"A Liberty That Would Be Easily Understood by the Scots-Irish of Appalachia but Would Perplex the Puritans of New England"

"California's convoluted policies toward drugs and mental illness have combined to exacerbate its colossal homelessness problem, setting it apart, once again, from progressive Yankee states. California has the highest rate of unsheltered homelessness, followed by Oregon, whose settlement history and politics are very similar to those of Northern California. By contrast, New York City, whose upstate region was settled by Yankees, has the third lowest rate of unsheltered homelessness in America. Its success in bringing its homeless population indoors is thanks to its 'right to shelter' law—a classic top-down Yankee solution to an urgent social problem. Neither California nor Oregon has such a law."

Leighton Woodhouse at UnHerd claims that California's political problems stem from the influence of two groups from back East.

Great Dissenters

"That is certainly true in the case of the Harlans, as well. But what emerged from the parsing and assessing was something unexpected. It was not a story about roots or bloodlines. Nor was it fundamentally about exploitation, the pain of inequality, or even the way slavery perverted basic emotions; it was about how, despite all of those things, a feeling grew up between Robert and John Harlan that was authentic and organically human: respect."

Politico runs an excerpt from Peter S. Canellos's The Great Dissenter: The Story of John Marshall Harlan, America's Judicial Hero.

"The Epitome of Unprincipled Power"

"Between 2009 and 2013, McConnell's Senate Republicans blocked 79 Obama nominees. In the entire history of the United States until that point, only 68 presidential nominees had been blocked.
"This unprecedented use of the filibuster finally led Senate Democrats in 2013 to change the rules on some presidential nominees (but not the supreme court), to require simple majorities.
"In response, McConnell fumed that 'breaking the rules to change the rules is un-American'. If so, McConnell is about as un-American as they come."

At The Guardian, Robert Reich sums up Sen. Mitch McConnell.

"Connections Between Appalachia and the Wider World"

"I've talked a lot about J.D. Vance's kind of fetish for Appalachia’s shared Scots-Irish heritage. And for me this is central to the book because without it his argument doesn't work. It transforms his book from a memoir of a family to a memoir of a culture in crisis. So without that kind of cohesiveness, the book doesn't work—and he’s obviously very, very wrong about this. He's wrong about it according to so many metrics, whether it's archaeological evidence, whether it's historical documents and primary sources, whether it's contemporary reporting about people's ethnic heritage in Appalachia.
"And of course he's wrong that corporations didn’t help create the problems of Appalachia. I think anybody with even the most remedial understanding of Appalachian history should have issue with that. Obviously the coal industry has reshaped Appalachia in ways that we would still be contending with even if the coal industry packed up and left today."

Sarah Jones at the New Republic interviews Elizabeth Catte, author of What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia.

The Greatest

"Ali's influence out of the ring was no less marked. Having appalled white America by converting to the Nation of Islam and changing his name from Cassius Clay to Cassius X and then to Muhammad Ali, he later refused to be drafted into the army, telling reporters: 'Man, I ain't got no quarrel with them Vietcong.'
"In 1967, still unbeaten and with no obvious challenger in sight, Ali was stripped of his titles and for three-and-a-half years had to scrape a living making campus speeches and appearing on Broadway. He lost his best years as a fighter yet as the opposition to Vietnam war grew, so did Ali's popularity. By the mid 1970s he was the biggest sports star on the planet."

Sean Ingle in The Guardian reports the death of Muhammad Ali.

Move a Bust

"However, an internal Toyota report, leaked to the Detroit Free Press last year, reveals that the company wants to slash $300 million out of its rising labor costs by 2011. The report indicated that Toyota no longer wants to 'tie [itself] so closely to the U.S. auto industry.' Instead, the company intends to benchmark the prevailing manufacturing wage in the state in which a plant is located. The Free Press reported that in Kentucky, where the company is headquartered, this wage is $12.64 an hour, according to federal labor statistics, less than half Toyota's $30-an-hour wage.
"If the companies, with the support of their senators, can wipe out or greatly weaken the UAW, they will be free to implement their plan."

Bruce Raynor in the Los Angeles Times explains why Southern Republicans have opposed bailing out U.S. automakers.