tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68564600621270917962024-03-23T05:17:50.121-05:00flyoverlandiaprovincial prejudices and asides'Jonathan Greenblume'http://www.blogger.com/profile/11344901591620124111noreply@blogger.comBlogger55125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856460062127091796.post-89915964907549958472023-12-22T13:47:00.000-06:002023-12-22T13:47:00.044-06:00Comments?<p> I've been getting a lot of hits on these blogs lately, from all over the world, but no responses or followers. Any comments? I'd like to get a conversation started.</p>'Jonathan Greenblume'http://www.blogger.com/profile/11344901591620124111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856460062127091796.post-19289620238836549222023-09-22T13:44:00.000-05:002023-09-22T13:46:02.270-05:00'best earth'<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1VrspGi7J7F08YoGYQUoRJJzXvEEDnRGPZevNKHSCepFPUsxSVLpfuPqZ59SNOh9N1yIQgNagcqfvCurr8lu2bWiy-urZiloQ1NP-6VFWs7ByOlr1bQ1AWmV23zq11BnHjr_49UM-Ye7f/s240/best+earth+cover.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="160" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1VrspGi7J7F08YoGYQUoRJJzXvEEDnRGPZevNKHSCepFPUsxSVLpfuPqZ59SNOh9N1yIQgNagcqfvCurr8lu2bWiy-urZiloQ1NP-6VFWs7ByOlr1bQ1AWmV23zq11BnHjr_49UM-Ye7f/s0/best+earth+cover.jpg" width="160" /></a></div><br /> <div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"> ' . . . The one thing </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>to keep in mind, </span><span>through it all.'</span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">This modest (but hopefully inspiring) little tract is available on Amazon as both ebook & paperback. Contains breathtaking nighttime NASA images of whole regions of the planet.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">'Step back and look down.'</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/best-earth-planetarian-Jonathan-Greenblume-ebook/dp/B08PZHRZ8N/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=%22best+earth%22&qid=1614097422&s=digital-text&sr=1-3" style="color: #33aaff; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: medium;">https://www.amazon.com/best-earth-planetarian-Jonathan-Greenblume-ebook/dp/B08PZHRZ8N/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=%22best+earth%22&qid=1614097422&s=digital-text&sr=1-3</span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 17.6px;" /></p></div>'Jonathan Greenblume'http://www.blogger.com/profile/11344901591620124111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856460062127091796.post-39493872096299213422023-09-22T13:42:00.001-05:002023-09-22T13:42:33.321-05:00singapore?<p> I've been getting a lot of hits lately from Singapore. Do any of you have comments or questions?</p>'Jonathan Greenblume'http://www.blogger.com/profile/11344901591620124111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856460062127091796.post-55301456610685130592023-07-25T11:51:00.004-05:002023-07-25T11:51:51.322-05:00a thought experiment<p class="MsoNormal">So let’s run a little thought experiment using our fabulous
‘laboratory of the states.’ Let’s pick a couple small states—say New Hampshire
and Vermont, cute little side-by-side New England states. Let’s say New Hampshire
decided to try to become a high-IQ state. First off, they’d give everybody IQ
tests. Then they would encourage (i.e., financially incentivize) high-IQ people
to reproduce and discourage (financially disincentivize) low-IQ people from
reproducing—not providing further welfare benefits for out-of-wedlock children,
providing free hysterectomies, abortions, vasectomies, etc. Similarly, they
would encourage high-IQ in-migration and low-IQ out-migration.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Then, just for the sake of argument, let’s say that left-wing,
Vermont went in the opposite direction. They would also give everybody IQ tests
but would use them to encourage low-IQ reproduction and discourage high-IQ
reproduction. Similarly, they would encourage low-IQ in-migration and high-IQ
out-migration. (No rational government would ever do this, of course, for
obvious reasons.)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">What would these two states look like after a couple
generations? New Hampshire would be a civilized, prosperous first-world state,
well-versed in the science and technology of the modern world, with great
public schools and a low-to-nonexistent crime rate. Vermont, meantime, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>would have become an impoverished, corrupt,
crime-ridden third-world hellhole.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Do you doubt it?<o:p></o:p></p>'Jonathan Greenblume'http://www.blogger.com/profile/11344901591620124111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856460062127091796.post-87080191626170220392022-10-04T10:09:00.003-05:002022-10-04T10:09:52.253-05:00affirmative action<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 23px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Affirmative action is a zero-sum game that selects less qualified people over more qualified people on the basis of irrelevant characteristics. It's counterproductive and immoral and should be abolished.</span></p>'Jonathan Greenblume'http://www.blogger.com/profile/11344901591620124111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856460062127091796.post-41893880624524401302022-07-25T11:13:00.003-05:002022-07-25T11:13:55.528-05:00bringing down planetary population<p> United Nations aid and US f<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">oreign aid should be based on countries presenting and implementing plans for plateauing and then reducing population. Countries should identify a specific population goal based on land area, type of economy (subsistence agriculture, hunting/gathering, etc.), type of residence (house, apartment, farmstead, etc.).</span></p>'Jonathan Greenblume'http://www.blogger.com/profile/11344901591620124111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856460062127091796.post-81192357849152014572022-06-20T10:23:00.006-05:002022-06-28T10:33:32.544-05:00world war climate<p> The media should be covering climate change the way they covered World War II, as an ongoing crisis being covered on a daily basis. All these natural disasters should be treated like battles in a war, battles we are losing in a war we are losing.</p><p>One could say that the tide is turning when greenhouse emissions have plateaued and started going down. But even then, the consequences will be with us for decades, maybe centuries. It would be as if Europe and Japan had just continued to lie in ashes after WW II.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MediaClimate?src=hashtag_click" target="_blank">#MediaClimate</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Climate?src=hashtag_click" target="_blank">#Climate</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Climatechange?src=hashtag_click&f=live" target="_blank">#ClimateChange</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ClimateEmergency&src=typeahead_click&f=live" target="_blank">#ClimateEmergency</a></p>'Jonathan Greenblume'http://www.blogger.com/profile/11344901591620124111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856460062127091796.post-4406589881126471582022-04-16T10:16:00.000-05:002022-04-18T10:16:52.064-05:00THE MEDIA ARE *NOT* THE MESSAGE<p> <span style="font-size: large;">The media are simply not doing their job in reporting on climate change. This has been brought to my attention in recent days by two separate incidents. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">First, about a thousand climate scientists around the world engaged in acts of civil disobedience in a desperate attempt to get the message out about the seriousness of climate change. This got just about zero press coverage.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Then there was the ridiculous disparity in coverage between the Will Smith/Chris Rock nonsense and the release of the IPCC Working Group 3 report on climate change mitigation. This rich piece of show-biz gossip got about 100-- or was it 1,000?-- times as much coverage as the latter. Absurd.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The media continue to deal with climate change as if it were of interest only to some minor demographic called 'environmentalists.' This has got to STOP!</span></p>'Jonathan Greenblume'http://www.blogger.com/profile/11344901591620124111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856460062127091796.post-75907423769202880632022-03-11T10:06:00.000-06:002022-03-11T10:06:56.770-06:00THE BIG PIVOT<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: georgia; font-size: 17.6px;">Bill McKibben is right. We should use Putin's energy blackmail as a rationale to begin the Big Pivot away from fossil fuels.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 17.6px;"><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">'So now is the moment to remind </span></span><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">ourselves that, in the last decade, scientists and engineers have dropped the cost of solar and windpower by an order of magnitude, to the point where it is some of the cheapest power on Earth. The best reason to deploy it immediately is to ward off the existential crisis that is climate change, and the second best is to stop the killing of nine million people annually who die from breathing in the particulates that fossil fuel combustion produces. But the third best reason – and perhaps the most plausible for rousing our leaders to action – is that it dramatically reduces the power of autocrats, dictators, and thugs.'</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 17.6px;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/25/this-is-how-we-defeat-putin-and-other-petrostate-autocrats?fbclid=IwAR01wu4c6CSmO2ave1iVKUpVdjUb7Ol8qUUYbv7VzZIESg8zWiGdKTSzexo" style="color: #2288bb; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/25/this-is-how-we-defeat-putin-and-other-petrostate-autocrats?fbclid=IwAR01wu4c6CSmO2ave1iVKUpVdjUb7Ol8qUUYbv7VzZIESg8zWiGdKTSzexo</a></span></p>'Jonathan Greenblume'http://www.blogger.com/profile/11344901591620124111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856460062127091796.post-40955838063845924932021-11-27T11:07:00.003-06:002021-11-27T11:11:08.456-06:00#EmergencyMode<p> <a class="css-4rbku5 css-18t94o4 css-901oao css-16my406 r-1cvl2hr r-1loqt21 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EmergencyMode?src=hashtag_click" role="link" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1d9bf0; cursor: pointer; display: inline; font: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; white-space: inherit;">#EmergencyMode</a></p><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" face="TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-family: trebuchet; font-size: 23px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The President should declare a National Climate Emergency, and the UN should declare a Planetary Climate Emergency. Something's simply got to be done to get people's attention.</span>'Jonathan Greenblume'http://www.blogger.com/profile/11344901591620124111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856460062127091796.post-52419873982513440162021-09-20T11:16:00.000-05:002021-09-20T11:16:10.904-05:00new france<p> What would have happened if there had been no Louisiana Purchase, and the entire Mississippi Valley had remained New France?</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnq0QVR5qoLUjQnYyF98E9ma-QeSA4u2irns-8yOuOL6rWKyQ2PoC60Uwi_nzlK9hx0NrFWjYYXmMs_raJyK1rrHiwEdCAWf4TpUh_n3p15aSqzbCiFooRJYmPM6XvWPxe_OoGktu0QTbs/s400/new_france.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="266" data-original-width="400" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnq0QVR5qoLUjQnYyF98E9ma-QeSA4u2irns-8yOuOL6rWKyQ2PoC60Uwi_nzlK9hx0NrFWjYYXmMs_raJyK1rrHiwEdCAWf4TpUh_n3p15aSqzbCiFooRJYmPM6XvWPxe_OoGktu0QTbs/s320/new_france.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p><br /></p>'Jonathan Greenblume'http://www.blogger.com/profile/11344901591620124111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856460062127091796.post-19095669589457142832021-08-10T11:11:00.004-05:002021-08-19T11:19:55.577-05:00ipcc 6th assessment<p> Well, the newest IPCC assessment of climate change has come out, and it ain't pretty:</p><p><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/09/ipcc-report-un-climate-report-delivers-starkest-warning-yet.html?__source=sharebar|facebook&par=sharebar&fbclid=IwAR3Ee9puGHgiEfsyouTaimTkzwzlNfhmoAiSCHiIQ_VF_q82RXH_vDKA2Uw" target="_blank">https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/09/ipcc-report-un-climate-report-delivers-starkest-warning-yet.html?__source=sharebar|facebook&par=sharebar&fbclid=IwAR3Ee9puGHgiEfsyouTaimTkzwzlNfhmoAiSCHiIQ_VF_q82RXH_vDKA2Uw</a></p><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">This report puts things in pretty stark perspective. The UN Secretary General calls it 'Code Red' for the planet.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><br /></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><br /></p><p></p>'Jonathan Greenblume'http://www.blogger.com/profile/11344901591620124111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856460062127091796.post-42106490373054857242021-01-18T11:30:00.001-06:002021-01-18T11:30:23.734-06:00scientists and engineers<p> We need more and better scientists and engineers.</p>'Jonathan Greenblume'http://www.blogger.com/profile/11344901591620124111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856460062127091796.post-74619836800744542382019-12-26T10:17:00.003-06:002019-12-26T10:17:43.593-06:00the divine sparkOnly human beings, it seems to me, have mathematical-logical ability to any significant degree. Only human beings, for example, can hold perfect geometric forms in their minds' eye. Does any other species have this ability? Why do we?<br />
<br />
I call this <i>the divine spark</i>. It is this ability that is the basis of science and technology and our beginning exploration of the cosmos. It is this ability that has created our fabulous standard of living. It's not that we walk upright and have jointed thumbs that makes us so different and special; it's this mysterious ability to understand and manipulate physical reality. Why do we alone have this? What is our responsibility in using it?'Jonathan Greenblume'http://www.blogger.com/profile/11344901591620124111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856460062127091796.post-53846192817200998482019-09-04T12:21:00.004-05:002019-09-04T12:21:55.577-05:00mathematical/logical ability is more important than sexual prowessMathematical/logical ability is more important than sexual prowess.'Jonathan Greenblume'http://www.blogger.com/profile/11344901591620124111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856460062127091796.post-26707996461447585132019-08-22T10:34:00.000-05:002019-08-22T10:34:26.999-05:00a tipping point<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
This whole affair with Jeffrey Epstein has really changed my
thinking on a rather touchy subject: antisemitism. I have concluded that
Epstein, and his girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell—and her father, Robert Maxwell,
for that matter—that these people really did believe that the Goyim are
inferior beings placed on Earth to be manipulated and exploited for their own
pleasure and profit.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I didn’t used to think this. By an accident of fate and real
estate patterns, I went to elementary school with a lot of Jewish kids. I never
thought much about it. In fact, the big distinction in the suburb of Milwaukee
I grew up in was between Catholic kids and the rest of us, because some of the
Catholic kids went to a totally separate school. To the extent that I thought
about it at all—which wasn’t much—I probably thought of Judaism as just a somewhat
unusual form of Protestantism.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This attitude pretty much took me through high school and
college, where I also knew a lot of Jewish kids. It was only after that that I
started occasionally running into people whose dismissiveness I found unusual.
But even then, my attitude was simply quizzical: ‘What’s up with that?’ The
Epstein business seems to have brought these occasional experiences into a
certain focus. Perhaps these people behaved the way they did because they
genuinely assumed their superiority to others.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I think a small fraction of Jews are like this, probably not
even a tenth, although the percentage may be higher in Israel. I would place
Benjamin Netanyahu and his disgusting wife in this category, for example. I
once saw Mike Huckabee, that fine Christian gentleman, interviewing Netanyahu. As
Huckabee threw softball after softball question at him, I could just see the
wheels turning in Netanyahu’s head: ‘Man, I’ve got a live one here. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This guy’ll swallow anything I say!’ He had
that same knowing smirk that one sees in some photos of Epstein.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The tipoff for me is the rudeness, the gratuitous rudeness.
When someone behaves this way toward total strangers, he probably also feels
entitled to lie to and cheat them as well. After all, that’s why they’re there,
right? So now when I get this kind of attitude, I push back: ‘Are you this rude
to everybody? Why are you so rude? What’s your problem?’ People like this need
to be challenged right from the get-go, so that’s what I do now. And I can
thank Jeffrey Epstein for helping bring this into focus.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />'Jonathan Greenblume'http://www.blogger.com/profile/11344901591620124111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856460062127091796.post-77723888443336986512019-08-11T19:07:00.000-05:002019-08-11T19:07:00.248-05:00RIH jeffrey epsteinI'm so sorry that Jeffrey Epstein is gone. I was so looking forward to suspending the constitutional prohibition on 'cruel and unusual punishment' so that Mr. Epstein could be put to death in a most cruel and unusual way. First of all, he should have been publicly executed, preferably in Yankee Stadium or someplace, to the taunts and cheers of thousands of blood-lusting revenge seekers.<br />
<br />
As to method, my personal choice would be garroting, which I believe was a specialty of the Spanish Inquisition. The executor comes up behind the executee, puts a length of piano wire around his neck, and proceeds to squeeze the life out him. In Epstein's case, this should have been done very slowly and painfully, prolonging the agony as long as possible.<br />
<br />
But now all that won't happen because Epstein (assuming he did actually kill himself) didn't have the guts to confront the young women whose lives he destroyed for his own personal pleasure. It is for that reason-- and that reason alone-- that I'm sorry he's gone.'Jonathan Greenblume'http://www.blogger.com/profile/11344901591620124111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856460062127091796.post-14889871275314376722019-07-28T10:45:00.000-05:002019-07-28T10:45:09.453-05:00franken-mayer: the opening salvoThe timing of Jane Mayer's attempt to exonerate Al Franken of sexual harassment charges couldn't be more suspect. This is clearly the opening salvo of an attempt to get Franken back in his Senate seat in 2020.<br />
<br />
Governor Mark Dayton appointed then-Lieutenant Governor Tina Smith to fill Franken's seat until a special election, which she won, to fill out his term. But that means that in 2020 she'll have to run for a full term. Smith was a bit of a statehouse insider who was not well known in the state and had never run for office independently. The New York political/media elite may now figure that she would be fairly easy to knock off and reinstall 'their guy' to his rightful position.<br />
<br />
I don't think it'll work. For one thing, the carpetbagger issue may prove more important in this election than it was originally, because Smith is a born-and-bred Minnesotan, and the incumbent. Franken was born in New York City. His family moved here when he was a small child but moved back to New York when he was around ten, where he lived until he decided to run for the Senate in Minnesota and established residency here. He's not a Minnesotan, he's a New Yorker, and the fact that his reentry into Minnesota politics is being orchestrated from the pages of <i>The New Yorker</i> is highly suspect.'Jonathan Greenblume'http://www.blogger.com/profile/11344901591620124111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856460062127091796.post-38192623956206636322019-07-15T10:39:00.001-05:002019-07-25T10:15:06.889-05:00high-end parasitesThis Jeffrey Epstein nonsense brings up a nagging question about our socioeconomic 'system': Why is it so common that disgusting subhumans like this are often among the most richly materially rewarded people in our society? We really need to ask ourselves that question.<br />
<br />
For one thing, nobody seems to know just where this guy got his money. That in itself seems a little odd, given that he has so much of it. People like him aren't wealth <i>creators</i>; they're wealth <i>extractors</i>, skimming it off the top of the productive economy much as the Mafia skimmed it off the top of the Las Vegas casinos. We all know about the low-end welfare/petty criminal parasites, but most of those people simply can't help themselves. These high-end parasites know better, though. And so should we.'Jonathan Greenblume'http://www.blogger.com/profile/11344901591620124111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856460062127091796.post-47653684479457655772019-05-20T11:54:00.000-05:002019-05-20T11:54:38.595-05:00ben shapiroI've never thought much of Ben Shapiro, and his recent interview on the BBC only confirmed those feelings. Shapiro showed himself to be an emotional adolescent, at one point saying to his interviewer, 'I'm more popular than you are!' More than that, though, he showed himself unwilling or unable to defend his own positions when challenged by an adult.<br />
<br />
Shapiro's whole shtick is that he's so flat-out brilliant that his tongue can barely keep up with his lightning mind. He has used this motormouth delivery in 'debating' kids on college campuses. If he were to slow his delivery down to a normal pace, most of what he says would be recognized for the shopworn right-wing talking points they are. For flyoverlanders, he epitomizes the fast-talking, flim-flamming city slicker of whom we have been traditionally and rightly suspicious.<br />
<br />
He's clearly not somebody who's particularly interested in the truth. Trained as a lawyer, he's more interested in 'winning the case,' at any cost. He's not a reflective person and probably hasn't entertained the notion that he might be wrong about anything since he was, oh, about twelve. If he were a practicing lawyer, he'd be a shyster. It brings to mind Thomas Jefferson's characterization of the law as 'a dubious and talkative profession.''Jonathan Greenblume'http://www.blogger.com/profile/11344901591620124111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856460062127091796.post-61964966777377218072019-02-19T12:11:00.001-06:002019-02-19T12:11:27.193-06:00i'm tornI'm torn. On the one hand, I could never vote for Donald Trump. Did not vote for him, will never vote for him, could never vote for him, for two main reasons.<br />
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1. The guy is totally out to lunch on climate change. Willfully oblivious. Dangerously oblivious. He claims his 'gut is better than most people's brains.' Not on this issue, baby.<br />
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2. His full-throated embrace of the military-industrial complex. Increasing the defense budget, upgrading our nuclear weapons, trying to create this new 'space force,' etc. We simply can never spend too much on 'defense.' (Of course, the establishment Democrats are totally on board with all this as well.)<br />
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ON THE OTHER HAND, there are a couple things I agree with him about. The main one is immigration. Broadly speaking, we need to know and control who is coming into this country. Who can disagree with that? Above all, we need to control who can become citizens. That means ending this 'birthright citizenship' nonsense. The 14th Amendment had to do with the rights of ex-slaves and <i>their</i> children, because in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War Southern states were trying to deny these people the full rights of citizenship. It had nothing to do with illegal aliens; the term didn't even exist then. Very few nations have birthright citizenship today, particularly developed nations. As for the vaunted wall, why not give the Border Patrol what it wants, where it wants it? Do you want to secure the border, or don't you? These are the people tasked with doing this on the ground. Give them what they want-- and in a lot of places, what they want is a wall.<br />
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The other thing is something the media really doesn't want to talk about: Trump actually seems to want to withdraw from some of our perpetual military engagements around the world. When he indicated he'll pull our troops out of Syria, the Democrat/Media complex went apoplectic. How dare he? Does anybody even know why we're <i>in</i> Syria, or what the hell we're doing there? And just what are we still doing in Afghanistan after 17 bleepin' years? Does anybody know, does anybody care?<br />
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So I'm torn about all this. Not torn enough to ever consider voting for Trump, mind you. But I don't understand why so many people seem incapable of forming independent judgments on each of these issues, rather than just buying the whole ideological smorgasbord of either the right or the left.'Jonathan Greenblume'http://www.blogger.com/profile/11344901591620124111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856460062127091796.post-74711543761924075992019-02-08T11:55:00.001-06:002019-02-08T12:07:46.530-06:00my problem with the 'green new deal' is my problem with the whole climate change 'debate'There's one thing I like about the 'Green New Deal' unveiled by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Sunrise Movement: It's dramatic enough to deal with the scale of the climate change problem. There's one thing I <i>don't </i>like about it, though, and I think it's enough to make it sink like a stone politically: Why is it tied in with this big social-justice agenda (guaranteed jobs, basic income, racial 'equity,' etc.)? What's that got to do with climate change?<br />
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I've never really understood why climate change has become this big right-vs-left issue. To me, it's just science. The thing is, the Republicans <i>used to agree with this, </i>back in the 1990s and early 2000s. They were just looking for a market based approach to the issue-- and they came up with one: cap and trade, which came out of the American Enterprise Institute. But then sometime toward the end of that decade the word seems to have gone out that, no, climate change was to be seen as some kind of leftist plot to Take Away Your Freedoms and install a UN One World Government. My guess is that the fossil fuel interests let the GOP bigwigs know that they were not amused.<br />
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But now the Democrats are just doubling down on this approach. You may or may not be in favor of Medicare for All, but what on Earth does it have to do with climate change? Nothing, that's what! I just wish the Democrats would deal with this issue alone, on its merits. I think there's plenty there to attract voters turned off by Trump's willful ignorance on the subject. But trying to tie it to this whole left-wing social-justice agenda seems like a really bad, self-defeating idea.'Jonathan Greenblume'http://www.blogger.com/profile/11344901591620124111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856460062127091796.post-83986840600549844632018-12-11T13:52:00.002-06:002018-12-11T13:52:56.596-06:00the same peopleThe thing you have to remember is that the members of the mainstream media are basically the same people as the members of the Democrat party establishment. In some cases, in fact, they're <i>exactly</i> the same people, e.g., George Stephanopoulos, who was Bill Clinton's press secretary and is now an anchor for ABC News. But in general, these people have gone to the same colleges; they live in the same neighborhoods of New York, Washington, LA, and San Francisco; they go to the same parties; they intermarry; and their kids go to the same private schools. Is it any wonder then that the mainstream media parrot the Democrat establishment party line? <i>They're the same people!</i>'Jonathan Greenblume'http://www.blogger.com/profile/11344901591620124111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856460062127091796.post-28134715284863593852018-12-01T12:53:00.000-06:002018-12-01T12:53:22.498-06:00silicon valley ubiI note that a number of these Silicon Valley titans are in favor of UBI-- a universal basic income. It strikes me that these people have a very high level of a certain type of intelligence-- mathematical/logical ability-- but that they're not particularly politically sophisticated. These people are the intellectual One Percent, or even the One Tenth of One Percent, and they simply don't understand 'ordinary people.' My guess is that they basically consider the vast mass of humanity as low-grade ore who will eventually be replaced by robots or algorithms of some sort. So their idea is just to buy these folks off in the hope that after a while they'll see the handwriting on the wall and simply stop reproducing.'Jonathan Greenblume'http://www.blogger.com/profile/11344901591620124111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856460062127091796.post-89521595833664818102018-12-01T12:47:00.003-06:002018-12-01T12:47:35.642-06:00literatureFor some time now, I've had the sneaking suspicion that literature-- fiction, poetry, drama-- is what people who are no good at math do with their brains.'Jonathan Greenblume'http://www.blogger.com/profile/11344901591620124111noreply@blogger.com0