Yes, We’re Stupid as Dirt, and We LOVE that About Ourselves
American culture has long been a breeding ground of anti-intellectualism.
The fact that it’s now being taken to new lengths shouldn’t surprise anyone.
Tagged with: anti-intellectualism
Question for Republicans
To conservative Americans, I pose this question: What’s the matter with Liz Cheney as your candidate for U.S. president in 2024?
She’s not “woke” in any sense of the word. She’ll stand by your side in your belief that God blesses our country, that abortion is murder, that climate change extremism is a danger to our economy, and that we need to “close our borders” (whatever that means).
The only thing not to like about Cheney is that she is sane and reasonably honest. She sees a coldblooded liar and criminal in the person of Donald Trump who aspires to take over our country by fraud, and she calls him out on it.
What a shame it is that about one-third of Americans are locked inside a cult, completely cut off from the outside world.
Tagged with: Question for Republicans
No, We Cannot Agree
The small town in Central California in which 2GreenEnergy makes its “headquarters” seems to be having a problem with dog owners who are not cleaning up after their pets. This, understandably, has drawn the ire of some of the locals who must navigate around the piles as they go out for walks around the neighborhood, and many of them have taken to expressing their feelings on social media.
What makes this interesting is that there seems to be some level of controversy. One fellow wrote, “Oh get over yourselves.” Apparently, we’ve reached the point where it seems there is literally nothing we can all agree on. People have no obligation to remove their dogs’ feces from the roads?
I first had this disturbing realization when I learned that there are plenty of Americans who think of themselves as clearheaded and patriotic who are rooting for Putin in Ukraine. I would have thought that the commission of dozens of different war crimes, ranging from waging an aggressive war to the indiscriminant torture and murder of innocent citizens, would have been hailed universally as a bad thing. No such luck.
Obviously, there is point to made here about Donald Trump, a man whose support base has no concern about the amazing variety of felonies he committed during and after his term in office.
Nikki Haley, Political Harlot
Frequent commenter Scott McKie remarks on my recent post Nikki Haley on Fox News?: “(She’s) nothing but a political “street walker” — plain and simple.
Exactly, Scott. When Haley came on the scene years ago, then a Democrat, she seemed to be using her intelligence and charm to support progressive positions. A few years later, apparently the political winds had shifted, and now she’s on Fox News. That’s a prostitute.
Tagged with: Nikki Haley on Fox News
Climate Change Benefits Some
I just met a woman from Belgium who told me that their traditional cloudy and cool summers have been replaced by climate that most people consider to be more conducive to summer fun: sunny and hot. And, of course, at those latitudes, daylight lasts until almost midnight. Sounds like good times for all.
The result of global warming will be catastrophic on average, but not for everyone. If you grow wheat in Western Canada, you’re in great shape.
To take another example, think for a moment of the wine business, where the traditional regions are rapidly falling apart in terms of their capacity to support the highest end of viticulture. Note, in particular, that the Champagne region of France, after centuries, appears to be on its way out due to extreme summer temperatures.
Maybe you have real estate in areas that, in the past, were too cold that are now perfectly suitable to the next 50 years of grape-growing. You’re in great shape.
This is where the Mondavi family finds itself. Robert, with his $400 million wine business, also manages his father’s $600 million estate. They’re in the process of selling the combined $1 billion in assets on the basis that climate change will, over as short a window as the next 8 – 10 years, make it impossible for them to make wine that’s worth anywhere close to the $700/bottle price that have made them among the world’s most wealthy.
They’re buying up huge swaths of land in stable and more temperate climates, mainly along the shores of many of the Mediterranean islands, which are protected from soaring temperatures due to the heat sinks of the sea.
I recently ran into an extremely wealthy woman who had attended a seminar in which Robert Mondavi explained his plans to a small group of the financially elite, where, predictably, there were a few from the extreme right wing who kicked back that climate change was a hoax, foisted on the world by the Chinese to destroy American capitalism.
According to the story the woman told me, he responded, “My dad and I favor science over Fox News, or whatever information source you may believe. We’re doing what we think is best with our fortune. You, of course, are at liberty to do what you wish with yours.”
Tagged with: Climate Change Benefits Some
Fox News Shells Out Another $12 Million
From the Daily Wire:
Fox News has agreed to pay $12 million to Abby Grossberg, a former producer for Tucker Carlson, to settle her two lawsuits claiming the network was a hostile and discriminatory environment and that Fox pressured her to lie in a deposition.
When I see civil litigation in cases where crimes appear to have been committed, I tend to wonder why the defendant wasn’t charged. If I had asked one of my employees to lie under oath, I’d expect to be indicted accordingly.
Tagged with: Tucker Carlson
Of the Kari Lakes of this Country, We Need To Be Very Afraid
Speaking for myself, I’m not at all unafraid.
I’m terrified of the effect that this pathological liar and sociopaths like her are having on our society.
BP Retreats on Its Climate Goals
As noted in the Washington Post, BP is scaling back its climate goals and deepening its investments in oil and gas, casting new doubts on big oil companies’ promises to embrace clean energy. This may or may not be related to the fact that their profits have more than doubled since 2021.
At this point, does anyone believe there is any real sincerity in their slogan “Beyond Petroleum?”
Someone noted recently that Big Oil has gone “insular.” They’ve realized that they are completely unworthy of the public trust, and that they are detested by those of us who are working to achieve environmental sustainability. We’ve reached the moment at which they no longer see any benefit from trying to reverse this situation.
If there is hope here, and there is, it will come, as the sages have suggested, not from destroying the old but by making the old obsolete, in this case with the electrification of the energy and transportation sectors.
The grandchildren of today’s oil executives will need to deal with the fact that their ancestors did their damnedest to get rich by rendering this planet uninhabitable.
Is American Culture Hostile to Christians?
Two points to be made here:
1) The percentage of those who identify as Christians in the United States and Europe is quite clearly falling, though that doesn’t mean that nonbelievers are “hostile” to the faithful.
2) Hostility comes in when Christians seek to impose their beliefs on society as a whole. We don’t want religion taught as science in our schools, we don’t want it used to block our epidemiologists from protecting our health, we don’t want religion fanaticism taking away women’s rights or blocking our attempts to prevent environmental collapse.
On these points, we most certainly do have a tendency to be hostile.
Nikki Haley on Fox News?
I was stunned to see presidential hopeful Nikki Haley appearing on a Fox News broadcast. Is this a good look for someone who wants to be taken as a serious candidate to lead our nation in the post-Trump era?
The majority of Americans have liberal values when it comes to things like gun control, quality education, healthcare, environmental responsibility, LBGTQ rights, Ukraine, and abortion. Why do Haley and her advisors think it’s a good idea to appear with the lowbrows?
Thomas Friedman examines this issue in his NY Times opinion piece: The Fox Newsification of Nikki Haley, an excerpt from which is:
Let’s start with Fox News. We all sort of knew the truth about Fox, but now there can be no doubt: Fox News is to journalism what the Mafia is to capitalism — same basic genre, but a morally corrupt perversion of the real thing.
I truly don’t get this.
Tagged with: liberal values when it comes to environmental responsibility, liberal values when it comes to healthcare, liberal values when it comes to LBGTQ rights, liberal values when it comes to quality education, The majority of Americans have liberal values when it comes to things like gun control
