1) I am not going to claim any prescience here. And I acknowledge that even the slightest chance that Trump would win in 2024 scares the crap out of me. But when I start worrying too much, I ask myself this question: which states that Biden won in 2020 could Trump flip in 2024? The three most likely to me are Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada…
1) I am not going to claim any prescience here. And I acknowledge that even the slightest chance that Trump would win in 2024 scares the crap out of me. But when I start worrying too much, I ask myself this question: which states that Biden won in 2020 could Trump flip in 2024? The three most likely to me are Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada. That adds up to 33 EV’s. That would still leave Biden with 273 EV’s. So Trump would have to flip at least one more state. So if the blue wall holds, we should be good.
Still it’s bad enough that anyone would even consider voting for Trump let alone that he might actually win.
2) I really enjoy listening to and reading Abdul-Jabber’s thoughts. He’s been through a lot and yet he still presents his views clearly and without the histrionics so common nowadays. And once again, he is spot on about the drag show issue. Besides being a completely manufactured crisis, it’s always amazing to me how Republicans, the supposed party of parental rights, is working so hard to usurp those rights when it comes to drag shows. But consistency has never been a particular strength of those folks.
3) There are way too many indirect impacts of funding a trip to Mars for me to really understand whether it’s a good idea or not. All I have are some points and questions:
a) Many people act as if we would just not spend the money on space travel, we could solve so many of our current other issues. I just don’t see that.
b) The idea that Mars would be Earth 2 is ludicrous.
c) There is no doubt that there are ancillary benefits from space travel simply because some new things will have to be invented. But the question is whether we could achieve those benefits by Earth-orbit space travel or even going to the Moon. Do we have to go to Mars? And maybe we would get a lot of those benefits by sending robots to Mars.
Whenever we hear someone declaim"we shouldn't spend $$$$ (or even cents) on xxxx because we have so many needs here at home" - judge the merit of this emission of verbiage as follows:
Does the speaker in fact actually want to spend $$ on xxxx? Does the speaker actually really give a damn about xxxx?
Most of the time, the speaker doesn't give half a hoot about xxxx. Especially if xxxx involves trying to help someone who is not the speaker. In fact, the speaker most often doesn't even mean "xxxx" when he says "xxxx". He really means "yyyy" where "yyyy" is short for "me-me-me-me".
America spends more than $30B a year on pet food and a huge multiple of that on garbage to cram into its own pie holes... $7B on potato chips... $65B on soft drinks ...
Stop at any gas station and watch the parade of high-BMI customers waddling out of the emporium clutching giant gulps of diabetes juice and bags of salt-laden HFCS infused carbohydrates.
Of course there are real needs. Water, for instance. Now there's a basic human necessity. Humans can go many days, even weeks without food, but water is a day to day requirement. That's definitely an "xxxx" thing, right?
Americans spend about $9B per year on bottled water. The average price of bottle water at a store is about $1.50 for 20 ounces; that's 1.26 per pound. My water utility bill last month cost $0.0012 per pound. The bottle costs 1,132 times as much as my tap water does!
But of course, it's outrageous that the government is so imprudent and wasteful with its money. The government should take a cue from hard-working Americans and spend frugally, they way they do.
In a nation where these are the actual expenditure preferences , the-greater-needs at-home line should be taken seriously only on a carefully vetted case by case basis.
1) I am not going to claim any prescience here. And I acknowledge that even the slightest chance that Trump would win in 2024 scares the crap out of me. But when I start worrying too much, I ask myself this question: which states that Biden won in 2020 could Trump flip in 2024? The three most likely to me are Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada. That adds up to 33 EV’s. That would still leave Biden with 273 EV’s. So Trump would have to flip at least one more state. So if the blue wall holds, we should be good.
Still it’s bad enough that anyone would even consider voting for Trump let alone that he might actually win.
2) I really enjoy listening to and reading Abdul-Jabber’s thoughts. He’s been through a lot and yet he still presents his views clearly and without the histrionics so common nowadays. And once again, he is spot on about the drag show issue. Besides being a completely manufactured crisis, it’s always amazing to me how Republicans, the supposed party of parental rights, is working so hard to usurp those rights when it comes to drag shows. But consistency has never been a particular strength of those folks.
3) There are way too many indirect impacts of funding a trip to Mars for me to really understand whether it’s a good idea or not. All I have are some points and questions:
a) Many people act as if we would just not spend the money on space travel, we could solve so many of our current other issues. I just don’t see that.
b) The idea that Mars would be Earth 2 is ludicrous.
c) There is no doubt that there are ancillary benefits from space travel simply because some new things will have to be invented. But the question is whether we could achieve those benefits by Earth-orbit space travel or even going to the Moon. Do we have to go to Mars? And maybe we would get a lot of those benefits by sending robots to Mars.
Whenever we hear someone declaim"we shouldn't spend $$$$ (or even cents) on xxxx because we have so many needs here at home" - judge the merit of this emission of verbiage as follows:
Does the speaker in fact actually want to spend $$ on xxxx? Does the speaker actually really give a damn about xxxx?
Most of the time, the speaker doesn't give half a hoot about xxxx. Especially if xxxx involves trying to help someone who is not the speaker. In fact, the speaker most often doesn't even mean "xxxx" when he says "xxxx". He really means "yyyy" where "yyyy" is short for "me-me-me-me".
America spends more than $30B a year on pet food and a huge multiple of that on garbage to cram into its own pie holes... $7B on potato chips... $65B on soft drinks ...
Stop at any gas station and watch the parade of high-BMI customers waddling out of the emporium clutching giant gulps of diabetes juice and bags of salt-laden HFCS infused carbohydrates.
Of course there are real needs. Water, for instance. Now there's a basic human necessity. Humans can go many days, even weeks without food, but water is a day to day requirement. That's definitely an "xxxx" thing, right?
Americans spend about $9B per year on bottled water. The average price of bottle water at a store is about $1.50 for 20 ounces; that's 1.26 per pound. My water utility bill last month cost $0.0012 per pound. The bottle costs 1,132 times as much as my tap water does!
But of course, it's outrageous that the government is so imprudent and wasteful with its money. The government should take a cue from hard-working Americans and spend frugally, they way they do.
In a nation where these are the actual expenditure preferences , the-greater-needs at-home line should be taken seriously only on a carefully vetted case by case basis.
Thank you. I feel like I have to say something like this (but not as eloquently) daily.