This is funny, but indicative of something important.
It’s possible that the erosion of Trump’s support will put us in a place where, by the time he’s indicted, most of his base will have pretty much ceased to care.
Ever since Donald Trump came onto the political scene in 2015 and began making outrageous statements, people have been wondering why those around him don’t prevent him from making a jackass out of himself. The answer, presumably, is some blend of “I’m scared of his wrath” and “I’m powerless to make a difference.”
What happened a few days ago, i.e., Trump’s Mar-a-Lago dinner with a white nationalist and an anti-Semite, was on par with any of the other atrocious decisions of his career. It simply reaffirms that the former president listens to no one and no thing (other than the demons that live in his head).
Tens of millions of gun nut Trump supporters are now in a position to wonder if their leader’s suggestion to abandon the Constitution (and thus the Second Amendment) will be good for them and their capacity to blow away hundreds of people per minute.
Rebranding a company is an enterprise I’ve undertaken dozens, probably hundreds of times. The game here, of course, is to align the client’s organization with something that already exists in customers’ minds.
Here we see Chevron calling itself the “human energy company,” connoting, I suppose, that it exists to provide all human beings with reliable and affordable energy. Sounds fine.
The ad seen above offers a free newsletter, promising to transform its readers into “energy insiders.” That’s where I become suspicious–and actually resentful.
What type of gullible fool trusts an oil giant to guide him fairly and honestly through the issues that surround our energy future–one that is inextricably connected with global warming, and several other environmental catastrophes like ocean acidification, loss of biodiversity, and lung disease?
For some reason, most Americans find it hard to imagine that fascism is creeping into U.S. politics.
I submit that willful blindness to fascism is what makes it possible in the first place.
Hillsdale College writes:• There is almost no homelessness
• No one dies of a treatable illness
• Everyone who wants a college education can get one
• Citizens enjoy long vacations and parental leave
• Environmental sustainability is a top priority
A reader offers this terse note: Manchin is a f***ing idiot.
Again, I caution against conflating stupidity with the recognition of stupidity in one’s electorate.
Manchin understands what his voters want: evangelical Christianity, racism, cruelty, indifference to education and the environment, and so forth.
He may be evil, but there is no indication that he’s stupid.
IMO, Ron DeSantis is even worse, ideologically, than Trump himself; his only point of superiority to the former president is that he’s apparently not a criminal sociopath.
But here we can see that all the fascist vitriol on Earth will not stand up to an independent judiciary.
Donald Trump eagerly swore to uphold the oath at left …. until he needed to flush the Constitution down the toilet.
One would have hoped that such a blatantly treasonous act would have earned him the immediate censure of all Americans, and, especially, every man and woman in congress.
Nope.
The people who are expecting present-day Republicans to act with honesty and intelligence are probably also inclined to teach their dogs to play the violin; it’s simply a waste of time and energy.
What the meme here says is largely true, but as a practical matter, there is no way to get there from here. Most of the people who are willing to remove meat from their diets (for whatever reason) have already done so, and the entire enterprise has an extremely powerful lobby.
We can hope, however that:
The plant-based and lab-grown meat industry comes along quickly with better and less expensive replacements for slaughtered animals, and
World governments, especially those who control vast rainforests, e.g., Brazil, do the right thing and protect these vulnerable ecosystems.
