Buttigieg is correct here, of course.
But keep in mind that Greene’s audience isn’t intellectuals; it’s voters in one of the most undereducated parts of rural Georgia who find her ‘reasoning’ quite compelling.
The only thing we know for certain about these five facts about Brian Dahle, apparently a California gubernatorial hopeful, is that the last one is incorrect. No one about whom the first four facts are true could get anywhere near the governor’s mansion in the state of California.
FWIW, the Golden State has its rednecks. Once you get about 75 miles inland, you find the same level of ignorance and hatred that dominates the American south. But the problem for Republicans aspiring to public office on a state-wide basis is the huge populations of well educated people that surround San Diego, Los Angeles, the Central Coast, and the Bay Area.
From a reader: (At left) Pro-lifers praying with Herschel this morning to put the armor of God on him to shield him from his own son’s truth bombs.
Sam Harris, author and neuroscientist, says that religion is to the mind what a virus is to a computer. That may be extreme, but it’s hard to look at this event and not see some level of truth there.
In any case, our ability to process information and select leaders who aren’t liars and morons is of paramount importance, if we are to survive as a civilization.
As shown here, there are elements of our U.S. culture that other people find weird, to put it kindly.
And obviously, a long queue for drive-through coffee isn’t the only bizarre aspect to life here. People in countries around the globe are astonished that we haven’t figured out a way to remove Donald Trump, a common criminal, from political power.
The language in the meme here is ambiguous, and I have to guess deliberately so. What does “move the needle” actually mean? Causing more than 5% to change their votes? Impossible.
Like many of the midterm races, Wisconsin’s senate contest pits a MAGA/Big Lie/climate denier/Trump supporter, in this case, Ron Johnson, against a centrist democrat, Mandela Barnes, the state’s centrist (and sane) lieutenant governor.
Yes, Barnes is at the receiving end of vicious attack ads, but does it seem even remotely possible that the good people of Wisconsin are going to flip because Barnes is suddenly being portrayed by his opponent as “soft on crime” or whatever cliche the Johnson campaign can invent?
I seriously doubt it.
Here in the U.S. the most remarkable thing about the times in which we live is the fact that almost half our nation simply cannot see the truth in the meme here.
For perhaps 55% of us, it’s as obvious as the proposition that rain is wet.
But tens of millions of Americans just don’t see it.
Astounding.
Apparently, this is a real statue in Japan, and what a statement it makes.
One’s impact on the world is a function of their education.
What Margaret Thatcher said here is completely untrue. There are numerous government investments that add jobs (thus adding to the tax base) and make our country more competitive on the global stage.
This why it’s such a disaster that the United States is being led around by the nose by the fossil fuel industry. Falling behind in clean energy and transportation simply lifts the Chinese to a position of economic world leadership.
Thatcher was famously a contemporary of Ronald Reagan whose theory of “trickle-down economics” was equally incorrect, and did untold damage to this country, both economically and socially.
Until I became an environmentalist, it never dawned on me that the traditional American lawn, i.e., a large expanse of a single species of grass that needs water, fertilizer, and herbicides, is an ecological nightmare.
I would happily rethink this if I had it to do over, and I’m sure I’m not alone on that.
When we were introduced to Shakespeare in 8th grade, our English teacher explained that most of these plays were written for a variety of different audiences, each with its own level of education and social standing. He went on to say that the lower classes sat in a “pit,” and took great pleasure in slapstick buffoonery and vulgarity that The Bard would write in, especially for them.
I see a great parallel to the antics in today’s Republican party. Take Mike Lindell of My Pillow fame, and his ongoing claim that he has ironclad proof that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, but sadly, we’ll have to wait a bit longer to have that evidence.
If we weren’t dealing with the real possibility that American democracy is at its end, fools like Lindell and Giuliani would be hilariously funny.
