Ken Levy at Counterpunch says that "Sorry, But It's Entirely the Right's Fault" we're such a polarized nation now -- and it's mainly because right-wingers argue and reason so badly. I'm pleased to see he offers "Exhibit A" as Newt Gingrich, as I found Real Change to be one of the most poorly-argued books I've ever read. Please pray very hard that I never decide to describe exactly how awful it is in excruciating detail, possibly in an e-book. (I would argue, by the way, that the "brainwashed right" comprise a smaller percentage of the American population than Mr. Levy says -- no more than 25%, not "35-40%.")
TruthOut talks to Noam Chomsky and Ha-Joon Chang about some of the "Myths of Globalization." It's tempting to blame globalization for the world's problems, particularly since "free" trade deals that foment globalization are so awful, but it isn't really the problem -- untrammeled corporate power is the problem. You'll also be reminded that you can't just turn displaced auto workers into software programmers, regardless of what the Democratic Party's said since the Clinton era. (Mr. Chang says the Scandinavians do job-displacement retraining well, so that's a subject for further research.)
Shawn Boberg at the Washington Post finds that President Trump's "hard power" budget slashes programs that combat homelessness -- except for a subsidy that goes right to private landlords. And, of course, Mr. Trump collects that subsidy, and while experts are right to caution that we can't yet prove Mr. Trump actually insisted on keeping that particular subsidy in his budget, I'm also not a schmuck. Let me guess the Trump votary response: give him a chance he knows what he's doing but her emails he shoots from the hip both sides do it fake news shutup traitor.
Amarnath Amarasingam and Jacob Davey at the New York Times reminds us that the vast majority of terrorism in America comes from the far right -- almost three-quarters of it since 9.11, per the Government Accountability Office, even if terrorism from groups such as ISIS and al-Qaeda get more ink. (Though wouldn't we call them far-right, too?) Of course, part of the reason they get more ink is that right-wingers get their shorts in a bunch whenever they hear that most terrorism comes from the right, and then the "liberal" media stops talking about it after that. But, hey, facts are facts.
Finally, Wired provides a brutal timeline of Uber's rise and fall, with particular attention to the events of 2017. With all the ink spilled about the "gig economy" and "changing with the times," more folks should have realized that Uber has always acted like a corporation that doesn't perform a service for anyone, but instead just bullies other people into giving them money. The reason it's not obvious to so many observers, as Upton Sinclair might remind us, is that their salaries depend on them pretending it's not obvious.
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