Belle

The current iteration of the GOP is there to serve the interests of parasite billionaires. If you think more than a handful of them are going to lift a finger to help you make your life just a tiny bit better, then you need to be paying a lot more attention.

They don't give one empty fuck about you or me or anything else - just power and money, and their vision of a Post-Government World Order - that's it.

On Mitigating Harm

An axe is a handy tool you can use to build your house. It's also an effective weapon you can use to kill your neighbors.

Rich

Whatever it is the "alphas" on the right are - or think they are - they're not alphas.

A rugged individualist doesn't sit around waiting for Daddy to tell him what to think or say or do.

More Belle

Politics is supposed to be boring. I don't remember when or why I first got turned on to it. Maybe it was when my mom took me out canvassing for Barry Goldwater in 1964.

Maybe I felt it had a strong connection to sales - way before I even knew sales was something I'd end up doing. It's always just kinda turned my crank - talking with people, trying to get them to do something.

IDK. But like Belle says, I'm pretty sure it's supposed be a helluva lot more than entertainment.

We shouldn't be tuning in because we get a kick out of watching the antics of some jagoff who thinks his rhetoric is on par with Cicero, when he's just belching out the banalities he saw in the comments of some 3rd rate grifting "influencer" online.

We're supposed to be doing these things because we want to make life a bit better for each other.

Dr Knurick

Amanda's Tuesday

Rich

There's nothing more American than being born American, but the next best thing is wanting to become an American, and then becoming an American.

And taking a little license with a short snip attributed to Ronald Reagan:

You can't move to China and become Chinese.

You can't move to Greece and become Greek.

But you can come to America and become an American.

It's one of things that makes this country great.

Wealth Disparity Is A Problem

I tend to harp a bit on plutocracy and the growing threat of too much power in too few hands.

Today I Learned

1,000 very rich people account for 25%

of the money "donated" to candidates

at every level of electoral politics.

So

it's more than just probable that

.0003% of Americans

own what is essentially

a controlling interest

in our government.

The Fires

Data reveals that wildfires in Colorado have become more frequent, larger, and more variable over the previous 30 years.

The average number of fires per year has increased sharply, rising from 13 in the 1990s, to nearly 50 in the 2000s, and surpassing 70 annual fires by the 2020s.

The increase in population is a factor, but it seems obvious to me that the real driver is Climate Change.

It's drier and hotter than ever.

The snowpack was as low as 30% of normal, and while the flow is still pretty good now, we got to the end of the snowmelt pretty early,  and the flow at the headwaters of the Colorado River may not be able to support the downstream demand in Arizona, Nevada, and California.

Lake Powell is at 23% full, and Lake Mead is at 28% full.

And the kicker: the soil is drying out now too.

Belle

Let's evaluate policies by who they help, and not who they hurt.