Re: Michael Flynn, a reader notes: A devolution. Went from “hero to zero.” From protector to villain. From soldier to criminal.

Indeed.  He pulled a “Giuliani.”

For the life of me, I can’t understand why people who have lived lives of honor, who are celebrated as heroes because of their valor, turn into liars and common criminals.  What’s the benefit?

You were loved and now you’re detested. And that’s if you can find a way to stay out of prison.

 

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A reader sent me this piece, a statement by a police chief:

It’s not the police who need to be retrained, it’s the public. We have grown into a mouthy, mobile phone wielding, vulgar, uncivil society with no personal responsibility and the attitude of ‘it’s the other person’s fault, you owe me’. A society where children grow up with no boundaries or knowledge or concern for civil society and personal responsibility.

He clearly has a point about our disrespectful and non-compliant citizenry. People, and especially our young, don’t have the manners that we oldsters had when we were growing up.  But to blame citizens’ behavior and to take no responsibility for things like the spate of deaths of unarmed black people is just atrocious. It’s completely obvious that the police need to be trained in de-escalating situations, using no more force than required, and not treating black people more harshly than whites.

If you wear a badge and reject that, you really need to find another line of work.

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Here’s a story of some people who developed a product that plugs into a car’s cigarette lighter and enabled them to drive 3300 miles off a single tank of gas.  They say, “Its fuel efficiency is off the charts!”

Actually, it’s in the neighborhood of 1200%! They’re getting ~12 times more energy out of each gallon of gas than what is actually contained in the gas itself!

If that doesn’t say “FRAUD!” to you, you should consider re-enrolling in 6th or 7th grade science.

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The word wrong here means incorrect.  The most important sense of the word wrong when it comes to Trump is unlawful, illicit, dishonorable, corrupt, unethical, foul, and immoral.

I’m sure Pence knew this from the start of his relationship with the former president.  Let’s hope we arrive at a day in which he feels free to say it.

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I suppose this is no laughing matter, but there is something humorous about the idea that a fair and objective documentary on anything could possibly come out of Fox News.

This is for morons who put no value on truth, and just want to bolster their love of Trump and their hatred of Biden.  Should be a huge hit.

Love the visual.  Get an unflattering photograph and alter it to suggest Charles Manson.  It’s amazing they resisted the temptation to put a swastika cross on his forehead.

 

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A few years back, I attended a breakfast meeting at the New York Press Club at which Amy Goodman spoke.  And, to be sure, she’s no megaphone for the corporate-owned media.

I told her later that I considered her one of my heroes, and thanked her for her service to humankind.

Her show, Democracy Now! first aired February 19, 1996; that quite a run.

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If there is a blessing associated with the pandemic, it’s the empowerment of the labor movement.

When we look around, we can see the precise dynamic at work, i.e., those with low paying jobs, employed/managed by people devoid of compassion, are simply saying, “Either pay me more, or do the work yourself.”

A great example can be found in the little burg of Santa Ynez, in rural Santa Barbara County.  Several of the businesses here are running short-handed, and some have closed completely. Not so for Dos Carlitos, a fabulous tequila bar and restaurant (pictured below).

Why?  These people are payed well, and treated with great respect.  The place is closed on all days that its staff would like to be with family and friends.  I would venture to say that every bar within 50 miles of here is open on Super Bowl Sunday-except one. The owner understands that his employees would much rather be drinking beer, betting on the game, and watching creative commercials than cooking and serving fajitas.

He’s a man of compassion, and the few bucks he loses means less to him than being a decent human being.  And his people are so attentive to the guests that they practically fly across  the floor to provide the best service possible.

He’s found, as I did when my marketing services business employed more than 100, that treating your people well pays for itself many times over.

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When you see artists’ renderings of the same renewable energy concept year after year, and never a photograph of one actually working, this should be a sign unto you, one that reads: This idea has no validity in the real world.

That’s the case with these mini wind turbines whose energy comes from moving traffic.  The reason they don’t exist is that they would cost far more to build, install, connect to the grid, and maintain than they would produce.

 

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OK, it’s whom to believe, but this guy makes an excellent point.

It’s like so many things in our world today. We’re surround by real estate salespeople opining on the validity of climate science and landscape architects telling us the vaccinations don’t work.

How and when did things get this way?

And not to take anything away from Nordhaus and Romer, but it seems fairly intuitive that when you tax something, you’re going to get less of it.

The reason we don’t have a carbon tax has nothing to do with economics and everything to do with politics.

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Here’s the tale of one of the 700+ insurrectionists; he stood before a judge who could sentence him to anywhere from community service to a decade or more in prison.  The basis on which he’s asking for mercy?  How well-off he was before all this happened.

I give this guy high marks for both his creativity and his gall.

 

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