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AuthorWilliam McClain

February 20, 2023 [Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American]

By William McClain
In Heather Cox Richardson [Letters from an American]
February 22, 2023
230 views
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  • Biden’s Visit to Kyiv: President Joe Biden made a five-hour visit to Kyiv, Ukraine, to pledge the US’s “unwavering and unflagging commitment” to Ukraine’s sovereignty, democracy, and territorial integrity. The US notified Russia of the visit, causing an MiG-30 to fly from Belarus during the visit, triggering air raid sirens.
  • Russia’s Failed Invasion: A year ago, Russian president Vladimir Putin and Chinese president Xi Jinping pledged a partnership with “no limits” to counter US global leadership. On February 24, 2022, Russian tanks rolled across the border into Ukraine, but have since lost half of the territory they once occupied.
  • Biden’s Coalition: Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a coalition together and presented a united front with Zelensky and allies and partners in defense of democracy. Biden pledged another $460 million in aid to Ukraine, emphasizing that US support for the country is bipartisan.
  • Marjorie Taylor Greene: Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) called for dividing the nation, echoing the 1850s elite southern enslavers who resented majority rule. Former representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) reminded Greene that secession is unconstitutional.
  • Munich Security Conference Report: The Munich Security Conference reported that the Russian war on Ukraine is a war of authoritarianism on a rules-based international order. Vice President Kamala Harris said the US had determined that Russia has committed crimes against humanity.
  • Fox News Channel Propaganda: Fox News Channel personalities are trying to spin Biden’s visit to Ukraine as proof that he doesn’t care about the train derailment in Ohio, acting as a propaganda outlet for Trump. A filing in Dominion Voter Systems’ lawsuit against FNC revealed last week that they knowingly lied to their viewers about the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election.
  • Putin’s Speech: Putin is scheduled to address the Russian Federal Assembly tomorrow. Russian forces have taken severe losses in their recent stalled offensive in eastern Ukraine near Bakhmut. Biden’s speech in Poland will follow later in the day.

Published February 21, 2023
Visit Letters from an American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post February 20, 2023

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Repost: Much of what you’ve heard about Carter and Reagan is wrong [Noah Smith, Noahpinion]

By William McClain
In Noah Smith [Noahpinion]
February 22, 2023
300 views
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  • Carter was the one who beat inflation. He inherited a modest deficit from his predecessor and kept it at about the same level throughout his presidency, and appointed Paul Volcker as the Fed Chair, who raised interest rates to 17.61%, causing the first Volcker Recession in 1980.
  • Carter was the Great Deregulator, not Reagan. Despite Reagan’s fiery rhetoric, he passed only two pieces of deregulation during his two terms in office, while Carter passed seven major pieces of deregulatory legislation.
  • Reagan didn’t increase defense spending by much. In dollar terms, Reagan increased military budgets, but when adjusted for GDP, it looks much less impressive and was much lower than the military outlays of earlier decades.
  • The fall of the USSR is more complicated. The most convincing economic explanation for the Soviet collapse in the late 80s comes from Yegor Gaidar, a Soviet official who later became Prime Minister of Russia, who suggested that the Soviet economy collapsed due to the oil glut that began around 1985.
  • Lessons to take away. Successful policy takes a long time to work, American policy is driven less by ideology and presidential personality than we think, and presidential elections are not always as cataclysmic as we may think.

Published February 21, 2023
Visit Noahpinion to read Noah Smith’s original post Repost: Much of what you’ve heard about Carter and Reagan is wrong

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The Bitter End of “Content” [Freddie deBoer, Freddie deBoer’s Substack]

By William McClain
In Freddie deBoer
February 22, 2023
289 views
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  • The video is nonsensical, not in some avant garde way but to fulfill its economic purpose, leaving the viewer confused as to what exactly is being conveyed is a feature, not a bug – the more people are baffled by the video, the more they’ll comment on it to register their confusion, the more times they’ll send it to friends to try and figure out that which cannot be figured out.
  • The videos I’m talking about here are those that drive people to click and, crucially, to linger through the video until it finishes through confusion and unsatisfied expectations. They exploit people’s dislike of “not getting it” to drive engagement.
  • A big trope in the genre is to post anodyne footage of a beach setting, footage in which nothing scandalous happens, and attach some leading language, creating an expectation that is never fulfilled.
  • Bad math is a constant, with meaningless symbols added to equations under the pretense of demonstrating a trick for solving math problems.
  • Pointless “riddles” abound, with the text having the cadence and format of a riddle, but the question posed having no answer.
  • Artificially delaying the arrival of the actual point of the video is common, driven by the algorithm or the monetization scheme that reward videos where viewers watch to the end.
  • Many of these videos are faked, with their creators very well aware that they don’t work at all, but they get the clicks anyway.
  • The internet is like a person you know who you think can’t possibly stoop any lower, and then manages to pull it off, over and over again, driven by the values that we baked into online life years ago.
  • Content Farms: Content farms churn out endless fake hacks that do not work, and get clicks regardless.
  • The Marketplace of Attention: Low-quality or dishonest content still gets clicks, so platforms have no reason to do anything about it.
  • Dangerous Hacks: Some of these faked cooking hacks are legitimately dangerous, and platforms are not doing enough to prevent them.
  • The Race to the Bottom: So long as advertising is the dominant funding source of the online world, any and every creative platform will be a race to the bottom.
  • Alternatives: Legacy media, crowdfunding and other options exist that do not rely on manipulation of attention and are more likely to result in quality creative work.

Published February 20, 2023
Visit Freddie deBoer’s Substack to read Freddie deBoer’s original post The Bitter End of “Content”

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Jamaica’s nuclear future [Matthew Yglesias, Slow Boring]

By William McClain
In [Slow Boring]
February 22, 2023
256 views
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  • Happy President’s Day! – This week is a holiday for D.C. Public Schools, so the family is spending it in Jamaica.
  • Jamaican Politics – Prime Minister Andrew Holness is pushing forward with plans to ditch the monarchy and become a republic.
  • Vacation Mailbag – Noah Smith wrote a post just before Christmas on Jamaica’s economic development, and the tl;dr is that Jamaica hasn’t managed to get on the manufacturing train to complement tourism.
  • Bauxite Mining – Jamaica doesn’t make aluminum because they don’t have enough electricity, and electricity prices in Jamaica are high.
  • Small Island Problems – Islands are vulnerable to climate change, have limited interregional power transmission, and are too small to support multiple competing oil refineries.
  • Renewables in the Caribbean – Renewables are pollution-free, but they take up a lot of land and the market is just not large enough to support them.
  • Energy Middle Income-ness – Jamaica needs the ability to consume much more energy. They have low motor vehicle per capita, air conditioning is rare, and they suffer from water insecurity.
  • In Search of a Can Opener – There is no magical solution to the energy scarcity problem, but it’s important to take all dimensions of the energy problem seriously.
  • Industry Higher Up the Value Chain: Developing countries need more energy to get richer and cope with climate change. This will enable them to access more cars and air conditioners, and improve their quality of life. Air conditioning can also help kids learn more in school and improve productivity in private industry.
  • In Search of a Can Opener: There is no magical solution to the energy scarcity problem, but it is important to take all dimensions of the problem seriously.
  • Nuclear Power: Advanced microreactor designs could be built and operated much more cheaply than traditional large light-water reactors. The existing American regulatory framework is poorly designed to give them a chance.
  • Jamaica Could Do the World a Favor: Jamaica has its own nuclear regulatory agency and Charlyne Smith, a Jamaican-born nuclear engineer. Striking a deal with one or several nuclear startups could be beneficial to Jamaica and the world.
  • U.S. Population Density: When discussing population density, it is best to discuss the contiguous U.S. including all 50 states. This does not actually change the population density much, but it eliminates Alaskan objections.

Published February 20, 2023
Visit Slow Boring to read Matthew Yglesias’s original post Jamaica’s nuclear future

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COVID-19: Where to Go from Here [Emily Oster, ParentData]

By William McClain
In Emily Oster [ParentData]
February 20, 2023
242 views
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  • When I started this newsletter my vision was to write about pregnancy and parenting.
  • The COVID pandemic dramatically changed the focus of this work, and for most of the first two years, the majority of the posts here were about COVID-19. Over the past year, this has become less and less true.
  • Looking through the archives, it has been months since I wrote about COVID.
  • One reason for this is that there haven’t been a lot of updates. But more importantly, people stopped asking. This newsletter aims to be responsive, and, frankly, I get more questions these days about lead in chocolate than COVID-19.
  • It seemed like an appropriate time to address this. The COVID situation has evolved, for now, to what seems like a steady state. COVID is not gone, and (more on this below) it is still a significant health concern. But with high vaccination rates, and a large share of the population having had the virus, it has receded as a threat. Barring unexpected changes, we have arrived at a place where we are likely to stay for a while.
  • This means that when I address questions — which I’ll do below — these are really long-term answers. There was a time when the COVID situation seemed to change minute by minute; that time is not now.

Published February 20, 2023
Visit ParentData to read Emily Oster’s original post COVID-19: Where to Go from Here

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A Resigned Politician’s Advice for George Santos [Caroline Mimbs Nyce, The Atlantic]

By William McClain
In [The Atlantic]
February 20, 2023
273 views
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  • George Santos is, despite controversy, still a sitting member of Congress.
  • Jeff Smith, a former Missouri state senator, receives calls from panicked politicians seeking advice on navigating scandal.
  • Smith’s advice tends to lean toward the practical, such as staying out of jail and fixing one’s marriage.
  • Smith advises those facing scandal to consider factors such as public opinion polls and viability in the next election.
  • If Santos came to him today, Smith would advise him to recognize that he cannot effectively represent his constituents in his current state.
  • Smith stresses the importance of taking responsibility for mistakes and managing expectations of those who may have had one’s back.
  • Smith believes Trump has changed the rules of the resignation calculus, with some people surviving things that would have been career-ending in past years.
  • Smith believes Santos is motivated primarily by a lust for stardom and prominence, rather than any core beliefs.

Published February 20, 2023
Visit The Atlantic to read Caroline Mimbs Nyce’s original post A Resigned Politician’s Advice for George Santos

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February 19, 2023 [Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American]

By William McClain
In Heather Cox Richardson [Letters from an American]
February 20, 2023
227 views
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  • The Advanced Placement course on African American studies changed between February 2022 and February 2023, when the word “systemic” was removed. The College Board says this was not in response to its rejection by Republican Florida governor Ron DeSantis.
  • The far right opposes the idea that the United States has ever practiced systemic racism, and Trump’s 1776 Commission sought to refute the 1619 Project. Since Trump left office, far-right activists have worked to remove books and prohibit teachers from talking about patterns of racism.
  • On March 2, 1942, General John DeWitt issued Executive Order 9066, which led to the forced removal of about 125,000 Japanese, German and Italian aliens, or persons of Japanese ancestry, from their homes and held in camps around the country.
  • This order was rooted in a 1790 law limiting citizenship to “free white persons”, and the 1923 Supreme Court decision in *United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind* solidified this. Asian immigrants were excluded from citizenship based on the argument that they were not “free, white persons.”
  • This exclusion led to Chinese Exclusion Act, the Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1907, and other laws discriminating against Chinese immigrants. Japanese-Americans were also discriminated against, and in 1942, were forced into internment camps.
  • The WWII changed U.S. calculations of who could be a citizen, as Japanese-American soldiers fought for the nation, and Congress overturned Chinese exclusion laws and made natives of India eligible for U.S. citizenship. Japanese immigrants gained the right to become U.S. citizens in 1952.

Published February 20, 2023
Visit Letters from an American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post February 19, 2023

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Why Students in Kentucky Have Been Praying for 250 Hours [Olivia Reingold, The Free Press]

By William McClain
In [The Free Press]
February 20, 2023
301 views
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  • For the last four years at her Christian college, Gracie Turner had been keeping a secret: she had lost her faith. She had been blaming God for the struggles she was facing, including cancer ravaging her great-grandmother, family falling apart, and anxiety, depression and a back injury.
  • Last Sunday, something changed: Gracie spontaneously blurted an idea to her roommate to go to chapel. When she opened the doors, the same chapel that had never spoken to her before was suddenly alive with more than a thousand people weeping, swaying and singing with their eyes closed. Gracie felt at peace and protected.
  • This sparked a movement: tens of thousands poured into that Kentucky chapel to experience what Gracie felt, coming from states like South Carolina and Oklahoma, Canada and Singapore. The pews were packed with people who shared a single conviction: God was visiting a two-stoplight town in Kentucky.
  • The revival started with a sermon from Zach Meerkreebs, a volunteer soccer coach: He spoke about experiencing radically poor love, even from the church, and invited people to experience God’s perfect love. His message moved people to stay and pray, and then spread via social media.
  • This is not the first time Wilmore has combusted with prayer: Asbury University’s website lists eight prior revivals, with the largest cresting in 1970. Revivals were at their height in eighteenth-century America, and more recently, college campuses have been the center of revivals.
  • This revival is happening at a time when Gen Z is the most likely generation yet to say they don’t believe in God: They are also the least religiously affiliated and the least likely to attend church, and their rates of depression and anxiety are soaring. This revival provides hope and freedom to a generation that is feeling heavy and desolate.

Published February 19, 2023
Visit The Free Press to read Olivia Reingold’s original post Why Students in Kentucky Have Been Praying for 250 Hours

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Introducing a Sunday Series from Douglas Murray: Things Worth Remembering [Douglas Murray, The Free Press]

By William McClain
In [The Free Press]
February 20, 2023
277 views
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  • Things Worth Remembering is a column dedicated to exploring the importance of committing literary treasures to memory.
  • Boris Pasternak’s inspiring story of standing up to Stalin’s regime by reciting Shakespeare’s Sonnet 30 highlights the power of memorization and its ability to resist oppression.
  • George Steiner was a polymath and scholar who emphasized the value of memory and inspired Douglas Murray to share the story of Pasternak and Sonnet 30.
  • Shakespeare’s Sonnet 30 is a timeless piece of literature that speaks to the collective experience of loss and grief and highlights the power of memory.

Published February 19, 2023
Visit The Free Press to read Douglas Murray’s original post Introducing a Sunday Series from Douglas Murray: Things Worth Remembering

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Why Fox News Lied to Its Viewers [Adam Serwer, The Atlantic]

By William McClain
In [The Atlantic]
February 20, 2023
265 views
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  • Fox News lies to its viewers, and there is evidence to prove it. This is not a mere accusation or allegation, it is a fact.
  • It is difficult to determine whether people are making false statements knowingly or not, but with Fox News, there is proof of their commitment to knowingly misleading their viewers.
  • The most compelling example of Fox News consciously lying to its viewers is the Dominion defamation lawsuit, in which evidence shows Fox knew that the election fraud allegations were baseless, but kept airing them due to fear of losing viewers to Newsmax.
  • Fox News’s lawyers argue that they were merely covering newsworthy allegations and exercising editorial judgment, but internally they knew this would lead their audience to see the fictitious allegations as legitimate, which is irresponsible.
  • This reveals a Fox News propaganda feedback loop, and that despite the right-wing argument that conservatives distrust mainstream media outlets because they do not tell the truth, Fox News executives and personalities understand that their own network loses traction with its audience when it fails to tell the lies the audience wishes to hear.
  • Finally, if Fox News beats the lawsuit, it is because of the very free-speech protections that the conservative movement has spent years railing against.

Published February 19, 2023
Visit The Atlantic to read Adam Serwer’s original post Why Fox News Lied to Its Viewers

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