From this piece in Reuters:
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church has said that Russian soldiers who die in the war against Ukraine will be cleansed of all their sins, days after President Vladimir Putin ordered the country’s first mobilisation since World War Two. (more…)
From a friend: Um, is anyone else old enough to remember, like, 10 years ago when Lara Logan actually was a respected correspondent for CBS News and “60 Minutes”???
Newsmax may harbor a great number of QAnon beliefs, like the Big Lie, COVID disinformation, and climate denial, but it leaks these ideas in dribs and drabs, it doesn’t drench its audience with a firehose. That’s why Laura Logan got the ax; she outed Newsmax for exactly what it is: crackpot talking points for hateful morons.
The question, of course, is why a respected news journalist would self-immolate, and I can’t answer that; I doubt anyone can.
I would love to meet someone who predicted 20 years ago that Rudy Giuliani would have lost his grasp on reality, and now find himself facing an array of felonies associated with attempting to overthrow the United States government.
The defining element of the senate race in Pennsylvania is the eccentricity of Mehmet Oz. Not only is he a professional charlatan, but his extreme right-wing views render him totally unfit to represent any mid-Atlantic or New England state.
Record corporate profits, inflation, sub-living wages, COVID, declining educational standards, jobs moving overseas, virtually no unemployment, and the rise in automation replacing human labor. These are some of the macro-economic factors that make life so tough for us today.
Then there are factors that apply to one specific industry. My daughter is thinking about getting into real estate, so I went through some of the pros and cons: the fierce competition, especially at the high end, the long weekend hours running open houses, the challenge of breaking into a new market as an unknown, and the constant need to schmooze.
The sign above addresses an issue that didn’t occur to me at the time.
How many Pennsylvanians believe this fanatical crap?
Even if you’re more concerned about the price of gasoline, do you really want this guy making laws that affect everyone?
That ought to wrap it up.
A reader sent this, noting: “Climate change is a totalitarian position.”
Fortunately for us all, this is a fringe belief.
Just beyond the outer edge of the outer rim of the fringe.
Excellent point. The problem is that we live in a world in which there appears to be no penalty that accrues to bad behavior, and so many good people say, “Oh, what the heck.”
If a U.S. president can be a pathological liar and overt criminal, what’s the imperative for the common American to be fair and honest?
Fortunately, some people keep standards of decency in place for themselves, and are not corrupted by the atrocities committed by the rich and powerful, but let’s not kid ourselves: these last six years have had a terrible effect on our nation’s overall moral compass.
I don’t share it.
If Trump somehow dies before he’s indicted, tried, convicted and imprisoned, tens of millions of people will go on believing that our democracy is rigged in favor for the Democrat elites (or the Deep State, or whatever), and, almost as bad, that Trump was an honest and effective servant of the American people.
Of course, a great number of these people believe that climate change is a hoax, that a college education does more harm than good, that whites are the supreme race, and that vaccinations are of no medical value, and often lethal. In other words, evidence has no value, in which case, what happens to Trump is immaterial to a significant percentage of his supporters.
Having said that, one has to believe that setting the record straight and restoring rule of law will go a long way towards re-establishing justice and sanity to a nation that has been without both for far too long.
If Republicans can convince voters that they and only they can curb inflation, get tough on crime, and prevent immigrants from stealing their jobs, it seems possible that they’ll emerge victorious in the midterms. But on the other issues that matter to Americans they fall flat on their faces: abortion, racism, the rise of evangelical Christianity / prayer in schools, halting environmental collapse, protection of democracy / January 6th, gun violence, support for Ukraine, quality education, public health, and voting rights.
Something else to keep in mind: Voters who are extremely concerned about abortion rights are almost guaranteed to elect Democrats. By contrast, those who worry about the economy are not slam-dunk votes for Republicans, given the low unemployment rate, falling gas prices, and rapidly recovering stock market.
There are plenty of goings on in American politics that make no sense, but allowing Clarence Thomas to play a continuing role in bringing justice to Donald Trump for his attempt to overthrow the U.S. federal government is probably the single most insane aspect of all of this.
Thomas’s wife Ginny urged the Trump White House to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, but this wasn’t sufficient cause for the Supreme Court justice to recuse himself from cases related to the matter? Seriously?
In situations like these, recusal isn’t an option to be taken by refined and honorable gentlemen; it’s a legal requirement.
