⊠In New Orleans, Kathryn Olivarius finds, elites refused to do anything at all about yellow fever for a hundred years. Theirs was a mindset of fatalism and cruelty that reinforced the societyâs many human hierarchies; they saw yellow fever as a dangerous rite of passage that the truly worthy would come through. But poorer people who survived yellow fever were rewarded with the worst, most dangerous jobs; white people used Black peopleâs supposed ânaturalâ resistance to yellow fever to justify the continuation of slavery. And the wealthy often turned profoundly hypocritical when it was their own families in danger. (That eraâs elite fled to their summer houses too.)
Olivariusâ book, Necropolis: Disease, Power, and Capitalism in the Cotton Kingdom , which will be coming out next year, is about the Deep SouthâLouisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and eastern Texas. Since the work I was able to read was about 19th-century New Orleansâ culture of yellow fever, thatâs what we covered in our conversation, which has been edited and condensed for clarity.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) â Some Black Lives Matter protesters in Salt Lake City could face up to life in prison if theyâre convicted of splashing red paint and smashing windows during a protest, a potential punishment that stands out among demonstrators arrested around the country and one that critics say doesnât fit the alleged crime.
The question we must ask right now: Why is the GOP so determined to expire for good the extra $600 a week in federal unemployment benefits? The answer is not so obvious. For one, economists are certain that reducing unemployment benefits"will pull the rug out from the economic recovery." The pandemic is clearly not going away any time soon. The job market is still in the gutter and not looking at the stars. Of the estimated 40 million jobs lost during the first months of the pandemic, about 9 million have returned, and returned in a climate that daily batters any job opportunities that are out there.
Quoting Zachary Carter:
[Despite the economic recovery initiated by New Deal policies in the 1930s], the rich, as a group of Harvard economists observed, continued to âcomplain bitterlyâ of their tax burden, which they perceived as a violation of âdivine rightââeven though âthe additions to their incomes, resulting from the governmentâs activities, are far greater in amount than the additional taxes they pay.â Jack Morgan, according to one chronicler of the family, viewed the New Deal âless as a set of economic reforms than as a direct, malicious assault on the social order.â
Trigger warningâŠ
Read an article about Trump & Epstein, and it linked to the following video. Iâve set the time to just before what I noticed in the background (which, I also notice, isnât something thatâs even mentioned in the comment thread). Prior to this moment, the camera is on the two gross men talking, but you get glimpses that Maxwell is behind them, talking intently with someone, and then thereâs enough movement that you see thereâs yet another wealthy man, and then, where Iâve queued it, you see who they were both talking to after they walk away: a young woman, literally cornered, and the look in her eyes as they leave her tells me sheâs in trouble and she knows it but she doesnât know what to do to get out of the situation.
This is the sort of thing that Maxwell did. She didnât necessarily rape the girls herself, but sheâs very much the reason they were.
Over the past 40 years, Iâve noticed that privileged people often âtake me inâ their social groups solely to treat me as their pet âretardâ, framing it as taking pity on me and getting me out in the worldâwhich I donât need help with, then shoving me toward working on their pet projects. They usually arenât that raw about the language they use but Iâm pretty good at seeing it for what it is. My response is always, ânaw Iâm good.â
I wonder if thatâs why I never got any band gigs, despite my talent: I wouldnât fuck any of the guys who said they wanted to âworkâ with me. Thereâve been three or four, though, who got past me (and my latest musical partner was NOT one of them); and I learned my lesson so well that now Iâm happily celibate and uninvolved.
Michael Harriot, so you know itâs worth reading.
Thatâs what itâs come to: a choice between the middle-of-the-road party or the völkisch party.
Trump really is Hindenberg. This is America though so Iâm sure weâll make up some new shit that will make everybody go âWhaaaaat? America! You so crazy!â