November 16

 Welcome to half past November. It is a slow and lazy Sunday during which I plan on doing very little beyond fixing what ever we will be eating, planning what I will do over the next week, and going through my reading list. 

On that last, on the top was this article by Timothy Snyder. I think he accurately explains what's going on. His description of what Trump, Vance and their minions see inside the grift bubble aligns pretty well with their attitudes and actions. Snyder's last tow paragraphs are important. The grifters assume that there will always be another grift and that they can turn any crisis to their profit. That works until it doesn't. And there might be crises they can't manage. As a couple of economics writers have written repeatedly over the last years bubbles ALWAYS burst. And as other economics writers have said for some time nothing GROWS FOREVER. There are limits.

Peter published this piece that examines the health insurance history with the decline in adult male height as a proxy for affluence and health. I am still mulling this over. In a sense it parallels the statistics which show that though our health care costs, including insurance, are the highest in the world we are not the healthiest or the longest lived.

I saw a headline on this event but did a search on line to find more information from a more familiar source. I have read about "Gen Z" protests in several countries lately. Young people worldwide are upset about corruption, limited opportunities and poverty. Governments worldwide respond similarly by blaming political opponents and outside agitators.

Found this by way of THIS WEEK IN COLLAPSE. Over the last several months I have seen sporadic accounts of a worsening water situation in northern Iran due to an extreme drought. The article reports that the National government is thinking of ordering restriction on the hours of water service and, perhaps, evacuating cities, some of Iran's largest, due to the emergency.