Difference between Democrats and Republicans...

... from the perspective of the 2020 elections:

planet earth = terminally ill cancer patient suffering great pain

treatment options from Republicans/Democrats:
Republicans: assisted suicide
establishment Democrats (party organization): non-prescription analgesics and smiles
progressive Democrats: try to push patient into remission... that will buy time to try to find a cure

Data Hacking Elections

Democracy Now has an interview with a Cambridge Analytica whistleblower and others about data hacking of elections on the lines of Cambridge Analytica and Facebook. The cost to democracy and even self autonomy is very high... we are all being manipulated by our information consumption in ways we cannot untangle. It's very much worth viewing.

https://www.democracynow.org/2020/1/7/the_great_hack_cambridge_analytica

Be smarter

A thought exercise for shopping:

The job of any retailer or seller is to persuade or trick or con you (as a consumer) to buy what they are selling. This includes slick advertising full of fake images of fake people.

[Rich people get richer by (1) stealing from their workers - paying them poorly or tax cuts/rebates paid by workers or (2) persuading consumers to buy more and more of the stuff their workers make.]

The job of a responsible consumer is to limit the extent to which sellers trick you into buying stuff you don't need or want or may even be damaging.

... So as a Consumer, be smarter than the seller. Don't be tricked into spending more than you need or want.

The Christian Church may have achieved what Chinese Communism failed

There's a story posted on NPR about the effect of the Christian Church on Western culture, in particular, the de-emphasis of [communal] extended-family structures towards more individualistic structures called: Western Individualism May Have Roots In The Medieval Church's Obsession With Incest.

This reminds me of a story of a friend, an Chinese immigrant. When the Communists were recruiting to their cause in China (they had many of the peasant class but needed the support of the middle class), they would have open air gatherings where the communist 'missionary' would exhort their audience to reject their families and in its stead, put their faith/trust in the government. The medieval church may not have overtly stated their intent to become the center of social and cultural life but that was likely their intent... and the consequence maybe some of the defining features of Western Culture.

Single payer now!

My one personal example illustrates why the U.S. needs single payer health care... I pay over six thousand dollars in health insurance premiums per year for the 'privilege' of shelling out an infinite amount of deductible cost for medical care (which is promised to increase next year). Until my medical needs exceed my 'out-of-pocket' expenses, my insurer (Blue Cross Blue Shield) makes a profit of >6K per year just to keep my name on their 'covered' list. I have a medical issue that I really should investigate, but the prospect of paying out of pocket for doctors visits and diagnostic scans has me putting off care. I will say it again, if I could enroll in a single payer health plan for the current cost of my premium (or even with a significant increase), I would sign up in a new-york-minute. American health insurance is a scam where the insurance providers charge a high 'premium' that is immediately entered into the profit line of their accounting books at the expense of the health and well-being of their victims. This can be fixed.

Legal equivalents

campaign spending : free speech : corporate personhood (Burwell v. Hobby Lobby) :: 
free speech advocacy of gun ownership : NRA : terrorist organization

A form of Reparations?

There's been more talk of Reparations since Ta-Nehisi Coates' The Case for Reparations was published. In it, he talks about how redlining was used as a tool to essentially steal wealth from black communities. I wondered if there is a way to help reverse the effects of redlining in these communities... currently home mortgages are tied to the original lender; the mortgage taker cannot transfer a mortgage to another home buyer nor can someone who inherits a house continue to honor the terms of the mortgage to pay off the remaining debt. Lending institutions, on the other hand, can trade mortgages left, right, inside-out and upside down. *So* creating a mortgage that can be transferred to the heirs of a home owner would be a way to increase the intergenerational transfer of wealth and make it easier to build wealth over generations. Not reparations but a way to build value over generations.