Weekend Open Thread

12 thoughts on “Weekend Open Thread”

1. Someone needs to break the ice – afternoon!

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2. Hey there…

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3. Voyageur's obit

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   1. RIP.

       

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   2. thanks for the link … I very well could have missed it otherwise.

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4. Thanks for posting it, Gengis. I just opened my Sunday Post; it’s there.

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5. And another one down, and another one down. Another one bites the dust:https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/05/another-norfolk-southern-train-derails-in-ohio-railroad-says-no-toxins-aboard.html

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6. Great rant:

   I’m an increasingly passionate believer that we are plagued by demosclerosis, the term coined by Jonathan Rauch to describe the way democratic governments get all gunked up with regulations, rent-seeking, interest-group capture, and self-dealing among entrenched bureaucracies (an idea first developed by Mancur Olsen, praise be upon him). This is a huge problem at the national level. Noah Smith recently penned an excellent “rant” about how liberals think the proof of progress on infrastructure and housing is spending money on building things rather than actually, you know, building things. He doesn’t mention it, but education spending is another example. We’ve poured hundreds of billions of extra dollars into education in just the last decade, and the money just sloshes around for the benefit of the education bureaucracy while the students fall further behind.

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   1. I'm not surprised that bureaucracies are more or less bureaucratic. That is a marginal problem.

      The real problem is twofold, or rather two halves of a single fold:

      (1)"Regulatory Capture". The Fox is in charge of the chicken coop. Corporations take control of the bureaucracy so it works the way they want. (See rail-safety regulations).

      (2) "Kleptocracy" Wealth is Power. The super-rich own the politicians, own the Supreme Court, own the tax code. That's what they do… because they can –  It's how the system works.

      The United States is the wealthiest society on earth. Productivity has sky-rocketed since the industrialization of the 19th Century. If the super-wealthy and the super-corporations weren't skimming of the great portion, there would be plenty of money for schools, health-care, research, etc.

      Think I'm exaggerating? Why do we have any billionaires at all?

      I mean I understand why Michael Jordon makes $100 million (or whatever it is). But Elmo Mush is rich because he has power, not because he invented anything.

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7. An example of another job immigrants aren’t taking from Americans:

   Fentanyl Is Smuggled for U.S. Citizens By U.S. Citizens, Not Asylum Seekers

   An NPR‐​Ipsos poll last week found that 39 percent of Americans and 60 percent of Republicans believe, “Most of the fentanyl entering the U.S. is smuggled in by unauthorized migrants crossing the border illegally.” A more accurate summary is that fentanyl is overwhelmingly smuggled by U.S. citizens almost entirely for U.S. citizen consumers.

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   1. Excellent article.

      Fentanyl is everywhere around west Colfax- almost  every bus stop has people huffing it, hoodies or blankets over their heads as they inhale the evil, burnt popcorn-smelling fumes. 
      Residents in the rehab facility where I work are constantly exposed to cheap, easily available fentanyl. It’s easy to get and easy to hide. Some will go back to prison because they can’t stay away from the stuff. A few could overdose and die. 
      Somebody’s making bank over all this suffering- but it isn’t immigrants. 

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   2. But the evil-drug-smuggled-in-by-illegal-aliens mantra fits so much better into the MAGA narrative than the big pharmaceutical companies being the culprit and greed being the motive.

      It allows the white trash morons to vent their anger over the fentanyl epidemic while blending it with their xenophobia. It's a two-fer.

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