Links for 6/25/2020

Links for 6/25/2020
Hitting Vigano' and MAGA are shooting fish in a barrel.

Social distance at Church (and in society) is both inadequate and too much because the role of an initial cold was minimized due to perceptions. People are not virus monsters - if they don't sneeze, it does not spread. Of course, when sneezing does occur, many write it off as hay fever until it is too late. The pandemic will take vulnerable seniors out of Church. Some may surrender to age and not return.

I still contend that Barr is the bright shiny object making stupid and futile gestures to hold Trump off from doing more damage. The Flynn case needed an off-ramp. If he had kept his mouth shut (instead of pandering to Trump in a victory lap), his case would have been over a year ago. On NY, if I wanted to protect SDNY, I would have made the same moves. Barr is not a corrupt dolt, even if he plays one on TV. He knows never to look smarter than the boss, which is a tall order with this president.

Averages are misleading. When controlled by class, the significant difference for non-whites is that they have little income from stock market assets. Assets in the stock market are not real wealth - they are monopoly money. As for the poor, income figures don't generally include transfers. For the non-white elderly, not having the same level of assets does have an impact on quality of life - until markets crash and burn (as they always do). My former father-in-law found himself working in retirement because of the dot.com bubble burst.

Welfare programs need a huge rethink - with payments for gaining literacy at minimum wage levels, increasing the child tax credit and making it refundable and distributed with other benefits and higher minimum wage levels (much higher). This will also help seniors and the disabled without assets.

Trolling and threats are endemic on all Internet discussion environments. They are never to be taken seriously. They are only terrorism if you read them. Sadly, teens take them literally and sometimes they spill over into the hot house environment that is modern schools.

Non-Zionist history generally shows that Israelis picked their own fights in 1947 and responded asymmetrically. The treatment of Gaza is unconscionable. Cede it back to Egypt.

Pat Buchanan and his scotch bottle agree with Churchill on western civilization. Both were disastrously wrong. On statues, you can never be sure who the vandals are. Any counterfactual on Hitler winning would have to include him not being driven mad by syphilis. Unreal. For the Roma, life behind the iron curtain was no picnic.