Haircut Time

 Had my second haircut since the start of the pandemic today.  Some trepidation, given the new surge of cases which has hit Virginia, though not as hard here as elsewhere in the country.  

Breaking the Rule--Japan

I have the "Harshaw rule", which says you never do something right the first time. 

There have been exceptions to the rule, one of which has just occurred--Japan has just brought back a sample from an asteroid--congratulations to them.

[Update: It turns out my compliment was undeserved.  According to the NYTimes article, there was a previous try at doing this, which had several problems.

"Hayabusa2 is not Japan’s first planetary mission. Indeed, its name points to the existence of Hayabusa, an earlier mission that brought back samples from another asteroid, Itokawa. But that mission, which launched in 2003 and returned in 2010, faced major technical problems."]

On Trump Judges

 Josh Blackman is a conservative law professor writing on the generally conservative Volkoh Conspiracy, but today he notes the failure of "Trump" judges to buy the Trump lawsuits. 

We should give credit when credit is due. 

On Regulatory Approvals

 The UK has approved the Pfizer vaccine for use; the FDA hasn't yet.  Some, like the Marginal Revolution blog, are critical. 

The FAA grounded Boeing's 737-Max for 20 months, before approving it this month. 

These are judgment calls, or actually likely a nested series of judgment calls in each case. 

There are some of us alive who remember thalidomide, and the British Comet.

I'm not one to second guess bureaucrats who have to make judgment calls with life and death consequences. 

Me and Kevin Drum I

 Kevin Drum  on Dec. 1 blogged his positions on an assortment of domestic issues. I commented that I agreed with almost all of them (I plan a separate post discussing them in detail) but he embodied the typical Democrat moderate/progressive in totally ignoring rural issues. 

Here's my thoughts on some issues:

• it's hard for me to see the revival of rural areas--farms keep getting bigger and more consolidated.  Even as some farms hire immigrant labor companies are developing technology to replace labor, especially robots.  So the depopulation of the farm areas will continue.
• I think the first priority is broadband for all.  Al Gore pushed Internet connectivity back in the day, the Obama administration supported it, but didn't complete the job.  (I've no idea of how well or poorly the Trump administration did.) 
• Broadband is the key to several things, changes which the pandemic has pushed along.

Telehealth.  The pandemic has shown the feasibility of this, provided there's broadband.  It needs to be pushed, as does permitting  healthcare providers to work across state lines.

USPS.  I'd change the structure and financing of USPS to raise its rural profile--to say more specifically that X is the money we, the nation, devote to rural areas.

Remote work.  Again the pandemic has shown that working remotely can be manageable.  

Drones.  Permitting and developing drone delivery might help rural areas.

James Fallows has a piece with a different orientation, but a similar goal--reconnecting rural and urban areas.

[Updated.: And here's another discussion.]

The Era of Commissions and Czars

 President-Elect Biden is planning a covid- czar, apparently.  I suspect we'll see more czars, task forces,  and commissions in the Biden administration than in past ones.

Czars can provide the promise of greater coordination among different silos.  There's a widespread perception the government does not act effectively, so the czar is one solution.  Cynically, it also offer another prestigious position for Biden to use in satisfying the demands of various parts of his coalition for influence.  (Think of a robin with one worm in its mouth facing four hungry chicks in the next.)

Task forces do much the same.  Trump's covid0-19 task force doesn't have a good reputation, but the Operation Warp Speed seems to be doing well at combining the efforts of HHS, CDC, FDA, and the military.

And commissions are a way to seem bipartisan and, at the least, give the impression of action while kicking insoluble issues down the road.  

To Start a War

 I like this book by Robert Draper.  A 3-star review on Amazon says there's no new stories in it, which may be true.  We know the outline of the decision to go to war, true enough.

I like these things:

• the book covers a broad area, but it doesn't sprawl.  Draper seems to do it by focusing each chapter on a key play so you get a balance of characters and narrative flow.
• Draper goes deeper into the bureaucracy than just the major players at the Cabinet and subcabinet level.  
• it comes off as a balanced appraisal, sympathetic to the players but appropriately critical.  (That means I don't see any intentional villains, just humans operating with their preconceptions and priorities which often led them astray.

Why Was Trump's Support Up in Rural Areas?

 I can think of two possible explanations I've not seen mentioned in discussions on this issue:

1. The billions of dollars Trump authorized paying farmers as compensation for losses from the trade war with China, along with the billions in food boxes under MFP.
2. More generally, I'm foolish enough to believe Trump got support because he was perceived as fighting for farmers and rural areas generally.  The facts may be that China won't fulfill their commitments under the agreement, at least not fully, but the drama of the tariff battles and the ensuing agreement would have been memorable.

Quibbling with Caste

 Started reading Isabel Wilkerson's "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents". I want to quibble with some sentences on page 29: 

"[The South] was where the tenets of intercaste relations took hold before spreading to the rest of the country..." (There follows a quote from Alexis de Tocqueville with a similar point.) 

I think this is wrong: slavery was a feature of the world before Europeans reached the Americas.  It was a part of the Old Testament, it was part of medieval times, it was an accepted feature of war. It was arguably part of many Native American societies.  There was slavery in Great Britain until the Somerset decision.

The bottom line is: we can't blame the South for slavery, which is the way I read Wilkerson.  She can argue that slavery on Southern plantations was developed into an American archetype, perhaps with some unique features.  But even there, she would need to recognize the differences between Southern slavery and Caribbean sugar plantations. 

As I said, it's a quibble.  Wilkerson's writing at a level of generality and artistry with which I'm not terribly comfortable.

Fixing the Election Process

One place where Republicans and Democrats should be able to reach bipartisan agreement is on fixing the election process. In the past Democrats have felt they do well with the biggest turnout and Republicans have mostly felt the opposite.  But in 2020 both parties did well with big turnout, although Democrats in the race for president and Republicans for Congress and the legislature.  That perspective on the facts might make it easier to reach a compromise. 

I don't see why technology can't be used to monitor the processing of ballots--put cameras in place and record everything. People should be able to agree on best practices among the states with the best records in handling mail and inperson voting.