According to John Oliver, 40% of the American public believe those cash-grabbing idiots you see on teevee really can communicate with the dead.
And, in a poll taken this century, as many as 20% of the American public believe the lunar landings were faked.
Worse, 23% believe vaccines that save people’s lives are so dangerous they refuse to let their kids be inoculated. These virulent Luddites are willing to bet your kid’s life to prove it. I don’t mind the Flat-Earth science deniers killing themselves off, but they should keep it to themselves. It’s the polite thing to do.
Do you sense a trend here? Is it any wonder that slightly more than one-third of the electorate, on average, still support Donald Trump?
Now, you just might think I’m calling these people dumb. Well… I’m sure most of them are at least fairly knowledgeable in sundry specific areas, but certainly not about civics, American history, or mathematics.
Mathematics, you ask? You betcha, I respond. These people do not understand that 60% is significantly larger than 40%. In political campaigns a 20% margin is more than a landslide – it’s an earthquake. When it comes to these three areas, I see people but I know they’re really door knobs.
“Deplorables,” Candidate Clinton said three years ago. “Half of Donald Trump’s supporters a ‘basket of deplorables.’ They were ‘racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic – you name it.” The Deplorables got all huffy for some reason, and Hillary apologized and withdrew her comment. Had she not done that, I might have felt better voting for her. She was right, and the politically correct folks knew it at the time. What the hell, she was going to win anyway, right?
As for our ginormous Ego-in-Chief, as I type these words, he’s about to leave Hanoi Vietnam after kissing up to his “friend,” the most murderous, most violent dictator since Mao — and the Chairman had more than three decades of power on The Bloody Haircut.
The Great Comb-Over ignores civics, American history, and mathematics. He’s also really dumb. The real time-bomb you hear so loudly is, in fact, willfully stupid. He actually brags about how uninformed he is. He willfully declines to read his Daily Briefing memo. He willfully ignores knowledgeable sources. He gets most all of the news, opinions and agenda from the lying fascist tools at Fox News. His school grades are under non-disclosure agreements, sealed tighter than his tax returns.
Willful stupidity should be a felony, and voting for him makes that voter an enabler, an accessory before and after the fact.
It’s times like this that bring to mind the righteous words The Waco Kid told Sheriff Bart:
“What did you expect? ‘Welcome, sonny?’ ‘Make yourself at home?’ ‘Marry my daughter?’ You’ve got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West.
“You know… morons.”
I’ve seen Blazing Saddles numerous times. It’s a funny movie but as the son of a farmer whose father worked harder than anyone I’ve ever known, and who, like all farmers, suffered the vagaries of the weather and the market in order to feed the world, I took offense at calling them morons. Yeah, I got “all huffy for some reason.”
It is a bit of an outrageous generalization to categorize people who believe in mediums and are antivaxxers as Trump supporters. Robert Kennedy Jr., Bill Maher and Jim Carrey are anti-vaxxers.
And since, like Reagan walking away from Gorbachev in Reykjavik, Trump has walked away from Kim in Hanoi, have you possibly modified your opinion?
Hey, George! Nice to hear from you. Sorry I pressed a few of your buttons, but, y’know, it comes with the turf.
Yeah, Blazing Saddles offended a whole lot of people. It’s also the single greatest work of fiction that addresses the subjects (yup; plural) of discrimination. Not that they’ll ever be an uncensored public showing of this movie again. I do appreciate how family farmers feed the world, and, by extension, me. Whereas I am a city boy, I grew up on the edge of the heartland and have spent (then and now) a considerable amount of time in farm country. Indeed, if it’s harvest time and I’m driving by a cornfield, cobs of corn cross their legs when they see me coming. Family farmers are an endangered species.
Yes, I believe the people you named are anti-vaxxers. They are also wrong. I believe all three support the concept of climate change, so they seem to draw a pretty wavy line around which accepted scientific theories they adopt and which they reject. Such is life. I’m not worried about my kid getting a disease from Bill Maher’s kid. Maybe from Bill Maher, but that’s another matter.
I didn’t say all anti-vaxxers and medium-believers are Trump supporters, but I can see how you got that impression. My point was that a certain percentage of people deeply believe in things that the majority feels are really wacky. Not everybody who voted for Trump in 2016 wears aluminum foil hats — but those who do so again in 2020 should start so we normals (I mean that in the Bonzo Dog Band sense of the term) can get out of their way.
Yup, Trump left Hanoi without a deal. We have no idea what went into that. Usually, these things are worked out in advance to avoid embarrassing situations. So why did Trump walk “at the last minute?” I’m sure Sarah will issue some bullshit statement, and I’m equally certain Trump will contradict that statement. Master negotiator my fevered ass.
I believe he changed his mind because he was colicky. This is not an informed opinion, just a guess based on his prior behavior. More likely, Putin didn’t like the agreement.
Please give us some historic comparisons of previous diplomatic efforts, beside how you feel. Of course you realize only GOP presidents have ever made a dent in totalitarian regimes. Truman was the last democrat to do so, with the German & Japanese surrender, already fait accompli. Then he botched Korea, like LBJ botched Nam, Nixon got us out, before opening up China, and Ronald the Great took care of the Russians, who were always defended, and helped by democrats , prior to Trump. You hate the man for your own reasons. You will be sorely wounded once again, I’m afraid. Which commie is your pick to get their ass kicked in 2020?
Well, Kennedy did a pretty good job of dealing with Premier Khrushchev and avoiding nuclear war in the process. Reagan didn’t do shit to bring down the USSR — every president since VJ Day did that, and the man who delivered the fatal blow was the Pope, not the B-actor. I have no problem with the old GOP of Eisenhower and Dirksen, and I have worked with good, reasonabe Republican Senators and Congresspeople as recently as 10 years ago. Trump is an idiot, well hated across the nation with an approval rating below 50% in all but 16 states, and those are rather small states at that. He cannot win re-election even if he isn’t tossed in prison. The only question in his future is will he pardon Junior before he gets indicted. Sorry, but your hero is as dangerous as he is stupid. A very bad combination. If he’s available to run in 2020 and not primaries out, and he wins, I will happy send you the aluminum foil for your hat.
I have been providing vaccinations for 37 years and was 26 in my state to enroll in the Vaccine for Children program to provide them for free. My family is fully vaccinated. However, as a student of yours along with many life lessons, I have learned not to blindly trust authority.
I agree that many folks don’t want vaccines because they don’t feel good and or they fear something being injected into their bodies. This has been happening since the original small pox vaccine. Many vaccines are effective though not 100%. Some closer to 50% The more the population is vaccinated the better the “herd immunity”.
But to trust big pharma/medical establishment blindly is akin to trusting our leaders blindly. There are many better writers on the subject but in today’s news we learn of the contamination of common blood pressure medicines. We know that the advised “radical mastectomies” performed in my time were perfected by a great surgeon who was also a drug addict. When research is done by universities on a new medication only the best study is published. No one sees the ones that were less desirable. Follow the money. Be skeptical.