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nykStemmed.txt
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a grinch steal a bank and fire an angel by nichola kristof feb 1 2020 to understand how some company have lost their soul consider what happen after us bank stiff a customer before christmas
marc eugenio had deposit a 1080 paycheck into his account at us bank
the bank put a hold on most of the sum and he spent many hour in a branch office over two days try to get access to the money so he could buy presents for his 9yearold daughter and 13yearold son
on christmas eve eugenio found himself park at a gas station in clackama ore a portland suburb both his fuel gauge and his bank balance on empty
a bank employee had told him that money would soon show up in his account — perhaps a ruse to get him out of the branch office
for hour eugenio then try his debit card at the gas pump so he could buy a few gallon and get home to his wife and children
i was stranded he told me
i could have walk home but it would have been five mile in the cold
that's when eugenio found an angel
he telephone the bank's tollfree number and spoke with emily james a senior officer at a call center in portland
she spent an hour on the phone with eugenio try to get some money release so he could at least get home
she soon realize that he had been misle and that money wouldn't reach his account any time soon
feeling badly for a customer stuck on christmas eve james offer to drive over from her call center and personally hand him 20
no no no eugenio told her
he couldn't impose
but she suggest she could use her break and she received permission from a supervise to drive 20 minutes to eugenio
she later recall that when she arrive she wish him merry christmas and hand him 20 of her own money
twenty dollar wouldn't break me she explain to me and it would enable him to get home to his family
when us bank found out that it had such a generous employee what did it do
it fire her
she broke the rule putt herself and the bank at unnecessary risk us bank said in a statement
the company bar call center worker from meeting customer so it dismiss both her and the manager who had approve her trip
the manager abigail gilbert told me that james's account was essentially correct
james had work at the bank since 2017 and had received numerous commendation and award that i examine but the bank paid her no severance
she is single and use her last paycheck to buy sack of food for her two dogs domino and harley quinn
she is now reduce to sell blood plasma at 25 a visit
i won't let myself be homeless she told me
eugenio is horrify at what happen
i was lie to and treat like dirt by the bank eugenio said and he can't understand why the bank axed the one employee who was helpful
i felt really bad he told me
how could she get fire
us bank's vision statement boast our employee are empower to do the right thing
so i try to ask the company's ceo andrew cecere why the bank fire an employee who with permission rescue a frustrate customer on christmas eve
cecere wouldn't return my call
david palombi a bank spokesman told me that an internal investigate had conclude that james misle her manager to get permission that james could have found other ways to get money to eugenio that the 20 came from the manager which gilbert confirmed to me and that james previous had disciplinary issue
i found the bank's investigate a whitewash and its explanation to be incoherent meanspirite and contradict by a series of internal bank message that i review
the bottom line is this cecere who was paid 141 million in 2018 preside over a company that has smear a muchdecorate employee who help a customer and as a result survive by sell blood plasma
i suggest cecere apologize reinstate james and promote her he might also show contrition by sell his own blood plasma and donate the proceeds to a charity of james's choose
when young america say in poll that they react more positively to socialism than to capitalism it's because of the hypocrisy of institution like us bank
i've often noted that company have enormous capacity to help their community
but too often they act like america tobacco company which kill more people than stalin did or pharma company peddle opioid or mckinsey company advise a business to get more patient on higher dose of opioid or boeing mock regulator
that's one reason to seek strong privatesector labor union at least union and corporation can then provide some check on each other
one bit of reassure some chief executive do seem more enlightened than cecere
after the oregonian wrote two excellent articles about james other company reach out to her saying that she's the kind of care person they want to attract
no job offer yet she told me but there are a couple of possibility i'm really excited by
brexit is here
sort of by the editorial board jan 31 2020 finally after 1317 days of confusion rancor and endless vote in parliament it was time for brexit
on wednesday teary member of the europe parliament join hand and sang auld lang syne a clock project onto 10 down street count down the minutes union jack line the mall before buckingham palace
a new dawn for europe leader of the europe union wrote in a joint article
this is the moment when the dawn break came prime minister boris johnson's echo from across the newly raise divide line
it was left to the dispassionate bbc to cut short the bathos brexit is far from 'done' the beeb cold said before list the many travail still to come most notably the negotiation that now begin with the eu
on the detail of britain's future relationship with the continent
mr johnson has promise not to seek an extension of the dec 31 deadline which he could though a less complex trade deal between the eu
and canada took seven years to finish
to discourage other member from exit the eu
is not likely to cut britain much slack on eu
standard and rule in their trade
britain will now also reach across the atlantic to what president trump has held out as a very big trade deal big than we've ever had with the uk which mr johnson has tout as a benefit of quit the eu
that too could prove a disappointment
a former britain ambassador to washington kim darroch — who resigned in july after his derogatory comment about mr trump leak out — was among those who noted in interview that mr trump is not given to generous trade concession least of all in an election year
in the same europe parliament session at which ursula von der leyen the president of the eu
commission promise depart britain delegate we will always love you and we will never be far aileen mcleod of the scotland national party spoke of scotland's anger over being drag out of the union and ask that the member leave a light on for scotland where brexit has fuel demand for a new referendum on independence
still the fact was that after 47 years in the eu britain was officially out and there was no go back at least not in the foreseeable future
for many briton the long and bitter debate had been less about economics and politics than about identity
those who fought to leave the eu
fought for what they saw as lost sovereignty often tinge with a sense of lost empire those who fought to stay saw the union as postimperial britain's place in the future join with the rest of europe in value standard and security
in the end after nearly three years of uncertainty and bitter voter elect mr johnson out of exhaustion to get it over with not because they had reach agreement
headline reflect the divide
probrexit tabloid join in gleeful celebration our time has come proclaim the sun offering a free giant brexit poster yes we did it
cheer the daily express in what it describe as a historic edition free and independent once more after 47 years declared the daily mail over a photograph of the white cliff of dove
those same cliff feature on the cover of the guardian a strong advocate of stay in the eu over a crumble sand castle surmount by a tiny britain flag
the headline small island
try to reconcile these divergent worldview will be the main task of coming years as mr johnson appear to recognize when he declared in a speech to the nation friday evening our job as the government my job is to bring this country together now and take us forward
… this is not an end but a beginning
for the moment what forward meant remain unclear
for at least the coming years not much would change in economic trade and practical terms but many potential battle loom over the shape of the future relationship with europe america and the rest of the world
perhaps in paraphrase winston churchill on whether the moment was an end or a beginning mr johnson would have done better to use his predecessor's entire quote that one about a military campaign 78 years ago now this is not the end
it is not even the beginning of the end
but it is perhaps the end of the beginning
china didn't want us to know
now its own file are do the talk
by adrian zenz nov 24 2019 no more deny no more dodge
the china communist party can no long hide its relentless campaign of mass internment against the ethnic minority in the northwestern region of xinjiang or claim that the effort is an innocuous educational program
what was already widely known vastly report and confirmed by firsthand account has now been prove beyond doubt by the government's own record — gigabyte of file ream of report thousand of spreadsheet — some of them classified and highly confidential
last weekend the new york times disclose and analyze the contents of a trove of leak internal china government document that outline specific policy for how to repress xinjiang's predominantly muslim minority — and reveal that president xi jinp himself set out the foundation for them
this sunday the contents of two more set of document — all of which i have review — are being disclose
among the first batch also leak is a confidential telegram sign by zhu hailun xinjiang's deputy party secretary which detail how local authority should manage and operate the vocational skill training center — a euphemism for the internment camp
all translate here are mine
the second set of document a large cache of file and spreadsheet from local government reveal the internment campaign's devastating economic and social impact on the family and community it target
the telegram — dated nov 5 2017 and address to local politics and legal affair bureau — is marked extremely urgent and bear the secondhighest level of secrecy within china's classifieddocument scheme
it reveal the extent of the security and surveillance measure taken around the camp partly to shield the camp from external scrutiny
the message a directive note that the work conduct there is strict confidential and highly sensitive in nature
even staff at the camp are forbidden from aggregate detainee figures
the authorities' attempt to enforce absolute secrecy is confirmed by another document dated november 2018 this one from a local government file in hotan county
it chide official for not protect secret related to the internment campaign well enough
it stipulate that no person is under any circumstances permit to disseminate information about detention or reeducate via telephone smartphone or the internet and that official are strict forbidden from receiving related media interview or make unauthorized disclosure about the internment campaign
that the china authority so deliberate sought to shield from external scrutiny information about operation at the xinjiang camp suggest that they are only too aware of how incriminate their policy and practice are
i was also able to obtain a massive cache of local government file from within xinjiang
among the most revealing document are thousand of detailed spreadsheet with the name identification numbers and address of ten of thousand of people mostly uighur and many of them in detention prison or reeducate camp
in yarkand a county of about 800000 people in southwestern xinjiang 96 percent of the population is uighur
six official spreadsheet about six village dated 2018 show that on average nearly 16 percent of the rural adult population was either interne or in prison
in two village in kosherik township — which the document describe as heavy pollute by extremist ideology — nearly 60 percent of all household had one person or more interne
in addition to the extraordinary scale of the internment campaign the file reveal its devastating impact well beyond the camp — deep into the community and family of xinjiang
the spreadsheet show that the government has primarily target middleage men most often the head of the household and main wageearner
beijing's occasional tour of its socall model camp often feature attractive young women
in reality people between 30 and 59 were especially likely to be interne according to the spreadsheet
the policy's socioeconomic fallout is dire — and local government are keeping a meticulous record of it
one spreadsheet from 2017 for one town in yarkand county which list household with low income that might qualify for welfare included a young family with five children between the age of three and 14
the father had been imprison the mother placed in a reeducate camp and the children in effect orphan
in another hardly unusual case a household's two workingage parent were detain leave elderly grandparent — including a grandmother describe as seriously ill — to care for two toddler
in a column with the header reason for poverty the relevant spreadsheet offer this explanation lack labor force and finances
the toddlers' father isn't schedule to be release until 2030
another spreadsheet from september 2018 show lists of loan default in pile township akto county
in 80 percent of the case where the reason for default was list as internment most of the borrow funds were shown to still be in the bank
a particularly depress example come from a village in yarkand county
a uighur farmer and head of a family of five was interne in 2017
in october 2016 he had received a loan of 40000 renminbi nearly 5700 to purchase agriculture machinery
the equipment went unused during his detention — no other family member knew how to operate it — and the loan could not be repaid as schedule
the government direct the family to rent out the equipment and send its oldest child a son to work
the family was then officially marked as have been povertyalleviate by benefit from policy
in june 2018 after his release the farmer applied for financial assistance so he could repay the loan and related interest
in january 2019 he start to work in the yarkand county textile industrial park earn just 800 rmb about 113 a month
by then the son age 20 had somehow become disabled and was list on government form as unable to work
thanks to these new document disclosure we now have hard evidence — and the government's own evidence — that in addition to implement a vast internment program in xinjiang the china communist party is deliberate break up family and force them into poverty and a form of indenture labor
for all its effort at secrecy the china government can no long hide the extent and the reach of its campaign of repression in xinjiang
some important elements are still unknown
the total internment figure remains a wellguarde secret
base on the new evidence i have revise my own estimate i think that between 900000 and 18 million people have been detain in xinjiang since the spring of 2017
also missing from the official document that have surface so far are precise record of how the detainee are treat and how exactly the process of reeducate works
about those things however we have witness account
the confidential telegram and local file do not mention the use of physical violence — but for one notable exception
the telegram states that people who resist brainwashing must be single out for assaultstyle reeducate
yet another sinister understatement and it suggest that force and torture may in fact be widely use
in a way though we already know all that we really need to know
the document that have been disclose these past few week reveal the staggering scale of the repression in xinjiang and its ruinous effects on the region's ethnic community well beyond the camp themselves
consider this official statistics show that the combine net population growth rate of hotan and kashgar two of the largest uighur regions drop by about 84 percent between 2015 and 2018
the china communist party set out it claim to transform through education ethnic minority in xinjiang
in fact it is rip apart entire community and subjugate them on a colossal scale
and this at the direction of president xi himself
china's new civil religion by ian johnson dec 21 2019 beije — in the northern suburbs of this city is a small temple to a china folk deity lord guan a famous warrior deify more than a millennium ago
renovate five years ago at the government's expense the temple is use by a group of retire who run pilgrimage to a holy mountain schoolchildren who come to learn traditional culture and a taoist priest who preach to wealthy urbanite about the traditional value of ancient china
perch atop a hillock overlook the sprawl capital the temple is a microcosm of a new civil religion taking shape in china — an effort by the china communist party to satisfy china people's search for moral guidelines by supplement the largely irrelevant ideology of communism with a curate version of the past
this new stateguide religios is the flip side of the government's harsh policy toward islam and christianity
official believe these two global faith are hard to control because of their foreign tie and they have use negotiation or force — diplomacy with the vatican arrest of prominent protestant internment camp for muslim — to try to bring these religion to heel
yet beijing's recent turn to tradition may be even more significant
even though islam and christianity are world religion in china they remain minor with the number of their combine adherent amount to less than 10 percent of the population
most china believe in an amalgam of buddhism taoism confucianism and other traditional value and idea that still resonate deep
for this silent majority of hundred of million of people the government's newfound support for things like the temple to lord guan is welcome — a feeling that the china communist party hope will bolster its legitimacy especially given the irrelevance today of its found idea
the benefit of its move to embrace the past may seem obvious but the shift mark a radical departure not just for a party officially committed to atheism but also from how reform over the past century have imagine a modern prosperous china
from the 19th century onward china's elite argue that the country's tradition and faith were a major reason for its decline
reform in 1898 call for temple to be convert into school
while the nationalist party under chiang kaishek approve of four religion — buddhism taoism sometimes call dao christianity and islam — it largely considered traditional china belief to be superstition and advocate the destruction of temple
scholar estimate that by the middle of the 20th century half of the temple that exist in china at the end of the 19th century had been destroy
an 1851 survey of the old city of beije list 866 temple today i count just 18
at the end of the 19th century most village had at least one temple and many had half a dozen vast section of the china countryside now have no temple at all
when the communist took power in 1949 they like the nationalist officially recognize four religion — but then prompt began persecute them
traditional faith came under especially harsh treatment with the government ban bedrock traditional practice from worship ancestor and local deity to following the advice of geomance master and spirit medium
the three decade of reform that start in the late 1970s loosen control over society allow the revival of all religion and many tradition that had been proscribe
despite periodic crackdown church and mosque but also temple were rebuilt and clergy train
although all faith were supposed to remain under party control religious feeling boom with the number of believer in china topping 500 million by 2010
xi jinping's rise to power in late 2012 mark a new era the third in the history of the china communist party's religious policy
instead of the destruction of the mao years and the relatively laissezfaire approach of the reform period the state has embark on a form of highly curate revival
one part of its approach rest on a deep suspicion of christianity and islam
the party's policy toward islam has been the most draconian
some believer especially uighur in the northwestern province of xinjiang have been subject to a policy of forced secularize
this has included send hundred of thousand of muslim to reeducate camp compel restaurant to serve pork and alcohol and forbidding fast during ramadan
the policy toward christianity is more nuance
last year beije struck a deal with the vatican to joint appoint catholic bishop
the vatican seem to hope to reverse the decline in the number of catholic in china
but for beije the measure was a way to tighten control over the catholic clergy — and by extension the church itself
protestant pose an especially vex problem for the party
it is arguable china's fastestgrowe religion with an estimate 60 million or more adherent today compare with one million in 1949 including some 20 to 30 million who are thought to worship in unregistered or underground protestant church
but the faith lack a unify structure that would allow for negotiation
and so the government has fire a few shot across the bow close several of the country's bestknown underground church
in many ways however the xi administration's embrace of traditional faith is more radical
since taking office the president has met with buddhist leader and his government has allow taoism to flourish
the state recently issue a landmark plan to improve social mores the first such program since 2001
the plan stem from a widespread feeling that china's relentless drive to get ahead economically has create a spiritual vacuum and sometimes justify break rule and trample civility
many people do not trust one another
the government's blueprint for handle this moral crisis call for endorse certain traditional belief
the epic paper — it runs to 10000 china character and would be significant long translate into english — doesn't mention communist china's found father mao zedong or his successor and their ideology focus instead on mr xi and his effort to fix social problem like money worship and hedonism
it do invoke communist slogan such as core socialist value but in contrast to the previous such document from 2001 — which made only passing reference to china tradition — it call the past a rich source of morality
the plan orders party official to promote ancient and worthy sage as well as to deep expound traditional concept such as ren'ai benevolence zhengyi righteous and jianyi zhengwei standing up brave for the truth
this effort is not an attempt to replace communism with confucianism
yet it is fair to say that for the first time since china's imperial order collapse in 1911 a central government is embrace the idea that made up the politicalreligious order that ran china for much of the past 2500 years
why
not only to address china's moral vacuum but also as a populist measure
the country is enter a more uncertain era of slow growth and rising inequality and beije is drape itself in the mantle of tradition to broaden its appeal
in do so the government seem to be assume that traditional china value and belief are easy to control than foreign religion and that support them will outweigh the costs of suppress islam and christianity
but i have my doubt
during a visit this fall to the lord guan temple i saw a dozen or so people mostly in their 30s and 40s reading works by wang yangm a philosopher born in the late 15th century
on the face of it this was in line with government policy the party has embrace wang for exemplify an incorruptible spirit and matching words with deed
but after reading a passage of wang's work the men and women sat around a big wooden table wield brush to write out over and over again his most famous phrase zhi xing he yi knowledge and action are one
this knowledge according to wang come from an inner light a conscience — one that no government no matter how powerful can control
china where state pomp come with real feeling by ian johnson oct 3 2019 beije — attend china's national day celebration over the years has been a bit like listen to different take of a song with the composer hone the theme and jettison the raw bit until the piece sound just right
that's how i felt at tuesday's celebration on tiananmen square held to observe the 70th anniversary of the found of the people's republic of china
i've attend two other ceremony like this before — for the 35th anniversary in 1984 and the 50th in 1999 — and i knew the basic drill there would be a big military parade follow by float celebrate the government's accomplishment
but this show felt big and brassy than either of those as if the composer had decided to use every instrument in the orchestra and cast subtlety aside
it was slick and sleek but also overpowering and at times bombast
when i received my invitation government official told me that i was lucky to attend because it was such a great honor
i nod polite but only really understood what they meant when i arrive at tiananmen square on tuesday at 6 am we media type were just a few hundred in a sea of loyal member of the china communist party ccp
and for many of them it must have felt like one of the biggest event of their lives
it would be easy to write these people off as extra
and 20 years ago the last time i was at such an event the people in attendance were mainly highly train performer who held aloft placard that spell out different message north korea–style
but tuesday's crowd was different
it was made up of university professor scientist administrator bureaucrat and people who had made some sort of contribution to the state
they weren't prop but excited participant who expect to remember this day
i notice that right away when i walk past a raise platform cover with artificial grass that surround a big television screen
people were crouch down next to the platform and neat arrange their letter of invitation paradepicture id and program almost all in the same fashion like sacrament on a church altar
then they would snap a picture aim their camera so that china's national symbol the gate of heavenly peace appear in the background
these were photo design to be boast about on social media guess where i was today
yes at tiananmen square
yes at the ceremony
and here is proof
if these were their sacrament and this ceremony was their ritual what then was their belief
that would probably be the message broadcast on the giant screen that surround us
before the parade began those screen show archive footage of the past 70 years present a story about how china had been poor and beaten down by outside powers until the communist party save the country
the mao era wasn't portray as foreign journalist and academic often depict it — a series of violent campaign against imagine enemy of the state and the worst famine in record history — but as a period of pioneer glory when china secure its border for the first time in a century built a heavy industrial base and set the stage for its economic takeoff
raise on this ideology the attendee seem visibly move when soldier carry the national flag goosestep from the monument to the people's hero at the center of the square down to the enormous flagpole
i was unnerve by the background barrage of artillery and the amplify sound of the boots striking the pavement — it felt like an invasion of giant — but many people around me stood solemn
this wasn't stagemanage some look bore other gaze around kid play
but many more look earnest just like america do when they stand up hand on heart for the national anthem at a sports event
and i don't think it was just for show that people jump out of their seat at one of the early high points of the ceremony when president xi jinp appear standing in an opentop limousine driving out of the gate of heavenly peace
the moment was pure theater with mr xi in a dark traditional suit appear frame by the vermilion wall of the imperial forbidden city as he set off to inspect the troops
people also oohe and aahe at another signature moment that owe much to peking opera
when mr xi pass the soldier their head swivel as if on socket their eyes bulge as they follow the nation's most important person
it was a show of the armed forces' unswerving allegiance to the ccp's leader and the audience need no encouragement to cheer
realize that some of these emotion are genuine is important because we can't understand china if we think the party only rule through the authoritarian method that reporter understand focus on
on my social media feed which include disgruntled intellectual but also workingclass practitioner of folk religion it's clear that many buy into the national story create by the ccp
invent tradition is nothing new nor unique to china
but here these construct can sometimes feel uneasy because many of them are import — from soldiers' dress uniform that seem decade out of date gold braid enormous epaulet row of medal to soundtracklike music worthy of john williams fanfare kettle drum plenty of brass
i might be nostalgic but the mood 35 years ago felt a bit different
i was a student then and a group of us was bus down to tiananmen square for the ceremony
we then mill around for most of the day
there was also an orchestrate event but security was minimal and you could still stand right next to the performer as they march or dance past
some student even jump into the parade and held up a banner greeting the paramount leader deng xiaope
china today is more serious about being a superpower
when the spontaneous enthusiasm flag on tuesday cheerleader made sure the flag kept wave
and security was so tight that it border on paranoia neighborhood park around town implement airportstyle security to even enter
but that too was part of the spectacle the message and the vision — of a focus and discipline state led by the china communist party that can put on a spectacle few country can match
coronaviru and the panic epidemic by ian johnson jan 30 2020 beije — the absurd of the situation hit me on wednesday when i was coming home from a local bar at 8 pm
i had ridden my bike a few hour early to a park for a walk and then to meet a friend — my first human contact in five days excluding the cashier at the grocery store
but the side gate i'd use to leave the enormous communistera compound was now chain shut
what
a notice in china said it was lock to prevent the spread of the new coronaviru
so i head toward the north entrance
that one is for pedestrian and has two barrier set slightly apart just wide enough to get through on foot
that's ok i thought i can squeeze by with my bike and be home in a few minutes
i rode around the block but when i got to the gate i had to slam on the brake
someone had taken a dozen rideshare bike lash them together with wire and pile them in between the barrier
then for good measure they'd fasten the heap to the post with more wire making it into some sort of postmodern commentary on our hypermobile society
laugh i rode on to the main entrance
it has a car entrance with a big gate and on either side walkway for pedestrian
one of those was also pile high with rideshare bike sacrifice for the national good the other was protect by two security guard i'd never seen before
they block my way
what do you want
one of them ask
to go home
i live here
have you been to wuhan recently
i just rode back
i'm exhaust
the humor was beyond their pay grade
is anyone in your home from wuhan or has been there recently
i need to stop fool around
no i haven't been there in four years
i live alone
no fever
i feel fine
they silent let me through
this felt like the height of foolish why would the gate be open during the day but lock down at night
do virus operate like vampire
that's when i realize the guards' effort was just part of a borglike lockdown that the state had put into place with the alacrity of official in full cya
mode
the next day i was clean my apartment no one could enter beije anymore so my one luxury an houraweek house cleaner was stuck in her village even though the main phase of the lunar new year holiday was over
there was a knock on my door
it was the good people from the apartment management office mrs luo and her assistant
oh mr zhang nice to see you mrs luo the hennahaire manager of lease renewal said address me by my china name
is there anyone from wuhan in your apartment
no
still not
ok
take a look at this please
she hand me a sheet from the local communist party district committee list dos and don'ts to follow during the outbreak
do seek help
do listen to the local government
do keep warm
do stay at home
do avoid contact
do wash your hand
don't spit
don't exert yourself too much
don't associate with people who've recently arrive from the infect area around the megac of wuhan
on the back was a list of all the communist party street committee and their phone numbers
finally after five years of living in this neighborhood and countless fail effort to register my complaint about illegal construction at night i had some phone numbers
i file the sheet for future use
the germany language has as usual a hyperspecific word for this phenomenon aktionismu literally action or action for action's sake
what i was witness was aktionismu in the face of a problem that require a sensitive response involve public trust
but since the china government cannot elicit either of those things i was seeing the compensatory flailingaround of a state with no other option
instead of have an adult conversation with the population about the virus and putt in place reasonable policy that have been use effectively elsewhere the china state has gone into full lockdown mode
this demonstrate one of those truism from politics science authoritarian government are like people who don't have any finger but do possess two thumb
they can take forceful action but can't finetune the lever of government
actually i'm not being fair
when the china communist party has time it can come up with and use sophisticated policy — witness its coopt of traditional faith to fill a spiritual vacuum in society
but when face with a crisis the party can't seem to avoid grand gesture building hospital from scratch in two week lock down ten of million of people ban million more from travel to big city and so on
in some ways a moment like this one is a technocrat's dream when western health care expert say that this sort of lockdown won't work they basically mean it's never been try on this scale with this kind of uberefficient government
now that it's being try not just in beije but also across the country the effects are kind of thrill to watch
apartment compound like mine are being fumigate
with what
who care
people are walking around with loudspeaker blare out warning against the virus
village are close their gate as if bandit were on the prowl
and go to a restaurant or a bar is almost an act of treason or at best foolish selfish
the most interesting question is why the party feel the need to carry on like this
i think it know the people don't trust it in these case and assume there has been a coverup
hence one of the most popular figures in the crisis zhong nanshan the hero of the 20023 sar outbreak now 83 who is back in action treat patient and warning citizen about the need for hygiene
he has been adopt as the incorruptible official — a familiar trope in china history the confucian official who stand tall despite pressure to bend
and so we read endless profile of dr zhong in china social media discuss his family background upbringing success and apolitic pursuit of sciencebase truth
the clear implication is that he is that rare official capable of such principled conduct
behind all this lie the feeling that most other people in the party can't quite be trust
this has been reinforce over the past few days by report that at least eight people who were detain in wuhan in early january on charge of spread rumor are in fact medical doctor not fearmongere ne'erdowells
this startle fact is now leak out in online report that are sometimes but not always being block
at some point the government will have to admit to a partial coverup
considering the underlying distrust it's hard for the government to say what many epidemiologist are saying this outbreak is serious but not catastrophe
because if the state level with the people it would also have to admit that there is no need for this degree of social control
some 259 people were report to have die as of saturday evening in a country of nearly 14 billion and there is no indication that we are at the start of a hollywood disasterstyle movie
the government's inability to formulate a measured response will turn this outbreak into a direct successor of the sar epidemic
that hardly was a huge public health disaster — few than 800 death — yet it has taken on a legendary reputation as a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions one that should never be allow to recur
but of course a new outbreak has occur
do this mean that the state will suffer
i don't think so
for despite their mistrust of the system people over all are go along with the lockdown
in private conversation and on chat rooms they say it's impossible not to take drastic action in a country as big as china
in this sense the population has absorb the government's narrative of china exceptional running china require a strong hand and these measure as absurd as they seem are proof that the government is do a good job — and portend that the party will come out of this as always triumphant
coronaviru spread and the world pay for china's dictatorship by nichola kristof jan 29 2020 china's leader sometimes seem 10 feet tall preside over a politics and economic juggernaut that has found university at a rate of one a week and that recently use more cement in three years than the united states did in the entire 20th century
president trump has hail china's president xi jinp as a brilliant leader and michael bloomberg say xi is not a dictator
but we're now seeing the danger of xi's authoritarian model for china and the world
the first known coronaviru infection in the city of wuhan present symptom beginning on dec 1 and by late december there was alarm in wuhan's medical circle
that would have been the moment for the authority to act decisive
and act decisive they did — not against the virus but against whistleblower who were try to call attention to the public health threat
a doctor who told a wechat group about the virus was discipline by the communist party and forced to admit wrongdoing
the police report give education and criticism to eight frontline doctor for rumormonger about the epidemic instead of punishing these doctor xi should have listen to them
china informed the world health organization of the virus on dec 31 but kept its own citizen in the dark as other country report infection even as china pretended that it had confine the outbreak to wuhan china joke grim about a patriotic virus that only struck foreigner
wuhan's mayor said he wasn't authorize to discuss the virus until late this month
in that time people traveled to and from wuhan and didn't take precaution
the government finally ordered a lockdown on jan 23 that effectively quarantine people in wuhan
but by then according to the mayor five million people had already flee the city
partly because the government cover up the epidemic in the early stage hospital were not able to gather supplies and there are now major shortage of test kit mask and protective gear
some doctor were reduce to making goggles out of plastic folder
one reason for the early coverup is that xi's china has systematic gut institution like journalism social media nongovernmental organization the legal profession and other that might provide accountable
these institution were never very robust in china but on and off they were tolerate until xi came along
i conduct a series of experiment on china blog over the years beginning in 2003 and was sometimes surprise by what i could get away with — but no long
xi has drag china backward in terms of civil society crush almost every wisp of freedom and oversight
for the same reason that xi's increasingly authoritarian china bungle the coronaviru outbreak it also mishandle a swine fever virus that since 2018 has devastate china's hog industry and kill almost onequarter of the world's pig
dictator often make poor decision because they don't get accurate information when you squelch independent voice you end up get just flattery and optimism from those around you
senior china official have told me that they are routine lie to on trip to meet local official and must dispatch their driver and secretary to assess the truth and gauge the real mood
for this or other reason xi has made a series of mistake
he mishandle and inflamed the politics crisis in hong kong he inadvertent assured the reelection of his nemesis as president of taiwan and he has preside over worsen relations with the united states and many other country
the coronaviru has already reach the xinjiang region in the far west of china and one risk is that it will spread in the internment camp where china is confine about one million muslim with poor sanitation and limited health care
virus are challenge for any country and it's only fair to note that china do a better job protect its people from measles than the us do
it's a credit to china's system that a baby born in beije today has a long life expectancy than a baby born in washington dc more broad the united states which has several impoverish county with lower life expectancy than cambodia or bangladesh is in no position to lecture anyone about health
but with a dose of humility let's get over any misplace admiration some america have for xi's authoritarian model
the china social contract has been that citizen will not get ballot but will live steady better lives yet china's economy is now as weak as it has been in three decade — and the coronaviru will sap growth further
xi is not living up to his end of the bargain and this is seen in the anger emerge on china social media despite the best effort of censor
i don't know if xi is in politics trouble for his misrule but he should be
he's a preen dictator and with this outbreak some citizen are pay a price
cuomo's bad medicine on medicaid by the editorial board jan 31 2020 for years new york state has operate one of the most generous medicaid program in the country a point of pride in a state with a long tradition of invest in the social safety net
the program provide health care and other service to more than six million people largely lowincome new yorker and the costs are share between the state and federal government
but profligate spend has sent costs spiral in recent years
the medicaid program has become a driving force behind a 61 billion hole in new york's budget next year and a brew politics battle over what to do about it
though medicaid costs are rising across the united states in new york — among the country's largest program and long one of its most expensive — spend has surge
from 2015 to 2019 annual spend grew by an average of 6 percent according to a report last year by the empire center for public policy a conservative nonprofit research organization
that's roughly double the rate of growth in the previous several years even as enrollment remain flat
health care and budget expert have said a variety of factor are behind the trend including an increase in demand for personal care program that provide nonmedic service to disabled new yorker a minimumwage increase and financial assistance that the state has provided to struggle hospital
new york's share of its 75 billion annual medicaid bill is now about 30 billion and grow imposing an increasingly untenable burden on state and local budget
the federal government pay the rest
the good news is that gov
andrew cuomo who is in charge of administer the federal program has move to rein in costs
the bad news is that he has said locality will have to pay for increase in local medicaid spend above 3 percent
that's unfair and unrealistic
local government in new york already pay more mandate medicaid costs than local government in any other state a dynamic that's been in place since the program began in the 1960s
that's not unusual in new york where albany rely on new york city's tax base to fund the bulk of state service from education to commuter rails
in 2018 local government in new york sent 76 billion to albany for the program according to a 2018 report from the citizen budget commission
in fulton county in upstate new york for instance the local medicaid bill for 2016 amount to more than 15 percent of the county budget
in new york city the annual medicaid tab is roughly 5 billion or nearly 5 percent of the city's budget
if the spend increase continue and the state forces local government to pay for them the de blasio administration estimate the city would owe an additional 11 billion next year
the state say the figure would be much lower
mr cuomo has call on local government to reduce costs
that's fine new york city and county across the state which oversee enrollment should work to root out any fraud or abuse and ensure that those who sign up for the program are eligible and truly in need
they are the ontheground administrator
we respond to them mr cuomo said in a phone call wednesday
really though local government have limited say over how the program is run
most of that responsibility rest with the state
when it come to reduce medicaid costs that's where the focus should remain
the most promising effort so far is mr cuomo's medicaid redesign team a working group assign to find 25 billion in savings this year preserve benefit while slash waste
the governor use a similar task force to successful carry out costsave medicaid reform nearly a decade ago aid by the afford care act
the new group will be led by the same two men michael dowl the president and ceo
of northwell health and by dennis rivera the former head of 1199 seiu the powerhouse health care union
they are set to make their recommendation ahead of the april 1 budget deadline
it will be up to mr cuomo to ensure the public good is top of mind
the redesign group should issue a thorough report present its finding to the public and the legislature
right now it's not clear they plan to do so and that's a problem
while not perfect the approach is far better than simply fork over more and more taxpayer dollar and stick local government with an evergrowe tab as the state has been do
to get new york's medicaid program back on track the group will need to take a hard look at spend on nonmedic service like cooking and bathing for homebound new yorker
according to the empire center new york's medicaid spend on such personal service was the highest in the country
that may be because of a program that has expand in recent years in which medicaid pay nonmedic provider like family member to care for client
in 2016 personal spend in new york account for 40 percent of national medicaid spend for the category overall up from 23 percent in 2011 the empire center said
complicate matter is a politics dynamic friendly to the health care industry
in 2018 for example the greater new york hospital association gave more than 1 million in politics contribution to the state's democratic party
not long afterward the state increase medicaid reimbursement rate for the first time since 2008 cost the state an estimate 140 million per year
mr cuomo has deny that donation influence his policy decision and cuomo administration official said at the time that the increase was necessary and simply long overdue
health care expert disagree and say hospital revenue had already been on the rise
new york's medicaid bill is out of control
the first order of business is to understand more about why and to be honest with the public about what needs to be done about it
democrats' baffling 2020 mess by frank bruni dec 7 2019 kamala harris fold her tent and on that patch of ground many flimsy theory bloom
disappointed democrat grouse that you obviously had to be rich to compete in the 2020 race — because she was gone while two billionaire remain — and pointed to the potential allwhite undiverse lineup at the party's next debate as proof that the qualify criteria put too much of a premium on fundraise
but harris had made the cut for that debate
and she enter the presidential sweepstakes with a higher net worth 6 million according to forbes than bernie sander 25 million amy klobuchar 2 million or pete buttigieg 100000 who are still in the hunt and are among the six contender slate to be spar onstage on dec 19
what's more sander and another of the six elizabeth warren have raise bucket of money without courting plutocrat
many democrat blame the media for harris's demise
they have a point inasmuch as some news organization never had the kind of romance with her that they did with buttigieg and beto o'rourke two white men
i noted as much in a column last may point to o'rourke's placement on the cover of vanity fair and buttigieg's on the cover of time
but the media fell quick out of love with o'rourke and is pick buttigieg apart for his lack of support among africanamerican and his past employment as a mckinsey consultant
and harris was hardly ignore her initial campaign rally in oakland calif in january was cover live in its entirety on msnbc and cnn
that same month rachel maddow of msnbc told her in a facetoface interview i think there is a good chance that you are go to win the nomination
and after the democratic debate in june when harris stirring confront joe biden about his past opposition to federal mandate bus to integrate school she received a bonanza of media attention and rapturous review
i get that this democratic primary isn't play out as anyone predict or in remote accordance with the party's image of itself and with its priority
none of the top four candidate — biden warren buttigieg and sander — is a person of color three of them are 70 or old and the billionaire tom steyer and mike bloomberg are dip into their personal fortune in their effort to gain ground
for a party that celebrate diversity pitch itself to underdog and pride itself on being futureminde and youthoriente that's a freaky baffling turn of event
but some of the conclusion being drawn and complaint being raise don't fully hold water
take the fear about the nomination being purchase
without question running for office is too expensive
that dynamic can definitely favor candidate with lucrative connection
and candidate are forced — unless they're steyer or bloomberg — to devote ludicrous and possibly corrupt sum of time to politics panhandle
but at least at present neither steyer nor bloomberg is exactly barrel toward victory
and while cory book drew a connection between harris's departure and a process warp by wealth the link is tenuous
book whose campaign press on despite his failure to qualify for the december debate said of harris's withdrawal voter did not determine her destiny
actually they kind of did
they're the one who are or aren't excited enough about a candidacy to donate money and keep it alive
they're the one respond to pollster and by flag their preference determine which candidate take on the air of plausible that often generate the next round of donation
i keep seeing on twitter and facebook lament about harris's fate from democrat who chose to support candidate other than her
well she couldn't succeed on generalize ambient good will
i also keep seeing and hearing statement along the lines that the party should be ashamed of the way things are turning out that the party fail
while an official party entity the democratic national committee indeed set criteria for the debate — which had to have some criteria — there's otherwise no committee of elder or secret cabal that decree which candidate prosper and which don't
besides which as ere levitz observe in new york magazine harris boast the enthusiast support of hillary's donor network and supporter warm relations with obamaworld and the sympathies of a broad range of democratic lawmaker in the nation's largest state and beyond
levitz add that when harris end her campaign on tuesday she trail only biden in the website fivethirtyeight's tally of important endorse that book has more such endorse than sander who is far ahead of him and that klobuchar has more than buttigieg whom she distantly trail
so if the party is fellow democratic politician of note it's hardly driving the direction of this contest
we in the media aren't driving it either though there's constant carp along those lines
we've always been fundamentally responsive bestow coverage base on establish interest and we're more responsive than ever in this digitize age of sophisticated realtime measure of precisely what our audience do and doesn't turn to
we give you a tide of warren in part because you thrill to the early trickle
we serve you oodles of buttigieg because we've notice your appetite for it
another questionable assessment of this primary is that elect is crowd out candidate who don't fit some safe profile
yes many democratic voter tell pollster that choose the candidate most likely to beat trump is their top concern
yes there's evidence that such an impulse is leading some voter away from candidate of color
but if elect emphatically rule the day wouldn't at least one of the three current or former governor already gone from the race — john hickenlooper of colorado steve bullock of montana and jay inslee of washington — have fare better
governor are frequent tout as the best candidate and they account for four of the past seven president
if elect rule the day would biden's stiffest competition be coming from a 78yearold democratic socialist who recently had a heart attack and just placed first in a california poll a 70yearold former ivy league law professor whom trump delight in calling pocahonta and the 37yearold gay mayor of a small indiana city
there's a lot to this primary that's more complicated than meet the eye a lot that explode assumption
according to the polling so far voter aren't drawn to candidate whose demography profile overlap with theirs
biden's support from black democrat in a national quinnipiac poll late last month was more than eight times what harris's or booker's was
he and sander do exponential better among latino than juli�n castro do
sander not buttigieg has the advantage among democrat under the age of 35
and many gay democrat have reject buttigieg as inadequate progressive and even insufficient gay
so if identity group elect media bias and personal wealth aren't the secret to success what are
i think we're learning yet again that there's no tidy trusty formula
but broad name recognition among engaged voter — which biden sander and to a lesser extent warren all had at the outset — is an enormous asset
so are a sales pitch and brand like buttigieg's that are distinct from any other contender's
finally there's politics acumen
there's raw talent
the last democratic president barack obama had plenty of it
the next democratic president will too
devin nun is danielle steel by frank bruni nov 15 2019 i came to your house with a gun
at least imagine i did
i tie you to a chair took a step back and repeatedly fire
but my arm twitch every bullet miss
meanwhile you slip your knot and flee
by the reasoning of representative jim jordan i did absolutely nothing wrong
you're alive
not a drop of blood on you
an unconsummated crime is no crime at all or so jordan one of the republican party's more rococo philosopher argue on wednesday in defense of president trump
ukraine got its military aid trump did not get his investigate of the biden
to jordan that's proof of innocence
to a normal person that's proof of incompetence which doesn't exonerate the president but should definitely reassure us
trump's an autocrat all right but the silver lining is that he's an inept one
all strongmen should be this weak
and all of us should have the mental limber and ethical elasticity that jordan and his troupe possess
they're the cirque du soleil of c'est la vie
i've never seen anything like the republican effort to defend trump which chart the frontier of creativity explore the outer limit of audacity mutate like the monster in the alien movies and restore my faith in america ingenuity
my faith in washington too
i long fear that politics had stop attract the country's top talent but some of our finest storyteller are working in the united states capitol
john grisham has nothing on jordan
danielle steel can't hold a candle to devin nun
nun was among the first republican to pipe up on day 1 of the impeach inquiry's public hearing held by the house intelligence committee and it wasn't just his narrative ambition that mesmerize me
it was his bold descent into his thesaurus a sort of semantic spelunk
the hearing he said marked the pitiful finale and spectacular implosion of the russia hoax
they amount to a scorchedearth war against president trump that was horrific oneside and preposterous
this lowrent ukraine sequel had already involved a closeddoor audition process in a cultlike atmosphere in the basement of the capitol
cultlike no less
that's a more fitting description of republicans' obeisance to the president and launder of his wrongdoing but then one hallmark of trump and his sycophant is the projection of their own flaw onto their adversary
nunes's best bit on wednesday and then again on friday was his portrayal of trump's democratic detractor as amateur pornographer intent on finding nude pictures of the president
i'm fairly confident that no one is intent on finding nude photograph of the president
but at this point it wouldn't surprise me if trump himself tweet one out
would that be any crazy than what he did on friday as marie yovanovitch the former ambassador to ukraine testify
there she was a pained stoic state department amalgam of erin brockovich and norma rae and trump use his twitter account to call her an international wreck ball singlehanded responsible for the mess that is mogadishu
one of her post before ukraine was somalia
this accomplished nothing in the way of silence her but raise the prospect of witness intimidation being add to any articles of impeach
clearly the republican response to this impeach inquiry isn't some elegant strategy
it's an epic snit
its leitmotif is hypocrisy
nun open friday's hearing by lament all the important government business that was on hold because democrat prefer to torture trump
i somehow miss his plea that lawmaker keep their eyes on the ball and devote themselves to practical problemsolv when the president stir up one culture war after another just to change the topic of a given news cycle or hear a rally audience's roar
but along come the impeach inquiry and sudden house republican are stymie steward of levelheade government
they're dismiss wednesday's and friday's hearing held in public as pure theater
but they complain about the closeddoor testimony beforehand
they're shrug off the account of william taylor george kent and other as hearsay
but the white house has decree that such firsthand witness as mick mulvaney not cooperate
one moment mulvaney public acknowledge the shakedown of ukraine's president insist that it's how foreign policy is done and tell the media to get over it
the next he tell the media that they're reprehensible fabulist for report exactly what he said
one moment republican completely ignore trump's infamous july 25 phone call and claim that there's no direct evidence of his bully and — yes nance pelosi is right — his bribery
the next they acknowledge the call sigh over trump's behavior but say that it's hardly impeach
in fair that's only slightly more confuse to me than the democrats' perspective on the call a definitive piece of evidence that they may be inadvertent downgrade
usually a process like the one that they've been engaged in over the last seven week is about finding a smoking gun
this process began with the smoking gun and the farther the democrat travel from it — eight witness this coming week
— the more they risk imply that it wasn't enough
but for curious behavior republican have them easily beat and their conduct during the impeach inquiry is the culmination and apotheosis of their conduct since trump wrap up the republican presidential nomination an utter sellout of principle and a pure embrace of fiction to pacify an emotional infant and keep him from spit up on them
during wednesday's hearing republican again suggest — while maintain straight face — that trump's foremost concern was corruption in ukraine
steve castor the republicans' chief counsel also gave one of the president's most convenient and thus favorite conspiracy theory a fresh whirl posit that perhaps america intelligence official had it all wrong and ukraine not russia hack democratic email in 2016 and otherwise interfere in the election
how would this make trump's demand that ukraine smear joe biden in return for million of dollar of alreadyauthorize aid ok
it wouldn't — but what a juicy distraction
and what a perfect gateway for castor's attempt to get taylor to testify that trump legitimate believe that ukraine were in castor's words out to get him
try to follow along
not only do incompetence equal innocence but also paranoia is exculpatory
same go for the relative dastard of a deed which become innocuous if it's not maximal obnoxious
that's my takeaway from when castor refer to rudy giuliani's shenanigan ask taylor this irregular channel of diplomacy it's not as outlandish as it could be — is that correct
clarence darrow move over
another genius of jurisprudence demand space in the history books
all that wednesday's hearing lack was lindsey graham
yes i know he serve in the senate and the hearing took place in the house
but he's the standardbearer for trumpcoddl contortion the reign king of the kind of contradiction that were on display
presage jordan's approach at the hearing graham a week and a half ago shrug off the impeach inquiry by calling trump's policy toward ukraine so incoherent that the president and his minion seem to be incapable of form a quid pro quo
he said at one point that he'd be open to any evidence that back up such a quid pro quo but then more recently he announce that he wouldn't and couldn't be bother to follow the testimony because he'd already made up his mind
as billy bin of reason magazine noted graham has bemoan the democrats' lack of transparency only to shield his eyes once the curtain was lift
maybe graham will storm the hearing room yet an effigy of hunter biden in tow
that would match the dignity of what we've seen from republican so far
did i just get yang
by bari weiss jan 30 2020 it was new year's eve and i had decided to spend it with andrew yang
a selfdescribe asia man who's good at math mr yang had raise an impressive 165 million in the fourth quarter of 2019 for his presidential campaign
despite being newly flush the campaign didn't hold its shindig in a napa valley wine cave or at gramercy tavern but in a florescentlit room above a bar in nashua nh
the party look like nothing so much as a high school dance if you had ban the bully
there was a modest buffet of meatball spanakopita ritz crackers and cheddar cheese
the dj a boom with trousers that badly need hem could have been your chemistry teacher bouncing to cardi b
now a few days away from the iowa caucus mr yang has outlast more than a dozen candidate including three senator and two governor
he came in first among democrat in the iowa youth straw poll on tuesday
next week he'll be back on the debate stage
he remains a very long shot national poll have him consistent in the second tier right next to amy klobuchar
still conventional wisdom would say that andrew yang should be nowhere this close to the america presidency
i went to new hampshire because i want to understand how a politics rookie with what seem like little go for him beyond a signature proposal of free money and relentless cheerful online fan had gotten this far
what do the url candidate's campaign look like irl
that night the yang gang as the candidate's fan proud call themselves was a happy crowd of game asia former goth girl burning man enthusiast scifi geek student code and stone
when mr yang drop a lord of the ring joke — it's like the eye of sauron is close in
he said of his momentum in the race — they erupt in laughter
hardcore yang voter are not cool
and that is exactly their and his appeal
among the partygoer on new year's eve were jackie and dave farrell former bernie sander supporter who own a deli in caldwell nj mr farrell wore a handmade knit beanie stitch with the words yang math vote and 2020 ms farrell had a pink yang gang baseball hat over her blue hair and a copy of the candidate's best seller the war on normal people in her purse
they fell in love inside an online role play game call hobowar
it's hard to imagine anyone at a joe biden event with that kind of meetcute
he actually sold me a guild ms farrell told me
it's sort of like a gang
like a yang gang
talk to anyone in the yang gang for a few minutes and they'll inevitable tell you how they got yang
the story almost always begin with a younger person telling an old person to google andrew yang
which is exactly what happen with the farrell
in august a 23yearold employee in the deli approach ms farrell to ask whom she was support
i was like 'bernie i guess
i support him in 2016' she recall
and he go 'why haven't you google andrew yang yet
so she did
i literally stay up till 4 am that night watch video
have you ever been the target of a twitter mob
it's about as pleasant as a brazil wax in slow motion
the one thing that bring a small measure of comfort when you are in the digital cross hair is the following assertion the internet is not real life
it is true at least for the time being that a horde of pixel cannot transform itself into a horde of people
but the lie that there is a bright line between the online world and the real one has been well and truly debunk
just ask any middleschool girl shame for an instagram post or any adult fire because of a bad tweet or any democrat hope to oust donald trump and become the 46th president of the united states
bernie sander may be fuel by his zealous fan on social media but of all the democrat running for president the web means the most to andrew yang
without it his candidacy simply wouldn't exist
it's a classic underdog story a politics unknown ignore by the mainstream media sidestep the pundit who had considered him a punchline
in the early days there weren't many people in cable news clamor to have me on their show he told me over bubble tea on a recent afternoon in his manhattan campaign headquarters
and so you seek out people who can reach lot of america
those people were the one with podcast
what launch us was sam harris said mr yang of his june 2018 appearance on mr harris's show making sense
it put him on the map i was invite to speak at the wing ding in iowa — a major democratic fundraise event — because one of the people there was a sam harris fan
mr harris introduce him to joe rogan a mixed martial arts color commentator who host one of the most popular podcast in the country
disclosure i've also appear on his show
joe rogan was the game change mr yang said
we raise ten of thousand of dollar a day for awhile there and a million buck in a week
but it isn't simply that mr yang clever use new platform to his advantage
sure the podcast gave him a big boost but lot of politician have use new media to expand their reach franklin roosevelt commandeer the radio team obama master the email blast president trump tear up twitter
mr yang's outsize success show that the people who insist that rachel maddow has more influence over the america electorate than mr rogan are lie to themselves about where cultural power in america is actually located
what mr yang understand is that the old rule no long apply — and that flout those rule is an energize strategy
but while donald trump burn the whole house down andrew yang is dunk on the system with a big smile
that's how he get onstage at a democratic debate points out the ridiculous of the artifice — we're up here with makeup on our face and our rehearse attack lines play role in this reality tv show — and walk away with one of the most talkedabout moments of the night despite have had the least talk time
his appeal is a powerful reminder that the animate politics conflict of our era may not be left versus right but establishment versus insurgent
the yang campaign pride itself on the heterodoxy of its supporter
i poll 18 percent among college republican mr yang told me
i've got a higher appeal among independent libertarian and even some disaffected trump voter than joe biden by the numbers than bernie sander by the numbers
one of his campaign slogan is not left
not right
forward
the writer wesley yang has suggest that the inbetween nature of asianamerican — the way they are often regard neither as white nor as people of color — allow them to say and do things that white liberal are now afraid to say and do which is to stand up for certain fundamental value
when you consider mr yang's position on some of the touchiest aspect of the culture war and imagine his view coming out of the mouth of a michael bennet or a pete buttigieg you can easily see the truth of this insight
for instance he's glad that america has become less of a monoculture
when he was a kid he say his own effort to be america included things like join the wrestle team he was terrible at the sport
but he add i think there's a middle ground where you can't just say america is nothing and everybody run off and do your own thing
it's important he said to have a common cultural context and even — and this will be very controversial — a common language of expression
i spoke to some of his many asianamerican supporter and this resonate with them
michael chen a 19yearold drexel student at one of the new hampshire town hall event said he appreciate that mr yang whose immigrant father grew up in a house with a dirt floor on a peanut farm is not running on his identity you can be asianamerican you can be black america you can be latinoamerican but the common denominator is america
that's who he is
mr chen was there with his dad jack
the elder mr chen call himself a yang junkie but insist being asia has little to do with it
what animate him is the practicality of mr yang's solution
mr yang believe in talk to people he disagree with
in april he appear on the ben shapiro show a nogo zone for those who buy into the new politics of contamination — that to sit next to a conservative like mr shapiro is to tacit endorse his idea
thinking that i'm go to catch idea from someone seem ludicrous to me he said
soon after the comedian shane gilli was hire by saturday night live it was reveal that he had use racial slur on podcast including describe mr yang with an antisemitic and racist epithet
mr yang tweet that he didn't think mr gilli should be fire writing we would benefit from being more forgiving rather than punitive
the show didn't follow mr yang's advice
i ask mr yang who ran one of the top test prep program in the country before it was bought by kaplan about his view on affirmative action
is harvard do to asia in the 21st century what it did to jew in the 20th
harvard's gonna harvard he said
he told me that he himself was reject from the school — he wound up at brown — though he was ample qualified
but if you have any kind of perspective he said you realize that my life and my humanity depend on more than whether some institution decide to stamp my hand
argue for higher representation of an already overrepresente group — at least according to population standard — would not be my first bone to pick he said
instead he ask why harvard a university with a 40 billion endowment is opening location in shanghai but not ohio or michigan
the real question he said is are you try to advance our society or are you try to advance global moneyed interests
on new year's eve it occur to me that despite living in new york which pride itself on being the most cosmopolitan city in the world i had not been in a room with such a politics diverse group of people since donald trump was elect president
if there is a typical yang voter it is a former bernie sander supporter who feel that mr yang understand the challenge of the 21st century better than a 78yearold socialist without a single app on his phone
mr yang support mr sander in 2016 before vote for hillary clinton in the general election i'm procivilize he said
he understand why young voter are drawn to mr sander
if you're a young person you look up and say 'what have i experienced from this capitalist system' corporate abuse crash bailout greed record level of college debt
but he insist the best actor to improve people's lives is not our government it's us
bernie's saying 'let's stick it to the billionaire and all will be well' he said
i'm saying 'we need to rewrite the code we need to rewrite the software' at a campaign stop in manchester nh i spoke with sunny payne a 23yearold yang supporter who'd come in from bangor me and use the pronoun they
while i think bernie sander is an amazing person they said he's has had the exact same policy stance for literally decade
amber mccabe and martin raucher both 29 are also former sander supporter
they drove 25 hour from st petersburg fla
they made sure not to cut anyone off on the highway ms mccabe said because there's a yang bumper sticker on their car and we have to represent
mr raucher is a disabled veteran and ms mccabe is an artist they met through their passion spin fire
it wasn't possible to twirl lit torch inside the party room so ms mccabe had fashion the next best thing a handmade lightup yang sign
with yang i'm all about the idea the policy she said above all his proposal for a universal basic income of 1000 a month
i need an oil change said mr raucher when i ask how they'd spend it
and my roof is leak
just across the dance floor were elasa and russell peterson two former trump voter who change their registration — and move states — to support mr yang's candidacy
everyone i know is the brokefolk vote said mr peterson
they are among them
until recently they work at a north carolina olive garden
i got to where i hate breadstick said ms
peterson
donald trump stand up there and say 'hey we got to build the wall because the immigrant are coming over here and they're steal our jobs' and you know what
because we're all broke we're all like 'it's immigrant
yeah
let's build the wall' mr peterson said
but then you hear andrew yang talk and he's like 'you know what
it's not immigrant
it's automation' you go into walmart you don't see immigrant
you see selfserve checkout
it's like a light bulb go off
like 'wow this make sense' it made so much sense that they move in with ms peterson's sister in vermont 10 minutes from the new hampshire border so they could volunteer fulltime for the campaign and promote him on their youtube channel
everybody in our family has been yang
and they were all trump mr peterson said
at a town hall event attend by some 300 people on new year's day the first question — so onbrand i almost assume it was a plant — was about the metric system so mr make america think hard can we count on president yang to support the blessing of the metric system
the crowd laugh
amazing mr yang came back with a thoughtful answer about how the metric system is safe not least because it is more accurate for microdose baby medicine
to hear andrew yang talk is to understand why it is possible for people like the peterson to support him unlike the president he never demon other america
the difference between us are pretty trivial compare to the things we share in common
and that's a fundamental message of the campaign ablebody special needs white black old young rural urban we're all go to get run over by this automation freight train he said
we need to human up and stop focus on relatively trivial distinction
the villain is not donald trump but a market rig for big tech and against normal america
in mr yang's frame of the 2016 election mrs clinton lost not because of the electoral college or russia bot but because she fundamentally misunderstood the crisis facing america
donald trump said he was go to make america great again
and what did hillary clinton say in response
america is already great mr yang said
that message did not work because the pain in our country is real
in other words donald trump is the wrong answer to the right question
mr yang believe he is the right one
at each one of the four campaign stop i went to he ask the crowd why president trump won
the audience call out answer the media
russia
rac
hillary
facebook
twitter
james comey
no said mr yang
it's because we blasted away four million manufacture job through automation in states like ohio michigan pennsylvania missouri and iowa
what happen to manufacture is coming to retail restaurant and even account and the law mr yang insist
while mr sander suggest a federal government job guarantee and joe biden suggest turning coal miner into code mr yang say that work as we have known it is over
if we don't change anything i ask him where will be 50 years from now
bestcase scenario
we will see inequality at a staggering scale that right now most america would find unthinkable
and in the worst case
the collapse of the government in its current form politics break up and societal dysfunction that result in mass riot and violence
it's impressive that for the most part his good humor soften the bleak message he is convey
it's a vision of the future — one dispute as hysterical by many observer — that make president trump's america carnage address look almost rosy by comparison
i caught up with sunny payne this week
hearing mr yang in person lit the fire under me they said as they drove around anderson sc after a day spent doorknock for him
they'd just spent a week in iowa before realize that i want to spread the message to black voter and community of color and i realize the best place for me to do that was in south carolina
they said they kept hearing the same story from voter i can't care about climate change because i need to put food on the table
i have three job
i barely sleep
to these people sunny payne said 1000 a month would be lifechang
that's the reason that the comedian dave chappelle has endorse mr yang
the wealth disparity between me and my neighbor is immense it's heartbreaking said mr chappelle who lives in ohio but appear alongside mr yang on the campaign trail this week
if you know a third of the people up the street can't buy groceries then you start to feel an imperative concern he said
this is without irony or a punch line i'm just telling you — this guy's got some great idea you should check it out
so have i been yang
i don't know if a universal basic income is the best solution to the problem of inequality
i'm not particularly passionate about lower the vote age to 16 or require police officer to get purple belt in jujitsu
i worry about whether someone with zero foreign policy experience can be the commander in chief
but as bernie sander sell class rage joe biden promise normalcy and elizabeth warren push a social progressiv so perfectly doctrinaire it seem tailor for five kid at oberlin andrew yang's iconoclasm and optimism are refreshing
if get yang means that i believe that this curious campaign is a cause for that rarest thing in current america politics — hope — and that mr yang is model how to harness the populist energy that otherwise threaten to tear us apart then count me yanggang
america's public restroom are kind of great now by farhad manjoo dec 11 2019 in the past few years something amazing has been quiet happening across the land
public restroom in america — long a flash point of exclusion by race gender class and ability — have gotten much much better
thanks to an increasingly effective campaign by a range of activist america's public bathroom are now cleaner more plentiful more private and more accessible and inclusive than ever
in many place they're even great
this is a story about identity politics advocacy design and architecture
it is also a story still in motion with progress yet to unfold and many people still shut out
there is still much controversy surrounding our bathroom who get to use them and how
but it's important to recognize progress as it's happening
and if you travel across america now it's undeniable that how we go keeps get better
how do i know
at the risk of tmi i happen to be an expert on bathroom
twenty years ago when i was a senior in college i was diagnose with a condition call achalasia a rare sometimes genetic swallow disorder that i was actually quite familiar with because when i was a kid my mother had it too
it began as a blind burning bolt of pain in the middle of my chest after eat
imagine heartburn after you've eaten something spicy but amp up to 11 as if the thing you'd eaten was a chain saw douse in ghost pepper
the pain would abate after a few minutes but it would come back again and again usually after i'd eaten a big meal
then it began to hurt during big meal then during every meal and soon anytime i'd try to swallow anything
for many people the condition is curable through surgery but for me that longago flash of pain turn out to be only the beginning of an allconsume chronic and often embarrass disability
over the last two decade though i've undergone dozen of invasion procedure and test taken a panoply of pill and had various parts of my digestive system remove or surgical rebuilt my symptom have only gotten more intense and more — how to put this delicate
— expansive
swallow food is now an arduous enough task that i have to get much of my nutrition through liquid as kanye once rap i drink a boost for breakfast an ensure for dessert
but it's no long just eat that's a pain it's what happen after too
from the nave to the chop my swallow problem has spawn a grossout comedy's worth of gi
complication
the ugly upshot is this at least once every day and sometimes many times i have to run to the restroom on a moment's notice and what happen to me there is best experienced alone in blissful unembarrass solitude
i tell you all this in order to establish my bona fide i know public bathroom
in my travels over the years i have assemble in my head a veritable michelin guide of private peaceful place to go
so trust me when i tell you that in the last few years better public bathroom have start to pop up everywhere
again and again in big city and small in red states and blue in airport hotel shop mall theater stadium offices and a range of other public venue i've been save by a bounty of better loo
more restroom are now explicit inclusive and accessible design for people who are physically disabled are gender nonconform are travel with children or are otherwise in need of special accommodation
for instance paruresi and parcopresi phobia that inhibit people from urinate or defecate in public restroom are real debilitate conditions that affect ten of million of people
one innovation that has been of particular use to me is the lock singleoccupance allgender restroom
a decade ago in most public place it was nigh impossible to find a private place to do your business
today these oneperson stalls are a rising trend across the country especially at airport and other large public facilities
in some place they're label all gender restroom in other they're call family bathroom in yet other sign welcome everyone with broad language like all person may use this restroom
whatever you call them they're a haven in a world marked by chaos and disorder
over the last few years when nature call sudden and panic set in i've had the fortune of finding a clean private place at among other location the guggenheim in new york the getty center in los angeles the mall of america a dozen airport at least and so so many starbuck
of course things still aren't perfect
i am a member of a racial minority but i'm a cisgender person of means and social privilege
it's likely that a lot of people still find it hard to find clean private restroom in much of the land
still the restroom situation in america is much better than it use to be and i've notice so much better than in many other parts of the world
on a trip to britain and france with my kid last year i was surprise at how difficult it was to find a clean private bathroom when there was one you often had to pay to use it
i've seen some very nice bathroom in dubai but only in place that cater to the wealthy
in south africa and india
forget about it
america has less and less to be proud of these days our life expectancy are fall our infrastructure is crumble and our politics are in the toilet
but look at our toilet
while there's no official metric on this sort of thing in my estimation america toilet are now likely among the top in the world
japan's loo are said to be very nice if we can't be no
1 it's possible we're at least you know no
2
if it's true that our toilet are get better it's worth ask why
in a word activist
in the last few years a range of advocate fight on behalf of transgender people the disabled homeless people and other have mount a variety of legal and public advocacy campaign aim at making bathroom more accessible
these have sometimes spark backlash and controversy like the 2016 law in north carolina that roll back genderinclusive restroom
at the supreme court this fall justice considering a case about gay and transgender rights couldn't stop themselves from considering everything through the lens of the loo
despite the politics controversy on the ground in facilities all over the country the moral arc of the bathroom is bend toward inclusion
at starbuck after a viral incident last year in which two black men who had ask to use the restroom were arrest at a philadelphia location the restroom are now open to everyone even people who haven't purchase anything
city are now spend money to create more public restroom
and early this year stall an organization of designer and activist who push for restroomrelate social justice mount a successful campaign to get the international plumbing code — which set standard for bathroom — to adopt new language support allgender restroom
inclusive design has been a hot new term among architect and product designer the idea broad is that when you create product and space that are accommodating of a broad range of human capacity they end up being much more useful to everyone in unexpected ways
advocate of inclusive design point to some canonical example sidewalk ramp were put in place for people with wheelchair but they turn out to be handy for parent with stroller too
some of the technology in the smartphone's touchscreen was invent as a way to help people with disability like carpal tunnel syndrome
typewriter and keyboard were first create to help the blind
restroom are following a similar path
it's not just obviously disabled and gendernonconform people who need a private more accessible restroom
everyone now and again can do with a nice place to go to the bathroom
in america at long last we're get that
thank you social justice warrior
elizabeth warren throw down the gauntlet by elisabeth rosenthal nov 4 2019 lay the table for the next democratic debate elizabeth warren has issue a plan that explain how she would fund what she call medicare for all
she had studious avoid saying whether it would raise tax for the middle class and in her proposal she say repeatedly it will not
it will instead be finance by a mix of wealth tax employer transfer of money they current spend on health care and reduction of the many inefficient in our current byzantine system — among other initiative
but now all the candidate need to tell us more of those detail about their health care strategy
it's time for the candidate to stop talk slogan and start talk sense — or dollar and cent — so that voter can know what they mean and choose among them
medicare for all medicare for all who want it a public option improve the afford care act — those are 30000foot concept that depend on the detail could work or not and be popular or not
the candidate including ms warren also need to say more about what they'll do right now in one poll 40 percent of america said they had skip a recommend test or treatment and 32 percent said they had skip a medicine because of cost
supporter of medicare for all want to tie their future to the popularity of the medicare program
but ms warren and bernie sander are offering up america a supercharged version of the current government insurance for those over 65
it promise to eliminate copayment for prescription drug
under current medicare many patient contribute thousand of dollar annual
it include dental and longterm care — a huge expense that is conspicuous missing from current medicare
that ambition would make a health care plan vastly more expensive
the national health system of britain and canada both single payer system like the medicare for all proposal do not offer comprehensive longterm care coverage
canada's doesn't include coverage for prescription drug out of the hospital
is the finance ms warren propose go to be adequate to support the expand goal
economist disagree
but in release her proposal she has thrown down the gauntlet before the other candidate — who support medicare for all who want it or some other type of public option — to be a whole lot clear about what they mean
joe biden kamala harris pete buttigieg et al
do your public option — a government insurance policy that anyone may buy — resemble mr sanders's enhance medicare or current medicare or medicaid which is far more bare bone
voter need to know
there's another obvious reason the candidate have been so close lip on specifics to calculate how to pay for any of the plan the candidate have to say how they intend to bring down price — for hospital stays drug procedure device doctors' visit surgery
america often pay two to 10 times what patient pay for these item in other develop country
those price will have to come down to make any plan viable without break the bank
to really assess any plan we'll need that kind of information
ms warren has courageous step into that fraught territory with numbers that have very likely sent shock wave through the health care industry
for example to make her finance proposal work she suggest pay most hospital on average 110 percent of current medicare rate
she suggest america should pay no more for drug than 110 percent of the average international market price
that may be eminently reasonable but is it achieve
when montana negotiate rate directly with hospital for its state employee it settled on a deal in which the state agree to pay an average of 234 percent of medicare rate
and it still save money
setting lower price is go to bring out strong opposition
remember patient or taxpayer savings mean loss of income for one of america's most profitable industry whose lobbyist spent more than half a billion dollar last year and which is flush with dark money to distribute in congress
to get the aca
pass president barack obama gave up on a number of pricelowere idea to get buyin from the health care industry and its friends in congress
these included jettison the idea of a public option and allow medicare to negotiate drug price
the republican — whose plan have been largely proclamation of better cheap health care without any strategy — will be quick to label any of the democratic plan as a government takeover of health care or socialism
remember patient or taxpayer savings mean loss of income for the united states' most robust sector in the postrecession economy
in many postmanufacture city like pittsburgh and cleveland a single hospital system is the biggest employer
in boston hospital and hospital corporation make up the top six employer
minnesota and massachusetts have done well with drug and device manufacture
and let's not start on insurer whose lucrative health business would largely disappear
any plan to rein in the united states' bloated 35 trillion health care system will be slow go require not just a footnote blueprint but also the tame of many oppose forces
it took years for canada to move from a marketbase system to government run health
it endure lengthy debate and doctors' strike
ms warren call her proposal a longterm plan
but voter want to know how we get from here to anywhere else
in poll their top health care issue is afford — emphasis on now
they need concrete proposal as well as longterm vision
in the next debate how about talk about hr
3 a bill in congress to curb prescription drug price
that plan would allow the health and human service secretary to negotiate a maximum price that could be charged to medicare for insulin and some of the most expensive medicine in the united states base on the price paid for those drug in other country
days before the last democratic debate the congressional budget office said it would save 345 billion over a sixyear period 202329
if the bill were to move to the senate how would the frontrunner vote
what do they have to say about that
four key things you should know about health care by ezekiel j emanuel and victor r fuch sept 12 2019 health care so far perhaps the biggest issue in the democratic primary is also the most complicated issue facing government and the public
unfortunately the debate is fill with persistent misconception from the role insurance company profit play in health care costs to who is actually pay for workers' health coverage
clarify four fundamental health care fallacy could make it easy for voter to square some of the democratic proposal — and their critique — with reality fallacy no
1 employer pay for employees' health insurance
employer write check that cover most health insurance premium for employee and their dependent
but as the princeton health economist uwe reinhardt once explain employersponsore insurance is like a pickpocket taking money out of your wallet at a bar and buy you a drink
you appreciate the cocktail until you realize you paid for it yourself
with health coverage employer write the check to the insurer but employee bear the cost of the premium — the entire premium not just the portion list as their contribution on their pay stub
the premium money that go to the insurance company is cash that employer would otherwise deposit in employees' account like the rest of their salary
the fallacy is in thinking an employer's contribution come out of profit
in fact higher health insurance premium mean lower wages for worker
since 1999 health insurance premium have increase 147 percent and employer profit have increase 148 percent
but in that time average wages have hardly move increase just 7 percent
clearly workers' wages not corporate profit have been pay for higher health insurance premium
health care costs are one — though not the only — reason wages have stagnate over the last few decade
with health insurance costs rising fast than growth in the economy more labor costs go to benefit like health insurance and less to takehome pay
yet the belief that employee don't pay for their own health insurance is widespread
one reason is that individual cannot be sure what cause their wages to change or remain stagnant for decade
another reason is that employer want america to believe that they pay for their workers' health insurance
still another reason is that there are those who profit from the employmentbase system drug company device manufacturer specialty physician and highincome individual
they all want you to believe company are being magnanimous in give you insurance
who else benefit from the belief in this fallacy
opponent of national health insurance
fallacy no
2 medicare for all is unaffordable
the key to evaluate the cost of medicare for all is to distinguish between increase spend on health care and shift expenditure from private insurance to the federal government
true medicare for all would increase federal health care spend
but that is not the same as increase total health care spend which was over 35 trillion last year
instead medicare for all would move money from one column private health insurance spend to another federal health spend it do not automatic increase total costs
a recent study by the mercatu center at george mason university — a freemarket center generally hostile to government program — estimate that for the 10 years between 2022 and 2031 the total national health costs for senator bernie sanders's medicare for all plan would actually be 501 trillion
that would be 2 trillion less than if we let the system operate as it current do
however mercatu research doubt that the sanders's plan would ultimately save trillion because they believe congress would have to increase medicare rate paid to hospital and physician to get the legislation enact
they may be right — or wrong
but that is a different argument — a prediction about the politics of enact law — than that medicare for all would inherently increase total health care spend
we have our doubt about medicare for all
but unaffordable is not a reason to oppose it
whether it's our current arrangement or a future medicare for all the per capita cost of our health care system already far exceed that of any other industrialize country — including those with singlepayer system
when you hear a health care price tag in the trillion know that the existing system has already brought us there
fallacy no
3 insurance companies' profit drive health care costs
in the second democratic presidential debate senator bernie sander declared that the health care industry make 100 billion in profit
he once rail against the insurance company anthem for deny a claim while note that it report fourthquarter profit for 2017 had increase by 234 percent to 12 billion
many america believe that profit have no place in health care
they see forprofit health insurance like buy and sell kidney and liver for transplant as what the nobel prize winner alvin roth term a repugnant industry — something that should not be exchange in the market
that is an important moral stand but it make no difference to the claim that eliminate forprofit insurer will reduce high health care costs
the fact is we could eliminate those profit and it would hardly matter to the cost of health care
you would not notice it in your premium
for the eight largest forprofit health insurance company in 2016 their cumulative revenue amount to nearly 4522 billion and profit were 221 billion for a profit margin of about 5 percent
by contrast technology company bank and major drug company generally make more than 20 percent profit
true 221 billion is a lot of money — but it is 06 percent of health spend
and last year alone health care costs increase over 130 billion — six times insurance company profit
health care spend would not be significant cheap if all insurance companies' profit were zero
there are far more savings to be had in other effort — by cutting unnecessary patient service for example or by making physician and hospital more efficient — to deliver the same care at a lower cost
fallacy no
4 price transparency can bring down health care costs
hospital will be require to publish price that reflect what people pay for service said president trump when he sign his executive order on health care price transparency
price will come down by numbers that you wouldn't believe
the cost of health care will go way way down
there is no doubt that price for medical procedure can range widely even within the same city or state
for instance mri of the spine can vary threefold in massachusetts and mammogram fivefold in san francisco
conservative argue that inform patient of price for test and treatment will induce them to shop for lowercost service saving them insurer and the country money
in theory the beauty of price transparency is that neither the government nor insurer impose cost control the invisible hand of the market do it all
yet demonstration of price transparency have been try many times in many place and in reality it has not reduce the cost of care
one recent study by harvard medical school research involved hundred of thousand of employee and use a website telling them what they would pay outofpocket if they chose particular physician and hospital
the result no savings
a followup study use another set of employer and another price transparency tool found the same result no savings
since 2007 new hampshire has had a state website nh health cost that allow patient to select a medical procedure insurer and zip code and then get a list of price for the procedure from various provider
the most promising study of nh health cost suggest a few million dollar in savings per year
that works out to be about 5 per new hampshire resident
the fact is price transparency will not make health care costs go way way down
health insurance insulate the patient from price
over 80 percent of the cost of medical care is paid by private and public insurance
patient have little incentive to seek out the cheapest provider
when price website exist few patient use them
even in the most favorable study when offer a price transparency tool only 12 percent of patient took advantage of it usually it's less than 4 percent of patient
furthermore price consideration are useful for choose only about 40 percent of procedure — routine service like colonoscopy mri
scan and laboratory test
most of the expensive service — think heart catheter cancer chemotherapy and organ transplant — are not the kind of thing you decide base on price
finally in health care america usually put relationship ahead of money
once patient find a physician they trust and a hospital they like they tend to stick with them even if there is a lowercost alternative nearby
america health care is complex and any simplistic solution is likely to be base on a fallacy
but that doesn't mean there is nothing we can do
there are solution — they just don't make for bumper sticker phrase like medicare for all or eliminate forprofit insurer or price transparency
george soro mark zuckerberg should not be in control of facebook by george soro jan 31 2020 at a dinner last week in davo switzerland i was ask if i thought facebook was behave more responsibly today than it did during the 2016 presidential election
not at all i answer
facebook help trump to get elect and i am afraid that it will do the same in 2020
i explain that there is a longstanding law — section 230 of the communications decency act — that protect social media platform from legal liability for defame and similar claim
facebook can post deliberate mislead or false statement by candidate for public office and other and take no responsibility for them
i went on to say that there appear to be an informal mutual assistance operation or agreement develop between trump and facebook in which facebook will help president trump to get reelecte and mr trump will in turn defend facebook against attack from regulator and the media
this is just plain wrong a facebook spokesman told business insider
i disagree
i believe that mr trump and facebook's chief executive mark zuckerberg realize that their interests are align — the president's in winning election mr zuckerberg's in making money
let's look at the evidence in 2016 facebook provided the trump campaign with embed staff who help to optimize its advertising program
hillary clinton's campaign was also approach but it decline to embed a facebook team in her campaign's operation
brad parscale the digital director of mr trump's 2016 campaign and now his campaign manager for 2020 said that facebook help mr trump and gave him the edge
this seem to have marked the beginning of a special relationship
more recently direct contact between the two men has raise serious question
mr zuckerberg met with mr trump in the oval office on sept 19 2019
we don't know what was said
but from an interview on the sideline at the world economic forum on jan 22 we do know what mr trump said about the meeting mr zuckerberg told me that i'm no
1 in the world in facebook
mr trump apparently had no problem with facebook's decision not to factcheck politics ads
i'd rather have him just do whatever he is go to do mr trump said of mr zuckerberg
he's done a hell of a job when you think of it
the president's 2016 campaign mount a robust datacentric communications effort and has continue to build on that program over the past few years use facebook as a key part of their strategy
facebook's decision not to require factcheck for politics candidates' advertising in 2020 has flung open the door for false manipulate extreme and incendiary statement
such content is reward with prime placement and promotion if it meet facebookdesigne algorithm standard for popularity and engagement
what's more facebook's design tend to obscure the source of inflammatory and false content and fail to adequate punish those who spread false information
nor do the company effectively warn those who are expose to lie
i express my fear that with facebook's help mr trump will win the 2020 election
the recent hire of a rightw figure to help manage its news tab has reinforce those fear
in my comment in davo i also pointed out that facebook has been use to cause worse damage in other country than the united states
in burma for example military personnel use facebook to help incite the public against the rohingya who were target in a military assault of incredible cruelty including murder rape and the burning of entire village around 700000 rohingya flee to bangladesh
the international court of justice in the hague is current deliberate whether these atrocity qualify as genocide
but within the last year facebook has introduce new features on its mobile app that actually intensify the fire of incendiary politics attack — making them easy and quick to propagate
the system is costfree to the poster and revenuegenerate for facebook
good for facebook bad for democracy
the responsible approach is selfevident
facebook is a publisher not just a neutral moderator or platform
it should be held accountable for the content that appear on its site
speak at a cocktail party in davo on jan 22 facebook's chief operate officer sheryl sandberg repeated the worn silicon valley clich� that facebook is try to make the world a better place
but facebook should be judge by what it do not what it say
i repeat and reaffirm my accusation against facebook under the leadership of mr zuckerberg and ms sandberg
they follow only one guide principle maximize profit irrespective of the consequence
one way or another they should not be left in control of facebook
give joe biden his due by frank bruni dec 20 2019 pete buttigieg and elizabeth warren are the shiny object
joe biden just may be the keepsake that endure
the other two went at it on thursday night quarrel over the meaning and morality of a wine cave in an exchange that distill the democratic primary's broad tension between pragmatism and purity compromise and idealism
biden was careful not to be drawn too far into it and during other stretch of the debate stood back
why wouldn't he
for all the worry because he sometimes stutter for all the concern because he occasional sputter for all his corny locution malarkey and reflexive conversation filler here's the deal the former vice president has almost consistent maintain a lead over his democratic rival in national poll since he announce his candidacy last april
he has recently gain ground in iowa the state that vote first meaning that he may avoid what had been look like a candidacyimperile embarrassment there
he has survive salvo from critic and mess of his own that were supposed to halt or at least hobble him the attention to his crossingtheline physical with women the flipflop about public fund of abortion the backandforth with kamala harris about bus the moment at the fifth democratic primary debate when he seem to forget either that she was in the senate or that she was black
all of that supposedly made him look weak
but none of that appreciable weaken him
and at the latest debate he perform better than before — which may not be saying a lot but is saying something
he still can't speak in a straight line instead zigg and zagg if he were a car his tire would constant scrape the curb and his hubcap would probably pop off
but they stay on this time around
biden 77 seem more relax and confident and he radiate his trademark warmth
it's difficult not to like him
and it's time to give him his due
so many of us haven't and i'm as guilty as anyone
in past column i urge him not to run — cite his unsuccessful previous presidential bid his age his eccentricity and his outright flaw — and doubt his ability to go the distance
i join other pundit and politics analyst in treat biden's frontrunner status as fiction or inevitable fleeting and as the bequest of simple name recognition
we decree that other contender — harris for an instant warren and buttigieg for long even bernie sander of late — had momentum
biden had vestigial good will which we regard as a less flashy and flimsy commodity
when we examine biden we saw warning sign
look at that light schedule
check out those anemic fundraise numbers
sure many democratic voter deem him the most elect alternative at a juncture when snatch back the white house matter infinite more to them than any romance with a figure fresher and more inspire than he is
but would they stick
and could he last
so far so good — or rather so biden which in thursday night's debate meant a quizzical reference to winston churchill some endearing loose banter with sander and an overarch aura of sheer goodnatured
when one of the moderator tim alberta of politico brought up the subject of age biden said look i'm running because i've been around
all my experience
with experience hopefully come judgment and a little bit of wisdom