Category Archives: Blogs' Archive

Some people say we should ban plastic straws, some say we need to lighten up and accept nuclear energy, some say everybody needs to become vegetarian. I am of the opinion that with a little bit better social planning and a couple of tweaks to desalination technology we could have a planet-wide paradise for up to about 10 billion people.
I don’t know what the actual number would be beyond which we could not possibly stretch the planet’s resources; beyond which starvation would become unavoidable for some, and life would become unpleasant for all. But there is a point, the planet is finite, and it would be a good idea to start figuring out now how to slow population growth, or even reverse it. If we could get the population down to about 4 billion (which is where it was less than a century ago), a lot of our problems would just disappear, or at least be much less pressing.
So, how to do it? Well, there are a couple of possibilities. War, famine, and plague are the traditional means, but science has made great strides fighting off famine and plague, and war is not as popular as it used to be.
It seems to me we should look at those countries where the population is dropping and try to emulate what they are doing.
I just took a look at the list of countries with declining populations, and in a lot of them (a large number are ex-Warsaw Pact countries) the reason is more about people leaving for greener pastures, and not necessarily a declining birth rate.
But, throughout the developed world, birthrates are dropping. A large part of the reason is because people in these countries can stay in college, and maintain a free-wheeling, party lifestyle up until their mid-20s, often into their thirties. Who wants to marry and have kids when you can drink and do drugs and have different sexual partners every night?

It’s a lifestyle which has an obvious appeal and we should encourage more people, and more societies, to adopt it. Because it’s good for the environment.

Bill De Blasio is out of the race, and no one is terribly surprised. He was polling at about 0%, well below the feel good guru who’s a friend of Oprah, the unpopular mayor of a suburb of Chicago, and the crazy millionaire who would cut all social programs and just give everybody $1,000 a month.
But why was the mayor of New York City doing so badly? He had name recognition. Well, here’s my theory:
Outside of New York City, he’s remembered for one thing, and that is his cringeworthy crawling onstage to kiss Hillary Clinton’s feet shortly before the New York primaries in 2016 (which she went on to win through massive cheating). She made him apologize for not endorsing her sooner and made him participate in that embarrassing racist skit, which was not even slightly funny. The black actor who participated in it should be embarrassed as well, and I’m sure it hasn’t helped his career any.
At any rate, that’s what sticks in my mind when I think of Bill de Blasio and I suspect the Democratic voters are roughly divided into three camps vis a vis Mayor Bill. There are those who have never heard of him, those who were totally pissed off at that skit and almost all of whom are voting for Sanders, except for those Sanders supporters who are currently supporting Tulsi Gabbard, and those who live in New York City, who apparently aren’t supporting him in droves or he’d have at least 1%.
He was not the worst of the candidates. There are certainly others who are less qualified. But, one more Clinton ass-kisser is gone and I’m very happy about it.

There have been two events in recent days which show very clearly why the United States needs Universal Health Care, which was once known as socialized medicine, which is most currently known as Medicare for All.
Jeff Bezos, who is the richest man in the world, by far, has taken health care away from part-time employees (30 hours a week or less), which is kind of a dirty trick since most of them would probably be very happy with full time work, it’s just that keeping them part time gives him an excuse (makes it legal) to not provide health care.
It’s a seriously petty and Scrooge like thing to do, especially since calculations show that he could give all of them health care for a year for the amount he makes, personally, in about 6 hours. And presumably, he could do the same next year and the year after that.
To repeat: Jeff Bezos is such a rotten, lowlife bastard that he’s willing to put his employees life’s at risk rather than sacrifice a couple of hours of pay. And he’s already worth more than 100 billion dollars.
The other event is the General Motors strike, which is affecting approximately 50,000 people. General Motors has announced that since they are on strike, it’s canceling their health insurance. Pretty heavy handed bargaining tactic there. No wonder the workers are on strike.
Anyway, both of these events show very clearly why Medicare for All is needed. It would help small businesses greatly, because they wouldn’t have to worry about insurance, and it would protect the workers who are employed by rock-hearted, greedy, self-serving monsters.
Employees should not be at the mercy of their employer, ever. If a person wants to up and quit, they should be able to up and quit. Without any interruption to their access to health care.

Blue no matter who is something I see many, many times per day and it may well be it comes from well-intentioned people, but they started this shit in about February of 2015 and they haven’t let up for one second since then.
Even though we’ve told them no about a million fucking times, and in very specific terms, even though we’ve explained it with logic, and charts, and metaphors, that voting for the lesser evil is still voting for evil, that no matter how much we try to appease the right, things just slide further and further down that slippery right-wing slope, until the Nazi charge is no longer even viewed as hyperbole, even though they lost the most winnable election in modern history and a large part of it was their campaign strategy was nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, they just keep coming. Like Republicans, they seem to be of the belief that if you repeat something often enough, it will become true, or at least people will start agreeing with you. It is an attempt at brainwashing. It may work on some but they are crude practitioners and it arouses fury in others.
They are the mosquito in the tent, they are a stalker’s harassing phone calls, they are a car alarm that is never turned off, they are a jackhammer outside your window at 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning, they are the drip, drip, drip of water on the forehead in a Chinese torture.
Blue no matter who. Ha. Fuck that shit.

In order to defeat Trump, the Democrats should nominate a candidate who is as different from Trump as possible. His polar opposite, if you will.

Democrats should run an anti-racist to run against the racist Trump. I think most of them are fairly decent on this score, although Biden pretty much lost the black vote with his idiotic ‘leave the record player on all night’ comment.
Democrats should run a lucid, coherent nominee to run against the blathering Trump. This certainly rules out Biden. Probably O’Rourke as well.
Democrats should nominate a compassionate nominee to run against the heartless Trump. I don’t think anybody really thinks of Amy Klobuchar as compassionate.
Democrats should nominate an honest,uncorrupted nominee to run against the lying, corrupt Trump. Boom. Down goes Warren.
Democrats should nominate somebody with a long record of political experience to run against the businessman outsider Trump. So, you can cross out Buttigieg, Steny, Yang, Williamson, and Messam.
Democrats should run an intelligent person to run against the stupid Trump. Actually, I think they’re doing O.K. on this score.
They need a scandal-free candidate to run against the scandal encrusted Trump. That knocks Harris right out – we Berners have talked about her corrupt record as California AG, which resonates with Democratic voters. Republicans will be all over her relationship with Willie Brown.

The Democrats should nominate either Bernie and/or Tulsi. That is, if they sincerely want to win the election.