When a young person turns to crime, has he failed, or have we?
The
Problem:
The real problem with this country is that our taxes are way too
low, our government budget isn't far enough in deficit, and we treat
the rich and their minions as though they were our betters and
deserve all they can steal.
Point
Of Order:
Coral will not survive into the next century because of the
acidification of the oceans. Nor will any of the countless little
thingys with shells that make up the base of the food pyramid in the
seas. Imagine, no sharks at the beach. Also no shells, no fish, not
much of anything swimming in the sterile ocean. Also no shrimp, no
lobster. Got your attention yet?
Facts
Not In Evidence:
The headline reads: “It's
time to admit that American intervention can't fix Syria”. This
makes the unwarranted assumption that American intervention has
'fixed' anything since
1945.
Children
Without A Country:
Republican Illinois intends to make children into invisible
stateless non-persons by denying them birth certificates if the mommy
won't identify the daddy to the all-seeing state. Maybe the moms
could just put down the names of various Republican legislators. The
public good here was a little vague. If a kid doesn't have a birth
certificate, does he really exist? Surely the little tyke couldn't
qualify for food stamps or
public education.
Cornucopia:
House Republicans are considering legislation that would “return”
much of the federal lands to the states, who would in turn “return”
it to the private sector (for a modest campaign contribution) for
mining and logging without regard for any environmental controls.
It's a race to the bottom, sponsored by the bottom feeders for the
bottom feeders and the public be damned.
Takes
One To Know One:
Mitt
Romney, who
famously refused to release
his tax forms while running for president, claims that Trumps refusal
to release his givers us “good
reason to believe that there's a bombshell in Donald Trump's taxes.”
The
suggestion is that his reported income and wealth will not match his
reputed income and worth.
Win/Win:
Astronomers
have
solved the mystery of where fast interstellar radio bursts
come from (about 6 billion light years over that-a-way, where two
neutron stars crumple into one another). And in doing so they
'found' about half the missing 'normal' matter in the universe.
Turns out it wasn't missing, just hiding. This does nothing to
account for the dark matter and dark energy that makes up 95% of the
mass of the universe. Gravity shows that it is there (and here and
over there and everywhere) but we haven't the slightest idea what it
is...
Lax
Tax:
Under Ted Cruz's tax proposal, the top 0.1% (average income $10
million) would see their taxes cut by nearly $2 million (1,994,000)
on average. That 43,000 times more than the guys in the lower 20% of
the income scale would get – combined.
A
Parting Shot:
7 comments:
Re 11 things other countries do better. I think the rejection of "science" is completely understandable. Fifty years of pro-corporate corruption, sensationalist media misrepresentation, and Orwellian right wing nihilism has led the public to reasonably conclude that when they hear the word "science" they should go count their forks.
Think of the decades that scientists are trotted out to tell us under oath that smoking is not addictive, that toxic sludge is good for us, that there's no proven connection between all those chemicals and all that disease, and on and on. Every couple decades some major cornerstone of medical "knowledge" is reversed. And the media has been splashing headlines for three generations and running about miracle cures and magic diets that don't pan out.
The Nazis were quite scientific as they went about their evil, so much so that the US hired most of them after the war. And US eugenicists have their own special corner of infamy.
In other words, "science", like everything else in this sick place, has allowed itself to be co-opted, sold out, corrupted, and misrepresented, while letting itself get caught up in arrogance and careerism. And it will suffer the same fate as all our other corrupt and pathological institutions.
The belief in creationism, meanwhile, not so much I guess. But hell, it's nice to be able to believe in something.
The people often confuse "science", methods of science, and even the man in the white coat. The later is really there to just to take advantage of their weak grasp on their sanity.
In the end, it's the people's fault for not wanting to either educate themselves (tis too hard) nor to hear uncomfortable truths, particularly those about uncertainty.
Never fear, nature will just start again. The planet still has a few billion years to try and try again for real intelligent life before the star we circle makes this planet unfit. Of course there are other systems as well, so there it is, another 5 or 8 billion years to try before the universe heat death starts to settle in for all those planets circling all those stars.
Regarding Republican Legislators on birth certificates: Are they human enough that the clerks will buy it? We know some of those clerks look like they come from families that practice zoophilia, so even if they deny evolution, they know from personal experience in those states that crossing two very closely related species is possible, but mixing two genus is impossible.
Re: The Problem: I'm siding with CKM, don't want to go picking at that scab we loving call 'ignorance' because it is astounding how much we are expected to take purely 'on faith'. My analysis would be a single word, 'mismanagement' largely due to 'willful ignorance' [if the facts don't agree with me (and the outcome I desire) then the facts must be wrong!
RE: Cornucopia: The 'more for me' crowd rides again. In the beginning the creation of 'public lands' was intended to make private property 'more valuable' (by making available land scarce...capitalist market making at its finest!) Now that much private land is, er, ruined/tapped out, the freaking yahoos who think (actually believe) the 'forefathers' set aside those lands FOR THEM.
I don't have any evidence but, given how things roll around here, there isn't much 'public land' that hasn't been mined or logged to the point of exhaustion so what they're really talking about is Parkland and Nature preserves...protected per se due to their remoteness. The rule of thumb being if the fruit is close enough to the ground, it's been 'picked'.
Re: Point of Order: Just an observation but the oceans have been wiped out several times in the past...and it's bound to happen again. This isn't what we want to hear but it happens. Just as the life-giving nuclear reaction inside the Sun causes it to accumulate iron, making the heat sink larger, the sun hotter...although we still don't understand if the solar system experiences 'seasons' as it travels in it's galactic orbit...and since this isn't the first time the polar icecaps have melted the phenomenon is being twisted to fit whatever narrative. [I'm certain human caused global warming will be the scapegoat when fossil fuels are exhausted...but not UNTIL if you hear what I'm saying.]
That said, Iceball earth appears to be our 'default' state.
We don't know enough, it could go either way.
Re: The real problem with this country is that our taxes are way too low, our government budget isn't far enough in deficit,
What if the government of this country is hopelessly corrupt?
Where do you think the "deficit loot" will go?
The real problem with this country is voters who thought - for the last 50+ years - that giving money to a corrupt government would (somehow) result in goodness. It hasn't. Funding evil results in evil.
I know... lets fund more infrastructure with debt. Just like they did in Japan. Surely the goodness will flow from THAT!
Well Anony 3.18, maybe not goodness, but jobs, wages, money... and some drinkable water after a while and some bridges that don't fall down and a workable electrical grid (no one is maintaining it now) and a few goodies for all, like free high speed broadband everywhere. Everywhere.
And for all the whining about Japan, their children get to eat, go to school and do well, very few of their citizens are in jail and they haven't invaded anyone since 1941.
Well, look at it this way - when the last of the coral dies around 2050 or so, it will only take a year or two for most marine life to die off. When mass famine closely ensues, our kids won't have to worry about whether to vote for Justin Timberlake or Martin Shkreli for President. Because they'll have, you know, starved to death. Won't that be nice?
RE "Point of Order": Coral has "disappeared" from the fossil record a few times over the last 500 million years, each time during one of the massive extinction events that mark the boundaries of the geologic record. Looks like we may "get" to see just how much fun can be had during such an extinction event.
RE "Cornucopia": This sort of "leadership" defines our government these days and especially the current edition of the Republican Party - part confusion, part hypocrisy, and part blatant greedy cronyism all hidden behind a fog of empty rhetoric or a waving flag.
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