When it comes to warmongering, the establishment is united

In reading the news, one would think that the mainstream media and the Trump administration are at loggerheads. But when it comes to warmongering, they are united. Note the strange silence surrounding Seymour Hersh’s reporting about the doubtful evidence that Syria had used sarin gas in the bombing in Idlib, Syria in April. Given that Donald Trump had made the use of that nerve gas as the prime reason for his launching of missiles at a Syrian airbase, you would think that they would have covered the story, even if just to refute it.
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Thoughts on nationalism and patriotism

Today is the 150th anniversary of Canadian independence and on Tuesday it will be the US’s turn. But the celebrations will be quite different in these two neighboring countries. On the program On The Media host Bob Garfield talked with Stephen Marche about how Canada’s lack of patriotic fervor has enabled it to withstand the vicious xenophobia and divisiveness that is endemic in the US and parts of Europe. In addition, it has “a flourishing economy, an effective single-payer health care system, and a Prime Minister with a philosophy of tolerance.”
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Why Americans pay more for worse care

Matt Taibbi explains how the presence of private, for-profit health insurance companies in the US are a direct threat to people’s health.

Many years ago, while researching a book chapter on health care reform, I visited a hospital in Bayonne, New Jersey that was having problems. Upon arrival, administrators told me a story that summed up everything that is terrible and stupid about American health care.

A patient of theirs suffering from a chronic illness took a bad turn and had to come in for a minor surgical procedure. The only problem was, the patient had been taking Coumadin, a common blood thinner, as part of his outpatient care.
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40 Strangers, 50 Questions

I am usually not a big fan of those contrived situations that are meant to make people more sensitive or empathetic by revealing something about themselves. But I found this exercise by the creators of Brave New Films, where they invited 40 strangers into a large room and posed 50 questions, was rather well done in showing how we all share so many similar life experiences that transcend the distancing that occurs when we pigeonhole others into boxes based on their appearance.
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Hindu chauvinist vigilantism in India

Teesta Setulvadi writes about the Hindu vigilante mobs who are unleashing violence against mostly Muslims and but also Christians as part of their goal of trying to create a Hindu state in what is still an officially secular country. Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has a history of Hindu chauvinism and remained silent about these atrocious acts until a sudden spate of public protests forced him to issue a somewhat grudging condemnation of the latest killing of a young Muslim man by so-called cow-protection vigilantes for the ‘crime’ of allegedly carrying some beef. Cows are considered sacred by Hindus.
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Punishing young people for doing stupid things

Young people have always done stupid things and will continue do so. Take the tragic case of this young couple where a young man died after asking his partner to shoot him the chest. He had been holding a thick book up in front of him in the belief that it would shield him from the bullet. Why did he take such a stupid risk? Because the couple wanted to “increase their social media following” on YouTube and become famous.
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