* This article from Michael Hiltzik, business columnist from the Los Angeles Times, contains important information to keep in mind. Rich people often don't move because of taxes, contrary to the assumptions corporate media punditry and rich people funded economists want us to believe. Rich NYers have moved to Florida for years, telling themselves they do it because Florida has no state income tax. But rich folks in NY also move to California, which has the highest state income tax in the nation. Hmmm....I wonder what Florida and California have in common? Oh, yeah. Sunshine and warmer weather. Also, what Trump's $10,000 limit on state and local tax write offs did was hurt upper middle class ($75,000 and over) and long time middle class homeowners for whom moving is not an easy or desirable option, whether in California, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, or New Jersey, or elsewhere. The article also shows there was a nefarious, malicious intent to punish the successful pro-Democratic Party states, and the irony is, well, the structural conditions that create jobs in those states has not been badly affected. As people may recall, we moved from the Greatest State in the Union (CA) to the Greatest Secret in the Union (NM) because of medical bills that slaughtered our ability to save or pay down a mortgage, and the fact so many people want to move to CA from other states, and more and more, other nations. Oh well. Myths die hard, especially those corporate media owners generally want to tell. It's not as if many people read Hiltzik's column in the Business Section. That should have been in the op-ed or even front page as an article. It is no more opinion than the Times' political article reporters.
* This is a powerful graphic art editorial about what doctors see in end of life situations, and why we should follow the Swedes and Finns in providing senior home care as the main option before deciding to send to the mostly private and gouging nursing homes. This is part of Sanders' signature Medicare for All single payer plan, I should note.
* Ah, the Malthusians are back. Sorry, professor. Blaming overpopulation is a classic rich person's maneuver. Just ask Richmond Valentine. It's the distribution. It is amusing she is telling American and European audiences to no longer have any children, when Europe and the US suffer from a failure to reproduce ourselves to provide support for each other. And if she looked at the US electoral map and dove in, she would find vast swaths of cows and vegetation, not people. If this professor is truly into protecting existing human beings, she may want to primarily support birth control for women in poor areas, where birth control provides women the choice when to have or not have children. As Barry Commoner recognized decades ago, after studying the chicken-and-egg question of whether overpopulation breeds poverty or poverty breeds overpopulation, he found it is more likely the latter. She may also want to speak, with EO Wilson, the prominent evolutionary biologist, whose book I linked to, about putting humans on side of the planet and allowing other creatures to survive and do well, talks about overpopulation, but recognizes other solutions than Malthus offered is far more kind. Oh well. The death threats and other vitriol directed at this professor are, sadly, more depressing because it is so typical, and speak badly for the species in general. I get that there is bad distribution, oligarchs ruining the planet, and farming and industrial methods that are destroying the planet. However, if we focus on overpopulation, we are feeding a Thanos-Richmond Valentine narrative for the oligarchs that goes back to Malthus. Karl Marx was right to attack Malthus nearly 200 years ago, and we are right to push back against the oligarchic-based overpopulation arguments now. At some point, the crisis will come from inaction or insufficient action, however. And we will see murder on the minds of our rulers, and they will continue to divide us along ethnic, race, and gender lines. Sad, but it is why we fight now.
* And once again social media helps let me hear prog bands I missed from the 1970s. This time, it is a Swedish band called Blakula. Give it a listen if you are a prog fan. Otherwise, it is okay to skip. :)
