Rep. Tana Senn said she’d start with a “light” topic: taxes. There was a recent encouraging news: high revenue for the state. Someone in the audience asked if the legislature would return some money to the citizens. Senn said it’s unlikely, because the money won’t be available til next year, it may be a one-time […]
Politics
Conversion story
A former colleague wrote about his conversion from Mormon to atheist and from Republican to Democrat. I realized a few years back that my religion was a bunch of made-up nonsense, and my wife and I left the Mormon church in 2016. I’m an atheist now and happier than before I think, but I do […]
Visualization of U.S. Military Bases (Version 2)
This is a 3d visualization of U.S. military bases worldwide. The data is approximate and does not cover all bases. Source of data: https://public.opendatasoft.com/explore/dataset/military-bases/export/ https://worldbeyondwar.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/basesabroad.xlsx https://worldbeyondwar.org/bases/ Suggestions for improvements?
A Warning, by Anonymous: a summary
Anonymous, a self-styled “senior Trump administration official,” has written a book A Warning (Hachette Book Groups, Inc., 2019) as a follow-up to his (or her) September, 2018 op-ed in the New York Times, “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration.” Anonymous describes himself as a committed Republican and not a never-Trumper. He […]
The Scale of the Universe of Money
Military budget of the United States Tuition-Free College Could Cost Less Than You Think Fortune 500 Companies Hold a Record $2.6 Trillion Offshore ‘Eye-Popping’: Analysis Shows Top 1% Gained $21 Trillion in Wealth Since 1989 While Bottom Half Lost $900 Billion The Cost to End World Hunger America’s Defense Budget Is Bigger Than You Think
On the Bolivian Coup
What do you think of a country obsessed with hearings to impeach a dishonest president for using his office for his own political (and monetary) gain and for blackmailing another country’s leaders to enable this? Makes sense to me. But what doesn’t make sense is that the political leaders, from both parties, of this same […]
How Repubs and evangelicals are smarter than Dems and progressives
Progressives and Democrats like to look down on conservatives, including evangelicals. But the facts suggest that it’s the progressives and Democrats who aren’t so smart. Trump campaigned strenuously in the swing states, unlike Hillary, who apparently thought she had a strong enough lead that she needn’t bother. But Hillary raised far more money than Trump […]
Book review of Senator Ben Sasse’s Them: Why we hate each other and how to heal
Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska is considered a moderate Republican. He opposed Trump’s nomination and has continued to criticize the President, calling him “a megalomaniac strongman.” Sasse’s opposition to Trump has led to harsh criticism of Sasse from conservative media personalities, politicians and grassroots citizens. Likewise, Sasse took heat from Republicans for opposing the […]
Evangelicals are smarter than many progressives
Many progressives like to ridicule evangelical Christians — for their support for Trump, for their values, and for their beliefs. But in one important way, evangelicals are much smarter than many progressives. Evangelicals voted for Donald Trump, the candidate they regarded as the lesser-of-two-evils, because they knew that Trump would appoint conservative justices to the […]
The debate about Russiagate and the fight against Trump
On social media, opinion sites, and online discussions, there’s a big battle between believers in and deniers of Russiagate. It’s highly politicized, with progressives like Glenn Greenwald supporting the views of Fox News and other defenders of the president. For example, in the following youtube video, Greenwald seems to be gleeful in his ridicule of […]