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Author Archives: John Lusk
Joe Biden was the president who could not choose | Vox
Yet another article calling out that the stimulus was overdone and caused high inflation (over and above what might have been expected).
«Exactly how much inflation the law caused is debatable, but one group of economists compared the US experience to that of European countries with less ambitious stimulus programs and attributed about 3 percentage points of inflation to excessive stimulus.
Given that the inflation measure the economists used peaked at 6.6 percent, that implies that without the bill’s pressures, overall price increases could have been reduced, perhaps even halved.
That wouldn’t have just helped avoid a Trump comeback — it possibly would have been better for workers. Inflation was high enough that the median worker saw incredibly weak wage growth, certainly weaker than under Trump or Obama’s second term.…
I’m not in the best position to judge; I cheered on the American Rescue Plan as it happened, thinking the risks of overheating were smaller than the risks of being too meek. But I was wrong, and it’s worth asking how policymakers like Biden got this wrong too.»
https://www.vox.com/politics/394712/joe-biden-president-legacy-inflation-manchin
Also, I got around to reading the rest of this article, and, woah. Ouch, ouch, ouch.
Harsh condemnation of Biden. I don’t think he’ll go down as one of America’s great presidents, unfortunately.
Definitely better than Trump, but I wish he had just stuck with a single term, from the get-go. I guess any person who wants to be president wants to be president for two terms, so… here we are.
Nonprofit Founded by Stacey Abrams Admits Secretly Aiding Her 2018 Campaign – The New York Times
How Right Wingers Rushed to DEI Hire Pete Hegseth – emptywheel
https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/01/15/how-right-wingers-rushed-to-dei-hire-pete-hegseth/
«The hiring of someone for who he is and not any qualifications he might have is precisely what right wingers have been leading jihads against for years. And yet the entire MAGA world is rushing headlong to install a guy with no qualifications to run DOD.»
Trump advisers concede Ukraine peace deal is months away | Reuters
No! Not day one? I’m shocked.
The best decade, according to the data
«The good old days when America was “great” aren’t the 1950s. They’re whatever decade you were 11, your parents knew the correct answer to any question, and you’d never heard of war crimes tribunals, microplastics or improvised explosive devices. Or when you were 15 and athletes and musicians still played hard and hadn’t sold out.»
https://mikeindustries.com/blog/archive/2024/06/%e2%87%97-americas-best-decade-according-to-data
47 Years Later, The Palisades Disappeared Overnight
«What I will say though is that if we want to avoid more catastrophes like this, collective action is the only solution.»
https://mikeindustries.com/blog/archive/2025/01/47-years-later-the-palisades-disappeared-overnight
I think our great tragedy is that so many of us now think we are a nation of rugged individuals, and collective action is anathema. Or we only really want collectives of People Like Us.
The military can’t do what the police can’t do
@Nonya_Bidniss 🔗 https://infosec.exchange/users/Nonya_Bidniss/statuses/113822406976464940 –
«After the D.C. National Guard was ordered to clear demonstrators from Lafayette Square across from the White House in 2020 using tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades, a group of lawyers founded “The Orders Project” aimed at connecting up lawyers and troops looking for legal advice. One of the founders, Eugene Fidell of Yale Law School, said that the group disbanded after the first Trump administration but is now being resurrected. “With the return of President Trump, we’re ready to help people in need,” Fidell said.
…
Most legal experts agree that troops must obey all nominally legal orders. But military lawyers say it’s important for troops to remember that even if called into action they must obey peoples’ constitutional rights — including the right to assemble and to be protected from unlawful arrest and seizure or unreasonable force. “You have to follow the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth amendments. They don’t get waived,” said Dehn. … “Due process still applies,” Nunn agreed. “Military personnel deployed under the [Insurrection Act] can’t do what law enforcement can’t do. They can’t shoot peaceful protesters.”
…
Says one lawyer who has studied many cases of military-civilian conflict and spoke on condition of anonymity because he fears retribution from the new Trump administration: “I think things are going to be bad, really bad. This is going to be worse than last time. Trump is angry. He desperately wants to turn on his TV and see guys in uniform on the streets.”»
#military #InsurrectionAct #PosseComitatus #DOD #Trump #extremism #fascism
Imagine what the parents of a dead 23-year-old can do with lawyers and funding.
Early childhood infections do NOT make you stronger – get [your kids] vaccinated
@nat 🔗 https://partyon.xyz/users/nat/statuses/113823245707324194 – via Unambiguous Science: “A new longitudinal cohort study found that children who were sick more often in early childhood were more likely to continue being sick in later childhood with more moderate to severe infections and require more antibiotic therapies. “…there are no advantages to being sick in early childhood, and these infections simply do not strengthen the immune system. This myth needs to stop.” https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2828688 #covid #longcovid #maskup #covid19 #birdflu #vaccines
Here, Read This 