Dealing with Trump
Apparently, this is a pic of one of Donald Trump’s lawyers…., hoping to get paid.
As I like to say, anyone who deals with Trump in any way is an ass****. Anyone who deals with Trump in business is a stupid ass****.
Tagged with: Dealing with Trump
Anti-Vaxxers Are Getting Even More Dug In
The ugly part of dealing with the anti-vaxxers is that there are so many different flavors of them. One such sort are the religionists, who believe: “Faith, not fear.”
The most extreme view in this category is that those who get vaccinated are showing disloyalty to God.
We’re in deep bandini.
Tagged with: anti-vaxxers
Those with Large Social Media Following Think They Can Put Millions of People in Danger–They Can’t
Here’s a phenomenon that shows no sign of abating:
• Someone with a large social media following makes claims that put millions of people in danger.
• Big tech close their account, as companies like Twitter and Facebook do not want to be a platform to spread harmful lies.
• Outrage ensues re: censorship. Idiots who think that private companies can’t apply their terms and conditions to their users call it a violation of free speech.
Is this just a passing thing, or will it become a permanent feature of a society in which half the country has lost touch with reality? I have no clue.
Tagged with: spread harmful lies
There Is a Word for This: Treason
So much remains unknown, or at least unproven, at this point. Yet it appears inevitable that the evidence will point to a massive undertaking to undermine the election.
At that point, we’ll need to connect Trump to this. What role did he play? Even if he simply knew about it and let it happen, that should get the job done at his trial.
Tagged with: Trump treason
Subpoenas Issued Against Trump and Family in NY Fraud Case
Is the state of New York going to be as permissive as the U.S. Congress when it comes to people ignoring subpoenas?
I’m betting no.
Perhaps Some Justice in the Case of Exxon’s Atrocities in Indonesia
By the time ExxonMobil finally paid restitution to the people whose lives were disfigured by the 1989 oil spill from the Exxon Valdez , more than 8000 of them had died, either of the disease the spill caused, or of old age.
They are nothing if not masters of delay.
It appears now, however, that their atrocities in Indonesia are going to finally be litigated in court.
This, of course, isn’t the end. It’s not even the beginning of the end. We need to prepare ourselves for a very long run.
Hats off to Steven Donziger, best known for his work bringing Chevron to justice for what they did to the indigenous people in Ecuador.
The End of American Democracy Is the Story
Timothy David Snyder is an American author and historian specializing in the history of Central and Eastern Europe and the Holocaust. He is the Richard C. Levin Professor of History at Yale University and a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna.
He has nailed it.
It’s akin to George Carlin’s routine: Hydrogen bombs exchanged, Moscow and Washington in flames, and the Yankees beat the Dodgers, 4 – 2.
Tagged with: End of American Democracy
Charges To Be Brought Against Trump
We’re hearing a lot about Trump’s dereliction of duty associated with his letting the insurrection continue for more than three hours before putting a stop to it. (See video linked above.) No doubt there is a case to be made here.
We all need to hope that the committee investigating January 6th comes up with something more substantial and that a few hours of poor decision-making isn’t the charge that takes Trump down.
Obviously, I’m sugar-coating what Trump did (didn’t do), but I don’t think we want to be in a position where all future presidents can go down for dereliction for simply failing to rise to some occasion or another over a short period of time.
Please don’t try to tell me there is no solid evidence of election tampering; I don’t believe it.
What Does It Mean To Be an American?
A reader notes: Donald Trump just endorsed Viktor Orban. Orban is an anti-Semitic, racist, authoritarian despot who has crushed democratic institutions in Hungary, attacked the free press, and politicized rule of law. No wonder Trump likes him.
All our lives we’ve heard the word “unAmerican.” It’s normally used to say that something is unfair or unjust, that it violates our core sensibilities with respect to what is right or wrong.
We find ourselves at a crossroads. We need to decide if the concept of being an “American” in this sense is something we value, or do we want to cross a line and become an authoritarian nation like Turkey.
Before we make up our minds, we need to consider that such steps are very hard to retake. Once things like a free press and free speech are taken away, they almost never return.
If, in 2015, you had wanted to bet me that I would be writing these words in 2022, exhorting this formerly great nation to pull itself back from the abyss of fascism, I would have given you odds of $1000 against a dime that you would be wrong.
Yet here we are.
Tagged with: What Does It Mean To Be an American?
Science and American Politics
This stat on Republican scientists sounds about right, but that’s simply a result of the movement of the GOP to the ultra-right and its present-day radical anti-science position.
Go back 70 years and look at the demographics at that time. I can’t find any studies on this, but let’s use common sense. Remember the Cold War and the rational discussion that surrounded it?
Our respect for science was high, and our political ideologies played a far more subservient role.
In some respects, the grand old days.
Tagged with: Respect for Science
