Socialism doesn’t work. But strongmen don’t voluntarily surrender power. Venezuela’s economy has collapsed to a fifth of what it was, inflation is hyperbolic, and most people there are struggling to survive. Millions have fled the country, with a significant number coming to the U.[...]
Archive for July, 2024
Palestinians are people, too
If you listen to Netanyahu, Israeli settlers and militants, and U.S. Republican politicians, sympathizing with Palestinians makes you “pro-Hamas.” That’s bullshit. Like most people, I think the Oct. 7 attacks were a reprehensible act of terrorism. I’m no fan of anti-Israel pr[...]
July 29th, 2024 - 11:33 pm § in Foreign Affairs
Will a teenager lead North Korea?
Kim Jung Un is only 40, but he’s already “preparing his teenage daughter to lead the nuclear-armed state after his death,” according to South Korea’s spy agency (read story here). He’s obese (reports say over 300 lbs.) — as dictator, he gets to eat, while his peop[...]
Can the Democrats fix the Supreme Court?
The first question to ask is whether the court is broken. I would argue yes. Many other people think so, too. Polls show this is the least trusted court in generations. It’s widely seen as a partisan body. Vox describes it as “essentially [a] policymaking arm of the Republican Party̶[...]
July 28th, 2024 - 6:04 pm § in Donald Trump, Politics
How polio could make a comeback (20-second video)
Polio is a highly contagious infectious disease caused by a virus. The 1950s saw a major U.S. outbreak among schoolchildren. It was brought to a halt by a polio vaccine whose inventor, Jonas Salk, spent his later life campaigning for mandatory vaccination. Where does the 2024 GOP presidential nomine[...]
July 28th, 2024 - 4:04 pm § in Politics, Republicans
Should children vote?
Sen. J. D. Vance (R-OH), Trump’s 2024 running mate for now, seems to think so. The premise of Vance’s now-infamous “childless cat ladies” jibe is that people without children shouldn’t run the country because they have no stake in its future. Like much else Vance believ[...]
Is this man a “cat lady”?
In a now-viral rant back in 2021, when J. D. Vance dissed on “childless cat ladies,” he basically was saying childless people shouldn’t run the country because they have no stake in the future. This phrase has resurfaced in the 2024 campaign as a jibe against Kamala Harris and (oth[...]
July 28th, 2024 - 1:24 am § in Donald Trump, Politics
The company J. D. Vance keeps
Until recently J. D. Vance was best known as the author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” which critics have called “poverty porn” (see article here). Trump’s pick of Vance as his 2024 running mate, and potentially Vice President of the United States, has brought more scrutiny of t[...]
July 26th, 2024 - 11:49 pm § in Law and Courts, Republicans
What just happened to Florida’s “anti-woke” law?
It was carried into the ER on a litter and pronounced “really, really, dead on arrival.” Florida House Bill 7, a Gov. DeSantis venture passed in 2022, in essence banned critical race theory from schools and DEI training from workplaces, characterizing these forms of education as discrimi[...]
July 26th, 2024 - 8:01 pm § in Law and Courts, Republicans
Trump pal threatens Tina Peters prosecutors with piano wire hangings
Tina Peters is a former Colorado county clerk indicted for election crimes whose trial is to begin on July 31, 2024. (See details here.) Patrick Byrne (photo, left) was a long-time CEO of Overstock.com, an e-commerce company, until he resigned because of an affair with a Russian spy. Nowadays heR[...]