These so-called philanthropists are really ruthless monsters

A new report from ProPublica says that Purdue Pharma, a major manufacturer of opioids such as OxyContin that was founded by the Sackler family, aggressively marketed them in ways that led to addiction and is now also trying to profit from drugs that seek to combat addiction or reverse the effects of overdoses. In other words, they want to benefit both ways from addiction, first by causing it and then selling treatments for the problem that they continue to cause. This information came from a filing in a case against the company
[Read more…]

The difference between weather and climate

It is so cold today that the Cleveland area has pretty much shut down and people are being urged to stay home. Of course, this has brought out the skeptics, including Donald Trump, who think it never gets old to point out that it gets cold and snows in winter, conveniently ignoring the fact that right now Australia is going through a record-breaking heat wave.
[Read more…]

Down memory lane with the Beatles

Fifty years ago today, the Beatles gave their last live public performance, an impromptu session on the roof of their recording studio in central London while they were working on their last album Let It Be. The session lasted for 42 minutes before police shut it down, presumably because they did not have a permit and were disturbing the neighbors.

Here is the group singing Don’t Let Me Down.


[Read more…]

I didn’t realize that after-credits scenes are now a thing

I recently saw the film Black Panther. I am not a fan of action films in general and superhero films in particular because the long fight and chase scenes bore me and I wait impatiently for them to end so that the story can move along. In my experience, nothing is lost by fast-forwarding to the end of these scenes. The resulting films would be at least a half-hour shorter and immeasurably better. But I know that I am not the target audience for these films.
[Read more…]

If you liked the shutdown, you’ll love the default

Fresh from the debacle of backing down after his absurd decision to shut down the government because of his demand that Congress fund his stupid wall, Donald Trump faces the issue of what he can do to get his funding before the next deadline of February 15. Now the person who harshly criticized him during the 2016 campaign but has since become an grotesquely obsequious toady, senator Lindsey Graham, says that he is advising Trump to tie wall funding to the raising of the debt-ceiling, another long-standing favorite for hostage taking.
[Read more…]

Great moments with deluded billionaires

Howard Schultz, the founder of Starbucks coffee, wants to run for president as an independent because (surprise!) the billionaire dislikes the 70% marginal tax rate proposed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He also hates the Medicare for All platform and even wants to cut Social Security and Medicare. In other words, a card-carrying member of the greedy oligarchy, the kind of Ayn Rand acolyte that former speaker Paul Ryan drools over.
[Read more…]

The real purpose of the 70% marginal tax proposal

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal to raise the marginal income tax rate for incomes over $10 million to 70% has sparked a huge amount of interest in general and also alarm among the wealthy. Much of the discussion has focused on how much revenue it might raise. But as Vanessa Williamson writes, the main purpose of such a tax is not to raise revenue but to reduce inequality, and that those who focus on the former are missing the point.
[Read more…]

The problem of mandatory sentencing laws

Here is the part of an 4-1 majority opinion by a New York State appellate court that describes the offense committed in the case that was brought before them.

Defendant, a homeless 53 year-old, entered a pharmacy and attempted to pay for a tube of toothpaste using a counterfeit $20 bill. The bill was rejected by the cashier, and defendant left the store without completing the transaction. Shortly thereafter, defendant was observed by the police, where he was attempting to purchase food with a counterfeit $20 bill. The restaurant cashier refused to accept the bill. Defendant was stopped by the police in front of yet another fast-food restaurant. Five counterfeit $20 bills were recovered from him upon arrest.

So here’s a question. What would have been a reasonable punishment in this case?
[Read more…]

A dangerous mix: ‘First Amendment auditors’ and armed police

As more and more people try to monetize YouTube fame, they are resorting to ever more dangerous acts. We see that in the case of so-called ‘First Amendment Auditors’. These are people who use their First Amendment rights to deliberately provoke police officers in public and actively seeking a hostile response, record the resulting encounter, post the videos on the internet, and make money from the views they generate.
[Read more…]

Get ready for new fraudulent claims that the Earth is cooling

We know that global warming skeptics like to use the fact that it snows in winter as an argument that global warming is a big hoax, a silly argument that is a perennial favorite, But 2018 was the fourth warmest year since accurate records started being kept. The last four years have been the warmest with the very highest in 2016 and the other two in 2015 and 2017, followed by 2018. That looks bad, no? But not for for global warming skeptics who are willing to misrepresent and distort statistics to turn this new information into an argument against global warming.
[Read more…]