“Woke” As a Pejorative Has a Certain Implication
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.
Tagged with: "Woke"
Trump Wanted To Be President for Life
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.
Texas’s War Against Public Schooling
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…)
How Privileged Some of Us Are
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.
Tagged with: privileged
A Bang or a Whimper?
Given that Trump appears to be gradually losing the support of his base (“smaller rallies, shrinking base”), one has to wonder what’s next. Presuming that no indictments are unsealed over the coming months, will Trump simply drift into oblivion, and cease to be an element of importance in U.S. politics?
The percentage of Republicans who say they think “very highly” of Trump fell from 72% to 53% over a period of just the last few months. Congressional Republicans are reported to be tired of having to maintain the “Big Lie” and simply want to move on, back to the days before the GOP was associated with deceit, irrationality, and, of course, blatant criminality.
Keep in mind, however, that most pundits believe it’s not if criminal charges will be brought against Trump, but when. The latest news is that two days after election day on November 3rd, 2020, before the votes were fully counted and the election called, the former president’s son assured then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows via a series of text messages that team Trump had complete “operational control” over the outcome of the election. A former U.S. attorney referred to this as a “smoking gun.”
Bang or whimper? Too early to say.
Damaging Russian Documents?
This may sound good, but what does it actually mean?
In truth, there is no Russian politics. There is no party, no opposition party, no political opponent.
There is one man, Putin, whose will is the only element in what could be called “Russian politics.” If he wants it, it happens.
Tagged with: Russian politics
The Status of Hydrogen in Our Energy Picture
The video below covers the pros and cons of hydrogen as a carrier of energy in a fair and honest fashion, and that’s not something that can be said about every attempt to address the subject.
As a quick reminder:
Grey hydrogen = the steam reformation of methane, producing CO2 that is released into the atmosphere. (more…)
Tagged with: batteries are enjoying faster charging times, batteries are getting more energy-dense, batteries for Class 8 trucks, batteries for commercial aircraft, batteries for ocean cargo ships, Blue hydrogen, CO2 that is captured and stored beneath the Earth's surface, electrolysis of water using renewable energy, green hydrogen, high efficiency of charging and discharging batteries, steam reformation of methane
Companies Staying in Russia ARE Like Doing Business in Nazi Germany
Sorry, I can’t edit the meme so as to adjust the grammar, i.e., the agreement of subject and verb, but what Browder said is worth considering nonetheless.
We’re totally surrounded by moral atrocities, starting with treason here at home. Moreover, what Putin is doing is not the only example of war criminality in our lifetimes.
Yet it’s hard to know what we should have been done about Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Rwanda, Yemen, Cambodia, and the others.
Here, however, it’s crystal clear that every single one of us should be doing whatever we can to weaken Russia. That means all American companies should cease doing business with the world genocide capital.
Somehow This Element of Criminal Law Confuses the Living Bejeepers Out of Us Americans
From this:
New text messages obtained by the January 6 committee show Trump’s closest circle was strategizing to overturn the 2020 election before the votes were even counted.
Wait a second. Isn’t attempting to overthrow the United States government a crime?
When we were young, our history books made it fairly clear that treason was a crime whose criminal penalties were equal to that of murder.
Now, this is totally nebulous. Is it OK, as long as you have enough political support?
Tagged with: overthrow the United States government
Punishing the Architects of the Insurrection
I have to think we’re very close here.
There are no interpretations of what they did that don’t include the commission of numerous felonies.
Tagged with: Architects of the Insurrection
