6/30/23 – Everybody could use to take a break and spend some time in nature. Enjoy our beautiful planet…while we can. The main thing we can hope for from the Supreme KKKourt is to protect our democracy. For everything else, we have to vote, and we have to have candidates that reflect the great country that we are. We’re Americans. We’re fighters. We will realize the promise of our rich, diverse country one way or another. Know it, put our heads down and do the work. We’ll get there.
6/29/23 – “[B]y secondary school transcripts and standardized tests, Harvard would be more than 40 percent Asian.” If memory serves correctly, just in his last op/ed, George Will complained (rightly, by the way) about grade inflation, but now, he suggests that it is part of an “objective” assessment. Grade inflation renders grades pretty much worthless, so why should it be included in determining academic skill or potential? Performance on standardized tests reflects so many other things aside from innate talent and potential, such as parent’s socio-economic status and education, childhood stability and support, quality of primary and secondary education, etc., that it is also effectively worthless. So then, what should admissions be based on? See, this is the question. Let’s set aside affirmative action. If the two measures that form the main criteria for college admissions are deeply flawed, then how can anyone claim that the status quo, the present process, is fair or producing the best outcomes for our society – that it is even remotely objective?
The court did not ‘end’ affirmative action. This was just a skirmish.
6/29/23 – Many white people assume that they are genetically superior, and they don’t need affirmative action. It puts them at a disadvantage. What if that assumption is wrong? For the inheritors of “Christendom,” they have been superior practitioners of might makes right, of what Jesus defied. That measure of superiority is running its course, and many other races/ethnicities are no longer white people’s slaves, no longer colonized by them, and no longer as repressed by them as they once were. As the playing field finally becomes more even, it might be white people needing affirmative action, but unfortunately for them, it won’t be legal any longer. We aren’t going back in time. Time will keep moving forward, and as it does, the tables can turn. So, let them have it this way. There will be no stigma for other races/ethnicities, and white people might get something they didn’t expect: the truth.
6/29/23 – The evil one, trump, said, “but this is classified.” It’s clear. The other transcription is wrong.
The Trump classified-document audio may be worse than we thought
6/28/23 – Is it possible for us as a country to have a productive conversation about education without conservatives trying to undermine the public education system? It is true that there are many problems with public education, actually education, public and private, more broadly. The argument that all of our nation’s education problems can be distilled to unions, whose power have dramatically decreased over the past half-century, or to teachers, who are burnt out and leaving the profession, is not helpful and not accurate. The grade inflation is absurd and needs to stop. However, one is deluded if they think this is isolated to public schools. Some of the worst practitioners of grade inflation are elite universities, such as the Ivy League schools. In general, there is a perverse exchange between the faculty of many post-secondary institutions, most of whom are adjuncts with no job security and paltry compensation, and the students. The students give positive evaluations if the faculty give them good grades that they haven’t actually earned. Also, one can’t fail an entire class, so some of the grade inflation is driven simply by a pragmatic calculation about the lack of academic preparedness of the cohorts. In addition, there are several cultural forces that have been growing in influence, and the pandemic simply exacerbated these negative changes. Not in any particular order:
- Many of the problems students have in K-12 reflect problems in the home: poverty, abuse, neglect, etc. These are societal problems that deserve a holistic response. If we want to get serious about improving educational outcomes, we need to get serious about investing in our communities and the well-being of all of our people.
- Parents are not well-educated on the potential detrimental effects of technology on their children, and they have not adapted their parenting styles to prevent them. Also, some parents are simply bad parents; see above. Given the disintegration of extended families and the rapid pace of technological and other change, parents need instruction on parenting, and it should be required by the state to get this training before they become responsible for the care of another human being. This training will also help reduce abuse and neglect, which can have lifelong damaging effects on students.
- Schools need to have much stricter policies regarding cellphone and other harmful use of technology on school grounds. They must be banned. They are having terrible effects on students’ mental health and their attention span, which is critical to learning and child development.
- Students’ attitude and behavior in any and all educational institutions have to change. They are far too disrespectful. Students are too coddled. They think far too much of themselves, meaning they have inaccurate self-appraisals, often because their parents don’t parent correctly, and far too little regard for others, including their teachers.
- Students have to do the work, and they have to struggle with the material on their own. This is a critical part of the learning process. Instead, they have come to expect any “discomfort,” such as confusion or hard work, to be alleviated. One can’t become a critical thinker if one doesn’t force oneself to think critically.
- In our actions, not just our words, education must be given more value and educators must be shown more respect. Teachers in many other countries are given much more respect than American teachers. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it will attract high-quality teachers to the profession. Also, many American teachers feel unsafe in their own classrooms not just from the threat of mass shootings but also from the students’ behavior.
- Especially for secondary schools and beyond, educators need not go to teacher colleges. They just need to be well-educated in the subject(s) they will be teaching. They also need to be lifelong learners. The most important prerequisite to teaching well is being passionate and knowledgeable about what one is teaching. The rest, such as the pedagogy, will evolve, partly due to the discovery of better practices but also because it should be customized to the cohort anyway. The pedagogy will naturally fall into place if the love for learning and content knowledge is there.
- Declining academic standards and grade inflation must stop. However, as mentioned above, one can’t fail an entire class. Therefore, this must be done in a practical way. Giving students grades they haven’t earned doesn’t help them. It hurts them. They don’t learn the value of hard work and discipline, which are critical to their success not just in school but in life. All students will never be equally good in all subjects. That’s part of the natural diversity of human beings. Grades should not be homogenized to spare feelings. Students need to toughen up and deal with the realities of life and be able to take honest stock of their strengths and weaknesses. (It’s also OK to use words such as “weakness” because we all have them. This is another reality of life.)
- Schools need to be much stricter and have much higher expectations of students, academically and more generally, such as their conduct. Instead of having high expectations of students, the administration, which is often bloated, over-compensated, disengaged, ineffective, and wants to kiss parents (and students) a—s for enrollment, transfers the onus to the educators, who already have too much on their plate and who have already done the work that the students should be doing.
- Schools must expect students to work hard, to exercise discipline and self-control, and to treat teachers and others, including their peers, with respect. This is basic and should be nonnegotiable. Schools should also develop a culture of service to others, which would provide a much-needed antidote to the self-centered, shallow, individualist American culture.
PS George Will should teach in any or several public school(s) without the students knowing who he is and objectively report on his experience. Instead of making it a campaign talking point, because we all need less talk and more action, let’s actually fix the problems.
Why K-12 education’s alarming decline could be a dominant 2024 issue
6/28/23 – At this point, Europeans are effectively living in museum, and they have developed a tourist mentality. They place their faith in the nanny state to meet all of their needs. They do not invest in their communities, as citizens must do to have true community and to build a future for their country. They have to change and start doing the hard work of community building or Europe will die.
6/27/23 – In a time of need, give me an American over a European any day. Because we take it for granted, it doesn’t get any press, but our people work hard, and they are generous and helpful. This is one of the darkest periods in our history. Our division is high; half the country has given themselves over to the spell of an evil demagogue, trump, who wants to destroy our democracy, and yet for as completely contradictory as it might seem, even MAGA, who are definitely not the best our country has to offer, is still more likely to help another person in need than the average European. What does that say?
6/27/23 – To understand the French people, actually, many western Europeans is to understand that they don’t care about others. They care only about themselves. The French are particularly narcissistic, lazy, and neurotic. They care about retiring at a ridiculously young age, but they don’t care about their president flirting with dictators, just as long as it doesn’t carry any negative consequences for them. Modern western Europe = moral decay.
Macron’s never-ending dance with despots needs to stop
6/27/23 – There are no words to describe how disgusting this is. It also reflects the deep moral rot and hypocrisy of Europeans. Europe might have “nurtured” Christianity for two millennia, but it was often for self-serving reasons, which begs the question: how Christian was it ever really? The atheistic hedonists (they often call themselves humanists, as if this term, just like the word “science,” carries some moral weight; it doesn’t) of Europe are not better than the Christian nationalists. Instead of figuring out how to use these buildings to serve the poor, the homeless, the refugees streaming into their countries, or the people of other countries that they have wronged via slavery or colonization, what do these self-righteous hypocrites do? (Or just hand them over to the people who actually care about Christianity. “Bonny thinks the most successful and gratifying repurposing has been the handing over to other Christian communities, be they Coptic or Eastern European.”) They turn these sacred places of worship into places for all manner of sin, perversion and indulgence. This is the state of modern Europe: selfish, self-righteous godless hypocrites who speak a lot of nice words but do nothing to help others. Where are their volunteers? Where are their donations? Where are their national discussions about social justice or reparations? After two-thousand years of “nurturing” Christianity, apparently, they learned nothing from Jesus.
In Europe’s empty churches, prayer and confessions make way for drinking and dancing
6/27/23 – Black Wall Street must happen! Now is the time for America to pay its debt owed to the black people who made this country and were robbed of the fruits of their labor. This payment should take several forms, and one of them must be the availability of credit and other support to build thriving black-owned businesses. “‘I tell people there are two things important to me — Jesus Christ and the belief in a Black Wall Street,’ said Richardson, 66, a community advocate and onetime parishioner of Third Baptist who still works with the church in his role as head of the men’s group at the nearby Jones United Methodist Church.” Another form is the distribution of land and assets. Promises were made. Promises must be kept. “But he has also identified disused buildings, vacant lots and other sites that he believes should be given to Black Californians as part of the package.”
Inside the Black church fighting for reparations from California
6/27/23 – Principled, tough women are the best! We disagree on much policy, but on love for country, there is no daylight. We must save our democracy. Long live the republic! God bless the USA.
Liz Cheney on what’s wrong with politics: ‘We’re electing idiots’
6/27/23 – We need to make sure that the US military does not follow illegal or unconstitutional orders.
6/27/23 – Maybe strongmen aren’t so strong after all. (Spoiler alert: They aren’t.) Maybe the best solution to the inevitable problems in life isn’t to put your faith in evil men saying what you want to hear, but to roll up your sleeves and do the hard but deeply satisfying work of creating a kind, inclusive, egalitarian society. (MAGA will also save a lot of money because they won’t be giving it to a criminal conman, the evil one, trump, who is using them and their money to pay for crime-related expenses.)
6/27/23 – The regime must lose. “If we lose the Ukraine war, the regime will fall and we won’t be able to get it back.”
Rebellion shakes Russian elite’s faith in Putin’s strength
6/27/23 – Marilyn Monroe (Norma Jeane Mortenson), who was a beautiful person, was prettier as a brunette. Be natural.
6/27/23 – Don’t use drugs. They don’t provide any benefits, and they are harmful to your body and mind. Keep alcohol to a minimum. Western, especially American, societies like to glorify alcohol and drugs. There is actually nothing positive, cool or glamourous about them. Spend time in nature. Spend time with good people. Clean, natural living.
6/27/23 – Know that choosing to regularly subject yourself to conspiracy theories is like choosing to develop a mental illness. Just like eating healthily, one needs to be selective in the information one consumes. Maintaining both a healthy body and a healthy mind requires discipline and intentionality.
6/27/23 – Science, science, science, science, and science some more. Whenever someone brandishes a “science” bummer sticker or says things like “I believe in science,” rest assured the person is desperately needing affirmation of their intelligence or coolness.
6/26/23 – We must look to the future…and to the past to plan. We’re going to have to find a way of directing rainfall from places that have more than needed to places that don’t have enough, a sort of system of aqueducts.
The places in the U.S. most at risk for extreme rainfall
6/26/23 – If it is to be Mandela’s South Africa, it better arrest the satanic Russian s—t, putin.
6/26/23 – Dictators of the world unite! Oh, apparently, they already have. Of course, they have. You know who has also learned from and taught them, the wannabee dictator, the evil one, donald trump.
Dictators’ dark secret: They’re learning from each other
6/26/23 – The Catholic church and Christianity would be in a much better place if church leaders had treated women as Jesus did, as equal to men. That said; a convincing argument can be made that the reason women have much stronger rights in the west than in other countries in the world is the influence of Judeo-Christian values regarding the person, even in its relatively poorly applied form. Just as the Founding Fathers could point to God to assert their independence and their rights, western women can point to the Christian God, as giving them equal rights and as being equal to men. God is great. God is good. And God is right.
6/26/23 – India hates women, and its Hindu caste system is yet another layer of hatred. If one is a “low-caste” woman in India, she essentially has no value. India is a nation that treats human beings as commodities. The evidence is in the dowry system and in its institutionalized slavery, the Hindu caste system. A nation that doesn’t value human life and doesn’t view all people as being created equal will never flourish.
How Dowries Are Fuelling a Femicide Epidemic
6/26/23 – Jesus didn’t ask his followers to love him more. He just asked his followers to love.
6/26/23 – MAGA needs to choose who they love more: themselves or the evil one, trump. It’s not an optional choice. He forces it on everyone that follows him one way or another.
6/25/23 – The hard part about good judgment is not so much the ability to forecast the ramifications of decisions correctly, it’s the consistent exercise of integrity.
6/25/23 – Is it possible, America, to move beyond two deeply flawed geriatric candidates for the presidency? Can we do this?
6/25/23 – “So when Putin launched ever more active efforts to dismantle Russia’s democratic institutions, we in the Russian opposition naively thought the free world would express criticism. Instead, American presidents of both parties applauded Putin’s rise…. But perhaps the most grotesque gesture came from the British government, which welcomed Putin for a lavish state visit.” They didn’t express criticism then with Russia, and they don’t now with India. What the USA did was reward murderous, dictator modi, just as they did with putin. The parallels aren’t by chance. They are by choice – selfish, short-sighed choices wholly lacking in principles, values and morality.
The West deserves much of the blame for Putin’s rise to unchecked power
6/25/23 – A strong argument could be made that, thus far, the USA’s political structure has been quite resilient. Our democracy had never experienced a test such as the last election, 2020. The insurrection was humiliating, but it did also demonstrate that the checks and balances of our system do work. Our independent judiciary has been critical to maintaining our democracy, arguably even more so than the legislative branch, as we saw in the failures of two impeachments against an evil, autocratic degenerate, trump. An important area of poli-sci research is the role of the judicial branch in any democratic governance structure and how to strengthen its independence and power without it legislating from the bench.
In addition to arguing that Russia’s problem is the lack of a parliamentary republic, meaning the political structure at the inception of its democracy, Navalny (and several Indians) have made the argument that their own countries should be responsible for the restoration of a truer democracy. “As for the possible total control of parliament [in a parliamentary republic] by Putin’s party, the answer is simple: Once the real opposition is allowed to vote, it will be impossible. … They just don’t have anyone to vote for now. Certainly, changing Putin’s regime in the country and choosing the path of development are not matters for the West, but jobs for the citizens of Russia.” Understandably, as a matter of pride and national sovereignty, countries’ citizens would like to reform their countries on their own. However, his and others’ assumptions are that the country has free and fair elections and that voters will vote in accordance with the preservation of democracy and not for a strongman. (Note that both Russia and India have sidelined opposition candidates, which also highlights the importance of an independent judiciary.)
Mandela fought for South Africa to have one person, one vote for good reason. First, each citizen’s right to vote needs to be the law, and each vote must count equally. Second, elections need to be free and fair. Americans are wisely actively engaged in protecting our free and fair elections. Once this has eroded, democracy is not worth the constitution it is printed on. Democracy simply becomes de jure but not de facto, and this can happen regardless of the country’s democratic structure at inception. Third, the irrational passions that inflame the electorate whether via demagoguery or frustrations, such as high inflation, class or ethnic struggles, can result in the democratic election of an autocrat. One only has to look to Germany to see an example of this.
Although the political structure is important, particularly as it relates to checks and balances, it is not a panacea. We need free and fair elections, and arguably most importantly, well-informed, well-educated citizens who vote rationally based not (only) on self-interest but the interests of the country, even the world, as a whole. This part, however, is a social not a political problem. At the end of the day, a country is only as good as its people. The world’s people need to take a cold, hard look at themselves and ask, “Am I proud of what I see? Am I being a good person and a good (global) citizen?”
Alexei Navalny: This is what a post-Putin Russia should look like
6/24/23 – Much of the world is quite enjoying Russia’s internal battles. Schadenfreude. This is what happens when your populace becomes selfish a—holes, who vote for a dictator and then your dictator wages war on a peaceful, independent country, Ukraine. It doesn’t have to be this way. Russia can choose to reform itself. MAGA, are you paying attention?
6/24/23 – Meanwhile in Ukraine, the anarchists are helping the military.
Ukraine’s anarchists have come together in support of the war
6/24/23 – Remember that the satanic Russian s—t helped install the Manchurian candidate, the evil one, trump, who then incited an insurrection in the USA, breaking our almost 250-year-streak as a democracy of peaceful transitions of power. What sweet poetry this is. “By Saturday morning, Prigozhin and his fighters entered Rostov-on-Don, crossing a heavily fortified region of southern Russia with apparent ease — despite an arrest warrant against Prigozhin from Russia’s main security agency, the Federal Security Service, or FSB, which late Friday accused Prigozhin of ‘incitement to armed rebellion’ and said it had opened a criminal case.”
After brief armed rebellion, mercenary convoy turns back from Moscow
6/23/23 – We don’t just have to protect our democracy from the evil one, trump. There is a broader rot in the state of Denmark.
6/23/23 – Since he loves dictators, let’s quote one. Biden is a dotard.
6/23/23 – Oh, but there is more. “The former U.S. diplomat Aaron David Miller called Biden’s embrace of Modi and the human-rights-abusing Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom Biden visited last year despite having vowed as a candidate to shun and isolate him, ‘a head-exploding hypocritical pivot.’… [modi] definitely did not sound like he had signed up for charter membership in Biden’s oft-cited alliance of democracies versus autocracies at this dangerous inflection point in world history…. Biden’s leading rival for 2024, Donald Trump, is an avowed Modi admirer, and the final foreign trip of his Presidency was to India, where he appeared at a rally of more than a hundred thousand people and praised the ‘tough’ Modi as ‘a man I am proud to call my true friend.’” Experiencing some cognitive dissonance? Wondering why the self-described defender of democracy is unwilling to take questions, like um modi? “At that moment, Biden was surely just as glad as Modi not to have agreed to take more than a single American reporter’s questions.”
What Joe Biden Didn’t Say to Narendra Modi
6/23/23 – You don’t say. “Daniel Markey, a senior adviser at the U.S. Institute of Peace and a former State Department official, said it’s important for Washington to cultivate closer ties to India, but he criticized former president Donald Trump — and now Biden — for lavishing praise on Modi personally. ‘It was bad enough with a Trump administration that didn’t seem to care at all about democratic values, but there’s now an even deeper dissonance with a Biden administration that has said democracy should be at the core of how it makes foreign policy,’ Markey said.” The “dissonance” is called hypocrisy.
As Modi visits, Biden praises India’s democracy despite critics
6/23/23 – It is entirely possible, even probable, that the Biden/Harris administration’s fawning over modi will not motivate him to curb his autocratic moves but will have the opposite effect of emboldening him. By this ill-conceived state visit, he received valuable affirmation, unjustified praise and validation that his anti-democratic actions, against the free press and the judiciary, his demagoguery, particularly of religious minorities, and the propaganda he and his party are having Bollywood produce, do not carry any negative consequences. In fact, he might even be rewarded by the only superpower in the world. When modi’s behavior worsens, which it will, you can blame, in great part, the Biden/Harris administration. This is what happens when politicians have no principles.
6/22/23 – Don’t believe Biden/Harris, who are prostituting themselves for a dictator. These are the facts. “‘With an average of three or four journalists killed in connection with their work every year, India is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for media,’ the report said…. In recent years, journalists have been arrested and some are stopped from traveling abroad. Dozens are facing criminal prosecution, including for sedition. At the same time, the government has introduced sweeping regulatory laws for social media companies that give it more power to police online content.”
India’s Modi meets the press at the White House — and takes rare questions
Like other dictators, murderous modi, who feeds hate like the evil one, trump, does, didn’t answer the question. He just said a bunch of meaningless statements. India is one of the oldest civilizations in the world. Of the ancient polytheistic religions, Hinduism is the only major one remaining. Democracy is not in any country’s DNA, not even the USA, which is the oldest continuous democracy in the world. (We will soon be celebrating 250 years as a democracy unless the evil one is reelected, in which case, we will not make it to even 250 years.) Most Americans are well-aware of the struggles we’re having maintaining it. India is a much newer democracy, about 75 years, which is a drop in the bucket for a 4,000 plus year-old civilization, and the evil modi has incited religiously motivated violence on minority groups, particularly Muslims, and prejudice. He is a lying phony. He is a murderous dictator, and many people don’t consider India a true democracy any longer because of the illiberal actions he has taken.
Reporter asks Modi about religious discrimination in India
More to come on this topic because the bulls—t needs to be exposed.
6/22/23 – Exactly.
The end of the world is nigh. Should we do something about it?
6/22/23 – The American people are paying these MAGA morons to humiliate us and to damage our institutions. Think about that.
GOP’s Boebert wanted to impeach Biden, but House Speaker McCarthy had other plans
6/22/23 – Every job is vulnerable to AI. The best plan is to just do what you love. Find subjects that interest you. Throw yourself passionately into learning them. Figure out how to make money doing something related to them. Keep learning. Work hard. Be disciplined. Persevere. Remember: Simple, honest lives are the best.
‘Lobster Lady’ turns 103, has been hauling traps for 95 years
6/22/23 – The Democrats deserve a much better ticket for the next presidential election. Biden/Harris are garbage. Nobody wants them.
6/22/23 – Biden is a hypocrite.
6/21/23 – Biden has no principles.
6/21/23 – Apparently, Biden has no qualms about kissing dictators’ a—es. The murderer modi is an evil dictator. Do not be fooled.
6/21/23 – Everyone should imagine the CNN town hall as an interview in a studio and ask if it would have been as disastrous. Likely not. MAGA is making the evil one. Without them, he dies. “What happened to that more confident Trump? And why did he—or anyone on his staff—think it would be a good idea to sit in a quiet room, alone with an experienced reporter? …Trump relies on the energy he gets from proximity to his supporters.”
Trump Seems to Be Afraid, Very Afraid
6/20/23 – Grass lawns should be banned. They are really bad for the environment. They consume loads of water and require a lot of fertilizer and pesticides, which pollute our water sources, plants and wildlife. There are many great options for ground cover that are drought-tolerant, low-maintenance and pollinator-friendly. Either we get serious about protecting the environment, or we resign ourselves to extinction. These are the only two options.
6/20/23 – To all parents, you are choosing to leave your progeny an uninhabitable planet. Know this now.
6/20/23 – Part of the reason some people, such as MAGA morons, don’t believe in climate change is that they don’t understand that there has never been a period in human history, more generally, *all of the planet’s entire history*, such as this. We are in the first ever experiment of this kind. Before WWII and the 1950s, many communities in the west and elsewhere, such as India and China, were still quite agrarian. Many people lived on farms. They also lived in ways that left a relatively small footprint on the planet. That is no longer the case. MAGA morons don’t have to believe the “crazy libs.” They can just do basic observation. Ask themselves how their ancestors lived compared to how we live and observe how dramatically different it is. There are consequences for such a radical change in such a short period of time. One of those consequences is climate change. Their argument is that the earth always goes through these kinds of changes. Actually, no, it doesn’t, and it hasn’t. This is the first time the earth has gone through a human-driven change of this magnitude in the planet’s entire history. “These changes all are the result of what scientists call ‘the Great Acceleration’ — the dramatic, simultaneous surge in almost every measure of human activity that started in the mid-20th century and continues through today.” Facts don’t care about the amoeba-brained feelings, and these are the facts. “The Earth is, in fact, fundamentally different.”
Hidden Beneath the Surface
6/19/23 – Lovely piece. Just like with people, a great country isn’t one that pretends it’s perfect, flatters itself (or evil demagogues) with false narratives or wants to revert back to a more imperfect form. It’s one that is secure enough to admit it’s not, never has been and never will be perfect, and yet, will keep striving to be more perfect. Unless we’re God, perfection is unattainable, but a more perfect union is not. Half the country is working towards this end. Just like half the country fought to end slavery. Just like half the country will fight fascism and to keep America a democracy. This half of the country are American patriots. “The colors on the Juneteenth flag are red, white and blue; they must be. It is an American holiday” because “it was hard won by perhaps the greatest multiracial coalition the nation has ever assembled — with Black Americans actively engaged in the taking.” Today, let us honor the white, black and all of the people who helped free black slaves and win the bloodiest war in American history, the Civil War. Happy Juneteenth, America! Land of the free, home of the brave and strivers of a more perfect union.
Juneteenth is a holiday for all Americans. It’s our second independence day.
6/19/23 – MAGA are not loyal to the USA. They are loyal to the evil one, who is not loyal to anything or anyone. They are loyal to one demonic man. MAGA are preventing our military from functioning correctly, and they are a danger to the country. “‘You think a white nationalist is a Nazi?’ he asked. ‘I don’t look at it like that. I look at a white nationalist as a Trump Republican.’” That means Nazi = Trump Republican. (Tuberville, one of the dumbest of the amoeba-brained MAGA morons).
The GOP claims to be strong on defense. Tommy Tuberville shows otherwise.
6/18/23 – The people make the man. If this is what one has to say about the man, “His degeneracy is unmatched in American presidential history and unsurpassed in American political history,” then what does one say about the people? These are the people that are supposed to decide the fate of our democracy? A country is only as good as its people. Right now, half our country is rotten. Also, know this. The evil one, trump, has no loyalty to the USA because he has no loyalty to anything or anyone. This is why he has betrayed the country over and over again. By extension, MAGA also have no loyalty to the USA because they have loyalty only to him. That’s the devil’s bargain they entered. The rest of us are in grave danger. Do something!
Morality Is for Trump What Colors Are to the Color-Blind
6/18/23 – As Jesus said, hypocrites, hypocrites and hypocrites. Happy Sunday!
6/18/23 – It is quite ironic that African nations, with their tragic history of slavery, seem to be expecting Ukrainians to become Russian slaves so that Africans can have food. Sorry, people. You want food, help Ukraine win. If Africa sides with the imperialist enslavers, Russia, it would be the height of hypocrisy, and Africa would lose moral credibility.
Zelensky – Global Peace Summit, African Nations
6/18/23 – So many politicians, including Biden, talk so much about being pro-union, but they don’t do anything to strengthen labor.
Lexi Rizzo fought to unionize her Starbucks. Now she’s out of a job. Her struggle is just beginning.
6/18/23 – The USA is sleepwalking into losing its democracy. Does anybody have an actual plan to prevent this? For those who say, let the voters decide. You didn’t let the voters decide to keep Nazi Germany. One generation shouldn’t undermine the good work of previous generations or the future of subsequent generations. Everybody seems content with playing Russian roulette and leaving the fate of our democracy up to the bad, crazy, stupid people who want to have poo-sex with the evil one, trump. That’s not a plan. It’s quite dangerous and foolish. Do something! Anything!
Trump’s indictment plus candidacy could endanger democracy and the rule of law
6/17/23 – Does MAGA want to have (poo-, see Hitler) sex with the evil one, trump? This question deserves serious study. The hypothesis can be along the lines of his hateful rhetoric engages sexual desires MAGA, at least subconsciously, has and/or represses. Remember when the hideous MTG actually stroked a cardboard cutout of the evil one in his groin area. This is a representative in the House, and it is on video. She did on camera to an audience, who received it with delight by the way, what a lot of them, men and women, feel but don’t overtly express. A country ends up being a lot like a family where you’re stuck with people you don’t respect or can’t stand. Let’s not pretend that our predicament is about the evil one or even his abettors. Evil people will always exist. Opportunists will also always exist. However, this predicament, just like the one in Nazi Germany, exists because of MAGA. All they have to do is reject the evil one, and he disappears.
6/17/23 – Countries such as North Korea, whose leader the evil one adores, and China often force their citizens to worship their leaders or the state as gods. Nazi Germany also tried to do this, with many Germans choosing to do so. In the USA, MAGA doesn’t need to be forced, they are choosing of their own free will (Republicans claim to be the party of personal responsibility; remember that) to do so. They can’t see the truth regarding themselves or the evil one because they have chosen to listen to the lies.
6/17/23 – Now, let us take this in. The audio reading said, “arouse,” instead of “rouse.” Arouse is more accurate. The evil one’s hate and the evil one himself turn MAGA on. “Where Trump deviates from the script of generic Republican fearmongering these days is in the voluminousness and specificity of the personal grievances with which he seeks to rouse his audiences. Let Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, and the others try to scare Republican voters with the bogeyman of ‘biological boys’ showing up in girls’ locker rooms or the horrors of political correctness run amok at Walt Disney World. Only Trump would try to scare them with all the ways in which he himself is being persecuted…. ‘I am the only one that can save this nation,’ he said. L’état, c’est Trump.”
“I Am the Only One”: Trump’s Messianic 2024 Message
6/17/23 – Let’s all take in not just the absurdity of running for the office of the presidency but being unwilling to criticize your primary opponent and instead defending him, but also their total self-humiliation. Apparently, ambition is more powerful than even a basic level of self-respect and dignity. These are the people who want your votes.
I stand 100% with Donald Trump, but please vote for me instead of him
6/17/23 – What level of degenerate does a person have to be to find hate appealing? The racist, sexist, homophobic, religious bigot level. What level of complete idiot does a person have to be to fall for such a transparent con? Amoeba-brain. Single-celled organism. “Only I….” “I am your….” This country has a bad, stupid people problem known as MAGA. The evil one will go away, but this problem will remain. They have shown themselves to us. In fact, the internet has a permanent record of it. And it’s not pretty.
6/17/23 – The only reason the evil one, trump, has any relevance is because of amoeba-brained MAGA morons, many of whom are obsessed with homosexuality and can’t see the irony of giving the ugly, fat, orange idiot a blowjob every day. Every single day. Not to mention loads of their money that they could have actually invested in their families or their communities instead of giving to a traitorous, grifting crime boss. The mafia had to use extortion to get money. With these idiots, they hand it over because they think he will a) give them a magic cure for all their ills b) actually pass policy that will help them c) none of the above, but they do own the libs. Sure, they own the libs like they own the money they gave him. “‘It’s an old situation he’s in, but now because this is extremely serious, of course he’s going to ramp up that narrative,’ Ben-Ghiat said. ‘What strongmen do is, if you are corrupt, you need to get back into power to shut down all the institutions that can harm you.’”
Trump’s promise of payback for prosecution follows years of attacking democratic traditions
6/16/23 – And to all the liberal Democrats who are holier-than-thou, take your purity and shove it up your self-righteous a—es. Your purity cost us 2016, so f—k you.
6/16/23 – Democrats lost the presidency in 2016, and obviously, it was a crushing defeat. There were many things we might have done differently to win. Obviously, the election of the evil one, trump, must be owned by the people who actually voted for him. However, even for those of us who didn’t vote for his evilness but for the Democratic candidate, if anything happens to our men and women in uniform or other public servants who risk their lives to protect our nation and our freedom because of his actions, which sadly, at this point, is highly probable, we would understandably feel some guilt. Maybe we could have volunteered more, donated more, or somehow fought harder to win, and maybe we could have prevented this outcome by preventing his evilness from ever taking office. It is okay to have these regrets. We have a conscience and a love for our fellow compatriots who sacrifice for us. But let us not repeat it. We thought the evil one would be easier to defeat, and he won. It is better for the nation to not have him even in contention for the presidency, even if that means we are more likely to lose the presidency because a better candidate wins the Republican primary. Loving your country means loving it over party, and that applies equally to Republicans and Democrats.
6/16/23 – 100%. “Some people are blithely claiming that the indictment of former president Donald Trump on charges of violating the Espionage Act, obstruction, conspiracy and other crimes puts the justice system on trial. Balderdash. The cliché has no meaning at this stage — and it improperly shifts the attention and blame from a treacherous defendant alleged to have endangered U.S. national security.
The justice system already proved its mettle in the investigation and indictment of Trump. Attorney General Merrick Garland and special counsel Jack Smith meticulously investigated the facts, interviewing every imaginable witness and got Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran to supply invaluable evidence. Ordinary Americans serving on a grand jury indicted him. Should this go to trial, Trump’s fate, as with every criminal defendant who chooses a jury trial, will rest with a jury of his peers.
If there is a test, it is for Republicans. Indeed, it’s a test they have failed repeatedly thus far. When Senate Republicans adopted the ‘big lie’ and acquitted Trump in the second impeachment, they took the side of lawlessness, authoritarianism and contempt for the Constitution.
Now they have a second chance (or third chance, if you consider they could have jettisoned him in the first impeachment). Republicans must decide whether they will continue with self-delusion (aided by lame rationales provided by the right-wing media that will excuse any conduct and minimize any charge) to the detriment of the country, our democracy and the rule of law.
Voters need to think long and hard about nominating someone who has been indicted (and, by next year, might be convicted) on charges of serious crimes. Entrusting this guy with U.S. secrets would be ludicrous. Do they really care so little for national security? Do they lack any appreciation for the insult to the Constitution that they’d return to office someone so cavalier about it?
Republican officeholders’ gob-smacking determination to defend him should disqualify them from office. They apparently would stop at nothing to further their own careers (by pandering to the base they’ve radicalized) to the detriment of our democracy.
Democrats might be rooting for Republicans to sleepwalk their way to nominating Trump, believing he would surely lose in the general election. Perhaps. But we should not encourage millions of Americans to play Russian roulette with our democracy. Indeed, we should root for millions of our fellow Americans to regain their decency, honor and sobriety by rejecting someone so manifestly unfit and dangerous.” (Jennifer Rubin, The Washington Post)
6/16/23 – The Democratic Party, we are the democracy. We will not erase history, and when the history books are written, it will be written that we saved this country that so many patriots, not red or blue, but American patriots fought to defend, starting with the Revolutionary War. In our present civil war against fascism, we are American patriots. Old Glory will forever fly high and proud, and we will remain a city on a hill.
6/16/23 – If MAGA ever sees the light and realizes how completely conned they were, that backlash could be something to behold…and to seize upon. Let us, the sane protectors of democracy, aka Democrats, not let resentments dominate pragmatism. We don’t have to forgive them though…ever.
6/16/23 – Are the amoeba-brained MAGA morons actually working it out? It’s hard to believe that they might actually be getting their heads out of their cult a-ses. Are they capable of considering whether they love their children more than the evil orange monster? Will they think, all that money I gave to a grifting traitor who endangered my family and my country, I could have invested for my children and grandchildren? “Another problematic sign for Trump is that the number of Republicans bothered by his legal problems seems to be growing. So is the number among independents. More voters are bothered by the case against him — on charges of taking classified material and trying to conceal that he did — than by the earlier New York State charges related to hush money for a sexual encounter.” (NYTimes) Is this actually possible or just a mirage?
6/15/23 – More people should consider joining the military. They might learn really practical things like discipline, hard work, teamwork and, well, how to survive, which will come in quite handy as the planet enters the apocalyptic hellscape phase.
6/15/23 – Some of us never left any of the “analog” world behind because why would we. It’s good for Gen Z to get away from all the digital stuff if only to give their eyes a break not to mention help cure them of their cellphone addiction. Hopefully, they will also actually learn more too. Just like it’s easier to memorize Shakespeare if you understand the sound (it is poetry, after all), blue book exams (which should definitely be used more frequently in general) in literature classes are much easier to excel at when you read physical books because you actually have to turn the pages. You can keep track of where you’re at in the work better, which one is usually required to provide. In case anyone forgot, we have more senses than just sight. They should all be used as much as possible. Humans and the entire universe are designed so well, one would think there might be some intelligent design behind the whole of creation. Oh no, that’s right. It’s just the logic of evolution, which is why we share so many genes with other life forms. I mean what God would design us to share genes…. It must be either/or, right? It couldn’t possibly be both. Actually, it can. And it can also be both analog and digital.
6 analog trends that are good for the soul
6/15/23 – F—k everybody calling for the evil one, trump, to be pardoned. If justice were being truly served, he would be sentenced to death by firing squad. He is a traitor and has betrayed the country on every possible level.
6/15/23 – A second term of the evil one, trump, will mean not only the potential end of our democracy but the end of our national security, a financial crisis in which he bails out himself and other rich people at the expense of the American people, including MAGA, and turning the entire global economy into Russian- and Chinese-style cronyism. It will mean the end of everything Americans’ ancestors, both red and blue, sacrificed their lives to protect: freedom and democracy. MAGA is immoral, stupid and crazy. They need to be stopped.
6/15/23 – So the incompetent Fed is floating potential future rate hikes while this catastrophe is looming. Genius.
Workers want to stay remote, prompting an office real estate crisis
6/15/23 – This is the country the evil one, trump, sold our national secrets to. So many sports organizations, such as the PGA and FIFA, are totally corrupt. It’s corruption and grift everywhere. “One major reason Saudi Arabia is especially flush with cash — enough to buy entire sports leagues — is that the Saudi government is taking advantage of the war in Ukraine to fleece the West…. But the administration should also realize that the Saudis are interfering in U.S. politics to support people who, if elected, would stop U.S. support for Ukraine.”
Saudi Arabia bought golf with its Ukraine war profits
6/15/23 – Turkey and Hungary should be kicked out of all of the multi-lateral institutions.
GOP senator blocks arms sale to Hungary for stalling Sweden’s NATO bid
6/14/23 – Republicans might say they have these values, but they don’t act like it. It’s like self-described Christians who don’t actually practice the faith. They just speak words. Words like these are meaningless when you don’t live them. “In the survey, respondents were asked to rate the importance of six principles: personal responsibility, fair enforcement of the law, representative government, government accountability, compassion and respect across differences, and learning from the past. In each case, about 90% of both Democrats and Republicans rated these values as very or extremely important. When asked if members of the opposing party shared those values, however, about two-thirds of respondents said no.” When you support an evil man, like trump or putin, all your credibility evaporates. Nobody will believe anything you say because your actions don’t match your stated values.
Democrats and Republicans share core values but still distrust each other
6/13/23 – This is true. “Nobody ever asks Republican presidential candidates to do the same with urban voters. Maybe if they did, they’d learn a thing or two about the country they aspire to govern.” It’s a double standard. However, it’s not either/or. It’s both. Small towns and big cities have negative aspects. Small towns can be intolerant, even backward, and limited. Big cities can be obnoxious and overwhelming. They also have positive ones. Some parts of the country really value both: living in the city, with its diverse population that, by the way, are quite friendly, polite and helpful toward each other, but also getting out of the city, into nature, hanging out in quiet, rural communities with their simple lives. More people might stay in small towns if they could realize their ambitions there. Making these opportunities happen is worthwhile policy for both parties. Being able to adapt to change is important but so is honoring tradition, your ancestors and the people who sacrificed for the country’s and the world’s benefit. A well-rounded person can feel comfortable in and appreciative of many different environments.
Forget ‘small-town values.’ We need candidates with big-city values.
6/11/23 – The average person is an idiot. Thank you, and have a blessed Sunday.
6/11/23 – Let’s help the idiots of Door County. All of these white people’s ancestors came to the United States as illegals, i.e. illegally, as this land was already owned by indigenous people. They need to get the f—k over themselves and their whiteness.
This county backed every president for two decades. What about 2024?
6/11/23 – The entire free world’s security is going to be at risk if the evil sociopathic monster is reelected.
6/11/23 – You would think that the media, the FBI and the Justice Department would all find it very strange that the evil one, trump, was travelling around with boxes of our national security secrets. Doesn’t that seem like a red f—king flag to anyone?
Trump’s path to indictment: ‘Isn’t it better if there are no documents?’
6/11/23 – “Mike Pence poses 2024’s elemental question: The Constitution or Trump?” Here is a more elemental question. God or Trump? Because you can’t have both.
6/11/23 – I wonder what would have happened if Paul, after he had seen the light, was embraced by…right, it didn’t matter at all who embraced him. In fact, Jesus’s other disciples remained distrustful and resentful of him. We either live by our convictions, or we don’t. It shouldn’t matter what others think or do. Beck is doing what is wrong because of money. He has chosen to sell his soul.
We must give Tucker Carlson an exit ramp
6/11/23 – Can we do this or what? Can we do anything that actually helps children? In general, American parents are some of the worst parents in the world. They simply don’t know how to parent. “[T]he history of cigarette and opioid litigation might be instructive. I hope the bubble denizens mentioned above can escape long enough to read this one essay.”
Why we should ban smartphones in schools
6/11/23 – Never in my life will I be doing chatbot-generated church. Happy Sunday, and Happy Human-Generated Service!
6/10/23 – Gary Abernathy can go f—k himself, and then f—k himself some more.
6/10/23 – The former “commander-in-chief” is an abettor of foreign enemies and spies. He is a traitor. Let that sink in.
6/10/23 – The problem with MAGA is that they are bad, stupid people. Remember: The evil one, trump, has no value for human life. This is the person MAGA supports.
6/9/23 – Let’s break this down for the amoeba-brained MAGA morons. What the evil one did was not the same as what others, Democrats and Republicans, did. Many of us have had a car accident at some point due to misjudgment. The evil one intentionally turned the car into a weapon intended to harm the United States of America. It was not an accident. It was not unintentional. On top of that, his weaponization was intended to help him. Car terrorism is not treated the same way as a car accident. The former is a crime. The latter is a civil matter between two parties, usually settled rather perfunctorily by their insurance agencies. MAGA will be in idiotic denial, but the truth is indifferent to them and their depraved states. They are demonic, and the truth is divine.
6/9/23 – The American people want to know how much the grifting evilness cost the taxpayers in total. We want the courts to require the evil one, trump, to repay the amount to the American people. “He violated federal contracting guidelines by giving an open-ended, no-bid contract to a law firm with conservative connections to investigate employees he saw as opposed to Mr. Trump. It allowed lawyers to bill $1,470 per hour for work that, if it needed to be done at all, could have been performed by government attorneys. The sweetheart deal cost taxpayers $1.6 million.” Pack basically tried to turn VOA into the American version of RT.
How a Trump appointee tried to destroy Voice of America
6/8/23 – Remember: when people didn’t want to follow Jesus, he didn’t impose his will on them. He just kept walking. We have to choose to follow him. God made each person with free will. To endow us with this spark of the divine is the greatest act of trust there will ever be. With this gift of free will, we also own our lives and our choices. Conservatives are not our god, and they are not our judge. Only Jesus is the Son of God and our judge. We know his voice and answer to him alone.
6/8/23 – “With his courage on Jan. 6, Mike Pence saved our democracy. He would make an outstanding president.” The first part is true, and the country owes him a debt of gratitude for it. His actions in this regard will be remembered well. The second part is not true. He routinely did the bidding of his evil mob boss to the extent that a running joke compared him to a lapdog. Let’s break down his statements. “‘We’ve had enough of the Democrats and the radical left repeatedly trampling on our Constitution, threatening to pack the court to dismantle the God-given rights that are enshrined there, [The conservatives packed the courts and are trampling on our God-given rights. Just look at the polls and the unpopularity of many of the conservative court’s rulings.]’ Pence said on Wednesday. ‘We must stand on the Constitution to protect the God-given right to life. We must stand on the Constitution to protect the right to keep and bear arms. [The conservatives don’t care about life once it can breathe on its own. They don’t care about the abuse of guns to kill life. It’s quite contradictory and hypocritical. They don’t care about women’s rights. They don’t care about LGBTQ rights. They care about the rights of people who agree with them and are so arrogant about their convictions, they are willing to impose them on others who disagree. This is an unworkable position for a pluralistic society.] We must stand for the Constitution to protect the right to live, to work, to worship according to the dictates of our faith and conscience. [Agreed, what about the people who are of different or no faith tradition and for that reason and others, have different values? Do Constitutional rights apply equally to them or not?]”
Pence put America first when it counted. He would be a great president.
6/8/23 – There is no way on God’s green earth that the evil one, trump, wanted to hang onto the documents simply out of ego. It defies everything we know about his grifting evilness. He wanted to sell out the country’s security for his personal gain. He deserves the death penalty, by firing squad.
Trump charged in Mar-a-Lago classified documents investigation
6/8/23 – True Christians will be living and defending the faith until the bitter end, and we will win.
6/8/23 – Despicable desantis is disgusting. He should be excommunicated for this. It’s absolutely immoral. Apparently, he learned absolutely nothing about the faith during all of that Catholic education. “It is taking person who already has lost everything — everything. They have nothing, not even a nation they can really call their own because they have had to flee that nation. And then using them for your own purposes: That is not morally acceptable.”
DeSantis recruiters eyed Catholic church for migrant flights that bishop calls ‘reprehensible’
6/7/23 – One hundred percent agree. The schools care more about these kids than their own parents. Hard truth.
Get Phones Out of Schools Now
6/6/23 – One-hundred years old and still changing the world for the better. They are our best. The world owes them everything. God bless them. God bless America.
Papa Jake survived D-Day on Omaha Beach, now he’s a TikTok star
6/6/23 – Individual liberty and human rights aren’t a red or blue thing. They are an American thing. As a strong believer in religious liberty, unless there is a violation of human rights, people should be able to practice their faith openly and freely, without the interference of other religious or nonreligious groups. That’s the core aspect of the American origin story. The Republican autocrats are imposing their religious values on others who don’t subscribe to their faith. This is un-American. There should be no differences on these issues between red and blue Americans.
Where we have substantive differences is on taxes and the extent of the social safety net. What Republicans describe as individual responsibility, implicitly merit, Democrats view as handouts to the rich, which is the antithesis of individual responsibility or merit and is hypocritical. Ironically, the position of the Democrats, which has more nonreligious voters, happens to also be more in keeping with core Christian tenets. Some people are just born luckier than others. An important role of good governance is to help the unlucky. Republicans want to tilt the playing field to benefit the people who need it the least, the lucky.
Did we merit our genes or God’s grace? No, we were blessed so that we can bless others however we can. When the assumption shifts from I earned this to I was given this by God’s grace, the entire idea of individual responsibility also changes. The onus shifts to the lucky to give to the unlucky. We are our brother’s keeper. This approach, regardless of the society’s religious composition, will also be the most beneficial to all including the rich. Life is much more than money. It is about relationships, with each other, our own country and the rest of the world. This approach will yield stronger, healthier relationships on all of these levels and lead to a more fulfilling life.
I’m not running for president in 2024. Beating Trump is more important.
6/4/23 – Another interesting analysis would be the degree to which this political courage was directly or indirectly related to the murder of George Floyd.
6/4/23 – Minnesota, best state in the union. Minneapolis/St. Paul does most of the political lifting in terms of votes, and Walz and Flanagan, who is a Native woman, are great. When you have the political capital, use it all to help the people who put you in office. Anything short of that is political treachery.
The ‘Minnesota Miracle’ should serve as a model for Democrats
6/4/23 – Gardening is like painting with God’s plants. Enjoy and Happy Sunday!
6/4/23 – If you’re spending more time in the virtual world than the real one, you’re choosing an inferior product over a superior one. Just know this.
6/4/23 – Let’s give the Ukrainians some space. They don’t need to hurry. They just need to win…for the world’s sake.
6/3/23 – Old Glory does not belong to MAGA fascists. It belongs to American patriots. Wear it proud, non-MAGA America. The Ukrainians have sunflowers. The British have poppies. Should the USA have a flower to represent our battle against fascism? If so, what should it be?
6/1/23 – What happened to the wigged look of the Founding Fathers era, and where did all that hair come from? Did it come from the other British colonies? Something that pretty much never gets talked about is the exploitation of people, usually women, particularly from India for their hair. Just because it grows back doesn’t make it any less a violation of their person.
6/1/23 – Jews are not white. Nobody from the Middle East or North Africa is white. Nobody from South Asia is white. Nobody from Central or South America is white, which is almost always evident by their features and often their hair no matter their skin color. No matter how fair the Middle Easterner or the North African, their hair is not the same as white people, and their features are also different. South Asians can have fair skin and almost identical hair, but they are also not white. Their features are different enough. Also, identity is beyond genetic composition, to include culture. Jews are culturally not white no matter how white they might look. Sadly, people who are mixed and want to “pass” sometimes think they are white, but they are not. One can almost always tell when someone is mixed. Nobody would consider Japanese or Chinese white, even though many of them are “whiter” than the average white person, because it’s not just about the color of the skin. Their hair and features are quite different. The more important question/point, why would these people want to be considered white? And why are these designations so poorly constructed? Census data need to be accurate, and these clarifications need to be made.
A census mistake reveals surprising details about U.S. Hispanics and Latinos
6/1/23 – So the evil one, trump, went to all this effort to keep the classified documents out of ego. That’s not even remotely believable.
Prosecutors have recording of Trump discussing sensitive Iran document