Hostile architecture is 'hostile — to everybody'

'Why must we all suffer? Bring back the benches.'

Mark Lasswell at The Washington Post

The "humble bench, fast disappearing from public places, once was an emblem of civic comity," says Mark Lasswell. "Discouraging the homeless, who already are plenty discouraged by life, is everywhere." Those "who advocate for the homeless call these and other such measures 'hostile architecture,' and they're right." When it "comes to stripping public places of benches, chairs and anything else that might let people take a load off, the problem being addressed is a self-inflicted one."

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'Yes, let's make America healthy again. That means supporting vaccines.'

Juan Williams at The Hill

We "can see a direct line between Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissing the proven success of vaccines and the fading consensus that the government should protect the public's health," says Juan Williams. His "baseless questioning of proven vaccines has opened the door to kooky miracle cures." Kennedy is "leading a war on trust in public health as a government responsibility." Undermining "trust in honest doctors and scientists is the highway to fast death."

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'Old, wealthy Democrats are sabotaging their own party'

Jeet Heer at The Nation

There is a "special world of wealthy Democratic donors, who enjoy outsize power even though they frequently make decisions that are terrible for both their party and their country," says Jeet Heer. The "tendency toward gerontocracy among donors has a distinct ideological cast as well." This is a "group that has responded to Trumpism by adopting a creed of ancien régime restoration that envisions the best possible future as a return to the glory days of bipartisan comity."

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'Australia will soon have its own "center for disease control." Let's not repeat the chaos of the US.'

Allen Cheng at The Conversation

Australia is a "step closer to having its own national agency to inform and co-ordinate public health responses," but "there's much we don't know about how the agency will run," says Allen Cheng. Australians "need to ensure safeguards are in place against political interference in public health, which we're seeing play out in the United States." Australia's "CDC will need to have a close relationship with government," but it "needs to be independent and transparent."

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