James Knox Polk was the 11th President of the United States when the magazine “The Scientific American” was first published.  Before this revered publication announced its support of Kamala Harris in her opposition to Donald Trump, it had maintained silence on political issues in all but one other case in their history.

Why speak up now?  Trump is a climate denier, and is distinctly anti-science in most other regards.

Will this matter to his base?  Of course not.

 

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It would be interesting to know what percentage of U.S. voters are in synch with the meme here.

One might say, “Well, just look at Trump’s tally in the upcoming election.”  But that number includes the amoral rich, most of whom are well educated and intelligent (just ethically challenged).

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When Fox News agreed to pay $787 million to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting systems, one might have thought that the good old days of deliberate lying on the air had come to a close.

Not so.

 

 

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It’s been a while since I mentioned that Pope Francis is a fabulous humanitarian.

Until he came along, the Catholic Church had held essentially no position that sought to improve the social and material aspects of people’s lives.  The shift in perspective that the Pope has brought to the world has been jaw-dropping.

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A reader sent me this, which was interesting because I was having the same thought.

One of the things that makes high-profile people so hard to assassinate is that most of what they do when they’re in difficult-to-protect locations is the result of last-minute decisions that are not made public.

Is it possible that a mole tipped off the shooter?

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The meme here came from a reader.

I agree with this, except to note that there are liberals who hope Trump dies, whether via heart attack, plane crash, assassination, etc.

I point out that this will only make him a martyr among the MAGA base, and do little if anything to repudiate the idea that America needs to be led by a sociopathic dictator.

 

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Which is a more effective tool for an absolute ruler to maintain power: force or deception?

Niccolo Machiavelli’s idea on the subject is presented here, but if you’re Donald Trump, you choose both. When he lost the election in 2020, he both incited a violent insurrection and conspired with 18 members of his staff to reach out to state government officials and overturn the results.

 

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The meme here comes from a reader.  Two comments:

1)  Most people regard Trump’s $4 trillion in tax cuts for the rich as a “redistribution.”

2) The U.S. is the only developed country on Earth that doesn’t offer its citizens universal healthcare and other features of democratic socialism.

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Here’s a water filtration product called “Cloud.”

I would guess that most people looking for something to perform this function do not want their water cloudy.

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At left is a photo of North Carolina “Moms for Liberty” chapter vice president, arrested for her involvement on January 6th.
Why the long face?  Sure, you may be going to prison, but you’ll be going away for things in which you sincerely believe, first of all that all Trump supporters needed to attack the U.S. Capitol and “fight like hell.”
Your other beliefs include fighting for book burning, and against school curricula that mention LGBT rightsrace and ethnicitycritical race theory, and discrimination.
Most Americans are hoping that, by the time you get out of prison, that this nation will be a kinder and better informed place than it is now.
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