Democracy related things and a review: Autocracy, Inc. by Anne Applebaum
Today is October 19, 2024. Today also marks eighteen days to the date of the US presidential election on Tuesday, November 5, 2024. More or less, I have stopped watching the news. For 300 million people, again more or less, this is a severe anxiety producing time and watching the news worsens anxiety tenfold. As I write this, there is no way to know who will win the election. The polls, which I don't read or watch, have the election split 50-50. Despite the even odds split, many are going into the election with great confidence; that is, their candidate will win this election. I'm not one of those people. So I have stopped watching or reading much of the news. Not everything, of course. It's impossible to avoid everything. Yesterday, October 18, 2024, I read Adam Gopnik's essay in the most recent print-edition of The New Yorker , October 21, 2024, titled Reflections: As Bad As All That, Donald Trump and the unmaking of Am...