At this point it appears that although Trump’s campaign messages are appealing to a significant number at this point in the United States, they don’t carry the day. They lost by three million votes in 2016 and seven million in 2020. (more…)
We’ve all heard: If God had wanted us to talk more, He wouldn’t have given us two ears and only one mouth. Fair enough. Most of us, if we’re honest with ourselves, agree that we should be better listeners, so this is innocuous at worst.
But in many cases, starting a statement with “If God had wanted us to …., He would have ….” gets us into trouble.
Problems start to arise when we use what God supposedly wills to cut across science, as exemplified by the fool shown at left. (more…)
The text accompanying the ad reads: Public schools are brainwashing our kids about the “benefits” of socialism! We’re setting the record straight with our FREE Kids Guide to Fighting Socialism. Order this free kids (sic) guide today and get 2 bonus gifts, too!
As a tutor in the public school system, I can attest that this is simply not true. But more to the point, I would ask: What’s the problem with teaching our kids the truth?
• Pure socialism, like pure capitalism, exists nowhere on Earth.
• The United States government offers its citizens the least number of social programs among all the developed countries.
• As you read the list of government-sponsored programs provided to all Americans, ask yourself if getting rid of them would make our lives better and safer in any way.
Turning our kids into little Trump supporters, i.e., youngsters whose understanding of the world around them is paper thin and completely warped, is a terrible thing to do. These people should be ashamed of themselves.
The U.S. government, via its tax base, provides each American with infrastructure, police, fire fighting, criminal justice, national defense, public education, labor laws, auto and food safety standards, air traffic control, TSA, libraries, emergency medical care, environmental regulation, social security, Medicare, the National Archives, national parks, bank regulations and deposit insurance, copyright and patent laws, federal dams to provide electrical power, flood control, the Weather Service, the Federal Housing Authority, consulates and embassies, FEMA, veterans affairs, public water systems, monitoring of all international cargo, NASA, border protection, and the National Institutes of Health.
Obviously, I have no way of knowing if this actually happened, but let’s set that aside.
Bezos’ viewpoint of the future seems strange: “Service workers performing tasks?” Regardless of how one defines “tasks,” they require less and less human participation with each passing year.
I would think that however Amazon is exploiting its service workers today has very little to do with the economy of the future.
I’ve thought about this too.
For most Americans, this (and his other shameful acts) actually was the end. Let’s not forget that Trump lost the popular vote in 2016 by almost exactly three million votes.
Trump’s mocking the reporter didn’t sicken his supporters, however; they are energized by displays of raw hate, the more disgusting the better.
Here’s someone who has the strength of character required to admit he was wrong about Trump.
Now, if there were only a few tens of millions more like him, we’d actually be in fairly good shape.
One would think someone with even a bit of intelligence would look at this and say to himself, “This doesn’t look like draining the swamp to me. In fact, this looks like he came to town with enough new alligators to make shoes and belts for an entire population.”
Sadly, Trump supporters are simply incapable of seeing this.
Silly me.
I keep thinking that convicting and incarcerating right-wing lunatics will eventually leave us with fewer right-wing lunatics, yet that never seems to happen.
And why is it always Florida?
As I wrote here on Political Correctness. I define PC differently: Acting with courtesy and respect toward others.
OK, so the reader who sent me this is a boor. My wife and I were talking about my earlier post, and she asked, “How do we change people like this?” to which I replied, “We don’t. If we can’t get used to the fact that you’re surrounded by people like this, we’re going to have uncomfortable lives.”
Another point I would make about the meme here, and the reader may be too young to remember this, but Andy Griffith (the TV sheriff, not the actor) was one of the most refined and decent characters ever to grace American television screens in the 1960s. He would no more have said something like this than he’d call To Kill a Mockingbird protagonist Atticus Finch a “n*****-lover.”
I’m not sure what lesson we’re learning here in today’s America. Clearly, most people are good, and act kindly and respectfully toward others; incidents of racial hate or violence associated with COVID restrictions are rare, though, since they’re sensation, they tend to make the news.
In any case, what Gandalf says here is compelling, though one has to admit that it’s kind of ironic that he’s a fictional character.
