Buried in a NYT article on Latino shift to Trump — one important paragraph

Link. “These voters were not necessarily poor: Many said they could afford groceries, but that higher prices left them with far less disposable income. Voters earning $20 an hour complained bitterly about being unable to take their families to the movies or on carefree outings at the mall.”

If you care about the future of American democracy look deeper at employed non-college Americans earning between $20-40 an hour. Ignore what they say. Don’t assume “inflation” is the root cause. Ask “why should they feel increasingly desperate over the past 20 years?

Pancreatic Cancer diagnosis doubled in young people — but appears to be a coding issue.

Link. The codes used in billing were for general pancreatic cancer, but the increase appears to be due to enhanced imaging and incidental discoveries of endocrine tumors that are thought to often resolve spontaneously. (Not mentioned in article – Steve Jobs died of an endocrine tumor because he refused the early surgery that would have removed it. They don’t always regress.)

Waiting for a Photogenic Child to Die of Measles

Link. “A major outbreak seems inevitable. When it happens, I hope there will be pictures. I hope they will be heart-breaking. I hope the parents will be brave enough to admit that their lives were shattered by their own choice.”

Might as well assign the journalist team now. A good reminder that humans are not actually very rational. And an example of how news is made or unmade.

Russia is at war with NATO: “plot had been part of a test run with the ultimate goal of putting explosive devices on planes bound for the United States and Canada”

Link. Canada too!

“plot had been part of a test run with the ultimate goal of putting explosive devices on planes bound for the United States and Canada”

“GRU, increasingly reliant on criminal proxies, often hired over the internet, to carry out acts of sabotage … “think the Russian intelligence services have gone a bit feral”

Mudsills before Musk and Thiel

Link. “The “Mudsills” were dull drudges whose work produced the food and products that made society function. On them rested the superior class of people, who took the capital the mudsills produced and used it to move the economy, and even civilization itself, forward. The world could not survive without the inferior mudsills, but the superior class had the right—and even the duty—to rule over them.”

Heather Cox Richardson