In response to the meme here, Shawn M. Phares writes: Especially since he’s a criminal, seditionist, who attacked his own capitol, showed top secret government to normal citizens, and committed espionage. And on top of that he’s a pathological liar, racist, and bigot.
Yes, and keep in mind that this is precisely what almost half of American voters are demanding. Not only do MAGA Republicans not have a problem with any of this, they insist upon it.
I believe what the people are talking about in this meme is the top marginal income tax rates.
Obviously, it would be good if there were no loopholes by which our top earners could avoid income tax, but what we really need is a wealth tax that applies to all net worth over a certain amount.
The combined net worth of all billionaires is $12.2 trillion. A tax of 5% would raise $600+ billion annually, more than sufficient to end hunger and decarbonize our energy and transportation sectors.
I would love to cite evidence that we’re on the way to “living together as brothers” rather than “perishing together as fools,” but I struggle to find it.
I see too much (and perhaps an irreversible amount of) greed, tribalism, religious fanaticism, indifference to the suffering of others, the rejection of science, and the reliance on war as a tool for the settling of our differences.
Of course, the final chapter hasn’t been written. What if there is a planetary catastrophe, perhaps in the form of environmental collapse, that brings the human race together?
I studied philosophy for a few years as a younger man, and I recall a graduate course on metaphysics, delivered by Henry B. Veatch (pictured), one of the most widely published and decorated American philosophers of his time (the mid/late 20th Century). Though it would be incorrect to call Veatch a “showman,” trust me, no one ever fell asleep listening to him speak.
Metaphysics is defined as “the branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles of things, including abstract concepts such as being, knowing, substance, cause, identity, time, and space.” All this sounds fine, until we consider that most of these ideas are now more properly the domain of science.
Yes, Kant told us that “space and time are forms of our intuition,” but in the 21st Century, we’re more likely to answer questions on this subject via references to Einstein or Schoedinger.
Aristotle, one of the most important early metaphysicians, explained that “to be is to be a substance,” but nowadays, if we want to understand the fundamental building blocks of the universe, we turn to theoretical physicists like Feynman or Hawking.
The subject of “knowing” is part of metaphysics, or, more properly, of what is called “epistemology.” Yet again, those of us who are interested in how the mind interacts with the outside world are more likely to consult a neuroscientist than a metaphysician.
For better or for worse, the heyday of philosophy seems to be behind us.
If you’re going to be a part of the cult that is far-right-wing U.S. politics, you need to buy into at least some part (preferably all) of the story surrounding this country’s “corrupt” reaction to COVID-19. This includes:
Our government deliberately wanted to hurt our economy and school system with unnecessary shutdowns, masking, social distancing regimens, and vaccinations. Various groups, e.g., the Centers for Disease Control, and individual people, e.g., Anthony Fauci, were especially responsible for all this.
The meme here speaks to how ludicrous these belief systems are.
On top of this, I would ask the Fox News crowd to ask itself how and why each one of the other 200+ sovereign countries around the world came to create its own set of protocols designed to ruin its home economy. Did the Germans and the Brazilians collude with Dr. Fauci, or did they develop their own plans to commit economic suicide, for no real reason, without any help from the U.S.?
Stupid is as stupid does.
Myth 1: Traditionally, Americans have opted for small government, focusing the public sector only on absolute necessities, and privatizing most societal functions.
Myth 2: The subject known as “civics” has been removed from our high schools in order to make young people unaware of the proper (small) role of government.
Truth: Shown at left is a page taken from a civics textbook just after the close of the Second World War. Notice how it jibes with the major theme of both parties’ platforms of that time, through the Eisenhower administration, right up until Reagan came along in 1980 and turned all this on its head.
Demagogues like Trump are highly skilled at creating fear in their constituents, and, as Bertrand Russell points out here, this tends to make us more tribal, and more suspicious of and hateful to people who do not share our religion, skin color, sexual orientation, etc.
Notice how little facts matter in cases like these. The strength of the U.S. economy is a good example. But if you turn on Fox “News” or the other right-wing media, you’ll find a few cherry-picked data points that “prove” that Biden has ruined the economy.
2GreenEnergy supporter Gary Tulie sent me this, noting, “This is shocking.”
I don’t know. It’s been clear from the onset that Trump admires political strongmen, without regard for how terrible the damage they inflict on the world around them. And now he finds himself on the precipice of achieving that position of absolute power in the United States.
All he needs is to be granted immunity for the crimes he committed during and after his term as 45th president. He’s that close.
The clever meme here depicts a harsh reality of life in the U.S. There are groups, heavily funded by billionaires, whose aims are to convince congress to dismantle all aspects of the federal government that serve the common American.
I’m reminded of Charles Koch, who, when asked what he regarded to be “fair” regarding taxation, replied, “I get to keep my money.” Not much nuance there. No recognition that this man, worth many billions of dollars, lives in a society that needs infrastructure, national defense, public education, etc. When I heard these words come out of his mouth, I said, “All you’re saying is that you’re a swine.”
OK, so exactly how much real “thought” exists in these so-called “think tanks?” For a chapter on the subject for my third book, “Renewable Energy–Following the Money,” I interviewed a spokesperson from the right-wing Cato Institute, and focused the discussion on his organization’s approach to climate change.
Frankly, I found their position to be shockingly indefensible. It included ideas like, “The most devastating effects of climate change lie decades in the future, so, we recommend delaying mitigation tactics until that time.”
I’m generally very noncombative when I conduct interviews, but I couldn’t help responding, “Oh, but that’s like having an oncologist tell a cigarette smoker that the patient has lung cancer, but since the disease is unlikely to kill him in the next ten years, it’s OK to continue to smoke until the cancer has ravaged his body. I don’t think that doctor would be practicing medicine much longer.”
Efforts to invest in a future of things like quality education and environmental sustainability are met with pseudoscientific attacks from institutes with high-sounding names, all to protect the rich from paying taxes.
There is a limit to which this can be taken before the United States becomes a cesspool of ignorance and toxic chemicals, and fades into irrelevance on the global stage.
The graphic below shows that California, a few of the plains states, the mid-Atlantic, and New England rank highest in terms of educational achievement, and that the Deep South ranks lowest.
It’s interesting that there is a strong correspondence between the educational strength of a state’s citizenry and its appetite for progressive values. Conversely there is a strong correspondence between a state’s educational weakness and its demand to ban abortion and re-elect Trump.
Here we have 
