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nytStemmed.txt
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nytStemmed.txt
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a grinch steal a bank and fire an angel by nichola kristof feb 1 2020 to understand how some compani have lost their soul consid what happen after us bank stif a custom befor christma
marc eugenio had deposit a 1080 paycheck into hi account at us bank
the bank put a hold on most of the sum and he spent mani hour in a branch offic over two day tri to get access to the money so he could buy present for hi 9yearold daughter and 13yearold son
on christma eve eugenio found himself park at a ga station in clackama ore a portland suburb both hi fuel gaug and hi bank balanc on empti
a bank employe had told him that money would soon show up in hi account — perhap a ruse to get him out of the branch offic
for hour eugenio then tri hi debit card at the ga pump so he could buy a few gallon and get home to hi wife and children
i wa strand he told me
i could have walk home but it would have been five mile in the cold
that’ when eugenio found an angel
he telephon the bank’ tollfre number and spoke with emili jame a senior offic at a call center in portland
she spent an hour on the phone with eugenio tri to get some money releas so he could at least get home
she soon realiz that he had been misl and that money wouldn’t reach hi account ani time soon
feel badli for a custom stuck on christma eve jame offer to drive over from her call center and person hand him 20
no no no eugenio told her
he couldn’t impos
but she suggest she could use her break and she receiv permiss from a supervisor to drive 20 minut to eugenio
she later recal that when she arriv she wish him merri christma and hand him 20 of her own money
twenti dollar wouldn’t break me she explain to me and it would enabl him to get home to hi famili
when us bank found out that it had such a gener employe what did it do
it fire her
she broke the rule put herself and the bank at unnecessari risk us bank said in a statement
the compani bar call center worker from meet custom so it dismiss both her and the manag who had approv her trip
the manag abigail gilbert told me that james’ account wa essenti correct
jame had work at the bank sinc 2017 and had receiv numer commend and award that i examin but the bank paid her no sever
she is singl and use her last paycheck to buy sack of food for her two dog domino and harley quinn
she is now reduc to sell blood plasma at 25 a visit
i won’t let myself be homeless she told me
eugenio is horrifi at what happen
i wa lie to and treat like dirt by the bank eugenio said and he can’t understand whi the bank axe the one employe who wa help
i felt realli bad he told me
how could she get fire
us bank’ vision statement boast our employe are empow to do the right thing
so i tri to ask the company’ ceo andrew cecer whi the bank fire an employe who with permiss rescu a frustrat custom on christma eve
cecer wouldn’t return my call
david palombi a bank spokesman told me that an intern investig had conclud that jame misl her manag to get permiss that jame could have found other way to get money to eugenio that the 20 came from the manag which gilbert confirm to me and that jame previous had disciplinari issu
i found the bank’ investig a whitewash and it explan to be incoher meanspirit and contradict by a seri of intern bank messag that i review
the bottom line is thi cecer who wa paid 141 million in 2018 presid over a compani that ha smear a muchdecor employe who help a custom and as a result surviv by sell blood plasma
i suggest cecer apolog reinstat jame and promot her he might also show contrit by sell hi own blood plasma and donat the proce to a chariti of james’ choos
when young american say in poll that they react more posit to social than to capit it’ becaus of the hypocrisi of institut like us bank
i’v often note that compani have enorm capac to help their commun
but too often they act like american tobacco compani which kill more peopl than stalin did or pharma compani peddl opioid or mckinsey compani advis a busi to get more patient on higher dose of opioid or boe mock regul
that’ one reason to seek stronger privatesector labor union at least union and corpor can then provid some check on each other
one bit of reassur some chief execut do seem more enlighten than cecer
after the oregonian wrote two excel articl about jame other compani reach out to her say that she’ the kind of care person they want to attract
no job offer yet she told me but there are a coupl of possibl i’m realli excit by
brexit is here
sort of by the editori board jan 31 2020 final after 1317 day of confus rancor and endless vote in parliament it wa time for brexit
on wednesday teari member of the european parliament join hand and sang auld lang syne a clock project onto 10 down street count down the minut union jack line the mall befor buckingham palac
a new dawn for europ leader of the european union wrote in a joint articl
thi is the moment when the dawn break came prime minist bori johnson’ echo from across the newli rais divid line
it wa left to the dispassion bbc to cut short the batho brexit is far from ‘done’ the beeb coldli said befor list the mani travail still to come most notabl the negoti that now begin with the eu
on the detail of britain’ futur relationship with the contin
mr johnson ha promis not to seek an extens of the dec 31 deadlin which he could though a less complex trade deal between the eu
and canada took seven year to finish
to discourag other member from exit the eu
is not like to cut britain much slack on eu
standard and rule in their trade
britain will now also reach across the atlant to what presid trump ha held out as a veri big trade deal bigger than we’v ever had with the uk which mr johnson ha tout as a benefit of quit the eu
that too could prove a disappoint
a former british ambassador to washington kim darroch — who resign in juli after hi derogatori comment about mr trump leak out — wa among those who note in interview that mr trump is not given to gener trade concess least of all in an elect year
in the same european parliament session at which ursula von der leyen the presid of the eu
commiss promis depart british deleg we will alway love you and we will never be far aileen mcleod of the scottish nation parti spoke of scotland’ anger over be drag out of the union and ask that the member leav a light on for scotland where brexit ha fuel demand for a new referendum on independ
still the fact wa that after 47 year in the eu britain wa offici out and there wa no go back at least not in the forese futur
for mani briton the long and bitter debat had been less about econom and polit than about ident
those who fought to leav the eu
fought for what they saw as lost sovereignti often ting with a sens of lost empir those who fought to stay saw the union as postimperi britain’ place in the futur join with the rest of europ in valu standard and secur
in the end after nearli three year of uncertainti and bitter voter elect mr johnson out of exhaust to get it over with not becaus they had reach agreement
headlin reflect the divid
probrexit tabloid join in gleeful celebr our time ha come proclaim the sun offer a free giant brexit poster ye we did it
cheer the daili express in what it describ as a histor edit free and independ onc more after 47 year declar the daili mail over a photograph of the white cliff of dover
those same cliff featur on the cover of the guardian a strong advoc of stay in the eu over a crumbl sand castl surmount by a tini british flag
the headlin small island
tri to reconcil these diverg worldview will be the main task of come year as mr johnson appear to recogn when he declar in a speech to the nation friday even our job as the govern my job is to bring thi countri togeth now and take us forward
… thi is not an end but a begin
for the moment what forward meant remain unclear
for at least the come year not much would chang in econom trade and practic term but mani potenti battl loom over the shape of the futur relationship with europ america and the rest of the world
perhap in paraphras winston churchil on whether the moment wa an end or a begin mr johnson would have done better to use hi predecessor’ entir quot that one about a militari campaign 78 year ago now thi is not the end
it is not even the begin of the end
but it is perhap the end of the begin
china didn’t want us to know
now it own file are do the talk
by adrian zenz nov 24 2019 no more deni no more dodg
the chines communist parti can no longer hide it relentless campaign of mass intern against the ethnic minor in the northwestern region of xinjiang or claim that the effort is an innocu educ program
what wa alreadi wide known vastli report and confirm by firsthand account ha now been prove beyond doubt by the government’ own record — gigabyt of file ream of report thousand of spreadsheet — some of them classifi and highli confidenti
last weekend the new york time disclos and analyz the content of a trove of leak intern chines govern document that outlin specif polici for how to repress xinjiang’ predominantli muslim minor — and reveal that presid xi jinp himself set out the foundat for them
thi sunday the content of two more set of document — all of which i have review — are be disclos
among the first batch also leak is a confidenti telegram sign by zhu hailun xinjiang’ deputi parti secretari which detail how local author should manag and oper the vocat skill train center — a euphem for the intern camp
all translat here are mine
the second set of document a larg cach of file and spreadsheet from local govern reveal the intern campaign’ devast econom and social impact on the famili and commun it target
the telegram — date nov 5 2017 and address to local polit and legal affair bureau — is mark extrem urgent and bear the secondhighest level of secreci within china’ classifieddocu scheme
it reveal the extent of the secur and surveil measur taken around the camp partli to shield the camp from extern scrutini
the messag a direct note that the work conduct there is strictli confidenti and highli sensit in natur
even staff at the camp are forbidden from aggreg detaine figur
the authorities’ attempt to enforc absolut secreci is confirm by anoth document date novemb 2018 thi one from a local govern file in hotan counti
it chide offici for not protect secret relat to the intern campaign well enough
it stipul that no person is under ani circumst permit to dissemin inform about detent or reeduc via telephon smartphon or the internet and that offici are strictli forbidden from receiv relat media interview or make unauthor disclosur about the intern campaign
that the chines author so deliber sought to shield from extern scrutini inform about oper at the xinjiang camp suggest that they are onli too awar of how incrimin their polici and practic are
i wa also abl to obtain a massiv cach of local govern file from within xinjiang
among the most reveal document are thousand of detail spreadsheet with the name identif number and address of ten of thousand of peopl mostli uighur and mani of them in detent prison or reeduc camp
in yarkand a counti of about 800000 peopl in southwestern xinjiang 96 percent of the popul is uighur
six offici spreadsheet about six villag date 2018 show that on averag nearli 16 percent of the rural adult popul wa either intern or in prison
in two villag in kosherik township — which the document describ as heavili pollut by extremist ideolog — nearli 60 percent of all household had one person or more intern
in addit to the extraordinari scale of the intern campaign the file reveal it devast impact well beyond the camp — deep into the commun and famili of xinjiang
the spreadsheet show that the govern ha primarili target middleag men most often the head of the household and main wageearn
beijing’ occasion tour of it socal model camp often featur attract young women
in realiti peopl between 30 and 59 were especi like to be intern accord to the spreadsheet
the policy’ socioeconom fallout is dire — and local govern are keep a meticul record of it
one spreadsheet from 2017 for one town in yarkand counti which list household with low incom that might qualifi for welfar includ a young famili with five children between the age of three and 14
the father had been imprison the mother place in a reeduc camp and the children in effect orphan
in anoth hardli unusu case a household’ two workingag parent were detain leav elderli grandpar — includ a grandmoth describ as serious ill — to care for two toddler
in a column with the header reason for poverti the relev spreadsheet offer thi explan lack labor forc and financ
the toddlers’ father isn’t schedul to be releas until 2030
anoth spreadsheet from septemb 2018 show list of loan default in pilal township akto counti
in 80 percent of the case where the reason for default wa list as intern most of the borrow fund were shown to still be in the bank
a particularli depress exampl come from a villag in yarkand counti
a uighur farmer and head of a famili of five wa intern in 2017
in octob 2016 he had receiv a loan of 40000 renminbi nearli 5700 to purchas agricultur machineri
the equip went unus dure hi detent — no other famili member knew how to oper it — and the loan could not be repaid as schedul
the govern direct the famili to rent out the equip and send it oldest child a son to work
the famili wa then offici mark as have been povertyallevi by benefit from polici
in june 2018 after hi releas the farmer appli for financi assist so he could repay the loan and relat interest
in januari 2019 he start to work in the yarkand counti textil industri park earn just 800 rmb about 113 a month
by then the son age 20 had somehow becom disabl and wa list on govern form as unabl to work
thank to these new document disclosur we now have hard evid — and the government’ own evid — that in addit to implement a vast intern program in xinjiang the chines communist parti is deliber break up famili and forc them into poverti and a form of indentur labor
for all it effort at secreci the chines govern can no longer hide the extent and the reach of it campaign of repress in xinjiang
some import element are still unknown
the total intern figur remain a wellguard secret
base on the new evid i have revis my own estim i think that between 900000 and 18 million peopl have been detain in xinjiang sinc the spring of 2017
also miss from the offici document that have surfac so far are precis record of how the detaine are treat and how exactli the process of reeduc work
about those thing howev we have wit account
the confidenti telegram and local file do not mention the use of physic violenc — but for one notabl except
the telegram state that peopl who resist brainwash must be singl out for assaultstyl reeduc
yet anoth sinist understat and it suggest that forc and tortur may in fact be wide use
in a way though we alreadi know all that we realli need to know
the document that have been disclos these past few week reveal the stagger scale of the repress in xinjiang and it ruinou effect on the region’ ethnic commun well beyond the camp themselv
consid thi offici statist show that the combin net popul growth rate of hotan and kashgar two of the largest uighur region drop by about 84 percent between 2015 and 2018
the chines communist parti set out it claim to transform through educ ethnic minor in xinjiang
in fact it is rip apart entir commun and subjug them on a coloss scale
and thi at the direct of presid xi himself
china’ new civil religion by ian johnson dec 21 2019 beij — in the northern suburb of thi citi is a small templ to a chines folk deiti lord guan a famou warrior deifi more than a millennium ago
renov five year ago at the government’ expens the templ is use by a group of retire who run pilgrimag to a holi mountain schoolchildren who come to learn tradit cultur and a taoist priest who preach to wealthi urbanit about the tradit valu of ancient china
perch atop a hillock overlook the sprawl capit the templ is a microcosm of a new civil religion take shape in china — an effort by the chines communist parti to satisfi chines people’ search for moral guidelin by supplement the larg irrelev ideolog of commun with a curat version of the past
thi new stateguid religios is the flip side of the government’ harsh polici toward islam and christian
offici believ these two global faith are hard to control becaus of their foreign tie and they have use negoti or forc — diplomaci with the vatican arrest of promin protest intern camp for muslim — to tri to bring these religion to heel
yet beijing’ recent turn to tradit may be even more signific
even though islam and christian are world religion in china they remain minor with the number of their combin adher amount to less than 10 percent of the popul
most chines believ in an amalgam of buddhism taoism confucian and other tradit valu and idea that still reson deepli
for thi silent major of hundr of million of peopl the government’ newfound support for thing like the templ to lord guan is welcom — a feel that the chines communist parti hope will bolster it legitimaci especi given the irrelev today of it found idea
the benefit of it move to embrac the past may seem obviou but the shift mark a radic departur not just for a parti offici commit to atheism but also from how reform over the past centuri have imagin a modern prosper china
from the 19th centuri onward china’ elit argu that the country’ tradit and faith were a major reason for it declin
reform in 1898 call for templ to be convert into school
while the nationalist parti under chiang kaishek approv of four religion — buddhism taoism sometim call daoism christian and islam — it larg consid tradit chines belief to be superstit and advoc the destruct of templ
scholar estim that by the middl of the 20th centuri half of the templ that exist in china at the end of the 19th centuri had been destroy
an 1851 survey of the old citi of beij list 866 templ today i count just 18
at the end of the 19th centuri most villag had at least one templ and mani had half a dozen vast section of the chines countrysid now have no templ at all
when the communist took power in 1949 they like the nationalist offici recogn four religion — but then promptli began persecut them
tradit faith came under especi harsh treatment with the govern ban bedrock tradit practic from worship ancestor and local deiti to follow the advic of geomanc master and spirit medium
the three decad of reform that start in the late 1970 loosen control over societi allow the reviv of all religion and mani tradit that had been proscrib
despit period crackdown church and mosqu but also templ were rebuilt and clergi train
although all faith were suppos to remain under parti control religi feel boom with the number of believ in china top 500 million by 2010
xi jinping’ rise to power in late 2012 mark a new era the third in the histori of the chines communist party’ religi polici
instead of the destruct of the mao year and the rel laissezfair approach of the reform period the state ha embark on a form of highli curat reviv
one part of it approach rest on a deep suspicion of christian and islam
the party’ polici toward islam ha been the most draconian
some believ especi uighur in the northwestern provinc of xinjiang have been subject to a polici of forc secular
thi ha includ send hundr of thousand of muslim to reeduc camp compel restaur to serv pork and alcohol and forbid fast dure ramadan
the polici toward christian is more nuanc
last year beij struck a deal with the vatican to jointli appoint cathol bishop
the vatican seem to hope to revers the declin in the number of cathol in china
but for beij the measur wa a way to tighten control over the cathol clergi — and by extens the church itself
protestant pose an especi vex problem for the parti
it is arguabl china’ fastestgrow religion with an estim 60 million or more adher today compar with one million in 1949 includ some 20 to 30 million who are thought to worship in unregist or underground protest church
but the faith lack a unifi structur that would allow for negoti
and so the govern ha fire a few shot across the bow close sever of the country’ bestknown underground church
in mani way howev the xi administration’ embrac of tradit faith is more radic
sinc take offic the presid ha met with buddhist leader and hi govern ha allow taoism to flourish
the state recent issu a landmark plan to improv social more the first such program sinc 2001
the plan stem from a widespread feel that china’ relentless drive to get ahead econom ha creat a spiritu vacuum and sometim justifi break rule and trampl civil
mani peopl do not trust one anoth
the government’ blueprint for handl thi moral crisi call for endors certain tradit belief
the epic paper — it run to 10000 chines charact and would be significantli longer translat into english — doesn’t mention communist china’ found father mao zedong or hi successor and their ideolog focus instead on mr xi and hi effort to fix social problem like money worship and hedon
it doe invok communist slogan such as core socialist valu but in contrast to the previou such document from 2001 — which made onli pass refer to chines tradit — it call the past a rich sourc of moral
the plan order parti offici to promot ancient and worthi sage as well as to deepli expound tradit concept such as ren’ai benevol zhengyi righteous and jianyi zhengwei stand up brave for the truth
thi effort is not an attempt to replac commun with confucian
yet it is fair to say that for the first time sinc china’ imperi order collaps in 1911 a central govern is embrac the idea that made up the politicalreligi order that ran china for much of the past 2500 year
whi
not onli to address china’ moral vacuum but also as a populist measur
the countri is enter a more uncertain era of slower growth and rise inequ and beij is drape itself in the mantl of tradit to broaden it appeal
in do so the govern seem to be assum that tradit chines valu and belief are easier to control than foreign religion and that support them will outweigh the cost of suppress islam and christian
but i have my doubt
dure a visit thi fall to the lord guan templ i saw a dozen or so peopl mostli in their 30 and 40 read work by wang yangm a philosoph born in the late 15th centuri
on the face of it thi wa in line with govern polici the parti ha embrac wang for exemplifi an incorrupt spirit and match word with deed
but after read a passag of wang’ work the men and women sat around a big wooden tabl wield brush to write out over and over again hi most famou phrase zhi xing he yi knowledg and action are one
thi knowledg accord to wang come from an inner light a conscienc — one that no govern no matter how power can control
china where state pomp come with real feel by ian johnson oct 3 2019 beij — attend china’ nation day celebr over the year ha been a bit like listen to differ take of a song with the compos hone the theme and jettison the raw bit until the piec sound just right
that’ how i felt at tuesday’ celebr on tiananmen squar held to observ the 70th anniversari of the found of the people’ republ of china
i’v attend two other ceremoni like thi befor — for the 35th anniversari in 1984 and the 50th in 1999 — and i knew the basic drill there would be a big militari parad follow by float celebr the government’ accomplish
but thi show felt bigger and brassier than either of those as if the compos had decid to use everi instrument in the orchestra and cast subtleti asid
it wa slick and sleek but also overpow and at time bombast
when i receiv my invit govern offici told me that i wa lucki to attend becaus it wa such a great honor
i nod polit but onli realli understood what they meant when i arriv at tiananmen squar on tuesday at 6 am we media type were just a few hundr in a sea of loyal member of the chines communist parti ccp
and for mani of them it must have felt like one of the biggest event of their live
it would be easi to write these peopl off as extra
and 20 year ago the last time i wa at such an event the peopl in attend were mainli highli train perform who held aloft placard that spell out differ messag north korea–styl
but tuesday’ crowd wa differ
it wa made up of univers professor scientist administr bureaucrat and peopl who had made some sort of contribut to the state
they weren’t prop but excit particip who expect to rememb thi day
i notic that right away when i walk past a rais platform cover with artifici grass that surround a big televis screen
peopl were crouch down next to the platform and neatli arrang their letter of invit paradepictur id and program almost all in the same fashion like sacrament on a church altar
then they would snap a pictur aim their camera so that china’ nation symbol the gate of heavenli peac appear in the background
these were photo design to be boast about on social media guess where i wa today
ye at tiananmen squar
ye at the ceremoni
and here is proof
if these were their sacrament and thi ceremoni wa their ritual what then wa their belief
that would probabl be the messag broadcast on the giant screen that surround us
befor the parad began those screen show archiv footag of the past 70 year present a stori about how china had been poor and beaten down by outsid power until the communist parti save the countri
the mao era wasn’t portray as foreign journalist and academ often depict it — a seri of violent campaign against imagin enemi of the state and the worst famin in record histori — but as a period of pioneer glori when china secur it border for the first time in a centuri built a heavi industri base and set the stage for it econom takeoff
rais on thi ideolog the attende seem visibl move when soldier carri the nation flag goosestep from the monument to the people’ hero at the center of the squar down to the enorm flagpol
i wa unnerv by the background barrag of artilleri and the amplifi sound of the boot strike the pavement — it felt like an invas of giant — but mani peopl around me stood solemnli
thi wasn’t stagemanag some look bore other gaze around kid play
but mani more look earnest just like american do when they stand up hand on heart for the nation anthem at a sport event
and i don’t think it wa just for show that peopl jump out of their seat at one of the earli high point of the ceremoni when presid xi jinp appear stand in an opentop limousin drive out of the gate of heavenli peac
the moment wa pure theater with mr xi in a dark tradit suit appear frame by the vermilion wall of the imperi forbidden citi as he set off to inspect the troop
peopl also ooh and aah at anoth signatur moment that owe much to peke opera
when mr xi pass the soldier their head swivel as if on socket their eye bulg as they follow the nation’ most import person
it wa a show of the arm forces’ unswerv allegi to the ccp’ leader and the audienc need no encourag to cheer
realiz that some of these emot are genuin is import becaus we can’t understand china if we think the parti onli rule through the authoritarian method that report understand focu on
on my social media feed which includ disgruntl intellectu but also workingclass practition of folk religion it’ clear that mani buy into the nation stori creat by the ccp
invent tradit is noth new nor uniqu to china
but here these construct can sometim feel uneasi becaus mani of them are import — from soldiers’ dress uniform that seem decad out of date gold braid enorm epaulet row of medal to soundtracklik music worthi of john william fanfar kettl drum plenti of brass
i might be nostalg but the mood 35 year ago felt a bit differ
i wa a student then and a group of us wa buss down to tiananmen squar for the ceremoni
we then mill around for most of the day
there wa also an orchestr event but secur wa minim and you could still stand right next to the perform as they march or danc past
some student even jump into the parad and held up a banner greet the paramount leader deng xiaop
china today is more seriou about be a superpow
when the spontan enthusiasm flag on tuesday cheerlead made sure the flag kept wave
and secur wa so tight that it border on paranoia neighborhood park around town implement airportstyl secur to even enter
but that too wa part of the spectacl the messag and the vision — of a focus and disciplin state led by the chines communist parti that can put on a spectacl few countri can match
coronaviru and the panic epidem by ian johnson jan 30 2020 beij — the absurd of the situat hit me on wednesday when i wa come home from a local bar at 8 pm
i had ridden my bike a few hour earlier to a park for a walk and then to meet a friend — my first human contact in five day exclud the cashier at the groceri store
but the side gate i’d use to leav the enorm communistera compound wa now chain shut
what
a notic in chines said it wa lock to prevent the spread of the new coronaviru
so i head toward the north entranc
that one is for pedestrian and ha two barrier set slightli apart just wide enough to get through on foot
that’ ok i thought i can squeez by with my bike and be home in a few minut
i rode around the block but when i got to the gate i had to slam on the brake
someon had taken a dozen rideshar bike lash them togeth with wire and pile them in between the barrier
then for good measur they’d fasten the heap to the post with more wire make it into some sort of postmodern commentari on our hypermobil societi
laugh i rode on to the main entranc
it ha a car entranc with a big gate and on either side walkway for pedestrian
one of those wa also pile high with rideshar bike sacrif for the nation good the other wa protect by two secur guard i’d never seen befor
they block my way
what do you want
one of them ask
to go home
i live here
have you been to wuhan recent
i just rode back
i’m exhaust
the humor wa beyond their pay grade
is anyon in your home from wuhan or ha been there recent
i need to stop fool around
no i haven’t been there in four year
i live alon
no fever
i feel fine
they silent let me through
thi felt like the height of foolish whi would the gate be open dure the day but lock down at night
do virus oper like vampir
that’ when i realiz the guards’ effort wa just part of a borglik lockdown that the state had put into place with the alacr of offici in full cya
mode
the next day i wa clean my apart no one could enter beij anymor so my one luxuri an houraweek hous cleaner wa stuck in her villag even though the main phase of the lunar new year holiday wa over
there wa a knock on my door
it wa the good peopl from the apart manag offic mr luo and her assist
oh mr zhang nice to see you mr luo the hennahair manag of leas renew said address me by my chines name
is there anyon from wuhan in your apart
no
still not
ok
take a look at thi pleas
she hand me a sheet from the local communist parti district committe list do and don’t to follow dure the outbreak
do seek help
do listen to the local govern
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 associ with peopl who’v recent arriv from the infect area around the megac of wuhan
on the back wa a list of all the communist parti street committe and their phone number
final after five year of live in thi neighborhood and countless fail effort to regist my complaint about illeg construct at night i had some phone number
i file the sheet for futur use
the german languag ha as usual a hyperspecif word for thi phenomenon aktionismu liter action or action for action’ sake
what i wa wit wa aktionismu in the face of a problem that requir a sensit respons involv public trust
but sinc the chines govern cannot elicit either of those thing i wa see the compensatori flailingaround of a state with no other option
instead of have an adult convers with the popul about the viru and put in place reason polici that have been use effect elsewher the chines state ha gone into full lockdown mode
thi demonstr one of those truism from polit scienc authoritarian govern are like peopl who don’t have ani finger but do possess two thumb
they can take forc action but can’t finetun the lever of govern
actual i’m not be fair
when the chines communist parti ha time it can come up with and use sophist polici — wit it coopt of tradit faith to fill a spiritu vacuum in societi
but when face with a crisi the parti can’t seem to avoid grand gestur build hospit from scratch in two week lock down ten of million of peopl ban million more from travel to big citi and so on
in some way a moment like thi one is a technocrat’ dream when western health care expert say that thi sort of lockdown won’t work they basic mean it’ never been tri on thi scale with thi kind of ubereffici govern
now that it’ be tri not just in beij but also across the countri the effect are kind of thrill to watch
apart compound like mine are be fumig
with what
who care
peopl are walk around with loudspeak blare out warn against the viru
villag are close their gate as if bandit were on the prowl
and go to a restaur or a bar is almost an act of treason or at best foolish selfish
the most interest question is whi the parti feel the need to carri on like thi
i think it know the peopl don’t trust it in these case and assum there ha been a coverup
henc one of the most popular figur in the crisi zhong nanshan the hero of the 20023 sar outbreak now 83 who is back in action treat patient and warn citizen about the need for hygien
he ha been adopt as the incorrupt offici — a familiar trope in chines histori the confucian offici who stand tall despit pressur to bend
and so we read endless profil of dr zhong in chines social media discuss hi famili background upbring success and apolit pursuit of sciencebas truth
the clear implic is that he is that rare offici capabl of such principl conduct
behind all thi lie the feel that most other peopl in the parti can’t quit be trust
thi ha been reinforc over the past few day by report that at least eight peopl who were detain in wuhan in earli januari on charg of spread rumor are in fact medic doctor not fearmong ne’erdowel
thi startl fact is now leak out in onlin report that are sometim but not alway be block
at some point the govern will have to admit to a partial coverup
consid the underli distrust it’ hard for the govern to say what mani epidemiologist are say thi outbreak is seriou but not catastroph
becaus if the state level with the peopl it would also have to admit that there is no need for thi degre of social control
some 259 peopl were report to have die as of saturday even in a countri of nearli 14 billion and there is no indic that we are at the start of a hollywood disasterstyl movi
the government’ inabl to formul a measur respons will turn thi outbreak into a direct successor of the sar epidem
that hardli wa a huge public health disast — fewer than 800 death — yet it ha taken on a legendari reput as a catastroph of unimagin proport one that should never be allow to recur
but of cours a new outbreak ha occur
doe thi mean that the state will suffer
i don’t think so
for despit their mistrust of the system peopl over all are go along with the lockdown
in privat convers and on chat room they say it’ imposs not to take drastic action in a countri as big as china
in thi sens the popul ha absorb the government’ narr of chines exception run china requir a strong hand and these measur as absurd as they seem are proof that the govern is do a good job — and portend that the parti will come out of thi as alway triumphant
coronaviru spread and the world pay for china’ dictatorship by nichola kristof jan 29 2020 china’ leader sometim seem 10 feet tall presid over a polit and econom juggernaut that ha found univers at a rate of one a week and that recent use more cement in three year than the unit state did in the entir 20th centuri
presid trump ha hail china’ presid xi jinp as a brilliant leader and michael bloomberg say xi is not a dictat
but we’r now see the danger of xi’ authoritarian model for china and the world
the first known coronaviru infect in the citi of wuhan present symptom begin on dec 1 and by late decemb there wa alarm in wuhan’ medic circl
that would have been the moment for the author to act decis
and act decis they did — not against the viru but against whistleblow who were tri to call attent to the public health threat
a doctor who told a wechat group about the viru wa disciplin by the communist parti and forc to admit wrongdo
the polic report give educ and critic to eight frontlin doctor for rumormong about the epidem instead of punish these doctor xi should have listen to them
china inform the world health organ of the viru on dec 31 but kept it own citizen in the dark as other countri report infect even as china pretend that it had confin the outbreak to wuhan chines joke grimli about a patriot viru that onli struck foreign
wuhan’ mayor said he wasn’t author to discuss the viru until late thi month
in that time peopl travel to and from wuhan and didn’t take precaut
the govern final order a lockdown on jan 23 that effect quarantin peopl in wuhan
but by then accord to the mayor five million peopl had alreadi fled the citi
partli becaus the govern cover up the epidem in the earli stage hospit were not abl to gather suppli and there are now major shortag of test kit mask and protect gear
some doctor were reduc to make goggl out of plastic folder
one reason for the earli coverup is that xi’ china ha systemat gut institut like journal social media nongovernment organ the legal profess and other that might provid account
these institut were never veri robust in china but on and off they were toler until xi came along
i conduct a seri of experi on chines blog over the year begin in 2003 and wa sometim surpris by what i could get away with — but no longer
xi ha drag china backward in term of civil societi crush almost everi wisp of freedom and oversight
for the same reason that xi’ increasingli authoritarian china bungl the coronaviru outbreak it also mishandl a swine fever viru that sinc 2018 ha devast china’ hog industri and kill almost onequart of the world’ pig
dictat often make poor decis becaus they don’t get accur inform when you squelch independ voic you end up get just flatteri and optim from those around you
senior chines offici have told me that they are routin lie to on trip to meet local offici and must dispatch their driver and secretari to assess the truth and gaug the real mood
for thi or other reason xi ha made a seri of mistak
he mishandl and inflam the polit crisi in hong kong he inadvert assur the reelect of hi nemesi as presid of taiwan and he ha presid over worsen relat with the unit state and mani other countri
the coronaviru ha alreadi reach the xinjiang region in the far west of china and one risk is that it will spread in the intern camp where china is confin about one million muslim with poor sanit and limit health care
virus are challeng for ani countri and it’ onli fair to note that china doe a better job protect it peopl from measl than the us doe
it’ a credit to china’ system that a babi born in beij today ha a longer life expect than a babi born in washington dc more broadli the unit state which ha sever impoverish counti with lower life expect than cambodia or bangladesh is in no posit to lectur anyon about health
but with a dose of humil let’ get over ani misplac admir some american have for xi’ authoritarian model
the chines social contract ha been that citizen will not get ballot but will live steadili better live yet china’ economi is now as weak as it ha been in three decad — and the coronaviru will sap growth further
xi is not live up to hi end of the bargain and thi is seen in the anger emerg on chines social media despit the best effort of censor
i don’t know if xi is in polit troubl for hi misrul but he should be
he’ a preen dictat and with thi outbreak some citizen are pay a price
cuomo’ bad medicin on medicaid by the editori board jan 31 2020 for year new york state ha oper one of the most gener medicaid program in the countri a point of pride in a state with a long tradit of invest in the social safeti net
the program provid health care and other servic to more than six million peopl larg lowincom new yorker and the cost are share between the state and feder govern
but proflig spend ha sent cost spiral in recent year
the medicaid program ha becom a drive forc behind a 61 billion hole in new york’ budget next year and a brew polit battl over what to do about it
though medicaid cost are rise across the unit state in new york — among the country’ largest program and long one of it most expens — spend ha surg
from 2015 to 2019 annual spend grew by an averag of 6 percent accord to a report last year by the empir center for public polici a conserv nonprofit research organ
that’ roughli doubl the rate of growth in the previou sever year even as enrol remain flat
health care and budget expert have said a varieti of factor are behind the trend includ an increas in demand for person care program that provid nonmed servic to disabl new yorker a minimumwag increas and financi assist that the state ha provid to struggl hospit
new york’ share of it 75 billion annual medicaid bill is now about 30 billion and grow impos an increasingli unten burden on state and local budget
the feder govern pay the rest
the good news is that gov
andrew cuomo who is in charg of administ the feder program ha move to rein in cost
the bad news is that he ha said local will have to pay for increas in local medicaid spend abov 3 percent
that’ unfair and unrealist
local govern in new york alreadi pay more mandat medicaid cost than local govern in ani other state a dynam that’ been in place sinc the program began in the 1960
that’ not unusu in new york where albani reli on new york city’ tax base to fund the bulk of state servic from educ to commut rail
in 2018 local govern in new york sent 76 billion to albani for the program accord to a 2018 report from the citizen budget commiss
in fulton counti in upstat new york for instanc the local medicaid bill for 2016 amount to more than 15 percent of the counti budget
in new york citi the annual medicaid tab is roughli 5 billion or nearli 5 percent of the city’ budget
if the spend increas continu and the state forc local govern to pay for them the de blasio administr estim the citi would owe an addit 11 billion next year
the state say the figur would be much lower
mr cuomo ha call on local govern to reduc cost
that’ fine new york citi and counti across the state which overse enrol should work to root out ani fraud or abus and ensur that those who sign up for the program are elig and truli in need
they are the ontheground administr
we respond to them mr cuomo said in a phone call wednesday
realli though local govern have limit say over how the program is run
most of that respons rest with the state
when it come to reduc medicaid cost that’ where the focu should remain
the most promis effort so far is mr cuomo’ medicaid redesign team a work group assign to find 25 billion in save thi year preserv benefit while slash wast
the governor use a similar task forc to success carri out costsav medicaid reform nearli a decad ago aid by the afford care act
the new group will be led by the same two men michael dowl the presid and ceo
of northwel health and by denni rivera the former head of 1199 seiu the powerhous health care union
they are set to make their recommend ahead of the april 1 budget deadlin
it will be up to mr cuomo to ensur the public good is top of mind
the redesign group should issu a thorough report present it find to the public and the legislatur
right now it’ not clear they plan to do so and that’ a problem
while not perfect the approach is far better than simpli fork over more and more taxpay dollar and stick local govern with an evergrow tab as the state ha been do
to get new york’ medicaid program back on track the group will need to take a hard look at spend on nonmed servic like cook and bath for homebound new yorker
accord to the empir center new york’ medicaid spend on such person servic wa the highest in the countri
that may be becaus of a program that ha expand in recent year in which medicaid pay nonmed provid like famili member to care for client
in 2016 person spend in new york account for 40 percent of nation medicaid spend for the categori overal up from 23 percent in 2011 the empir center said
complic matter is a polit dynam friendli to the health care industri
in 2018 for exampl the greater new york hospit associ gave more than 1 million in polit contribut to the state’ democrat parti
not long afterward the state increas medicaid reimburs rate for the first time sinc 2008 cost the state an estim 140 million per year
mr cuomo ha deni that donat influenc hi polici decis and cuomo administr offici said at the time that the increas wa necessari and simpli long overdu
health care expert disagre and say hospit revenu had alreadi been on the rise
new york’ medicaid bill is out of control
the first order of busi is to understand more about whi and to be honest with the public about what need to be done about it
democrats’ baffl 2020 mess by frank bruni dec 7 2019 kamala harri fold her tent and on that patch of ground mani flimsi theori bloom
disappoint democrat grous that you obvious had to be rich to compet in the 2020 race — becaus she wa gone while two billionair remain — and point to the potenti allwhit undivers lineup at the party’ next debat as proof that the qualifi criteria put too much of a premium on fundrais
but harri had made the cut for that debat
and she enter the presidenti sweepstak with a higher net worth 6 million accord to forb than berni sander 25 million ami klobuchar 2 million or pete buttigieg 100000 who are still in the hunt and are among the six contend slate to be spar onstag on dec 19
what’ more sander and anoth of the six elizabeth warren have rais bucket of money without court plutocrat
mani democrat blame the media for harris’ demis
they have a point inasmuch as some news organ never had the kind of romanc with her that they did with buttigieg and beto o’rourk two white men
i note as much in a column last may point to o’rourke’ placement on the cover of vaniti fair and buttigieg’ on the cover of time
but the media fell quickli out of love with o’rourk and is pick buttigieg apart for hi lack of support among africanamerican and hi past employ as a mckinsey consult
and harri wa hardli ignor her initi campaign ralli in oakland calif in januari wa cover live in it entireti on msnbc and cnn
that same month rachel maddow of msnbc told her in a facetofac interview i think there is a good chanc that you are go to win the nomin
and after the democrat debat in june when harri stirringli confront joe biden about hi past opposit to feder mandat buse to integr school she receiv a bonanza of media attent and raptur review
i get that thi democrat primari isn’t play out as anyon predict or in remot accord with the party’ imag of itself and with it prioriti
none of the top four candid — biden warren buttigieg and sander — is a person of color three of them are 70 or older and the billionair tom steyer and mike bloomberg are dip into their person fortun in their effort to gain ground
for a parti that celebr divers pitch itself to underdog and pride itself on be futuremind and youthori that’ a freaki baffl turn of event
but some of the conclus be drawn and complaint be rais don’t fulli hold water
take the fear about the nomin be purchas
without question run for offic is too expens
that dynam can definit favor candid with lucr connect
and candid are forc — unless they’r steyer or bloomberg — to devot ludicr and possibl corrupt sum of time to polit panhandl
but at least at present neither steyer nor bloomberg is exactli barrel toward victori
and while cori booker drew a connect between harris’ departur and a process warp by wealth the link is tenuou
booker whose campaign press on despit hi failur to qualifi for the decemb debat said of harris’ withdraw voter did not determin her destini
actual they kind of did
they’r the one who are or aren’t excit enough about a candidaci to donat money and keep it aliv
they’r the one respond to pollster and by flag their prefer determin which candid take on the air of plausibl that often gener the next round of donat
i keep see on twitter and facebook lament about harris’ fate from democrat who chose to support candid other than her
well she couldn’t succeed on gener ambient good will
i also keep see and hear statement along the line that the parti should be asham of the way thing are turn out that the parti fail
while an offici parti entiti the democrat nation committe inde set criteria for the debat — which had to have some criteria — there’ otherwis no committe of elder or secret cabal that decre which candid prosper and which don’t
besid which as eric levitz observ in new york magazin harri boast the enthusiast support of hillary’ donor network and support warm relat with obamaworld and the sympathi of a broad rang of democrat lawmak in the nation’ largest state and beyond
levitz ad that when harri end her campaign on tuesday she trail onli biden in the websit fivethirtyeight’ talli of import endors that booker ha more such endors than sander who is far ahead of him and that klobuchar ha more than buttigieg whom she distantli trail
so if the parti is fellow democrat politician of note it’ hardli drive the direct of thi contest
we in the media aren’t drive it either though there’ constant carp along those line
we’v alway been fundament respons bestow coverag base on establish interest and we’r more respons than ever in thi digit age of sophist realtim measur of precis what our audienc doe and doesn’t turn to
we give you a tide of warren in part becaus you thrill to the earlier trickl
we serv you oodl of buttigieg becaus we’v notic your appetit for it
anoth question assess of thi primari is that elect is crowd out candid who don’t fit some safe profil
ye mani democrat voter tell pollster that choos the candid most like to beat trump is their top concern
ye there’ evid that such an impuls is lead some voter away from candid of color
but if elect emphat rule the day wouldn’t at least one of the three current or former governor alreadi gone from the race — john hickenloop of colorado steve bullock of montana and jay insle of washington — have fare better
governor are frequent tout as the best candid and they account for four of the past seven presid
if elect rule the day would biden’ stiffest competit be come from a 78yearold democrat socialist who recent had a heart attack and just place first in a california poll a 70yearold former ivi leagu law professor whom trump delight in call pocahonta and the 37yearold gay mayor of a small indiana citi
there’ a lot to thi primari that’ more complic than meet the eye a lot that explod assumpt
accord to the poll so far voter aren’t drawn to candid whose demograph profil overlap with their
biden’ support from black democrat in a nation quinnipiac poll late last month wa more than eight time what harris’ or booker’ wa
he and sander do exponenti better among latino than juliã¡n castro doe
sander not buttigieg ha the advantag among democrat under the age of 35
and mani gay democrat have reject buttigieg as inadequ progress and even insuffici gay
so if ident group elect media bia and person wealth aren’t the secret to success what are
i think we’r learn yet again that there’ no tidi trusti formula
but broad name recognit among engag voter — which biden sander and to a lesser extent warren all had at the outset — is an enorm asset
so are a sale pitch and brand like buttigieg’ that are distinct from ani other contender’
final there’ polit acumen
there’ raw talent
the last democrat presid barack obama had plenti of it
the next democrat presid will too
devin nune is daniel steel by frank bruni nov 15 2019 i came to your hous with a gun
at least imagin i did
i tie you to a chair took a step back and repeatedli fire
but my arm twitch everi bullet miss
meanwhil you slip your knot and fled
by the reason of repres jim jordan i did absolut noth wrong
you’r aliv
not a drop of blood on you
an unconsumm crime is no crime at all or so jordan one of the republican party’ more rococo philosoph argu on wednesday in defens of presid trump
ukrain got it militari aid trump did not get hi investig of the biden
to jordan that’ proof of innoc
to a normal person that’ proof of incompet which doesn’t exoner the presid but should definit reassur us
trump’ an autocrat all right but the silver line is that he’ an inept one
all strongmen should be thi weak
and all of us should have the mental limber and ethic elast that jordan and hi troup possess
they’r the cirqu du soleil of c’est la vie
i’v never seen anyth like the republican effort to defend trump which chart the frontier of creativ explor the outer limit of audac mutat like the monster in the alien movi and restor my faith in american ingenu
my faith in washington too
i long fear that polit had stop attract the country’ top talent but some of our finest storytel are work in the unit state capitol
john grisham ha noth on jordan
daniel steel can’t hold a candl to devin nune
nune wa among the first republican to pipe up on day 1 of the impeach inquiry’ public hear held by the hous intellig committe and it wasn’t just hi narr ambit that mesmer me
it wa hi bold descent into hi thesauru a sort of semant spelunk
the hear he said mark the piti final and spectacular implos of the russia hoax
they amount to a scorchedearth war against presid trump that wa horrif onesid and preposter
thi lowrent ukrainian sequel had alreadi involv a closeddoor audit process in a cultlik atmospher in the basement of the capitol
cultlik no less
that’ a more fit descript of republicans’ obeis to the presid and launder of hi wrongdo but then one hallmark of trump and hi sycoph is the project of their own flaw onto their adversari
nunes’ best bit on wednesday and then again on friday wa hi portray of trump’ democrat detractor as amateur pornograph intent on find nude pictur of the presid
i’m fairli confid that no one is intent on find nude photograph of the presid
but at thi point it wouldn’t surpris me if trump himself tweet one out
would that be ani crazier than what he did on friday as mari yovanovitch the former ambassador to ukrain testifi
there she wa a pain stoic state depart amalgam of erin brockovich and norma rae and trump use hi twitter account to call her an intern wreck ball singlehandedli respons for the mess that is mogadishu
one of her post befor ukrain wa somalia
thi accomplish noth in the way of silenc her but rais the prospect of wit intimid be ad to ani articl of impeach
clearli the republican respons to thi impeach inquiri isn’t some eleg strategi
it’ an epic snit
it leitmotif is hypocrisi
nune open friday’ hear by lament all the import govern busi that wa on hold becaus democrat prefer to tortur trump
i somehow miss hi plea that lawmak keep their eye on the ball and devot themselv to practic problemsolv when the presid stir up one cultur war after anoth just to chang the topic of a given news cycl or hear a ralli audience’ roar
but along come the impeach inquiri and suddenli hous republican are stymi steward of levelhead govern
they’r dismiss wednesday’ and friday’ hear held in public as pure theater
but they complain about the closeddoor testimoni beforehand
they’r shrug off the account of william taylor georg kent and other as hearsay
but the white hous ha decre that such firsthand wit as mick mulvaney not cooper
one moment mulvaney publicli acknowledg the shakedown of ukraine’ presid insist that it’ how foreign polici is done and tell the media to get over it
the next he tell the media that they’r reprehens fabulist for report exactli what he said
one moment republican complet ignor trump’ infam juli 25 phone call and claim that there’ no direct evid of hi bulli and — ye nanci pelosi is right — hi briberi
the next they acknowledg the call sigh over trump’ behavior but say that it’ hardli impeach
in fair that’ onli slightli more confus to me than the democrats’ perspect on the call a definit piec of evid that they may be inadvert downgrad
usual a process like the one that they’v been engag in over the last seven week is about find a smoke gun
thi process began with the smoke gun and the farther the democrat travel from it — eight wit thi come week
— the more they risk impli that it wasn’t enough
but for curiou behavior republican have them easili beat and their conduct dure the impeach inquiri is the culmin and apotheosi of their conduct sinc trump wrap up the republican presidenti nomin an utter sellout of principl and a pure embrac of fiction to pacifi an emot infant and keep him from spit up on them
dure wednesday’ hear republican again suggest — while maintain straight face — that trump’ foremost concern wa corrupt in ukrain
steve castor the republicans’ chief counsel also gave one of the president’ most conveni and thu favorit conspiraci theori a fresh whirl posit that perhap american intellig offici had it all wrong and ukrain not russia hack democrat email in 2016 and otherwis interf in the elect
how would thi make trump’ demand that ukrainian smear joe biden in return for million of dollar of alreadyauthor aid ok
it wouldn’t — but what a juici distract
and what a perfect gateway for castor’ attempt to get taylor to testifi that trump legitim believ that ukrainian were in castor’ word out to get him
tri to follow along
not onli doe incompet equal innoc but also paranoia is exculpatori
same goe for the rel dastardli of a deed which becom innocu if it’ not maxim obnoxi
that’ my takeaway from when castor refer to rudi giuliani’ shenanigan ask taylor thi irregular channel of diplomaci it’ not as outlandish as it could be — is that correct
clarenc darrow move over
anoth geniu of jurisprud demand space in the histori book
all that wednesday’ hear lack wa lindsey graham
ye i know he serv in the senat and the hear took place in the hous
but he’ the standardbear for trumpcoddl contortion the reign king of the kind of contradict that were on display
presag jordan’ approach at the hear graham a week and a half ago shrug off the impeach inquiri by call trump’ polici toward ukrain so incoher that the presid and hi minion seem to be incap of form a quid pro quo
he said at one point that he’d be open to ani evid that back up such a quid pro quo but then more recent he announc that he wouldn’t and couldn’t be bother to follow the testimoni becaus he’d alreadi made up hi mind
as billi binion of reason magazin note graham ha bemoan the democrats’ lack of transpar onli to shield hi eye onc the curtain wa lift
mayb graham will storm the hear room yet an effigi of hunter biden in tow
that would match the digniti of what we’v seen from republican so far
did i just get yang
by bari weiss jan 30 2020 it wa new year’ eve and i had decid to spend it with andrew yang
a selfdescrib asian man who’ good at math mr yang had rais an impress 165 million in the fourth quarter of 2019 for hi presidenti campaign
despit be newli flush the campaign didn’t hold it shindig in a napa valley wine cave or at gramerci tavern but in a florescentlit room abov a bar in nashua nh
the parti look like noth so much as a high school danc if you had ban the bulli
there wa a modest buffet of meatbal spanakopita ritz cracker and cheddar chees
the dj a boomer with trouser that badli need hem could have been your chemistri teacher bounc to cardi b
now a few day away from the iowa caucu mr yang ha outlast more than a dozen candid includ three senat 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 debat stage
he remain a veri long shot nation poll have him consist in the second tier right next to ami klobuchar
still convent wisdom would say that andrew yang should be nowher thi close to the american presid
i went to new hampshir becaus i want to understand how a polit rooki with what seem like littl go for him beyond a signatur propos of free money and relentlessli cheer onlin fan had gotten thi far
what doe the url candidate’ campaign look like irl
that night the yang gang as the candidate’ fan proudli call themselv wa a happi crowd of gamer asian former goth girl burn man enthusiast scifi geek student coder and stoner
when mr yang drop a lord of the ring joke — it’ like the eye of sauron is close in
he said of hi momentum in the race — they erupt in laughter
hardcor yang voter are not cool
and that is exactli their and hi appeal
among the partygo on new year’ eve were jacki and dave farrel former berni sander support who own a deli in caldwel nj mr farrel wore a handmad knit beani stitch with the word yang math vote and 2020 ms farrel had a pink yang gang basebal hat over her blue hair and a copi of the candidate’ best seller the war on normal peopl in her purs
they fell in love insid an onlin role play game call hobowar
it’ hard to imagin anyon at a joe biden event with that kind of meetcut
he actual sold me a guild ms farrel told me
it’ sort of like a gang
like a yang gang
talk to anyon in the yang gang for a few minut and they’ll inevit tell you how they got yang
the stori almost alway begin with a younger person tell an older person to googl andrew yang
which is exactli what happen with the farrel
in august a 23yearold employe in the deli approach ms farrel to ask whom she wa support
i wa like ‘berni i guess
i support him in 2016’ she recal
and he goe ‘whi haven’t you googl andrew yang yet
so she did
i liter stay up till 4 am that night watch video
have you ever been the target of a twitter mob
it’ about as pleasant as a brazilian wax in slow motion
the one thing that bring a small measur of comfort when you are in the digit cross hair is the follow assert the internet is not real life
it is true at least for the time be that a hord of pixel cannot transform itself into a hord of peopl
but the lie that there is a bright line between the onlin world and the real one ha been well and truli debunk
just ask ani middleschool girl shame for an instagram post or ani adult fire becaus of a bad tweet or ani democrat hope to oust donald trump and becom the 46th presid of the unit state
berni sander may be fuel by hi zealou fan on social media but of all the democrat run for presid the web mean the most to andrew yang
without it hi candidaci simpli wouldn’t exist
it’ a classic underdog stori a polit unknown ignor by the mainstream media sidestep the pundit who had consid him a punchlin
in the earli day there weren’t mani peopl in cabl news clamor to have me on their show he told me over bubbl tea on a recent afternoon in hi manhattan campaign headquart
and so you seek out peopl who can reach lot of american
those peopl were the one with podcast
what launch us wa sam harri said mr yang of hi june 2018 appear on mr harris’ show make sens
it put him on the map i wa invit to speak at the wing ding in iowa — a major democrat fundrais event — becaus one of the peopl there wa a sam harri fan
mr harri introduc him to joe rogan a mix martial art color comment who host one of the most popular podcast in the countri
disclosur i’v also appear on hi show
joe rogan wa the game changer mr yang said
we rais ten of thousand of dollar a day for awhil there and a million buck in a week
but it isn’t simpli that mr yang cleverli use new platform to hi advantag
sure the podcast gave him a big boost but lot of politician have use new media to expand their reach franklin roosevelt command the radio team obama master the email blast presid trump tear up twitter
mr yang’ outsiz success show that the peopl who insist that rachel maddow ha more influenc over the american elector than mr rogan are lie to themselv about where cultur power in america is actual locat
what mr yang understand is that the old rule no longer appli — and that flout those rule is an energ strategi
but while donald trump burn the whole hous down andrew yang is dunk on the system with a big smile
that’ how he get onstag at a democrat debat point out the ridicul of the artific — we’r up here with makeup on our face and our rehears attack line play role in thi realiti tv show — and walk away with one of the most talkedabout moment of the night despit have had the least talk time
hi appeal is a power remind that the anim polit conflict of our era may not be left versu right but establish versu insurg
the yang campaign pride itself on the heterodoxi of it support
i poll 18 percent among colleg republican mr yang told me
i’v got a higher appeal among independ libertarian and even some disaffect trump voter than joe biden by the number than berni sander by the number
one of hi campaign slogan is not left
not right
forward
the writer wesley yang ha suggest that the inbetween natur of asianamerican — the way they are often regard neither as white nor as peopl of color — allow them to say and do thing that white liber are now afraid to say and do which is to stand up for certain fundament valu
when you consid mr yang’ posit on some of the touchiest aspect of the cultur war and imagin hi view come out of the mouth of a michael bennet or a pete buttigieg you can easili see the truth of thi insight
for instanc he’ glad that america ha becom less of a monocultur
when he wa a kid he say hi own effort to be american includ thing like join the wrestl team he wa terribl at the sport
but he ad i think there’ a middl ground where you can’t just say america is noth and everybodi run off and do your own thing
it’ import he said to have a common cultur context and even — and thi will be veri controversi — a common languag of express
i spoke to some of hi mani asianamerican support and thi reson with them
michael chen a 19yearold drexel student at one of the new hampshir town hall event said he appreci that mr yang whose immigr father grew up in a hous with a dirt floor on a peanut farm is not run on hi ident you can be asianamerican you can be black american you can be latinoamerican but the common denomin is american
that’ who he is
mr chen wa there with hi dad jack
the elder mr chen call himself a yang junki but insist be asian ha littl to do with it
what anim him is the practic of mr yang’ solut
mr yang believ in talk to peopl he disagre with
in april he appear on the ben shapiro show a nogo zone for those who buy into the new polit of contamin — that to sit next to a conserv like mr shapiro is to tacitli endors hi idea
think that i’m go to catch idea from someon seem ludicr to me he said
soon after the comedian shane gilli wa hire by saturday night live it wa reveal that he had use racial slur on podcast includ describ mr yang with an antisemit and racist epithet
mr yang tweet that he didn’t think mr gilli should be fire write we would benefit from be more forgiv rather than punit
the show didn’t follow mr yang’ advic
i ask mr yang who ran one of the top test prep program in the countri befor it wa bought by kaplan about hi view on affirm action
is harvard do to asian in the 21st centuri what it did to jew in the 20th
harvard’ gonna harvard he said
he told me that he himself wa reject from the school — he wound up at brown — though he wa ampli qualifi
but if you have ani kind of perspect he said you realiz that my life and my human depend on more than whether some institut decid to stamp my hand
argu for higher represent of an alreadi overrepres group — at least accord to popul standard — would not be my first bone to pick he said
instead he ask whi harvard a univers with a 40 billion endow is open locat in shanghai but not ohio or michigan
the real question he said is are you tri to advanc our societi or are you tri to advanc global money interest
on new year’ eve it occur to me that despit live in new york which pride itself on be the most cosmopolitan citi in the world i had not been in a room with such a polit divers group of peopl sinc donald trump wa elect presid
if there is a typic yang voter it is a former berni sander support who feel that mr yang understand the challeng of the 21st centuri better than a 78yearold socialist without a singl app on hi phone
mr yang support mr sander in 2016 befor vote for hillari clinton in the gener elect i’m procivil he said
he understand whi young voter are drawn to mr sander
if you’r a young person you look up and say ‘what have i experienc from thi capitalist system’ corpor abus crash bailout greed record level of colleg debt
but he insist the best actor to improv people’ live is not our govern it’ us
bernie’ say ‘let’ stick it to the billionair and all will be well’ he said
i’m say ‘we need to rewrit the code we need to rewrit the software’ at a campaign stop in manchest nh i spoke with sunni payn a 23yearold yang support who’d come in from bangor me and use the pronoun they
while i think berni sander is an amaz person they said he’ ha had the exact same polici stanc for liter decad
amberli mccabe and martin raucher both 29 are also former sander support
they drove 25 hour from st petersburg fla
they made sure not to cut anyon off on the highway ms mccabe said becaus there’ a yang bumper sticker on their car and we have to repres
mr raucher is a disabl veteran and ms mccabe is an artist they met through their passion spin fire
it wasn’t possibl to twirl lit torch insid the parti room so ms mccabe had fashion the next best thing a handmad lightup yang sign
with yang i’m all about the idea the polici she said abov all hi propos for a univers basic incom of 1000 a month
i need an oil chang said mr raucher when i ask how they’d spend it
and my roof is leak
just across the danc floor were elasa and russel peterson two former trump voter who chang their registr — and move state — to support mr yang’ candidaci
everyon i know is the brokefolk vote said mr peterson
they are among them
until recent they work at a north carolina oliv 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 becaus the immigr are come over here and they’r steal our jobs’ and you know what
becaus we’r all broke we’r all like ‘it’ immigr
yeah
let’ build the wall’ mr peterson said
but then you hear andrew yang talk and he’ like ‘you know what
it’ not immigr
it’ automation’ you go into walmart you don’t see immigr
you see selfserv checkout
it’ like a light bulb goe off
like ‘wow thi make sense’ it made so much sens that they move in with ms peterson’ sister in vermont 10 minut from the new hampshir border so they could volunt fulltim for the campaign and promot him on their youtub channel
everybodi in our famili ha been yang
and they were all trumper mr peterson said
at a town hall event attend by some 300 peopl on new year’ day the first question — so onbrand i almost assum it wa a plant — wa about the metric system so mr make american think harder can we count on presid yang to support the bless of the metric system
the crowd laugh
amazingli mr yang came back with a thought answer about how the metric system is safer not least becaus it is more accur for microdos babi medicin
to hear andrew yang talk is to understand whi it is possibl for peopl like the peterson to support him unlik the presid he never demon other american
the differ between us are pretti trivial compar to the thing we share in common
and that’ a fundament messag of the campaign ablebodi special need white black old young rural urban we’r all go to get run over by thi autom freight train he said
we need to human up and stop focus on rel trivial distinct
the villain is not donald trump but a market rig for big tech and against normal american
in mr yang’ frame of the 2016 elect mr clinton lost not becaus of the elector colleg or russian bot but becaus she fundament misunderstood the crisi face america
donald trump said he wa go to make america great again
and what did hillari clinton say in respons
america is alreadi great mr yang said
that messag did not work becaus the pain in our countri is real
in other word donald trump is the wrong answer to the right question
mr yang believ he is the right one
at each one of the four campaign stop i went to he ask the crowd whi presid trump won
the audienc call out answer the media
russia
racism
hillari
facebook
twitter
jame comey
no said mr yang
it’ becaus we blast away four million manufactur job through autom in state like ohio michigan pennsylvania missouri and iowa
what happen to manufactur is come to retail restaur and even account and the law mr yang insist
while mr sander suggest a feder govern job guarante and joe biden suggest turn coal miner into coder mr yang say that work as we have known it is over
if we don’t chang anyth i ask him where will be 50 year from now
bestcas scenario
we will see inequ at a stagger scale that right now most american would find unthink
and in the worst case
the collaps of the govern in it current form polit break up and societ dysfunct that result in mass riot and violenc
it’ impress that for the most part hi good humor soften the bleak messag he is convey
it’ a vision of the futur — one disput as hyster by mani observ — that make presid trump’ american carnag address look almost rosi by comparison
i caught up with sunni payn thi week
hear 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 befor realiz that i want to spread the messag to black voter and commun of color and i realiz the best place for me to do that wa in south carolina
they said they kept hear the same stori from voter i can’t care about climat chang becaus i need to put food on the tabl
i have three job
i bare sleep
to these peopl sunni payn said 1000 a month would be lifechang
that’ the reason that the comedian dave chappel ha endors mr yang
the wealth dispar between me and my neighbor is immens it’ heartbreak said mr chappel who live in ohio but appear alongsid mr yang on the campaign trail thi week
if you know a third of the peopl up the street can’t buy groceri then you start to feel an imper concern he said
thi is without ironi or a punch line i’m just tell you — thi guy’ got some great idea you should check it out
so have i been yang
i don’t know if a univers basic incom is the best solut to the problem of inequ
i’m not particularli passion about lower the vote age to 16 or requir polic offic to get purpl belt in jujitsu
i worri about whether someon with zero foreign polici experi can be the command in chief
but as berni sander sell class rage joe biden promis normalci and elizabeth warren push a social progressiv so perfectli doctrinair it seem tailor for five kid at oberlin andrew yang’ iconoclasm and optim are refresh
if get yang mean that i believ that thi curiou campaign is a caus for that rarest thing in current american polit — hope — and that mr yang is model how to har the populist energi that otherwis threaten to tear us apart then count me yanggang
america’ public restroom are kind of great now by farhad manjoo dec 11 2019 in the past few year someth amaz ha been quietli happen across the land
public restroom in america — long a flash point of exclus by race gender class and abil — have gotten much much better
thank to an increasingli effect campaign by a rang of activist america’ public bathroom are now cleaner more plenti more privat and more access and inclus than ever
in mani place they’r even great
thi is a stori about ident polit advocaci design and architectur
it is also a stori still in motion with progress yet to unfold and mani peopl still shut out
there is still much controversi surround our bathroom who get to use them and how
but it’ import to recogn progress as it’ happen
and if you travel across america now it’ undeni that how we go keep get better
how do i know
at the risk of tmi i happen to be an expert on bathroom
twenti year ago when i wa a senior in colleg i wa diagnos with a condit call achalasia a rare sometim genet swallow disord that i wa actual quit familiar with becaus when i wa a kid my mother had it too
it began as a blind burn bolt of pain in the middl of my chest after eat
imagin heartburn after you’v eaten someth spici but amp up to 11 as if the thing you’d eaten wa a chain saw dous in ghost pepper
the pain would abat after a few minut but it would come back again and again usual after i’d eaten a big meal
then it began to hurt dure big meal then dure everi meal and soon anytim i’d tri to swallow anyth
for mani peopl the condit is curabl through surgeri but for me that longago flash of pain turn out to be onli the begin of an allconsum chronic and often embarrass disabl
over the last two decad though i’v undergon dozen of invas procedur and test taken a panopli of pill and had variou part of my digest system remov or surgic rebuilt my symptom have onli gotten more intens and more — how to put thi delic
— expans
swallow food is now an arduou enough task that i have to get much of my nutrit through liquid as kany onc rap i drink a boost for breakfast an ensur for dessert
but it’ no longer just eat that’ a pain it’ what happen after too
from the nave to the chop my swallow problem ha spawn a grossout comedy’ worth of gi
complic
the ugli upshot is thi at least onc everi day and sometim mani time i have to run to the restroom on a moment’ notic and what happen to me there is best experienc alon in bliss unembarrass solitud
i tell you all thi in order to establish my bona fide i know public bathroom
in my travel over the year i have assembl in my head a verit michelin guid of privat peac place to go
so trust me when i tell you that in the last few year better public bathroom have start to pop up everywher
again and again in big citi and small in red state and blue in airport hotel shop mall theater stadium offic and a rang of other public venu i’v been save by a bounti of better loo
more restroom are now explicitli inclus and access design for peopl who are physic disabl are gender nonconform are travel with children or are otherwis in need of special accommod
for instanc paruresi and parcopresi phobia that inhibit peopl from urin or defec in public restroom are real debilit condit that affect ten of million of peopl
one innov that ha been of particular use to me is the lockabl singleoccup allgend restroom
a decad ago in most public place it wa nigh imposs to find a privat place to do your busi
today these oneperson stall are a rise trend across the countri especi at airport and other larg public facil
in some place they’r label all gender restroom in other they’r call famili bathroom in yet other sign welcom everyon with broad languag like all person may use thi restroom
whatev you call them they’r a haven in a world mark by chao and disord
over the last few year when natur call suddenli and panic set in i’v had the fortun of find a clean privat place at among other locat the guggenheim in new york the getti center in lo angel the mall of america a dozen airport at least and so so mani starbuck
of cours thing still aren’t perfect
i am a member of a racial minor but i’m a cisgend person of mean and social privileg
it’ like that a lot of peopl still find it hard to find clean privat restroom in much of the land
still the restroom situat in america is much better than it use to be and i’v notic so much better than in mani other part of the world
on a trip to britain and franc with my kid last year i wa surpris at how difficult it wa to find a clean privat bathroom when there wa one you often had to pay to use it
i’v seen some veri nice bathroom in dubai but onli in place that cater to the wealthi
in south africa and india
forget about it
america ha less and less to be proud of these day our life expect are fall our infrastructur is crumbl and our polit are in the toilet
but look at our toilet
while there’ no offici metric on thi sort of thing in my estim american toilet are now like among the top in the world
japan’ loo are said to be veri nice if we can’t be no
1 it’ possibl we’r at least you know no
2
if it’ true that our toilet are get better it’ worth ask whi
in a word activist
in the last few year a rang of advoc fight on behalf of transgend peopl the disabl homeless peopl and other have mount a varieti of legal and public advocaci campaign aim at make bathroom more access
these have sometim spark backlash and controversi like the 2016 law in north carolina that roll back genderinclus restroom
at the suprem court thi fall justic consid a case about gay and transgend right couldn’t stop themselv from consid everyth through the len of the loo
despit the polit controversi on the ground in facil all over the countri the moral arc of the bathroom is bend toward inclus
at starbuck after a viral incid last year in which two black men who had ask to use the restroom were arrest at a philadelphia locat the restroom are now open to everyon even peopl who haven’t purchas anyth
citi are now spend money to creat more public restroom
and earlier thi year stall an organ of design and activist who push for restroomrel social justic mount a success campaign to get the intern plumb code — which set standard for bathroom — to adopt new languag support allgend restroom
inclus design ha been a hot new term among architect and product design the idea broadli is that when you creat product and space that are accommod of a broad rang of human capac they end up be much more use to everyon in unexpect way
advoc of inclus design point to some canon exampl sidewalk ramp were put in place for peopl with wheelchair but they turn out to be handi for parent with stroller too
some of the technolog in the smartphone’ touchscreen wa invent as a way to help peopl with disabl like carpal tunnel syndrom
typewrit and keyboard were first creat to help the blind
restroom are follow a similar path
it’ not just obvious disabl and gendernonconform peopl who need a privat more access restroom
everyon now and again can do with a nicer place to go to the bathroom
in america at long last we’r get that
thank you social justic warrior
elizabeth warren throw down the gauntlet by elisabeth rosenth nov 4 2019 lay the tabl for the next democrat debat elizabeth warren ha issu a plan that explain how she would fund what she call medicar for all
she had studious avoid say whether it would rais tax for the middl class and in her propos she say repeatedli it will not
it will instead be financ by a mix of wealth tax employ transfer of money they current spend on health care and reduct of the mani ineffici in our current byzantin system — among other initi
but now all the candid need to tell us more of those detail about their health care strategi
it’ time for the candid to stop talk slogan and start talk sens — or dollar and cent — so that voter can know what they mean and choos among them
medicar for all medicar for all who want it a public option improv the afford care act — those are 30000foot concept that depend on the detail could work or not and be popular or not
the candid includ ms warren also need to say more about what they’ll do right now in one poll 40 percent of american said they had skip a recommend test or treatment and 32 percent said they had skip a medicin becaus of cost
support of medicar for all want to tie their futur to the popular of the medicar program
but ms warren and berni sander are offer up american a supercharg version of the current govern insur for those over 65
it promis to elimin copay for prescript drug
under current medicar mani patient contribut thousand of dollar annual
it includ dental and longterm care — a huge expens that is conspicu miss from current medicar
that ambit would make a health care plan vastli more expens
the nation health system of britain and canada both singl payer system like the medicar for all propos do not offer comprehens longterm care coverag
canada’ doesn’t includ coverag for prescript drug out of the hospit
is the financ ms warren propos go to be adequ to support the expand goal
economist disagre
but in releas her propos she ha thrown down the gauntlet befor the other candid — who support medicar for all who want it or some other type of public option — to be a whole lot clearer about what they mean
joe biden kamala harri pete buttigieg et al
doe your public option — a govern insur polici that anyon may buy — resembl mr sanders’ enhanc medicar or current medicar or medicaid which is far more bare bone
voter need to know
there’ anoth obviou reason the candid have been so close lip on specif to calcul how to pay for ani of the plan the candid have to say how they intend to bring down price — for hospit stay drug procedur devic doctors’ visit surgeri
american often pay two to 10 time what patient pay for these item in other develop countri
those price will have to come down to make ani plan viabl without break the bank
to realli assess ani plan we’ll need that kind of inform
ms warren ha courag step into that fraught territori with number that have veri like sent shock wave through the health care industri
for exampl to make her financ propos work she suggest pay most hospit on averag 110 percent of current medicar rate
she suggest american should pay no more for drug than 110 percent of the averag intern market price
that may be emin reason but is it achiev
when montana negoti rate directli with hospit for it state employe it settl on a deal in which the state agre to pay an averag of 234 percent of medicar rate
and it still save money
set lower price is go to bring out strong opposit
rememb patient or taxpay save mean loss of incom for one of america’ most profit industri whose lobbyist spent more than half a billion dollar last year and which is flush with dark money to distribut in congress
to get the aca
pass presid barack obama gave up on a number of pricelow idea to get buyin from the health care industri and it friend in congress
these includ jettison the idea of a public option and allow medicar to negoti drug price
the republican — whose plan have been larg proclam of better cheaper health care without ani strategi — will be quick to label ani of the democrat plan as a govern takeov of health care or social
rememb patient or taxpay save mean loss of incom for the unit states’ most robust sector in the postrecess economi
in mani postmanufactur citi like pittsburgh and cleveland a singl hospit system is the biggest employ
in boston hospit and hospit corpor make up the top six employ
minnesota and massachusett have done well with drug and devic manufactur
and let’ not start on insur whose lucr health busi would larg disappear
ani plan to rein in the unit states’ bloat 35 trillion health care system will be slow go requir not just a footnot blueprint but also the tame of mani oppos forc
it took year for canada to move from a marketbas system to govern run health
it endur lengthi debat and doctors’ strike
ms warren call her propos a longterm plan
but voter want to know how we get from here to anywher els
in poll their top health care issu is afford — emphasi on now
they need concret propos as well as longterm vision
in the next debat how about talk about hr
3 a bill in congress to curb prescript drug price
that plan would allow the health and human servic secretari to negoti a maximum price that could be charg to medicar for insulin and some of the most expens medicin in the unit state base on the price paid for those drug in other countri
day befor the last democrat debat the congression budget offic said it would save 345 billion over a sixyear period 202329
if the bill were to move to the senat how would the frontrunn vote
what do they have to say about that
four key thing you should know about health care by ezekiel j emanuel and victor r fuch sept 12 2019 health care so far perhap the biggest issu in the democrat primari is also the most complic issu face govern and the public
unfortun the debat is fill with persist misconcept from the role insur compani profit play in health care cost to who is actual pay for workers’ health coverag
clarifi four fundament health care fallaci could make it easier for voter to squar some of the democrat propos — and their critiqu — with realiti fallaci no
1 employ pay for employees’ health insur
employ write check that cover most health insur premium for employe and their depend
but as the princeton health economist uwe reinhardt onc explain employersponsor insur is like a pickpocket take money out of your wallet at a bar and buy you a drink
you appreci the cocktail until you realiz you paid for it yourself
with health coverag employ write the check to the insur but employe bear the cost of the premium — the entir premium not just the portion list as their contribut on their pay stub
the premium money that goe to the insur compani is cash that employ would otherwis deposit in employees’ account like the rest of their salari
the fallaci is in think an employer’ contribut come out of profit
in fact higher health insur premium mean lower wage for worker
sinc 1999 health insur premium have increas 147 percent and employ profit have increas 148 percent
but in that time averag wage have hardli move increas just 7 percent
clearli workers’ wage not corpor profit have been pay for higher health insur premium
health care cost are one — though not the onli — reason wage have stagnat over the last few decad
with health insur cost rise faster than growth in the economi more labor cost go to benefit like health insur and less to takehom pay
yet the belief that employe don’t pay for their own health insur is widespread
one reason is that individu cannot be sure what caus their wage to chang or remain stagnant for decad
anoth reason is that employ want american to believ that they pay for their workers’ health insur
still anoth reason is that there are those who profit from the employmentbas system drug compani devic manufactur specialti physician and highincom individu
they all want you to believ compani are be magnanim in give you insur
who els benefit from the belief in thi fallaci
oppon of nation health insur
fallaci no
2 medicar for all is unafford
the key to evalu the cost of medicar for all is to distinguish between increas spend on health care and shift expenditur from privat insur to the feder govern
true medicar for all would increas feder health care spend
but that is not the same as increas total health care spend which wa over 35 trillion last year
instead medicar for all would move money from one column privat health insur spend to anoth feder health spend it doe not automat increas total cost
a recent studi by the mercatu center at georg mason univers — a freemarket center gener hostil to govern program — estim that for the 10 year between 2022 and 2031 the total nation health cost for senat berni sanders’ medicar for all plan would actual be 501 trillion
that would be 2 trillion less than if we let the system oper as it current doe
howev mercatu research doubt that the sanders’ plan would ultim save trillion becaus they believ congress would have to increas medicar rate paid to hospit and physician to get the legisl enact
they may be right — or wrong
but that is a differ argument — a predict about the polit of enact law — than that medicar for all would inher increas total health care spend
we have our doubt about medicar for all
but unafford is not a reason to oppos it
whether it’ our current arrang or a futur medicar for all the per capita cost of our health care system alreadi far exce that of ani other industri countri — includ those with singlepay system
when you hear a health care price tag in the trillion know that the exist system ha alreadi brought us there
fallaci no
3 insur companies’ profit drive health care cost
in the second democrat presidenti debat senat berni sander declar that the health care industri make 100 billion in profit
he onc rail against the insur compani anthem for deni a claim while note that it report fourthquart profit for 2017 had increas by 234 percent to 12 billion
mani american believ that profit have no place in health care
they see forprofit health insur like buy and sell kidney and liver for transplant as what the nobel prize winner alvin roth term a repugn industri — someth that should not be exchang in the market
that is an import moral stand but it make no differ to the claim that elimin forprofit insur will reduc high health care cost
the fact is we could elimin those profit and it would hardli matter to the cost of health care
you would not notic it in your premium
for the eight largest forprofit health insur compani in 2016 their cumul revenu amount to nearli 4522 billion and profit were 221 billion for a profit margin of about 5 percent
by contrast technolog compani bank and major drug compani gener 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 alon health care cost increas over 130 billion — six time insur compani profit
health care spend would not be significantli cheaper if all insur companies’ profit were zero
there are far more save to be had in other effort — by cut unnecessari patient servic for exampl or by make physician and hospit more effici — to deliv the same care at a lower cost
fallaci no
4 price transpar can bring down health care cost
hospit will be requir to publish price that reflect what peopl pay for servic said presid trump when he sign hi execut order on health care price transpar
price will come down by number that you wouldn’t believ
the cost of health care will go way way down
there is no doubt that price for medic procedur can rang wide even within the same citi or state
for instanc mri of the spine can vari threefold in massachusett and mammogram fivefold in san francisco
conserv argu that inform patient of price for test and treatment will induc them to shop for lowercost servic save them insur and the countri money
in theori the beauti of price transpar is that neither the govern nor insur impos cost control the invis hand of the market doe it all
yet demonstr of price transpar have been tri mani time in mani place and in realiti it ha not reduc the cost of care
one recent studi by harvard medic school research involv hundr of thousand of employe and use a websit tell them what they would pay outofpocket if they chose particular physician and hospit
the result no save
a followup studi use anoth set of employ and anoth price transpar tool found the same result no save
sinc 2007 new hampshir ha had a state websit nh health cost that allow patient to select a medic procedur insur and zip code and then get a list of price for the procedur from variou provid
the most promis studi of nh health cost suggest a few million dollar in save per year
that work out to be about 5 per new hampshir resid
the fact is price transpar will not make health care cost go way way down
health insur insul the patient from price
over 80 percent of the cost of medic care is paid by privat and public insur
patient have littl incent to seek out the cheapest provid
when price websit exist few patient use them
even in the most favor studi when offer a price transpar tool onli 12 percent of patient took advantag of it usual it’ less than 4 percent of patient
furthermor price consider are use for choos onli about 40 percent of procedur — routin servic like colonoscopi mri
scan and laboratori test
most of the expens servic — think heart catheter cancer chemotherapi and organ transplant — are not the kind of thing you decid base on price
final in health care american usual put relationship ahead of money
onc patient find a physician they trust and a hospit they like they tend to stick with them even if there is a lowercost altern nearbi
american health care is complex and ani simplist solut is like to be base on a fallaci
but that doesn’t mean there is noth we can do
there are solut — they just don’t make for bumper sticker phrase like medicar for all or elimin forprofit insur or price transpar
georg soro mark zuckerberg should not be in control of facebook by georg soro jan 31 2020 at a dinner last week in davo switzerland i wa ask if i thought facebook wa behav more respons today than it did dure the 2016 presidenti elect
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 longstand law — section 230 of the commun decenc act — that protect social media platform from legal liabil for defam and similar claim
facebook can post deliber mislead or fals statement by candid for public offic and other and take no respons for them
i went on to say that there appear to be an inform mutual assist oper or agreement develop between trump and facebook in which facebook will help presid trump to get reelect and mr trump will in turn defend facebook against attack from regul and the media
thi is just plain wrong a facebook spokesman told busi insid
i disagre
i believ that mr trump and facebook’ chief execut mark zuckerberg realiz that their interest are align — the president’ in win elect mr zuckerberg’ in make money
let’ look at the evid in 2016 facebook provid the trump campaign with embed staff who help to optim it advertis program
hillari clinton’ campaign wa also approach but it declin to emb a facebook team in her campaign’ oper
brad parscal the digit director of mr trump’ 2016 campaign and now hi campaign manag for 2020 said that facebook help mr trump and gave him the edg
thi seem to have mark the begin of a special relationship
more recent direct contact between the two men ha rais seriou question
mr zuckerberg met with mr trump in the oval offic on sept 19 2019
we don’t know what wa said
but from an interview on the sidelin at the world econom forum on jan 22 we do know what mr trump said about the meet mr zuckerberg told me that i’m no
1 in the world in facebook
mr trump appar had no problem with facebook’ decis not to factcheck polit ad
i’d rather have him just do whatev he is go to do mr trump said of mr zuckerberg
he’ done a hell of a job when you think of it
the president’ 2016 campaign mount a robust datacentr commun effort and ha continu to build on that program over the past few year use facebook as a key part of their strategi
facebook’ decis not to requir factcheck for polit candidates’ advertis in 2020 ha flung open the door for fals manipul extrem and incendiari statement
such content is reward with prime placement and promot if it meet facebookdesign algorithm standard for popular and engag
what’ more facebook’ design tend to obscur the sourc of inflammatori and fals content and fail to adequ punish those who spread fals inform
nor doe the compani effect warn those who are expos to lie
i express my fear that with facebook’ help mr trump will win the 2020 elect
the recent hire of a rightw figur to help manag it news tab ha reinforc those fear
in my comment in davo i also point out that facebook ha been use to caus wors damag in other countri than the unit state
in myanmar for exampl militari personnel use facebook to help incit the public against the rohingya who were target in a militari assault of incred cruelti includ murder rape and the burn of entir villag around 700000 rohingya fled to bangladesh
the intern court of justic in the hagu is current deliber whether these atroc qualifi as genocid
but within the last year facebook ha introduc new featur on it mobil app that actual intensifi the fire of incendiari polit attack — make them easier and quicker to propag
the system is costfre to the poster and revenuegener for facebook
good for facebook bad for democraci
the respons approach is selfevid
facebook is a publish not just a neutral moder or platform
it should be held account for the content that appear on it site
speak at a cocktail parti in davo on jan 22 facebook’ chief oper offic sheryl sandberg repeat the worn silicon valley clich㩠that facebook is tri to make the world a better place
but facebook should be judg by what it doe not what it say
i repeat and reaffirm my accus against facebook under the leadership of mr zuckerberg and ms sandberg
they follow onli one guid principl maxim profit irrespect of the consequ
one way or anoth they should not be left in control of facebook
give joe biden hi due by frank bruni dec 20 2019 pete buttigieg and elizabeth warren are the shini object
joe biden just may be the keepsak that endur
the other two went at it on thursday night quarrel over the mean and moral of a wine cave in an exchang that distil the democrat primary’ broader tension between pragmat and puriti compromis and ideal
biden wa care not to be drawn too far into it and dure other stretch of the debat stood back
whi wouldn’t he
for all the worri becaus he sometim stutter for all the concern becaus he occasion sputter for all hi corni locut malarkey and reflex convers filler here’ the deal the former vice presid ha almost consist maintain a lead over hi democrat rival in nation poll sinc he announc hi candidaci last april
he ha recent gain ground in iowa the state that vote first mean that he may avoid what had been look like a candidacyimperil embarrass there
he ha surviv salvo from critic and mess of hi own that were suppos to halt or at least hobbl him the attent to hi crossingthelin physic with women the flipflop about public fund of abort the backandforth with kamala harri about buse the moment at the fifth democrat primari debat when he seem to forget either that she wa in the senat or that she wa black
all of that supposedli made him look weak
but none of that appreci weaken him
and at the latest debat he perform better than befor — which may not be say a lot but is say someth
he still can’t speak in a straight line instead zig and zag if he were a car hi tire would constantli scrape the curb and hi hubcap would probabl pop off
but they stay on thi time around
biden 77 seem more relax and confid and he radiat hi trademark warmth
it’ difficult not to like him
and it’ time to give him hi due
so mani of us haven’t and i’m as guilti as anyon
in past column i urg him not to run — cite hi unsuccess previou presidenti bid hi age hi eccentr and hi outright flaw — and doubt hi abil to go the distanc
i join other pundit and polit analyst in treat biden’ frontrunn statu as fictiv or inevit fleet and as the bequest of simpl name recognit
we decre that other contend — harri for an instant warren and buttigieg for longer even berni sander of late — had momentum
biden had vestigi good will which we regard as a less flashi and flimsier commod
when we examin biden we saw warn sign
look at that light schedul
check out those anem fundrais number
sure mani democrat voter deem him the most elect altern at a junctur when snatch back the white hous matter infinit more to them than ani romanc with a figur fresher and more inspir than he is
but would they stick
and could he last
so far so good — or rather so biden which in thursday night’ debat meant a quizzic refer to winston churchil some endearingli loos banter with sander and an overarch aura of sheer goodnatured
when one of the moder tim alberta of politico brought up the subject of age biden said look i’m run becaus i’v been around
all my experi
with experi hope come judgment and a littl bit of wisdom