I’m not a lawyer, but it’s hard for me to imagine any circumstances in which a criminal defendant’s understanding of the legal nature of the crimes he’s alleged to have committed has any bearing on his guilt or innocence.
If I rob a bank, go to trial, and claim “I’ve done nothing wrong,” I would expect the justice system to be completely indifferent to that statement.
If you want to subscribe to the “This Week in Science” podcast, as I do, the link is above. The graphic here is from this week’s show.
I remain hopeful that an entry in the near future will read: “Scientists develop advanced nuclear, via both fusion of hydrogen and fission of thorium, to the point that it is now commercially available. Fossil fuels to be gone in a few years max.”
From former U.S. Representative Beto O’Rourke:
Here’s someone who believes that those who show kindness to intelligent animals like pigs are morons.
Speaking strictly for myself, that’s not the type of person I aspire to be.
Re: the meme here, a reader opines: Brandon has nothing to do with it. No politician had anything to do with it.
I agree that, generally, U.S. presidents tend to get too much credit when things go right, and too much blame when they head south.
Yet in this case it’s unclear, to me at least, how much credit Biden actually deserves for what appears an extremely robust economy, as measured by job growth, stock market valuations, inflation control, etc.
One can identify a great number of public sector investments that are aimed at rebuilding/expanding infrastructure, bringing manufacturing jobs (especially cleantech) back from overseas, expanding energy security, and post-COVID recovery. One can add, on top of that, that these investments are simply paying off precisely as they were intended.
Many economists are surprised that so much growth was possible without, for instance, huge rates of inflation causing rising interest rates that in turn sent us into recession. It wasn’t that long ago that the idea of a “soft landing” was something of a pipe dream.
Granted, all this is not an easy pill to swallow if you’re a Republican, praying for a meltdown going into election season, but it does seem to be the case.
As suggested at left, of all the damage Trump has inflicted on American society, it’s possible that the greatest harm has been his bizarre, inexplicable ability to turn truth on its head.
Here’s an exercise: think back to any close election in the past, say Nixon/Kennedy or Bush/Gore, and imagine what would have happened if the ultimate loser were to have claimed that massive voter fraud was at blame, even though 60+ courts found no evidence to support that assertion.
The loser would have been ridiculed as a crackpot and “cancelled” as a credible figure. At a very minimum, he wouldn’t have a cult following consisting of tens of millions of hateful morons.
As I’ve said elsewhere, this strange phenomenon in the early 21st Century may go away like the witch trials of the later 17th Century, i.e., disappear virtually without a trace. A few months in the horrors of Salem, the entire set of events simply stopped, seemingly without reason or cause, and a year later, many of the town’s people doubted that it even happened.
Here’s a short video about a mall near Stockholm in which every item is second-hand.
Yes, that can mean simply “used,” as in thrift stores that offer previously owned sweaters or dinner plates.
In this case however, what it normally means is more interesting–more along the lines of “repurposed” or “upcycled.”
Here’s a quiz: What common object was donated and used to make the lamp (not the shade but the lamp itself) shown above? Answer here.
As shown at left, there are, and probably will always be, a group of Trump supporters who accept whatever the former president tells them, regardless of how completely baseless his statements may be.
That’s the bad news.
The good news is that the number of people whose IQ is so low as to fall into this pit is so small that it couldn’t possibly get Trump anywhere near the White House in 2024.
At left we see the thoughtful words of U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ).
In a world of religious fanaticism, it’s good to know that ideas like these still exist.
I’m reminded of the Stoic Epictetus who said (something like): “Don’t explain your philosophy; embody it.”
Here’s a theory on the meme here: the media profits tremendously from extending the life of the idea that Trump actually could be our 47th president, and it finds that lucre to be irresistible.
This an event which, if it comes to fruition, would almost certainly end American democracy, and that notion is so terrifying to most of us that we’re drawn to explore it whether we want to or not.
The media understands this with crystal clarity.
What we’re looking at here is just an extrapolation of 2015/16, where the CEO of one of our television giants admitted, “Trump is absolutely terrible for America, but he’s fantastic for us.”
Eventually, it will become obvious that, through some blend of forces, including Trump’s criminal trials, that he is far more likely to be struck by lightening than he is to win the 2024 election. At that point, look for the media to move along to some new catastrophe in the making.
With each passing year, it becomes more about money and less about truth.
