From reader Brian Farrell: Fox hosts won’t have to apologize on air for broadcasting lies…not even once!
I was frustrated to see that Dominion Voting Systems settled out of court, but it’s a bit early to start the lamenting. Fox is still facing lawsuits from a rich variety of plaintiffs. See below:
Mis-Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee gets an “F” for poor voting record., including denying the results of the 2020 election. He joined efforts to sign the Texas amicus brief that sought to overturn the presidential election results decided by millions of voters across multiple states.
To be honest, the only reason I’m writing this post is because it’s an excuse to use the photo here. If this guy doesn’t look the part of an election denier/criminal, I really don’t know who does.
If he weren’t a Tennessee Republican in Congress, he would be perfectly suited for organizing an Army firing squad or operating his state’s electric chair.
Here’s a former GOP U.S. representative who says that reforming his party can’t be done, and that it’s a waste of time even thinking about it.
I have to admit that this actually appears to be the case. Supporting Trump’s Big Lie, calling for more guns, banning books and abortion, promoting fossil fuels, destroying public education–all these acts of authoritarianism are driving the Republican party further from the even-tempered democracy that the vast majority of Americans love.
Moreover, it’s an issue of big vs. small government. If you say you want government out of your life, that’s fine, but you’re now saying you want government to regulate women’s reproductive lives and command our teachers to follow certain school curricula?
Having said all this, the current GOP platform is so nonsensical and self-contradictory, as well as grossly unpopular to Americans that live outside the South, that one has to think that change is in the offing.
The prospect of a general election will cause the Republican National Committee to start asking itself how well a fascist platform is going to play with educated people in the coastal states.
What Russian author / Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn seems to be implying here is that, in every society, there is tension between “the lie” that government is spreading and those who refuse to accept it.
In the present-day U.S., the lie might be that our authoritarian ways provide us the path towards a better life.
Banning controversial books, removing women’s rights, pumping guns into society, suppressing progressive voters, convincing us that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, promoting the consumption of fossil fuels, supporting white nationalism, and destroying public education–none of these things will bring about a higher quality of life for the common American.
As it turns out, a significant majority of Americans, about two-thirds, have liberal values. It depends, of course, on what specific issues you’re talking about, but this figure is an amalgam of our views on abortion rights, the death penalty, environmental stewardship, universal healthcare, treatment of asylum seekers, LGBTQ rights, etc.
I had an interesting talk with a woman yesterday on the subject of sustainability, in particular, should we be anticipating a good or a bad end to all this?
The woman suggested that maybe it doesn’t “end,” which, of course, would be a good thing.
The problem is that we either do or do not achieve sustainability. If we don’t, we are, by definition, heading for a disaster, or a set of disasters, whether they come by means of loss of land mass, famine, a vast epidemic, shortages of potable water, etc.
Obviously.
But good luck with that. Once moneyed interests get a hold of something of value, it’s hard to get it back.
This is why taxing the rich, while it’s imperative to achieving a sustainable society, is going to require a monumental effort. These people own our lawmaking processes, and they’re most certainly not going to simply hand over billions of dollars.
Something about the picture here looks amiss, though it may be hard to put your finger on.
Here’s the problem: the microscopically small amount of power that comes from small wind.
Let’s say that the turbines shown here are 10′ X 6′ apiece (a reasonable guess I think). In terms of “swept area,” that’s the equivalent of a rotating blade with a radius of 4.4 feet.
The average solar installation is 4KW. If you want 4KW from that turbine, you need the wind to be blowing, on average, 32 mph. That’s what’s called a “near gale.”
I don’t know about you, but I don’t have that blowing across my roof. Part of the problem, of course, is that wind velocities in this range tear off your shingles and distributes them around your neighborhood.
I have to admit that it really is funny to hear some uneducated racist boob stumble all over himself when asked to define the word “woke.”
The larger issue here, however, is anything but funny. We’re at a tragic point where a huge swath of the American population resents those of us who have an honest concern for the needs and feelings of those around us.
Ancient Greek historian Plutarch warned us all about the dangers of a huge gap between rich and poor.
He doesn’t explain the exact mechanism by which this destroys republics, but it’s easy to see how a disenfranchised population becomes apathetic about education and other civic affairs, possibly even national defense.
All that’s left are a few ultra-rich people who, they themselves, become torpid with all their wealth. The nation soon loses its vigor, and slides into global irrelevance.
In the case of the present-day U.S., the situation is even worse, as we find ourselves in the midst of environmental collapse. What happens when the common American is so stressed that he loses interest in the future, and the rich believe, perhaps correctly, that they can withstand all threats against them in terms of droughts, storms, loss of land mass, etc.?
