What went wrong with the neoliberals

 This might be a thought dump.

Neoliberalism made a lot of sense in the 80s and 90s. Liberalism had spawned some crappy outcomes, such as huge welfare rolls. There was also a huge increase in crime, though it wasn't clear that liberalism caused it. Liberalism might have been abetting it. 

Liberalism was anti-war, and also anti-military, sometimes to the point of advocating that the US get rid of nuclear weapons and greatly reduce the military. Liberalism was pro-union, and some of the unions were driving uncompetitive pay and benefits. Some liberalism bordered on communism, with the profits being vilified.

So it made sense to have a different flavor of liberalism where a strong military helped the US and the rest of world. Where unions shouldn't go crazy. Where free trade was better than protectionist tariffs. Where profits were good as long as workers shared in the benefits. Where welfare should be reformed and work emphasized. Where crime was an individual choice and was damaging to society and therefore should be prevented and punished. In many ways, neoliberalism was a better fit for the US, which is a fairly conservative country. I'm not sure why the US is such a conservative country, but it has been that way for quite a long time, maybe throughout our history. 

Yes, neoliberalism made sense. I was very much a neoliberal. But it failed to address some huge issues, though, to be fair, no other political ideology handled the issues either. The big issue was the hollowing out of American manufacturing. This affected jobs everywhere, but most strongly in the cities, where urban populations were left without decent sources of income. 

Maybe even more so, no one has found an answer to the worsening income inequality, which makes all sorts of economic situations worse. The opportunities to work hard and better oneself are diminished for all but the most entrepreneurial and risk-hardy. Job security becomes less and less, and that also means that people don't have security in their health insurance and healthcare. The middle class has been getting more and more insecure. The lower class have always been insecure, with even less chance for improvement. 

So on fundamental issue of economic well-being, neoliberals have failed the US, as has everyone. 

If I'm right and the fundamental issue is economic well-being, what should the policy plans be? That's the topic of a different post. 

Image: marketwatch.com

Extras. I found a relevant article after I wrote this. It's more historical than mine. It also fails to have an alternative. 

May/June links

(Catching up on posts started a while ago. This one originally written around so long ago it's embarrassing)

The man who recorded the confrontation and death of Ahmaud Arbery, he was very nervous about his role in the incident. He tried to distance himself and wished for justice for Arbery. Now he is also charged in the murder.

Michael Flynn in the news. Transcript of his call to the Russian ambassador.  The adviser to judge says no, you can't just drop charges against someone who pleaded guilty.

Egregious incident of stalking and harassment by ebay security employees. ebay!!!!

Trouble counting lots of absentee ballots. States need to step up and make this work better.

Qanon is strange and fascinating - not what they write, but how people are responding to this weirdness and hokey conspiracy thing. More about the origin and internals in a video with a founder of 8chan (starting at 37:46).

Bolton's book, delayed by the Trump administration, showed that quid pro quo was actually standard for Trump.

According to Steve Bannon, Trump's campaign is wobbling. Trump needs to be the president and take care of the problems, like the huge covid crisis.

Interesting law ruling from the Supreme Court that concerns tribal lands. It expands the power and independence of the tribes.

Image: chicagotribune.com

Looking back at New York City and the pandemic

(Catching up on posts started a while ago. This one originally written around 6/13/20.)

Hindsight is 20/20, they say, but Google helps sort out what we knew when. I was having an online argument with someone who said that we knew 'within a few days' that covid-19 affected mostly people over the age of 65. But did we? (No, we didn't. There were plenty of younger patients needing hospitalizations, and we didn't have a good idea of who would live and who would die until about March 20, and even then we didn't if it would be different in locales in the US.)

I also decided to check the run-up to the surge in NYC. I found two great contrasting views. The first is that the Health Department in NYC is excellent and has managed so many medical issues, so they will manage well (March 5). The other view, from an ER doctor (March 2), was that they weren't prepared at all. They didn't have tests that they needed, and they were about to be deluged. Hundreds in a few days, thousands by next week. The ER doc was right on the timing, the numbers, and the deluge.

The deluge came March 19. The number of cases nearly doubled that day. It was only one day after Governor Cuomo announced measure for reducing workforce exposure by allowing only 50% capacity at workplaces. Just two days later he announced all non-essential workplaces must close.

So New York went very quickly from a few cases to hospitals being swamped. With so little testing available, they didn't see the growing numbers but in early March, the ER doctor did, but there wasn't proof by testing. A little over two weeks later, there was the surge of admissions of those too sick to weather the illness at home. That was not so different from in Italy, where they were blase about covid-19 at the end of February, and suffered their surge on March 8.

(I may add more later.)

Image: cityandstateny.com

Overview and link dump for US demonstrations and riots

(Catching up on posts started a while ago. This one originally written around 6/9/20.)

George Floyd, a very tall, robust black man, was killed while in police custody on May 25 in Minneapolis. A police officer kept his knee of Floyd's neck for about 9 minutes while two other officers pinned his back and legs. This killed Floyd. The video of much of the incident, including the entreaties of onlookers to let him up and check his pulse, went viral and there were massive demonstrations and some rioting and looting on the next day. Demonstrations, rioting, and looting became widespread in many cities, with demonstrations happening in many cities and towns across the US.

One of the most dramatic scenes was a crowd of rioters trying to get into the CNN world headquarters. They smashed several huge lobby windows, and only a line of police kept them at bay. The crows was dispersed after about 30 minutes by teargas shot from police outside the building. The mayor of Atlanta and other notables pleaded with rioters to stop and go home.

Taking the knee, the protest symbol popularized by the football player Colin Kaepernick, became the symbol of understanding the anger at the death and police brutality in general.

At times like this, I watch a lot of eye-witness video. This one struck me. A looter in New York City is tackled by a demonstrator who yells that the looter isn't a black ally. The demonstrator grabs the looter so tight that not even two people can pull them apart. That is a lot of passion against looting.

Because there was so much vandalism and looting, rumors sprang up indiscriminately. It was people from out-of-town coming with UHauls to haul the loot away. It was antifa being funded by George Soros and placing bricks at locations where they wanted looting. Bus loads were being sent to rural areas to loot the towns there. It was false flag operations of white nationalists or Boogaloo Boys hoping to start a second civil war.

Some of the police crackdowns are harsh, and caught on video too. More people died in the looting and rioting.

Trump was flummoxed on what to do. On June 1, he tried to make a speech and take a stand, but it was a dismal attempt. He took a walk to a nearby church that had been vandalized, and held up a bible for pictures. To allow his walk to happen, thousands of peaceful protesters were hit with rubber bullets and pepper balls, punched, truncheoned (less frequent) and herded out of the way with violence. Attorney General Bill Barr was supposed in charge of the operation though he has tried to distance himself.

Tucker Carlson, who raised the alarm about the covid-19, was raising the alarm about Black Lives Matter protesters and rioters coming to YOU.

And three months later....

The demonstrations are still going on. A few new atrocities have happened or survived. This just shows (as we knew) that Floyd's killing wasn't an isolated incident. 

Image: nydailynews.com

What about hydroxychloroquine?

(Catching up on posts started a while ago. This one originally written around 6/4/20.)

I've been following this on another forum that is strictly private and invite only. But I've been alerted to some information that made me think this was worth following.

I call this drug chloroquine for short. Who wants to type more than that? Not me. (Also called HCQ, which is short enough.)

So Trump impetuously announced that this was a very promising drug. It had been tried on SARS patients with maybe some success, and then SARS disappeared. So it was looked at for covid almost immediately. Early results were very mixed. Then Trump put his foot in it, and people started snatching it up, causing shortages for the people who needed for lupus treatment. That showed how idiotic is was of Trump to mention it.

It also caused a lot of politicization of the drug. Pro-Trump people touted it. Anti-Trump people panned it. This is ridiculous because politics is totally extraneous to whether a drug works or not. Luckily I wasn't sucked into the pro- and anti-camps, and look at it just as a scientific and medical question. Does it work?

I followed leads that sounded promising. ...Maybe it had to be taken with zithromax.  ...Maybe it had to be taken with zinc. ...Maybe it was effective if taken early in the course of the disease along with zinc.

I read about a medical director at a nursing home in Texas that gave it to a bunch of patients, without getting informed consent, but good results. I read that a doctors' group (AAPS) petitioned the governor of Arizona to allow its use and submitted a group of studies. Then I read that the doctors' group is a group of conservative quacks that also contains weird anti-vaxxers. And their evidence isn't well explained so I couldn't verify that they were accurate in what they claimed. One claim I could verify: India is giving healthcare workers chloroquice as a preventative measure, and has increased the numbers receiving it. However there aren't hard numbers reported. A critique of India's decision.

Image: grainmart.in

Extras. Article with a very long thread of professionals discussing it. A report from Michigan on its trials.

Reviewing voter suppression

(Catching up on posts started a while ago. This one originally written around 5/27/20.)

Even though Republicans have discovered and are chasing a new terrifying form of voter fraud (fraud from mail-in ballots), I'm still parrying claims that they weren't doing any other kind of voter suppression, which is also known as making it harder for some (poor/old/students) to vote. So I quickly found some excellent sources on this information:

From The Guardian, an excellent state-by-state listing.

People having a tough time getting the required ID - two articles.

I'm looking forward to when the New York Times will let me read this article about Alabama.

Image: wfae.org

When the pandemic came to town

(Catching up on posts started a while ago. This one originally written around 5/15/20.)

Sometime after the first wave is done if we don't have a second wave too soon after, the US should set up a bipartisan committee to work at how we and other countries dealt with the arrival of the pandemic. Look at the preparedness and pandemic infrastructure and that kind of thing. Look at who did well and borrow the best of their ideas.

I've already started looking. Much of Asia did well, largely because they got blasted by the H1N1 pandemic, so they set up much more robust response infrastructure. Europe and the US, we were blind and dumb about it, so we're getting blasted by this pandemic.

But even in Europe, there's a contrast. I looked at Italy and Sweden. Italy was rather in denial, and more than a little angry that their tourist trade was dropping sharply. Wrong response and blind to what could happen. So there wasn't much of an official plan, not a lot of information, and the epidemic spread quietly until all hell broke loose in northern Italy. Then they had to shut down the entire country because no one knew how far it had spread. It was an object lesson to a lot of other countries, including the US.

Then there is Sweden.
 Public health measures 2/28
Workplace measures 3/4

Image: bbc.com

Extras. Great video from Italy.