That’s a good apology, even if insincere

Louise Linton, the wife of Steve Mnuchin, Donald Trump’s secretary of the treasury who is a former investment banker at Goldman Sachs and immensely wealthy, came in for some well-deserved and harsh criticisms for the flaunting of her wealth while emerging from a government helicopter, because of her drawing attention to the brand names of the expensive clothing items she wore as if she were a paid spokesperson for them. She then lashed out at an Oregon woman who had the temerity to criticize her for it, replying thusly on her Instagram account.
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What makes a person do something like this?

The Trump presidency has seen a rise in bigotry as white nationalists and neo-Nazis come out into the open to ‘take back their country’ from those whom they see as not authentic Americans, by which they mean white people and not the indigenous ones that the whites systematically sought to exterminate. Hence news reports such as this one back in February about Andrew King, a resident of Schenectady, NY, have become all too common.
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How psychics and mediums ply their trade

I recently had two separate interesting discussions with some other expatriate Sri Lankan friends who did not know each other. Each independently recounted their experiences with what is called a ‘light reader’ in Sri Lanka or a psychic or a medium in the US. They both talked about the same person named Hendo Hamy who lived in a village. People would go to him with various problems and he would be able to deduce why they had come to see him, what the problem was, and the resolution of the problem. Both were highly impressed by his abilities.
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Believers might be better served by NOT trying to prove god’s existence

Although he was born into a god-fearing family and had a typical Christian upbringing, the philosopher David Hume began to have doubts about god as early as in his teenage years, and throughout his adult life was very much a skeptic. I will later provide a review of the book The Infidel and the Professor by Dennis C. Rasmussen that is an intellectual biography of the friendship between David Hume and Adam Smith, but I wanted to pass along this passage that I just read that made me laugh out loud.
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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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Being hit by a hurricane shows that god loves you

We are familiar with religious leaders claiming that natural disasters are acts of vengeance of their god for the sinfulness by some members of the affected areas. These leaders know exactly why their god did it and it is usually something to do with disapproval of the LGBT community or whatever sex-related hang-up is currently bugging them. It is a cruel, but by now predictable, part of the coverage of the aftermath of such events.
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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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