What an AR-15 Pin Means When Worn in Congress
Two things:
I’m a whore for the National Rifle Association, and
I’m completely indifferent to the misery of the American people.
Tagged with: National Rifle Association
Where America Stands in World Opinion…
…is show in the graphic here.
Of course, Trump supporters don’t care. In their view, Trump is “making America great again,” and if our country is reviled by the rest of the world, that’s tough.
Tagged with: making America great again
Blood Money
Here’s a reminder of another intractable problem facing American society: our fondness for weapons designed to kill as many people as possible, in the shortest possible amount of time.
The gun lobby sends enormous fortunes to lawmakers who, in turn, thwart our efforts to prevent ourselves and our children from being shot to bits.
Big Oil Enjoying HUGE Profits
From: The Story of Stuff Project
While Americans were reckoning with sky-high gas prices at the pump last year, ExxonMobil reported on Tuesday that it made $56 billion in profits in 2022. That’s the most a Western oil company has ever earned and averages out to around $6.3 million an hour over the course of the year.
It’s not just Exxon. Other major oil companies such as Chevron and Shell are expected to report similar results in the coming weeks, pushing their combined profits to around $200 billion, according to the financial markets data firm Refinitiv.
The challenge facing human civilization when it comes to mitigating climate change is that baking this planet is insanely profitable. Just as we’re finding how difficult it is to remove the drug cartels from Mexico, $56 billion carries a level of political power that is hard to describe.
What We Say (and Don’t Say) to Pregnant Women
It’s one thing to be anti-abortion and another to be just plain stupid.
When we learn that a woman is pregnant, do we congratulate her on her baby? If this is to be her first child, do we think of her as a parent?
I sure don’t, because I understand the concept of a miscarriage, and, more generally, the difference between something that has already happened vs. some future event.
If we ask a young person what she wants to do when she enters the work force and she says “a veterinarian,” we might say “Oh, that’s great,” but it would be inappropriate to congratulate her for something that may or may not happen in the future.
Tagged with: Abortion
Assault Rifle Pins in Congress
If you think there is no chance of another insurrection, one that may be orders of magnitude larger than January 6th, ask yourself what certain congresspeople are trying to communicate by wearing AR-15 pins on their lapels.
AT&T Has Supported Right Wing Causes for Almost a Century, But They Finally Drew the Line
It comes as no surprise that the cable news channel Newsmax, far to the right of Fox News in terms of its spreading pure disinformation, is apoplectic about AT&T’s and its subsidiary’s Direct TV’s dropping them when they continued to support Trump after he took on the role as one the world’s most notorious criminals.
AT&T had long supported far-right causes, but here they figured, we were OK with Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Bushes # 41 and #43. But traitors?
We can almost hear the discussion in the boardroom: “We can continue to be America’s phone company, or we can support this sociopath. We can either draw the line or slowly fade into becoming part of a criminal enterprise. I believe that the American people have a limited appetite for treason. Who’s with me?”
Tagged with: Right Wing Causes
Ron DeSantis
In terms of political ideology, it could be that DeSantis is worse than Trump himself.
If he represents an improvement over the former president, it’s possible that he’s not a criminal sociopath. I use the word “possible” because, at this point, we don’t know if he’s capable of committing any of the wide array of felonies that Trump did, including attempting to overthrow the United States federal government.
Jigar Shah, Clean Energy Icon
Here’s a story about Jigar Shah, long-term friend and colleague, and how he finds himself in a position within the U.S. Department of Energy to make loans totaling hundreds of billions of dollars to companies in cleantech.
As the director of the DOE’s Loan Programs Office, Jigar will be shaping the future in terms of America’s transition from fossil fuels, in favor of renewables, efficiency, energy storage, and electric transportation. IMO, no one is better qualified for this position, if only because of his keen understanding of energy markets, and the imperative to make all this profitable to investors.
This subject is always top-of-mind for Jigar, as demonstrated in the title of his book: Creating Climate Wealth: Unlocking the Impact Economy.
Good news for everyone with lungs.
The Electoral College
Hillsdale “College,” the ultra-right-wing “academic” institution, writes:
A movement is growing, led by progressives—but supported by many well-meaning Americans—to change the way we elect our president. In effect, it seeks to do away with the Electoral College as devised by the Framers of our Constitution.
That’s why Hillsdale College is conducting a National Survey on Presidential Selection.
The electoral college was put into place in order to help white people better control their black slaves.
Its only effect post the Emancipation is to grant more power per capita to voters in states with small populations than voters in states with large populations. For instance, Wyoming gets one electoral vote for every 190K people; California gets one vote for every 727K. Therefore, if I lived in Wyoming, my vote would count 3.8 times more than it does now.
The only reason to preserve the electoral college is to favor the political sensibilities of people in states like Wyoming. If you want to ban abortion and increase the ownership of weapons of war, you adore the current system, because it’s grossly unfair to progressives.
Tagged with: electoral college
