Someone in the American IRS leaked to Propublica:
What’s your true tax rate?
American politicians write complicated tax laws which result in loopholes used by the richest donors.
BUT — can it be fixed?
The best summary of the issue I’ve seen is the second podcast in this list.
No one understands better the importance of symbolic imagery than totalitarian governments. One day this photo will be revered in China.
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 – Wikipedia
The Unknown Rebel – AP photographer Jeff Widener. A lone protester delayed the tanks for over half an hour.
When your All-Lives-Matter friend has a birthday, be sure to message:
“All Birthdays Matter”. 😀
Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder by a white cop.
I’m hopeful things have change for the better.
BLM haters have been more muted since their racist President departed for the golf courses full-time.
According to professor of critical race theory, David Theo Goldberg, “All Lives Matter” reflects a view of “racial dismissal, ignoring, and denial”.
Philosopher Chris Lebron describes “All Lives Matter” as a “disingenuous retort” that misunderstands the problem raised by Black Lives Matter proponents.
On Real Time with Bill Maher, Bill Maher expressed support for use of the “Black Lives Matter” phrase, stating that “‘All Lives Matter’ implies that all lives are equally at risk, and they’re not”. …
Biden’s been great his first 100 days.
But the real test — as far as I’m concerned — is whether his administration can begin to reduce this gap.
Lists of BEST NATIONS typically include Denmark close to the top.
But their government seems as chaotic as any.
Borgen is a Danish political drama television series.
In Danish: Borgen, lit. ’The Castle’, is the informal name of Christiansborg Palace where all three branches of Danish government reside: the Parliament, the Prime Minister’s Office, and the Supreme Court, and is often used as a figure of speech for the Danish government. …
… against all the odds, Birgitte Nyborg Christensen (Sidse Babett Knudsen)—a minor centrist politician—becomes the first female prime minister of Denmark. …
On Netflix the English voice over and captions are hilariously bad. BUT I did enjoy the characters and story lines. It gets great reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.
Newsweek called Borgen “the best TV show you have never seen”.
NY Times: “bleaker, Nordic version of The West Wing“
A U.S. remake of the series is planned.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
😀 Send me ALL the vaccine passports.
I got dose #1 of “Covishield”, the Indian version of Oxford–AstraZeneca, March 18th. NO — I’m not worried about blood clots.
I was in the first 7.76% of Canadians to get jabbed.
When Alberta started allowing the second dose of AstraZeneca after only 4 weeks, I signed up. Got jab #2 on April 16th.
Sounds like Vaccine Passports are a terrible idea.
But it’s inevitable that something like this will become required for international travel for many months. Or years.
Faceless Killers is a 1991 crime novel by the Swedish writer Henning Mankell, and the first in his acclaimed Wallander series.
Happily, the audio book is read by one of my favourites — Dick Hill — of the excellent Jack Reacher and Harry Bosch series. Hill has 542 audio books, last time I checked.
Inspector Kurt Wallander is called out to a seemingly senseless and brutal murder on a Swedish farm.
Wallander is forty-two-years-old. His wife left him unexpectedly 3 months earlier. He’s constantly worried about his estranged daughter. And unsure whether his own elderly father can continue living alone out on another farm.
Also, he’s gaining weight.
Uncoordinated. Accident prone.
Near broke.
Troubled, to say the least.
Author Henning Mankell was a left-wing social critic and activist.
But the themes of the book include Sweden’s liberal attitude regarding immigration, racism and national identity. The character Wallander is conflicted.
Kenneth Branagh is one of the actors who’s played Wallander in adaptations.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
He Jiankui has been jailed in China for 3 years. And fined US$430,000.
He’s the researcher who’s work led to the world’s first gene-edited babies known as Lulu and Nana in 2018.
Their father was HIV positive. Mother HIV negative.
His goal was to edit their genes to be highly resistant to HIV using CRISPR.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
There’s an argument that governments should have let the pandemic run its course. Kept most things open as Sweden did at the beginning. More early deaths, more illness, more long long-haul side effects.
Leaders leaning this way include Trump, Nicaragua’s Ortega, Brazil’s Bolsonaro, Mexico’s Obrador, Belarus’s Lukashenko, Turkmenistan’s Berdimuhamedow, Cambodia’s Hun Sen, Tanzania’s Magufuli.
Populists pandering to their dumbest voters.
When the pandemic ends we’ll be able to calculate which nations survived best: economically, educationally, healthiest. It won’t be any of those nations. They will include New Zealand, Taiwan, South Korea, Iceland, Senegal, Denmark, Saudi Arabia.
Elie Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.
Immediately after they were sent to Auschwitz, his mother and his younger sister were murdered.
Wiesel and his father were selected to perform labor so long as they remained able-bodied, after which they were to be killed in the gas chambers.
Wiesel and his father were later deported to the concentration camp at Buchenwald. …
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Quote by German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller
Rick McCharles 