This would not have been puzzling for Jonathan Swift

Stan Collender is puzzled by something.

This story from today’s The Washington Post about President Trump’s complete lack of understanding about the federal budget is both fascinating and very scary.

It shows that, two years in to his presidency, Trump still doesn’t understand enough about the federal budget to make informed choices about what it will take to reduce the deficit as he said before the election he wants to do.
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It also demonstrates a complete failure by Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney and the rest of the Trump administration’s economic team. How is it possible that they have had so little influence with and impact on the president that, almost two years after he took the oath of office, he is so clueless?

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The ‘good guy with a gun’ had better be white

People who are against any form of gun control are fond of putting out the argument that when a gunman opens fire on random people, as is sadly all too common in the US, by the time police arrive it is too late and that in such situations an armed citizenry is better able to take on the shooter. The slogan ‘to stop a bad guy with a gun, you need a good guy with a gun’ is trotted out. Donald trump is a big fan of this doctrine and after every shooting, school, synagogue, church, whatever, he calls for more armed people to be present.
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The GOP line on current poisonous climate: “Not my fault!”

The Republican party is entirely responsible for giving us Donald Trump. They may worry about what he is doing to their party but he used the nasty racist and xenophobic and misogynistic climate they created to ride to power. Now some of them are trying to dodge the blame. One of them is Republican pollster Frank Luntz who has been the person they went to to craft all their divisive messaging for the past two decades.
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Meanwhile in the chess world …

The championship match between Magnus Carlsen and challenger Fabiano Caruana has so for resulted in eleven straight draws, breaking the earlier record of eight straight draws before one person won. The 12th and last regular game will be played on Monday. If that game also ends in a draw, then the match will be decided on Wednesday in a series of increasingly rapid-fire games in the following order.
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The ongoing persecution of Aasia Bibi by Pakistani religious zealots

Pakistan is bracing for its full supreme court to issue its final verdict in the case of the blasphemy charges brought against the woman known Aasia Bibi after a three judge panel ruled that the charges against her had not been proven and that she should be released. The right-wing Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP) party has been leading the protests. Meanwhile, Bibi’s lawyer has had to flee the country out of fear of being killed.
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The ethical dilemmas posed by immortality technology

The idea of immortality has had great appeal since time immemorial but was thought of in terms of creating some elixir with the property of bestowing it. But more recently some people have started to think that technology may be able to actually achieve it. This article looks at the ethical implications of two of the proposed methods: rejuvenation and mind uploading.
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New government report warns of dire consequences due to climate change

A new report issued by the administration of Donald Trump has come out that issues a stark warning of the major costs that the US will incur if climate change is allowed to continue unchecked. The report is pretty stark. You can read the full report of the Fourth National Climate Assessment here and below is a key excerpt from its summary findings.

Communities, governments, and businesses are working to reduce risks from and costs associated with climate change by taking action to lower greenhouse gas emissions and implement adaptation strategies. While mitigation and adaptation efforts have expanded substantially in the last four years, they do not yet approach the scale considered necessary to avoid substantial damages to the economy, environment, and human health over the coming decades.
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In the absence of significant global mitigation action and regional adaptation efforts, rising temperatures, sea level rise, and changes in extreme events are expected to increasingly disrupt and damage critical infrastructure and property, labor productivity, and the vitality of our communities. Regional economies and industries that depend on natural resources and favorable climate conditions, such as agriculture, tourism, and fisheries, are vulnerable to the growing impacts of climate change. Rising temperatures are projected to reduce the efficiency of power generation while increasing energy demands, resulting in higher electricity costs. The impacts of climate change beyond our borders are expected to increasingly affect our trade and economy, including import and export prices and U.S. businesses with overseas operations and supply chains. Some aspects of our economy may see slight near-term improvements in a modestly warmer world. However, the continued warming that is projected to occur without substantial and sustained reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions is expected to cause substantial net damage to the U.S. economy throughout this century, especially in the absence of increased adaptation efforts. With continued growth in emissions at historic rates, annual losses in some economic sectors are projected to reach hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the century—more than the current gross domestic product (GDP) of many U.S. states.

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Why Bob?

I found this Speed Bump cartoon by Dave Coverly funny but it also highlights something I’ve noticed and that is that the name ‘Bob’ is used very often in comics to label someone who is the butt of the joke. For some reason, there just seems to be something funny about the name.