Where Medicare-for-all is real Today, Explained]

Looking at the healthcare systems in Taiwan, which has universal public healthcare and the Netherlands, which offers universal private health insurance. Two very different approaches, same goal.

Why liberals keep losing: We confuse slacktivism for activism

Eitan Hersh’s Politics Is for Power explains why liberals keep losing

Sean Illing at Vox:

If you spend a lot of time consuming news, there’s a good chance you’re doing politics wrong….

This is the thesis of a new book called Politics Is for Power by Eitan Hersh, a political scientist at Tufts University. …

He coins the term “political hobbyism” to capture the problem. “We participate in politics by obsessive news-following and online slacktivism, by feeling the need to offer a hot take for each daily political flare-up, by emoting and arguing and debating, almost all of this from behind screens,” Hersh says. Many of us think we’re politically active — but in fact, we’re doing little more than signaling who we are to other people. We may be emotionally invested in politics, but we’re not actually committed to solving problems….

Hersh argues you need to get out in the community and engage with other people to make change. Work locally, where individuals have an impact, not nationally, where our voices barely matter. Bottom up, not top down.

Conservatives get this, which is why they’ve been winning, Hersh says. Liberals are mostly clueless in this area.

Yep.

“Like Going Out Half Dressed When you Brush Your Teeth and Neglect to Massage Your Gums,” Hemp gum massager, 1933 via

Cory Doctorow: A Flat Earther commits suicide by conspiracy theory

“Mad Mike” Hughes crashed a homemade rocket he intended to ride to prove the Earth is flat.

Belief in crazy conspiracy theories is pandemic today because so many crazy conspiracies are real: climate change denialism, the opioid epidemic, Jeffrey Epstein’s pedo ring, etc.

Why do people listen to #NeverTrump Republicans lecturing Democrats on how the Democrats are on a path to failure beating Trump?

#NeverTrumpers know nothing about beating Trump, and have nothing to contribute to that conversation.

If #NeverTrumpers knew how to beat Trump THEY WOULD HAVE DONE IT.

A San Diego family cloned their dog for $50,000

“Marley,” a golden retriever, saved owner Alicia Tschirhart’s life while she was pregnant, five years ago, by jumping between her and a rattlesnake; Marley died a few months later of heart cancer. Now the Tschirharts have “Ziggy,” a 10-month-old pup, who is Marley’s clone.

Sorry, Minnie. When you go, we’re not spending $50 large to clone you. If it makes you feel any better, I’m not being cloned after I go either.

I support Sanders. My first choice is Warren, but he’s a close second.

And I’m glad to see the Republicans turn on him now, and I hope to see his Democratic rivals turn on the heat too.

Not just about his visiting Russia in 1988 and being a socialist (which he’s not), because those things are old news.

I want Sanders' opponents to dig up dirt on him now. All of it. And shout it loud.

Because if he’s vulnerable, let’s find out now, while there are still alternatives.

I don’t know if Sanders can beat Trump. But right now it looks like he’s got a better shot than any other Democrat, because those guys don’t even seem to be able to beat Sanders.

“I, Claudius” drinking game: Drink whenever a character shrieks, shouts or weeps.

Double when they do all three at the same time.

Finish the whole bottle in one draft when they do all four while begging for mercy.

ME: I’m going to have to get up and pee soon. Not right now though.

[Moments later a 15-pound cat climbs up and settles in to sleep on my lap.]

You don’t know Esther Williams

Williams starred in midcentury movies featuring her water dancing and synchronized swimming. She presented an image of delicate, wholesome femininity.

In reality she was a tough athlete, who used her body as fiercely as any Hollywood stuntman and fended off sexual harassment from studio moguls and co-stars.

She had four unhappy marriages, dropped acid, and made a comeback when she was in her 60s.

The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake

While politicians and pundits say we need to preserve the American nuclear family, it’s extended families that have held society together and supported individuals for generations.

David Brooks digs deep into history and anthropology, and describes how people today are building families that aren’t related by birth. Which turns out to be even older than what we usually think of as extended families

When a popular genre writer dies, should their characters die with them?

After mystery writer Robert B. Parker’s unexpected death in 2010, his family and estate hired a Southerner, Ace Atkins, to continue writing novels featuring Parker’s Boston detective, Spenser

To cynics, the decision to carry on Parker’s novels appeared unseemly or, even worse, an act of literary grave robbing that threatened the author’s reputation. But those people didn’t know Robert B. Parker, a man who, when asked how his books would be viewed in 50 years, replied: “Don’t know, don’t care.” He was proud of his work, but he mainly saw writing as a means of providing a comfortable life for his family.

Former California Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher confirmed he offered Julian Assange a pardon from Trump in exchange for proof that Russia didn’t hack the Democratic National Committee’s email.

Rohrabacher wanted to pin the crime on Clinton staffer Seth Rich, who has been the focus of crazy conspiracy theories since he was murdered on the street in a mugging gone bad.

news.yahoo.com/rohrabach…)

“Big Tits Potato Chips 10 ₵” - This is a 1930s era wax paper potato chip bag from Dunn, North Carolina. Big Tits was the nickname of Titus Tart, one of the owners in the Tart-Chestnut Co. The image is that of Mr. Tart.

Via

Making coffee with Aeropress, according to inventor Alan Adler

Aeropress inventor Alan Adler demonstrates making three cups of coffee at once: YouTube

I tried something like this technique this morning. I have three cups of coffee a day and I make it all at once in the morning. Previously I’d done it in two pressings, but this technique works for a single pressing.

The taste was a little strong and one-dimensional; I need to work on that. I used an espresso grind, the finest our grinder would do. Maybe a coarser grind?

Adler’s single-serving method: YouTube

And tips from Adler: YouTube

I got a couple of ideas from this, including: Press down just by resting the weight of your arm on the plunger, to keep from applying too much force. Also, a nifty way to control the temperature of hot water when you don’t have a regulated kettle.

“Then during the third reconciliation of the last of the Meketrex supplicants, they chose a new form for him, that of a giant Sloar! Many Shubs and Zulls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of a Sloar that day, I can tell you.”

If I had a dime for every time I went to the grocery store and forgot to bring reusable grocery bags, I would have a big pile of dimes. Instead I have spent a lot of dimes, and we have a big pile of reusable grocery bags at home

After a drunken slip of the tongue, Steve Marsh and his siblings discover a secret their mother has been keeping for almost 40 years. Now, Steve wants to help his mom resolve the matter. The Marshes - Heavyweight

This silly little $6.50 plastic gadget makes walking the dog more comfortable

It’s called the Urban Pets Hands Free Dog Poop Bag Holder Waste Knot. It’s a clip that you attach to the handle of the leash, with hooks from which you can hang a full dog-poop bag, after you’ve picked up after the dog. So now you don’t have to carry the full bag in your hand when walking. Easily holds two bags – will probably hold three if the dog is being extra-productive that day, although I haven’t tried.

This is, like, the best $6.50 thing I’ve ever bought.

It’s the little things, amirite?

A California entrepreneur plans a limited production run of the iconic 80s sportscar, the DeLorean

And they’ve also restored the “Back to the Future” prop.

The Original Back to the Future DeLorean DMC-12, Lovingly Restored to “Better Than New Condition

The story of DeLorean is, in some ways, the story of the excess and enthusiasm of the 80s. Fired from GM, auto exec John DeLorean (“a rock star among suits”) started his own company with the aim of building a sports car like no other. He began production in Northern Ireland, with grants from the British government, in 1980. Financing soon dried up after cost overruns raised prices and the cars’ many notorious issues—such as those gull-wing doors failing to open—became apparent. DeLorean made a $24 million cocaine deal with what turned out to be an undercover FBI agent to keep the company afloat. Though he was acquitted of the charges, the company lay in ruins.

“I, Claudius” rewatch, episode 2: I really appreciate the subtle, restrained acting.

If you’re going to take the dog for a random 3 mile walk around a nearby neighborhood, just to see the area you live in and for a change of routine, you should definitely carefully mark where you parked.

I know that now.

Not for the first time, my barber was unfamiliar with men with copious body hair. Dude, just clipping a little below the collar line is fine – I’m not here for the full “40-year-old Virgin.”

Sometime after I turned 40 I stopped enjoying fiction as much as I used to. I think it’s been a bit more than a year since I read a novel I really LOVED.

Do you find that’s true for you?

There are two generations of Mexican luchador wrestlers named “Dr. Wagner.” How did I not know this?

“One might suppose that the popular prejudice against vaccination had died out by this time,” one writer complains. It sounds like a lament from today, but in fact, it’s from 1875."

Pessimists Archive

The story about how Mike "The Monkees" Nesmith's mother invented liquid paper is surprisingly interesting.

She was a secretary. She saw a need and saw that the market would be women, because secretaries were women.

She priced the product low enough so that secretaries could buy it out of the discretionary fund they had for office supplies, without needing approval from a man.

And she marketed the product in a bottle that looked like nail polish, so her customers would already be familiar with using it before they even tried it.

Smart!

Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast

Who let “Who Let the Dogs Out” Out?

99% Invisible: The world’s greatest expert on the song “Who Let the Dogs Out” finds it surprisingly difficult to answer the question of who wrote the song.

San Diego freelance writer Beth Demmon says California Assembly Bill 5, which regulates contract workers, threatens her livelihood. She says she’s taken an immediate income hit upwards of 25% due to the law.

The Doc nails it. The sole issue for Democratic voters in the Presidential election is “make the bad man go away.” Everything else is a distraction.

However, things get complicated because for many Democrats, Bloomberg and/or Sanders are as bad as the Bad Man.

And Warren, Mayor Pete and Uncle Joe are, for many voters, ALMOST as toxic as the Bad Man. Those voters will hold their noses and vote for any of those three candidates if they have to. But that speaks to low voter turnout – toxic for Dems.

Overall, I like the Democrats' odds. But we’re going to have to work hard to win.

Dave Winer makes the case for Bloomberg: More than a candidate for president.

I’m reserving judgment. I expect I’ll vote for Warren in the primary, assuming she’s still in the race, but other than that I don’t expect to support a candidate until the convention. And then I’ll support whichever Democrat wins.

Until a month ago I would have said “except maybe Bloomberg.” But I like the way he’s going after Trump. I still have strong reservations about Bloomberg, though.