To an ever-increasing number of us living in modern-day America, the answer would be: Everything we learned in kindergarten, i.e., sharing, being nice to others, and telling the truth.
My kindergarten teacher, Alice Adams, never told us that it was a dog-eat-dog world out there. Or if she did, I must have been home with a cold that day.
In response to the meme at left, a reader notes:
Republican candidates in Texas: “I’m going to fix the mess the Democrats made” – who is more pathetic, those GOP conmen or the morons who keep voting them in?
This is an astute observation. There is always a market where supply and demand meet. It doesn’t matter if that market is a social evil like heroin (there are heroin dealers because there are heroin addicts), or a good one (there are excellent colleges because some parents are willing to pay a great deal to have their kids well educated).
As America descends ever further into ignorance, do not expect voters to have the epiphany to the effect that they’ve been lied to.
There is also a psychological effect at play here. As Carl Sagan said:
“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
Today, about 36% of American voters believe this crap. Next week it will be 34%, etc., etc.
In actuality, the number is lower. Do you think the amoral rich who have huge holdings in the oil companies believe that? Of course not. They’re well educated, and they want tax breaks; they know goddamn well that Trump is the laughingstock of the developed world.
Remarkably, the demise of the United States is of no importance to most American billionaires.
Btw, I could have sworn there was a president between Obama and Biden. What did he do about the so-called “mess?”
I give her high ratings. Her job is to look pretty and, more importantly, to lie convincingly regarding Trump’s honesty, criminal innocence, and competence as president.
It would be essentially impossible to find someone who could do it anywhere nearly as well.
Sorry, but this train has left the station.
The legacy of any president is a function of what they do, rather than what they say. It is for that reason that Trump’s legacy will probably include:
Having more that 50 felony charges against him dropped
Statutory rape
Attempting to overthrow the U.S. federal government
Denying due process to undocumented people
Having armed agents brutalize (and occasionally murder) U.S. residents
In a recent post I noted that the United States has shriveled to a point that our core strength is destroying perfectly good and well-functioning facets of our society, e.g., our schools, our disease control, and our cities like Minneapolis.
Something else we’re breaking quite effectively is our relationships with our allies. We are no longer trusted by other NATO countries.
When I tell people that I write content on environmental sustainability, I commonly hear, “Oh. Times must be tough.”
I immediately explain that, outside the United States, every nation on the planet is working hard to make sure we still have an organized civilization here in the year 2100.
America is not the only country on earth that has corruption associated with it at some level, but fortunately, it’s the only country whose leader has sold it out completely to the fossil fuel industry.
I’m not a fan, but I have to agree that he’s among the world’s greatest innovators of all time.
It’s a crying shame he’s such a complete asshole. If that weren’t the case, he’d be among the world’s greatest people of all time.
Here’s a news item that is completely typical of today’s Republican party: Chinese ownership of American farmland.
There are 880 million acres of farmland in the U.S. Of that, 3.6% is owned by foreign countries or business interests (mostly Canadian). Of that, less that 1% is owned by the Chinese.
A lost dog or the closing of a pizzeria in Arkansas is of more legitimate concern.
What disgusts Americans most is that Rubio completely understands that Trump is profoundly demented, both mentally and morally.
He’s hoping that the United States remains as ignorant and hateful as it is now for a few more years, so that he can become president.
Absolutely revolting.
