From magician and actor Penn Jillette:  For (millions of) years our biggest problems were too few calories, too little information. For about 50 years our biggest problem has been too many calories, too much information. We have to adjust, and I believe we will really fast. I also believe it will be wicked ugly while we’re adjusting. 

Keep in mind that our capitalist society really doesn’t give a damn about what happens to the consumers who live on the garbage sold at fast-food restaurants and the interior aisles of our grocery stores.

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As shown in the video below, submitted by Gary Tulie, Harvard University reports that coal dust and the exhaust from coal-fired power plants killed at least 460,000 people over the last 20 years.

Where we tend to think of coal-powered electricity as a principal cause of climate change and other forms of long-term environmental damage, we often overlook the devastation it causes to human life–and the families of those lost to lung disease. What about the impact on the children who now grow up fatherless and/or motherless?

The title of this post implies that it’s possible to ascribe a dollar-figure to this enormous catastrophe, and I suppose it is.  If there were a series of class-action lawsuits, there would be gaggles of actuaries in insurance companies with huge spreadsheets running what-if calculations.

But in this case, no one’s paying.  The atmosphere is simply a sewer into which the operators of coal plants discharge their waste–for free, regardless of the damage.

 

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FWIW, this makes perfect sense to me.

If the SCOTUS could act as swiftly and honestly on all matters pertaining to Trump, e.g., his claim to immunity from criminal prosecution, I’m sure we’d all be thrilled.

 

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The cartoon here provides us with a great deal to think about.  What precisely does the ever-accelerating rate of change in our world actually translate to in terms of the survivability of our civilization?

Society’s great minds constantly caution us about the need for wisdom and decency to keep pace with the growth in our capacity to blow things up.

Some are optimistic that this can occur.  Others, e.g., American musician, composer,  and songwriter Tom Waits are less so.  He says: ‘We Are Monkeys With Money and Guns.’

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Astonishingly, there are people who refuse to take a few minutes per week and separate their recyclables from their trash to be landfilled.

Some are even proud of the fact that they are standing up against conformist, politically correct lifestyles.

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As previously mentioned, 2GreenEnergy “headquarters” is located in a rural part of California, one whose political leanings, in the main, could be described as “God and country,” or simply “MAGA.”

At left are the flags flown in front of a house less than one mile from where I’m writing this post.

Hmmm.  “The Revenge Tour.”  Here’s a guy who wants a president who’s all about vengeance.  Nothing that could even possibly translate into a better quality of life for the American people, just getting even with the woke libtards who stole the 2020 election, judges in the 60+ courts who found no evidence that the election was rigged, and the authors of the four indictments featuring 91 felony counts.

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Here’s a supposedly neutral “survey” from ultra-right-wing educational institute Hillsdale College.

If they want to know what I believe, it is this:

Sham colleges, i.e., those who exist only to move public opinion to the extreme right, whose MO is causing confusion about the meaning of the word “socialism,” are doing a huge disservice to the country.

FWIW:  Social democracy is frequently considered a practical middle course between capitalism and socialism. Social democracy aims to use democratic collective action for promoting freedom and equality in the economy and opposes what is seen as inequality and oppression that laissez-faire capitalism causes.

 

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This from author Fran Lebowitz:
MAGA supporters are not Republicans. They’re anarchists. They’re destroyers of government, destroyers of democracy.
The Democrats are always trying to analyze them: ‘Why do they think this way? Why do they think that?’ You know, a 6-year-old could tell you what’s wrong with these people. They’re mean, and they’re stupid. And it’s as simple as that.” 
People say that RFK Jr. or Cornell West could steal votes away from Biden in the 2024 presidential election.  But isn’t the impact on the GOP far greater given that tens of millions of registered Republicans say that they refuse to vote for Trump under any circumstances?
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I hear England wants its 13 colonies back, too.

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Hegel said, “The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.”

The meme here may constitute an exception.  Burning and banning books has never been a practice of the heroes in any contest.

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