Getting a standing ovation is a big deal for a politician, even if the words that brought on that praise are based on hate and stupidity, and probably violate the U.S. Constitution.
My first reaction to this is that people who live in states like Oklahoma, i.e. a state very close to the bottom in terms of education, deserve what they get. Why not pack your stuff and get out?
Then I remind myself that there are people who can’t afford to do that, and whose rights need to be protected from vermin like Governor Stitt.
Good point here, but I look at this slightly differently.
My ancestors were English, but I’m not proud of that. What’s there to be proud of that is associated with the spot on the globe that your great grandfather happened to have been born?
I urge people to be proud of their accomplishments and whatever virtues they possess, not of some accident of birth.
This ad says its product “warms up any room in minutes.” Well, I guess the questions are how many minutes, how big is it, and how cold is it.
500 Watts is about one-third the power of your hair drier. Imagine firing up your hair drier in a cold room and expecting it to make you toasty warm. Then multiplying that time by a factor of three.
If you have no trouble with that math, you might have the intelligence to understand that this ad is a lie.
The problem here, of course, is that the typical Trump supporter is never going to come across this, and if they did, they would conclude that James Madison must have been some sort of liberal commie.
Sadly, we’re just not as well educated as we used to be.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who finds the antics of Republican congressman George Santos to be amusing. On one hand, one can say that there’s nothing amusing about having a pathological liar and serial felon in a position to make laws that affect every single American. On the other, however, we have to admit that every word that comes out of his mouth has a certain comedic value.
The latest is his letter to House Speaker Keven McCarthy explaining that he wishes to recuse himself from committee assignments “until matters are cleared up.” As if these hundreds of lies and crimes are going to miraculously vanish when these subjects receive more scrutiny.
What is happening is that Santos is going to prison.
Of course, Trump supporters don’t care. In their view, Trump is “making America great again,” and if our country is reviled by the rest of the world, that’s tough.
Here’s a reminder of another intractable problem facing American society: our fondness for weapons designed to kill as many people as possible, in the shortest possible amount of time.
The gun lobby sends enormous fortunes to lawmakers who, in turn, thwart our efforts to prevent ourselves and our children from being shot to bits.
While Americans were reckoning with sky-high gas prices at the pump last year, ExxonMobil reported on Tuesday that it made $56 billion in profits in 2022. That’s the most a Western oil company has ever earned and averages out to around $6.3 million an hour over the course of the year.
It’s not just Exxon. Other major oil companies such as Chevron and Shell are expected to report similar results in the coming weeks, pushing their combined profits to around $200 billion, according to the financial markets data firm Refinitiv.
The challenge facing human civilization when it comes to mitigating climate change is that baking this planet is insanely profitable. Just as we’re finding how difficult it is to remove the drug cartels from Mexico, $56 billion carries a level of political power that is hard to describe.