URLs du Jour

2021-05-25

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Not much today, sorry.

  • Nothing Strange About It. Michael Graham pounces: Racist Graffiti Story Highlights NHDems' Strange Silence on Anti-Semitism. It's the sad story of State Rep Manny Espitia (D-Nashua) who tweeted:

    Then things got even uglier:

    Someone claiming to represent the group responded on the social app Telegram:

    “Anyone with a name like ‘Manny Espitia’, State Rep or not, has no moral right to throw shade at any true (White) Nationalist New Hampshirite. You have no right to be here, you’re an occupier here and the days of these types trampling on New England are coming to an end.”

    That single message, likely from out of state (“New Hampshirite?” Please.), inspired a surge of media coverage from WMUR, the AP, even Newsweek. Espitia pledged not to back down to the hate, and New Hampshire politicians from both sides of the aisle condemned the threat and defended the Nashua Democrat.

    But what nobody did was reference in any way the glaring fact that the only ethnic group singled out by these haters was…the Jews.

    A probably unworthy thought: if you are a True Believer in Fundamentally Racist America, what better way to demonstrate that belief than to… post a pile of racist/antisemitic ugliness on social media.


  • It Beats Waiting Until It's Totally Broken. Brian Riedl highlights A Modest Step Toward Entitlement Reform. (As an "entitled" oldster myself, my ears perked up.)

    But not all hope is lost. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), joined by a bipartisan coalition of senators such as Kyrsten Sinema (D-Arizona), Todd Young (R-Indiana), Mark Warner (D-Virginia), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia), and Rob Portman (R-Ohio)—as well as a bipartisan coalition in the House—has introduced the TRUST Act (S. 1295), which would set up a bipartisan legislative process to keep the Social Security, Medicare, and highway trust funds solvent.

    It is not an overstatement to point out that Washington’s long-term solvency and nothing less than America’s economic future is at stake. Over the next 30 years, Social Security and Medicare face a combined $100 trillion cash shortfall. This staggering shortfall is simply the amount of scheduled benefits and resulting interest costs that will exceed these programs’ incoming payroll taxes, benefit taxes, and Medicare premiums. And while some fixate on the raided Social Security trust fund, that comprises just 3 percent of the $100 trillion hole.

    Brian points out that 71 senators voted (non-bindingly) in support of this approach. (Including NH's Shaheen and Hassan).


  • What, Again? Matt Taibbi takes a look at those noble truth-seekers who just keep getting it wrong: "Fact-Checking" Takes Another Beating. The sudden transformation of the COVID lab-leak theory from a "pants on fire" lie into "well, maybe" is detailed.

    Like fact-checking itself, the “on the one hand and on the other hand” format is just a defense mechanism. These people say X, these people say Y, and because the jabbering mannequins we have reading off our teleprompters actually know jack, we’ll let the passage of time sort out the difficult bits.

    The public used to appreciate the humility of that approach, but what they get from us more often now are sanctimonious speeches about how reporters are intrepid seekers of truth who sit next to God and gobble amphetamines so they can stay awake all night defending democracy from “misinformation.” But once you get past names, dates, and whether the sky that day was blue or cloudy, the worst kind of misinformation in journalism is to be too sure about anything. That’s especially when dealing with complex technical issues, and even more especially when official sources seem invested in eliminating discussion of alternative scenarios of those issues.

    I would prefer humility.


Last Modified 2024-01-20 6:01 AM EDT