TODAY'S BIG NUGGET: For Dems -- Rediscovering the White Working Class

What So Many People Don’t Get About the U.S. Working Class (Joan Williams) from the Harvard Business Review
"“The thing that really gets me is that Democrats try to offer policies (paid sick leave! minimum wage!) that would help the working class,” a friend just wrote me. A few days’ paid leave ain’t gonna support a family. Neither is minimum wage. White Working Class men aren’t interested in working at McDonald’s for $15 per hour instead of $9.50. What they want is what my father-in-law had: steady, stable, full-time jobs that deliver a solid middle-class life to the 75% of Americans who don’t have a college degree. Trump promises that. I doubt he’ll deliver, but at least he understands what they need."
So far, this is the best examination I have seen about why the Dems lost the white working class so badly in this election.  A must-read for anyone looking to win them back.  Just one key point for Dems: STOP talking about minimum wage and parental leave!  Start figuring out how to deliver to the working class a middle class level of income and life as they had had in the 1950s and 1960s. This is what Trump promised and what Dems STOPPED promising 25 years ago. Impossible? We'll need to figure it out.

This Election's "Lessons for Young Minds"

Burning Down the House (Timothy Egan) from the New York Times
"He’s made it O.K. to bully and fat-shame. He’s normalized perversion, bragging about how an aging man with his sense of entitlement can walk in on naked women.  Here’s his lesson for young minds: If you’re rich and boorish enough, you can get away with anything. Get away with sexual assault. Get away with not paying taxes. Get away with never telling the truth. Get away with flirting with treason. Get away with stiffing people who work for you, while you take yours. Get away with mocking the disabled, veterans and families of war heroes."

Whites Discovering Racism

Why some whites are waking up to racism from the Washington Post
"As the nation’s first African American president completes his second term, the country’s racial divide has grown more pronounced, bursting into full view during heated debates over issues such as income inequality, jobs, educational opportunities and, perhaps most prominently, how the criminal justice system treats blacks."

Scandinavian Happiness Nugget!

Denmark Ranks as Happiest Country; Burundi, Not So Much from the New York Times
"Denmark has reclaimed its place as the world’s happiest country, while Burundi ranks as the least happy nation, according to the fourth World Happiness Report, released on Wednesday."

America: Is it really going to Hell!?

How America Is Putting Itself Back Together (James Fallows) from the Atlantic
"Most people in the U.S. believe their country is going to hell. But they’re wrong. What a three-year journey by single-engine plane reveals about reinvention and renewal."

After I Lived in Norway, America Felt ... Backward

 After I Lived in Norway, America Felt Backward. Here’s Why. (Ann Jones) from the Nation
"A crash course in social democracy."

THANKSGIVING NUGGET #2!!

Arlo Guthrie on ‘Stupid’ Politicians and 50 Years of Thanksgiving Classic ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ from the Daily Beast
"The eccentric folk singer reflects on the five decades since his iconic counterculture song, and tells The Daily Beast what he thinks of the current state of American politics."

No Work + Racial Resentment: A Toxic Mix in the White Working Class

What Happened to the White Working Class? (Barbara Ehrenreich) from the Nation
"Downward mobility plus racial resentment is a potent combination with disastrous consequences."

Berlin, dancing on the volcano again?

Weimar and contemporary Germany from the Economist [of London]
"Both periods are seen as a kaleidoscopic mix of rise and decline, misery and luxury, light and darkness. To illustrate these themes, the exhibition mingles consumer goods and vintage clothes with paintings, drawings, posters, photographs and sculptures—around 500 pieces from 200 artists. The exhibition bears witness to the darker side of the "Golden Twenties”..."

TV NUGGET!!

August Wilson's 'Pittsburgh Cycle' of stage plays coming to HBO from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
"Denzel Washington is bringing August Wilson's 10-play Pittsburgh Cycle of plays to HBO.
"At an event Sept. 17 at the University of Southern California, Washington said he will direct, produce and star in “Fences” and be the executive producer on the other nine plays chronicling the black experience through the decades of the 20th century."

Multiculturalism in Europe: Some Buyers' Remorse?

Multiculturalism: Community Versus Society in Europe (Kenan Malik) from Foreign Affairs
"Thirty years ago, many Europeans saw multiculturalism—the embrace of an inclusive, diverse society—as an answer to Europe’s social problems. Today, a growing number consider it to be a cause of them. ... How did this transformation come about?"

What do mass shootings and police killings have in common?

America's sick gun culture. (Emily L. Hauser) from The Week
 "If we want to see police killings drop, no matter the victim, if we want to see an end to mass shootings (and Australia has proven that it's possible to actually end them), we have no choice but to dismantle not only the laws but also the norms that make the protection of gun ownership a greater priority than the protection of human lives."

The Obsolescence ... of Work?

A World Without Work (Derek Thompson) from the Atlantic
"For centuries, experts have predicted that machines would make workers obsolete. That moment may finally be arriving. Could that be a good thing?"

Why so many Americans are unmarried

Singles nation (Stephanie Hanes) from the Christian Science Monitor
"Singles now outnumber married adults in the US. What's behind that social shift – and why it matters."

What foreign governments tell their citizens about the perils of vacationing in the United States

Don’t Make Jokes About Bombs, and No Nude Sunbathing from Foreign Policy Magazine
" When foreign countries offer travel advice and warnings to their citizens en route to the United States, what exactly do they say? Thanks to Google Translate — triangulated with several other free online translation services — I was able to trawl through the websites of a dozen countries’ ministries of foreign affairs, looking for advice to U.S.-bound travelers. ... German tourists are warned not to get sick in the United States — healthcare in the United States costs so much that “often it is cheaper … to fly back to Germany and deal with [your medical problems] here.”"

Gay Therapy Programs - A Form of Consumer Fraud?

Can Sexuality Be Changed? (Olga Khazan) from the Atlantic
"A trial in New Jersey this week will determine whether telling gay people that they can become straight constitutes consumer fraud. The ruling might mean the end of so-called “conversion therapies” for good. ... The case is being brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Alabama-based civil-rights group, which is arguing that JONAH-style treatment—and other “gay conversion therapies” like it—amount to consumer fraud. Quite simply, the SPLC argues, conversion therapy doesn’t work. People can’t become ex-gay, and making promises to the contrary is a false bill of goods."

For Seniors ... Who Want to Stay in Their Homes...

Living, and Dying, at Home (Alana Semuels) from the Atlantic
"America is aging, and most seniors want to stay in the places where they've lived for decades. Can they? What will it take?"

The Link Between Work-Life Balance and Income Equality

Home Economics from the Atlantic
"The central conflict of domestic life right now isn't men versus women or mothers versus fathers; it's the family against money."

CLASSIC SONG NUGGET!!

Why Don McLean Won't Explain The Meaning Of 'American Pie' from the Huffington Post
"... one reason McLean won't explain the song further is that many listeners have already made up their minds about its meaning.  "I've been told that if I were to say that, people would say, 'Well, no, you're wrong.' ... They'd say, 'You're not writing about that, I know what it means.' So I don't even get into it," he said."

CLASSIC AUTHOR NUGGET!!

Second Harper Lee to be Published in July from the Associated Press 
""To Kill a Mockingbird" will not be Harper Lee's only published book after all. Publisher Harper announced Tuesday that "Go Set a Watchman," a novel the Pulitzer Prize-winning author completed in the 1950s and put aside, will be released July 14. Rediscovered last fall, "Go Set a Watchman" is essentially a sequel to "To Kill a Mockingbird," although it was finished earlier."