The United States is often seen (and often sees itself) as a highly litigious society, ready to launch frivolous lawsuits for any and every reason. And there is some truth to this. However, having lived most of my life in another country, I've come to a different conclusion. The United States is not litigious by its nature, but its litigiousness is the consequence of the complete and long-standing failure of its government.
Read MoreI don't think that this is a particularly novel idea, but the more I think about it, the more the recent bailout seems magnitudes worse than anything we've seen before.
We're likely going to see unemployment at levels that will rival those of the great depression. This is a tragedy in itself, but what might be worse, is that as a result of decades of tax cuts for corporations and the rich, working class and middle class income tax plays a disproportionate role in funding government services relative to other forms of taxes. In other words, in other countries, taxes on the wealthy and on corporations constitute a much higher percentage of total tax revenue, but here, decades of tax cuts have meant that the tax burden falls overwhelmingly on average people. That is, average Americans shoulder the burden of funding the government. Consequently, the massive loss in jobs means a huge decrease in tax revenues, because the super-rich and corporations don’t really pay taxes..
Read MoreI’m extremely grateful (and flattered) that Anna Fioravanti from the Biblioteca Søren Kierkegaard in Argentina has decided to translate another piece of mine into Spanish.
Con su decisión de mantener abiertas las urnas de Wisconsin, ahora podemos agregar a la Corte Suprema a la lista de políticos y funcionarios del gobierno que literalmente han matado personas durante esta crisis. Es una lista larga y bipartidista, que incluye al alcalde de Nueva York que actuó demasiado tarde, al gobernador de Nueva York, que también actuó demasiado tarde, y que ha aprovechado este momento para hacer recortes masivos de atención médica y derogar las reformas de la fianza (esto último ayudará transformar las cárceles de Nueva York en campos de exterminio). Y a esta lista también podríamos agregar a Joe Biden, quien alentó a los votantes a ir a las urnas en Wisconsin, tal como lo hizo de manera similar hace unas semanas en Florida, Illinois y Arizona.
En estos días, sería difícil encontrar un político que no tuviera sangre en sus manos. Y si bien cada uno afirmará que estos son días en que se deben tomar decisiones difíciles, y cuando no hay buenas decisiones, esto es una mentira.
Read MoreWith their decision to keep the Wisconsin polls open, we can now add the Supreme Court to the list of politicians and government officials who have literally killed people during this crisis. It's a long and bipartisan list, including NYC's mayor who acted much too late, New York's Governor, who also acted much too late, and who has taken this moment to make massive healthcare cuts and to repeal bail reforms (the latter of which will help transform New York's prisons into death camps). And to this list we could also add Joe Biden, who encouraged voters to go the polls in Wisconsin, just as he similarly encouraged them a few weeks ago in Florida, Illinois, and Arizona.
These days, it would be hard to find a politician who didn't have blood on their hands. And while they’ll each claim that these are days when difficult decisions have to be made, and when there are no good decisions, this is a lie.
Read MoreThere is a meme circulating on the interweb within boomer and conservative circles that claims that the "survival rate" of the coronavirus is 98.2% but that you don't see this "good news" anywhere in the mainstream media. In fact, in a New York magazine article with a Waffle House employee who had survived an extreme case of coronavirus that had required hospitalization, he mentioned these same figures as part of his argument that the lock down might be worse than the disease. And this from someone who almost died from coronavirus, but who now just wants to go out to grab a beer.
In the case of the person who shared this meme on my Facebook page, I pointed out that simple math indicates that this death rate translates into 6 million American deaths. (As a comparison, this dwarfs the number of American deaths from all American military conflicts combined, beginning with the Revolutionary War and including all present conflicts).
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