Popcorn Shorts
Cool stuff that’s too small for a big article
Just like it says, Popcorn Shorts is about the kind of things we think are really interesting, but don’t really need a large article to explain them. From the sublime to the ridiculous, check in here for crunchy bits of info you’ll love to munch. 
By the way, much (but not necessarily all) of our delicious Popcorn comes from articles we’ve posted on our Facebook page. If you’re on Facebook, please stop by and “Like” us and we’ll keep a fairly-constant-but-not-frequent-enough-to-be-annoying stream of these coming to your virtual door!
Belgium Leads The Way with Legislature by Lottery
from the article– “Those looking for a solution to the wave of anger and distrust sweeping Western democracies should have a look at an experiment in European democracy taking place in a small region in eastern Belgium. Starting in September, the parliament representing the German-speaking region of Belgium will hand some of its powers to a citizens’ assembly drafted by lot. It’ll be the first time a political institution creates a permanent structure to involve citizens in political decision making. It’s a move Belgian media has rightly hailed as “historic.”…
How to build the healthcare we’ll need
We can’t avoid coronavirus. We know it’s coming and we know people will die. There are unavoidable consequences to this pandemic, and that’s agonizing. That there are avoidable consequences as well… that’s tragic. Americans face the virus with economic instability and job loss, and, unique among industrialized nations, the loss of job-connected healthcare and the real possibility of medical bankruptcy… IF they can get the care in the first place.
Today’s health environment has made a LOT of people question our health care system, and rethink Single Payer. If you want to do more than think about it, now’s the time to think about HealthCare for All Oregon, the group working to make Single Payer a reality. They could certainly, certainly, certainly use your help.
Bill Moyers Conversation: Losing Reality: Can we get the truth back?
From the interview: “…Over at Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News, the usual chorus of well-trained sycophants chimed in with the party line orchestrated by the president’s alter ego, Sean Hannity. Trump’s opponents, said Hannity, “are rooting for corona to wreak havoc in the United States.” Meanwhile, the President assigned the Vice President to be the commissar of censorship over government scientists and public health officials to make sure they hew to the official line, that is the White House view of reality. The Vice President promptly called them to a prayer meeting. Dual realities. One exists in fact, in the world as it is. The other created by the President himself, to distract us from the truth. To make sense of this, I read Robert Jay Lifton’s new book Losing Reality and went by to talk to the distinguished scholar and psychiatrist at his apartment in New York City…”
