How much income that requires depends on where you live. In Seattle, as of April 2023, it takes at least $82,000 a year of household income to be middle class (read story here), but Seattle is one of America’s most expensive cities. In Cleveland the threshold of middle-class is only $24,000, b[...]
Archive for April, 2023
April 18th, 2023 - 12:18 pm § in Law and Courts, Racism
Reasonable fear or trigger happy?
That’s what a jury may have to decide after a D.A. charged Andrew Lester (photo, left), 84, for shooting a teenager (see story here). Lester was at home on Thursday, April 13, 2023, when the doorbell rang at 9:45 p.m. He went to his door with gun in hand, a .32 pistol. Opening the wood [&helli[...]
April 18th, 2023 - 1:58 am § in Misc.
Not exactly a Boeing 787
Here’s proof that aircraft were designed by trial and error. It’s not really surprising that many attempts — now forgotten — tried to imitate bird flight. Return to The-Ave.US Home Page[...]
The GOP and the Budget
House Republicans are trying to force Democrats to accept steep spending cuts by threatening a Treasury default that would crash financial markets and push the economy into a deep recession. They claim there’s “waste” in the federal budget, but haven’t identified it, nor have[...]
April 16th, 2023 - 11:12 pm § in Politics, Republicans
A very brief essay about freedom and round holes
By now you should realize the real “Big Lie” is Republicans claiming they’re for freedom. Republicans are in the business of taking freedoms away. They’re taking voting away from voters, books away from schools and libraries, tenure away from professors, and healthcare and f[...]
April 16th, 2023 - 10:25 pm § in Law and Courts
Two black teens, two doorbells, and gunfire
A black teenager was shot in Kansas City on March 21, 2023, for not answering a doorbell. His mother says “a man came to her house looking for a cousin who he thought lived there,” and when the teen wouldn’t let him in — there were young children there — the man opened [...]
Blame irresponsible voters for this
Citizenship has rights, but also responsibilities. For example, citizens have a right to vote, but should vote responsibly, although that’s as unenforceable as anything gets. On Sunday, April 16, 2023, Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) called Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene “terribly irresponsible” f[...]
April 15th, 2023 - 9:41 pm § in Environment
Eagle trying to hatch rock now a dad
Through sleigh-of-hand by his keepers, a bald eagle at a wildlife sanctuary who was trying to hatch a rock is now a dad. They slipped a baby eaglet into his pen, and naturally an eagle who doesn’t know a rock from an egg thinks the eaglet is his hatchling, and is feeding it and looking [&helli[...]
April 15th, 2023 - 12:19 pm § in Law and Courts
Mitigating circumstances
“The mother of a 6-year-old Virginia boy who shot and wounded his teacher had a series of miscarriages and post-partum depression in the year before the shooting, her attorney said Friday,” adding his client “believed her gun, which was legally purchased, was secured” (see s[...]
Republicans can’t escape their unpopular policies
It’s hard for ordinary people like me to fathom why anybody would want to be president, but a number of Republican politicians do, and they all have a problem. Most Americans hate their positions on abortion and guns. On top of that, the GOP has long been a party for the rich, and often indiff[...]