JD Vance’s Brother Gets Demolished in Race for Cincinnati Mayor
Poor choice.
Cincinnati has lots of affluent, well-educated people. Other parts of Ohio would have elected Vance’s brother as king.
Should Speaking English Be Required to Live in America?
To the reader who sent me this: no one’s offended. We know we live among racists, and being offended by a racist doesn’t help anything.
Perhaps the very greatest thing about being an American is what’s etched at the base of our Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Notably, the poet didn’t mention speaking English.
The folks who were here before North America was populated by immigrants, i.e., Native Americans, didn’t speak English. Nor did the immigrants themselves: the Italians, Germans, Danes, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, or the rest of the Asians.
Maybe it’s time to rethink the bigotry? You’re a bigger person than this.
A Few Words from a Climate Skeptic — And a Few of My Own
Mikki Willis writes the following, the first few sentences of a much longer piece:I’ve been studying all sides of the climate change debate for many years — starting back when it was called global warming. Why the rebrand? Because the Earth began entering a cooling phase and recorded temperatures that no longer supported the original narrative. So, climate alarmists pivoted, adopting a broader term — climate change — that could explain any fluctuation, hot or cold, within the planet’s natural weather cycles.
A few brief responses:
There is no debate on climate change among those who are trained in astronomy, physics, chemistry, and geology, the disciplines that collectively determine the Earth’s climate and how it changes over time. Obviously, there are people who say they “study” climate change and have “done their own research” and have drawn conclusions that differ from those of the scientists. While I wouldn’t call you or any of these people “crackpots,” it’s clear that the same phenomenon exists in vaccinations, the shape of the Earth, our landing on the moon, the integrity of America’s current president, etc.
To call the switch from global warming to climate change a “rebrand” implies that this was driven by marketing, which is untrue. The phrase “global warming” implied (to some) that all parts of the Earth were warming constantly and evenly, which of course is not the case.
The Earth as a whole hasn’t been cooling since the last glacial period, which ended around 11,700 years ago.
Our planet has had incredible variations in its climate since its formation 4.5 billion years ago. What’s happening here, however, is occurring over an incredibly short period of time, since the Industrial Revolution, and almost exclusively in the last half century.
The term climate alarmists refers to two groups of people: climate scientists and those who learn about, believe, and trust the findings of scientists. I know many of these scientists personally, and trust me, they’re more than a little alarmed.
Since you are concerned about falling prey to “propaganda,” internal documents and investigations revealed decades ago that oil companies funded external groups and ran campaigns designed to sow doubt about climate science, despite their own scientists confirming the reality of climate change.
“Illegal Orders” Are Illegal for a Reason
The use of the U.S. military against American citizens has been illegal since the Posse Comitatus Act was passed almost 150 years ago.
Wouldn’t the Trump administration be well-advised to avoid situations like the one described at left that aggressively and senselessly ruffle the country’s feathers? Here we have an alcoholic Fox News commentator punishing a high-ranking National Guard officer for reminding his people of federal laws that may be pertinent to what they’re doing.
Tagged with: "Illegal Orders" Are Illegal for a Reason
Trump: Liar, Criminal, or Both?
There are a couple of remarkable aspects to what our president has written here:
1) As shown in the graph below, the number of SNAP recipients did not increase during Biden’s administration. This year, it’s 41.1 million people, right in line with what it was under Biden.
2) Trump has been ordered by a federal judge to distribute SNAP money, and is refusing to do so. If you or I did anything like this, we would be arrested immediately.
Making Sense of Dick Cheney
The lady who sent me this writes: Like so many others, I’m not sure how to look back on Dick Cheney … I truly felt that he was a war criminal, and serving the fossil fuel interests made him an enemy of the planet. It can probably be correctly said that he paved the way for Trump … and yet became a Trump critic. I don’t know how to put that all together.
Good point. As you mentioned, several other people have expressed this precise idea.
At the risk of stating the obvious, conservatives who commit war crimes and promote the consumption of fossil fuels are certainly not fine people. Yet there is a group of people far more harmful to our world: those who support the sociopath in the White House.
Tagged with: Making Sense of Dick Cheney
English Only?
To the reader who sent me this:
It seems that, over the last 100+ years, our state DMVs have done an admirable job in maintaining safety via their system of deciding to whom they issue drivers licenses and under what circumstances. I understand that there are bigots who want to make the U.S. an English-only country, but this strikes me as solving a problem that doesn’t exist.
Here’s a little story in this regard: I met a guy recently who had graduated from Princeton, and I told him about a guy I know who was five years ahead of me at my prep school in Philadelphia, then graduated from Princeton. Here we are, half a century later, and I see him posting on Facebook: “English only!! No open borders!!”
My new friend burst into hysterics. “Yes, that happens occasionally,” he smiled. “Jesus. What a waste of hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Tagged with: English Only?
Bank of America’s Report on Tariffs
From Business Insider:
Yesterday, analysts at the Bank of America said tariffs have raised prices for consumers. They wrote in a note that consumers have covered about 50% to 70% of the cost of levies to date and suggest tariffs will continue to put “upward pressure” on inflation.
Many Americans believe that the financial pressure that working class people are experiencing will result in massive losses for Republicans at the polls. While I’d like to agree, it seems that the “average Joe” is unaware that tariffs, cuts to healthcare, etc. are actually causing him pain.
Tagged with: Bank of America's Report on Tariffs
Only Citizens Are Eligible
To the reader who sent me this: No, they’re not. That’s because, as most of us learned when we were children, only citizens are eligible for these services.
I attribute very little intelligence to congressional Republicans, but this is something they’re not going to get wrong.
There’s another similar meme going around concerning preventing non-citizens from voting. The same rule applies. It’s in our constitution — a document worth reading.
Tagged with: Only Citizens Are Eligible
How Trump Is Regarded Globally
Most Trump supporters take him at his word that his presidency has restored the trust of the world’s people and agree that the United States is again a trustworthy friend. The truth is that the planet has an extremely negative perspective of the current U.S. president; their approval rating averages about 20%.Here are the results of a recent survey:
Highly Negative Views (Low Confidence):
- Mexico (91% little/no confidence)
- Sweden (85% little/no confidence)
- Germany (81% little/no confidence)
- Spain (80% little/no confidence)
- Turkey (80% little/no confidence)
- Australia, Canada, France, and the Netherlands also show widespread lack of confidence. Many Europeans view him as a threat to peace and security in Europe.
Interesting, here are some competing views:
Positive Views (High Confidence):
- Nigeria (79% confidence)
- Israel (69% confidence)
- Kenya (64% confidence)
- Hungary (53% confidence)
- India (52% confidence)
Comments:
Nigeria: This poll was taken before Trump started making plans to invade Nigeria before the dubious claim came forth about the Islamic genocide of Christians.
Israel: Received $158 billion in support from the U.S. since 1948. That might buy a lot of votes in surveys like this, though I know this is a far more complicated situation.
Kenya: Has been the recipient of extremely positive trade agreements with the U.S.
Hungary: Seems to have a considerable affinity for dictators; no one could have foreseen this until fairly recently. The world weeps at this country’s moral decline.
India: This may be an unkind comment, but in the world’s most populace country, it’s unclear how well informed some of these people are.
