One reason that gun laws are so difficult to enact here in the U.S. is Americans’ belief that offering “thoughts and prayers” to the victims’ families is a worthwhile response to having their little child’s body blown to bits by a psychopath with an AR-15.
The author of this very clever cartoon seems to agree with me on this point.
As suggested in this brilliant cartoon, when most Americans go to the polls in 2024, climate change mitigation will not be at the top of their list of priorities.
Having said that, Biden has done more than any of his predecessors in funding infrastructure and other programs designed to lower our country’s carbon footprint; kudos.
The headline here is taken from this article in Bloomberg.
A few quick points:
Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Chase, leads a company that, since the adoption of the Paris agreement, has sat at the top of the list of fossil fuel bankers, financing $434 billion from 2016 through 2022. Liberals have very little respect for him and his political suggestions, considering that his status as a multibillionaire derives from his lust for baking our planet.
Nikki Haley may be less repugnant than Trump insofar as she is not, at least apparently, a criminal sociopath. But as a member of the Republican party, her values are so completely loathsome that it’s hard to imagine her garnering any support from liberals.
Koch Industries is also backing Haley. The billionaire class has most certainly lost any appetite it may have had for living in a country led by a psychopath.
Americans tends to overlook the fact that all of us benefit a great deal from our government’s programs. Few of us spend any time at all asking ourselves where capitalism ends and socialism begins, or vice versa.
Snow removal is a small piece of what we refer to as infrastructure, which is a huge element of what we all receive from government. Outside of toll roads, our taxes pay for our local roads, highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, etc.
But, let’s not ignore police, fire fighting, criminal justice, national defense, public education, labor laws, auto and food safety standards, air traffic control, TSA, libraries, emergency medical care, environmental regulation, social security, Medicare, the National Archives, national parks, bank regulations and deposit insurance, copyright and patent laws, federal dams to provide electrical power, flood control, the Weather Service, the Federal Housing Authority, consulates and embassies, FEMA, veterans affairs, public water systems, monitoring of all international cargo, NASA, border protection, and the National Institutes of Health.
Apparently, a psychiatrist believes that Trump’s mental condition has made a quantum step toward insanity, based on his Veterans’ Day speech that included: “We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections.”
I don’t buy this. Since he came on the political scene, it’s been clear that Trump is a criminal sociopath, and that he will say anything that is calculated to grow and rile his base.
Throughout the millennia, couples have been opting not to have children, and for many, the reason has been reluctance to bring boys and girls into a hostile and cruel world.
IMO, this way of thinking has been heightened by climate change and, at least in America, what could be called “Trumpism,” i.e., a blend of fascism, ignorance, racism, and violence.
The most horrifying part of all this is he openly admits this.
Normally, those trying to overthrow a world government keep their true intentions secret as long as possible. Here, those intentions are part of his campaign platform.
REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
This is a critical step for the entire world in mitigating climate change, because of China’s dependence on coal.
Here’s Exxon’s survey on the subject.
What purpose does it serve?
Well, if most people either a) don’t understand the connection between greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, or b) reject what our scientists are telling us, the oil giant stands a good chance of getting us off their back so they can continue to bake this planet into a cinder, while raking in record profits from the agony they’re inflicting.
What we’ve done to our teachers, in terms of underpaying them, putting them in harm’s way, and cutting off their means to discipline our children, is deplorable. We get precisely the next generation of idiots and juvenile delinquents we so richly deserve.
It’s almost as if certain of our politicians gain from our ignorance. But that couldn’t be, could it? We couldn’t be electing people who appeal to, and profit from the diminution in our capacity to think critically and rationally. Could we?
