Stephan: Freedom is hard to keep; it requires a deep commitment within the social entity, be it a town or a nation, and worldwide freedom is decreasing. I have been thinking about why this is happening, and I think it is because we are undergoing a second Gutenberg transition. Just as printing made information available to average people transforming western culture, electronic media has changed our culture magnifying the tactical and strategic power of disinformation as a social tool by which a certain percentage of a population can be manipulated. That plus greed and the quest for power is one of the biggest threats civilization faces.
To see the full report go to: https://freedomhouse.org/countries/freedom-world/scores
Zoom in: The report calls particular attention to India, which slipped from “free” to “partly free” due to the government’s “scapegoating of Muslims” and “crackdown on critics.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi is, according to the report, “driving India itself toward authoritarianism.”
What’s happening: Governments in several countries used the cover of the pandemic to consolidate control.
In the Philippines and Cambodia, authorities cracked down on critical news outlets and social media users in the name of preventing misinformation.
In Algeria, the government used coronavirus restrictions as a justification to suppress a protest movement.
Perhaps the most disheartening aspects of the report include places like Belarus, Hong Kong and Venezuela where pro-democracy movements rose up in the last two years — only to be met by deeper repression.
Stephan: Here is a perfect example of how fostering wellbeing is always the superior option. Always more efficient, more productive, more efficient, nicer to live under, and much cheaper than other options. Here is yet another proof of this principle. Then think about the Republican opposition to $15 an hour as a minimum hourly wage.
Payments for the experiment were delivered on a debit card, which allowed the funds to be tracked. The biggest spending category was food. Credit: Rich Pedroncelli/AP
After receiving $500 per month for two years without rules on how to spend it, 125 people in California paid off debt, got full-time jobs and had “statistically significant improvements” in emotional health, according to a study released Wednesday.
The program was the nation’s highest-profile experiment in decades of universal basic income (UBI), an idea that gained national attention when it became a major part of Andrew Yang’s 2020 campaign for president.
The central idea behind UBI is to lift people out of poverty with a guaranteed monthly income. Supporters say it gives people needed financial security to find good jobs and avoid debt. But critics have argued free money would eliminate the incentive to work, creating a society dependent on the state.
The Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration sought to test those claims. Run by the not-for-profit organization Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, founded by Michael Tubbs, the former mayor of Stockton, California, the program included people who lived in […]
Robert Brockman attends an intimate al fresco dinner celebrating the Rice University groundbreaking of James Turrell’s Rice University Skyspace project at the home of Phoebe and Bobby Tudor, Tuesday evening, May 17, 2011, in Houston. Credit: Dave Rossman/Houston Chronicle|AP
The billionaire accused of running the biggest tax fraud scheme in U.S. history was a prolific donor to Republican groups and causes.
The leaders of those organizations have kept quiet on the accusations against him.
Robert Brockman, former CEO of Ohio-based software company Reynolds & Reynolds, was charged in October with running a $2 billion tax fraud scheme.
The billionaire accused of running the biggest tax fraud scheme in U.S. history was a prolific donor to Republican groups and causes. The leaders of those organizations have kept quiet on the federal charges against him.
Robert Brockman, former CEO of Ohio-based software company Reynolds & Reynolds, was charged in October with running a $2 billion tax fraud scheme.
Department of Justice officials said at the time that the businessman had hidden capital gains income for more than 20 years through various offshore entities in Bermuda […]
Stephan: I think this is a very good essay on the Republican strategy. It has nothing to do with wellbeing, and is entirely centered on power. This is the psychophysiology of politics on full display.
Mr. Potato Head, The Cat In The Hat and Marjorie Taylor Greene Credit: Salon/Getty Images/Dr Sues Media Center
It’s early, but Republicans have already seized on their strategy for winning the 2022 and 2024 elections.
Of course, it does not depend on mundane tactics like “running on their record” or “making robust arguments about how their policies are better than their opponents.” The GOP is instead returning to the well that has, time and again, paid off handsomely: feigning umbrage over culture war flashpoints, usually ones wholly invented by the right or propped up with lies, to distract from substantive policy debates that actually impact American lives.
And it will probably work — again— because Democrats, hamstrung by their own inability to end the Senate filibuster, will not be able to pass substantive legislation they can tout as accomplishments in future campaigns. And so the election will come down to the Great Potato Head and Dr. Seuss Wars of 2022. Even more unfortunate, truly vulnerable people — like those who are part of the trans community — are also in […]
Melissa S. Kearney and Phillip B. Levine, Economics Professor at the University of Maryland | Economics Professor at Wellesley College - The New York Times
Stephan: Men with markedly lower sperm counts, women choosing to have fewer babies, and later in life. Increasing poverty. A spectrum of trends is suggesting that the fear of overpopulation so strongly believed by futurists, although not by me, was wrong and that exactly the opposite situation is likely.
A young couple with their newborn daughter. Credit: Alice Proujansky/ The New York Times
The Covid-19 pandemic has thrown the country into an economic recession and an unprecedented restructuring of our work and social lives. Early on, some likened the public health crisis to a blizzard, imagining that people would stay home, cozy up with their romantic partners and make babies.
These playful visions have given way to a more sobering reality: The pandemic’s serious disruption of people’s lives is likely to cause “missing births” — potentially a lot of them. Add these missing births to the country’s decade-long downward trend in annual births and we can expect consequential changes to our economy and society in the years to come. Unfortunately, there are no easy fixes.
Research we did last year showed that the Covid pandemic would lead to a decline in U.S. births of about 8 percent, as compared with the number of expected births without a pandemic, resulting in 300,000 fewer births this year than would otherwise be expected. This prediction was based largely on the fact […]
