I just wanted to list a few article recommendations published in the last couple of weeks.
First is "America was Built to Fail," published June 22 by Timothy Kreider at gen.medium.com. The piece comes at our present challenges from the perspective that the United States has remade itself, butterfly-from-chrysalis style, at other points in its history. While this moment is frightening in its fluidness, the country has a long history of course correcting.
Next, a piece in The Atlantic that was recommended by a sociologist friend. The title is "The Decline of the American World," and the author is Tom McTague. This essay, which first appeared June 24, tackles other countries' views of the United States and how the mechanisms behind those views may or may not be severely affected by the Trump years thus far.
The third piece, reported by Kate Kelland of Reuters on July 8:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/scientists-warn-of-potential-wave-of-covid-linked-brain-damage/ar-BB16sd5S?ocid=spartan-ntp-feeds
This UK study, while small, is ominous. Those who think that COVID-19 doesn't present dire long-term consequences for those who "recover" may want to think again and wait until medical professionals can examine long-term data. Making long-term assumptions without long-term data is often a bad idea, especially when lives and health are at stake.
That's it for now. In case you're wondering when I'll do a summary of how the early re-opening debacle unfolded just as predicted here, stay tuned. Even I didn't expect all of the red state governors to look like idiots all at once, but that's what's happened. It was the GOP predictions versus the predictions of science. As I said previously, I wish there'd been odds on that.
Bob Dietz
July 10, 2020
