June 6, 2024, marks the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings. We’re now four generations removed from that fateful day, and only a handful of its veterans are still alive to remind us of the lessons America should learn from that war. Before World War 2, America was isolationist, and caught [...]
Archive for the ‘America’ Category
Does Baraboo have a race problem?
Baraboo is a picturesque town of about 12,500 people in central Wisconsin. It’s a famous circus town. It’s the birthplace of the Ringling Brothers Circus, and home of the Circus World Museum. The town is 88% white, about 6% Hispanic, and only 1.3% black, but isn’t known for racism.[...]
How secession could work
GOP firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene says, “We need a national divorce,” and while her idea of splitting up red and blue states won’t work, it’s not worth another civil war to keep Republicans in the Union. The divorce part is easy; we’re already divorced. Republicans a[...]
Eastern Oregon counties vote on secession today
More precisely, they’re voting on whether to redraw state boundaries by leaving Oregon and joining Idaho (see map below). The motivation is partisan. “Conservative residents in eastern Oregon [want to] part ways with their liberal neighbors to the west. If successful, Oregon’s border w[...]
GOP veep hopeful wants to eliminate no-fault divorce
Ben Carson (photo, left), a celebrity surgeon turned failed politician (see bio here) and possible 2024 Trump running mate, wants to end no-fault divorce, NBC News reported on Tuesday, May 14, 2024 (read story here). “For the sake of families,” he says. His shtick is that if divorcing is eas[...]
Reagan on immigration
“This, I believe, is one of the most important sources of America’s greatness. We lead the world because, unique among nations, we draw our people — our strength — from every country and every corner of the world. And by doing so we continuously renew and enrich our nation. [...]
What’s with sky-high home prices?
Young adults starting out can’t buy houses in Washington (or in a lot of other places). A Seattle Times article (here) of May 12, 2024, says two-thirds of Washington’s under-35 adults are renting, and in King County three-fourths are, many because they can’t afford starter homes. T[...]
Are police killing more people?
To find out, I went looking for charts, and because I can’t cut-and-paste some of them, you’ll have to click through links to see them. Let’s start with this chart from Statistica that gives numbers for 2017-2023. While the number increased every year, the uptrend was slight until [...]
Has Hamas won?
“Know your enemy better than you know yourself,” Sun Tzu wrote, or phrasing to that effect. If Hamas leaders are truly diabolical, they would carry out an attack on Israel so atrocious it would provoke a gross overreaction. That’s exactly what happened. What’s in it for Hamas[...]
What’s at stake in Trump’s trial
Now that he’s been indicted, Trump is entitled to a presumption of innocence, and a fair trial. Those are bedrock principles of the U.S. legal system. Trump “has a lot at stake” in the case, a New York Times writer says. “He could, in theory, go to prison for years.” Bu[...]