Zorro
Zorro's JournalThe U.S. Is Lagging Behind Many Rich Countries. These Charts Show Why.
The United States is different. In nearly every other high-income country, people have both become richer over the last three decades and been able to enjoy substantially longer lifespans.
But not in the United States. Even as average incomes have risen, much of the economic gains have gone to the affluent — and life expectancy has risen only three years since 1990. There is no other developed country that has suffered such a stark slowdown in lifespans.
Why has this happened? There are multiple causes. But one big one is a lack of political power among the bulk of the population.
Government policy and economic forces have combined to make corporations and the wealthy more powerful, and most workers and their families less powerful. These workers receive a smaller share of society’s resources than they once did and often have less control over their lives. Those lives are generally shorter and more likely to be affected by pollution and chronic health problems.
Here, we show you a series of measures — about power, living standards and more — for a variety of countries. Together, they portray the disturbing new version of American exceptionalism.
We’ll start with union membership.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/02/opinion/politics/us-economic-social-inequality.html
Trump's Virus Is Spreading, and His Economy Is Stalling
The president leads a transition to sickness.Just over two weeks ago The Wall Street Journal published an opinion piece by Vice President Mike Pence titled “There Isn’t a Coronavirus ‘Second Wave.’” The article was supposed to reassure the nation.
What it provided, instead, was a clear illustration of the delusions and magical thinking that have marked every step of the Trump administration’s response to Covid-19, producing an epic policy disaster.
Put it this way: By now, according to Trump officials and sycophants, we were supposed to be seeing a fading pandemic and a roaring recovery. Instead, we have a fading recovery and a roaring pandemic.
About the pandemic: The Pence article cheerily declared that “cases have stabilized,” with the daily average number of new cases only 20,000. Even that figure, as it happens, was five times the number in the European Union, which has a third more people than America does. Since then, however, new cases have soared, hitting more than 50,000 by some counts on Wednesday.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/02/opinion/trump-covid-economy.html
The U.S.-China confrontation is not another Cold War. It's something new.
With U.S.-China relations in free fall, the Trump administration’s chief arms control negotiator recently proclaimed that "we know how to win these races and we know how to spend the adversary into oblivion.” This obvious allusion to America’s triumph in the Cold War was only the latest sign that the decades-long rivalry with the Soviet Union has recaptured the attention of Washington’s foreign policy elite.
One prominent camp of experts and former dignitaries is arguing that a new Cold War with China would be a mistake of historic proportions, to be avoided at all costs. Others are offering advice for how to prevail: enlist India as an ally, say, or perhaps befriend Russia. While China’s foreign minister is warning that the United States is pushing “to the brink of a new Cold War,” a former Trump official has already announced “the start of a new Cold War.”
It may be tempting to reach for the Cold War playbook. Two superpowers now stand off in geopolitical, military and ideological competition. They compete for allies and influence across multiple regions. Both wish to avoid the profound destructiveness of hot war, but neither is willing to acquiesce in the other’s preferences. Competition stretches across multiple domains, simultaneously and indefinitely. This all sounds familiar.
But looking backward to the Cold War obscures more than it illuminates about U.S.-China competition today. The Soviet Union and the West formed coherent blocs — in Europe, for instance, NATO stood on one side and the Warsaw Pact on the other. Nonaligned countries in key strategic regions were relatively few and far between. The name of the game was to contain the other’s expansion while finding new allies where one could. Contested spaces saw proxy wars and battles for alignment, and little economic activity took place between blocs.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/02/us-china-confrontation-is-not-another-cold-war-its-something-new/
It seems nothing will stop Trump from moving ahead with his dangerous Fourth of July events
FROM THE start of the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, President Trump has stubbornly and stupidly refused to follow the advice of health professionals. He won’t wear a mask. He has mocked those who cover their faces. He has thumbed his nose at social distancing and other prudent guidelines as he insists on holding large, indoor political rallies. Now, as much of the country wisely cancels or scales back Fourth of July celebrations to protect people’s health, Mr. Trump is plowing full steam ahead with not just one — but two — massive events.
On July 3, Mr. Trump will be at Mount Rushmore for a celebration and fireworks display, and on the Fourth he will be back in Washington to host events that will include multiple flyovers by military aircraft and a 35-minute fireworks display over the Mall. Most localities have scrapped their traditional festivities, coming up with imaginative replacements such as virtual fireworks or on-screen festivals as they urge people to stay home and stay safe. But nothing — not health experts’ concerns about large gatherings, not alarming spikes in recent days in virus case levels, not pleas from worried D.C. and Washington-area officials — gives pause to Mr. Trump about going ahead with these potentially dangerous events. “The American people have shown tremendous courage and spirit in the fight against this global pandemic just as our forefathers did in the fight to secure our independence, and both deserve celebration on America’s birthday this year,” a White House spokesman emailed us Wednesday when we questioned the wisdom of having thousands of people gather on the Mall.
Local officials have banned gatherings larger than 50 people in a bid to stop the infection’s spread, and together the officials and people of Maryland, Virginia and the District have made progress in slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus. That makes all the more infuriating Mr. Trump’s insistence on importing to the region the heedlessness he has encouraged elsewhere. Local edicts don’t apply to federal land, so Mr. Trump can pretty much do what he wants, even if it is against the advice and wishes of health experts, local officials and park professionals. Despite the White House spin about Americans deserving a celebration, this is not about them but about the president’s desire to be at the center of a grand setting.
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) is urging people to stay home and keep their celebrations small and safe. It’s good advice. There will be many more Fourths to enjoy the fireworks — for those who live to see those days. We hope people — in South Dakota as well as the District — heed Ms. Bowser’s sound advice.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/it-seems-nothing-will-stop-trump-from-moving-ahead-with-his-dangerous-fourth-of-july-events/2020/07/01/ff3adc8e-bbc1-11ea-80b9-40ece9a701dc_story.html
Republicans are warning that tyranny is on its way
Republicans are getting very worried about what might happen if Democrats win big this November. The polls look bad for President Trump, Democrats enjoy a lead in the battle for the House as big as the one just before the 2018 blowout, and the GOP’s Senate majority looks increasingly imperiled.
Faced with that kind of situation, some are spending less time arguing that their policy preferences are superior to Democrats’ policy preferences, and have instead gone to apocalyptic predictions of catastrophe should the Democrats take control. Here’s a striking one from conservative writer Rod Dreher:
https://twitter.com/roddreher/status/1278492626560352256
You can smell the panic. And he’s not alone.
If your memory stretches all the way back to 2009, that kind of thing may sound familiar. When Barack Obama — a center-left president who spent years trying to win Republican support for his agenda — took office, many on the right absolutely lost their minds with fantasies of oppression and dictatorship.
Republicans said over and over again that Obama was a “tyrant,” when all that was happening was that he was enacting the policies he ran on. As Jon Stewart said in April 2009 after running through a litany of conservatives decrying Obama’s tyranny, “I think you might be confusing tyranny with losing."
“When the guy that you disagree with gets elected, he’s probably going to do things you disagree with,” Stewart continued. “Now you’re in the minority. It’s supposed to taste like a s--t taco.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/02/republicans-are-warning-that-tyranny-is-its-way/
Trump drops bombshell: 'These are numbers'
President Trump on Thursday morning appeared before reporters in the White House briefing room to rattle off a bunch of numbers — unemployment numbers, stock-market numbers, consumer-confidence numbers. For much of the presentation, he was reading off of prepared materials. But this is a fellow who can’t resist ad-libbing.
And so at one point, he added, "It’s coming back faster, bigger and better than we ever thought possible,” said Trump of a bounce-back in economic indicators. “These are not numbers made up by me. These are numbers.”
Boldface added to highlight a classic case of Trump-style articulation, if you can call it that. The observation that “these are numbers” would appear to be an empty one. Situated alongside the assertion that Trump didn’t make them up, though, it acquires some meaning — as in, these are real numbers. Someone who lies as much as Trump needs a way to signal when he’s not lying.
Daniel Dale, the CNN reporter who fact-checks Trump in real time, tells the Erik Wemple Blog that while he hasn’t done a detailed look at Trump’s performance at the Thursday presser, “on the whole the numbers were more accurate than usual, since he was reading from prepared notes rather than just talking.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/02/trump-drops-bombshell-these-are-numbers/
Trump surveyed the smoking ruin of his reelection and decided: Be more Trumpy
President Trump has surveyed the smoking ruins of his reelection campaign — dogged by disastrous polls, beset by internal conflict, regarded with growing horror by Republican elites — and proposed a reason for this failure. Trump believes that he has not been Trumpy enough.
According to a report by Jonathan Swan for Axios, the president has been telling friends that he regrets following moderate advice from his son-in-law Jared Kushner and needs to “stick closer to his own instincts.” One of Swan’s sources summarized Trump’s determination this way: “No more of Jared’s woke s***.”
Now that they mention it, it seems obvious. Trump has become so politically correct, so coy about his true beliefs. Yes, he unleashed riot police and tear gas on peaceful protesters in front of the White House. Yes, he tweeted videos of black men attacking white people, as well as the video of a supporter yelling “white power!” Yes, he accused a Black Lives Matter leader of treason and described the painting of “Black Lives Matter” on Fifth Avenue in New York as “a symbol of hate.” But, still, his public personality has become so diluted and constrained. If only he followed his instincts and spoke from his gut, the campaign would be okey-doke in short order.
We are accustomed to vanity and self-delusion from the president. But this is really something. Trump has been untethered from sound, constraining advice for much of his first term. Now, faced with the disastrous consequences of his authenticity, he tries to place the blame on one or two scattered moments of sanity. Only those who want to see Trump’s political career crash and burn would agree with his analysis. (And oh, by the way: GREAT INSIGHT, MR. PRESIDENT!)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-surveyed-the-smoking-ruin-of-his-reelection-and-decided-be-more-trumpy/2020/07/02/c3a5bcce-bc8f-11ea-8cf5-9c1b8d7f84c6_story.html
Joe Biden is leading in Florida as Donald Trump's popularity sags
Crises have diminished Trump's standing with nearly every demographic.President Donald Trump is losing his hold on important swing voters in Florida, imperiling his chance of another four years in office, according to recent polls.
The global health catastrophe, ensuing economic collapse and protests nationwide have tested Trump’s leadership and left his popularity diminished, polls have found. The fallout has created an opening in the country’s largest swing state for his Democratic rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.
Biden leads Trump in Florida by 5 percentage points, 47.4 percent to 42.5 percent according to a Tampa Bay Times analysis of statewide polling data.
The average isn’t perfect, and neither is any poll. Each poll comes with a margin of error, an estimate of its accuracy. Usually, it means that 95 percent of the time, a candidate’s support should be within that margin of error range. There is no range for the poll average — it simply uses multiple polls to provide a more precise estimate than any one particular survey.
https://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2020/07/02/joe-biden-is-leading-in-florida-as-donald-trumps-popularity-sags/
Fire at Iranian nuclear site hit new centrifuge facility, analysts say
Source: AP
A fire and an explosion struck a building above Iran’s underground Natanz nuclear enrichment facility early Thursday, a site that U.S.-based analysts identified as a new centrifuge production plant.
The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran sought to downplay the fire, with spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi saying only that an “incident” had affected an “industrial shed” under construction. However, both Kamalvandi and Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi rushed after the fire to Natanz, which has been targeted in sabotage campaigns in the past.
Kamalvandi did not identify what damaged the building, though Natanz governor Ramazanali Ferdowsi said a fire struck the site, according to a report by the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
A photograph later released by the Iranian atomic energy agency showed a brick building with scorch marks and its roof apparently destroyed. It wasn’t clear if that was the “shed” to which Kamalvandi referred. Debris on the ground and a door that looked blown off its hinges suggested that an explosion accompanied the blaze.
Read more: https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-07-02/fire-iran-nuclear-site-hit-new-centrifuge-facility
Something about this report makes me go "...Hmmmmmm..."
It must have been quite a good sized "industrial shed" fire to be be seen from space.
Two Midwestern cities. Two local billionaires (Koch and Buffett). Which one can boost prosperity?
In the middle of America, without intention or, really, anyone noticing, a decades-long, real-world experiment shaped by the money, politics and eccentricities of two 80-something billionaires is underway in two equally white, Christian, Republican cities.
Just as they left their imprints on a nation and a world, Charles Koch, who hails from Wichita, Kan., and Warren Buffett, a folksy son of Omaha, have changed the trajectories of their hometowns. Today, their cities, like many scattered across the plains, are working to reinvent themselves at a time when economies are threatened and a pandemic grows.
A race is on to draw in millennials from overpriced coastal areas to seed a Midwest revival, and the competition for young professionals is fierce. Neither Wichita nor Omaha are obvious magnets. Both have struggled with brain drain in recent decades. They have lost manufacturing jobs, population growth has slowed, and resignation has settled in.
But both cities are known for one hot commodity: those engaged local billionaires, both of whom consider themselves experts on prosperity.
Koch, 84, is the chief executive of Koch Industries and is worth an estimated $48 billion. He’s a notorious political power broker instrumental in steering the Republican Party toward its current minimalist approach to taxes and government services. Tax cuts coupled with spending cuts, his theory goes, goose the economy and attract jobs.
Buffet, 89, is the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and is giving most of his $72-billion fortune to philanthropic causes. He champions public services — especially education — as the rising tide that lifts communities, and he believes that taxing the wealthy is the way to pay for those services.
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-07-01/two-midwest-cities-two-local-billionaires-koch-buffett-which-one-can-boost-prosperity
I'v never been to Wichita, but the one time I was in Omaha I found it to be a very attractive city, with a modern, uncrowded downtown and a really nice airport (perhaps because STRATCOM HQ is located there). I thought it would be a pretty decent place to live, except for the weather (I prefer not having to deal with winter snow or spring tornadoes).
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