Over the last few decades, the United States has replaced its strong middle class with obscenely wealthy 0.1% and a huge majority of people struggling to get by.
As shown here, most of the countries in Europe and Scandinavia have no interest in going in that direction.
At this point, about two-thirds of Republicans believe that Biden’s victory was illegitimate. This tragedy is driven by the lies of the former president, that are echoed by a few voices, small in number but deafening in volume, like that of Mike Lindell (the Pillow Guy).
Most of the largest major mainstream media sources have published articles refuting this meritless noise, though perhaps the most comprehensive is that of CNN. Well done.
The rest of the world remains in a blend of mourning and astonishment that the United States could have fallen so hard, so fast.
Here’s a meme a reader sent me that shows a near-complete misunderstanding of world politics.
First, there are no countries on Earth that even remotely resemble communism, i.e., Karl Marx’s concept of a socioeconomic order structured upon the ideas of common ownership of the means of production and the absence of social classes, money, and the state. There are, of course, a huge number of authoritarian regimes, but again, they have no characteristics that are in any way communist.
Further, freedom exists on a gradient scale. The United States ranks 15th in the world freedom rankings, which are calculated annually, based on freedom of speech, freedom of religion, individual economic choice, freedom of association, freedom of assembly, violence and crimes, freedom of movement, and women’s rights. Currently, the freest countries are New Zealand and Switzerland, and Venezuela and North Korea are at the bottom.
It’s good to see that the news media has amped up its coverage of climate change, and that all but the QAnon-style lunatic fringe understands that human activity is the cause of the problem. That should mean that our civilization is just one short step away from meaningful action to turn this around, right?
Apparently, the cartoonist whose work lies beneath is not so sanguine.
If this article in the Tampa Bay Times is to be believed, Fox News is in the process of replacing Trump as its golden boy for the 2024 presidential election. The replacement? How about a relatively sane conservative, along the lines of a John Kasich or Jeb Bush, whom we remember from the 2016 Republican primaries?
No, think bat**** crazy. (more…)
As global temperature readings keep coming in, it’s useful, on occasion, to use a bit of math to determine the probability that what we are calling climate change is actually happening at random. In statistics, we call this the “null hypothesis,” i.e., that there is no (null) difference between two different sets of data. If we are to make a statement based on data, it means that we must reject the null hypothesis within a certain level of confidence. (more…)
At left we see one of the great numbers of ways in which Norway (and countries like it) does things better than we do in the United States. In every single one of these differences there is a common thread: the government of Norway functions to improve the lives of the Norwegian people. The U.S. government functions to make rich people richer.
Sometimes sad events in our lives have a strange way of providing humor. Take the American Medical Association’s revocation of Rand Paul’s license to practice medicine.
That doesn’t sound funny at first glance, does it? Here’s an extremely influential person who has chosen to reject science and inflict great damage on his fellow countrymen.
The only good news is that it gave rise to the book cover here. Nice going.
My wife and I were just discussing the bullish nature of today’s stock market, during which I explained that the terrifying new report from the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has no bearing on the price of equities. That’s because human suffering doesn’t enter into the equation in the first place, and, even if it did, long-term anything is irrelevant to the market. Global warming is ruining the planet over the next 50 years, not the next few months, and is therefore totally meaningless in evaluating the Dow or the S&P 500.
An old teacher of mine writes, “This guy thinks a mask makes him look stupid.” Now that’s funny.
The Republican party has split into three parts: a) wealthy conservatives who would rather die than be seen in an outfit like this, b) Trump supporters, many of whom, with their attire, tattoos, open-carry AR-15s, and prodigious use of facial hair can be seen coming from miles away, and c) those who have left, i.e., ex-Republicans.
Unfortunately, the last group is the smallest, but it’s not negligible. It includes intellectuals with high moral standards like George Will who left when he realized that the GOP had elected Donald Trump, and refused to be a part of the depravity, but it also is comprised by those who saw what four years of being conned looked like, and didn’t want another millisecond.
