Great cartoon here by Mike Luckovich.
How far backwards can we take this country, if we really put the pedal to the metal?
Texas is a disgrace.
I had numerous clients in Dallas, Houston, and Austin over the years, including 3M, FMC Technologies, Fluor, Electronic Data Systems, and Perot Systems. Given their social/legal impoverishment and the laggard status in vaccination (#34 / 50), I’m glad I have no reason to go back.
I’m not sure this is possible, unless it’s a reference to Trump before he came onto the political scene. At that point, many million Americans knew instantly that he was a terrible human being.
I remember calling my mother after the first time I heard Trump speak at an early Republican debate and asking, “There used to be an unwritten rule that a candidate for U.S. president had to at least seem to be a good person. Isn’t that true? At what point was that rule abolished?”
Yes, we elected Nixon, but we didn’t know he was a liar and a criminal when we did.
The pandemic has brought suffering to lots of people around the world, but certain regions are implementing policies that can only make it worse. Take Florida as an example.
Florida’s economy is the fourth largest economy in the United States, with tourism as the top contributor. Can anyone imagine going to Florida now who didn’t absolutely have to?
Take the family to Disneyland? Sure. It would require a death wish, but not just any death; you’d need to wish for a slow and agonizing death for yourself and your loved ones.
Rightfully, everyone’s making a big deal of the damage the disease is inflicting on the economy. But here you have a governor in Ron DeSantis who’s doing everything in his power to make COVID-19 last as long, and take out as many Floridians as possible.
Readers with strong stomachs may want to check out this video as it represents the major force at work in preventing American society from getting a grip on the pandemic.
From Bloomberg: The heat was really turned up last week when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and BaFin, Germany’s financial regulator, initiated a probe into allegations that Deutsche Bank AG’s DWS Group asset-management arm has been misstating the environmental—and possibly the social—credentials of some of its ESG-labeled investment products. (more…)
Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) is getting a lot of ink recently for outrageous statements on the January 6th insurrection (it was a “peaceful protest,” like a “normal tourist visit”) and his promotion of hydroxychloroquine against the virus, the same drug Trump enthusiastically endorsed, even though US Food and Drug revoked an emergency use authorization because of the cardiac issues it was causing. (more…)
Don’t forget about exposing them and their students to gun fire. We can’t pass a single iota of common sense gun laws.
But are we making too big a deal out of all this? Our attitude towards schooling as a whole isn’t what it used to be. Education is seen as a godless machine-like indoctrination towards liberal, anti-capitalist values.
This has created a generation of dullards, incapable of critical thinking, or even understanding math and science. Of course, our respect for science has taken a terrible beating, so maybe this teacher shortage is actually a blessing in disguise.
Question: Which energy resource represented the most new generation in 2020? At 17 gigawatts, what percentage of the total new generation was that?
Answer: Can be found at Clean Energy Answers.
Relevance: It’s currently only 11% of the total grid-mix, but it’s gaining steadily.
“I’m often asked by some of my friends on the other side of the aisle about COVID … and why does it seem like folks in Mississippi and maybe in the Mid-South are a little less scared, shall we say,” Reeves said. “When you believe in eternal life — when you believe that living on this earth is but a blip on the screen, then you don’t have to be so scared of things.”
This is a great idea, one that we encounter often. The problem is that it’s impossible.
War mongers and the rest of the far right are singular in their belief system, and the hate they carry with them naturally brings them together.
Progressives have a range of different ideas: healthcare for all, gun control, better education, environmental stewardship, a woman’s right to choose, justice for all, and gay rights. We also have a range of different emotions: cheerfulness, hope, love, compassion, and sympathy. It’s this divergence that makes it hard to organize around.
