the de facto social contract in this country has been you don't get a good welfare state or infrastructure or (with few exceptions) a union job, but you do get access to a cornucopia of cheap consumer goods. I'd guess people will *flip the fuck out,* but we'll see!

Alex Lawson: Pharma wants to charge prices that are so high so that some people die. They want some people to die so that everyone else is terrified enough to pay whatever they can afford and whatever they can borrow to keep them and their loved ones alive.

Please don't divorce Yoon Suk Yeol from the Biden administration that has backed him. The US has been pushing South Korea to enter into a military alliance with its former colonizer Japan. Yoon has been willing to do it.

Yoon has been a considerable asset in the US strategy to contain China.

I think it's fine to hate Jimmy Carter for his role in supporting the Gwangju Massacre (and his administration overseeing other atrocities), but I do think his role in preventing a nuclear strike on Korea is also something that should be weighed in assessing his legacy