. . . . before Trump created a pejorative name for Kamala Harris and starting attacking her with it.
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich has a few point he’d like to make here.
Donald Trump faces plenty of obstacles, but perhaps chief among them is the considerable number of Republicans who maintain some level of integrity.
For example, take the former lieutenant governor of Georgia, whose thoughts on the subject appear at left.
And he’s not the only one out there who hasn’t drunk the proverbial Kool-aid. There are lots of folks in the GOP who understand that this election is the most important decision this country will ever make, and have pledged to prevent the United States from becoming just one more autocracy.
A reader asks:
I learned almost all the grammar I still know from Latin, French and German where these constructions had to be more explicitly explained: Declension and conjugation from Latin, subjunctives from German, etc. My question is, am I unusual in this respect or did you gain a better command of English by comparing (it) with other languages?
Studying Latin and the other languages helps, but I wouldn’t overemphasize this. English has the subjunctive mood. We don’t say, “If I was king.” or “Joe wishes he was taller.” We don’t have conjugations of verbs, but we have more than our share of irregular verbs, which I would argue earns our language what it’s known to be: a beast to learn.
My point is that one can achieve a solid command of English grammar without any exposure to anything beyond.
The issue is caring. My family cared a great deal, as did the private school my brother and I attended. When I come across people with poor grammar I realize: no one cared. That’s sad, especially considering that the average European high school student becomes fluent in at least two languages, and sometimes four or five.
When my kids were young, I told them, “No one can look into your mind and read your thoughts. For that reason, those around you will listen to what you say or read what you write and form their judgements as to your intelligence accordingly. If you don’t want to be thought to be an idiot, put in a bit of effort and nail down the basics of our language.
At least in the U.S., this is going in the opposite direction, largely via disinformation campaigns. Now we have masses of people, supported by Fox News and other right-wing media outlets, believing that climate change is a hoax, that phasing out fossil fuels is killing the American economy, and that environmentalism is for the woke, radical left.
I love this quote from 20th Century theoretical physicist Richard Feynman, and I’m glad that he was content to live with doubt.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the human intellect eventually hits a wall when it comes to understanding things like the ultimate components of the universe, what happened before the Big Bang, and what comprises human consciousness. All evidence points to the fact that we were evolved from hunter gatherers, whose brains were developed to find food and water, to protect themselves from predators, etc. Now we’re asking these brains to deal with issues like dark energy?
The situation in which the U.S. finds itself going into the November presidential election would be funny if it weren’t so packed with danger.
Do we want Dorothy or the Wicked Witch of the West? The Joker or Batman?
Comments on the photo here include:
The claim: Japanese students from Osaka Public University engineered and piloted an innovative ‘flying cycle’ aircraft in 2019. Named Tsurugi, the pedal-powered plane achieved a notable flight distance of 19 km (11 mi) during the Yomiuri Television Birdman Rally.
It’s unclear when Kurt Vonnegut said this, but given that he died in 2007, it couldn’t have been too recently.
And keep in mind that our society has become far more indecent since Vonnegut’s passing. I doubt he’d be too impressed that almost half of this country’s voters support a criminal sociopath to lead them.
As previously mentioned, 2GreenEnergy “headquarters” is located in a rural part of Central California, and, as such, it has a fairly good-sized contingent of far-right-wingers.
This guy, for instance, feels comfortable in announcing to the world that he owns an assault rifle, and that he will not comply with a ban on such weaponry were it to come along.
The good news is that Trumpers are far less numerous this year, at least judging by the flags and lawn signage, than they have been in the past. My theory here is that most law-abiding people are not thrilled about supporting a convicted felon, especially one who’s facing two additional indictments for his attempt to overthrow the U.S. government.
