Democratic Debates

From Laurie...


"An article John may agree with...
NYT DEMs: Don't Drive Me Away"


Just by the title, I think I agree with her. :-)


I did not watch one minute of the debates...
Too many candidates, not worth my time...


Any thoughts from those who did watch?

DEMs are More Fiscally Responsible?

Since I got no comments at G2A Get More Pay Less and Bill the Kids, I thought I would be more blatant.  And this is a fascinating graphic.  Just think, Obama was hurt and helped by inheriting Bush's disaster.  But Trump inherited an excellent situation and he is on track to increase the National Debt more than Obama did if he wins a second term.  Worse yet, if that over due recession occurs on his watch he will far exceed any previous President. :-(

FOX Poll - Interesting Results

Fox News Poll: Tariffs hurt economy, Trump has gone too far on immigration

That gives me hope... :-)
Now we can only hope that Trump listens...

Border Funding Passed Over Liberal Concerns

NPR House Passes Senate Bill


VOX Border Conditions


Hopefully the money helps.

Get More Pay Less and Bill the Kids

I think we will need to call the Boomers forward the most selfish generations...


CNN US debt projected to hit 'unprecedented levels' over the next 30 years, CBO says


CBO 2019 Report


Here are a couple of graphs.  The report has many more.

Trump, Women and His Past

VOX Donald Trump is trying to gaslight us on E. Jean Carroll’s account of rape
The president’s response to the advice columnist’s accusation is to make us doubt our own eyes

Trump's statement: “I’ve never met this person in my life.”

Trump's Statement on Video
"Yeah, that’s her. With the gold. I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything."

Jean Carroll's account of the sexual assault.
"Carroll claims that in the mid-1990s, she ran into Trump in a Bergdorf Goodman store and was asked to help him buy lingerie for an unnamed woman. The then-52-year-old agreed and from there, their exchange went south. The writer claimed that Trump pinned her against a wall and then forced “his fingers around my private area, thrusts his penis halfway — or completely, I’m not certain — inside me.”

Apparently she makes the 16th woman to accuse the President of doing what he bragged to Billy Bush about.  And yet people who claim to be "good Christians" defend him over and over...

And let's not forget him screwing Stormy soon after Melania delivered him a son...

US Air Quality Update

AP US air quality is slipping after years of improvement

EPA Our Nation's Air

EPA Air Now Map

ALA Worst Cities

ALA Ozone and Particle Health Risk

I am sure happy my family and I live where most Americans do want to live. :-)

Why Trump should NOT do Interviews or Testify

VOX Trump’s interview with George Stephanopoulos, explained. Donald Trump doesn’t normally talk to journalists willing to challenge him. His big ABC interview illustrated why.


CNN The 78 wildest lines in Donald Trump's epic ABC interview

Slow Power Transition

The global transition to clean energy, explained in 12 charts
Despite all the progress, we’re still struggling to hit the climate emergency brake.


Here are 2 of the charts...

Abortion Rights: It's Complicated

NYT: As Passions Flare in Abortion Debate, Many Americans Say ‘It’s Complicated’

I think article was pretty good.

I have an elder aunt who likes to post conservative fluff on FB.  Like this:

FOX Texas border town declares itself sanctuary city for the unborn:
 'Here we will no longer murder our babies'

To which I had to post...

"It is kind of funny how a bunch of old
fat guys could be having babies... :-) 

 I mean "our babies"... Really? 

Did they also approve funding to
help raise the baby? 

Will they wake up in the middle
of the night with the collicky baby?"

Often I ask the questions regarding her position on how to care for the child after it is born and get no answers. :-( 

How the Rich Got Richer

VOX New Federal Reserve data shows how the rich have gotten richer

FED Distributional Accounts

The Rich Get Richer, so Do the Poor

Stossel Rich and Poor

How Poor are America's Poor?

VOX The surprising truth about extreme poverty
It’s most common with childless adults.

Thoughts?

Kids Need More than Good Schools

From Laurie:

Here is an article for John and Jerry to disagree with: The Atlantic Better Schools Won’t Fix America: Like many rich Americans, I used to think educational investment could heal the country’s ills—but I was wrong. Fighting inequality must come first.

I am not sure why Laurie thinks I would disagree with this... I am all for making families healthier and wealthier... Which means promoting households with 2 capable adults in it to help pay the bills and raise the kids. And limiting the number of kids to what you can afford.

By the way, you pretty much wimped out on this comment string. Now some comments from this new link:

He points to the plight of “children who frequently change schools due to poor housing; have little help with homework; have few role models of success; have more exposure to lead and asbestos; have untreated vision, ear, dental, or other health problems; … and live in a chaotic and frequently unsafe environment.  

Indeed, multiple studies have found that only about 20 percent of student outcomes can be attributed to schooling, whereas about 60 percent are explained by family circumstances—most significantly, income. Now consider that, nationwide, just over half of today’s public-school students qualify for free or reduced-price school lunches, up from 38 percent in 2000. Surely if American students are lagging in the literacy, numeracy, and problem-solving skills our modern economy demands, household income deserves most of the blame—not teachers or their unions. 

If we really want to give every American child an honest and equal opportunity to succeed, we must do much more than extend a ladder of opportunity—we must also narrow the distance between the ladder’s rungs. We must invest not only in our children, but in their families and their communities. We must provide high-quality public education, sure, but also high-quality housing, health care, child care, and all the other prerequisites of a secure middle-class life. And most important, if we want to build the sort of prosperous middle-class communities in which great public schools have always thrived, we must pay all our workers, not just software engineers and financiers, a dignified middle-class wage.

So I have to ask...  Would giving everyone more money make them better, more responsible, more capable parents?  I don't think so...  Though I agree it would help some kids.

Trump Jealous of China Ruler

WAPO As China blocks U.S. media, Trump denounces the same companies on Twitter

I am sure Trump wishes he could lie without people fact checking him.

And that he could block the citizens of the US from reading or seeing other views...

Thankfully the US is NOT like China or Russia !!!

No Matter What Trump Wishes... :-(

Climate Change Again

What Jerry interprets from this source and the 2 graphs on the right below:

I see the first one-- projections vs reality, the most telling, and it IS necessary to draw your own lines, estimating the trend, because what you have is a biased source using biased data (GISS) and STILL, as I eyeball it, real temperatures are trending from -0.1 to +0.7 in the 60 years from 1960 to 2020. That's 100/60*0.8= 1.3 degrees per century, exactly what I keep telling you that every other dataset confirms. When will you accept the actual, measured, scientific data your own "side" is telling you? 

By the way, the "differences from averages" graph tells us that temps have gone from about zero to about 1.2 degrees in 140 years. That is LESS than 1 degree per century. If you want to say global warming started in 1950, it looks like temps have gone from +0.2 to (maybe as high as) +1.2 over the 70 years, or 1.4 degrees per century. Remarkable agreement, would you agree?

Maybe I'll look at it later, now I am going to go mow before the rain... :-) Tap picture to see full size.

MN Medical Aid in Dying?

MinnPost It’s time for Minnesota to approve medical aid in dying

I thought the linked opinion piece was worth note.

I personally am a big proponent.
Why would anyone want to suffer needlessly?
Or make other people do so?

CNN Physician-Assisted Suicide Fast Facts

USA Today Opinion: I'm dying from cancer. I have to move across the country to die on my own terms

FOX Nevada seeks to become eighth state to allow physician-assisted suicide

Trump Attacking American Citizens on Foreign Soil

CNN The 25 most shocking lines from Donald's Trump interview with Laura Ingraham at Normandy

VOX Watch Laura Ingraham tell her audience to disbelieve something Trump just told her

Media Matters Fox rewards Laura Ingraham’s unethical, immoral behavior with a presidential interview

FOX News Trump launches blistering attack on 'nasty, vindictive, horrible' Pelosi

I know it should not amaze me that Trump made the Normandy anniversary a political thing, but it still does.  And the idea that the "News" reporter works for a pro-Trump PAC is even more disheartening. Of course, the Trump True Believers like Laura so it is fine with them...

Though I am curious what they would have thought if Obama had spent his time being interviewed by people his organization was paying....

I assume this kind of like watching the news in China or Russia...  The President speaks through people who are unwilling to challenge him or ask hard questions.  And they are willing to do so in front of thousands of grave markers.

Christianity and Border Crossings?

Here are some interesting pieces ...

VOX The border is in crisis. Here’s how it got this bad.

VOX The US has made migrants at the border wait months to apply for asylum. Now the dam is breaking.

FOX Border arrests skyrocket in May, as officials declare 'full-blown emergency'

And for some historical perspective.

PBS Trump’s Mexico tariffs would affect U.S. consumers. Would they also slow immigration?

Guardian: Fleeing the Hell USA Helped to Create

It seems the US fight against the Communists and our desire for drugs have really made unbearable for many in Central America...

So how can we best help people and stop the illegal flow of migrants?

Especially you supposedly Christian folks out there who are tasked with caring for the poor and down trodden?

We Have Not Lost the War on Poverty?

From Laurie:

When I saw this post I thought you and Jerry need some more persuading that we have not lost the war on poverty.

Okay. I finally got to reading this dribble... Apparently Kevin thinks that "winning the war" on poverty means that tax payers keep sending the poor checks and services FOR EVER...



I just do not see that as "WINNING"...  Especially at the cost of millions of broken homes...  Here are some really disturbing quotes...

"The decline in children living in two-parent families has been offset by an almost threefold increase in those living with just one parent—typically the mother.9 Fully one-fourth (26%) of children younger than age 18 are now living with a single parent, up from just 9% in 1960 and 22% in 2000. The share of children living without either parent stands at 5%; most of these children are being raised by grandparents."

"The living arrangements of black children stand in stark contrast to the other major racial and ethnic groups. The majority – 54% – are living with a single parent. Just 38% are living with two parents, including 22% who are living with two parents who are both in their first marriage. Some 9% are living with remarried parents, and 7% are residing with parents who are cohabiting."

Personally I think Kevin has a very warped concept of "Winning the War on Poverty".  Thoughts?

Illinois Abortion Law and Gullible People

Live Action 'Dark day’: Illinois lawmakers pass abortion bill far worse than New York’s

So one my elderly female FB relatives posts things like the above on a regular basis.  To which a number of other like minded people curse the murderers / evil.

I then of course throw in some comments questioning the accuracy of the post.  To which I almost get no response.

Maybe you should read the law rather than let these folks wind you up. And please remember that federal law passed in ~2001 made partial birth abortions illegal all across the country, so it is no longer needed in state laws. To me it looks like this law brings IL into alignment with Roe V Wade, just like the NY law. 

And if you do not believe about how this author is trying to mislead you...

Now for my question...  Do these people really think there are evil Mothers and Doctors who enjoy ending pregnancies?

Or worse yet, do they just swallow the lies in the pieces they read without even verifying the accuracy?

Which brings us to this piece...  VOX Why conservatives are winning the internet.

I mean if Conservative authors are fine with lying and the Conservative recipients are so gullible as to believe the lies...  Of course social media is a great forum for them.

I mean Trump Lies daily and these folks eat it up and defend him aggressively.  It paints a very bleak picture of human nature. :-(

Reading the Temp Graph

Jerry says "Now if we could just agree on which graph we see differently, we could debate the merits, authenticity and proper interpretation. That would be progress."

So here are some official graphs. I added 2 lines to the first one. And the third is the official forecasts. Unfortunately we are heading for somewhere between RCP 6.0 and RCP 8.5 since the worlds populations are not changing too much. (ie more people and more emissions)

I can't wait to see where this goes. :-)  Pick image to zoom.