I have visited parks with giant statues of leaders in former-Soviet countries. But I never knew something similar had been attempted in the US recently. And of course it was a private enterprise over here. It’d be cool to see these statues in their present state.
Here's how the US compares to 18 other high-income countries regarding the mortality rates of COVID-19.
TL;DR: poorly
Shocking level of dangerous ignorance.
A brief daily summary of impeachment news, since nobody can keep up with all this stuff.
At that point, the days when American Jews can live comfortably within the Democratic fold will be numbered.
Do not underestimate the capacity of Democrats to self-sabotage ahead of the 2020 elections.
"ADL H.E.A.T. Map is the first-of-its-kind interactive and customizable map detailing extremist and anti-Semitic incidents around the nation. ADL experts in its Center on Extremism developed this unique visualization with data points extracted from information sources including news and media reports, government documents (including police reports), victim reports, extremist-related sources, Center on Extremism investigations and more."
This is a very good video essay about the use of disinformation as a weapon by the KGB. Especially interesting, needless to say, given what's happening around the world in the last couple of years.
Everytime I hear someone I know who's reasonably smart and educated say something along the lines of "you don't know who to believe anymore"* regarding the news media, I am filled with a sense of dread over the effectiveness of these campaigns.
Terrifying,
Online comic strips about the inner workings of the US government.
Any reasonable observer already knew this. And sadly those that didn’t won’t change their minds after this blunder.
“Like many Jewish journalists who reported on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, I spent the 2016 election being harassed by a motley crew of internet racists who coalesced around the future president. They sent me threats, photoshopped me into gas chambers and hurled an uncreative array of anti-Semitic slurs my way.”
What an opening paragraph.
This article is worth a read, if anything for being honest about facts and history.
Act 1. Obama's 2012 "red line" blunder sent a clear message that Assad/Putin can do whatever they please in Syria and the US won't do anything about it.
Act 2. Trump's bizarre infatuation with Putin plus it's non-interventionist rhetoric sends an even clearer message that Assad/Putin can do whatever they please in Syria and the US won't do anything about it.
Act 3. This.
This is a very interesting behind the scenes look at a piece of recent history.
I bet a lot of countries are thankful now that Israel took this step.
This is happening right now in the USA.
What a beautiful building.
Re: Elections tomorrow, in case you have not voted early.
This is not about some of the most commonly discussed issues disqualifying Trump to be president (i.e. racism, sexism, demagoguery, etc.).
This is about Trump's stance on nuclear weapons and NATO. I don't think Trump being president means nuclear war. But I do believe that his stance of these issues are yet another example of how incredibly, deeply unprepared he is to be president of the United States.
“We’ve had this view that the voters were with us on conservatism — philosophical, economic conservatism. In reality, the gravitational center of the Republican Party is white nationalism.”
This would explain why the Republican presidential candidate can oppose free trade and a strong foreign policy and still have the majority of the voters support him.
That's a pretty long list of signatories.
What's worse?
Major candidate to US presidency tweets an image with stereotypical antisemitic imagery and ...
a) Does it knowingly.
b) Is so ignorant that does not realize why it's bad.
c) Does not lose any votes over it.
Two observations: 1. Politicians do not pay a price high enough for lying, so for them the math works out and it's worth lying. 2. Debates and the nation would benefit greatly from live fact checking.
This article is from before the events in Baltimore.
Click%20through%20and%20zoom%20in%20to%20your%20city.
Pretty shameful, honestly.
The fact that things like this are happening in the USA is truly hard to believe and understand for foreigners.
It's astonishing that a full third of the richest nation in the world choose to "reject" one of the most widely agreed upon scientific theories in biology. Horrendously backwards.
People who have opinions that aren't based on facts but in faith (or hatred) and TV news channel that is happy to spread them. Recipe for a disastrously divided, ignorant society.
Absent from public discourse, the harm that America's lax gun policy has outside of the USA. From the article:
According to former President Felipe Calderon, who oversaw the government’s efforts to crack down on drug cartel-related violence, Mexican authorities seized over 140,000 weapons (including 84,000 high-powered assault weapons) during his term. Up to 70% of these firearms were traced back to the US. In a press conference earlier this year, Calderon lamented that “One of the main factors that allows criminals to strengthen themselves is the unlimited access to high-powered weapons, which are sold freely, and also indiscriminately, in the United States of America.”
The nerve of those Obama hippie supporters who think people should have access to health care! Every sane Romney voter knows the only right people should have is access to assault weapons!
Interesting article about Michael Oren who is in the difficult position of being Israel's ambassador to the US in the time of Bibi and Obama.
Michael Oren is a historian and wrote one of my all-time favorite books: Six Days of War.
Funny rant.
Interesting article on the broken immigration policy in the US. I lived through this hell... Instead of making it easy to bring in highly educated workers, they are making it hard which is deflecting them to other countries. First you lose your technological edge, then you lose your first world nation status.
A mathematician looks at the obesity epidemic in the US. Math is a great tool to abstract and model reality in a way in which opinion and sentiment does not get in the way. Very interesting article.
Unbelievably retrograde.
More frightening statistics highlighting incredible levels of ignorance. Who's to blame?
Most people don't realize just how badly the US lags other countries in telecommunications.
Worth looking at.
For those driving from Mexico to the U.S. or viceversa, this website shows the time estimate for the crossing time. Most useful during this holiday period.
Little piece of American history I did not know about.
Funny Busted-Ts parody t-shirt for a 2012 Sarah Palin campaign with Joe the Plumber as her running mate.
Great essay on the historical relationship between the United States and Mexico. In Spanish.