Jeff Bezos and Union-Busting
Bezos, worth just shy of $200 billion, has realized that union-busting is of critical importance, and is suing to dismantle the National Labor Relations Board.
Huzzah.
Tagged with: Jeff Bezos
“False Information”
When George Bernard Shaw wrote these words, “false knowledge,” hadn’t yet become an entire industry.
Now, there are “news” organizations that have convinced their viewers that the 2020 election was rigged, that COVID-19 was a government plot to cripple the American economy, and that the radical left has weaponized the justice system against one of the best presidents the U.S. has ever had.
Tagged with: False Information
American Ignorance Is Considerable, But Not Unlimited
To illustrate what a sick joke RFK Jr.’s candidacy is, he thinks that having a crackpot football player a heartbeat away from the U.S. presidency is a good idea, one that will appeal to a large number of Americans.
Let’s admit that our nation is awash in ignorance, but there is a limit.
Tagged with: American Ignorance
Rule of Law
Here, Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith presents one reason that guilty people need to be punished for their crimes.
250 years later, the United States faces this dilemma: Either try, convict, and incarcerate Donald Trump for the numerous felonies he committed since leaving office following his loss of the 2020 election, or resign yourself to the fact that you live in a country in which rule of law is meaningless, whose president is free to do anything he wishes with total impunity.
Tagged with: rule of law
Lots of Americans Love Trump
In response to the meme here, Shawn M. Phares writes: Especially since he’s a criminal, seditionist, who attacked his own capitol, showed top secret government to normal citizens, and committed espionage. And on top of that he’s a pathological liar, racist, and bigot.
Yes, and keep in mind that this is precisely what almost half of American voters are demanding. Not only do MAGA Republicans not have a problem with any of this, they insist upon it.
Tagged with: trump criminal
Wealth Tax
I believe what the people are talking about in this meme is the top marginal income tax rates.
Obviously, it would be good if there were no loopholes by which our top earners could avoid income tax, but what we really need is a wealth tax that applies to all net worth over a certain amount.
The combined net worth of all billionaires is $12.2 trillion. A tax of 5% would raise $600+ billion annually, more than sufficient to end hunger and decarbonize our energy and transportation sectors.
Tagged with: decarbonize our energy and transportation sectors
Living as Brothers
I would love to cite evidence that we’re on the way to “living together as brothers” rather than “perishing together as fools,” but I struggle to find it.
I see too much (and perhaps an irreversible amount of) greed, tribalism, religious fanaticism, indifference to the suffering of others, the rejection of science, and the reliance on war as a tool for the settling of our differences.
Of course, the final chapter hasn’t been written. What if there is a planetary catastrophe, perhaps in the form of environmental collapse, that brings the human race together?
Philosophy Isn’t What it Once Was
I studied philosophy for a few years as a younger man, and I recall a graduate course on metaphysics, delivered by Henry B. Veatch (pictured), one of the most widely published and decorated American philosophers of his time (the mid/late 20th Century). Though it would be incorrect to call Veatch a “showman,” trust me, no one ever fell asleep listening to him speak.
Metaphysics is defined as “the branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles of things, including abstract concepts such as being, knowing, substance, cause, identity, time, and space.” All this sounds fine, until we consider that most of these ideas are now more properly the domain of science.
Yes, Kant told us that “space and time are forms of our intuition,” but in the 21st Century, we’re more likely to answer questions on this subject via references to Einstein or Schoedinger.
Aristotle, one of the most important early metaphysicians, explained that “to be is to be a substance,” but nowadays, if we want to understand the fundamental building blocks of the universe, we turn to theoretical physicists like Feynman or Hawking.
The subject of “knowing” is part of metaphysics, or, more properly, of what is called “epistemology.” Yet again, those of us who are interested in how the mind interacts with the outside world are more likely to consult a neuroscientist than a metaphysician.
For better or for worse, the heyday of philosophy seems to be behind us.
Tagged with: philosophy
Anthony Fauci, COVID-19, and Ultra-Right-Wing Lunacy
If you’re going to be a part of the cult that is far-right-wing U.S. politics, you need to buy into at least some part (preferably all) of the story surrounding this country’s “corrupt” reaction to COVID-19. This includes:
Our government deliberately wanted to hurt our economy and school system with unnecessary shutdowns, masking, social distancing regimens, and vaccinations. Various groups, e.g., the Centers for Disease Control, and individual people, e.g., Anthony Fauci, were especially responsible for all this.
The meme here speaks to how ludicrous these belief systems are.
On top of this, I would ask the Fox News crowd to ask itself how and why each one of the other 200+ sovereign countries around the world came to create its own set of protocols designed to ruin its home economy. Did the Germans and the Brazilians collude with Dr. Fauci, or did they develop their own plans to commit economic suicide, for no real reason, without any help from the U.S.?
Stupid is as stupid does.
Civics and the Proper Role of Government
Myth 1: Traditionally, Americans have opted for small government, focusing the public sector only on absolute necessities, and privatizing most societal functions.
Myth 2: The subject known as “civics” has been removed from our high schools in order to make young people unaware of the proper (small) role of government.
Truth: Shown at left is a page taken from a civics textbook just after the close of the Second World War. Notice how it jibes with the major theme of both parties’ platforms of that time, through the Eisenhower administration, right up until Reagan came along in 1980 and turned all this on its head.
Tagged with: proper role of government
