I’m sure many millions of Americans have had the thought that Sean Penn expresses here.
Hell, I’m peace-loving, paunchy, and soon to be 67–and even I’ve had the thought.
Examples of good-vs-evil on a planetary scale are hard to find. Putin is committing a crime against humanity unparalleled since World War II, and virtually everyone on Earth, including the majority of the Russian people, want it to cease.
Part of the blessing of Joe Biden, in addition to the fact that he’s not a sociopathic traitor, is that he’s also not the type of leader that Eisenhower warned us about here.
Biden’s supporters admire and respect him, but we don’t have flags on our pickup trucks proclaiming that he alone can make America great again, and we won’t storm the Capitol to overturn the election if he loses in 2024.
As shown here, the United States is not the only country with a tradition of democracy in which the extreme right is working hard to establish an authoritarian regime.
But isn’t France a terrible choice for a movement of hate and ignorance to take hold? Americans regard the French as urbane, well-educated, and free-thinking people. When I think of the candidate of LePen, I think of her running for mayor of New York City, where she’d be about as popular as malaria.
“The policies I represent are the policies represent by Mr. Trump; they are the policies represent by Mr. Putin.” Good luck with that, lady. The epicenter of the Enlightenment is not going to be installing a regime of hatred and ignorance.
As suggested here, hundreds of years before Donald Trump arrived on the scene, it was clear that rich people received preferential treatment over the common folks.
In the United States, we have a constitutional guarantee of equal protection under the law, but in fact, we suffer violations of this Amendment (the 14th) everywhere we turn.
As indicated below, however, Trump has taken this to an entirely new level. Ask yourself what would happen to you if you managed to take a single page from a classified document home with you.
Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do to isolate Russia completely in the same way North Korea is cut off from the rest of the world. The problem is that Russia has stuff to offer, and everyone except for the U.S., Japan, and Europe is willing to buy it.
That said, it’s heartening to see what Maersk did here.
Here’s an article that suggests that our civilization’s use of hydrogen as an energy carrier can result in higher concentrations of greenhouse gases. They claim that fugitive hydrogen combines with certain atmospheric compounds (though they aren’t specific about this) that prevent solar irradiation from being reflected back into space.
Let’s put this into perspective, however. Suppose for a minute that our future energy scene features a heavy reliance on hydrogen, unlikely as that may be. Suppose we’re investing huge amounts of energy to the steam reformation of methane or the electrolysis of water. How much leakage could there possibly be, compared, for instance, to the leakage of natural gas around fracking sites?
This is a non-problem.
American politics may be more contentious and divisive than ever, but that doesn’t mean it’s without its opportunities for humor.
I love what this guy has done.
From this piece: Fiona Hill details how Trump Jan. 6 scheme was years in the making: “This was Trump pulling a Putin”
What the evidence will eventually show about Trump’s attempts to stay in power after he clearly lost the 2020 election is yet to be determined. Yet it appears obvious that the former president believed he could work his way into the position that Putin, Xi, and Hungary’s Orban have fashioned for themselves, i.e., “president for life.”
From the article: (Hill), a foreign policy expert who testified against Trump at his first impeachment trial, said she was alarmed by the former president’s clear preference for authoritarian rule, and she overheard him trash democracy in conversations with other world leaders, reported the New York Times Magazine.
This blatant attack against U.S. democracy either will or will not stand. There is no middle ground, in which we pretend this didn’t happen, and move back to the pre-Trump days.
There is a story that, on exiting the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Franklin was asked what sort of government the delegates had created. His answer: “A republic, if you can keep it.”
This moment in U.S. history may be the point at which Franklin’s famous quote comes into play. If we want to preserve our republic, rule of law either matters, or it doesn’t.
It’s not really news that Texas is ground zero for the ultra-right’s attempts to ban books and restrict teachers’ latitude when it comes to curriculum, style, and even choice of words. And, as one would expect, some school board meetings get pretty nasty and, at times, actually violent. (more…)
Here are some words you’re not likely to come across. Children of wealthy white parents tend not to realize how privileged they are, and, even if that weren’t the case, they would be loath to admit it.
It’s easy to credit one’s success on intelligence and hard work, and it’s difficult to put this into perspective and realize the role of luck in the way our lives turn out.
As an adoptee, I never stop being grateful that my new parents took such good care of me. How wrong this could have gone, and how lucky I am that it didn’t.
