Feb 9, 2021 Skip Tenczar Forty-five Republican senators, Behaved like nervous inheritors. Kissing the ring, Of their embattled king. These senators act like conspirators! Part One: John Nichols, The Nation Magazine Although the Senate trial of Donald Trump will be underway, and his response to Covid should have been included in the impeachment charges. We discuss the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, and the news that it is not effective against the South African variant of the virus. We discuss the value of open-source development in the fight against the virus. The big pharma companies have access to vaccine information without cost, but seem to be able to profit anyway, by profiting from the distribution of vaccine. Distribution should have started with those most vulnerable. The pandemic will likely continue for years, because governments have failed in this respect. We note that governments led by women have been more successful in combating the virus. Trust, leader motivation, and leader skills seem to be most important. Part 2: Henry Grabar . Addiction to gambling as a way to fund government, schools, etc. We examine how governments have used the concept of gambling to accustom people to funding government programs and initiatives, even though this is not a reasonable method of raising cash. It constitutes a kind of regressive tax, by taking from those who cannot afford it. The proceeds end up not really paying for what is claimed to benefit. An example: in NH, in the last 50 years, the NH Lottery contributed $2 B to education. However, the education department needs over $2 B in one year. Those who gamble do so for many reasons, among them lack of other financial opportunities for windfalls, and no recognition of the social problems, such as gambling addiction, etc. Henry Grabar is a journalist who writes about architecture, real estate, transportation, and the environment. He's a staff writer at Slate, where his story on the chicken plant in Fremont, Nebraska was a finalist for the 2018 Livingston Award for excellence in national reporting by journalists under 35. He's also the editor of the forthcoming book The Future of Transportation, part of the architecture firm Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill's "Thinkers" series. Henry has written about disaster preparation in Boston, coastal flooding in Long Island, embassy design in Cairo, historic preservation in Havana, war monuments in Sarajevo, and air pollution in Mexico City. He has lingered with the cutthroat Christmas tree salesmen of New York City, traced the literary history of train schedules, and uncovered the fate of colonial architecture in Algiers. His work has appeared in Architectural Record, Architect Magazine, The Atlantic, Bauwelt, CityLab, Cultural Geographies, The Guardian, Pacific Standard, Urban Omnibus, the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere. Currently, Henry lives in his native New York City, by way of Paris, New Haven, Copenhagen, Algiers and Washington, D.C., with stints at the Danish Architecture Center, the Atlantic Media Company, and the Architectural League of New York along the way.
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