to replacing everybody every eight months. The whole point of pushing workers so hard is to extract as much energy from them as possible before discarding them on the scrap heap behind the warehouse. It’s Bezos’ business model. When you crack the whip by pushing the buy button you support that abuse.

            Amazon shopper = whip cracking sadist

        2. CanCyn

          I don’t think you can make the leap from shopper as sadist to worker as masochist quite so easily. It is possible to have empathy for the workers and not the customers. I would imagine that most people who work at Amazon need the money and can get hired with very little experience or credentials – that’s a more likely reason for them to work there than masochism.
          You may be right that it isn’t us 90 percenters who are propping up the current system. But, with the politicians in the pockets of the corporations, we sure as hell can’t vote our way out of it. So what to do? Stop buying stuff that we don’t really need from companies that treat their employees badly. I know a profligate consumer who has stopped shopping Amazon partly in response to second thoughts provided by the ‘whip cracking sadist’ description. That said, if the poor are saving time and money by shopping Amazon, I can grudgingly say good on them. Of course, it would be better if we all tried to stop participating in mass consumption. It really will take massive resistance to change things. I dunno if enough people have the interest or the energy to fight.

          1. saywhat?

            Of course, it would be better if we all tried to stop participating in mass consumption. CanCyn

            Mass consumption is the “mess of pottage”, ie. pitiful compensation, for legally stolen birthrights such as family farms, businesses, and the commons.

        3. lyman alpha blob

          I would have preferred that Amazon never came about.

          I do not support private monopolies or whatever you want to call what Amazon has become, and so I do not buy anything from them ever as they are the worst of a bad bunch. And still I manage to get by. And so could others too – we all manged to somehow until about 20 years ago.

          1. Oh

            I stopped buying anything from Amazon long time ago. It’s not just how Amazon treats their employees but it’s how they use their size to intimidate and take away business from their suppliers. I doubt if any poor people shop on line and at Amazon. Only the lazy elites and middle class do.

          2. lance ringquist

            remember it was nafta billy clinton that exempted amazon and others out right scams from regulation and taxes. they needed a break to get started was the fascists excuse.

      2. lance ringquist

        when fascism came to america, its was sold as free trade spreads democracy, and eradicates poverty.
        fascism is when government is removed, and corporations take their place. free trade is fascism.

    2. The Rev Kev

      The Common Dreams article says ‘Though we can never undo what has occurred, this settlement makes clear that those who egregiously violate the law and harm their communities will be held accountable.’ I beg to differ. It is a $626 million settlement which rates as pocket change when you consider the damage done. Those kids will be living with the effects of lead poisoning for the rest of their lives. Anybody think that money will go far? This article also ‘forgets’ to mention that the lawyers connected with this case have put up their hands for a cut of this settlement – about $200 million worth. The whole episode was totally unnecessary as it was a scheme by Rick Snyder to build a private pipeline to carry water that the municipal pipelines were already using. In a just world, Rick Snyder would be playing drop the soap-bar in a shower block at Michigan’s “I-Max” but as Obama covered for him, even though he was a Republican, and he supported Joe Biden, he is protected. In fact, he nearly got appointed to Harvard in a teaching job back in 2019. If he ended up as a Senator, I would not be surprised.

    1. Mr. Magoo

      Its all relative. Remember the wealthiest Americans make far more than 10 times a middle class family, so the wealthy are in effect ‘taking one for the team’

    2. Glen

      So basically the only big thing Trump did was a huge tax cut for the rich, and now Biden’s BBB is a huge tax cut for the rich?

      So he is really delivering on the “nothing will fundamentally change” promise he made to Wall St.

    1. Kouros

      Somebody has to keep those unruly European proles under control. Sniper rules!

      It is known that Europeans are much wilder than the American zombies. Somebody has to deal with this problem…

  5. GramSci

    The Question Nobody is Asking about Teenagers and Social Media.

    Why do we “educate” children and adolescents in narrow, age-stratified cohorts? What does this teach them about their place in society?

    Oh, I forgot. There’s no such thing.

    1. lyman alpha blob

      That article still misses an extremely important question. It’s not about teens’ “happiness”, it’s about how we want our society to be structured. Do we want children to be raised with the values of their families and communities, or do we want to let the internet do it for us?

      After questioning whether we should allow young people to use social media at all, the article quotes an academic researcher who says the following –

      Orben and Przybylski found, in contrast to previously published results, only a minor negative association between digital technology and adolescent well-being. “Taking the broader context of the data into account suggests that these effects are too small to warrant policy change,” they conclude. In response to my question about teen-agers using social media, Orben echoed this conclusion that researchers shouldn’t be making behavior recommendations. “Teenagers have the right to do what they want to do and what they see [as] appropriate,” she told me. “I don’t think I am in the capacity to say whether they should use social media or not.”

      Well-being is not really defined at all, and yes I get that adolescents tended toward surliness and had feelings of inadequacy and loneliness well before social media was a thing, so depending on how you describe well-being, maybe social media does not make their lives quantifiably “worse”, but it’s definitely different without nearly as much personal interaction. And Orben either does not have children or is the worst parent evah. Perhaps when I allow my 13 year old to sign up for a TikTok account, I should get them some heroin, a car, some guns, and a 38 year old sex offender to pal around with and tell them to go out and have a good time. I mean, if that’s what my teen wants to do, who am I to try to change their behavior?

      These apps are addictive and have been designed that way. I didn’t have kids to have them raised by TikTok, but unfortunately social media came to be at about the same time my kid was born and that’s turning out to be the way it is. Let’s just say that trying to limit screen time and social media use does not generally result in pleasant interactions between adults and adolescents, so it’s either cave and let them spend all their time alone on their phone, or spend it arguing with them about the use of technology instead. Maybe I just have a particularly stubborn child, but after reading articles like this and talking to other parents, I don;t think my situation is unique.

      At least when families spent the evening watching TV, they were doing it together and had some shared experiences. Now everyone truly is growing up in their own little world. Social media needs to be killed with fire.

      1. Amfortas the hippie

        during the period that my boys got their first smart fones, i made sure that wife was the only one with cellular data capability…everyone else had to be within a wifi bubble for that part of the fones to work.
        this, all by itself, limited the habituation.
        then, when i had finished the house enough to move way out here again, we had to sort of hack into my mom’s next door wifi pipe(elaborate rube goldburg artistry on my part, there)…so “our” wifi was spotty for a while….and when i improved upon it(so i could watch netflix), the habits were already not formed,lol.
        thereafter, whenever wife and i thought too much screentime was happening, i’d wander by the little birdhouse on the fencepost that housed the last in a string of routers, and unplug the damned thing: “network outage”,lol.
        took a couple of years for eldest to figure that out…and that figuring out is why his younger brother has a worse screen addiction than he does.
        still not nearly as bad as any of their peers, but it’s there.

        1. CanCyn

          Disruption works. I grew up in the 70s. The year I turned 12, we moved to a small town in northern Ontario that didn’t have cable. In two years, cable arrived but I was not really interested. We watched the odd show together as a family back then but I was never glued to the screen. As an adult, except for a few years when my husband and I first lived together, I have never had cable. I believe that little break at just the right time made me somewhat immune to social media too. I use the Internet sure, but no FB, Instagram, etc. for me. I was just never interested enough to tune in. My parents had no idea of the unintentional favour they did me but I am eternally grateful.

      2. Pelham

        Good point about the shared experience of TV vs. the little worlds of individual small screens.

        Our daughter, who just flew the nest, grew up with little screens. Her mom and I were wary but felt powerless to do anything about it. The screen was where all her friends were, and pretty much all of her world. As a result, after 20 years, she’s a stranger to me (not so much her mom), distant but friendly enough as long as I’m super careful about what I might bring up in conversation.

        In sum, I lost my daughter to this world — after losing my career of 30-plus years due to the arrival of this same world. From my painfully informed perspective, killing social media wouldn’t be enough. Something equally hideous would rise in their place. The publicly accessible internet itself should be killed with fire. Not gonna happen, but if it did the tectonic disruption could lead to the most wonderful imaginable outcomes.

        1. Amfortas the hippie

          on my most curmudgeonly and surly days, where i give in to the misanthropy and get drunk with geese, i tend to lean thataway, too.

          but then i see this:
          https://www.texastribune.org/2021/11/04/texas-school-district-long-hair/

          that’s where i grew up(knew the woman in the pic)…and had offensive “long” hair…and even whiskers…and was chased by rednecks with sheepshears and made to shave by the vice prince with a rusty razor…dry…
          (with me pointing to the long blonde haired and hirsute portrait of jesus on the wall behind him, and quoting “in imitation of christ” at him)
          and later, at the school(sic) down the road, was carried bodily to the cosmetology lab and held down while i was worked on by a terrified large girl who didn’t know how to handle being included in practices that were more suited to east germany than the home of the brave….this, after telling Pit Viper(the hot vice principal) that well…no…see, i’m a rastafarian…and she apologising profusely…only to call me into her office first thing next day to express her admiration at my cleverness…but nevertheless, i will cut yer damned hair today…

          the same arguments the aclu is making in this case, were made by me in principal’s offices in that place 35-40 years ago…and to no avail.
          so i won, Pit Viper.
          (and Roy)

        2. Maritimer

          Augmented Reality
          “One of the world’s leading computer engineers believes the metaverse, the idea that caused Mark Zuckerberg to rebrand his whole company, could one day ‘make reality disappear.’…
          Our surroundings will become filled with persons, places, objects, and activities that don’t actually exist, and yet they will seem deeply authentic to us,’ Rosenberg penned in the piece, published by Big Think.”
          https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-10188669/Computer-pioneer-warns-metaverse-make-reality-disappear.html

          Of course our Reality has been augmented for a long time, it is just going to speed up. For instance, I remember a TV show with a Judge on it. Polling was done and a good percentage of the audience actually thought he was a Supreme Court Justice. Same with Covid, all that Science on MSM is actually real.

          I look at all this as the loss of Human Consciousness.

          1. Amfortas the hippie

            there are those of us(i assume that i’m not alone in this—for sanity’s sake)
            who attempt to keep the Enlightenment(“Audeamus!”) alive, in practice.
            I ply random people with Socratic Questions everywhere i go.
            it’s how i raised my boys.
            it’s(shudder) a Lifestyle.

    2. BrianC - PDX

      I started school at age four. Attending a one room school house in Essex, MT. Where grades 1-8 were taught.

      Because everything was done in one room I could listen to the lessons being taught to the older kids. Which were far more interesting than the coloring, alphabet and lettering exercises I was given.

      2. pasha

        similar experience, two room schoolhouse, graduating class of eight: two became lawyers, one became a vet, one a teaching nurse, one a teaching physicist, one a high school teacher, one a radio announcer, and one a multimillionaire. listening to the other classes lessons was of considerable benefit to us, i believe

        socially transitioning to a 600 person high school was challenging, i’ll admit

    3. Janie

      My mother and her siblings and cousins went to a one-room schoolhouse through 8th grade, followed by high school in the county seat. Their education 100 years ago was better than today. For an example of what was taught a couple of generations earlier, read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s questions on an exam (high school diploma, I think.)

  7. zagonostra

    >Governor Gavin Newsom

    So the Governor didn’t want to miss spending Halloween with his children was the reason he disappeared for 2 weeks after getting a vaccine booster shot, totally believable.

    1. SteveD

      At least part of the absence is explained by him attending the over-the-top extravagant days-long wedding of a Getty heiress. The Getty’s have bankrolled his entire career in one way or another. Interestingly, the event is getting no attention in the local press. Gavin likes to party with the .001%-ers

      1. tegnost

        After the french laundry debacle I can only imagine the vetting and strip searches the help was subjected to

    2. Louis Fyne

      one hypothesis is that Newsome suffered a bout of Ball’s Palsy, presumably post-shot.

      I am just the messenger

      1. Anthony Stegman

        The governor claimed he was busy walking the halls at the state capitol taking care of state business. Interestingly enough, there is no photos or video of him being there. One would think it would be easy to obtain such proof of his presence in Sacramento. I’m skeptical of the governor’s claims.

        1. Wukchumni

          I saw one long distance photo shakily taken of what appeared to be Bigfoot and Gavin, with the latter’s arm around the heretofore mythical creature.

    3. Maritimer

      Two Week Halloween.
      Guiness is considering giving Newsom and family the World Record Halloween Candy Haul. (Good Lord, even the ancient craft of Spin Doctoring has gone to the canines.)

  8. John Siman

    In her essay “Whither the Plain Female Protagonist? On ‘Great Beauty’ in Literature,” Lucinda Rosenfeld, seething with envy, denounces pretty much of all of literature for not only praising beauty but also for being beauty-adjacent. As she concludes she notes that “[i]t was … Toni Morrison in The Bluest Eye who called physical beauty—along with romantic love—the ‘most destructive ideas in the history of human thought.’” I am sorry to learn that Lucinda Rosenfeld’s life is such a nightmare, but why is she allowed to inflict her bile on innocent bystanders?

    1. t

      According to the comments, she missed even more counter-examples than I thought of.

      My favorite – Scarlette O’Hara is specifically not pretty or smart and it’s very plainly stated thats she’s learned to be a successful manipulator by brute-force hacking.

      And Tess’s whole problem is that because she pretty she could be stupid, until she couldn’t.

      I could just go on and on…

      1. The Historian

        Perhaps you should read that first paragraph in Gone With the Wind again. “Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful”. But…… It is obvious that Scarlett O’Hara was definitely not ugly and was in fact, quite pretty with her tilting green eyes rimed with black lashes and her magnolia white skin.

        In any event, the producers of the movie chose to go which someone who was quite beautiful instead of someone who was merely pretty.

        1. JohnA

          Reading the description of Rhett in the book, Margaret Mitchell must have already had Clark Gable in mind. The description is absolutely him.

    2. The Historian

      Odd! I read that article and I didn’t get that she was “seething with envy”. In fact, I think she has a very serious point! Have you not noticed how our pre teen and teen age girls are constantly being pressured to look like barbie dolls rather than real human beings and the damage that is being done to them because of that? Or how they feel and what they do to themselves when they cannot possibly reach that goal?

      And as women get older, how they are encouraged to have plastic surgery to try and maintain a ‘youthful look’? I always wonder how much Nancy Pelosi pays her plastic surgeon. He is good though!

      Tell me where in our modern entertainment business – including entertainment literature – are women portrayed as they really are? I think Cagney and Lacey was the last time I saw real women being portrayed on American TV. Frankly I prefer British TV where it is the acting and the character that counts, not necessarily physical attributes. Do you think Judi Dench would ever have made it in the US entertainment business?

      Perhaps you should reread that article and then look at what women in this country are exposed to and are expected to look like. Perhaps then you wouldn’t have to made ad hominem comments about the author’s life being “such a nightmare”.

      1. Carolinian

        But who is pressuring them? Men, or other women? And it’s not like this is a new thing given that women once would squeeze themselves into torturous corsets to achieve a standard of beauty.

        As to

        Do you think Judi Dench would ever have made it in the US entertainment business? .

        seen many Meryl Streep movies? If you move beyond the bubble gum “tent poles” there’s lots of Hollywood product these days featuring older women.

        Here’s suggesting the complications of sex, mating and psychology go a lot deeper than Facebook or an entertainment industry that wants to make money by giving audiences what they want..

        1. Soredemos

          It’s very common for actresses to virtually disappear when they get ‘too old’. The ones that do stick around put a lot of money and effort into looking much younger than they actually are. That definitely applies to Streep. Dench seems to have embraced her aging.

          Also I haven’t looked into the history of corsets, but I’m going to guess there was a lot of male expectation that ‘proper’ women had hourglass, T&A figures involved in that phenomenon.

          1. Carolinian

            Well lots of men disappear too or they make tax write off movies like Alec Baldwin.

            To my eye Streep pretty much looks her age. Admittedly there are only a few who hang in the way she does. But American movies are usually a bigger budget environment than the British and more commercial.

          2. adrena

            The expectations (or hopes) of men are that women don’t care so much about how men look.

            Nothing could be further from the truth.

      3. Lee

        “I always wonder how much Nancy Pelosi pays her plastic surgeon. He is good though!”

        I must take exception to that smile of hers, which to me looks like the grimace of one who’s just stepped barefoot on a fresh turd.

      4. JEHR

        It seems to me that the standards assigned to beautiful women give women a “boilerplate” identity with thicker lips, smooth foreheads, no wrinkles, slender necks and beautiful, white teeth. What is missing are the qualities that identify an inner beauty amplified by what happens when facial features react to emotions through smiling, laughing, crying, etc.

      5. Rodeo Clownfish

        Modern entertainment was not the subject of the article. The question is whether all of classic literature has the same unreasonable approach to portraying female characters. I don’t pretend to know the answer, but at least we should agree on the question.

    3. Soredemos

      I completely disagree. She’s raising a valid point. Unless they’re filling some specific specialist role like ‘old crone’, women in fiction are almost always abnormally attractive. They’re also always young; 35 is absolutely ancient for a female protagonist or main character. Female characters often seem more like wish fulfillment than actual people.

      And I say all this as a straight man, by the way, the audience so much of this is ostensibly catering to. I actually quite like ‘plain’ girls. Most people are by definition average looking, somewhere between hideous and beautiful (grooming and makeup can go a long way for average looking people). I like women with ‘defects’; they look like real people more than flawless skinned cover girls.

      It’s also perhaps worth noting that Hollywood’s inclination is always to hire beautiful people. This can get pretty hilarious with biopic stuff, when you go and compare the real person with the actor.

      All of this also applies to men, but to a much lesser extent. Especially for film and television. If you’re a man, Hollywood wants you to be either attractive, or at least very distinct and unique looking (is someone like Steve Buscemi conventionally attractive? Probably not, but he is memorable looking).

      1. Anthony Stegman

        Is has long been said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Emily Ratajkowski was recently on CBS Mornings talking about her new book. To some (perhaps very many) she is a very beautiful woman. To me, she is simply not my type.

    1. griffen

      I did not care for the math in their example explanations. Rent cost $1,000 in October of 2020, and now the same rent equivalent is $1,062 (or likely higher) in October of 2021. As often written here, an assumption about averages can conceal.

      The above is easy enough, but it’s the wages portion. My wages to pay the above rent increased by less than the aforementioned rent! It is great they increased, but in nominal terms I’m out of pocket. And it is somewhat worse if the wage increase that I earned is somewhat less than the average US wage increase. If I indeed earned an increase, but I digress.

      Next up, they’ll tell us why paying $3.17 per gallon of 87 octane gasoline is a win. Which most certainly is not true. Others in the commenter section will likely have their own personal data points.

      1. NotTimothyGeithner

        But remember when housing, Healthcare, and so forth were rising in costs, but we didn’t have inflation.

    2. MP

      As someone who had $80K+ in student loan debt a few years back, I would have loved to have a little bit of inflation to eat some of it. Alas, Sallie Mae had a good few years instead.

    3. Objective Ace

      I’m not sure why the Intercept seems to think the 1 percent doesn’t have any debt. Apple has been borrowing money with no purpose in mind for years the rates are (or were) just so good. The 1 percent will make out just fine. The Intercept really should investigate the Cantilion effect — that will tell them who is benefitting the most and it is generally not the middle class

    5. Anthony Stegman

      I think the though process goes like this simply put: Out of control inflation is better than depression. It means that lots of people have lots of money which drives up the cost of everything. If, on a personal level, you don’t have lots of money that is a shame for you, but overall it is wonderful that there is so much money circulating.

  10. The Rev Kev

    “India, Russia, six other countries reiterate support for ‘peaceful, stable’ Afghanistan”

    I wouldn’t rate this conference too highly. If you look at the list of countries attending, you will see two countries noticeably absent. Afghanistan, who is what this conference is really all about, and Pakistan who has a massive say in what happens in this region. If it was a real conference, those two counties would have to have a seat at it. They put out a statement saying ‘that the United Nations has an important role to play in Afghanistan and the global body’s presence in the country should be preserved.’ That may be awkward as so many countries from that United Nations were involved in the occupation of Afghanistan. Think that the Afghans would be keen to see the Americans, British and French back again in a big way? I also think that there is a lot of suspicion of India’s motives here as you can never be sure that they are doing stuff like this on their own bat or are trying to have a spoiler role on behalf of Washington to get in their good books.

    1. Jerri-Lynn Scofield Post author

      Good point about India’s motives. Alas, the days when India led the non-aligned movement are now past – along with much else of Nehru’s legacy.

    2. dftbs

      I think this should be read as some deft Russian diplomacy. They are trying to get a commitment from India, who has been very loud and involved in Afghanistan during the last 20 years but cut out of the Taliban restoration and sidling up to the US, that they will pursue a peaceful path.

      Whether the Indians do so or not is another question, but Russian diplomacy has always operated under the premise of let’s keep talking so we’re not shooting. And as the only nation “trusted” by the other three regional powers (China, Pakistan, Iran) they should continue to foster dialogue. If they can’t bring Indian into the fold, hopefully they can keep them from going off the reservation all together.

  11. Samuel Conner

    Clicking through the “The Hill” link on the looming Thanksgiving disaster, I was expecting to see discussion of the consequences of the US “vaccinate and let ‘er rip” approach to pandemic management, in the context of heightened travel during the holiday season.

    To my surprise, the focus was entirely on the looming disruptions to the holiday experience.

    Disaster ain’t what it used to be. Orange is the new black, and discomfort is the new disaster. Mass mortality is … never mind.

    We’re tough enough to die from acute COVID and accumulating long-term sequelae, but we’re not tough enough to handle a disappointing holiday.

    Am I right in guessing that the inclusion of this link was a kind of rhetorical question — included not for news value but as a quiet commentary on the state of the news?

    2. Samuel Conner

      “a kind of rhetorical question” …

      A news link included for the sake of “highlighting the state of the news profession” (NC links assemblages sometimes include these with explicit warning that that is what they are for);

      would it be appropriate to call that a “rhetorical link”?

      “The Hill” went down in my estimation today.

      1. Jerri-Lynn Scofield Post author

        Lambert and Yves are generally more free with explicit commentary. I usually opt for silence and instead let readers come to their own conclusions – which frequently echo mine. I sometimes need to jump in to remind readers that to link to something is not to endorse.

    3. jr

      I agree with what you are saying. For some color, I would add though that for those Americans who are just “over” COVID and who have internalized a sense of entitlement about life in general, a crappy holiday is going to hit hard. My experiences with the PMC’s and upper middle class types I know is that above all else they want a return to “normalcy”, i.e. travel, guilt/worry free eating out, their children’s lives back on their idealized track. I would hazard that rough holidays are going to be a box of nails in the Dems coffins in ‘22. My 2¢.

      1. Roger Blakely

        I appreciate the comments about this link. I saw it and wondered about it.

        I have a PMC friend who shuns unvaccinated people out of caution. But then he does domestic and international travel. How are crowded airport terminals not spreader events?

        1. jr

          Let me clarify, I’m not defending their point of view. I’m just mentioning it anecdotally. I think they are all nuts.

  12. The Rev Kev

    “NASA delays Moon landings, says Blue Origin legal tactics partly to blame”

    And this is what happens when you hand over space travel to corporations. One loses a contract so the other will sue to get that decision reversed. Schedules are pushed back and it looks like it will be for years here while the budget gets to Pentagon-like levels. Can you imagine a ship ready to launch and it can only be done in a narrow time window – when suddenly another corporation will want to revise those contracts and so will hold that launch as hostage? You know that it is going to happen. To tell you the truth, I cannot say that I am sorry. This whole program to launch a mission to the moon has little to do with exploration and more to do with grabbing a part of the moon – including a ‘security’ region – using the so-called Artemis Accords as a legal fig-leaf.

  13. Tom Stone

    A lifelong Dem and member of the upper third of the PMC (Based on social connections and wealth) I know is laser focused on the threat Trump and the thugs pose to “America’s Democratic Institutions”.
    Assange?,Donziger?,Murray?,
    Nothing to see here,move along.
    I spent some time trying to think of an “American Democratic Institution” and came up with “Over Eaters Anonymous”.

  14. Dftbs

    Stiglitz piece is the latest indication that there is some momentum building for a Brainard elevation to Fed Chair. And while a defenestration of Powell is likely well deserved I’m not sure if Brainard would prove any better.

    Stiglitz believes that the Fed should make a clearer commitment towards fighting climate change. He makes the case that this would fall under their mandated responsibility to maintain financial stability. It’s hard to deny that the Fed wields tremendous power (imo it and the military are the most powerful institutions in the US); and it’s tempting to think this power should be directed towards taming climate change. But what may sound good as a slogan is not always good in practice. On the heels of COP26 we should begin to understand that ESG investing and other “market” oriented initiatives are more of the same maladies that got us here: initiatives meant to underwrite the global externalities behind excessive Western consumption. Rather the Fed should devolve its usurped power back to representative government. If it wants to fight climate change it should place this responsibility where it belongs, not on balance sheets but in legislation.

    Stiglitz is right in that the Fed’s decisions have enormous distributional effects and Powells tenure has certainly seen some of the worst effects of this. But as inflation begins to eat dinner at American tables, it’s hard to see how the dovish Brainard will improve this situation. Of course she can change her posture, but the present sentiment of market participants is that she will delay the rate hikes priced in for the second half of 2022. Moreover her perceived alignment with the administration is seen as her being more accommodative to asset price growth, particularly ahead of the mid-terms. Let them eat stocks!

    There is probably some sympathy for Brainard around these parts as she has shown some understanding and sympathy towards MMT. But unfortunately the inflationary moment is the constraint at which MMT recognizes the sovereign currency issuer has reached its limits. Unfortunately what is needed now is the most unpalatable medicine for modern financial capitalism, some “wealth” destruction.

    Covid related supply chain snags are the favorite culprits of those in power when questioned about inflation. The Fed certainly bought into this when characterizing these price increases as transitory and delaying rate hikes. There is obviously very accurate criticism to be made with regards to the lack of robustness and redundancy in our physical supply chain, some good analysis has been presented on this site. But I think both these explanations miss something more fundamental and difficult to remedy.

    50 years ago we found ourselves in a negative real growth trap and fighting a global conflict against a surging competing system. Our response to this was to deregulate and financialize. This allowed us to use debt and leverage to bring future consumption forward. We reversed our relative decline vs our adversary, to the point of the seeming extinction of their system. We feasted on sneakers, cheap electronics and cheaper energy, all paid for in debt. At every point of friction we doubled down, so aggressively in fact that we submitted all power and responsibility in these matters to the central bankers that dreamed it. But the bill had come due.

    Covid may have been the catalyst, but I don’t believe we’ll see an improvement in our supply chain or inflation, even if the virus were defeated. I think Americans, and westerners writ large, are going to have to acquaint themselves with lower consumption levels.

    The remedy won’t be in rate hikes to fight inflation. These may buttress the purchasing power of the currency temporarily, but they would destroy asset prices, again leading us to lower consumption. The remedy, if it were even possible to dream it in our present system, won’t be pleasant. We would need to shift from a consumptive financial economy to a productive one. We would need to destroy a large part of that notional unproductive wealth and shift the allocation of wealth in that smaller pie to the labor that actually produces it. We would need to defenestrate the institution of central banking, not just the chair.

    If Stiglitz truly feels Brainard would be an antagonist to the current path set by Powell, he should want to see her as the Secretary of the Treasury, fighting to reclaim that power and responsibility from the central bank for the representative government.

    1. Watt4Bob

      The remedy won’t be in rate hikes to fight inflation. These may buttress the purchasing power of the currency temporarily, but they would destroy asset prices, again leading us to lower consumption.

      It seems you’re caught in a trap here, you understand it’s necessary to end domination of our economy by the finance sector, but you’re reluctant to “destroy asset prices” by instituting rate hikes.

      You do understand that the majority of those ‘assets‘ are owned by the investor class whose influence you want to tame?

      Much of the trouble we’ve found ourselves in since 2008 is based on inflated asset prices caused by QE and 0% money provided to the banking class.

      Stiglitz features prominently in this Frontline documentary about the Fed and their response to 2008, which is described as “The Federal Reserve’s Big Experiment”

      In my estimation, it will be impossible to turn the tables on our ruling elites without a lot of loss in asset prices, so quit using your home equity as a piggy bank, quit worrying about Wall $treet’s tantrums, and let’s let the chips fall where they may.

      1. Dftbs

        I apologize, I spilled a lot of words in that rant and thought I was clear about my personal preference- “wealth” destruction. I put wealth in parentheses because of the dubious nature and value of this financial nominal “wealth”.

        The problem is that it’s not so much a trap I’m caught in, but a trap the US is caught in. The conundrum that I was highlighting is that inflation is here to stay and the remedy has less to do with rate hikes or supply chain robustness, and more to do with permanent diminished purchasing power and lower consumption levels.

        I do think that 2008 was a crisis, into which we dug ourselves a bigger hole via our response. But I think this crisis was a consequence of choices made long before. And our response to this crisis and the subsequent ones (euro sovereign in 2012, repo sovereign in 2019, covid 2020) were inevitable within the cognitive boundaries of our system.

        I don’t think we are present at the table in order to “turn” it on our elites. I don’t believe that any of the “remedies” available within the system would succeed. The remedy of “wealth” destruction is unfortunately outside the system. And so I think it’s a bit silly for a Nobel prize winner(albeit in economics) like Stiglitz to think that Brainard would be better than Powell; particularly in the capacity of Fed chair. If he truly believed that Brainard were better he should advocate for creating an antagonistic pole of power for her. That is replace ex-Fed chair Yellen as Secretary of the Treasury and fight the Fed for the power it was given by our mis-leadership class. Return those powers of the Fed back to representative government.

        In my estimation this necessary step is one way outside the system. It would be the equivalent of the mutiny at Kronstadt, signaling that we are replacing polities. Again I’m not saying these aren’t necessary, or impossible steps. Just impossible in the United States of America. If our society were able to take these steps, it would be because we are no longer the United States of America.

        1. chuck roast

          In any case, Stiglitz’ salvo may be opening shot in a ruling class struggle to see who sits atop the Plutocrat Boutique Bespoke Bank. He may well have put the kibosh on Brainerd, but I don’t see the elite so fractured that they are going to attempt to divide up the pie any differently. I think Stiglitz is seen as a mild reformer and not really a member of head nodding money & banking theorists. This is certainly a mild reformer treatise. Interesting to see who else raises his head above the parapet to gaze at the fusillade. My money is on Yellen II.

      2. Anthony Stegman

        I read recently that there has been an uptick in housing equity drawdowns ala the mid-2000s. If the housing bubble bursts once again there will be lots of underwater mortgages, and new cries for bailouts. In my view housing should not be seen as an “investment”, but rather as a roof over one’s head. Stocks are a different matter as the majority of Americans own little if any stocks. If the stock market declines by 30% or 50% for that matter most Americans won’t suffer mightily. If the housing market declines by a similar amount things will get very ugly.

    2. Mikel

      I was thinking about the Musk sale of Tesla stock. It’s been speculated about that the sale is due to cover personal expenses – like the loans he’s received with stock as collateral.
      He’s hardly an outlier among big players using the biggest pump in history to then hold the stock (thus not incur taxable gains) and then take out extremely low interest loans from banks (at interest rates unimaginable for the average American to receive).

      1. griffen

        Your above speculation or the speculation by others, appears partly true. He has also long dated options to acquire shares, which at this point must be nearing maturity / expiry. I ran a quick search, and a portion of these sales is certainly related to this option activity and transaction.

        What I quickly saw says this is based on future needs, ie, taxes due are pending. I’m not a technician or options specialist so I am stopping before getting out on a limb.

  15. Tom Stone

    Thank you,Jill Biden.
    I never thought I’d say that but the smooth way she knifed Kamala Harris deserves my thanks.
    Mrs Biden has along memory and an unforgiving nature, she has not forgotten the way Ms Harris treated slow Joe in the debates.
    A 28% approval rating doesn’t mean Kamala won’t catch the brass ring, TPTB may decide Joe isn’t doing enough for the right people fast enough and decide to replace him with someone they believe is more amenable.

  16. JES

    I would like to see the inside story on how Biden/Harris were selected as nominees. I know fear of Bernie drove them but specifically who made the decision? My guess is that Clyburn was the front for Pelosi.

    1. NotTimothyGeithner

      Harris was just the result of a promise Biden didn’t expect to keep. Biden made the promise to people who just be a even activated for fear of Drumpf and know Biden as Obama’s friend. It’s how he got activated sway with lies about his Senate career, but this lie was made to them.

      Then you have his age and political views. Black congressional types for the most part wouldn’t match Biden’s philosophy. Leaving Harris. Stacey Abrams didn’t win and is too aligned with actual voter registration to match the democracy is done in private philosophy of Team Blue elites. They would never trust her.

      Biden even tried to get Granholm, but it was too expIicit it a promise in an election he wasn’t running away with. The Karens who proudly say listen to “black women” only really know of Harris because she was in TV. They would have gone ballistic.

    2. Robert Hahl

      At the time, I thought it was because the Democrats feared Trump would not leave office if Sanders won, but that he would go quietly if Biden won. And that is probably how it turned out, since Trump did go quietly, for him.

      1. NotTimothyGeithner

        Merrick Garland is the AG. That’s the answer in regards to Sanders. If they cared about January 6th, they would have replaced him right away.

        1. ambrit

          Well, one could argue that “they” did replace Saunders, and that the January 6th Riot was the result.
          If Saunders had been the Democrat Party nominee, then Trump would have been much more open and forceful with his ‘rearguard action’ in leaving the White House. We might have seen armed “Oath Keepers” going on up into the Capitol Building. Then the underlying conflicts would have been starkly displayed.
          Imagine if some really Right-wing militia had tried a coup. It would have then been time to declare one’s side publicly.
          As it is, we seem to have only been given kayfabe.

  17. The Rev Kev

    “At 28 percent approval, say goodbye to Kamala Harris being Plan B to an aging Biden”

    It was just a little over a year ago that old Joe finally managed to climb that greasy pole – or was he pushed up from below? So for three more years he is still the Prez unless ruled to be incapable which the Democrats will never do. But in all this talk of who is to replace Harris in 2024, what if old Joe falls off his perch before then? It could so easily happen. That makes Kamala Madame President. You think that she would turn away from that opportunity if the Democrats asked her to step aside. I mean to have her name forever in the history books as the first black, woman President? She would be shallow enough to insist on being the President and I do not think that they could get away with trying to rig the rues to stop her. Something to think about this.

    1. NotTimothyGeithner

      The 25th amendment elevates the VP to the Presidency upon the death of a President. That is it. There are no secret handshakes or anything. That is the old one heartbeat anyway from being President line that was so popular when Palin was the VP nominee.

      Prior to that, there was some show about oaths and such as the constitution just says the powers and duties being transferred.

      1. orlbucfan

        After the Vice President, the House Speaker is next in the line of whatever. Couple of real zeroes as human beings aside from their political positions.

        1. NotTimothyGeithner

          Since the 25th brings up “acting president”, I suspect anyone not elected by the electors or confirmed to the VP slot via the 25th would only ever be “acting President” as their role is defined by congressional statute, not he the constitution.

    2. Dr. John Carpenter

      As noted, if anything happens to Joe before the next election, it’s president Kamala anyway. Game over.

      But looking beyond, as someone who admits they were wrong when they proclaimed Harris finished after her much hyped primary run wiped out, only to see her become VP, I no longer think a 28% approval rate is insurmountable for her. I don’t think it’s so much a matter that they would try to stop her as I think there are some very “important” people who are backing her. The Dems can put whoever they want on the ticket and they are showing no signs of being out of “we’ll tell you who you like” mode. Combined with the double down on Orange Man Bad and TINA for the midterms, I don’t see much concern about candidates who can actually win.

      In a world where the Democrats followed any kind of logic and showed signs of wanting to win, I’d say yeah, she’s toast. But they’d rather try to bend the voter’s will to theirs than the other way around and as long as Kamala has her supporters*, she’ll be fine.

      * though I assume she’s more of a stalking horse than a person with her own agenda

    3. Rodeo Clownfish

      Wasn’t Nixon’s VP pushed out and replaced with Gerald Ford on short notice just before Nixon “retired” from the presidency? Spiro Agnew?

      It could happen to Kamala, too. If TPTB wanted it. Not sure if/why they would…

  18. jr

    Can anyone speak to the idea that inflation is actually not bad for Main Street? I’ve heard it said but I’ve never really understood the arguments. Or is it bad?

    2. Ghost in the Machine

      William Greider in The Secrets of the Temple about the Fed argues pretty persuasively that the inflation of the late 70s early 80s was good for middle class people with mortgages and that there was wealth transfer down. Wage inflation is key of course. And that is why they needed Volcker to shut that $&@! Down!

    3. Wukchumni

      Somebody writing their John Hancock in 1980 on a 30 years to life mortgage @ 18% on a LA $100k 3/2 SFH built in 1972 was really a financial thrillseeker, that was almost the interest rate shyster credit cards get from proles now, ye gads!

      Well, that same 1972 house will have it’s golden anniversary next year and it’s probably not been kept up, but never you matter as it’s now worth $855k, and if up for sale you can secure it from your smartphone using Rocket mortgage to ink the deal @ a sub 3% interest rate.

      The 1980 buyer looks way prescient because house inflation met financial deflation in passing…

  19. Alex Morfesis

    Kristoff and the blind eye… amazing how sir kristoff of noddingham noticed the sex trafficking half way across the globe but never wrote about the Minnesota strip and all the trafficking right there in times square when he first started working at NYT…but much as Oprah in Chicago who was only concerned about making sure the sex trafficking outside her studio was “removed” during show tapping so her bussed in suburban yt audience didn’t get “traumatized” by such a visual…”OUR” victims are irredeemable but those waaayyyy over there we can raise money with… that’s different

  20. Eustache de Saint Pierre

    Musical Interlude :

    Rene & Georgette Magrite with their dog after the war – includes the photo Paul Simon based the song on & some of the works – but I don’t know whether the couple were really into The Orioles, The Five Satins, The Penguins & The Moonglows or ever visited Christopher Street – wherever that is. His painting The Cage he also did a bronze sculpture of & they have one of the reproductions in Iran – I would like to read that book & he reminds me a bit of Erik Satie, who however never got the girl.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vUk8L17A8Q

  22. EGrise

    The guy who owns @getcallin is pretty slimy, beyond the fact that he’s a friend of Peter Thiel.

    Hats off to Glenn – he certainly has a knack for getting unpalatable rich people to support his journalism efforts!

  23. ProNewerDeal

    Does the COVID Brain Trust (IM_Doc, etc) have any guidance on getting a 2nd J&J vaccine shot? I read CDC recently recommended it to all 18+ who got the 1st J&J.

  25. Regulus regulus

    Somebody told Aaron Mate to his face that everything Mate has been saying about Syria is mostly baseless. Frankly, I did not expect that.

    1. Duke of Prunes

      It’s not surprising at all. The blue check Twitter squad was on him practically everyday the last 4 years saying similar things about his reporting on RussiaRussiaRussia. How did that turn out?

  26. noonespecial

    re tweet from “David Sirota…SCOOP: A pharma-funded dark money group run by drugmakers’ lobbyists…”

    posting the link to an article over at POGO.org on how money talks and that other thing strolls along.

    The title alone may grab some attention here at NC:

    https://www.pogo.org/investigation/2021/10/at-least-half-of-panel-advising-government-on-drug-policy-had-undisclosed-ties-to-drug-makers/

    Quotes: “Five years ago, a study published in a medical journal alleged that drug companies were systematically overcharging for some of the world’s most expensive medicines, including drugs for cancer…Congress, concerned, asked for a second opinion. It tasked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, a scholarly organization chartered and funded mostly by the government, to study the issue.The report included a wealth of biographical information about committee members, but on one subject it was oddly and strikingly silent…It said almost nothing about their connections to the pharmaceutical industry.”

  27. Jeremy Grimm

    RE: “…New Account of the Double Helix” —
    I will avoid purchasing or even perusing Markel’s book, “The Secret of Life”. I very much enjoyed reading Watson’s book, “The Double Helix”. The way Watson told his story was engaging and inspired my imagination. Watson’s tale held drama, clear and easily understood characters, and presented a compelling story, which I hope inspires researchers. I read the Double Helix as a tale about how Science might advance by inspiration and creativity in spite of manifold and powerful forces constraining the sharing of data, insights and inspirations. For me, the idea that the structure of DNA could be discovered from card-board cutout shapes of amino acids — was the fullest and most valuable content of the tale. I never regarded “Double Helix” as history or as an accurate account of events and persons, and I never worried about that. No matter how accurate or false Watson’s account, his account will forever and innately suffer from personal bias. That does not matter to me. I did not come away from reading “Double Helix”, ready to adopt a head of Watson to print and wear on my t-shirts. I departed from “Double Helix” believing in the power of creativity and imagination to discover new Truth. I was already convinced of the significant constraints that sitting on data, and refusal to think creatively too often clamp upon thought and discovery. What made me most sad in my first reading of “Double Helix” was the terrible extent to which the very constraints that Watson described were as nothing compared to what research contracts, patent anxiety and striving, cypher locks, and the closed structuring of Science which Neoliberalism has accomplished.

    1. The Rev Kev

      You might enjoy Francis Crick’s book “What Mad Pursuit” if you have the time. And if you ever get the chance, you might want to see if you can get to watch the 1987 film “Life Story” which is a dramatization of that even starring Jeff Goldblum and Tim Pigott-Smith. It actually showed Watson playing around with card-board cutout shapes of amino acids and when he superimposes one atop the other, it all falls into place and is riveting watching. I suspect that Markel’s book will not have the context of the time a proper treatment which would explain a lot of what went on.

  28. lance ringquist

    the ap and hill articles on food and food banks is the direct results of the quake theory of free trade, and the disasters that have ensued from nafta billy clintons disastrous polices.
    how much food is grown for cash crops for export only in the u.s.a.? there is plenty of farming production that can be busted up from the corporations, and instituting tariffs, excise taxes, duties, and capital controls to encourage production for internal usage.
    this was already covered by lincoln and his advisors and supporters, this was well known since the first half of the 1800’s as to what would happen if america ever came under the control of free trade idiots. look at what wilson did.

  29. drumlin woodchuckles

    When the Daily Mail tells us that inflation is higher in non-coastal “mid-country” areas than it is on the coasts, they aren’t telling us if certain-same-things cost more in “mid-country” than they do on the coast. If that is the case, then mid-country has a right to wonder why. But if the certain-same-things cost now the same in mid-country as they do on the coast, then that raises a different “why”?

    Because in that second scenario, I would wonder if things had been already been more expensive on the coast than what they had been in mid-country, and if so, then mid-country is only being caught up to where the coast was already partway at, in terms of high prices.

    So what are those granular facts?

    ( Regardless, most people are politically disengaged till a week or two before any one election or another.
    If 5 million people watch Fox News and 5 million people watch MSDNC, that means 325 million people are not watching either one. So when those non-watchers go to vote, they will notice if things are better or worse for them, and if worse they will say try the other guy, and if the same or better, they will say keep the guy we have).

    1. Keith Newman

      @drumlin
      “that means 325 million people are not watching…” etc. Insightful way of putting it.
      Thanks.

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