When do you become middle class?

This is the premise, though not so bluntly stated, of Mary Otto’s new book, “Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America.” The dividing line between the classes might be starkest between those who spend thousands of dollars on a gleaming smile and those who suffer and even die from preventable tooth decay.

If the idea of death from tooth decay is shocking, it might be because we so rarely talk about the condition of our teeth as a serious health issue. Instead, we think of our teeth as the ultimate personal responsibility.

… dental care is still associated in our minds with cosmetic practices, with beauty and privilege. It is simultaneously frivolous, a luxury for those who can waste money, and a personal responsibility that one is harshly judged for neglecting. In this context, “Teeth” becomes more than an exploration of a two-tiered system — it is a call for sweeping, radical change.

Excerpts from the Review of TEETH: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America, by Mary Otto - 291 pp. The New Press. $26.95.

Review by Sarah Jaffe in the NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (3/23/2017)

Before we ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

I have a philosophy, a belief, which I can see in many, many other directors that your early work is your best work, because you don’t know what you’re doing. And I certainly felt that way when we were making the first “Trainspotting.”

We were in the dark, me and the actors, but none of us had much experience. And so you’re taking huge risks, ridiculous risks, a bit like the bravado of the characters in a way. Obviously, when you come to a later one and you look back, then you begin to simulate some of that innocence and some of that naivete…. 

Danny Boyle, director of the new movie “T2: Trainspotting”

in a PBS NewsHourInterview with Jeffrey Brown – March 24, 2017

Will the military budget be Trump’s deal-making toolkit?

This month President Donald Trump said his forthcoming budget proposal will include “a historic increase in defense spending,” which will seek an additional $54 billion for the military. This equates to a 10 percent increase to the defense budget. … 

$54 billion would buy a lot for the military, including many things our forces need but also things they do not need or even want. I observed this reality firsthand when for eight years I was the deputy garrison commander for the Army in Alaska (1997-2005) ….

… I was shocked. … I politely mentioned that the barracks renovation this year was unnecessary, and that we were jumping through numerous hoops to make it happen. I was told, in a straightforward and almost casual manner, that these kinds of things happen all the time. He said the work would be done by Alaskan companies, and similar inserts were made by senators from other states for their bases. “This is how it works,” he said.

… I finally realized the reason I never encountered these sorts of situations in Germany. There are no U.S. congressional districts there, no competing politicians vying to bring a slice of the defense budget pie home to their states.

Dan Possumato

Filling up the pork barrel with $54 billion for the military  

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - March 19, 2017

NOTE:  While senators might retain the ability to get some military appropriations reassigned, the president would obviously hold the ultimate power to do so and would be in a position to use this ability as a bargaining tool if funds were available. -- JJ

Pure Swamp

Legislation can be crafted bottom up or top down. ….The House Republican health care bill is a pure top-down document. It was not molded to the actual health care needs of regular voters. It does not have support from actual American voters or much interest in those voters. It was written by elites to serve the needs of elites. Donald Trump vowed to drain the swamp, but this bill is pure swamp.

David Brooks

The Trump Elite. Like the Old Elite, but Worse!  

NEW YORK TIMES - March 24, 2017

License to Kill

Florida homicides are up significantly since 2005, the year the first Stand Your Ground law was passed. Similar laws in 32 other states have been linked to racial inequities in criminal justice.

We live in a country with more guns than people, and laws like Florida’s help us justify a culture of anxiety and intimidation where conflicts that might have been settled peacefully end in tragedy.

Caroline Light

A ‘Stand Your Ground’ Expansion That Expands Inequality 

NEW YORK TIMES - March 23, 2017 

Edward Koch's appraisal of Trump

“I wouldn’t believe Donald Trump if his tongue were notarized.”

     --attributed to Alair Townsend by Edward I. Koch and reported by Sam Roberts

        In The New York Times, Monday, February 27, 2017

Blind Loyalty Created Blindness

"In the summer of 2015, according to a Pew Research Center poll, Republicans said free trade deals had been good for the country by 51 to 39 percent. By the summer of 2016, Republicans said those deals had been bad for America by 61 percent to 32 percent.

"It’s not that the deals had changed, or reality. It was that Donald Trump became the Republican nominee and his dark fearfulness became the party’s dark fearfulness. In this case fear is not a reaction to the world. It is a way of seeing the world. It propels your reactions to the world."

                                           -  David Brooks, The New York Times (1/27/17)

"Make China Great Again!"

There are signs that the Chinese leadership is already stepping in to fill the leadership void developing under Mr. Trump’s presidency. Last week, Mr. Xi spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, recommitting China to globalization and free trade. China is also poised to take a leading role in environmental policy, given Mr. Trump’s hostility toward climate agreements.

                                                              YAN XUETONG 

     China Can Thrive in the Trump Era

     The New York Times (1/25/17)