Doug's Darkworld

Well, Donald Trump has been impeached by the House of Representatives. The ground didn’t open with shrieking demons emerging to drag him to Hell. Neither did the Heavens part with a force of AR-15 toting angels issuing forth to defend him. So a lot of disappointment on both sides of the political chasm. (We’re long past the aisle stage.) A lot of Dems I know are very pleased, though I’m not quite sure what they are pleased about. It’s not like the outcome of “the trial” in the Senate is in any doubt. Trump will be acquitted, sure as the Sun will come up tomorrow.

I still think what I thought when Trump was elected, the Dems should take the high road and give Trump all the rope he wants. Instead they were outraged and protesting and denying his legitimacy as president before he was even sworn in. That the GOP did this first with Obama not only isn’t relevant, it’s even more reason to take the high road. Now all the Dems have done is made it incredibly easy for the GOP to claim opposition to Trump is just blind rage. As this fellow writes, this impeachment is one more body blow to our already horribly dysfunctional government. And the endless network coverage is just political porn distracting people from real issues.

Moving right along, I watched a Democratic candidate debate last night. At least they mostly talked about real issues. Not that it really matters these days where facts no longer have any meaning. So it was kind of sad to watch. The economy is great for the rich. High employment means nothing if the jobs are shit. It’s shocking that a developed country doesn’t have cradle to grave health care, especially considering how much we spend on it. Climate change is a vital global issue we should be attacking. Can’t argue with the basics.

Unfortunately very powerful interests are making piles of money by making sure nothing is done about any of these issues. Health care and debt have been commoditized, and people making garbage wages is why MacDonald’s is able to spend $10k per employee per year buying back their own stock. That’s legalized wage theft. And on all of the issues that we should be dealing with, these interests have created powerful myths about why nothing should be done. Fight climate change, why that will wreck the economy! Fight gun violence, why they will take away our guns! Raise the minimum wage, why that will eliminate jobs! The fact that none of these and all the rest pass the logic test simply no longer matters.

That’s my big problem with the modern era, logic has gone out the window in favour of strings of false arguments. Rush Limbaugh is a God when it comes to stringing together false arguments. I know people want to hear stuff that reinforces their worldview, but if one has no freaking standards of evidence or logic, one’s worldview is imaginary. And when huge numbers of people buy into an imaginary worldview, bad things happen. And when almost everyone buys into an imaginary worldview, welcome to modern America. Where magical thinking has prevailed over evidence, science, and logic.

One example, which has been bugging me for awhile. A friend of mine said something to the effect of “glyphosate was developed as a poison, so I can see why it might be bad for people.” Aaugh. Both logic and science go out the window. There’s no such thing as a poison, it’s just a made up category. Basically everything is poisonous, it’s just the dosage that counts. We need vitamin A to live, drink a cup at once and death results. And what is very toxic to one type of life may be virtually innocuous to others. Glyphosate is very bad news for plants, biologically inert for animals. So because Glyphosate is toxic to plants, means exactly dipsquat about how toxic it is to animals. And then there’s the decades of studies failing to find any problems with low dose exposure to Glyphosate. Sigh.

On the plus side, my health has improved. The weather has warmed up. A Christian magazine has called for Trump’s removal. A new approach for SETI is intriguing. And my frelking weekend begins after I post this, woohoo!

Have a great weekend everyone. Shares appreciated.

PS: I wish the title was my idea, but no, just something I heard on Facebook.

(Copyright © 2019 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.

(Image: Cat not scared by Trump. Pic came up in an image search for <trump cat>, just made me giggle. Credit: Unknown, Flickr image)