The rise of ultra-right-wing personalities in countries that are historically democratic should be a concern to all.
Yet we need to know that the United States is unique in both its economic strength (world’s #1 GDP), and its promotion of lunatics to positions of great power.
In an earlier post I mentioned that there are several reasons not to eat meat. Here’s one of them. Enjoy.
If further evidence were required that Republican lawmakers are hellbent on making the rich richer and the poor poorer, consider that the GOP is reintroducing the National Sales Tax. These means the abolition of all federal and state income taxes, the inheritance tax, gift taxes, etc., to be replaced by a single tax on all purchases. Experts believe that a national sales tax of 23% would be revenue-neutral.
This offers the advantage of ending all the expense of record-keeping and the tax return preparation. But as anyone can see, it disproportionately taxes the poor. Suppose Person A makes $5 million per year, which is 100 times more than Person B makes at $50,000 (and 250 times more than a retiree living on $20,000).
Do you suppose that Person A spends 100 times more than Person B on gasoline, food, cars, clothes, and other living expenses? Of course not. The richer you are, the less you pay, and vice versa. It would raise the tax burden for 90% of taxpayers.
OK, so now Republicans need a misleading name to sell this to the American people. How about “FairTax?”
It’s because most poor people were denied access to quality education, and, as a consequence, tend to be bamboozled by ruthless people.
This produces the counter-intuitive fact that we should feel sorry for Trump supporters. How would you like to go through life so thoroughly ignorant?
Let me take a stab at answering this stupid question.
Meat tastes good.
There are good reasons not to eat hamburgers, but “because they taste bad” isn’t one of them.
Btw, Gene Wilder would turn over in his grave if he knew his likeness was being used by imbeciles.
One Jim Palmer wrote an essay on the meme here that begins:
When readers ask me to comment on ideas like the one expressed in the meme here from Hillsdale College, my first response is to ask: Well, is America in fact the freest and most prosperous nation in history? The answer, of course, as anyone who can read and write understands, is no.
Right now, the U.S.’s “freedom ranking” is number 53 (and falling) among the world’s countries. Freedom House rates people’s access to political rights and civil liberties in 210 countries and territories through its annual Freedom in the World report, and the United States is nowhere close to the top of the list.
If you don’t care about facts, however, please feel free to weigh in on the “college’s” survey and show your ignorance. Remember that a hearty appetite for accepting baldfaced lies ihas become a virtue; it’s what makes you click in today’s world.
To Hillsdale: Go Trump. Storm the Capitol. Whatever you’re selling to our dullest minds must be correct.
Apparently, there is a social media platform available to those who resent “woke” people, where participants can discuss a great variety, including gardening and poetry.
I have to confess that I have a morbid curiosity about this. What type of poetry is most appealing to Trump supporters? They don’t seem to be the most free-minded and nuanced thinkers I’ve ever run across.
A sustainable society is one that meets its own needs without preventing future generations from meeting theirs.
So, what can happen to make a society unsustainable? We normally think of environmental issues like pollution, climate change, over-fishing, etc.
Yet consider a country that has successfully made its way from a democracy to an oligarchy, and contemplate some of what that means:
• Harsh justice and gross unfairness for the masses, and no accountability for the 1%
• Vast levels of undereducation
• Lack of competitiveness in international markets
• Broadspread apathy towards voting
• Healthcare that is increasingly unaffordable, creating an ever-enlarging diseased population with lowering life expectations
It wasn’t too long ago that the United States was respected and envied by the world. Now we have a political party based almost purely on lies, ignorance and hate.
We all know that Donald Trump has the emotional maturity of a spoiled eight-year-old and is incapable of controlling his temper whenever someone mentions a disparaging word about him.
But when the source of such a word is the community of evangelical Christians, can’t he simply “count to ten” before entering into a “fiery rant?”
Yes, our country has many voting blocs whose taste for racism and stupidity is enormous, but there are limits.
