A friend recently created a petition asking the governors of several blue states to “explore the possibility of forming an interstate, single-payer healthcare system for their residents”. I personally don’t think a single-payer healthcare system is a good idea, and I have no idea how the kind of system she describes could work in practice, but she is only asking the governors in question to “explore the possibility” and I’m all for exploring possibilities. Anyway, if you like the idea, you should consider signing the petition and telling your friends about it.
Robert Parry wrote a great piece on Flynn’s resignation, which he interprets roughly in the same way I do. He is certainly right that, by letting Flynn go, Trump sent a bad signal to the establishment, who is going to be emboldened and come back for more.
Elliott Abrams explicitly blamed Bannon on CNN for not getting the job of Deputy Secretary of State. This confirms what I have been saying about the nature of Bannon’s influence on Trump’s foreign policy decisions.
A few months ago, Steve Hsu published a piece in which he argued that it would soon be possible to genetically engineer super-intelligent humans. There was a pretty interesting discussion of his argument on Slate Star Codex a while ago. If Hsu is right, talking to our grandchildren in a few decades may be really embarrassing for us.
Vincent Geloso wrote a very good post in which he discusses the possibility that economic growth during between 1945 and 1975 has been overestimated because national accounting didn’t take into account the fact that, as women entered the labor market in large numbers during that period, their non-market production inside the household diminished.