The Nation: “An Audacious Proposal for a US-North Korean Alliance,” by Tom Shorrock
I am not entirely clear what this article is recommending, but I still find it interesting. This is the third article in The Nation
that I have read that sees a silver lining in, or at least some
rationale behind, President Trump’s foreign policy. I wonder why this
is. The Nation is a very left-wing publication. It has
anti-Trump articles. Even on this one, you can sign up to “join the
resistance!” Yet, it can be somewhat positive about Trump. And it
leaves the impression that Trump is doing something outside-of-the-box
and groundbreaking.
The Nation: “Democrats Shouldn’t Defend Bad Policies Just to Resist Trump,” by Robert L. Borosage
I read this one just now! This article is critical of Trump towards
the end. Yet, it has this gem: “The tempest over the Fed illustrates
what is becoming a repeated syndrome. In his chaos presidency, Trump
clearly relishes disrupting established convention and institutions.
Often—as in his vile slander of immigrants, his racist pandering to
neo-Nazis, his incessant attacks on ‘fake news’—he spreads poison and
division, seeking to delegitimize checks on his misrule. But in some
areas—particularly those central to his populist posturing—he challenges
entrenched institutions and policies that are long overdue for
transformation. In many cases, his targets are those that progressives
have criticized for years.”
The New Yorker: “Donald Trump’s New World Order,” by Adam Entous
This article could have been shorter, but it was still an
informative, enjoyable read. It chronicles President Obama’s
relationship with Israel; the developing relationship between Netanyahu
and candidate, then President-elect, then President Trump; and the
growing alliance among Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab
Emirates against Iran, and how that can impact U.S. policy towards
Israel and the Palestinians. It has a lot of “behind-the-scenes”
stories: people are alleged to have said things, but they deny saying
them.
Global
Research: “The Expansion of U.S. Military Installations in Argentina
and Their Implications for Argentine Sovereignty,” by Dr. Birsen Filip
This article is about current U.S. pretensions for its presence in
Argentina (i.e., combating drugs and terror) and its historical
pretensions for its presence in South America (i.e., the Cold War); how
the U.S. Defense Department assumes the reality of climate-change and
desires access to Argentine water; and why a number of Argentines do not
appreciate the U.S.’s presence and view it as deleterious.
National Review: “Trump Tackles the Art of the Drug-Price Deal,” by John Fund
What the FDA is doing to bring competition and lower prices into the realm of pharmaceuticals.
John C. Goodman: “ObamaCare Can Be Worse than Medicaid”
I have long appreciated John C. Goodman’s analysis of health care
issues. I noticed that I had not been receiving his NCPA e-mails for
several months, and I found that he has started the Goodman Center for
Public Policy Research. I cannot say that I agree with Goodman on
everything, but he does have ideas about reducing the cost of health
care in this twenty-first century technological era that, in my opinion,
deserve consideration. This article details some of the usual problems
about Obamacare. Not enough healthy people are paying into the system;
a lot of sick people have signed up for it; Obamacare’s attempts to get
money from the healthy to the sick have been inadequate; and a number
of places are simply not accepting Obamacare insurance. I may sound
like I am seeing this as an abstract policy discussion, but I understand
and appreciate that this issue involves real people, with real-life,
even life-threatening, problems.
Mother Jones: How the Hospitals Serving Trump Voters Are Closing—-and He’s Letting It Happen,” by Becca Andrews
Essentially, some of the red states did not accept Medicaid
expansion. Uninsured people come to the emergency room and hospitals
have to treat them. This taxes hospitals’ finances, and rural hospitals
close.
R.J. Rushdoony on Native Americans
Reading this again, I cannot entirely endorse the tone of this
status. Still, it was interesting to me that Christian
Reconstructionist R.J. Rushdoony had a heart for the plight of Native
Americans, based on his experience working with them.
SFGATE: “Meghan McCain a Feisty New Presence on ‘The View,'” by David Bauder
She has certainly grown as a pundit! I remember watching her on
“Real Time with Bill Maher” and “ABC This Week,” and she was not very
impressive. On the View, however, she speaks with confidence and knowledge.
Fox
News: “John Schneider on indicted ‘Smallville’ co-star Allison Mack:
She was ‘wonderful, very levelheaded’,” by Sasha Savitsky
I haven’t said anything on this blog before about this. It’s been a few years since I have watched Smallville.
I have still been saddened by all this. Chloe was my favorite
character. She is the sort of character who would expose something like
NXVIM, not join it and become its junior ringleader! I read another
article a while back about why she joined: she had not gone to college
and she wanted wisdom and a mentor, and she thought she found that in
Keith Raniere. I remembering visiting her web site, years before all of
the legal issues erupted, and people were warning her about him. I
watched one of his videos and I could see his charisma: he calmly talked
about how our failures and insecurities can actually make us more
creative. That may sound like pop psychological mumbo-jumbo to some,
but I can understand how one can be a sucker for that kind of spiel.
But to become a ringleader in the activities that Raniere was promoting
behind the scenes? How would a person degenerate to that? Anyway, this
line in the article stood out to me: “Schneider said his own legal
troubles have made him take Mack’s case with ‘a grain of salt.’ He was
recently released from a five-hour jail stint over unpaid spousal
support in his ongoing divorce battle with his estranged wife.”