CNN Takes Down “The Pillow Guy”
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.
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?
If 
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. 
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.
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.
Since the release of the terrifying new IPCC report a few days ago, lots of people have been talking about the prognosis for humankind on this planet, wondering what if anything can be done to avert catastrophe. As suggested in the cartoon here, making real progress in climate change mitigation requires people of different nationalities to come together and work as a team, even though there is identically zero precedent for anything remotely resembling this in human history. 
