Providing the conditions under which the poor can become affluent is, of course, a good thing. Quality education and free daycare is a good start.
But making rich people richer with tax breaks for billionaires has been a proven failure.
I’ve never seen a toilet this soiled by diarrhea. But thankfully, there are now products that use pressurized steam to clean messes like this more-or-less instantly.
Apparently, they’re selling like hotcakes, but only to people incapable of asking themselves, “Where does all this fecal matter actually go? Does it seem like a good idea to blast it all over the bathroom? And if the bathroom door’s not closed, all over the house?”
In an average month, I meet at least one person who is homeschooling their child. I’m always tempted to ask about their reasoning, but I don’t, as it would bring up politics in at least 90% of cases, and I don’t like to alienate people by putting them on the defensive.
They probably know that homeschooling comes at a cost in terms of depriving the kid of the socialization that comes along with being surrounded with children their own age, but they believe they are protecting their kid from the multiplicity of dangers in public, and perhaps worse, private schools, starting with required vaccinations, then continuing into indoctrination into godlessness, socialism, science, and questioning the morality of America.
Obviously, as U.S. citizens, we have an extremely broad range of rights when it comes to how we raise our children. If we keep them fed and get them medical treatment when required, we’re home free.
If I had any inclination whatsoever to challenge these people, I’d ask about their proficiency with history, writing, and math. Even the common MAGA parent can teach his kid to read at a basic level and get through the multiplication tables, but how well is he equipped to take on geometry and the developments made by the Sumerians?
Clearly, such a discussion on this topic could get ugly very quickly.
To me, a pride flag says, “We accept LGBTQ people, and we bear them no malice.”
That seems just fine.
The fellow in this video asserts that Donald Trump’s dumbest lie is that the cost of things like gas and groceries have fallen since he took office, since it is so provably false, and is directed at the MAGA base.
I’ll grant that the typical Trump supporter doesn’t care if the president is all over the Epstein files, or that the war with Iran was stupid and illegal. But there is no evidence that there is any more than a trickle of disaffection over consumer prices.
The fascism of the early 20th Century taught us all the key elements of the playbook (see below).
In particular, when a leader identifies an enemy like Islam as a grievous threat and pledges to eliminate it, one might think that such a position would generate suspicion, rather than adoration.
Not so here in the United States, where tens of millions of uneducated Americans would happily elect Trump an absolute leader for life, in the way of Putin and Xi.
In addition to all the sane, honest, and compassionate people in the U.S., I’m sure there are many Trump supporters who would agree.
Rich people may love the tax breaks, but very few of them want their kids to become criminal sociopaths.
There may be several explanations for this trend, but the most obvious is that the political right in the United States stands for lawlessness, i.e., the opposite of what law schools teach.
The Trump administration is essentially a criminal organization. You won’t find many intelligent and honest people, e.g., the professors and students in this setting, who support things like pardoning (and then rewarding) the thugs who stormed the Capitol and beat up law enforcement personnel.
Tucker Carlson has made what is perhaps the most dramatic flipflop on U.S. political history, from a Fox News host moron to a liberal intellectual. I had to smile when I came across this video, where he cautions an Israeli leader not to describe Iran as a “terrorist regime,” when Israel itself is murdering thousands of children in Gaza.
My only problem with him at this point is that I have to think he’s completely insincere. Can someone go from a Trump supporter to Bernie Sanders on the basis of some awakening late in life? Isn’t it more likely that he sees better financial opportunity with his current position?
I recently met an attorney who told me that his specialty is traffic. “Really!” I replied. “That sounds interesting. Could you give me an example of what you do, and for whom?”
He explained that people who get hefty citations hire him to get their cases dismissed, or have their fines greatly reduced. He summarized this as follows, “I take money away from local governments, and keep bad drivers on the road.”
Holy crap, I was thinking. Not everyone is a Mahatma Gandhi or MLK, but should anyone fashion a career out of making the world a more dangerous and degraded place than it already is?
I’ll grant that this is an extreme example. But consider that there are millions of people working in industries like fossil fuels, tobacco, sodas, and building war machines. Then we have our elected officials whose job it is to destroy public education and environmental health, while others work on gerrymandering so as to keep themselves in office and dismantle our democracy.
Sure, the attorney described above has a disgusting profession, but he’s not alone.
