https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/26/opinion/biden-trump-democrats-rural-america.html

«Democrats should be proud of what the party has been and is — the party of Social Security, Medicare and Obamacare, of greater opportunity for more and more Americans — and what it stands for, and its values: for smart government being part of the solution, not the problem; for health care as a right, not a privilege; for clean water and air and effective climate solutions; for taxation that doesn’t favor the rich; for equal opportunity for all; for life chances and opportunities that aren’t determined by one’s ZIP code, race, gender, faith, sexual orientation or gender identity.

These are Democratic values. They can play everywhere, including in rural America. Run on those.»

Interesting. Zelenskyy as transitional figure.

https://www.investopedia.com/should-america-pay-slavery-reparations-5080415

«Estimated costs for the program fall somewhere around $16 trillion, the entire current-day book value of the four generations of slaves who lived in the United States from after the country’s independence in 1776 until the Emancipation Proclamation in 1865.»

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2022/04/slavery-probe-harvards-ties-inseparable-from-rise/

I read another article a while ago about this that was a little sadder. Controversy among the various Black folks affected/involved on what should be done. Now I can’t remember it clearly, including whether they thought $100 million was enough. I know it sounds like a lot, but so is interest compounded over 300 years.

Harvard’s total endowment is $50 billion.

https://www.elizabethgilbert.com/dear-ones-yesterday-i-wrote-on-twitter-ive-never-seen-any-life-transformati/

«I’ve never seen any life transformation that didn’t begin with the person in question finally getting tired of their own bullshit.»

https://gizmodo.com/infowars-looks-to-dodge-sandy-hook-conspiracy-responsib-1848805709

Gizmodo’s headline wins.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/black-history-american-democracy.html

Reconstruction *continues* to be unwound.

«Perhaps their biggest achievement was the establishment of that most democratic of American institutions: the public school. Public education effectively did not exist in the South before Reconstruction. The white elite sent their children to private schools, while poor white children went without an education. But newly freed black people, who had been prohibited from learning to read and write during slavery, were desperate for an education. So black legislators successfully pushed for a universal, state-funded system of schools — not just for their own children but for white children, too. Black legislators also helped pass the first compulsory education laws in the region. Southern children, black and white, were now required to attend schools like their Northern counterparts. Just five years into Reconstruction, every Southern state had enshrined the right to a public education for all children into its constitution.»

https://noahpinion.substack.com/p/the-american-socialist-worldview?s=r&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

This is a good article. Noah Smith, former Bloomberg economist-type, tees off on American socialism, with links.