Proust’s kaleidoscope

This is from volume 2 of In Search of Lost Time:

The people who lived in such an atmosphere imagined that the impossibility of ever inviting an “opportunist”—still, more a “horrid radical”—was something that would endure for ever, like oil-lamps and horse-drawn omnibuses. But, like a kaleidoscope which is every now and then given a turn, society arranges successively in different orders elements which one would have supposed immutable, and composes a new pattern. Before I made my first Communion, right-minded ladies had had the stupefying experience of meeting an elegant Jewess while paying a social call. These new arrangements of the kaleidoscope are produced by what a philosopher would call a “change of criterion”. The Dreyfus case brought about another, at a period rather later than that in which I began to go to Mme Swann’s, and the kaleidoscope once more reversed its colored lozenges. Everything Jewish, even the elegant lady herself, went down, and various obscure nationalists rose to take its place. The most brilliant salon in Paris was that of an ultra-Catholic Austrian prince. If instead of the Dreyfus case there had come a war with Germany, the pattern of the kaleidoscope would have taken a turn in the other direction. The Jews having shown, to the general astonishment, that they were patriots, would have kept their position, and no one would any longer have cared to go, or even to admit that he had ever gone any longer to the Austrian prince’s. None of this alters the fact, however, that whenever society is momentarily stationary, the people who live in it imagine that no further change will occur, just as, in spite of having witnessed the birth of the telephone, they decline to believe in the aeroplane. Meanwhile, the philosophers of journalism are at work castigating the preceding epoch, and not only the kind of pleasures in which it indulged, which seem to them to be the last word in corruption, but even the work of its artists and philosophers, which have no longer the least value in their eyes, as though they were indissolubly linked to the successive moods of fashionable frivolity. The one thing that does not change is that at any and every time it appears that there have been “great changes.”

Check this out tweet from not so long ago (notice the date):

Oh how the turntable turns.

And this:

The mayor of Boston said the city won’t be following New York’s lead requiring proof of vaccination at many indoor businesses, claiming the move is reminiscent of “slavery” and birtherism.

Acting Mayor Kim Janey — the first woman and black Bostonian to hold the office — said “there’s a long history” in the United States of people “needing to show their papers” when asked Tuesday about the mandate unveiled earlier in the day by Mayor Bill de Blasio that requires proof of vaccination to enter indoor restaurants, entertainment venues and gyms starting on Sept. 13.

PS. This is from volume 3 of ISOLT:

But, for one thing, however fiercely the anti-Dreyfus cyclone might be raging, it is not in the first hour of a storm that the waves are at their worst.

How far along are we in the Trump cyclone?

PPS. The quotation on top is taken from a four page long paragraph. Proust’s classic isn’t so long if measured in terms of number of paragraphs, rather than in terms of page or word count.

PPPS. One of my earliest memories is of seeing a big two volume book on my parent’s bookshelf, entitled “Remembrance of Things Past.” I know that’s not the “correct” translation of the title, but you know how memories of one’s childhood are. . . .


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40 Responses to “Proust’s kaleidoscope”

  1. Gravatar of Sky Price Warrior Sky Price Warrior
    22. August 2021 at 20:28

    “The mayor of Boston said the city won’t be following New York’s lead requiring proof of vaccination at many indoor businesses, claiming the move is reminiscent of “slavery” and birtherism.

    Acting Mayor Kim Janey — the first woman and black Bostonian to hold the office — said “there’s a long history” in the United States of people “needing to show their papers” when asked Tuesday about the mandate unveiled earlier in the day by Mayor Bill de Blasio that requires proof of vaccination to enter indoor restaurants, entertainment venues and gyms starting on Sept. 13.”

    Is it too on the nose or un-PC to claim that (effective) affirmative action leads to idiots like this taking power? Because I’ve been to Boston quite a bit since moving to MA and … frankly I dont see a lot of black people here. And reading up on her I am struggling to find any reason why she was choosen on qualifications other then, well, of the small number of black women we can find, I suppose she works.

    Her backtrack on this was rather funny, First she denied ever saying what she was quoted saying, expressed indignation at the notion anyone could have interpreted her statement to compare mandates to slavery, even though that is what she said, and so on …

  2. Gravatar of Anon Anon
    22. August 2021 at 21:29

    Early last year we did not know much about the virus. At what rate does it kill, does it kill regardless of health, does it maim the survivors, does it reinfect.

    You may note that the stock market slump only lasted a week or two. It slumped because there was some possibility that we’re facing airborne ebola (if I may be crude with the analogy). After a couple days it became unlikely that the virus is exceedingly lethal, so the stock market relaxed. So too with conservative opinions, though those were probably slower on the uptake.

  3. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    22. August 2021 at 21:52

    Sky, You said:

    “frankly I dont see a lot of black people here. And reading up on her I am struggling to find any reason why she was choosen on qualifications other then, well, of the small number of black women we can find, I suppose she works.”

    What qualification did Trump have for being elected president, other than inheriting a ton of money from his dad?

  4. Gravatar of Tacticus Tacticus
    23. August 2021 at 02:24

    Which translation/edition of Proust are you reading? I hope/presume you’re enjoying it!

  5. Gravatar of BC BC
    23. August 2021 at 04:23

    Sky Price Warrior: As a Boston resident, I am actually relieved that Janey is not a lockaholic like de Blasio. I would take her over a lockaholic white left-winger any day. In the upcoming mayor’s election, I would also take her over one of the leading challengers, a left-wing Asian that openly favors rent control, even though I am Asian. I care about policy, not race. To answer your question, her appointment has nothing to do with affirmative action. She was elected to city council president and ascended to Mayor when Marty Walsh, the previous Mayor, became Labor Secretary. She is a liberal — Boston is a blue city after all — but I am actually quite relieved that, so far at least, she does not seem to be as far left wing as many of the mayors that have taken over other blue cities.

    On the Feb 2020 tweet: Yup. Back then, Covid was still seen as a foreign thing. Liberals didn’t like that most actions would be targeted to foreigners (travel bans, quarantine of incoming travelers) and also worried about stigmatization, especially of Asians. When community spread started, then the tools shifted to educated-class public health officials (and managers at private companies too) imposing major lifestyle changes on the general population. Hence, the flip flop of liberals and conservatives.

    If we had ever had a significant contact-trace-isolate phase, then I’m not sure how the sides would have lined up. Liberals would have been wary of “stigmatizing” individuals with narrowly targeted testing and quarantines but would have liked that at least the effort would have been directed by educated professionals. Vice versa for conservatives.

  6. Gravatar of Justin Justin
    23. August 2021 at 05:08

    In fairness, the only way quarantines and travel bans would ever actually work in a place like America is if they are implemented well before the virus has a strong foothold in the country.

    If the U.S. had implemented a strict travel ban in mid-January, there might have been some chance to prevent the virus from getting out of control here. The information needed to make that call probably didn’t exist yet, sadly.

    By early March, the US had reported 1,000 confirmed cases when testing was scarce, meaning we probably had something like an orders of magnitude or two more actual cases, and it was too late. The US doesn’t have the same set of draconian policy measures that China has in order to contain an outbreak on that scale. In retrospect, the lockdown was a mistake. 2020Q2 would have been an awful economic quarter regardless, as people would have voluntarily went out less, but the lockdown helped fuel worsening political polarization, especially when all public health authorities reversed guidance for BLM super-spreader riots.

  7. Gravatar of Spencer Bradley Hall Spencer Bradley Hall
    23. August 2021 at 05:52

    If you go to the ER, or are hospitalized, blood samples are sent to labs to determine the virus type. So the health authorities know exactly what’s going on, whose getting it, and what precautions they may or may not have taken.

  8. Gravatar of Michael Rulle Michael Rulle
    23. August 2021 at 06:20

    Trump was neither qualified nor unqualified due to any inheritance he had——his qualification was he won the Electoral college. That is the only qualification that matters. Or, we can go the other direction. Define what qualifies anyone to be president a priori. I am not sure that is possible. But the good news is he may become “tomorrow’s” reason for the great changes that will have occurred.

    That aside, Proust’s point that the culture from time to time castigates the past seems accurate to me. His ironic observation (and/or paradoxical?) that the one thing that does not change is our belief that each time this happens we believe “great changes” have occurred is also interesting.

    On that note I read an essay by a “family physician”, Buzz Hollander from HI, who wrote a depressing but seemingly objective (no political ax) essay on Covid (“Let’s Stop Pretending about the Covid 19 Vaccine” at Realclearscience). What I learned is what I don’t know——which turns out to be quite a bit. For some reason your Proust reference
    seemed to apply. I imagine that years from now—-all of today’s Covid demon’s will be discovered ——and we will believe we have made “great changes”.

  9. Gravatar of Bob Bob
    23. August 2021 at 07:39

    OK, imagine Airborn Ebola: Would it had killed as many people? Would we have had such a productivity loss? Given the same behavior, it would have been awful, but we’d not have seen the same behavior.

    Just imagine a 50% death rate, being equally transmissible: One kid gets it, half the class drops dead in two weeks. We’d not see a lot of people taking risks and living to tell about it. Mass graves everywhere would tell an easy story. Covid-19 might not have an optimal death rate to maximize its damage, but I’d be surprised if it was an order of magnitude away from the worst damage a respiratory disease can do today.

  10. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    23. August 2021 at 08:02

    Tacticus, Moncrieff, Kilmartin & Enright. Yes, but I’m glad I waited. I would have been unable to enjoy it as a young man. I have a very low IQ when it comes to complex social interactions.

    BC, Good points.

    Justin, Good points.

  11. Gravatar of Christian List Christian List
    23. August 2021 at 09:46

    Proust is so difficult to read. I’ve never lasted many pages. I probably need to get as old as Scott first. Also, consider that English and German are clear precise languages. Imagine that in the original French his prosa is even more nightmarish.

    He seems to be misinterpreting the Dreyfuss affair quite a bit. He makes it sound like it was mostly bad luck, sheer coincidence. But it mostly wasn’t. The Jews were useful to conservatives for a long time, but as soon as there was trouble, a scapegoat was needed – and the Jews were ideal scapegoats for centuries well into modern times and even today. The conservatives did not want to hang themselves, and there was no longer a king to hang, so guess who they picked.

    If instead of the Dreyfus case there had come a war with Germany, the pattern of the kaleidoscope would have taken a turn in the other direction. The Jews having shown, to the general astonishment, that they were patriots, would have kept their position,…

    This is an example where Proust is wrong, but we know that it was a very widespread assumption at the time. Such a scenario actually occurred in Germany. The German Jews were extremely patriotic and fought heroically in wars like the Franco-Prussian War and in WW1. So how did this help in reality? I don’t think I need to tell how the story ended….

    What I find more interesting about this broader question is how much the cult leader really keeps control and determines the direction. Is the cult leader the ruler of the kaleidoscope or is he just an executive agent of a deeper sentiment of the people?

    How much control does the cult leader really have? For example, what about Trump right now, who was booed by his own people for talking about vaccines, that he himself was vaccinated and that he noticed no side effects.

    Many people over the years kind of said that the message was way less important than the cult leader, and that the cult leader could do basiscally anything, such as killing people on main street in brought daylight.

    But apparently the ideology and the message are really important as well and cannot be changed arbitrarily. Even Trump has to say what people want to hear, or he will be booed mercilessly by his own people.

  12. Gravatar of Philo Philo
    23. August 2021 at 10:47

    A charming and timely post. But how did Trump get into it? TDS!

  13. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    23. August 2021 at 10:59

    Christian, His fans were booing vaccines, not Trump.

    Philo, Trump is our Dreyfus affair. Just as Joe McCarthy was my parent’s Dreyfus affair. Every generation needs one.

  14. Gravatar of David S David S
    23. August 2021 at 15:41

    Scott, you’re fortunate that you have such good reading material because the Cyber Ninjas report on the Arizona election results is delayed. Again.

  15. Gravatar of Harry Harry
    23. August 2021 at 17:20

    “What qualification did Trump have for being elected president, other than inheriting a ton of money from his dad?”

    What exactly is a “ton of money”? His father owned property in queens, and in 1972 he gave Donald about 1M to secure the commodore, which became the Grand Hyatt. From that point on, Donald used bank loans, city tax breaks, partnerships with operators, selling rights to his name, and his collateral from owning a stake in the Hyatt to expand operations. If I gave you 1M today, which I could very easily do, what could you do for me? Could you reshape the NYC skyline? Could you turn that 1M in to 100M? How about 1B? Could you direct #1 rated T.V. show, and star in the leading role? I’m willing to give you 1M right now. What is your idea? What is your proposal?

    I suspect a lot of crickets, and not a lot of substance!

    What qualifications does Sumner have to be President of the United States? What qualifications does Sumner have to be the Mayor? What qualifications does Sumner have to run a business? Can you even sweep a floor? What can you do?

    The 1M offer is still on the table.

  16. Gravatar of rinat rinat
    23. August 2021 at 17:51

    Sumner’s Bidenista lap dogging is becoming more hilarious by the day. He simply cannot put the shoe on the other foot. About Trump qualifications:

    What branch in government is similar to the role of a CEO?
    I’ll give your small brain a hint: it starts with “executive”.

    Let’s see if Sumner can answer some of these other questions correctly:

    Is it a good idea to remove military equipment before or after you withdraw troops?

    Should you remove citizens after the withdrawal, or before the withdrawal?

    Should the President of the United States respond to intelligence reports from the Kabul embassy, that kindly ask for additional security and repatriation of citizens one month before the Taliban enters Kabul?

    Who is the current president of the United States?

    Should the son of a President sell $500,000 dollar paintings for political favors?

    Should the President of the United States threaten businesses with “consequences” if those businesses refuse to mandate the vaccine for employment?

    Does a President have an obligation to the security of his citizens?

    Does a President have an obligation to “defend the constitution”?

    Hopefully a radical bidenista can answer these very simple questions correctly. I’m waiting with bated breath?

  17. Gravatar of mary mary
    23. August 2021 at 18:38

    I believe Jacobson vs Massachusetts needs to be revisited. No intellectual can ignore the fact that Big Pharma is currently enriching scholars, university administrators, physicians and government officials. They have tentacles in every aspect of our lives! The decision in Jacobson vs Massachusetts was predicated upon an outbreak of measles which historically has a 30% fatality rate. The justices used the words “great danger to society” to justify their ruling. And in that case, because of the high mortality rate, very few people chose NOT to take the vaccine.

    How far do we take this? Do we permit pharmaceutical companies to lobby regulators, and others, until we are all living in a bio-security state where vaccine refusal places one in a lower caste akin to an Indian “untouchable”. Is that freedom? Is that a society we want to live in? Do we want our children to live in a society where yearly booster shots, whether needed or not, are mandated because a study funded by Big Pharma says we need them? Tyranny is not limited to an authoritarian ruler. Industries that have become oligopolies are more than capable of colluding – and funding – tyranny for personal gain.

    And when does a bacterial or viral infection cease being a great danger to society? Should we mandate cough syrup for the common cold? How many booster shots do we need? Once a year? Twice a year? Three times a year?

    What is the end game here? When do we stop living in fear? When do the booster shots end? When does the vaccine passport end?

    When does any government funded program end?

  18. Gravatar of postkey postkey
    24. August 2021 at 01:55

    “2007: NSF Grant IIS-0513650 (Italy, France and Indiana University) study addresses FIRST CRITICAL STEP to control a pandemic – shut down all Travel. Given this knowledge why did Fauci tell Trump a Travel Ban was unnecessary?”
    https://21a86421-c3e0-461b-83c2-cfe4628dfadc.filesusr.com/ugd/659775_6f632cc8d75d4d8c8b90cc749262f4b4.pdf

  19. Gravatar of Christian List Christian List
    24. August 2021 at 11:36

    Christian, His fans were booing vaccines, not Trump.

    Scott,

    sometimes I can’t tell if you’re being serious or ironic. I mean it could be that different EQ of yours that you mention in another blog post. Or irony of course, but hm, your use of irony is strange sometimes. So I’m really lost here.

    When Tyler writes a one-liner like that, one knows it’s meant to be ironic. But when you write it, it can be really hard to tell, at least for me.

  20. Gravatar of Spencer Bradley Hall Spencer Bradley Hall
    25. August 2021 at 07:51

    Found the old #s. Compare that to today.

    M1 NSA money stock peaked on 12/2004 @ 1401.5. It didn’t exceed that # until 4/2008 @ 1406.6.

    Revised:
    2004-12-27 1467.7 not exceeded until 2008-10-27 1514.2

    Dec. 2004’s money #s weren’t exceeded for 4 years. That is the most contractive money policy since the Great Depression.

  21. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    25. August 2021 at 14:17

    Christian, So let me see. When McCain praised Obama in his concession speech after losing the election of 2008 and his fans booed the name Obama, they were actually booing McCain, not Obama. Okaaaay . . .

    I’m not German—maybe you have some sort of weird culture over there that’s different from the US.

  22. Gravatar of rinat rinat
    25. August 2021 at 17:52

    Sumner’s radical commies are coming for us all.

    1.3M Moderna vaccine vials just recalled in Japan for having “foreign substances”.

    Considering Sumner receives large kickbacks from Big Pharma, is anyone surprised that Sumner wants to “mandate for all”, and shove boosters into your arms every six months under the pretext of “the common good”.

    When they use terms like “experts say”, “human rights”, “for the benefit of the collective”, “inclusiveness” it’s time to dig a little deeper. These are terms that attempt to build a carefully constructed narrative, without providing any substance.

    The majority doesn’t want multiculturalism, mass immigration, and open borders. The majority doesn’t want vaccines. The majority doesn’t want a one world government, that uses the pretext of the universal “human rights” to invade countries, outlaw cultural norms, etc, etc.

    Nobody wants economists or the federal reserve.

    We prefer to maximize our freedom and happiness, not globalist GDP.

  23. Gravatar of Nick S Nick S
    25. August 2021 at 18:59

    When there are no rational arguments to fall back on, blame trump, or maybe Russian disinformation.

    If vaccines work, then why do people that have the vaccine care whether or not others are vaccinated?

    If vaccines work, and given there is very scant evidence on mask effectiveness, why do vaccinated people still wear masks and socially distance? It’s analogous to wearing a condom after getting a vasectomy and worrying about impregnating your wife from 6 feet away.

    If less than 500 children under the age of 17 have died of Covid, why are is there such a large debate over children in schools wearing masks. More children in this age group die of influenza each year by far. If vaccines work, then how can potential spread from a child to a teacher be rationalized as a threat if teachers have the option to get vaccinated?

    If vaccines work, then the unvaccinated do not pose a threat to the vaccinated. Therefore, the state’s insistence on the unvaccinated to become vaccinated cannot be attributed to the goal protecting the vaccinated, because the vaccinated are already protected. Is the goal then to prevent the unvaccinated from endangering themselves at the expense of their own free will? If so, then shouldn’t additional measures be taken to curb conditions that highly correlate with Covid-19 complication, such as obesity? If so, should businesses be forced to deny entry of obese people into their establishments and require weight checks for all patrons prior to entry?

    Given the precedent established during the Covid “crisis,” what checks are in place to prevent authoritarian state rule via the executive’s “emergency powers,” which are only enacted after a subjective “state of emergency” is declared by… guess who… the executive…

    Where does this end? God damnit, just let us live our lives.

  24. Gravatar of Spencer Bradley Hall Spencer Bradley Hall
    26. August 2021 at 05:58

    BEA: “Current dollar GDP increased 13.2 percent at an annual rate, or $693.2 billion, in the second quarter to a level of $22.73 trillion. In the first quarter, GDP increased 10.9 percent, or $560.6 billion”

    “Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 6.6 percent in the second quarter of 2021, according to the “second” estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the first quarter, real GDP increased 6.3 percent.”

    Who said money doesn’t matter. That corresponds to money flows, volume times transactions’ velocity:

    1/1/2021 ,,,,, 0.65
    2/1/2021 ,,,,, 0.66
    3/1/2021 ,,,,, 0.70 6.3%
    4/1/2021 ,,,,, 0.70
    5/1/2021 ,,,,, 0.77
    6/1/2021 ,,,,, 0.80 6.6%
    7/1/2021 ,,,,, 0.82
    8/1/2021 ,,,,, 0.68

    But we’re decelerating faster now.

  25. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    26. August 2021 at 07:40

    Nick, Exactly what do vaccines have to do with this post? And how do you define vaccines “working”?

    “If less than 500 children under the age of 17 have died of Covid, why are is there such a large debate over children in schools wearing masks. More children in this age group die of influenza each year by far.”

    Source? (I don’t believe you.)

    https://www.statista.com/statistics/1127698/influenza-us-deaths-by-age-group/

    “Therefore, the state’s insistence on the unvaccinated to become vaccinated”

    The state is not insisting that the unvaccinated become vaccinated.

  26. Gravatar of Nick S Nick S
    26. August 2021 at 08:10

    Scott: I admittedly ranted a bit, but just trying to point out that the virus, vaccine mandates, mask mandates, etc. are merely vehicles to exert additional state control. I believe that if you honestly try to answer the questions I posed, one can arrive at the same conclusion. Current covid is 100% about the state (and in many cases, unelected state officials) increasing their control. Who would have thought that an unelected quack doctor would be creating effectively new legislation on property rights, foreclosure and eviction law? What a joke.

    Source: https://i-insider-com.cdn.ampproject.org/ii/AW/s/i.insider.com/5e81f6460c2a6261b1771b05?width=750&format=jpeg&auto=webp

  27. Gravatar of steve steve
    26. August 2021 at 10:19

    In the off chance you arent trolling the questions are easy to answer.

    “If vaccines work, then why do people that have the vaccine care whether or not others are vaccinated?”

    Almost no vaccine is 100% effective at preventing disease. Smallpox and polio were pretty high as I recall and measles is about 97% effective. So if you are constantly in contact with people who are not vaccinated and likely to have the disease there is a good possibility you can still get infected. What you try to achieve is such a high percentage of people vaccinated that if a case pops uo in the community it has trouble spreading.

    “why do vaccinated people still wear masks and socially distance? It’s analogous to wearing a condom after getting a vasectomy and worrying about impregnating your wife from 6 feet away.”

    If you live in an area where lots of people are not vaccinated and the case rate is high it would help decrease your chances of getting sick. If you live in an area where everyone is vaccinated and case rate low then you are wearing a mask because you are neurotic and/or stupid.

    “If less than 500 children under the age of 17 have died of Covid”

    Some people also worry about their kid having a prolonged ICU stay since they think hospitalizations should be avoided. Crazy right? People should only care if their kids live or die.

    “If vaccines work, then the unvaccinated do not pose a threat to the vaccinated.”

    As I explained above, they do. Less of a risk than if you were not vaccinated but still a risk, especially you have lots of contact with he unvaccinated. The unvaccinated also provide a nice reservoir for the virus to mutate.

    ” If so, then shouldn’t additional measures be taken to curb conditions that highly correlate with Covid-19 complication, such as obesity?”

    Is obesity truly contagious? It does seem to run in families but I am in the nurture not nature camp on this.

    “Given the precedent established during the Covid “crisis,” what checks are in place to prevent authoritarian state rule via the executive’s “emergency powers,””

    Not really a medical question so I have no more expertise here than anyone else but I think it a good question. In the ideal state legislatures work to set limits but they are largely ineffective. My question back to you is how do we stop state executives from interfering with how local municipalities want to handle their individual situations? Why are governors prohibiting businesses and cities from requiring vaccines if they want, or masks or anything?

    Steve

  28. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    26. August 2021 at 11:04

    Nick, Not sure why you are arguing with me, I don’t favor government mandates.

    I hate it when people like the Florida governor try to use government power to stop companies from running their businesses as they see fit.

  29. Gravatar of David S David S
    26. August 2021 at 14:38

    Scott,

    This is a bleg for you to respond to Tyler’s recent post over at MR because he cites you, and I think he might be overstating your position on the current Fed response to inflation. If I’ve been paying attention to your recent silence on the Fed, then I’m under the assumption that things are generally okay policy-wise. The AIT approach does imply a gradual bond buying taper and a late 2022 rate hike, but it depends on unemployment rate and a “real” post-Covid environment.

    I’m not sure what Tyler, or Arnold Kling for that matter, is worried about either short term or long term. The Powell Fed is driving the bus without sudden movements. It’s not 1971, it’s not 1989, and it’s not 2009.

    I think there are lots of people out there reasoning from price changes and they get attention in the media because prices changes are exciting to follow—whether its lumber, used cars, Bitcoin, houses, computer chips, or bucatini pasta.

  30. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    26. August 2021 at 14:57

    David, He cites Larry Summers, but where does he cite me?

  31. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    26. August 2021 at 15:00

    And yes, I’m fairly content with Fed policy, although I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that it might be a bit too expansionary. Covid has really shaken things up.

    But compared with 2009 it’s like being in heaven.

  32. Gravatar of David S David S
    26. August 2021 at 16:07

    Damnit, I’m going blind and senile. It was Larry, not you. Sorry about that.

  33. Gravatar of Nick S Nick S
    26. August 2021 at 17:45

    Scott – Although I am a huge Ronny D fan, I agree with you. Businesses should have the right to mandate masks, in the same way they should be allowed to choose not to bake a cake for a gay wedding.

  34. Gravatar of mary mary
    26. August 2021 at 23:08

    IMO, the term antivaxx is very lazy and extremely banal.

    Let’s take for example these two posts:

    https://www.infowars.com/posts/reporter-hospitalized-after-pfizer-jab-caused-heart-inflammation-still-urges-australians-to-get-vaccinated/

    https://www.infowars.com/posts/coroner-rules-bbc-presenters-death-from-blood-clots-directly-linked-to-vaccine/

    One gentlemen commented that mandating vaccines was no different than mandating seat-belts.

    Such an analogy is devoid of logic. First of all, I don’t believe a seat-belt should be mandated, because it’s not the governments job to determine an individuals risk. Nevertheless, nobody has ever died because the seat belt killed them while driving down the road. The seat-belt is harmless. On the other hand, the vaccine does carry risk. Even if that risk is small, there is still RISK.

    Moreover, we need to have honest debates so that scientists who disagree with CDC mandates are actually heard! Blacklisting them and silencing them is not debate. That in and of itself is a cause for concern. “controlling the narrative” suggests that someone, or some group, is trying to “hide” something.

    In a real democracy, one could listen to scientists debate and then choose the best course of action.

    And claiming that Alex Jones is a conspiracy nut is also not an intellectual response. It is simply ad hominem, and devoid of substance. The articles here have been verified. They are not “conspiracy”.

  35. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    27. August 2021 at 08:46

    David, I’m flattered to be confused with Larry Summers.

    Nick, My view of conservatives is that they want the freedom for conservatives to do whatever the hell they want, and want the government to tell everyone else how to live their lives (drug laws, sex laws, zoning rules keeping out low income people, immigration restrictions, etc.)

    That’s not my kind of freedom, and it’s why I’m a libertarian.

    Mary, Infowars??? LOL.

  36. Gravatar of Tacticus Tacticus
    27. August 2021 at 12:35

    Christian List, you normally make educated comments, but I think you need to re-read your history on the Dreyfus Affair.

  37. Gravatar of Anonymous Anonymous
    27. August 2021 at 15:58

    Re: Trump

    “What exactly is a “ton of money”? His father owned property in queens, and in 1972 he gave Donald about 1M”

    This is false, though I believed the same at one time. His father poured money into Donald’s businesses for years, giving him over $100M.

  38. Gravatar of harry harry
    27. August 2021 at 20:59

    All of these articles supporting mandates have now been rendered moot. Big and beautiful Texas once again saved the republic.

    Your welcome!

    Today, the State Supreme Court rules mask mandates unconstitutional.

    Do remind me: does the oath say “preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States”?

    I’m sure the radical libtards will be crying profusely tonight. Is there anything better than communist tears?

    I’m sure tomorrow, the 24/7 narrative will switch to “packing the court”.

    “living document” is code word for radical activists “politically owning” our justice system. There is nothing dems hate more than freedom. A justice department left uncentralized, existing as a separate branch outside of apparatchik control, is simply too much independence for the orwellian democrats.

  39. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    28. August 2021 at 09:40

    Anonymous, I’d add that most of Trump’s wealth is due to his successful career as an actor, and his performance as a business executive was very much a mixed bag.

    And yes, he inherited a fortune from his dad, at a time (in the 1970s) when NYC real estate was dirt cheap.

    It’s like if someone tells me they made money investing in tech stocks over the past few decades. How impressive!

  40. Gravatar of Nick S Nick S
    29. August 2021 at 07:48

    Scott – “ That’s not my kind of freedom, and it’s why I’m a libertarian.”

    100% agree

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