Paper Like Kudzu

• Yes, I know.  And I accidentally closed about 6 relevant tabs.  So more potpourri.  Deal.
• 'Twas the week before the All-Star Game, and all through the house, both local teams fighting for .500 won-lost stats.  
• So:
• First and foremost, Ta-Nehisi Coates' "Letter to My Son" should be required reading (yes, I know I have a bad reaction to the words "required reading," and probably so do you.  Bear with me) for every American, particularly (1) those who might think they might run for office and (2) every sociologist, social worker, and bureaucrat.  And everyone entering a police academy of any kind.
• Terrance, at Republic of T, on the Confederate flag, its meaning, and the "shared history and heritage."

  Slavery is inseparable from the Confederacy and its cause. It was essential to the south’s economy. In 1860, one in three people who lived in the South were owned as property. Their collective value was about $3 billion. The farmland they worked was worth much more, and only unpaid slave labor could work it so cheaply. Confederate president Jefferson Davis reminded his Congress in 1861, slavery was “indispensable” to the southern economy.
  
  Segregationists and white supremacists like Roof do not distort the true meaning of the Confederate flag by adopting it. White supremacy and the subjugation of black people were the cornerstones of the Confederacy and the “way of life” it sought to defend.

• Daisydeadhead on Confederate Memorial Day.  (Tumblr blog, rather than Daisy's Dead Air.)
• Jesse Curtis, confessing to confederacy-related blind spots.
• Not only the flag:  Dave Ettlin on Maryland's state song.
• Chauncey DeVega on the bigger picture, economically.
• The enemy of my enemy, or what's going on in Ukraine. (via Mercury Rising.)

  The regime has shown little concern about widespread reports of “death squad” operations targeting suspected pro-Russian sympathizers in government-controlled towns. But such human rights violations should come as no surprise given the Nazi heritage of these units and the connection of the Islamic militants to hyper-violent terrorist movements in the Middle East.
  
  But the Times treats this lethal mixture of neo-Nazis and Islamic extremists as a good thing. After all, they are targeting opponents of the “white-hatted” Kiev regime, while the ethnic Russian rebels and the Russian government wear the “black hats.”

• Naked Capitalism no longer allowing comments on most postings.  
• Nathan Tankus at Naked Capitalism on the economic situation in Puerto Rico.
• Sappho (Non Irritare Leones) on the Greek referendum and the "No" vote.
• "Conservatives" assert that marriage is about duty, not love or happiness.  Amanda Marcotte (yes, I know) reports.  (My own suspicion is that conservatives believe that no one would marry them without coercion, which may be true.)  
• Conservatives also believe that marriage is a cure for social and economic problems, which... may not be true.  (Rachel M. Cohen, The American Prospect, reprinted at AlterNet.)
• Echidne of the Snakes on Jeb Bush's idea of productivity.

Isn't that enough?

[crossposted]