Robert Reich notes: Today the House voted to reinstate the federal assault weapons ban that lapsed nearly 20 years ago. Think of all the countless lives that could have been saved had the ban stayed in place. Democrats in the Senate must work around the filibuster and get this bill to the President’s desk, and soon.
Is it just my imagination, or are things actually looking up?
My response to the reader who sent me the meme here: You need to stick with subject matter that doesn’t involve math or science. The average price of electricity in the U.S. is $0.11/kWh. The range of an EV with a 100-kWh battery is about 400 miles, or $0.0275per mile, just under 3 cents.
When you think about it, the meme here makes the exact opposite point it’s intended to. In all four cases, business created and marketed a product, only to have science come along and study it, determine it was dangerous, and submit its finding leading to a ban being imposed on it.
As I like to point out, science isn’t always right; in fact, it’s almost never right. Almost nothing we think we know about the world today will likely hold true in another couple of hundreds of years.
But it’s the best we have. Alternatives include superstition, QAnon, Alex Jones, the opinions of Trump supporters, and Fox News. I’ll take science any day.
Here’s something that should have happened 100 years ago: barring congresspeople from buying and selling stock while they hold office.
No wonder it has bipartisan support; no one wants to enable his opponent to say that he voted against the anti-corruption bill.
Apparently, a great deal of care was taken to focus the $370 billion climate/environment package on creating markets that will reduce CO2 emissions; I’m getting some good reports here.
My mom, quoting Fox News, says that dealing with climate will ruin the economy; fortunately for us all, fewer and fewer people believe this lie.
Re: the new climate/environment bill and my comment that Asia is the real problem in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, a reader notes: Hopefully, it’ll give China/India marginally less cause to drag their feet. Does seem this bill is plausibly designed to catalyze CO2-reducing market responses, but I’m pretty ignorant in this realm.
Here’s my recommendation for what should happen in the U.S.: The Carbon Fee and Dividend Initiative. The cost? $0.00.
It would create instant incentives to find low-carbon alternatives, and to build stuff that consumers can use to decarbonize. It’s net revenue-neutral, meaning that it doesn’t cost a dime overall; it just takes money from people and business entities that hog carbon and hands it to those who don’t.
Obviously, it can be implemented by any country on the planet.
There is no doubt that robots will be replacing human beings in hundreds of different roles in the workplace. And this one, baking pizzas, on the surface, is as workable a suggestion as any other.
Let’s imagine that we have a low-cost kiosk that simply enables a hungry patron to plunk down a credit card, and walk away a few minutes later with a piping hot, perfectly constructed, made-to-order pizza. What could go wrong? (more…)
Do you remember Trump’s unrecorded and unmonitored one-on-one conversation with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, midway through his presidency?
I recall thinking at the time that the content of that discussion might have been the single most potent threat to national security in our country’s history. Now, it seems trivial.
Why? Because of Trump’s coup attempt following the 2020 presidential election.
No one could possibly express this any better than Liz Cheney. She nailed this, and now it’s up to us to assimilate that core truth.
It’s amazing that there are so many elements of American society that have suddenly become controversial. It wasn’t 10 years ago that virtually everyone believed that a high-quality education was a top priority, for the welfare of both the child and the nation into which he’ll soon find himself functioning as an adult.
Now, education is often perceived to teach socialism, alternate sexual identities, critical race theory, police blaming, and anti-Americanism. Schools are viewed by many as breeding grounds for woke, liberal, and anti-capitalist ideas.
Of course, when you read this woman’s story about her experience in a Florida elementary school, you could argue that none of this matters, because the actual education is so substandard that what we teach is of no real consequence.
If I were protesting at George Washington University, I’d be citing Thomas’ treason, i.e., not recusing himself from cases in which his wife had personal interests, including overthrowing the United States government.
Here’s an 
