Take a look at this downloadable PDF map of NATO countries – they’re the ones in BLUE – and follow along. Putin has made it clear that the greatest tragedy of the 20th century was not WW I, WW II or the 1918 influenza pandemic, each of which killed millions of people. No, he’s certain… [read more]
Restoring the Dream
You got trouble, my friend. Right here in River City. Oh, we got trouble with a capital “T” and it rhymes with “D” and it stands for Democracy. With apologies to Meredith Willson, creator of the wonderful music and lyrics for the wildly successful musical The Music Man, paraphrasing his words became irresistible after seeing… [read more]
Numbers, Masks, Injustice & MTG
Numbers This is scary. There are roughly 331 million citizens in the United States, of whom 258 million are adults (identified at least by age, if not by behavior). Only 168 million adults are registered voters. The other 90 million adults either haven’t bothered to register, they’re ineligible to vote, like convicted felons in some… [read more]
Dunning-Krueger & SmackDown
The Dunning-Krueger Effect We suffer – oh yes, we suffer greatly! – from people who proclaim they have wisdom, brilliance, expertise and, worst, announce “truth” as if they actually know something. They act as though their appearance of confidence is all that is required. The sad news is that some reasonable level of competence really… [read more]
Getting Attention, Statistics and Projection
Hey! Over Here! The New York Times gathered for a discssion Four Opinion Writers on How the G.O.P. Fringe Took Over American Politics. Here’s a comment from Ezra Klein from that discussion. “Democrats have a lot of theories of policy. They have a lot of theories of politics. They just do not have a theory… [read more]
Cancel Culture, Crayons, Lincoln & Lemonade
Cancel Culture It’s about shutting down, shutting up and shutting off opponents. The power of authoritarians lies in the absolute, unthinking enforcement of their desires and taboos by absolute, unthinking followers who are otherwise average people. We’ve watched this dynamic in constant replay through all the Trump years, as people did and do unpatriotic things… [read more]
Freedom and At Long Last
Freedom Passover is nearly here. It offers many messages and one of the most important is the message of freedom. It is the story of a people living without freedom for hundreds of years and they knew that bitterness. It is exactly that bitterness that the Ukrainian people are now fighting to prevent from overwhelming… [read more]
Elections Have Consequences
April 7, 2022 On Thursday the Senate of The United States voted 53 – 47* to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. Without Georgia having elected two Democrats to the Senate in 2020 and the country having elected a Democrat to the presidency at the same time, you likely wouldn’t even know… [read more]
DNC Messaging Sucks
I have periodically accused Democrats of having terrible messaging. Turns out, I’ve been too kind. ——————————– In a recent rah-rah fundraiser email from “Team Joe,” written in Biden’s voice, he listed some of his accomplishments. Joe, I know you’re a Democrat because – and let me say this gently and respectfully – your messaging, generally… [read more]
Frog Legs and You
Maybe you remember that experiment in science or biology class where they zapped a leg of a freshly killed frog and the leg extended like the frog was jumping. Then your teacher zapped it again, and once more the leg sprang to full extension. But soon you saw that additional zaps resulted in less and… [read more]
