Informed – Page 8 – Confluence Daily

May 26, 2020 Confluence

Vox: Is this the end of productivity?

Reading Time: 6 minutes The question of how to implement a humane form of economics that requires less productivity of individual workers is the more onerous task. But perhaps, with the majority of Americans forced to reckon with an unprecedented state of inactivity, we’ll be more inclined to put down our phones and separate accomplishment from self-worth. Writers like Smart have long argued that this is beneficial and, ironically, can make us more productive in the long run.

Informed

May 22, 2020 Confluence

Essence: COVID-19 Highlights The Harsh Reality Facing Black Girls, Girls Of Color

Reading Time: 4 minutes Youth of color and their families face significantly higher health risks associated with the coronavirus than their peers. According to the CDC, African-Americans accounted for one third (33 percent) of patients admitted to U.S. hospitals and a similar percentage of COVID-19 deaths (34 percent). Yet, African-Americans are just 13 percent of the U.S. population.

Informed

May 20, 2020 Confluence

Yes, It’s Still Cultural Appropriation, Even When It Wasn’t Intended That Way

Reading Time: 4 minutes We all must work hard to name what it is we need – stress release and solidarity – and find ways that are beautiful and express at our core who we really are. We do not get to do cheap imitations and steal sacredness that belongs to another.

Informed

May 19, 2020 Confluence

The Atlantic: The Conspiracy Theorists Are Winning

Reading Time: 4 minutes This improbable question—how did a person with a weakness for conspiratorial thinking achieve the presidency?—might be among the most consequential of the coming election, which is not merely a political contest, but a referendum on Enlightenment values and on reality itself.

Nonsense is nonsense, except when it kills. And conspiracy thinking, especially when advanced by the president of the United States, is an existential threat.

Informed

May 14, 2020 Confluence

Politifact: Fact-checking ‘Plandemic’: A documentary full of false conspiracy theories about the coronavirus

Reading Time: 5 minutes We fact-checked eight of Mikovits’ most misleading claims from the video. They span from conspiracies about the origin of the coronavirus to falsehoods about wearing a face mask.

Informed

May 13, 2020 Confluence

Vox: We don’t have a president, or a plan

Reading Time: 6 minutes It is shocking. More than 60 days after President Trump declared a national emergency over the novel coronavirus, there is still no clear national plan for what comes next.

Informed

May 8, 2020 Confluence

Vox: The agonizing story of Tara Reade

Reading Time: 12 minutes Reade’s latest allegation is far more serious and comes in a far more fraught political context. The story that both she and her corroborating witnesses are telling has changed dramatically. This leaves me — all of us — in an agonizing place. I’ve written many articles through the Me Too era. It’s unrealistic to demand “perfect” victims. And, like most who come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct or assault, Reade has suffered for speaking out. In several exchanges this year and last year, she’s shown me disturbing messages she’s received online.

Informed

May 7, 2020 Confluence

The only non-negotiable is to erase white supremacist culture

Reading Time: 3 minutes Don’t just talk to your kids about the killing of a 24-year-old innocent Black man in Brunswick County, Georgia. Talk to them about what white supremacist culture is and how you have inherited it and you probably all have some blindspots to it. Talk about how it shows up in your home and how you are now, as a family, committed to eradicating it because it only produces victims. You are a victim of it because it limits you to being a violent, oppressive, entitled conspirator to the system.

Informed

May 7, 2020 Confluence

Vanity Fair: How Trump Gutted Obama’s Pandemic-Preparedness Systems

Reading Time: 8 minutes It is this federal-support piece that has been missing, sources I spoke with say. Testing for COVID-19 has been abysmal. Lacking guidance and support from the White House, governors have been left scrambling to obtain ventilators and personal protective equipment for frontline workers, creating a sellers’ market.

Informed

April 29, 2020 Confluence

Politico: ‘The Nightmare Scenario’: How Coronavirus Could Make the 2020 Vote a Disaster

Reading Time: 10 minutes Preparations need to happen right now. If you’re expecting five times the number of absentee-ballot applications — like Wisconsin saw — you’re going to need to have a printer set up for that, and you’re gonna need to have a procedure set up to mail those ballots out. And if people have to apply for absentee ballots individually, those are all going to have to be processed. Lots needs to happen now that wouldn’t ordinarily have to happen quite so early.