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Anne Applebaum Profile picture
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5 Feb, 4 tweets, 2 min read
If you are the child of elderly parents in parts of the United States right now, if you are trying to get them a COVID-19 vaccine, you are living in a shortage economy, a world of queues and rumors, a shadowy land of favoritism and incompetence....
theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
(obviously - obviously - it's not *really* like the Soviet Union, so no need to tell me that....here's a book about the real Soviet Union in case you need one) penguinrandomhouse.com/books/4476/gul…
Here's a great explanation for why West Virginia is more successful: "decisions have been made by the governor at the state level, eliminating confusion and competition among localities"

brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/20…
i.e. capitalism is great for delivering many goods and services, but public health is not one of them

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More from @anneapplebaum

Anne Applebaum Profile picture
28 Jan
To be brutally clear: this legal change will force women to give birth to babies who will immediately die. That's it's main impact. Also, the court that took this decision is illegal. Hence the protests.
The decision is also intended to distract from the government's complete failure to provide vaccines. Hardly anyone nas has received the vaccine - and there appear to be hardly any left.
Remember, abortion is already almost totally banned in Poland. This eliminates a tiny group of exceptions. But it is will create maximal pain and distress for a small number of women.
Read 4 tweets
Anne Applebaum Profile picture
23 Jan
Why did so many Russians protest today? Watch Navalny's video, if you haven't done it already. 70+ million views so for With English subtitles.
it's long. but the details are astonishing.
A coffee table for the price of a Moscow apartment; a toilet brush and paper holder for the price of an average Russian's annual pension; the same double-headed eagle on the entrance to his palace as on the Hermitage; and it goes on.
Read 4 tweets
Anne Applebaum Profile picture
23 Jan
Irkutsk has come out for Navalny. One of many such scenes across Russia today
Novosibirsk
Vladivostok
Read 9 tweets
Anne Applebaum Profile picture
17 Jan
Bizarre and unreflective essay from a person who used to be subtle and nuanced. Hammering in the cliche one final time, Christopher Caldwell says Trump 'spoke to a downwardly mobile, mostly white working class that had been forgotten by the elites.' thetimes.co.uk/article/donald…
um...no. Biden voters were poorer, overall, than Trump voters. Also many Trump voters were middle and upper class (look at who came to the Capitol). Also, Trump's policies were all 100% geared to help Trump and his cronies, not the white working class or anyone else.
also, this sentence is incredible: 'Incomes rose modestly for the lowest-paid workers, although this may have been due to minimum-wage laws passed in several states.' Who passed the minimum wage laws? It wasn't Republicans.
Read 7 tweets
Anne Applebaum Profile picture
12 Jan
"The plan to surround the Capitol includes assassinating Democrats as well as Republicans who didn’t support Trump’s effort to overturn the election ― and allowing other Republicans to enter the building and control government." huffpost.com/entry/democrat… via @HuffPostPol
also, some members of Congress want metal detectors at the Inauguration, in case one of their colleagues tries to assassinate the new president
it's not over yet
Read 4 tweets
Anne Applebaum Profile picture
3 Jan
If the voters don't eventually punish the Republicans who are calling for a de facto coup, then we have to conclude that a substantial number of Americans no longer believe in our democracy either.
I should note that the decline in support for liberal democracy was pointed out by many, including @Yascha_Mounk and Roberto Stefan Foa, several years ago
journalofdemocracy.org/articles/the-d…
Also, the work of Karen Stenner, which is cited in my book, Twilight of Democracy, suggests that in any population there is a large percentage of people who are uncomfortable with democracy; she suggests that we ought to find ways to reach out to them
Read 4 tweets

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