I’m with you, pal.

I used to attend the large tech conferences in Orlando.  I wonder how many event organizers today are thinking: Ya know what? People of intelligence and compassion resent the living hell out of this state.  Let’s think elsewhere. 

I’m reminded of a woman I met shortly after Trump arrived on the U.S. political scene.  She told me that she was scheduled to attend an event at the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas, and she told her people, “I will not step foot in that building for any reason whatsoever.”

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This reverence for semi-automatic machine guns is most certainly among America’s current cultural phenomena that mystifies Europe (and the rest of the world), but it’s hardly the only one. (more…)

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Like most people in their twenties, my kids occasionally use vulgar language.

A couple of points:

They do it sparingly,

They don’t do it in front of inappropriate company, and

They didn’t learn it from me when they were in seven or eight years old.

Simply disgusting.

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A reader reacts to Alex Jones’ Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing and notes: One less (sic) bat****crazy person in the media. It would be nice to see Fox News next.

I share your joy here, but I caution you not to expect Jones to disappear from the media spotlight, if only because Chapter 11 calls for reorganization, not liquidation.  We hope the judge makes it impossible for Jones to protect his vast personal wealth, but no one knows how this is going to proceed.

And yes, it would be terrific to see Fox News sued into oblivion for the incredible damage done by their never-ending stream of lies.  So far, their defense, i.e., that no reasonable person believes this s***, has held up in court every time it’s been used.

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Even if Donald Trump doesn’t go to prison, it will remain an interesting bet as to how many of his so-called “friends” actually will.  Obviously, there are the household name felons like Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Steven Bannon and the rest, but forget about them for a moment.

This coming September, uber-wealthy private equity investor Tom Barrack will go on trial for his blatantly illegal lobbying of his close buddy for the benefit of the UAE.

At the decree of a federal judge:  Tom Barrack will go on trial with a (27-year-old) business associate in September on charges of illegally lobbying former President Donald Trump, his close friend, on behalf of the United Arab Emirates.  The trial of Barrack and his associate Matthew Grimes will take place in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, N.Y.

If you or I had done this, we’d need a good lawyer to get off with five years in prison.  Barrack will whine like a baby if he gets a few hours of community service.

An interesting question: how hard do you come down on Grimes? It’s reminiscent of the American movie classic “Wall Street,” where an impressionable and ambitious young person, Bud Foxx, breaks multiple laws after being introduced to a filthy rich white collar criminal, Gordon Gecko, who is no more culpable than Barrack. The film left his sentence unclear, other than what he told his agonized father, “I’m going to prison.”

I won’t moralize on the matter, other than to say that it’s shame we live in such times. It’s not easy to raise kids in a day of such conspicuous consumption where most of the crimes of the Matthew Grimes of the world go undetected and they become multimillionaires, to the envy of our kids.

 

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The meme here suggests something that is very hard to deny about American politics: Republican congresspeople are begging for support from the only person in American history since Benedict Arnold who tried to overthrow the nation.

It’s hard to imagine that Trump’s support doesn’t come at a price, of course, i.e., that they, in turn, pledge to thwart the efforts of Congress and the Justice Department to prosecute the former president on any of an array of criminal charges.

Most Americans are wondering why they wake up each morning to essentially no news from the January 6th Committee.  Perhaps we need to look no further.

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I wish I could say that this quote here from Pat Robertson was simply manufactured for its shock value.  It wasn’t; it came from a letter he sent to his fan base as a fundraiser.

The televangelist par excellence stepped down from his position at the “700 Club” a few months ago, but his legacy of hateful bull**** will never be extinguished from the American political and religion landscape. Over the many decades, he preached this malice to audiences of zealous crackpots that spanned several generations, starting with that of my grandparents.

The “Robertson phenomenon,” a forerunner to the “Trump phenomenon,” is a reminder that the United States is home to millions of people who have huge appetites for garbage.

In addition to appetities, they have bank accounts.  Robertson and Trump prey on these people like tigers prey on impalas.  I’m sure the fundraiser was fantastically successful.

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When we see memes like this, unless we know the people who created them, we never really know what they mean.

If this was posted by a progressive, it would suggest that Trump supporters will one day come to realize they’ve been conned. But this could equally signify that Trumpers believe that progressives will  soon awaken with the shocking realization that the former president actually was an honest and effective servant of the American people, and that the liberal media had pulled the wool over our eyes. (more…)

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This guy makes a good point.

What we have here is the Dunning-Kruger effect in spades.  People who are completely ignorant of science don’t have the tools to know how ignorant they are.

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Psychology Today reports: About one in four people choose to remain child-free, and surveys show they’re just as satisfied with their lives as parents are. The major difference: How they are judged by others.

I believe that “how they are judged by others” is changing rapidly, and that whatever stigma was once attached to “remaining childfree” has been greatly reduced if not completely eliminated in recent years.

My theory here is that world events: the pandemic, Russia, Trump/coup attempt, the environment, financial desperation, nuclear weapons saber-rattling, etc. are so disturbing that a decision not to bring kids into such a place makes a great deal of sense to many people.

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