I attended a local vigil for Renee Good in Hingham MA this afternoon. It triggered some thoughts, as follows: in August 1988 I arrived in Prague on the 20th anniversary of the Soviet invasion. I was just an American traveling in Eastern Europe, unaware of the significance of the day. /1

The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. You might guess which birthday this is today.

Boston turns out - it’s so crowded it’s hard to get a good view of the whole crowd! Boston Common is packed!

I stand with President Trump that we should do everything to destroy the hate-filled organizations which radicalized the shooter of Charlie Kirk. Wait, I’m getting an update …

My one take on the discourse today: it is interesting that our “elites” believe that in a historically violent country, awash in guns, allowing or indeed providing content that degrades and dehumanizes people will NOT result in violence. /1

Here’s an old Soviet joke: every day a man walks past a newsstand on his way to work. He stops, looks at the front pages, then continues on his way. After a few weeks of this, the news dealer stops him one day and asks, “why don’t you ever buy the paper?” “Oh, I don’t really want the paper,” /1

Actually, my main reaction to the Times hit piece on Mamdani is, “if that’s all they’ve got the man must have lived a life as pure as the driven snow.” Quite a contrast to his rivals!

Hey @willbunch.bsky.social , I know you are a big Philly booster so I wanted to let you know that I had a great time in your hometown last weekend! I was there with some of my HS athletes for the New Balance Nationals at Franklin Field. We stayed downtown, it was lively, public transit was good /1

It seems to me that Trump’s asserted effort to balance the trade in goods with every other nation is a modern equivalent of bringing back the barter economy, at least as it applies to international trade. “We’ll swap our goods for your goods.” I wonder why we stopped doing that in ancient times?

Listening to Patrick Wyman’s Tides of History on the middle Roman Republic while doing chores this morning. A couple of lines hit me like a brick: “Nothing was more dangerous for a state in the ancient world than elites who wanted to seize that state for themselves.”

Apologies for the long thread but I’ve been thinking about this for a while. I had a great teacher at MIT, the economist Rudi Dornbusch. When discussing currency crises, which occur when confidence in a currency collapses and its value plummets, he would always say, /1

if rahm wants to run he is even more delusional than i thought www.politico.com/news/magazin...

MSPB (Merit Systems Protection Board) rules this AM that the firing of 6 probationary employees in the Dept of Energy was an illegal reduction in force. Employees reinstated. Logic applies to all fired probationary employees.

Just returned from a rally at the West Roxbury MA Veterans Admin hospital supporting laid off federal workers. Several hundred in attendance. Focus was on veterans services but support for all federal workers was expressed by the speakers. /1

Even though Republicans were the drivers of the trade policies which helped drive manufacturing out of the Midwest in the 90’s, Democrats got most of the blame. Why? Because workers thought that the Democrats were there to protect them and they didn’t. 1/

There’s much to be afraid of in the US today. Musk is employing his “move fast and break things” mantra, but he and his youth corps don’t understand what they are dealing with and will certainly break many things. If they crash the economy, as seems possible if or even likely, things get ugly. /1

As we watch corruption overtake our government in real time, let’s not lose sight of one of the prime villains here: John Roberts. Roberts has done more than any other player to institutionalize corruption, starting with Citizens United. 1/2

Merry Christmas everyone!

Kennedy assassination.

Willie Mays, Polo Grounds (as a SF Giant vs. the Mets, not as a NY Giant).

RFK Jr. potentially wanting to pull polio vaccine FDA approval deserves considerably more handwringing and consternation than Luigi Mangione killing that insurance CEO

When elites talk about "civility," they mean it's time for the little people to shut up and mind their own business

Repost if BlueSky is now your primary social media site.

'This process includes the replacement of all first-rate talents, regardless of their political loyalties, with crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is the best guarantee of their loyalty.' (The Origins of Totalitarianism, renewed version, A Harvest Book New York, 1976, 339)

….other as much as we can. We’ve grown used to thinking of the government as the ultimate guarantor of our safety and security, but it may become the ultimate threat to both. We have to help each other when we can. /end

…get out quickly before other countries close their borders to Americans. Your specific concern as to when to leave might be different, but there probably is such a case. I’m sure some of you have considered other scenarios, please share them! We’re all in this together and need to help each /5

…the country on short notice. In my case, as an older person, a concern is a new pandemic. Bird flu has been in the dairy cow population, who knows if it might break out again. With a tinfoil hat crackpot in charge of health policy, there may be no vaccine and no containment policy. I may need to /4

It may be tempting to try to ride a Trump Bubble for a while, but you might be caught in a Trump Crash. It’s hard for me to say right now which assets will be safest, but it needs to be considered. (3) update your passport or get one if you don’t have one. It’s possible you may need to leave /3

RSV if you’re older. If you are receiving prescriptions, get as much supply as you can. If you are on Medicare or Medicaid, think ahead to what you will do if benefits are cut. (2) protect your assets. Economic policy is likely to be irrational/dysfunctional for some time, markets may fluctuate. 2/

We’ve all spent the last 24 hours processing the disaster, and I’ve now turned to practical thoughts about how to protect myself and my family. Here are my initial thoughts: (1) protect your health. Do you need a vaccine: get it now. Update your tetanus. Pneumococcal pneumonia, shingles. 1/

Watching UK media tonight highlighting the official report on the government’s Covid response. It’s pretty damming. Did the US have some kind of official inquiry, and if not why not? There’d be plenty to criticize….

Highly recommended! acoup.blog/2024/07/05/c...

I took a feat for this