Marianne Williamson. She would be Marianne Vishnevetsky but her family chose to use a pseudo, too. She talks in the touchy feely, New Age garbage cadence with a healthy dose of platitudes from the ’70s. She is unfairly compared to Trump, who had policies, and she is unfairly compared to cult leaders.

She is a grifter. She is a grifter you know. She is your Boomer aunt who divorced her husband and lived off the alimony for years while her new man took care of many bills. She is your Boomer mom who never grew up and still pretended it was the ’70s buy jumping into every spiritual but not religious fad while you were growing up. She did it so long she was into crystals for both energy fads. It is easy to listen to her because you have heard these stories and this flighty talk before in your own home. Marianne even jumped into the advocacy stuff that was the fad of the moment if you read her wikipedia entry.

Think about her reparations mumbo jumbo. At some talk she had white attendees apologize and hug black attendees. Now set aside for the moment that these whites have done no wrong and most likely enjoy many black cultural icons. Williamson is part of that naive female class that thinks a hug, some words and maybe some money will make it all fine. This class of women are your moms that destroyed your families, blissfully unaware of what their decisions really did to you, but used Christmas and your birthday as a competition to buy your affection.

This thinking was perfectly suited for her reparations talk. Williamson said like $500 billion for reparations. Some envelop math makes that $12,500 per black American. Carve out some African immigrants, and it is $15,000 per black. That would be gone in maybe 18 months. Wiped out. Would it wipe away the psychic pain and agony felt by black bodies in this universe? No. Would it change what happens whenever a neighborhood gets section 8 arrivals? No.

Nothing would change. There would have been a nice speech, some hugs and some cash, but the problems and the underlying reality of nature would remain. Thanks Aunt Marianne.

I think she is running as a stunt just to juice her book sales. On to the links…

Autist Ponders Hot Conflict – Robin Hanson does a nice post on how to prepare for war. This is akin to Hank’s American Shitshow series but like an introductory, autistic post.

All Conflict Is Theological – Vermuelle may be an infiltrator of the right as the theory goes but this essay is a good one on liberalism and he even cites Carl Schmitt as our pages have commented on as well. Money quote: ” I believe that there is, ultimately, no escape from this dynamic, that liberalism cannot ultimately escape its systematic conflict with natural principles of rule, and that—sooner or later, perhaps in our lifetimes—it will become obvious that liberal-democratic orders can no longer sustain themselves in the face of their internal contradictions”.

The East Asian Miracle Revisited – A medium deep dive into the Asian Tiger economies that were called miracles. They were not miracles but actually driven by policies and decisions made by people in power in those nations. There is a process and the author cites some good examples.

A Synthesis Between Cosmopolitanism and Nationalism – Razib Khan states that we need a new equilibrium. He believes the populists face a reckoning due to the passport holders (Davosmen) being the taxpayers. How much of that wealth is asset bubble inflated? How much do taxes matter when the money and debt is all funny?

Expand The Number Of Doctors – The limit on the number of doctors is hurting the health care industry and consumers. Same for the terrible limitation on med school slots. Thee both need to be expanded. We also suffer because now, more doctors are women, and female doctors work fewer hours on average than male doctors.