“Fatherlessness”

https://twitter.com/TalbertSwan/status/1199767729366020097?s=20

Bishop Talbert Swan (@TalbertSwan) Tweeted:
30% of white children are born to single mothers. 40% of white marriages end in divorce with the father leaving the home. Most “deadbeat” fathers owing child support whose children are on welfare are white.

Why isn’t “fatherlessness” every cited as a problem for white families?

Americans dying younger

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/theres-something-terribly-wrong-americans-are-dying-young-at-alarming-rates/2019/11/25/d88b28ec-0d6a-11ea-8397-a955cd542d00_story.html

American exceptionalism:

«the broad trend detailed in this study cuts across gender, racial and ethnic lines. By age group, the highest relative jump in death rates from 2010 to 2017 — 29 percent — has been among people age 25 to 34.


….

“This report has universal relevance. It has broad implications for all of society,” said Howard Koh, a professor of public health at Harvard University who was not part of the research team.


The report reveals a broad erosion in health, with no single “smoking gun,” said Ellen Meara, a professor at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice.


“There’s something more fundamental about how people are feeling at some level — whether it’s economic, whether it’s stress, whether it’s deterioration of family,” she said. “People are feeling worse about themselves and their futures, and that’s leading them to do things that are self-destructive and not promoting health.”

….

The average life expectancy in the United States fell behind that of other wealthy countries in 1998, and since then the gap has grown steadily. Experts refer to this gap as the United States’ “health disadvantage.”

Uplifting Russian tweets

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/russia-troll-2020-election-interference-twitter-916482/

Social media (including Facebook, yo): careful what you like and re-post. You may be getting played.

(I normally think The Rolling Stone is junk, but this is dead on.)

(That Uplifting Tweet You Just Shared? A Russian Troll Sent It)

«As good marketers, professional trolls manipulate our emotions subtly. In fall 2018, for example, a Russian account we identified called @PoliteMelanie re-crafted an old urban legend, tweeting: “My cousin is studying sociology in university. Last week she and her classmates polled over 1,000 conservative Christians. ‘What would you do if you discovered that your child was a homo sapiens?’ 55% said they would disown them and force them to leave their home.” This tweet, which suggested conservative Christians are not only homophobic but also ignorant, was subtle enough to not feel overtly hateful, but was also aimed directly at multiple cultural stress points, driving a wedge at the point where religiosity and ideology meet. The tweet was also wildly successful, receiving more than 90,000 retweets and nearly 300,000 likes.»

A mega-wealthy philanthropist changes his mind about school reform and what kids really need — and Barack Obama has a surprising reaction – The Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/06/19/billionaire-changes-his-mind-about-school-reform-what-kids-really-need-barack-obama-has-surprising-reaction/

Interesting. Nick Hanauer decides charter schools aren’t the answer and a $15 minimum wage is. (And Obama agrees with him.)

«“There were zero charter schools when I began ‘helping’ our education system. Today, there are over 7,000,” he said. “But our country has never been more unequal, polarized and angry.”»

(This is what happens when you see a long article in The Atlantic and say to yourself, “Oof, I’ll read that later,” and then never get around to it.)

Facial recognition and our brave new world

https://twitter.com/RVAwonk/status/1197854677188173825?s=20

Facial recognition and our brave new world:

Caroline Orr (@RVAwonk) Tweeted:
We’ve already seen footage from protests in the US and in other countries used to target protesters. The interview below describes how the Assad regime monitored footage uploaded online after protests, then used it to ID, detain, & torture dissidents. 5/ https://t.co/Hib3u4LwR7 https://t.co/Vxjtwj7y1x