SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:16 P.M. ET: 

AN INVOICE FOR BERNIE SANDERS – FROM FOX:  WASHINGTON -- Sen. Bernie Sanders's   "Medicare for all" plan would increase government health care spending by $32.6 trillion over 10 years, according to a study by a university-based libertarian policy center.  That's trillion with a "T."  The latest plan from the Vermont independent would require historic tax increases as government replaces what employers and consumers now pay for health care, according to the analysis being released Monday by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Virginia. It would deliver significant savings on administration and drug costs, but increased demand for care would drive up spending, the analysis found.  Sanders's plan builds on Medicare, the popular insurance program for seniors. All U.S. residents would be covered with no copays and deductibles for medical services. The insurance industry would be relegated to a minor role.  The basic problem here, aside from the vast cost, is that we'd have one medical system.  No competition.  No incentive to improve quality or reduce costs.  Pure socialism.  No good.

DON'T PULL THE TRIGGER – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:  So-called “trigger warnings” may be harming the people they purport to help, according to a new study published by psychologists at Harvard University.  In the study, published Friday in the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, researchers assigned 270 participants to read 10 passages from classical literature, five of which contained no distressing material and five of which contained distressing material, such as depictions of murder.  The participants were divided into two groups. One group was given a trigger warning before each passage, which read: “TRIGGER WARNING: The passage you are about to read contains disturbing content and may trigger an anxiety response, especially in those who have a history of trauma.”  The second group received no trigger warnings.  The study found that participants who received trigger warnings ended up with a more fragile view of what they and others would be capable of after experiencing trauma.  Why am I not shocked?  Common sense tells us that people are made stronger by confronting a problem, not running away from it.  We see this in real life every day. 

HOW GOES TWITTER – FROM THE TELEGRAPH:  Twitter has hired academics from institutions including Oxford University to help it combat “intolerant discourse” and monitor the “health” of the social network.   The firm is working with social psychology Professor Miles Hewstone and John Gallacher, along with Dr Marc Heerdink from the University of Amsterdam, to study the spread of hate speech.   The move is part of Twitter’s aim to create algorithms that better distinguish between hate speech and conversations that break the “norms of politeness”.  Why do I think the combination of Twitter and the academic world may not be good for our side?  I'm sure I'm just overly concerned.  Right?

July 30,  2018