Here, Bill Clinton seems to have nailed the transition that the Republicans have undergone in the past few years. They want voters angry, and my goodness, how successful they’ve been.
Whether it’s guns, vaccinations, environmental regulations, wokeness, transgenders in our bathrooms, socialism, immigration, inflation, wage stagnation, support of Ukraine, or the criminal prosecution of a former president on charges of sedition, lots of people are seething.
The real problem here isn’t lying to the public. Turn on your television or scroll through your social media feed, and see how long it takes you to find an assertion that’s provably false.
The problem is that this country’s interpretation of its First Amendment doesn’t preclude an organization from calling itself “news” while deliberately peddling lies that are calculated to incite violence and destroy our democracy.
Trust me, if there were a way to move to a “national divorce” that was feasible even in the least, I think most progressives would favor a Constitutional amendment to make it legal.
Imagine two countries:
One consists of what are currently the blue states. It features quality education, universal healthcare, full rights for women, LGBTQs, and other minorities, and a huge GDP per capita. It leads the world in terms of environmental sustainability.
The other consists of the red states. It’s largely impoverished, and abortion, vaccinations, controversial books are banned, and there are more AR-15s than there are people. It features disease and environmental filth. It’s awash in interracial hatred and violence, and it’s regarded as a pariah by the rest of the world.
Had Lincoln let the South secede from the Union in 1860, the Confederacy would have dried up and blown away in a decade or two. Now, of course, there is no path to make this happen.
One issue is national defense. The “Confederacy” (or whatever it would be called) would soon become so weak that it could be invaded by Cuba or some banditos from the City of Juarez.
Another is passport control. A drive across the country would take you into and out of a foreign country.
The sign here is funny, but it reminds me that, in most business endeavors, it may be a good idea to keep our political viewpoints to ourselves.
There are certain exceptions, to be sure. If you sell guns or survival gear or Confederate flags, there is very little downside to displaying a Trump banner or wearing a MAGA hat, since progressives buy few items like these anyway. But barbecue sandwiches?
My car has a small “Amnesty International” bumper sticker, and my license plate holder promotes our local NPR affiliate, so anyone who’s looking closely might infer that I’m probably not a Trump supporter, but that’s about as far as I’m willing to go.
Those of us demanding justice following Trump’s attempted overthrow of the U.S. government following his election loss in 2020 are starting to feel a sense that good news may be in the offing.
Of course, we’re not privy to all the goings on, but it’s heartening to see that the grand jury in Fulton County, GA has recommended numerous indictments, and that Special Counsel Jack Smith has subpoenaed Trump’s daughter and son-in-law.
When I came across this t-shirt ad, I asked myself why the model didn’t want his face shown.
Maybe it’s because he doesn’t want to be associated with a concept befitting a true asshole.
I’m not worried about my feelings; I’m worried about the bodies of our schoolchildren being riddled with bullets because you think God gave you the right to carry weapons of war.
If you share my love of these dynamic bar charts that display statistics as they change over time, you’ll love this one on the number of speakers of the world’s most common languages from 1900 – 2022.
English does very well here, which is largely due to America’s economic expansion post World War II, as well as the proliferation of scientific papers around the globe, and the need to standardize on one language in which all such matters are written and spoken.
This is very good news, when you think about it. If religion (vs. science) were proliferating around the globe, perhaps it would be Arabic rather than English that had breakthrough numbers.
Here’s Kevin Cramer, one of the two incumbent Republican senator from North Dakota asking, actually begging, for your generous campaign so that he can “stop the woke Democrats.”
A couple of thoughts:
The GOP is fractured between the Big Lie sociopath Trumpers and the slightly-less deranged ultra-right conservatives like Ron DeSantis. We don’t see any proposals for anything that might improve our lives emerging from either of these two factions, but they are tightly united in their rabid hatred of wokeness.
Cramer beat his Democrat opponent in 2018 by 11 points; that’s not exactly close. In 2020, Trump won North Dakota 65.1% to 31.7%, a margin of 33.4%, about three points down from his 36-point victory in 2016. North Dakota is one of the most reliably Republican states in the nation.
This greedy, insincere pig doesn’t need your donation.
The content of the meme here is sad, but the conmen who extract huge sums of money from the idiots they prey on are as permanent a part of our world as compass needles that point north.
There is nothing that you nor I can do to change that.
The meme here proves nothing to the Fox News audience base.
If you believe there is a planetwide campaign to discredit Fox News, its executives and on-camera actors, it’s going to come as no surprise that they don’t win awards for journalistic excellence.
Shortly before he died, I interviewed Martin Perl, Nobel laureate in physics for his discovery of the tau lepton (kind of like an electron, only different, and totally unlike a boson–comment if you’d like to know more). Now, in the numerous conversations I’ve had with people about this prestigious acknowledgement, I’ve come to know that there are some people who believe that Nobel prizes are handed out for political purposes. Maybe I’m gullible, but think most of the world’s great awards are based on merit.
