Alternatively, we can ban books that enable our kids to think critically, and remove our best and brightest teachers, resulting in the United States’ drifting down into deeper levels of ignorance and illiteracy, so as to enable a whole new generation of Donald Trumps to hold the highest office in the land.
Again, I like this fellow’s idea as an alternative.
Here’s Steve Bannon promoting the Birch Gold Group:
We’re in uncharted territory. 2023 is going to be absolutely incredible as far as what is happening to the American economy. Now is the time to shift your IRA or 401k into precious metals and gold.
And the best way to do that today is through something called a Birch Gold Group IRA. This account allows you to keep PHYSICAL GOLD inside of a tax-deferred account… without paying a DIME in penalties or taxes when you transfer the funds into gold.
When I first came across this, I thought it was a joke. Do people really take financial advice from criminals who were convicted of fraud?
But, if Donald Trump beats his criminal cases against him, his “Big Lie” will have successfully set a precedent that any future U.S. president can attempt to overthrow the federal government and walk away a free man.
In an uncountable number of cases that happen around the world, on a daily basis, we treat our dogs and cats with far more concern and compassion than we do human beings.
Here at home in the U.S., we have the Republican’s unflagging support for the fetus, and their complete dismissal of the child’s well-being the moment it’s born.
Before he left us, Carl Sagan bemoaned our society’s lack of interest in science. “Our mainstream newspapers have daily astrology columns, but not even weekly coverage of breakthroughs in science,” he said.
Were it not for its horrific consequences, this might simply be a trivial, quirky little fact about life here in the U.S. Unfortunately, however, it opens us up to all the crap we absorb from the right-wing “news” sources: e.g., that vaccinations are dangerous, that climate change is a hoax, that Donald Trump is being unfairly persecuted, and that the radical left wants to open our borders and turn us into homosexual socialists.
WhenIowa meteorologist Chris Gloninger got an email notification last June, it read: “Getting sick and tired of your liberal conspiracy on the weather.”
“What’s your address,” another asked Gloninger a few days later. “We conservative Iowans would like to give you an Iowan welcome you will never forget.”
Par for the course, especially in states like Iowa, where Trump won in 2020 by more than 8%.
One thing we need to admire about conservatives is their tenacity. They have reached into essentially every area in which science impacts human well-being, and are doing their best to dismantle it.
And meteorologists in red states aren’t the only ones who risk their lives as part of their careers. Think of election workers, school administrators, gun control advocates, union and community organizers, investigative journalists, and providers of abortions. How about epidemiologists? How many thousands of death threats do you think Dr. Anthony Fauci received?
It will be interesting to see how history comes to regard Republicans’ efforts to protect the 45th U.S. president from the justice system.
There are really only two possible eventualities: a) Trump is honestly prosecuted for his crimes, or b) the former president is somehow let off the hook, and the presidency becomes a cloak by which all future holders of the highest office in our nation are permitted to do what they can to overthrow the government and become autocrats.
This, of course, is what the world suffers under in Russia, China, and the majority of states around the globe.
Below is a graphic that displays what the world looks like under autocracy. We’re teetering on the edge.
You may have known, for instance, that a gunshot to a small body is more likely to destroy multiple organs or other critical structures, simply because little bodies are so much more compact than adults’. Frankly, though the idea is obvious once it’s been mentioned, it was a new idea for me.
I would have said that the answer is actually more obvious: a) guns are rapidly proliferating through our society, b) we position them such that we can grab them at a moment’s notice, c) our population is more substance addicted than ever before, d) our home lives are more stressed and miserable, e) our government is incapable (due to the power of the gun lobby) to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill. Thus: our kids will continue to shoot more of their siblings to death.
Like most of my readers, I’ve made a great number of mistakes that I have a hard time forgetting. Fortunately, I never enabled either of my two kids to kill the other with a gun, and I’ve been spared the lifetime of emotional anguish that would have ensued.
But, for more parents every year, it’s become a reality, and, as Americans, there’s not a goddamn thing we can do about it. Wish I had better news.
They want investors to come on board. But will they be impressed by what they see here?
There are dozens of different technologies that extract the chemical energy out of hundreds of forms of waste and convert that into biofuels, hydrogen, or electricity. As you’re reading these words, there are tens of thousands of scientists who have spent decades of their lives trying to make this happen in a way that is economically feasible.
There has not been a single success yet, from more than a half-century of work.
If you believe this guy has a unique approach and capability, by all means, jump right in. And good luck with that.