Neoliberalism explained

I frequently use the label ‘neoliberal’ to describe a certain political stance that is common among Democrats. I use it in a pejorative way and on occasion commenters have said that the term itself is meaningless and is used as a gratuitous slur. Via reader Jeff Hess, I learned about this long essay titled Neoliberalism: the idea that swallowed the world by Stephen Metcalfe that explains in detail what the neoliberalism economic philosophy is and who its creator Friedrich Hayek was. Metcalfe says that those who say that it is a meaningless label that used mainly to attack so-called ‘centrists’ are wrong. He says that neoliberalism represents a particular economic and political view that has proven to be seriously damaging and that is why those who are described as neoliberals are the ones who most angrily shy away from the label.
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Enough with the patriotic symbolism already!

Those, like me, who have not grown up in America are often startled when attending some perfectly ordinary function to be suddenly asked to stand for the national anthem or to say the Pledge of Allegiance and, in the latter case, to watch everyone solemnly place their hands on their hearts and look devotedly at the large American flag that often adorns the venue. It has always struck me as silly and pointless as does anything associated with patriotism.
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The upper 20% are ruining America

With all the focus on how the top 1% (or 0.1% or 0.01%) are enriching themselves mightily at the expense of everyone else, Richard Reeves says that we must not ignore the problem of a much larger class of people, those who are in the top 20% of income whom he calls the ‘upper middle class’, for whom trickle down economics does work. He says that they are the hoarders of the American dream who are denying access to it for everyone else.
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Avoiding politics and religion in polite society

We are all aware of the advice that in gatherings of family and friends, two topics that should be avoided are politics and religion. I was under the impression that this was a fairly recent development but in reading the book The Scientific Revolution by Steven Shapin (1996), I learned that it dates at least as far back as the 17th century and that such prohibitions were even included in the constitutions of scientific societies.
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Fun times with ceremonial prayer

Thanks to commenter Timothy, I saw the video below of what happened at the meeting of the Pensacola city council in Florida when a Satanist gave the opening invocation, taking advantage of the US Supreme Court ruling that if government agencies are going to allow ceremonial opening prayers, then they cannot favor or discriminate against any single group. (You may have to turn on the sound by clicking the icon at the bottom right.)
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The Pursuance Project: Responding to the ongoing crisis of democracy in the US

The situation in the US under the Donald Trump administration has become so bad that some people even look back with nostalgia to the era of George W. Bush, even though that administration gave us two criminal wars, the horror of Guantanamo and global black sites, indulged in widespread use of torture, promoted rampant homophobia, and committed horrendous violations of civil rights. Before journalist Barrett Brown was thrown in jail (I have written about this before), he started something called Project PM as a means for getting better civic collaboration and media analysis in order to advance democratic principles and counter the strong authoritarian tendencies that currently exist.
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Why I dislike the New York Times

My liberal friends are always shocked when they discover that I treat the New York Times with contempt. How could I dislike that vanguard of liberal thought? I then have to go through the tedious exercise of showing how, by being seen as the gatekeeper of ‘acceptable’ liberal thought, it manages to advance the interests of the neoliberal, neoconservative, corporate, pro-Israel lobby, and anti-Palestinian agendas, not to mention being a cheerleader and apologist for the worst excesses of militarism in US history.
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Google is evil

UPDATE: Email exchanges between Slaughter and Lynn have been released.

Google long ago effectively abandoned its original motto of “Don’t be evil” that was part of its code of conduct. They still paid lip service to it for a while but then quietly abandoned even that pretense in 2015. It has become as dangerous a monopoly as Facebook, Amazon, and the old-style mega-corporations like ExxonMobil. While it likes to portray itself as a mere platform for the free exchange of ideas, in reality it is a marketing behemoth.
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